It's a blog.
Thinking
Things about me that don’t really fit into any other category.
Achievement Unlocked: Complete semester with handicap
Aug 24th
I just finished writing my final exam not too long ago, bringing my second semester in CPA at Seneca to a close. Before the semester began, I discovered that I had strained muscles and tendons in my hands and forearms, making last semester extremely difficult to complete. At the moment, I am trying to figure out whether I need to take a semester off in order for my hands to heal completely, or whether they will heal enough in the next two weeks so that I can start my third semester in September with no obstacles. Obviously, I would like to go back in September but it was difficult to put 100% of myself into my work with this condition this semester, so I may take it off to help myself in the long run.
I have barely played any games the whole semester which is quite depressing, especially since I have StarCraft 2 sitting on my hard drive barely touched. I plan on doing a lot of reading over the next few weeks though, both fiction and non-fiction. I recently bought an Amazon Kindle (the 6″, WiFi-only one) which I should be receiving within the next few weeks. I have wanted an eReader for a while, simply because I really don’t have space for more books at the moment and I don’t enjoy reading off of my monitor. Here is a list of some of the books I plan to read:
Fiction
- “Neuromancer” by William Gibson
- “Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card
- Neal Stephenson Books
Non-fiction
- Finish “The C Programming Language” by K&H
- “Simply JavaScript” by Kevin Yank
- “Core Techniques and Algorithms in Game Programming”
- Need a good C++ book
I am looking for suggestions for good books about C++, JavaScript,Python and game programming, so I would appreciate any suggestions!
Not being able to use my hands to do the things I love to do made me realize how much I took my hands for granted when they were working normally. I spent a lot of time thinking about the things I would do once my hands get back to peak performance, and taking up an instrument is on the list. I love both the piano and guitar, having played both at separate times in my life, but I’d like to pick up one instrument to master. Does anyone else play an instrument? How did you settle on learning to play one out of the many that exist? It is so hard to choose just one!
Aside from taking up an instrument, I plan on throwing myself into game development at full-throttle once my hands heal, as well as re-designing & re-arranging my blog and website. Until then… I’m on a mini-vacation! Hopefully I’ll be back sooner rather than later…
Exhausted, Still …Interesting
May 25th
The weeks seem to fly by when you’re in school. I used to wonder what people meant when they said time moves quicker the older you get, but now I think I do. The more you do, the more time is consumed and the less you have to just do things you want to do. It’s Monday… and the next thing you know, it’s somehow the weekend. How depressing!
I’ve had a few personal issues pop up, preventing me from working on the game club or doing any recreational programming. However, it has not stopped me from browsing the Internets! So, making it’s triumphant return… interesting links I’ve come across!
» Using PuTTY on Windows? Feeling underwhelmed by its lack of features? I found a cool, more feature-rich alternative called KiTTY. Check it out if you’re interested in a new SSH client.
» Endgadget posted an interesting article on the quality of life of Foxconn employees. Foxconn manufactures many of the parts used in commercial tech products, such as the iPhone. It seems like that huge amounts of cash generated by these products never reach the people who actually work to create the physical product. Capitalism at work! Check out the article here.
» To end this post with a horrifying note… What would Doctor Who be like if it was created by Disney? Click here for a glimpse into some sick, twisted alternate reality where that seems to be the case.
Alright, that’s all I’ve got for now.
Back to Reality
May 17th
By the time my first day in my second semester in CPA ended, I had a feeling that this semester would be much more interesting than the last. By the end of the week, I was sure of it. Although two of my classes deal with an operating system completely new to me (System i on an IBM Power Systems) and so far seem very cryptic and almost intimidating, my C++ and HTML/CSS/JS classes seem like they will be a lot of fun. Also, I really want to learn more C++, CSS and JavaScript, as I see learning these as relevant to things I would like to do, while learning some business OS for writing business applications… not so interesting yet. At least all my teachers seem pretty cool so far.
Speaking of school, I’ve gotten around to setting up a temporary site for the ‘Unofficial’ Seneca Game Design & Development Club! I’m currently hosting it on a subdomain until I get the sense that it is serious enough for a full domain. I really hope that people join this summer, as I would like to begin to work on my game programming skills just with something simple. Perhaps Tetris or Brickbreaker with a twist. Shatter is an awesome example of how you can take an old idea and execute it into something new and fun, and I don’t think it would be too difficult to come up with something along these lines. I guess I’ll have to wait and see how the next few weeks go.
There really is not enough time in the day to do everything I would like to. Aside from studying & recreational programming, I’ve been addicted to HBO’s Six Feet Under. The combination of dark and light humour, plus the incredible writing and hilarious dream sequences definitely make this one of the best shows I’ve had the pleasure to watch. I don’t know how HBO does it, but they really know how to pick amazing shows to broadcast. This definitely gives me high hopes for the upcoming television adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire.
Lastly, I ordered Red Dead Redemption, the newest game by Rockstar. It looks like a mix between Deadwood and GTA4… which is awesome. I should be getting it either tomorrow or Wednesday. Hopefully I have time to play it in between school and everything else. Who else is for extending the amount of hours in a day to 48? ….anyone?
Summer Week
Apr 25th
My first semester back at Seneca@York is now over, leaving me with a little over two weeks of free time before I dive head-first into the second semester. I’m going to be doing another three semesters in-a-row before I allow myself a summer semester. Will this be difficult? Yes. Am I insane for attempting to do this? …Yes. However, years of shopping around for a post-secondary program that I actually wanted to be in has left me yearning to finish school and get on with life (For some reason, I have a feeling I will wish the opposite in 20 years).
I have been trying to get an officially sanctioned ‘Game Design & Development’ club started at school but it has been difficult to find a teacher willing to mentor & help out, which depresses me greatly. After all, University of Toronto has one, so does Waterloo. I have e-mailed two Seneca professors involved in game development courses if they would help: one said she was too busy with her own research project (which is understandable) and the second one never bothered to respond. I will be very disappointed if no instructors step up and lend a hand with this, and I’ll be forced to start an unofficial club. Officially or unofficially, it will happen.
I am going to Cuba for a week with my girlfriend this Saturday, and by the time I get back, my second semester will be a day away from beginning. Because of that, I hope to finish learning the basics of Python this week, as well as setting up the website for the unofficial S@Y Game Dev/Design club. Aside from that, it will be a lazy week. I will probably make another post or two before I leave about Python & the Unofficial Game Dev. club. Cool stories, Hansel? I thought so too!
First February …Interesting
Feb 8th
Phew, it’s been a while! My attempt to start blogging regularly has once again failed, but that doesn’t mean I will stop trying! In the meantime…. here are a lot of links to things I’ve found interesting in the past few weeks. And here is hoping that Heroes ends with the season finale tonight… it’s hard to put Old Yeller down, but it’s necessary.
» This PennyArcade comic about Sony’s new “reality” show about people who want to test video games for a living really sheds light on how fun that job actually would be. I lol’d.
» Lifehacker has two interesting articles today, one of which should be of interest to any Canadian. That would be this article on how to best survive a fall through ice. Useful information that I doubt many people possess. Secondly, an article much more useful to web developers… a Lorem Ipsum-generator for images! This seems quite useful! I’ll definitely be bookmarking it for future use.
» Aaron sent me this awesome link a week or two ago. This site lets you play old-school Sierra adventure games right from your browser. Not only that, but the site developers have added multiplayer features to these games. Yes, you can play King’s Quest IV online with friends. Doesn’t work so well but hey, it’s kind of novel!
» I recently came across some amazing indie games that I am very excited to try out. Firstly, the incredible Boryokudan Rue by Josh Nuernberger. A very Blade Runner-inspired point-and-click game with an incredible soundtrack and some very intriguing looking gameplay, this looks like of one of the best indie releases of 2010. I would gladly pay for this. And here is a list of The Top 10 Indie Metroidvania games, all of which look quite amazing. If there are people on this world who STILL have yet to play through Cave Story, do yourself a favour and download/play it ASAP.
» I’m not sure who would actually buy this, but if you’ve ever needed privacy at work or school to take a nap, this is the product you would use.
» io9 posted a gallery of some Doctor Who concept art that was created for the second season and onwards. Also includes some Torchwood concept art. Those are some scary looking Cybermen, and the original design for the Satan Pit looks quite cool. I’m glad they changed the design for the Library Planet though because it’s lame.
» And finally… is our reality just a projection of the true reality? What the hell does that even mean? If you wish to have your sene of ‘real’ turned upside down, take this article for a spin.
Week-late …Interesting
Jan 25th
I think “The Great TV Binge of 2008-2010″ is finally over. I finished The Wire on Friday night and it was spectacular. Now that I’m finally done going through every television series I was interested in watching, I’ll have lots of time to learn more about programming & game.
Speaking of finishing things, I finally finished Mass Effect for PC last night, which led me to frantically order a copy of Mass Effect 2 from Amazon. I think I’ll give my two cents on the first game later tonight. Until then, more interesting links! It’s been a slow week but there were still a few gems among the rough.
» The Frank Oz-directed Death at a Funeral was a fantastically hilarious film. So why is it necessary to have an American ‘urbanized’ remake, less than 3 years after the original was released? With Chris Rock and no Alan Tudyk? Set sail for fail! At least Peter Dinklage, aka Tyrion Lannister, will be in it.
» Hey, what a surprise! Some studies done at various American universities posit that good gamers not only have bigger brains than non-gamers, but also learn better as well. See, mom? All that time playing video games DID pay off!
» I know The Daily Mail is not the most reliable news site, but this story made me feel sick. A 13-year old Saudi girl sentenced to 90 lashes for bringing a cell phone to school? These indoctrinated fools will use anything as an excuse to keep women on the bottom of the social ladder. It’s pretty sad. “Religion of peace”, my ass.
» New details regarding the first true Legend of Zelda game built from the ground-up for the Wii are starting to surface online. Here is a site I found with a few details. Sounds like this entry in the series is going to give the gameplay a much-needed revamp. Colour me intrigued!
» Now this is cool. A programmer who works for Crytek (Crysis, Far Cry 1) and a 3D modeller developed this system for a “Structural Procedural Demo” which can generate an entire city, along with it’s interior, for a game or simulation setting. Video included in the link. I have to say, the possibilites for this in a game like GTA, or (*crosses fingers*) Shenmue 3 are mindblowing. I can’t even imagine how long it would take to do something like that manually. Of course, at first I can’t imagine the interiors of buildings having too much detail or layout variety, but that is something that can be tweaked over time.
» And to end off this post, two posts from io9 that make me quite happy. Firstly, Stephen Fry wants to write an episode for the new season of Doctor Who. For the love of dog, YES PLEASE! Fry’s sense of humour would be a perfect match for the Doctor. I really hope he ends up writing an episode, as long as the word “Geronimo” is not even uttered once. Finally, BOOM! Comics, creators of the Farscape comics, are launching a new Farscape comic series starring… Scorpius! Best sci-fi villain ever gets his own comic series? In on day one.
Okay, class time. Bye!
Late Weekend …Interesting
Jan 18th
I have yet to get the hang of my schedule, so I am still having a little trouble with the whole ‘time management’ concept. Hopefully, I will have everything running 100% in a week or two. In the meantime, I will procrastinate writing any original content by posting links to some interesting stuff! Quite the linkdump here, so get your left-click fingers ready:
» IndieGames is quickly becoming one of my favorite sites to read. This time, two interesting articles from them. First off, we have a list of the Top 20 Free Platformers of 2009. Three of my favorite things: a ‘best of’ list, platformer games, and free! For freeware indie games, some of these look mighty impressive. I have yet to try any out yet, hopefully when I have some free time I can. Secondly, another interesting list, this one previewing 10 indie games to be released in2010. Boryokudan Rue looks very cool, and I’ve been waiting for Fez to be released since I first laid eyes upon it’s beautiful pixel-style art, so it looks like 2010 will be an interesting year for the indie scene.
» Lifehacker has a link to guide on how to build a router made out of Lego. Yes, a router made out of Lego. Oh, the things you can do with Lego. I’d like to see a fully functioning car made out of Lego, even if it has to be powered ala the Flintstones.
» Two very cool gadget-related articles from Engadget. First off, this is what a computer in a car’s dashboard SHOULD look like. All sleek and shiny… I am just hoping you can’t get internet access on that thing, or I can see the amount of car accidents caused by distraction going wayy up. Another very cool gadget is this digital string-less guitar. Nothing says “I’m playing a guitar in the freakin’ future!” like shredding on one of these babies. Personally, acoustic has always been the most pleasing on my ears.
» io9 was kind enough to let their readers know that the scripts for the 2009 Doctor Who specials are now online, so obsessed fans can dissect every line and every stage action to solve every last lingering secret surrounding the 10th Doctor. How kind of them…
… anyway… I just remembered I had to read… something. Bye!
Midweek …Interesting
Jan 13th
It has been a busy week! I started Computer Programming & Analysis Monday and while things haven’t seem to really gotten started yet, I feel like I am going to enjoy this program a lot. That makes me happy. There are a ton of things I found interesting since Sunday though, so here we go:
» foobar2000 finally hit 1.0. I can’t believe it, that program was stuck in ‘beta’ hell! It’s my favorite music player for Windows, as it plays nearly every audio format out-of-the-box and is incredibly customizable and light-weight… my favorite qualities in a program!
» Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg believes users do not want privacy online because that’s the current social norm. That’s right, folks, Facebook defines what’s cool and what ain’t these days, and clearly privacy is NOT cool. Amirite?
» This made me laugh hysterically for a minute or two. Iron Maiden? Excellent! Oh, how I love thee, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
» Lifehacker posted an interesting article on how your passwords may not be as secure as you think, and how to fix that problem. A good read for anyone paranoid about being haxed.
» Sarah Palin is in talks with FOX News to become a ‘contributor’, whatever that means. Is anyone really surprised by this?
… unfortunately, my web host is being quite unreliable and I just lost the other 3/4 of this post. Oh well, I can’t be arsed enough to re-write it all. Night!
Weekend …Interesting
Jan 10th
Unfortunately, there will be no Doctor Who review. Perhaps when season five begins, I will start reviewing episodes but with my first semester in Computer Programming & Analysis starting tomorrow, I’m afraid I didn’t have the time! As a consolation prize, here are some links to cool stuff I found on internets this weekend.
» After the news that Rogers would not be upgrading the HTC Dream to a newer version of Android, customers must have complained because MobileSyrup reported that Rogers is offering free upgrades to Dream owners up to a HTC Magic. The only difference between the two really is that the Dream has a physical QWERTY keyboard (the Magic does not) and that the Magic has twice the RAM that the Dream does (512 to the Dream’s 256, I believe). I don’t think I can give up my keyboard though. Plus the screen is tiny enough as it is, a virtual keyboard taking up half of the screen wouldn’t be desirable. Looks like I gotta take the hax0r route after all.
» Hey, look what Engadget found in Intel’s CES booth! 3D TV sans silly looking glasses! Although it seems you have to be looking at the screen at a certain angle for it to work, this is definitely a step in the right direction. I don’t think many people want to wear 3D glasses in their homes.
» Lifehacker found this cool guide on how to take dramatic-looking photos using a neat trick with straws. Definitely a trick I’ll be using to reach my goal of becoming a male model.
» Two interesting articles from io9 this weekend. I love that site. Anyway, first off: LOST, an incredible TV series, may have it’s veins sucked dry post-mortem . io9 reports that ABC/Disney is definitely interested in keeping the LOST franchise alive after the final season ends this May. Hey, I’m all for it as long as it’s a spin-off about Locke and his mysterious past as a box factory employee. How will that fit into the mystery? Oh, I’m sure we will see. Secondly, an interesting article about whether happiness would be possible if humans were immortal. Science fiction author and philosopher (an interesting mix) Russell Blackford argues that we could be. An interesting argument, but I’m not sure where I stand on it yet.
» And to finish off, I leave you all with this image of Jesuscat. Thank you, and goodnight!
Another Daily …Interesting
Jan 9th
Unfortunately, procrastination ate my Doctor Who – “End of Time” review. Perhaps I’ll have it done by the end of the weekend? At least I have a bunch of interesting links to share, so everyone can procrastinate! Hoorah, procrastination!
» Lifehacker compiled a list of Android 2.1′s best features, so I can add even more reasons why I hate Rogers to my list. Unfortunately, unless I root it, my HTC Dream will be stuck with Android 1.5.
» Indie game developers Wolfire posted an interesting article on why OpenGL should be used instead of DirectX as the API-of-choice for games. I don’t know too much about either, so it was an educational read for me.
» Cracked Magazine’s online site posted this hilarious picture depicting the acting range of Michael Cera. I loved him in Arrested Development but he really needs to try something new. I guess what he does now pays the bills (and more) so I doubt he is complaining.
» YouTube user TotemX made this awesome animation of Super Mario Jesus. Yes, you read that right. A work of genius or the result of boredom? Either way, I found it pretty cool.
» At CES, Engadget took a look at Dell’s new Studio XPS 16 with an OLED display, and man is it fine. Of course, pictures do not do it justice, but the specs are absolutely ridiculous. I hope this technology makes it into televisions ASAP!
» Game industry site Gamasutra took a critical look at Final Fantasy 13, and why it may be missing the ‘G’ in ‘RPG’. I’ll definitely be getting this game but it’s disappointing that Square Enix has essentially dumbed down the game for a wider audience. Ah well, at least it looks better than Final Fantasy 12, right?
» And finally, MovieLine reports that a LOST-themed ride may be appearing at a Disney theme park sometime soon, meaning I will finally have to drag my ass to Florida or California (or Hong Kong) so I can ride a smoke monster into the hatch before it explodes. Oh man, that would be sweet.
That’s quite the list of links, if I do say so myself. That’s all, folks.
