So here I am.

The past couple of weeks have been unreal.
I'm now a business owner. The opportunity to make it happen is right in front of me. I'm not exactly nervous or worried though; I'm just eager. It's going to be one hell of an adventure, and I'm going to love every little bit of it. If anything, the most important thing is that the experience will force me to become stronger. Failures and obstacles are expected, lets just hope I learn those lessons.

HKBomber

Stealing a post from Gary's diary...

So a month later, lets recap Budapest:

I have already forgotten most of the sightseeing / working details (it has been a month) and I really dont have ways to make the working / flying part of my trip interesting. there is one little story i would like to share though.

I dont see myself as a long term relationship type of person. Reason? Simply because my interest spans is a lot shorter than that of most other people. Of course there have been girls i really want to be with but they never like me back so I never got to test how long my interest span would last with them. Sometimes, seeing someone i barely know next to me on bed does give that emptiness feeling; but when i think of all the troubles and potential disasters a relationship bring, I still feel that less attachment is better. So how does this link to Budapest?

After work one night, i went drinking with the budapest office people. Apparently, Budapest is the so-called "sex capital" of Eastern Europe, so you see lots of single women waiting for guys to show up. I went up to the bar trying to get some drinks and a single blond came and ask if i want to buy her a drink. Too much makeup, look a little mom-aunt-esque age, not interested. In the meantime, I sighted this very clean looking girl, quite a cute young face and an attractive body, on the other side of the bar. I have never really been rich enough to just buy girls but my testicular fortitude told me to go over and ask "would you mind having a drink with me?" She smiled, "sure"

She could talk, she could drink, she even liked similar music as i do. The conversation jumped from movie stars, my trip, her work, to small kisses. We started to get close physically and the office people just let us be. 2am that night, we went back to the hotel together.

The next 90 minutes is perhaps the most exciting and enjoyable time of my life.

Woke up next morning, she just finished showering. I started thinking how much i should pay her, and the words "so how much should i pay you?" were just about to come out of my lips. Then she came over, kissed me on my cheeks, pulled (equivalent of) $100 US our of her purse and laid it gently next to my bed. My brain froze. I didnt know how to react. The first thought I had was that "i didnt think there are chinese prostitutes working in Hungary"

I laughed.

We didnt leave the hotel room for another 2 hours.
(I think she got her moneys worth)

Heres some listening material off the Hungary Streets
The Streets - When You Wasnt Famous
Frente - Girl
Big Muff - My Funny Valentine
Claude Monet Presents Monica Nogueira - Je Suis Venu Te Dire Que Je M'en Vais
45 Dip - Lizzie's Balloon
Trouble makers - Electrorloge
Gotan Project - EPOCA

Checked Out

Wrote this at work one day...

Oh my head is in the clouds
I'd like to keep them around
I think I'm done and down
It's my mind thats bane
Pull the muppet, drag it around

Going to keep it here since I'm going to throw the post-it away.

April 15th 2006

I don't think I've been able to successfully predict the trajectory of my life since I graduated from college...
It seems like I've been going off on a different tangent every half year or so. I'm excited to find out where I'll be in the future. I'm not sure I have many peers that I can reference from. I wonder if it's my head that's bigger than this world or the other way around.

A Track
~~~ Earlimart - Color Bars, Sounds ~~~ Saw them at SF last week.
~~~ Elliott Smith - Independence Day ~~~

B Track
~~~ Bent - Welly Top Mary ~~~
~~~ Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Skin Of My Yellow Country Teeth ~~~

March 20 2006

I haven't had time to write any entires lately. The truth is I've been debating whether I should quit this blog. My reasoning being that I'm finding less and less time to keep it up. I'd hate to keep a blog I rarely update; out-dated entries are boring and worth nothing online...
The birth of the Double Jump blog hasn't made it easier either. The studio itself has been taking up a lot of my free time and I often feel like I should focus more of my energy on that. Why would I write an entry on this blog when I can write an entry on DoubleJump that may get me somewhere someday?

A Track
+++ Jack Johnson - Sing-a-longs & Lullabies for the film Curious George +++
~~~ Belle and Sebastian - If She Wants Me, Dress Up In You ~~~

B Track
+++ Mylo - Destroy Rock and Roll +++
+++ GoldFrapp - Supernature +++
~~~ Karminsky Experience Inc. - Departures ~~~

It's GDC (game developers conference) this week in the Bay Area. Maybe I've already gotten use to Washington State, but I'm not finding North Cal that great. Sure, the weather is nicer and more consistent here but it's not necessarily better. Somehow somewhere I think the seasons up Northwest causes its culture to more resemble those in the East. It's nice to be able to enjoy the best of both worlds in Seattle. Another plus up Northwest is that it is a lot more accessible to get around. I can't stand sitting in my car all day. It's an easy way to lose my valuable time.

Why Won't American Publishers Take Risks?

Developer: "Let's make a game with blocky graphics and crazy music where you have to roll up everything you can find in the world using a huge sticky ball! And these balls will be used to recreate all the stars in the universe after your father destroyed them all in a drunken bender!"

Publisher: "What the heck are you talking about? Are you freaking insane? Get the hell out of my office!"

Developer: "Well, they just released the same game in Japan..."

Publisher: "Those Japanese gamers are so crazy! I love it! Let's publish it!"

Why do we have to continuously wait for games like this to be translated and released in the States? Why can't an American publisher try something just a little bit risky, create a few smaller "oddball" titles each year and see what happens?

Top Ten Facts About Gamers

1. The average game player is 30 years old and has been playing games for 9.5 years.
2. Seventy-five percent of American heads of households play computer and video games.
3. Fifty percent of all Americans play video games.
4. Sixty percent of online game players are male. Forty percent of online game players are female.
5. Adult gamers exhibit a high level of interest in current events, with ninety-four percent following news and current events, and seventy-eight percent reporting that they vote in most of the elections for which they are eligible.
6. Fifty-three percent of game players expect to be playing as much or more ten years from now than they do today.
7. The average game buyer is 37 years old. In 2005, ninety-five percent of computer game buyers and eighty-four percent of console game buyers were over the age of 18.
8. Adult gamers have been playing an average of 12 years.
9. In 2004, nineteen percent of Americans over the age of 50 played video games, an increase from nine percent in 1999.
10. In 2005, more than 228 million computer and video games were sold, almost two games for every household in America.

Ahh. The Guinness Surger!

Double Jump Studios - Game Development Blog

http://www.doublejumping.com

I've been spending a lot of my energy on my own game studio recently. It's been fun as shit. Everything I'm doing with this right now is exactly why I wanted to be in this industry. The blog was just freshly baked a couple of hours ago; I promise it'll get interesting.

A-Track
~~~ Pinback - Microtonic Wave ~~~

Create-a-South Park Character

Sony PS2 Ads

I thought these pictures were kind of cool. The color and tone seems to be touched up very nicely. I think they'd make great posters.

In order to raise the spirits of an Italian prince burdened by the cares of his position, a musician created for him a cat piano. The musician selected cats whose natural voices were at different pitches and arranged them in cages side by side, so that when a key on the piano was depressed, a mechanism drove a sharp spike into the appropriate cat’s tail. The result was a melody of meows that became more vigorous as the cats became more desperate. Who could not help but laugh at such music? Thus was the prince raised from his melancholy.

Real Rhapsody

Oh man. If only I had bothered to start an account earlier. Real Rhapsody is a gift from god to all the music lovers in the US (hopefully the entire world soon). Music discovery is as easy as 1-2-3 now. I've always preached that music is about sharing; real rhapsody embraces that attitude. Now this a service that provides people with a good cause.

A-Track
~~~ Jack Johnson - Upside Down ~~~

B-Track
~~~ Mylo - Valley of the Dolls, Otto's Journey ~~~
~~~ Erlend Oye - Sheltered Life ~~~
~~~ J Dilla - Stop ~~~
~~~ Panic! At the Disco - The only difference between Martydom and Suicide is Press Coverage ~~~

I think there are many things one can make in this world. Your life is your playground. The breadth of the sandbox pends on your motivations to stretch it. Play with it enough, the sand will spill out eventually.
I expect a lot out of myself. In fact, I do so so often I feel like I lose grasp of what I set out to do for myself in the first place. There is so much to learn and do, and not enough time to share. Ever since I was kid, my parents have always reminded me that 'Time is Money'. Not in the way in which we should be materialistic bastards, but emphasizing that time is golden. Lose your time and it will never be yours again.

A-Track
~~~ Citizen Cope - Nite Becomes Day ~~~
~~~ Mae - Tisbury Lane ~~~
~~~ Rooney - Losing all control ~~~

B-Track
~~~ Board of Canada - Dayvan Cowboy ~~~
~~~ the Strokes - On the Other Side ~~~

Inspiration

More toys to keep me from being rich

That cloud game

I'm really feeling this cloud game - a 2006 IGF Student showcase winner by a bunch of USC students. The concept is simple but pure awesome; fly around and herd clouds while you listen to a soothing soundtrack. It's relaxing and meditative.


# noob, newb - may imply either one of the following:

* Simply a short form for "newbie", a person who is new to the game or unskilled in play. Antonym: pro, godlike
* Sometimes used to address a player who doesn't listen to advice, strive to improve, or are rude to other players.
* Insulting another player by comparing him to someone who has just started playing.

- Wikipedia


I spent CNY in Vancouver. Lots of good food, family, and snowboarding. Ahhh. Vancouver.

I should do the same...maybe a drawing per week

365 PAGES AGO I HAD A VERY SILLY IDEA. Draw a page everyday for one year. Each day I spent around 1 hour on the page, sometimes more, sometimes less. There was never any planning or preparation, I would just go at it whenever I had a spare moment in my day and had something I needed to write or draw. Some of the drawings are observational and some are just plain weird. Monsters and things seem to crop up a lot (robots too). I have no explanation for this and don't really care because its my book and I drew what ever I wanted on that particular day.

My DIY projector screen

Mark, Billy, and I built a screen for my projector last weekend. It's 16:9 and 92"x42". We bought and sawed wooden planks at home depot to build the frame and then used blackout cloth to wrap it. Its pretty similar to preparing the canvas for a painting. It's sick. I'm pretty happy with it.

Often, the "correct" way is not the best way.

The gathering included a discussion of how early computer pioneers used LSD for inspiration. Douglas Englebart, the inventor of the mouse, Myron Stolaroff, a former Ampex engineer and LSD researcher who was attending the symposium, and Apple-cofounder Steve Jobs were among them. In the 2005 book What the Dormouse Said, New York Times reporter John Markoff quotes Jobs describing his LSD experience as "one of the two or three most important things he has done in his life."

What is there to know?

All this is what it is

You and me alone

Sheer simplicity.

I was just about to write an entry...but I think I'm going to go play football instead now. Oh well.

A-Track
~~~ Graham Colton band - Morning light ~~~
~~~ Fort Minor - High Road feat. John Legend ~~~
~~~ Kings of Convenience - Know How ~~~
~~~ Cake - I will survive ~~~

B-Track
~~~ the Strokes - You Only Live Once ~~~
~~~ Rise Against - Like the Angel ~~~
~~~ Pinback - Concrete Sounds ~~~

A-Track
~~~ Kings of Convenience - Misread, Love is no big truth ~~~
~~~ Jamiroquai - Talulah ~~~
~~~ Rise Against - Swing life Away ~~~
~~~ Rooney - Losing all control ~~~

Its been a while since I've had a chance to blog. The past 2 weeks or so has been hectic as can be. I had an exhausting holiday, not a vacation or break, an exhausting holiday. I am probably more tired now than before the holidays started. I guess now is the time to recuperate as there ain't anymore holidays until next Thanksgiving/Christmas =/
I begun 2006 as well as wrapped up 2005 in Hong Kong. Going home was much more than I expected. Maybe I just expected too much of myself, but my 10+ days stay was beyond what I could grasp. It felt like I was thrown into the wolves. My mind was juggling ten emotions at a time and if anything, i probably just ended up overwhelmed and depressed.
I didn't quite make it so obvious, but I was glad to see both my family and friends.

My new recent toy (as Ev puts it): Sanyo PLV-Z4

DLP Projector
LCD panel 0.7" TFT p-Si x 3 (16:9)
Resolution 1280 x 720 (WXGA)
Brightness 1000 ANSI lumens Powerful mode
Contrast ratio 7000:1 in Vivid mode
HDTV Compatibility 480i, 480p, 575i, 575p, 720p, 1035i, 1080i

More Lighting Toys