The continuation of a decade is just another year: 2011 Resolutions
Needless to say, I failed horribly at my New Year's resolutions for 2010.
- Produce six games I managed a total of zero
- Learn the top 1000 kanji I pretty much stopped studying after I left college.
- Read my Japanese textbooks (JSL/JWL series and Genki I) Didn't finish any of these. Stop reading after the first month
- Achieve Navy PRT standard Hahahahahahaha.....
- Cook and bake more Hey, I actually did this one. I'm sure I'm not where I wanted to be but I do cook more.
- Manage a post every week Definitely didn't even get half-way: 21/52
So, I managed 1/6. Really, I have more I didn't even share so my actual number is worse. This year lets try to make things a bit more achievable?
Dark Age of Eorzea
Ah so peaceful, this is what Eorzea will look like this time next year.
"You have broken me, all the way down..." (Glen Hansard, All the Way Down)
That's where we are now.
Gamasutra listed the launch of Final Fantasy XIV as the #4 biggest disappointment of 2010. With less than three weeks to go in the year. I'd say, personally, it was probably #3 (more about 2010 disappoints in a later post). I've been REALLY looking forward to the next Final Fantasy MMO. In my opinion, FFXI did nothing short of amazing in its initial approach to the MMO genre. Yeah it was lackluster in many facets but to be honest there's still nothing like it in the PvE MMO scene. It's right up there as my #2 best MMO ever (with #1 going to Dark Age of Camelot for a solid PvE experience as the foreshadowing of a great PvP environment for its time).
Minor Blog Edit
You may or may not have noticed the small change to the site. I removed the pages part of the site and reorganized my categories. The links up top now display category pages so if you're looking for my posts on Korea just click the link and you can successfully ignore all my tech, gaming, nerd, rants, and boring life posts.
As far as 'Projects' are concerned, it's mainly space for my budding game development information but I don't know what else I might end up working on so I gave it a generic label. 'Korea' is all my adventures abroad, if I manage to visit another country I'll relabel to fit the content. I imagine that's what most of my friends are here to see. Trust that more content is on the way. I still have to do the obligatory apartment post (with video) and I want to do a sort of video tour and photo walk around Yeongcheon. I might do some Daegu content but downtown Daegu is a bit too big for me to run around filming, I might just talk about my favorite spots. If you have any ideas about what you want to learn about Korea I'm game to do a piece on it. Try to ask for something you can't already learn with a Google search (e.g. food, Chuseok, noraebang, etc.)
Lately, I've been sleeping and doing the same stuff I did back home (watch movies, hang out with friends, sleep) so there isn't anything interesting to report as of yet.
Fun Fact: Scott Pilgrim vs the World is an American movie, with a Canadian star, using a English director. The actor playing Knives Chau is not Chinese but Cambodian (and pretty attractive when not styled to be a 17 year old).
Status Check: OK
I do this every now and again, just feeding a little status update. The highlights:
- Camera
- Money
- Site Updates
- Time Management
Let Your Seoul R.O.K.
I don't know what to post about. I don't have my camera so while I've seen a lot of different things, it's hard to share them with you without writing some mammoth post. Normally, this is the part where I write a short re-cap of what happened but this is Korea and I'm going to do it right. My friend told me to make a separate section and it sounds like a good idea. When the first post comes out, it'll be on a separate page much like the Project's section that never gets updated.
NOTE: The word play in the title is just to get it out of my system. I wouldn't dare subject you to it on a consistent basis.
I’ve been busy doing nothing
So my friends have been asking me: what's up with the blog? Honestly, I've been torn between too busy to post and generally not in the mood. However, now things are a little less hectic and I find that I might as well update people on what's going on.
For starters, I needed some cash. I took up a job working for a pretty well known store franchise. I'm not going to say which one because, I may very well rant about it later and I'm not here to smear anyone's name when I vent on my personal blog (well sometimes, but not for this). Even so, a lot of people have jobs and still manage to blog. Unfortunately, my job calls me in anywhere between 10PM and 4AM and I usually work a 10+ hour shift. So, whatever daylight I have left gets spent on...
Getting things in place to go to Korea. I finally sent off my application packet for EPIK. I had my recruiter interview, EPIK interview, and preliminary offer already. Now they just need to review my paperwork and send me a real contract. Yeah, throw me in the category of the JET-rejects that decided to hop on the Korea boat. There's more to it but I don't mind be put in that box.
So, in preparation for going to Korea, my recruiter suggested I take a TEFL course through ITTT. Now, I really have no time as I have to drop 100 hours in one month in order to receive my certification on time. If that wasn't enough...
I was working on getting my first game prototype out. I say was because my computer's hard drive is pretty much dead at this point a long with all the project code I had so far. Fortunately, I suppose, I wasn't far a long so I didn't lose much but without a dedicated machine, I'm not about to tackle a one-man game development show right now.
Those are the major things going on with me. I'm still volunteering on the weekends and occasionally I'm helping my dad out. Whatever free time I do find right now gets dumped in to practicing Ibuki in Super Street Fighter 4. I should talk more about SSF4 later. For now, look for some more personal focused posts and wish my luck with my Korea placement. I'm hoping I haven't sent my documents too late.
My look at the N900
So I got the N900 finally. I have to say, if you consider yourself an average power-user and you're looking for a hot new device, skip this one and wait until the next Maemo device comes out later this is year (or more likely, early 2011). That's the pretty much the end of it so if you don't care about the details of why, you can stop now.
The start of the decade is just another year: 2010 Resolutions
- Image via Wikipedia
I don't like making resolutions because they're so often broken. However, I have a few things I really need to do so I went ahead and made a few. I ended up with a lot of resolutions (well to me at least, usually it's like no more than three). I'm going to go ahead and post them here, and help fulfill my final resolution.
- Produce six games
- Learn the top 1000 kanji
- Read my Japanese textbooks (JSL/JWL series and Genki I)
- Achieve Navy PRT standard
- Cook and bake more
- Manage a post every week
The first resolution is pretty obvious for me. I've been delaying Project Silver for the longest time (which will hopefully have some announcable progress soon). So I decided to set a deadline but it and some other game ideas I've had. Ideally, I'd like to get around to more than 6 games but as it stands, I only have about two to three ideas (including this mysterious Project Silver) that I see being done solo. I have some recruiting and brainstorming to do once those ideas are completed.
Learning kanji and finishing my textbooks are a continuation of my plans to pass JLPT 1 and spend some time living in Japan. There are a number of reasons for this that I'm not really going to get in to. Needless to say, if I get in to JET, the ability to speak and read Japanese will come in handy.
I managed to get down to about 187 pounds last summer and now I'm back to being over 200. I want to get in shape just so I can manage to live past 47. Active military personnel seem to be in pretty good shape (at least my friend Terrell does) so their requirements seem to be a good place to start.
It's easier to eat healthy, women like it, I'll save money, and House is good at it. There are a lot of reasons to get good at cooking. Baking is just added on for the extra savings. I buy a lot of Druid Circles so I'm going to try my hand at making my own cookies and what not. I've also wanted to make some bread ever since I saw Yakitake. I'm pretty sexist and I honestly think baking is a woman's thing but I guess, I'm going to go ahead and violate my owns rules until I find a woman willing to make me some cookies. I'm sure it'll be almost as much fun as cooking...maybe....
Finally, managing to post every week has proven to be difficult. The real goal is 52 posts within the year but ideally, I'd prefer to make 1 post a week. We'll see how it goes. I don't know where I'm going to find time for all of this, especially if I find a job. I guess this is one of those times where I must exceed what I think I'm capable of to achieve greatness...or something like that...
I thank whatever gods may be / For my unconquerable soul. / I am the master of my fate / I am the captain of my soul. - Nelson Mandela (Invictus)
Who runs these lyric sites?
I know I haven't been posting regularly, bite me.
Now this is what's running around most of the web for This Boy's Fire by Jennifer Lopez (I have the Ultimate Santana collection -- don't judge):
That's why I fly [Incomprehensible]
Sky fly high, "suavecito" (okay so this is actually incomprehensible)
Or that deuce deuce chrome el Camino
Hope the world is really ready for some fly Latinos
We the chief like Babe Ruth and The Great Bambino
We the truth like Babe Ruth and The Great BambinoNow we didn't really come here to burn nobody
All I wanna do is drink and dance with shawty
There's a legend in the house, here to rock the party
You can toss, drink, blaze and like there's no tamariOops, I'm in my Maria with Carlos Santana
Oops, I mean manyana with Carlos Satana
Oops, It's Ronnie Ray all day with J hot as sauna
We in the building and we feelin' like a 100 degrees
I got a fly chicanita and she's stuntin' with me, so right here
Granted, rap can be really hard at times but really? This bad? C'mon people. The sad thing is, this song is over three years old and the lyric sites are still like this.
What was that? You wanted a real post? This was a real post; don't you see the pic of Jennifer Lopez? I finish school in less than a month then I really won't have any excuses left.
Man I Hate Snow: Final Fantasy XIII Quip
I really do hate snow, winter pretty much sucks all around. More importantly, after watching the demo video I have to Snow is pretty cool right up until his first fight. Pretty much everyone has a firearm. If you're not so lucky you're either an animal or you have some ridiculous extending polearm/staff. I'm sorry, I forgot the third option you could be retarded and punch people. That's right people, Snow punches people. Don't get me wrong, I love Tifa and Zell is In the far future, where everyone has guns and your constantly fighting people in mech suits and giant mecha airplanes, how do you end up not only fighting with your fists but single handedly doing the most damage out of ANY of the characters? REALLY, SQUARE?!
That aside, so far my FFXIII impression has been positive and hopefully can chime in later with a full write-up on my opinions. I really wish I had a PS3 to play myself but eh, those are the breaks.
