Cultivation

Today was my 2nd day of my new job, and I had a nice surprise when i walked to my desk today - a plant! my desk definitely needed the added green. I didn't though, ask if it was my responsibility to keep it alive.

I took a picture, but even though I'm positive there's no sensitive info in it, I have no idea what the policy is in terms of these types of things, so you guys won't get to see my plant.

However, since i felt the sameway with FSS, i never posted pictures from there either. So, Here's a cool picture i took:



It was definitely fun working with all that talent, and artists. Even their stick figures are high quality!

Arachnophobia Part II

I lay down on my bed, glance at the ceiling, and what do I see? Another spider... Not just randomly somewhere on the ceiling, but directly over my head!

This one too was squished to death.

No sympathy

Last night, I went to bed, shut my eyes closed and layed down. Shortly after my face felt a little tingly. I fidgeted a little, opened my eyes, and witnessed a spider (a very very ugly spider) crawl off my face. (well, technically I felt it crawl off, and then saw where it landed)

Yeah, that wasn't pleasant at all. I jumped out of bed, watched the spider, and grabbed a giant textbook, wrapped one end with a tissue, and slammed it against the little critter.

Bugs crawling on my face get no sympathy from me, and will only result in being squished to death. Let this be a warning to any of your insect buddies.

Pickiness

After recent E3, leipzig, and PAX, I often wonder what type of 'gamer' I am. When I was a kid, I'd play every game out there. Now, I'm incredibly picky, and settle on 2-4 games a year.

After reading the transcript of one of the panels at PAX (about girl gamers), where a guy asked, "How can I get my g/f to stop playing solitaire 24/7 and move on to a better game?" (something of that sort) the panelist responded, "you don't, it's what she likes, just like how some guys only and ever play Halo." Which got me thinking on what if I considered each videogame a different hobby in itself, and I'm just changing hobbies every year. That wouldn't make me much of a gamer, just like a die-hard soccer player isn't necessarily a sports enthusiast. (or is he/she?)

Whenever I mention I'm a game designer, or a gamer, people tend to mention games like Crysis, or Halo, or Portal, or GTA, or etc etc, a long list of games I haven't played. so what started as a commonality to start off a discussion, ends up distancing us apart. I don't see much commonality between a person who loves fencing with a person who loves softball, so how come when it comes to videogames, everything is jumbled into one hobby?

I also see many misunderstandings in other fields: since i like Salsa, then I must like Hip-Hop (or the even worse un-categorizable dancing seen at church dances), since I like (theoretical) computer science, then I must like programming, since I like (Discrete) Math, then I must like Calculus, etc.

Or is this just my nature? All of you already know how VERY picky I am with food. I guess, I'm very picky about everything else too. Whenever I generalize an interest, misconceptions come up, when i don't, well it gets too verbose to explain what I exactly like (especially to someone who's not familiar with that category).

Harsh Criticism

I've been catching up with ex-EGM editor Dan Hsu's blog. It gives really great insight onto the realities of gaming journalism, and unfortunately reinforces my current standing of, "you can't trust only one good review".

But I definitely understand the game publisher/developer's side, Noone strives to make only a 'so-so' game. When you have 20-40 employees spending 2 years of their life into a product, they're not going to agree with a low review score. But of course, it's because of this, that game designers have to really try to detach themselves with their passion, and objectively ask themselves, is someone else going to have fun with this?

Are your parents home?

I hate to keep on puting age related issues on here, but i've never been asked this question since, well, since I lived with my parents (10 years ago).

I was still in some state of shock when answering, "Um, uh, I'm one of the residents here".

Of course I'm happy to look younger than I really am, but it does get a bit tiring to be thought up of as a kid. Maybe I need to work on my diet and tone up a bit so I perhaps maybe look like a Man instead of a boy.

On a different, but similar note, regarding chinese gymnasts, if there doesn't exist evidence that those girls are actually young, anyone who knows me, for sure knows that you can never tell how old an asian is by looks and/or size/muscle mass. So I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt.

(I wonder if we were elves in a past life...)

Hmmm...

Ah, the allure of stuffed animals...


http://view.break.com/536276 - Watch more free videos

Maybe I should try this next time