Adios 2010!

This year flew by pretty fast, don't you think?

From going through Yr 1 Sem 2 to the 4-month-long holiday, to going through yet another semester...

It's amazing how all of us manage to pull through.

2010. For me, it was a year of ups and downs. But the downs were really, really the all-time lows. Still, I managed to embrace them, overcome them (I hope) and I actually look forward to a better year. I just have this upbeat, optimistic feeling about 2011. Something tells me there're lots of goodies in store for me.

So as we say goodbye to the past decade and welcome the start of a new one, let us reflect meaningfully and be grateful for everything, good or bad, that has happened to us. They all happen for a reason, one way or another.

And here's something for you guys that I baked as a gift for the new year:

Ok I'm kidding. These aren't baked by me. Why would I bake Hello Kitty pizzas anyway??

Alright y'all. Time to sign off. Till next year dudes and dudettes!

P.S.: I think the best thing that's coming in 2011 will be Britney's new album. Honestly.

:D

I Ain't Thru

Time to post an update.

Halfway through the horrible exams right now... 3 down, 2 to go. Haven't been really happy with any of them thus far. Just hope that I can get all the grades I desire.

Anyway, I'm getting an iPhone! :D Kinda surprised at how quick I decided to get it. Sort of a Christmas present to myself haha. And it arrives on X'Mas Eve. How apt!

Imp wants me to use Twitter. But it's kinda pointless because how many friends of mine are actually active Twitterers? I can count just with the fingers on one hand.

Getting hooked on Bruno Mars again. Trying to perfect my playing of "Just The Way You Are" on keyboard. Woot.

5 more days to the end of exams!

Can't wait to watch all the movies I haven't watched for the past 4 months and counting.

Creepy. Gothic. Inspirational

Was perusing through some old book shop here in Japan and came across this book of old Art Deco illustrations courtesy of Bela-Gyula Krieger, a long dead Hungarian animalier artist of the LOUIS XV Period. One look and I instantly thought of how well these would go in for The Insanity 3, ooooh yeah :-)

Best thing about these are since they're over a hundred year old they're totally permission free - as the book says, and as such are ok for use in games. I've a few hundred pages of these amazing awe-inspiring pieces, everything from Toad Daggers to Crocodile Eye Brooches. It's totally the stuff of dark fantasy, perfect for games. I'm even going to base some of my spacecraft design for the latest game I'm working on (still haven't named it).

You can bet your ass Edgar Friendly would have loved these too and yes, you will see a few of them crop up in the third installment of The Insanity series.

Guess What?

The legendary Britney Spears will be releasing her brand new studio album in March 2011.

WOOOOOOOOOOT.

Beware folks, Queen B is coming to slay all your faves left right center.

GaGa who??

Sing!

I heard of this elective where you study about singing. Called "Magic of the Voice of a Singer" or something like that. And you earn your grade by singing (70%) plus a written exam (30%).

The best thing is, it doesn't matter if you can sing well or not, as long as you put in your best effort, you still get your grade! :D

I like to sing. I don't think anyone knows about this though. I can play a keyboard or strum a bit of guitar, but if I'm given a choice between playing a musical instrument or sing, I'll choose to sing. Surprise, surprise.

What's the joy of music if you don't sing along right?

I don't have an awesome singing voice and I can't hit high notes and stuff like that, but I really enjoy letting out whatever's pent-up in me through song.

You know, I have a secret dream. Well it's not gonna be a secret anymore after I click on "Publish Post", but I dream of singing on a stage to an audience. Laugh if you want, but if I actually have the opportunity to do so, I will. The one obstacle is I'm too shy. And I don't wanna butcher any song. Haha.

Anyway, I may choose to take up this elective next semester, but whether I get it or not is another thing.

P.S. If you want to sound better when you sing, do it in the bathroom, it has one of the best acoustics around the house. I'm serious.

Life Is Art.

Feel Good Time

Lately there's this influx of awesome self-empowering, uplifting songs riding the radio airwaves. So I've compiled all 7 of them here! :D Listen to them if you need a boost in your mood and life!

1.

Song Title: "Raise Your Glass"
Artist: P!nk
Album: Greatest Hits... So Far!!!

As P!nk herself described the song, "This one's for the underdogs".

2.

Song Title: "Firework"
Artist: Katy Perry
Album: Teenage Dream

Such an inspirational song! The most, as far as Katy's hit catalogue goes.

3.

Song Title: "We R Who We R"
Artist: Ke$ha
Album: Cannibal

Who knew that empowering songs can be fit for a club as well? It's already a Billboard #1 hit, for your information.

4.

Song Title: "Strip Me"
Artist: Natasha Bedingfield
Album: Strip Me

Natasha never fails to come up with uplifting anthems.

5.

Song Title: "Who You Are"
Artist: Jessie J
Album: Who You Are

Look out for this amazing, talented up-and-coming singer/songwriter from the UK!!! Debut album out next year. This ballad is a favourite of mine. So heartfelt! And in case you're not aware, it was featured in the dance flick, "Step Up 3D".

6.

Song Title: "Pretty Girl Rock"
Artist: Keri Hilson
Album: No Boys Allowed

This catchy one's for the ladies!! Plus the video was fantastic. Miss Keri paid homage to some of the awesome female artists from the past!

7.

Song Title: "Headphones"
Artist: Britt Nicole
Album: The Lost Get Found

Britt's more known in the Christian music genre I guess, but she makes awesome music everyone can enjoy. This song will definitely lift your mood! :D

I Am Not Advertising Myself

Just to be clear on that before I start.

Anyway, was just wondering about the topic of relationships. As in BGR. A sensitive and open topic I must say... But I guess there aren't really many people who read my blog so it's ok.

Well, I've never been in one, so... I don't really know how it feels like. I'm not gonna rush into one just to try it out, because I think it's stupid to do so, and it's unfair to the other party. Plus I don't think I have a high chance to be able to have one.

I've had crushes before though. A couple. But I've never confessed once. One reason is because I'm uber shy. Another is that I always feel I'm not ready to enter a relationship. I have questions all the time, like, how am I gonna treat her? What should I do? Because I believe that guys should treat their girlfriends right.

I'm not the kinda guy that girls will be attracted to at first sight, because I don't give lasting impressions. I think I'm the type whom you've gotta hang out with and get to know me more, and just perhaps you'll grow to like me.  About myself -- I don't watch soccer or play video/computer games so I'm pretty sure I won't neglect my girlfriend (if I have one) for those. And one thing I know, I'll only be happy if she's happy. I won't mind going down just to see the other party going up. This is also how I treat my closest friends too.

About my ideal girl... A few people are actually curious about what kind of girl I'd go for. I think I'm more into personality and character (not that I'm trying to be politically correct), but as long as she looks ok I'm ok (I know I'm not that attractive myself either). Well, I would like her to be bubbly and cheerful, someone whom I can talk continuously with. I hate awkward silences/pauses. I love music, so preferably she loves it too! Not those classical kind but you know, sing along with me, groove with me when a nice song is on air, and of course, Glee. Oh and I hope she doesn't club. I'm kinda anti-clubbing after my 'incident' (which only a few people know about, thankfully). I don't need to meet her so frequently because I know both of us have to have our own space and social circle too (I don't like possessive boyfriends so I'm never gonna be one).

As I have mentioned before in my blog, I value TRUST and HONESTY.

So there you have it. I'm not advertising myself nor am I posting an ad to search for a girlfriend. In case you're thinking about that now. I just wanna pour this out because all this stuff has been sitting in my mind for quite a while now. Collecting dust even.

On a side note, I really really really wanna catch the Rocky Horror Show next January @ Esplanade. Well mostly due to the Glee tribute episode, I'm now interested in it. But I highly doubt that there'll be anyone to go with me. I'm looking for company! Preferably people who are into plays and musicals! Because I don't want anybody to doze off halfway. Now THIS is an advertisement.

Before You Say "FML", Think About It

I'm sick of people writing "FML" on their facebook statuses, Twitter feeds, blog posts...

If you are unaware of what FML stands for, google it.

The "FML" comment, in my opinion, is overused, super inappropriate and I think it contains utmost disrespect. Maybe I'm just too sensitive, but I just can't stand it. Even if people are using it to pass off as a casual remark.

First, if you hate your life so much, then DON'T live it. There are so many more unfortunate others who would die to live yours. No matter how much you think you're suffering.

"FML" just because you have an assignment to complete??! For goodness sake.

Maybe these people don't really understand how 'heavy' the acronym "FML" means. Life is meant to be appreciated. Embraced. Sure, life is full of imperfections, but that's the way life is. It is meant to be imperfect. And it's only through these imperfections that we discover our own strengths within, create ourselves, bringing out our full potential. Imagine life that is just so...perfect. Maybe the sound of it is tempting, but if everyone's lives are so perfect, life itself will not have any meaning to it. It's boring. To a certain extent.

It's not as if you can't overcome the struggles in your life. Perhaps you can't for some, but you have a choice whether you wanna embrace it, or not.

Sometimes when I see people saying "FML", I thought to myself, "I bet my life is twice as hard as yours, and I don't even use that acronym."

Please. Think. There's absolutely NO REASON to f*** your life. Honestly.

graffiti book

ROIDZ continuation...

Design notes for the new game.

-------------------------------

*Start off with your ship basic firing abilities.

*Each enemy destroyed gives credits for buying better weapons.

*4 levels and 4 bosses.

*Earlier bosses will be doable without anything but skill but later bosses will literally be impossible without the correct combination of bought power-ups.

*Each time you clock the game it gets progressively harder.

*Random *super* enemies will appear. Normal enemies that are a special colour and much tougher/faster than others of the same ilk however they will give a fat credit bonus when destroyed.

*Some variety in enemies during later replays.

Est.finishing time, 2 months from this post.

graffiti

graffiti

graffiti

graffiti,

graffiti

graffiti,

graffiti

graffiti,

graffiti

graffiti,

graffiti

graffiti,

graffiti

graffiti,

graffiti

graffiti,

graffiti

graffiti,

graffiti

graffiti

We R Who We R

Ok, I think there's a need to update. If not the blog's going stale.

And just to mention, the title of each post may or may not be of concern to the post's content. In case you're wondering sometimes if they actually do link.

Anyway, RECESS!!! WOOOOOOOT!!! :D NO LAB FOR A WEEK!!! YAY!!!

Haha. Need to get that out.

Even though recess week means that there's gonna be a tsunami of mid-terms approaching, I'm still happy to have a break. And a kit-kat. Ok I'm lame. Whatever.

Ploughing through that HP802 assignment at the same time. Trying to complete a section per day. At this rate, I will hopefully finish it by......tomorrow?? I think that'll be a miracle because I'm currently slacking right now. And I do spend A LOT of time on a section. Each section takes about 400 words and I will take like up to 5 hours to perfect it. And that includes doing research for it, planning how to convey my ideas, and most importantly fit everything in about 400 words. 3 sections done, 2 left. And I haven't started yet.

Sigh. Recess week also means that the super dreaded exams are coming. Worried for all my modules.

Ok I guess I have to get back to my assignment now. If I'm ever gonna want it finished.

Roids

ASTEROIDZ - I mean :-)

Use the mouse to drag them around. Fingers crossed they'll fit well into the game without slowing up the FPS too much.

Orbitals = Skittles

Copped DA's new album yesterday!!! Currently spinning it like there's no tomorrow.

The 212 lectures seemed to be like stoning sessions for me. I couldn't comprehend what the lecturer is talking about. All I see are orbitals, orbitals and more orbitals (Sorry if you don't know what orbitals are, but you can just google it). And I sorta visualised them as Skittles instead. You know Skittles? Those coloured round sweets in a colourful pack? Come to think of it, I haven't eaten them for eons.

Don't they look just like your s orbitals? It's even printed on each one to tell you it's s.

And these are your p orbitals. LOL.

But these are my favourites!!! :D I'm literally drooling right now.

Updates-

Small update to the latest shooting game I've been working on, just click on the link on the thread below. Really need to get a better codename than 'BlowUpSh*t' I know but the name makes me chuckle every time I read it. I would genuinely call the game that if I thought parents would allow their little 5yr old Johnny to play a game with such a title.

Updates include a nasty bug being fixed that was messing with the memory, and a new weapon. If you hold down the mouse button it now activates an R-type ray gun actually called the er- *R-Type* (sort of in tribute really) that can rattle the crap out of any enemies it smashes into. The gun does damage relative to the amount of time you power it up, and if fully powered, the generator blinks and you'll do maximum damage- along with doubling the magnitude of the laser.

Don't let the fact the beam goes through some enemies- I'm still collision detection tweaking so expect a fix soon.

Machine guns next.

Another demo:

This one isn't even worth posting honestly, but just so you guys can get a basic idea of how the fighting game I was working on *was* going (till I realised how much work would go into it) here it is for ye all to 'marvel' at, lol. Never fear, though for the time being I'm preoccupied with the shooter, this demo will become a fully-fledged game, hey perhaps if I'm lucky some talented artist might come along and start spriting characters for me based on the biped movements in the demo. I'd truly be motivated to get back on the coding for this one if that were to happen. Major bonus points if you can guess which game the background music was ripped from..

FIGHTING GAME: DEMO

Blow Sh*t Up

Little quick demo of the latest game I'm working on.

I was planning to do a beat-em up game and had been working on that for a few weeks until I began to feel it would take me forever to finish what with all the animations to draw and such. Therefore I decided to ease down off the big projects for a while hence this is what I've been piddling about with these days-

HERE

Codename:Blow Sh*t Up is what I call this puppy. It's nothing more than a standard shooter with some fancy pixel particles explosions. The demo just features a bunch of enemies floating around the screen. The particle engine is so quick I can eve n add Glow and Blur filters to it without much of a halt in the fps.

I'm using the excellent Pixel Perfect Collision Engine by Troy Gilbert. Dude has made a fine piece of code there, it works like a dream.

//Accurate pixel detection turned off (bounding box same as hitTestObject)

if (PixelPerfectCollisionDetection.isColliding(ob,characterArray[i], this,false))

{

//If ship has a weak point check for it first

if(characterArray[i].box)

{

//Accurate pixel detection turned on

if(PixelPerfectCollisionDetection.isColliding(ob,characterArray[i].box,this,true,20))

{

Tint(characterArray[i], 0xFF0000,1);

characterArray[i].oldX=x;

characterArray[i].oldY=y;

characterArray[i].alive=false;

removeMovie(ob);

return;

}

}

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Awesomeness.

--------------------

So no 'Insanity III', boo hoo I know :-) I'd love to work on it- I truly would, but the only thing I have to say in my defence to the peeps begging me to make it a Jerry McGuire-esque 'Shooooow meee the money!' because entertaining you guys or not the financial scraps I've been making from this series are laughable, it's time for another strategy.

Love that you guys appreciated the games though.

Hole In My Head

Rare for me to do a post on a Tuesday. But I just gotta rant about today's test.

It was so simple. So doable. Could have scored full marks for it. But I just couldn't do it.

MENTAL BLOCK.

Such a shame. I was so confident and feeling good about the impending test, only to come out of the lecture theatre CRUSHED.

It hurts when you wasted an opportunity to score for something.

T_+

The emoticon above shows my agony as I struggle to complete my lab report. The NMR spectrum seems to be yielding a knife at my throat, almost going to slice me any moment now.

Despite 2 impending tests, I still feel pretty alright and not as stressed up as I thought I would be. That's quite a feat, according to my standards. I guess I now know how to slow things down a little and prevent those pesky burnouts.

Anyway, I'm a self-proclaimed Glee fanatic and of course have already watched the first episode of Season 2 which started just last week. I really dig the songs the cast covered.

Usual life scoop aside, I actually wanted to blog about liars. People who tell lies, make empty promises, fabricate stuff and so on. There's just this particular person whom I've known for about 3 years now that's getting from bad to worse. I won't name names because I don't really wanna sound like I'm bitching about somebody (Even then, do I sound like I'm doing so? Ok, whatever).

Well, I have lotsa examples to back up my claim but I'm not writing everything down here. Basically, whatever this person says from now, I will not believe it. One ear in, the other ear out. I've been played out too much already. Turning immune even.

Trust. Honesty. These 2 words which I value so much do not exist in this person.

Just get out of my life already. You don't deserve my friendship. And others' too.

Bit of NG drama

Phew. Stupid me I unknowingly uploaded 'THE INSANITY II' on minutes prior to what they call 'MADNESS DAY' on Newgrounds.com. Within about 2 hours the game vanished from the new entry Flash Portal with less than a 1000 views, much to my dismay. Thankfully after writing to the admin there I got a reply from Wade there that under my conditions they would delete the game and allow me to resubmit on a quieter day.

Man, for a minute there I thought 7 months of anticipation had just been flushed down the toilet. Lucky me.

For posterity here are the reviews it already got. I guess they'll be gone too soon enough.

"I am thinking to much..."

by: Kenxeus

date: 7 hours ago

The game got me thinking that maybe he is actually the twin brother of Edgar Friendly and that Edgar Friendly actually died in the car accident instead of his brother...Maybe I think that because when he went back to be a surgeon he could not do his job...
That his head injury made him believe he was Edgar Friendly, that the incident and the loss of his brother made him insane.
Great game what is next a game when he started doing his experiments for the first time?

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Score:10

"Absoutely Beautiful"

by: SanguineWendigo

date: 17 hours ago

This game was as beautiful as the first one, I love every bit of it. But my favorite subject of the game would have to be the designs of all characters and creatures. One thing I have noticed is Edgar Friendly's hair is similar to a lion's mane, the king of the jungle, ironic since in a since that is what he is trying to become lol. the creatures as well are amazing in their design and even how to "handle" them was amazing. I do hope you make part 3 soon in the future for even though there is only 2 parts, I am a deep fan of the series. At least I hope it becomes a series....

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Score:10

"Your game"

by: jason7799

date: September 22, 2010

Good graphics for the atmospher it brings....entertaining for a while..or how ever long it takes someone to beat it..but yea it could have been more difficult
good game though
5/5

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Score:10

"Are you from Florida?"

by: TheRinger1976

date: September 22, 2010

I like your game, particularly the cinematic atmosphere you've created. I'd bet you're a fan of gore porn.

Seriously liked it though. Especially the [I assume to be] seamless blending of photos, drawings, and perhaps a bit of CG rendering in your stills. It tickles my pinial gland. Keep up the good work.

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Score:10

"That's fuckin creepy."

by: thom175

date: September 22, 2010

This game scared me shitless. I love the Lovecraft reference. I hope you make another because this is really great man.
5/5
10/10

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