10 things to do in 11

Let's start with just a few and see how far it goes.

1) Write an android app.

Doesn't have to be anything fancy or approved by google. Something that prints "Hello World" counts.

2) Go to a sushi place and converse/place order with the waiting staff entirely in Japanese.

Seems tough but maybe I need someone to teach me how to speak Nihongo properly. Seems like good practice.

2010 Report Card

1) Finish my artwork
Not really done, it's always the last part that is the hardest when you run out of gas. Drop this one.
B-

2) Learn a new song on guitar
Failed big time. F

3) Play FFXIII
Done.
A+

4) Learn how to use game engines
Barely pass. Should have spent more time on this. C-

5) Blog makeover
Made some changes, but not nearly as close as I wanted. B.

6) Buy a house.
6) Finish Japanese level 2 and level 3 on Rosetta Stone
was halfway through level 3 when PC broke down. A-

7) Go camping at least 2 times
- Blah. F.

8) Play Football for at least 15 weekends.
Maybe 5 times? C+

9) Go hiking
F.

10) Build my own computer

A+.

Overall grade = B-
Thank you world, happy new year and another year of broken dreams and unaccomplished resolutions.

10 things to do in `10 update IV

4 months and 10 days have elapsed.

1) Finish my artwork
Got a tablet, and gawd life became so much easier. I've posted an update on this.

2) Learn a new song on guitar
Scratch Colbie Caillat, in comes Stephen Lynch. Easier songs, and probably more useful if I were to perform in front of people.

3) Play FFXIII
Done.

4) Learn how to use game engines
- I borrowed 2 books and took a day to go through most of the basics, but now I'm going to have to put it to use.

I also drew my first character in photoshop, I can just port it to blender and it should just work.

5) Blog makeover
- Dear blog, fortunate for you, I've gotten a lot better at drawing stuff, and also I learnt how to use some of the HTML5 plugins, that means making you pretty is not going to be that much harder that it used to be. You should be thanking me, you ingrate.

6) Buy a house.
6) Finish Japanese level 2 and level 3 on Rosetta Stone
1 units of 8.

7) Go camping at least 2 times
- Blah

8) Play Football for at least 15 weekends
- Current Progress 2/15. Long shot getting this done. this year, this is probably the one I really wanted to do, but it's out of my damn control. I'll either have to look for a new gang of people to play with or give this up. Life's a bitch, sometimes.

9) Go hiking
Lalalala...

10) Build my own computer

Yeah, if it makes you feel better, this probably could be done over a weekend, so, plenty of time.

Incomplete, but close.

10 things to do in '10. (update III)

I was thinking, #1, 4, and 10 goes directly towards making a new MMO. How about that? Anyway, this is my first update since we cross the 1/4 of the year line, have I done 1/4 of the tasks? No. Am I on track? Likely not. Sucks, but I'll keep trying.

1) Finish my artwork
- Yes, yes, finish my artwork. stop bugging me, I am looking at tablets.

2) Learn a new song on guitar
- Was thinking of playing Colbie Cailat's new song, "I never told you", but it's kinda weird if a guy plays the song.

3) Play FFXIII
- DONE!. Finally something is done.

4) Learn how to use game engines
- Alright, some movements here. I've looked at Blender, and I've downloaded it. It has a little game engine thingy built in but it's not as flexible as a real game engine. Blender is mostly a tool to do 3D animation, which is okay by itself. There is another game engine called CrystalSpace, which I have not seriously looked at yet, but seems like it should have more functionality that blender, and there's a crystalBlend project that ports Blender stuff to CrystalSpace. Looks like that's the way to go. End goal at the end of the year is to get something on HTML5 that is runnable.

I've also discussed some of my game designs to some of my colleagues/friends/random people. Don't think any of them took me too seriously, but once I get something laid down, I think I can count on them helping me out.

5) Blog makeover
- Shuddup damn blog, I have no time for you.

6) Buy a house.
6) Finish Japanese level 2 and level 3 on Rosetta Stone
I've slashed off "Buy a house" because it is no longer a good idea. Instead I've decided to learn Japanese. Fair? Maybe not, but it's either I drop something of the list or I substitute it with something else. Gotta be realistic sometimes.

7) Go camping at least 2 times
- Blah

8) Play Football for at least 15 weekends
- Current Progress 2/15. "Nobody wants to play with me!"-Ace Ventura.

9) Go hiking
Looking at trails near SF city. Stagnant.

10) Build my own computer
Got to at least wait for a good DX11 card to market. I have no $$$. Donors?

Final Fantasy XIII

So. I'm done with the game. Well, not done with the game as a whole yet, but I've finished the main storyline.

Thoughts?

I am about 100 dollars poorer. (Got a fantastic deal at Toys R us for the game. Got a 13 dollar gift card + Prototype (game) for extra 20. I also got the Official Game Guide for another 13)

The graphics is really, really good. Square hit home with the design of the game world. I've played other 1080P games before, but nothing even remotely comes close to this.

And when I think back on what I was playing before Final Fantasy XIII, I drew a blank. I recall that I'm not done with Valkyria Chronicles, or Madden, or Assassin's Creed. Those felt like a lifetime ago. Nostalgia sets in.

Gameplay was okay. I loathe the fact that I can't control the other party members directly, that affected some of the strategy up to a point. But I guess that's what the game wants you to do. I can't make a super high powered offense + ultra high HP and expect to win the game like that.

I recall the hours I spent grinding away at the training room in Balamb garden to make an invincible team. But in FFXIII, no matter how well trained your party is, you still need to master the art of Paradigm Shift to win. But once you get the gist of it, you can take on monsters waaay too tough for your crystarium levels, saving you the hours grinding at the Ruby Dragons. But not being able to control the party members directly cut away some of the satisfaction.

Story was, well, it was deep, with backstory of most characters. There are some parts that you kinda cringe at, but there are some that really hit the spot. Cheesy dialogues are part of the series, so don't expect it to go away in this installment.

Chocobos are back. So are the summons. Odin was fine, but he's a horse, or is he a man? Brynhildr is a car with hot wheels. Hecatoncheir (He-Kah-To-uhn-Keir) is a Magitek Armor, Alexander is a castle and Bahamut is a Bahamut.

After listening to the final cutscene with Leona Lewis's song, My Hands, it felt weird, it felt out of place. It's a good song, don't get me wrong, but it felt like it was forced into the scene, and it just didn't belong. I think Square made a bad call getting her song there, it just didn't have the right vibe. Kimi Ga Iru Kara by Sugiwara Sayuri provides a much better mood for the story.

Status Report: Project 2010

Between work, play and hanging out with people over CNY, I really hasn't made much progress in my goals.

1) Finish my artwork
- Don't even have a mouse. 1 thing at a time. Need to buy tablet.

2) Learn a new song on guitar
- Blah. Obviously.

3) Play FFXIII
- in 1 week, I won't be updating my blog.

4) Learn how to use game engines
- Wow, nothing I've ever done loses so much steam over such a small amount of time.

5) Blog makeover
- Blah

6) Buy a house.
The objective of buying a house drifts further away as I look at the stock market going up. Property tax is 1.125% of property value. Loans are 5% APR. 6.125% of 400000 is more than double of what I pay for a year worth of rent. Unless I have like 200k down payment, the interest rate is going to hold at 5% and 5% of 400k isn't fun to pay every year.

7) Go camping at least 2 times
- Blah

8) Play Football for at least 15 weekends
- Current Progress 1/15. Something I'd really like to do, but sometimes it's not up to me. Probably will gain traction when summer comes in town.

9) Go hiking
Looking at trails near SF city.

10) Build my own computer
Got to at least wait for a good DX11 card to market.

Updates on stuff I wanna do.

From this post:
1) Finish my artwork
- not much progress here, despite this being the easiest task. Did some skin shading up to this point but that's it.

2) Learn a new song on guitar
- haven't even decided on what song I wanna do. 21 guns by Green Day? Something by Taylor Swift?

3) Play FFXIII
- the closest thing to FFXIII right now is the pre-order from Amazon and also my effort to learn Japanese.

4) Learn how to use game engines
- Looked at websites describing OpenGL and also watched instructional video at work about history of OpenGL and direct3D. I need to look into this more.

5) Blog makeover
- Blah

6) Buy a house.
- Looked at houses, nothing is screaming good deal so far. And no down payment money yet.

7) Go camping at least 2 times
- Blah

8) Play Football for at least 15 weekends
- Current Progress 1/15

9) Go hiking
- Yosemite? Big Sur? Somewhere in Palo Alto? Mount Tam again?
- Maybe I should make the Half Dome Hike a yearly thing.

10) Build my own computer
- Blah.