Archive for October, 2006
I spend most of my time here in Singapore at work, but I rarely talk about my job. I was planning to (as it’s stated on the About-page). There’s all these events happening and it’s really fascinating. Sometimes exciting, sometimes sad. But unfortunately I’m not in a position where I can just share it with the rest of the world. Maybe later.
So instead I’m going to talk about my code.
I’ve been working on the AI now for a couple of weeks. I set up a worst case scenario in the level editor. One dude had to walk through a clutter of randomly placed obstacles with a very small amount of guiding waypoints. The plan was to make him move across the mess and avoid bumping into the obstacles.
I got it working okay, but just barely. He would do his best to avoid the obstacles, and you’d think “Yes, finally!”.. but then he’d walk straight trough a wall. Yesterday Cédric and I went through the code to find the bug. Later during the evening (when I had already gone home) he fixed it. He’s good that way 
My other assignment brought me back to the GUI, something I quite enjoy. I wrote a crosshair class that I hope the designers will be able to play around with. We plan on using different crosshairs for different types of weapons, as well as some contectual stuff, so I wanted the class to be really deep. Not just a cross on the screen.
Currently I’m working on the health-”mana”-thingie gizmo.
So, um.. okay. This doesn’t sound very interesting, but it’s actually quite fun.
I think I’m weird that way.
Daniel from work took me to this place that sold action figures. Literally, the walls were filled with all kinds of miniatures from popular animes, mangas and games. Later we went to Kinokuniya and got some mangas.
I was a bit overwhelmed by the sheer number of miniatures that was in the store. It was hard to pick out which one to get, if any. But I decided early on thought that if I found any Disgaea miniature then I would buy it.
Not only did I find one, but I found Etna ;O; my absolute favourite X3
I had actually seen pictures of it online and remembered thinking “Aw, man. Why does asia get all the cool stuff?”
So obviously enough, I bought it. It stands about 9-10 inches tall and it’s really nice. There are a few color discrepancies, like.. the boots are supposed to be baby blue and not beige, but I can get over that. The rest of the model looks perfect.
The planets are in alignment! Jupiter and Venus and all that crap.
Today is the Indian new years, which means everyone gets the day off. But since today is a saturday, they’ve moved the day off to monday.
On tuesday it’s the Malayan new years, resulting in another day off.
Marge: Homer, the plant called. They said if you don’t show up tomorrow don’t bother showing up on Monday.
Homer: Woo-hoo! Four-day weekend!
I had so much fun and saw so many different things in Thailand. I will definetly go there again sometime.
So we went to Phuket, or more specifically Patong beach. We stayed at the Burasari Resort and because it was low-season we got a lot for very little money.
I’m not going to explain everything in too much detail, but just summarize each day and then post a whole bunch of pictures after the break.
Continue reading ‘Thailand was fu**ing awesome’
I just came across some screenshots of Baten Kaitos Origins and wtf, is that clay!?
I guess prerendered backgrounds doesn’t really have to be rendered at all.
The ticket and hotel are booked and payed for. Me, Dan, Pablo and Michelle are leaving for Phuket on thursday the 12th and we’re coming back on the following sunday.
It means we have to take one day off.. but apparently our boss didn’t like that idea. We’re expecing some japanese guys to come visit us and they might show up on friday, but nothing is decided yet. Basically he don’t want anyone to take leave during the whole of october.. which is pretty crazy. Pablo was really upset about it.
I’m curious to see what happens next.
[Update: 11th Oct]
Turns out I’m allowed to go. The boss called and said that it was unfortunate, but if the plans couldn’t be changed or postponed then he wouldn’t interfere.. interfere with us getting ONE day off. He’s funny that way..
I’m leaving tomorrow night (sing time). If I’m not back by Monday please send my mom some flowers.
I’m finding myself more and more settled in here in Singapore. Every day starts to become just like every other day. The excitement of a new country, granted not very evident even in the beginning, is now long gone.
There are still a few big differences here that I find funny or weird, besides the most obvious one that they drive on the wrong side of the road here. Here are a few more.
Whenever I get takeout at McDonalds or Burger king, whatever, they always bag each item seperately. The burger get it’s own bag, the fries get a smaller bag and so does the soda. They then proceed to put all the little bags in a large plastic bag for me to carry.
Even if I don’t get takeout and eat the food in the “restaurant” I still get everything bagged, except for the larger bag.
Speaking of bags. I am not allowed to bag my own groceries in a grocery store. It’s done by the cashier as she (very often women) ”beeps” every product. They put about 2-3 items in each bag before grabbing a new one. Not only does I find this completely obsolete, it makes the procedure just so slow and tedious.
There are radio channels here that are entirely in british, and I mean like real CNN correspondant british. You can really tell how the hosts are forcing themselves not to leave a shread of asian accent in their voices. Honestly, it sounds really awkward. Especially when they have to call someone from the “real world”, like to congratulate a winner of a contest. They would go “Congratulations my dear sir! You have won our fabulous contest!” only to get a thick asian “Whassat? I wah!?” in response.
There’s this local delicassy called durian. It’s a fruit, and you can smell it from 50 meters away. The smell is very strong and it’s in every food store that sells fruit. It smells and tastes kind of like a mix of french cheese and garbage. There’s even durian icecream.
