August 2003 Journal Entries

<%@LANGUAGE="JAVASCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%> August 2003 Journal Entries

August 2003 Journal Entries...

Tuesday - August 12, 2003

I actually redesigned this. Amazing! Well a lot has happened from the last time I wrote in this thing. First of all, I'm actually making a game. It's a 2D RPG in openGL. Ever since I was in college, I always told myself I would one day try to make my own game and now here I am right after college trying to fulfill that little dream of mine. Man, I have so much respect for people who create games now. It's a lot harder than most people think. A lot of us like to complain that a game is missing this feature or should have been done this way, but my gosh, I can see why development of any game takes months to do. So next time you go and blame any software, be in a game or Microsoft products, try to program yourself. Then I bet you that you won't complain as often. =)

I'm going to make this entry short since I'm still trying to fix this site up a bit. Hopefully you like the new layout for now. Okay, I think that's it for now. Hopefully you've enjoyed reading this. If not, then too bad! J/K.... or maybe not. =) Take care and God bless. Remember, happiness is a choice you make everyday, so make the right choice. Hope you have chocolate covered gummi bear dreams! =)

Friday - August 15, 2003

So here we go again. What have I learned today? Hmm... to do the triple option, the quarterback sure has to think a lot. First of all, he needs to know what defense it looks like the opponent is playing. After surveying the defense, the quarterback must make a mental decision on who will get the ball, be it the fullback, the halfback, or whether he will keep the ball himself. Once he has decided, he must figure out a really good lane to use on the spot... be it up the gut of the defense, or going around the defense. All of this, just to run an offense that isn't too exciting to watch most of the time. Especially when you watch Navy run its version of the Flexbone Triple Option. Hopefully this year, they can break even with a 6-6 record, but I think that's asking a lot being that if NCAA 2004 is any indication, Navy fans are in for a long year.

So why did I bring all that stuff up anyways? Well maybe it's cause I like sports and follow up on it. Anyone want to join a fantasy league with me and Yuffie? We're having a really hard time finding people who actually want to do it. Probably cause not that many people we know follow the NFL and are knowledgable with all its players. Oh well, here's my attempt to reach anyone who would like to join our league. =) Oh yeah, and on another front, I kinda miss chilling with Vince Rectra. Who is Vince Rectra you might ask? Well he was one of my previous roommates while I was in Irvine. The reason I bring him up is cause he was as crazy a Chicago Bears fan as I was. I remember at the beginning of the season, we were both joking that the Bears would make it to the playoffs in 2001. Then as each week unfolded in that magical year, we kept shouting and yelling everytime we mentioned the games on Sunday. We would even listen to it on Internet radio to get the play by play since it wasn't good enough to just see the screen pop up showing the scores every once in awhile. That was so much fun and I remember him saying that if the Bears ever reach the playoffs again we should go to a sports bar and just watch the game one day. Here's hoping. =)

Why is it that game companies make games consoles backwards compatible. I used to think that doing that would be in the best interest of a company, but now I dunno. My thinking is that if you have games from the previous system, you probably have the console to go with it unless you are a total weirdo and just buy games to look at the cover or something. Thus why waste the time and money to make your new platform backwards compatible. Instead why not just try to create something more innovative? Or you could just make the price cheaper.... (gasp!) . Okay, my lil take on that. As you can see, I have this tendency to just talk about random stuff so if you are a new reader, you will get used to it. Haha.

Oh, and yet another thing. I wanted to wish a certain two people happiness while they are "talking" to each other right now. Haha, that sounds kinda weird, but I guess I just thought I would say that. Maybe cause I don't want to take the other approach which I'm not liking too much. =P That and why worry about things you can't control right? I'm having my fun with my friends, they're having fun with their friends.... everyone is having fun which is the main thing. =)

Hey Yuffie. If your reading this, we moved the dinner thing to next friday. Let's hope you can make that one okay? Haha.... you and your lunches. =P Make sure you get all your "Back to School" stuff at all those sales. I'll go visit you this coming year at whatever college you plan on going to. Remember if you go to UCLA you'll get to be Yen and Puja's rival school. Hehe. Plus, I can just grab both of you and we can all chill like old times. Up to you, but I know your itching to stop vegetating at home in Diamondbar. You can always call up Jason Hills since he's back from Japan and chill. Just a thought. =)

Okay, I think that's it for now. Hopefully you've enjoyed reading this. If not, then too bad! J/K.... or maybe not. =) Take care and God bless. Remember, happiness is a choice you make everyday, so make the right choice. Hope you have chocolate covered gummi bear dreams! =)

Wednesday - August 20, 2003

Well hello again. Welcome. So I'm talking to Keith and Monica right now and Keith wanted me to write about how people just go through journal sites and skim for their name really really fast. So let me see if I can try to figure this out, or maybe I'll just BS something for your entertainment yeah?

So I guess the thinking about this searching for your name business is all tied to the fact that you want to feel important in regards to your friend. I'm guessing while a person looks for his or her name in an event that they participated in, they feel that the writer of the journal should include their name since they were there right? Well here's a news flash for those people. Most people don't write this way. So unless you really played a prominent role in the event being talked about in the writer's journal, chances are that you won't be mentioned. Plus, do you really need this type of self gratification or am i just being a garrulous person here? I'm thinking it's a little bit of both actually. Since I haven't really thought about this until now, my opinion about it probably doesn't show much acumen huh? Oh well. Maybe if I actually think about it hard, I'll come up with a better solution. Thus let's talk about something else here.

Other news. Well in 17 days, I'll be done with my GRE's whether I like it or not. To tell you the truth, this may sound really odd, but I'm kinda enjoying learning these new words. Kinda nerdy huh? Haha. Now when I go and read books, I won't have to skip these words anymore and pretend that they were never written in the book. =P That is always a good thing. Also, it keeps me learning. On the learning note, I'm going to be taking a 3D Game Programming course through UCI extensions in the fall. I might take other courses through extension also. I am also going to try and learn how to use Maya while looking for a job. At least I have something to show grad schools now that I've been working on this game and with this website. I've learned more material this summer than I did all of my last quarter at UCI! How sad. I now can use Dreamweaver MX to talk to databases and write ASP code. I've learned more about the string class in C++ and how to use the predefined function and data members in it. I've also gotten more practice in class wrapping and how to create a window application instead of a console application which is what UCI taught me. I've also learned how to play music through your programs. When I say music, I mean midi files, but still, it's a start. I've also taught myself the more advance stuff in javascript so I can write my own applications. It's sad that javascript has become synonymous with rollovers and basic animation because it can do so much more when done by hard code. I kinda wanna learn C# and Visual Basic soon. The more knowledge the better. =)

Another thing. Congratulations to Yuffie for finally picking a grad school to go to. Haha. I'll be sure to visit you at UCLA. Maybe one day you'll be more knowledgable about that university than I am. =) Oh yeah, we can go visit Yen and stuff this coming year when all of us aren't busy. Good luck at grad school and watch out for those back to school sales. Haha.

Thursday - August 21, 2003

I was looking at the trunk of my Camry today and guess what I found. Magic the Gathering cards. It got me thinking. It was such a big game back in the days. From Alpha, to the Dark, to Arabian Nights, to Mirage and Ice Age, and Weatherlight, and Exodus, and all the countless editions... (I stopped getting cards at 5th and only know up to 5th edition rules), Magic has survived in ways I never thought possible. Here's my question though? Does anyone still play? To tell you the truth, I only know a couple of people who actually know how to play the game. It's so hard to get people together and just play. Now why is that? I'm sure a game as famous as this one would make it easy for me to find people who wanted to play. I hear that they have an online version of the game now. How interesting. I'm actually thinking of paying 10 bucks to play. However, here's the thing. I remember why I stopped collecting in the first place. The rules from 6th and 7th edition bit major donkey balls. Seriously, if you are an old school player like me, you would be kinda ticked off with the rules nowadays. So many cards are banned also. So a Black Lotus or two is a lil too powerful, but I guess they just wanted to balance the game since dual lands are too good of a card. The combinations that you can make in the game has always drawn me to it. Sometimes, it's not even the game itself, but the creation of your deck that is most fun. I dunno. This probably makes no sense to the 99% of you that don't even play the game but who knows, maybe I'll find someone to play with through this journal entry. I had this cool multicolored deck back in the day that would win me several games, but too bad that I can't find it anymore. It was a Tradewind Rider/Capsize/Howling Mine/some card that untaps all mana from every player each turn multi-color deck splashed with creature removal (black), hammer of borgadon's (red), and elves/killer bee's (green). Kinda slow since it's a bounce deck basically but it gets the job done. Most of the lands are either Pain lands, reflecting pool, gemstone mines, and a couple basic lands. What you do is try to hold off your opponent by bouncing their creatures/enchantments/lands back to their hand through the tradewind rider and capsize. The edicts and nekrataals that are in the deck too are used for creature removal just in case the opponent is playing green and tries to overrun you. The howling mine is useful once you have locked them down because they'll be drawing cards that they can't use since you've bounced all their land off the board. Thus with no monsters or land, you can win either by killing the guy by attack, wait till he/she gets milled the death, or wait till the person gives up. Haha. =P As you can see, I played this game a lil too much back in the days. Ah, fun times. Oh well. I think that's all I had for today. I'll leave you with a funny lil remark by someone I will leave anonymous since it's kinda funny/embarrassing. =) Just a heads up but we're talking about pac man here. Hehe.

A: (12:36:23 AM): but i remember the flashing
A: (12:36:36 AM)i just thought it meant i got a big one and it's cheering for me or something
A: (12:36:51 AM): hahaha
A: (12:36:56 AM): ok you do that d=
B: (12:37:03 AM): what the? hahahah
B: (12:37:07 AM): cheering?!
B: (12:37:08 AM): =P

Tuesday - August 26, 2003

750 in math on average for my GRE math score.... I think I'm ready for that part of the test don't you think? =) Now I won't even get into what my practice scores were for verbal cause that's just hella embarrassing. Yuffie can relate right? Haha. Oh well, in less than 2 weeks this will all be over with and I can look to getting those letters of recs from some of my engineering professors at UCI. Then it's time to hope and pray that I get into a grad school. Everyone keeps telling me that I'll get into one and not to be so worried, but I think I caught my partner in crime's pessimism. Thanks a lot buddy. =P

Speaking of my partner in crime, I just had a lil talk with her last night. She really needs to stop copying me. Haha. Just because I've become a hermit since I've started to study for my GRE's doesn't mean you have to become a hermit too. Geez. =P If I could name the people I truly miss from Irvine, she would be up there on that list. Shoot, I don't even get to see her when I go and visit her apartment since she's either sleeping, working, and did I mention sleeping yet? Haha. It was fun just talking to her again last night. I'm her role model?! Whatever.... you're just saying that so you can trick me into drinking with you on your birthday! =P Hey... and tell Jenn that she never made the drinks she promised from long long time ago! So booo on her. Hehe. Oh yeah... and we need more "gum". =)

Okay changing gears a bit, I'm building the town layout for my game right now. I've created some graphics and stuff just to give me a feel so we'll see how that goes. I am also going to start fixing up broken links to mine and my kuya's first website on Tenchi Muyo. That site has seen more activity lately and I kinda feel obligated to fix it up and update it since even after 7 years people are still coming to visit the site in droves. Kinda like I should give them something current to look at since they have been nice enough to stay with the site even though I haven't done anything to it since the beginning of college. =P Plus a lot of the info just can't be beat I think. It may not look flashy, but the direction we took was info over graphics. Plus it loads incredibly fast on a 56k. Haha. It should be renovated after I take the GRE's. =)

I think I'm going to make a new section with the funniest things that people people have said to me over the years. So put your submissions in soon. Haha.