Week 1048 - Developing Development Developments

Hello again to everybody! There have certainly been a few interesting developments in the last couple of weeks. Hopefully I'll be able to remember all of them as I continue typing hastily, but not too quickly as I tend to make morr spelning mistaks whenn I do.

In this edition: Lessons learned while flatting, My new parallel blog, and more of the internet in bite-sized pieces.


So for one week of the two week semester break I was actually up in Auckland, flatting with my friend in a sort of 'trial run' for my plans next year. For those a little behind, let me remind you.

To quote Miranda Hart, "previously in my life"...

• I'm on my final year of doing Computer Science (it's a third year degree) at Massey University.
• I will be attempting to enter a fourth, honours year up at Albany campus.
• The honours year technically wont start until midway through 2013, and will finish midway through 2014.
• This leaves me with a gap between this November and next June, to be filled with a part time job of some sort (hopefully).

Ah drat. That last bit was supposed to segue into the next section. Ok hold that thought, as I bring you...

Lessons learned while flatting for eight days

Lesson 1: Make leftovers count.

If there's anything I look forward to when I'm home, it's leftovers. Especially if it's a dinner I enjoyed. Why settle for only having it once when you can have it again the next night? Yes I know that sounds relatively cheap, but hey, we're talking students here. We'll eat most things if it saves us money. I think. I can't really elaborate on this too much since I'm on a dinner plan when I'm on campus, but for one thing, we hardly see bacon feature in a meal. In short, reheated carbonara is delicious.

Lesson 1-A: Worcestershire sauce is delicious and can be referred to as "W" sauce.

Enough said.

Lesson 1-B: Hot sauce.

See above.

Lesson 2: It's not that bad.

Now either it's a premium flat or there's some exaggerated stories out there, because student flats in the North Shore don't seem to be infested with rats, constantly moist, or in a bad neighbourhood. This particular one was right next to a college, which put me at ease but I'm not sure why, since if someone breaks in to a house your first thought is not "run for the nearest college". It was a reasonable distance from ample transportation, and provided it's not raining sideways walking to the bus stop is a good way to ensure you're up in the morning.

Lesson 3: Work is achievable off-campus.

...only just. Let's just say my work ethic got confused with "I'm on holiday, screw this" a couple of times. So I'm assuming with proper care, stuff will be able to get done.

Lesson 3.5: It's not always a booze-up.

Now I do remember being told interesting stories of things that do happen at student flats, but I wont repeat them (mainly for fear of getting the details wrong). Although being drunk and ill is never a good combination, flatmates are certainly approachable 95% of the time.

Lesson 4: The North Shore is further away from the city than I thought.

Yeah, this one took me by surprise. Although the bus system is frequent enough to travel into town whenever, there's actually a lot of shops and supermarkets (and a mall) in nearby Albany. So really, there was little need to go into Auckland unless something was happening.

Lesson 5: If you hear rumbling, it is not an earthquake.

...probably. This is just 20 years of paranoia-because-I-live-in-Wellington setting in. I hate earthquakes.

My new parallel blog

Still holding on to that thought from earlier? Good. So it's come to my attention that it would be a good idea to have some sort of a portfolio when it comes to game making, or the posh term, "software development". I've been told that just showing off the fact that you can make a game isn't really enough; it's about making a fun experience. I thank Steven Knightly from the NZGDA for that advice.

So I present to everyone around the world, OneTwenty, a blog that I wont be updating as regularly as this one, but it'll have essentially everything I've created in the last 20 years I can still get my hands on. It's all accessible to everyone for free, mainly so I can gauge reaction (if any). So if you're interested in playing around with random programs, games and the like that I'll be churning out, I invite you to visit and follow along to that blog as well. If you're not interested... well you can still visit but I don't think it'll be as engaging.

More from the internet

It's that time again... bringing you more random stuff from the far corners of the internet to you!

Hot on the heels of Gamajobat last week, something a little closer to home... the Umbilical Brothers are an Australian duo specialising in "microphonic mime". Wondering what that is? Check it out.

And in terms of something slightly topical, did anyone catch TVNZ's reboot of New Zealand's Got Talent? Just wondering if I should watch it, or whether to wait for a bit so the non-acts get weeded out. But our next video is actually from Ukraine's version of the program. What does Alexander Shtifanov do? Oh he's just a bartender...

And finally a suggested video... for the 8 million monthly users of Bejweled Blitz on Facebook, the name PopCap should be reasonably familiar. When they're not making games involving matching gems, they're... well, making other games. Involving plants. And zombies. And the game is called Plants vs. Zombies.

That's it from me, be sure to check out my other blog OneTwenty if you have a passing moment, or subscribe to the RSS feed so you don't miss a post. Both links are at the top of the page. See you next time.