Auron @ Blog

Update & Upgrading in Progress

2010-03-15T21:45:00.001+08:00

Hey, the blog is temporary down for annual updating and upgrading. Will be up and running soon....

Best Wishes.

Auron

Internship Programme Week 15

2010-02-07T21:20:00.000+08:00

Finally, 1 more week and a couple more days, ITP and it's bullshit is coming to an end.

Half of the week's events had been posted earlier so there isn't much to talk about.

Yes, in the end, I still created facebook. Anyway, give me sometime to add you'all into my friends list. And I personally thank each and everyone that have patiently waiting for me creating it and sending friends request with no replies. Have to explore and see what's great about it since many are using it. Hahaha...

There is huge progress with my flash game. I managed to have my game a scrollable background, i.e. when you have your mouse at the far ends of the game screen, it will move the background. That said, you would see the background moving completely out of the screen because I stop that from happening. The logic of the scrollable background is similar to games like Red Alert or even The Sims if you have played them before.

A splash screen was also designed and waiting to be added into the flash file.

I added in movieclips into the background with code instead of 'drag-and-drop' from the designer's view.

When you do a mouse over to the movieclip, it can detect the movieclip's properties like name, scale, position; this gives me a great start to allow showing of the properties of the enemies in future like health, strength etc.

2D array for the movieclips to be added from code, I 'took' the code from HL and unsurprisingly, it worked out just fine.

The above features took 2 hours !!!

Ok, this week, I must let my company know that I'm not going to enslave for them anymore. They have planned to have me under a contract before I'm undergo enlistment... It angers me everytime when I want to give them my answer, they advised me to think about it before giving them the answer. They think MOney will make me continue working for them. Hahaha, Imbecile Fools! Never seen such naive people in my life.

I've swore to many people that since day 1, I'll never work for them after my attachment comes to an end. My decision is already made since day one and they FAILED to change my mind for past few weeks. Too bad, I, like Sima Yi, stand by my decision and will never regret it.

I think that's all for this week's post. I wish everyone a great week ahead and are preparing for Chinese New Year!! :)

Auron

'Sorry. Sorry. I can't..... Do it again!?'

"By using money to change my heart is the oldest trick in the book. Do you think you can fool me that easily?!"

Vocational Assessment - Audition for Commmando Formation

2010-02-02T21:16:00.000+08:00

Before getting to the main topic, last Monday to Thursday was dreadful. Friday was the NUS seminar regarding admission to the School of Computing. Had lunch and dinner with my friends whom I chat on MSN daily. Strangely, it felt like meeting cyber friends I meet on the net because we chatted so long on MSN and it felt like we never met before. Lol. The seminar left me rather clueless regarding what kind of courses they offer. It's too confusing and the courses doesn't related to what I'm studying now. Hence I've drawn a conclusion, NUS is no longer of my interest for a degree in IT.......................

Yesterday, Monday was my Further Reporting Order by Mindef (Ministry of Defence). It sounded formal and serious but what that day does is like an audition for Commando position for National Service (NS) for pre-enlisted guys like myself yes. Briefly, there are 5 stations:

Physiological & IQ Test - To test your IQ level, your personality and how you cope with stress
Physical Test - To gauge your fitness level
Psycho-Motor - To test your agility, flexibility, balance and determination.
Medical - To find out any medical history, injuries, illnesses etc.
Interview - Like oral asking you some question like, "How much you know about Commando", "Will you be interested to know more about Commando", etc

I woke up 5.30am that day and reached the camp at 7.45am. The camp it at Pasri Ris Lots of people there as well. We were asked to 'take attendance' and then divided into groups of 20. Each details/group will do a series of test as mentioned above. Coincidentally, I met my classmate, Yu Huang. I only saw him during lunch time.
I catch up with him and find out how he's doing.
He said he's not doing FYP with Zhi Cong, Justin, Joseph and Marcus (I might be wrong 'bout that). He's working with his friends from another class doing a flash game; I should have asked him what kind of game he's making! Gabriel is doing FYP with Joseph (of another class) and Moshin (the hopelessly useless guy).
He wants to see the Media Law paper which I did last semester. So I'll scan and send it to him on MSN. Before that, have to get his MSN from HL Milkz / TrusT. Lol

And I met a couple of new friends as well. One from SP doing Computer Engineering, no one can pronounce his name. Lol!!! The officers get stuck at his name when ever they want to call him up. And I still dunno his name after talking to him for so long. Hopefully I get to see him when I do my NS.

I looked around and found more competitors for the Commando spot as I hoped. One guy is so fat but he can do 50 push ups in 1 min !!! 70% of the guys looks so ah-beng (ITE people lor) with extreme long hair with tongue/mouth/eye/lip/ear/brain/arm/leg/chest rings/studs. Most people are fitter compared to myself and I have dilemma whether I can/should get into Commando. My fitness level is weak compared to everyone there. Although during the interview, the interviewer say "Must stay positive. Can make it (reach high fitness level) de as long as you stay positive", I still don't believe I can make it. Lol.

Oh, Yu Huang gave me some advice regarding internship. One of it, he said 'download some movies to watch in office', indicating to me I should hack care about the work. Hm... Interesting. Since it's only 2 more weeks before I'm 'released from the prison' (complete internship), I might as well spent sometime for myself.... Any one to add on to that?

Ok, ending the post for this week. Hope you have a great week ahead.

Auron

Title Here

2010-01-24T17:19:00.000+08:00

As the title suggest, it's yet another boring week for me. The routine is like a function being called every day without any changes.

Nothing spectacular about this week. It's work, work, work, work and, well, work!?

Ok, nothing interesting to bring up. Hope have you a great week ahead.

Auron

'Exercise, Axe Cer Size!
Fish & Chips! Fish And Chips!

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!'

New Year - First Failure - First Rejection

2010-01-17T17:29:00.000+08:00

Yea, it's a new year, new beginning.... but why some things don't change?

Anyway, the past 2 weeks are nothing special. 2 weeks ago, Friday, was my NAPFA test. It's my first ever failure for the year. Not the start I wanted but at least I know what's my physical fitness is like.

Work is still the same. Cropping images, editing XML codes to input those images into the program/system. The CEO returned to the company and I had my first ever meeting with him and my colleagues. Well, it's a unique experience. I realised the CEO has a bad habit. Here's an example: "The er....................... the user manual I will go though with you guys for the requirements. For the er......................................... the er............. content, it's too lengthy and I want you to (cont bullshitting)". He 'er's too much and sometimes I forget what the heck was his last sentence/phrase before he goes into a state of finite loops of 'er's.

The user manual requires more improvements according to the CEO but oddly, they no longer require me to do it. Well, I don't blame them because that task is suppose to be done by their own employees not me. (they actually revealed their business strategy and system to me by showing me a word doc of what to put into the manual. how careless!). Just wondering, will you read a 15Mb, 75 pages pdf for a user manual?

I rejected one of the task by the business manager! "Cutting parts of a video and adding in sound.". He insisted that task wouldn't take more than a day but I told him, "If you want me to do it, I'll have to push back the current task to 2 weeks time.". When I'm finished talking, all my colleagues were looking over to my seat and the business manager is actually red-faced. I don't mean to embarrass him but he deserve it for trying to test my patience. HAHAHA...

Officially, I stopped playing Red Cliff as it's starting to be a grinding game just like any other Multiplayer Online Games. Leveling is so treacherous in MMO!!!

Ok, 4 weeks left before I'm release from 'prison' (describe my company similar to a prison). I still don't feel any sense of accomplishment from working. I learned nothing new. Whatever the reason, I'll continue to do my job half-heartedly and looking forward to the end of Jan!!!

I'll stop for now. Hope you have a great week ahead.

Auron
"Wisdom has brought me as far as I can go. Where I go from here, I'll let fate decides it's own path."

Last Day of Year 2009

2009-12-31T20:45:00.000+08:00

Today is the last day of the year!!! I hereby wish everyone a Happy New Year. =)

Christmas Presents

2009-12-28T15:09:00.000+08:00

5 best Christmas presents this year.

1. No work from 28th Dec 2009 to 4th January 2010.
2. Turkey, Roast Beef, Honey Roasted Ham family dinner.
3. PSP !!!
4. Steamboat Teppanyaki Buffet.
5. All Channels on Starhub TV, inclusive of Sports, Movies.

If you asked about what's the 4th, probably Facebook account. Yup, coming soon.

Ok, gotta stop here for now. My phone ringing...
Happy Christmas to All!

Auron

Happy Christmas

2009-12-25T14:34:00.001+08:00

Happy Christmas to All !!!

The Medical Checkup

2009-12-20T16:31:00.000+08:00

Taken a week break from blogging and back at it again today.

There is nothing particular interesting to blog about as I work 0900 - 2000, Monday to Friday. The routine sucks. Weekends are the only time I can forget the pain and misery at work. Anyway, I took leave last Wednesday and half day leave on Thursday to settle some matters. Thankfully it's settled finally. =)

On Friday I took another leave because I had to got for my National Service (NS) check up at Central Manpower Base (CMPB). The checkup for mine is 8am. I met Mox, Hong En and his friend Eugene, at Redhill MRT station and took a cab to CMPB. When we just entered the cab at the opposite of the road, we realised there is a whole string of taxis waiting at the taxi stand. LOL.

The whole check up last until 2pm that day. There were 6 stations, mainly health checkups and there was one test waiting after all the health checks; an IQ Test!!! Number patterns, Algebra, Identify Picture Patterns, Remember a String Of Numbers, Reaction Time Test, etc. And "NO CALCULATORS" for the test, only an old-school pencil and a piece of rough paper for doing the workings. If I can remember, the whole test consist of 9 sections!!! I was extremely tired and was hoping, "Please let this be the last section of the test I have to take...". However, time and again, I was wrong. Lol. A 3 hour test with broken English question is crazy.

The health checkup consists of an X-ray of the backbone, dentist checking the teeth (what for, I'm not sure), eye sight, urine test, blood test (drawing out 2 tubes full of blood, cool.... ), hearing test, Electrocardiograph (ECG), Height & Weight measurement. Strangely, there is one station which requires me to take a photograph!!! Luckily I had a hair cut the night early otherwise I can never pass that station. LOL. Lots of requirements, fringe not touching forehead, side burns much be 'tucked' behind ears, back hair not revealing when a front face picture is taken.... It took me 5 tries to finally get pass that silly thing.
Speaking of which, the photography looks a bit sick and the impression I get from him was, a "Rapist targeting man!". Yucks! He carries a sick disguising smile as if he's trying to flirt with the guys. I'm like, "what the fuck", it's the first time I encountered a man targeting young men like us. Argh, it make me feel sick speaking about it! His face, definitely, if you are a lady, will tempt you to shout 'Se Lang' or 'Molest' when he looks into your eyes.

I managed to chat with some cool people and get to know them while waiting for my turn at the stations. (Very cool people compared to my colleagues.) One guy from my Polytechnic called Jerry, complained and grumble to me that he can't pass the urine test! He told me, "That guy (the doctor) say my urine got too much protein. But I eat eggs for breakfast, lunch, dinner, what he want me to do sia.". Lol, the doctor told him to drink lots of water and collect the urine again the second time. If he still fails, he has to come back another day for the test. Fortunately, he passed it and stopped complaining that he failed the test. Haha... of all the test, how do you fail the urine test?! I'm still very curious. LOL... I was there to watch the whole 'drama' while waiting for the blood test.

Anyway, it was a very unique experience on Friday, very fun. Talking to people and getting to know what they do, how they prepare for the NAPFA test. Hopefully I get into the same squad as them during my NS next year.

Final thought, I wish I'm already doing my NS now rather than Internship. I would rather serve my country that being a slave to some filth shitting workplace. Thankfully, that's not too far from now because in a few weeks more of mental torture, I will not longer serve my company. I remembered correctly telling HL Milkz, TrusT and Mox that I'll give the company 4 words if they do persuade to keep me in their company. It's in Chinese but in English, it is, "You Can Fuck Yourself!". =)

It's the festive season again! Hope everyone takes this opportunity to enjoy themselves and forget about work.
Ok, that's all for this week. Till then, take care and enjoy life.

Auron
P.S. Is fileden.com down? Can any pm me the reply?

Internship Programme Week 6 - Part 2

2009-12-06T22:11:00.000+08:00

I finally got my pay after 6 weeks. Checked my bank account last Saturday and realized the amount is deposited on Monday, which is the last day of November. However, the amount deposited doesn't seem correct. Well, when it comes to money, I'm very particular especially when it's my company! LOL...

(sigh) Tomorrow's the start of another dreadful working week. I hope this week past by very quickly again and I be given peace to do my programming task without other people's interference. Oh, speaking about other people's interference, I let part of my frustration lose on somebody on Friday!

On Friday, around 5pm, I was doing my task and suddenly the business manager 'Skype -d' me. He demanded that I take a couple of screen shots of a model and sent it to him as soon as possible. That time I was very frustrated and annoyed by the error given by the program I'm coding, and hesitantly replied with a Fat, "?". He did replied in a very impatient manner and I immediately put 'Away' status just to give a blind eye to him. I was cursing in my mind about him at that time and suddenly I muttered out, "I'll give you that screen shot and stick it right up your fucking arse. Would you want it hard or soft (copy)? You......".

It was only when I realised my colleagues were looking over to my seat wondering what's going on. I got even more enraged and decided that to give that manager what he wanted immediately. I spent about half an hour just to give him 5 screenshots. It was compressed into rar file format and sent to his Skype soon after. Once the file is sent over, there is no word of 'thank you' (I don't expect any either) from him and I logged out of Skype to avoid any more problems.

(sigh) Tomorrow its the start of another dreadful working week again.

My target for this new working week:

Explore more on Windows Programming
Get working leave for 2 days
Avoid contact with business unless necessary
Get my mum a birthday present :)
Treat my family to seafood feast this weekend

Ok, thats all for this week's post. May you have a great week ahead. =)

Schönen Tag noch...

Auron

Internship Programme Week 6 - Part 1

2009-12-06T12:50:00.000+08:00

There isn't much to talk about for the last 5 days, however, I finally did something worth my time and energy. The CTO (Chief Technical Officer) and the programmer had a chat about my new task on Monday morning. When I was told about the task, I was a little bit stunned and unhappy. The task was Windows Programming! Yes, sounds intimidating huh? I never done that before and immediately that day set myself a target, "Complete the task within 3 months!". Why 3 months? Well, when you don't even have the basics about windows programming, it's not easy to get work done.
Let's use this old school saying: How do you expect someone to run without knowing how to stand up on both feet in the first place? That said, I spent the 3 days to figure out the basics. Man! It was painful without guidance but I managed to get by with much complains to several people that it's practically impossible to complete that task. The thought of giving up the task was on the mind but luckily, help was on the way in day 4. I approached the programmer for help. He literally slapped me in the face, told me to get a grip; it wasn't as bad as I thought. I was give a few lines of code and it helped me a lot and get me on the way again. =) There were lots of fun doing Windows Programming; you can make virus or bots if you explore in depth. I was to anxious to get things started and nearly given up a good task! Anyway, there isn't a deadline for it so, I'll be taking my time with it.

Ok, will be ending the post here for now. Stay tune for the second post soon.

Auron

Internship Programme Week 5 - F-L-A-S-H

2009-11-29T19:10:00.005+08:00

5 weeks of enduring the work, I finally found something worth doing, Flash. Yes, Flash Actionscript 3. I managed to find Adobe Flash CS 4 in the company's computer, this means to say that I can do my own 'self defined' task. Since there is no way the company will give me games related work to do, I'll shall find some amusement with flash.

Well, Monday, Tuesday were dreadful as per normal.
Wednesday and Thursday were better because:
1: I completed the allocated task 2 days before the deadline (Thursday),
2. I used the left over time to do work on my 'self-declared' task,
3. I managed to shut the manager's mouth without much hassle, i.e. I managed to please him with my work to the extent only minor improvements are made to the final product,
4. No other work was given after submitting the task at 4pm,
5. And Friday was a holiday!

On Thursday, I saw my company appeared in a magazine, CIO. The article is featuring top 20 successful companies in Asia and my company appears in it. Featuring only a third of a page of the magazine, I thought what's mentioned on the article are absolutely native.........................
Lol, just kidding. Anyway, I wouldn't even bother buying that magazine just to read a small part about the company. It's cost can buy me a Chelsea's Monthly Fan Magazine. :)

Today's my grandmother's birthday. There was a buffet lunch and almost every single one in the family turned up for this once in a year occasion; from her children to her grandsons and granddaughters, I bet that must be a memorable day for her. I managed to catch up with my cousins and find out what they are doing now. It didn't take long before I felt the heat in the air due to the heat from the buffet table. My cousins and I were finding ways to cool down, from switching on a 'deceiving' looking electrical fan to standing at the entrance doors for cool air. About the food, I think it's still O.K. From mee-siam to cereal prawns to sweet sour chicken to nyonya fish to yellow rice, it's very scrumptious. =)

Final comment; Manchester City, go FUCK yourself if you ever replace Mark Hughes with Guus Hiddink as your manager. I hope your next match with the Blues, you'll receive a sounding trashing! Now, go feed your Wee-Citizen-Hole with all your filthy cash and find other sore losers for the managerial job!

Hm... My appology for the above comment. Okay, that's it for now. Like the British says, 'time flies when you are enjoying yourself'.................. well, not exactly for me but may you and I have a great week ahead.

Schönen Tag noch...

Auron

Internship Programme Week 4

2009-11-22T18:44:00.002+08:00

There isn't much for me to comment about this week's internship. Just simply; Same Shit, Different Day.

Settled?

No, and never will.

Work?

Boring, uninteresting.
More interest with what mademoiselles are doing whom are complaining about.
Why?

Challenging
Sense of accomplishment when finally solved the problem.

Relationship with Company?

My advice to them is, "Be close but not too close"
Company Supervisor (CS) is my good friend :) The others, just working partners. I need them, I'll look for them. If not, leave them alone.

Any Updates?

New Intern from NAFA (Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts) joined the company on Monday. He told me secretly he's disappointed not being able to make games... sounds familiar.
CS is leaving sooner than I have expected, in about 2 weeks time in mid-December. The company will have only 5 full-time employees once he leaves.
Was told about lots of 'ugly' stuff by CS with regards to his departure, and past full-time staff. It's disheartening and saddening to listen to what my CS went through. However, deep down inside, I know he made the right decision to leave and with him all the best for his future endeavors.

What I've learnt:

I Control My Destiny, None Shall Stand In My Way

To be continued...........................

Internship Programme Week 3

2009-11-15T22:27:00.000+08:00

End of week 3 of my 17-week internship programme. It's a better week as compared to the last 2. The work given is incredibly irrelevant but I accept the challenge:
To touch up a few scenes in the program/game/software by editing the xml code.
- Shift a few models to the correct position. (just changing X, Y, Z position that's all)

- Check if information of the model is correct. If incorrect, replaced the information with a new image.
- Crop almost 100 irregular sizes of raw images into 1024 x 768 and put it into the program/game/software.
It wasn't as difficult at first expected but cropping 100 images is not fun!
On Friday, something ridiculously happened and had the entire company (4 of us) laughing out loud. It was afternoon around 4pm, I refilled my bottle and at the pantry, I saw a box full of kuehs at the table.
~ The CEO bought them in the morning and he messaged everyone on Skype this: "Hi guys, I bought some kueh kuehs. Please help yourself to them at the pantry.". My company supervisor ate 1, the other intern ate one, me and the other guy did not. Why? He's vegetarian and doubt it's ingredient. I, just don't like it.~
It was 9.30 in the morning when the box entered the company and at 4 plus in the afternoon, the box is still filled with the 'sticky pastry'. I asked the rest of the people, "Are we going to keep the kuehs until Monday?". When they realized that, everyone broke into laughter. I told the 'more senior' staff that me and another Intern doesn't like it, what should we do to it. He said, "DUSTBIN!". I wonder how he stay so calm after replying with a hilarious one word comment. The 4 of us argued where it should end up and the other intern brought up that the box is already filled with ants and it's nest!!!!! Then the senior guy said, "Off it goes into the DUSTBIN !!!". LOL. When I left the company at 6.30pm, it was still around. I hope its already gone when I go back to work on Monday!

At the end of the third week, I finally showed what the company business manager I'm capable of. He gave a task which I complained immensely because of how demanding he is but it ends up well. I showed him the completed task reluctantly and he responded by gave me a pat on my shoulder and said, "Well done. Thank you.". That's quite a surprise; to be acknowledged by a manager! Now that I know what he's looking for and is in his 'good books', I'll keep up the momentum and impress him with what I've got. : )

I seriously wasted this weekend playing a new Massively Multiplayer Online game, Red Cliff. It's an decnt game to be honest; it's 3D, tons of options and customization, lots of hard work and effort put in for a free-to-play game and has a strong influence of the Romance of Three Kingdom. I looked forward to playing this game since last week but after experiencing it, I decide to call it quits.

In conclusion, work is slowly getting better. I'm looking forward to a new challenge and hopefully I can impress another manager or the CEO. Discontinuation of playing Red Cliff is the biggest turn around change.
And I'll be looking forward to the first grading and possibly my first pay. :)

Internship Programme Week 2

2009-11-08T16:36:00.001+08:00

It's the end of the second week of Internship (finally....) and I find myself still unsettled in this company I'm attached to. It maybe the first time I've worked and hence doesn't expect the company to be like 'this'. What I mean by the word 'this', I just can't find words to describe it. Like what my saviour advised, "Take things one step at a time and see how things goes as time goes by"; I'll try to stay positive and perhaps things will be better.

I've done quite a few things on the 2nd week. Completion of the user manual, uploading all models to the website database via the new company private website, completing models which were unfinished from Week 1 and a new task that will be carried forward to Week 3: the testing of the company's program/game/software.

There's one funny moment on Friday which I thought I wanted to share. Here we go....................
-Start-
On Friday, about 2 in the afternoon, the business manager wanted to show me their program/game/software. He ran the program/game/software and give me a demo or 'walkthrough' of it. It did take very long before everything goes out of hand! The game/program/software crashes so often that it has to be restarted from the start. The computer went into Blue Screen of Death once during the demo and really wasted lots of time just restarting the computer. He was extremely humiliated when all the crashing happened and at one point, he temporary lost interest with what he wanted to show me. He was so so so so so so so so so 'pai seh' (embarrassed) that in one moment he pretended to pick up a call when nobody called !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL
He did eventually pop a question to me which I though was very scheming, "Do you know why the game crashes so often ar? Why do you think this happened".
I didn't immediately reply but here's how, "Hm, very interesting question Mister. Let me think of it before answering that ................. (3 minutes later) .............. I don't think I can help that much since the CEO handles most of the development."
He made a very cold unglamorous comment later on which I thought will piss the company's staff more than me. Anyway, the whole demo of the program/game/software ended with him giving me the task of testing the program for inconsistency (like images doesn't not match the description etc)...............
-End-

I was told that I have to be polite in answering questions so I tried my best here. Do you think I'm not being polite by answering his question that way?!

You must be wondering why I used 'program/game/software' when describing the company's product. Answer is, I don't know what the heck it is. I asked around the company and all replied that 'It's not a game.". I'm thinking, "If it's not a game, then what is it?". I should have the answer by the end of the month. lol.

Last Wednesday was a very special day. My Liaison Officer (LO) or lecturer-in-charge came to pay me a visit to see how I'm doing. I raised lots of issues and I got most of the answers I wanted, from both the LO and my Company Supervisor. My LO even advertised me that I'm a programmer and not some silly typist that does filing or word typing task in front of the Company Supervisor! My thoughts, I'm very pleased that he brought that up. :) Now that the company people knows that I'm a programmer, I hope they give me real stuff to do from next week onwards not typing shit on a Word Document!
Lunch on Wednesday was very special too. I dined with 2 of my classmates, Mox and TrusT. We had a good long chat to share our experience which definitely brightens up my day. I'll definitely treasure that day and remember Mox's advice.

In conclusion, week 2 of my Internship is full of ups and downs but I still alive and breathing to tell the story. I must end the post now and will get back soon enough. Till then, take care.

Auron
P.S. Below are a few images of all the 3D models I've done so far. Please give me your precious comments. And if you like them, I can give them to you provided the company allow me to do so. If you like a close up, I'll post it here as well.

Internship Programme Part 2

2009-11-01T16:31:00.000+08:00

I'll continue where I left off yesterday night about Internship.

What my company does is actually creating a 3D Virtual World game. An example of similar program out in the market is actually 'Second Life'. The 'game play' is you control an avatar, walk around this room and interact with the things there. It can be looking at the painting from China, a feather fan inspired from the 'Romance of Three Kingdom', an ancient vase or other artifacts. What I thought was very cool is the way you place the objects in the game. It is of similar fashion to 'The Sims' where every objects are grouped into furnitures, decorations, wall paintings, etc. You just have to drag the item onto the room and it will appear on screen.
I cannot reveal any more details because my company wants the features to be private so the above should describes some cool things about their game.

I must admit, the game contains TONS OF BUG! Below are some of my findings which are severe to any game or program:

- Clicking on some buttons doesn't do anything. It doesn't feel responsive and double clicking doesn't seem to help much.
- Placing objects maybe easy but MOVING it is a complete hassle! For IT savvy people that can understand my language: Movement in X, Y and Z-axis is a mess! You thought you moved the object upwards but it is actually changing the depth of the item's position. You thought you move the object in X-axis but it ended up moving in the Y-axis!!!
- Crashes too often. Yes, I ran the program so many times and I have no idea why it crashed. I have yet to quit the game successfully with its Quit button! For IT savvy people: when the game crashed, it hangs, showed the nasty Microsoft Visual Studio debugger! That is a really serious error.

Very disappointing game. If wasn't for those bugs, it would really have been fantastic. Anyway, I did a couple of 3D models to expand their game's object collection. I wanted to show it here but realised the screenshots are at the company's computer. However, I promise to share it with you guys in next week's post. I believe I showed it to the mademoiselles already. lol.

Ok, I'll end the post here. May you have a good week ahead.

Auron
"I don't understand bus lanes. Why do poor people have to get to places quicker than I do on a car"

Internship Programme Part 1

2009-10-31T22:51:00.002+08:00

I'll still trying to accept that fact that I'll be working for somebody for 17 weeks. No leaves, long working hours 9am to 6.30pm, slient working environment and non-gaming related company!!!

The first day of work was extremely agonizing!!! I'm not going to elaborate because it's gonna take plenty of typing.

Tons of unhappiness sets in whenever i start work. I tried to shake of the unhappiness by staying positive. However, thinking about having 16 weeks to go before completing internship just makes me depressed and at the same time down in dumps.

The main problem is the working environment. I can't work where there is no one talking to each other. Yes, the people do talks but I realised they prefer to stuff ear phones into their ears and chat on Skype. Is it a crime to speak while working? Does it waste any time when talking to someone? I just can't understand and accept the fact that I have to stay silent for hours!

There is a another student from poly doing DDM (another IT course) who I get to know at first. Seems friendly but reveals to be a rather bossy annoying bitch! I hate to say that to someone new I know but maybe I'm just too annoyed to realise the good things about this person.

I believe you must be thinking why everything I've said so far is so gloomy. Well, I hate to share bad things with people but that's what I'm experiencing for the rest of 16 weeks.

Anyway, on the brighter side of things, I have my close friends who are there to accompany and keep me normal, especially my family and friends (especially hl, trust, beier, john) whom I can chat with.

And finally..................

I NEVER APPRECIATED THE FUN OF CHATTING WITH SOMEONE UNTIL I'VE WORKED. I WILL BE AS TALKATIVE AS POSSIBLE AND APPRECIATE THE TIMES WHEN I CAN TALK WITH SOMEONE.

Lol, I'll continue with the post soon tomorrow 'cause my mum's coming to talk to ME. I must go now to talk as much as possible, as lengthy as possible before I be quiet on Monday again.

The Expired Holidays Experience

2009-10-25T11:45:00.002+08:00

Holidays came to an end today for me. I have to stop what I've been doing for the last 2 months and carry on with my studies. What I've been doing over the last couple of months, actually nothing spectacular.

Playing Computer Games:
Dynasty Warriors 6 - KOEI's button smashing game with a taste of Romance of Three Kingdom. I trained nearly 65% of the characters to the maximum level 50, including the lousy 'ouch' shouting Zhang Jiao, small ranged metal ball wielding Dian Wei, fat and slow moving Dong Zhuo and the son of Cao Cao, Cao Pi.
--------------------------------------------------------------

Fifa 09 - EA's sports titled football game. I played Chelsea Football Club in the manager's mode for almost 7 seasons long now. Michael Ballack, Belletti, Drogba and Paulo Ferreira has retired. Deco sold IMMEDIATELY on the first day of the first season.
--------------------------------------------------------------

2 Old School games, Theme Hospital & Zeus: Master of Olympus. I resorted to playing old games because my laptop cannot withstand the requirements of new generations game. Isn't that pathetic... I'm surprised Theme Hospital worked on my laptop!
--------------------------------------------------------------

Playing Xbox 360 Games:
~~Burnout Paradise: Ultimate Box~~ - EA's racing game. The reviews largely positive but the game was funny initially. But it ended up forcing you to race the same old track over again and again and there is no replay function. I was so frustrated with the game that I sold it the week after purchasing it. The store keeper refunded 50% of the price; that's very cool. =)
--------------------------------------------------------------

Ninja Gaiden 2: Another game which started fun for me. A week engaging the game, I was so pissed with it and I threw the game in the cabinet. The gameplay is extremely cheap and unfair. Anyway, if you want the game, I'll gladly give it to you.
--------------------------------------------------------------

Bully: Scholarship Edition - Rockstar developed with the game surrounding the theme of a school. I bought this after selling away that burnshit. Finally, a game that's fun. lol. You can beat up teachers, prefects, students, bitch vice-principal, policeman, canteen lady, store keeper and even dogs! Classes can be attended which features lots of mini games. From dissecting a frog in biology class to mixing chemicals in Chemistry lessons. Hey, another game which I didn't use cheat!
--------------------------------------------------------------

Besides all the games, I also went for a jog in the morning for at most 5 times a week. 2 years without exercising, the first day, I suffered muscle aches all over. Seeing lots of stars after running bearly 2 kilometers (km)! At least now after much exercising, I have more stamina to cover almost 3 km and less frequent muscle aches.

Watching football - Starhub was kind to offer a 2 months free preview of 2 football channels for existing customers. I think the preview should be ending end of October. Anyway, I only watch matches involving Chelsea's victory. Lol! It's not my style because 2 hours for a match, I can play a lot of games.

Well, that's roughly what I did during the holidays as far as I can remember. Ok, I'll stop here for now. Will continue again soon enough. Maybe you have a enjoyable day ahead.

Your writer as usual for the day, Auron

Ein neuer Angfang - A new Beginning

2009-10-24T23:58:00.000+08:00

Greetings. Back at blogging after months of negligence to this blog.

What's new in the blog? Well, nothing much. Just a new logo for the blog at the top (standard stuff), a list containing my desire, a music player and everything else, should be same. Since this is the first post of the made over blog, I'll give you a rundown of events which happened. Having experienced a roller coaster ride of my lifetime, I've encounter lots of events; from working with a two-faced, lazy, bastard to starting my first exercise since giving up gym trainings. So, let's wind back the time to April 2009............

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

20 April 2009
This day I, with my 3 exquisite friends, officially engage in a 4 months project with an external company for the Final Year Project. Our client, one of the staff (or boss) in the company we worked with, gave us details on the project. We were listening to his ideas with excitement and at the same time nodding with acknowledgment despite having numerous question marks above our heads.
So, the game will be developed in XNA Game Studio environment which will be deployed on the Xbox 360 and be released to the Xbox Live Marketplace as Indie Games i.e. in short, Develop a Xbox 360 game. It is an analog controlled game where rotating or swing the analog on the Xbox 360 controller will cause the avatar to hit correspondingly. The analog sticks alone will allow you to control the avatar in a way that it can hit all the incoming AI enemies like tanks, aircrafts, etc who will be launching bombs, shooting cannons, suiciding into you or just be stone. Sounds cool to you? Well, it WAS to us initially until a week later...
~~~~~~~~~~

27 April 2009
This day, we managed to figure out most of the basics of using the XNA Game Studio software to make our game. We divided the work out and started doing step by step. Obviously the first few tasks were relatively easy - loading the 3D models into the game, getting the enemies things moving according to it's own behaviour (like moving, shooting, etc), setting up lights for the game - there wasn't much trouble to be honest to the point where we took a step further to improve certain features.
The client came over to look at our progress and things started to stumble on this visit. He gave commented the 'extras' that we did were not necessary and has to be taken away from the game. I did tried to argued that the 'extras' are necessary for the game but he thinks he knows best. This conversation between us and the client gets a bit uncomfortable as we continued on the project to the point. The 2 mademoiselle or ladies of my team were not spoken to at all by him and I believe they were hinting to me through their reactions "We are part of the team too!". Anyway, we put all this behind us and carried on as normal.
~~~~~~~~~~

19 June 2009
This day, I shall call it Bloody Friday. This is the day where I and the client had a hostile one-on-one arguement. We were calmly talking about a idea and we just don't seem to understand and agree with each other. At one point, he raised his voice and firmly saying "Nooo... it has to be like this". I calm told him, "What's wrong with doing it mine way?". All of a sudden, he yell an insensitive comment which made me extremely pissed.
At this time, I had enough, I stood up, slammed my laptop, fling the chair towards the empty area, toss his papers to the floor and howled back at him, "If you are going to be so impatient and act like a insolent baby, I will not continue to engage in this conversation.". He wanted to shout back but (luckily) his phone rang. He picked up the phone walked to the end of the classroom we were at to answer the call. At that time, I took the opportunity to calm myself down and determine what should be done next - punch him in the face, appologise, walk out of the room. I did none of those as he finished his called before I can do anything. Well, he was mentally stable again and said "I think that's all for today. I see you guys next week to check back on the progress." "Ok, bye (bitch).", I replied and we left.
Shock was what comes after next! I saw my teacher-in-charge for our group when we left the classroom!!! For fuck sake, what now? Well, I assumed nothing as happened and had a brief chat with him. Everything goes smooth, that idiot pumpkin head played along too. I remembered him saying, "Can. Everything is ok with the team. Carry on (jia you in chinese)." I'm glad he has grown up and not leak any information of the fight we had earlier because it's still fresh in mine and his head. Anyway, since this day, me and this client never work well together again.
~~~~~~~~~~

20 June 2009 to 12 August 2009
I wouldn't go into details but some bits and pieces of what happened in sentences. Below is a summary (forgive me for my offensive comments):
- Extremely uncomfortable and fake when I have to meet the client and chat.
- I was literally accused of being a free loader by the client and he dare lied in front of my team mates.
- He's a smoker (what a wimp!).
- He's untrustworthy, indecisive, incapable, dishonest, sexist (towards ladies), fat, ugly, nerdy, mendacious and a fucking whore!
- Severe communication problem between the group and the client.
- Nicknamed him, "He, who must not be named", "That K", "That T-S-K", "He (ta in chinese)..."
- Changed the box art of the game into full of 'tsk'. You can ask me personally for it.
- Silence the music for the trailer when video reaches his name.
- Ignored his phone calls, MSN chats with the intention of blocking and deleting him.
- Intend to lock him into a room and openly verbally abuse him.
- Bursting his car tires.
- He has oily face (I don't how the mademoiselle realised that!).
- Change of assistant leader to one of the mademoiselle.
- Huge problems when coding our game.
- Nearly given up hope on the project but managed to get a grip with my team mate's backing.
- Xbox 360 internet connection screwed up the game deployment due to the IT technicians new implementation of the firewall but managed to get round it with sly tactics (what else? switch off the firewalls then).
- Plentiful of changes to the actual game, almost every 2 weeks, due to the client's ridiculous demands and indecision.
- Client's refusal to accept facts, reality and ideas has let my team to demoralizing moments.
- We came up with a hilarious name with funny features for the game. It seriously was one of the most funny gimmick during that period of time.
- Rejecting and refusal of answering the client's phone called let to him thinking we are avoiding him. I wish to tell him, "I don't intend to lose my virginity that this young age!" but chose to hide it. Can you imagine, a middle-aged decent looking man, phoning you almost every single day, pestering you to phone him frequently? I felt he's seemingly looking for a date with the same gender and I'm the one being target. My goodness, I feel sick recalling that particular harassing moment...
- My team grabbed plenty of feedback from the saviours (our friendly lecturers) to improve the game instead of him. Fortunately, the saviours were very kind to giving constructive criticism which helped to improve on the project, unlike him.
- My team were screwed during the first project presentation mainly because of his constant pressure for us to do "Research and Development (R&D)"! On that day, he even got the cheek to conspire with the panel of judges instead of admitting it's him fault that we did badly. I believe that's the day my team knows for sure, he's one big fake. All the amity between him and us has all gone out of the window!!!
- The saviours deemed our project as one that can impress and be successful. I honestly don't see that coming but we took that as a compliment and tried our best.
- The 'makeup' is one of the most talked about topic among us :). I think the mademoiselles know what that is.
~~~~~~~~~~

13 August 2009
This day is the submission of the project. It is the last and final day I see the client's shitty face. We showcased our project to a panel of lecturers for judging... grading actually. At the end, took a photograph of everyone involved in celebratory of the end of the project.
My feelings, it's a work well done. Along with my team - a gentleman and the 2 mademoiselle - I think we worked pretty well. Despite all the ups and downs, we managed to produce a playable game at the final submission date. I must really thank my team mates for their constant effort and for being so understanding people. If only the client is not such a donkey, everything would have gone smoothly. Oh, I forget to say to him, adieu!!! You think that means goodbye? Nope, ask me for the meaning.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, the above is one story I wish to share with you for the first post of the blog, which is about my school daze. I hope you like it and forgive me for the cursing and vague language (I'm sure you do... lol). The next story I'll be sharing is the holidays which comes after the hard work and anger. I'll be doing a full post about the client and possible show you his dick face if people are interest.

Ok, I must end the typing now and may you have a good day ahead.

Your writer of the day, Auron.

Beta

2009-09-23T16:16:00.000+08:00

Blog upgrading in progress... Please be patient