I am typing this from my brand new iPhone4S that I purchased from the Apple store on Market and Stockton. This is really hard. Anyway, flight was noisy and not that great, but I managed to get a bit of sleep and even watched the Lion King too! Arrived safely and made our way to the motel, which is near Chinatown. Had a bit of an explore around Union Square and indulged in a Mango and Key Lime Cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory above Macy's. It was so good.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Do you love animals? Want to do your bit for conservation? Then grab your iPhone, iTouch or iPad and download EXTINCTION SQUAD! Travel the world in search of suicidal creatures and save them with your Extinction Squad trampoline and the guidance of the one and only, Chuck Darwin!

High five to Team XS, it has been an awesome four months working with you and I'm ecstatic to see this game finally out on the App Store!

PS: I am way too excited to sleep.

So the project I've been working on for the past four months or so is finally in submission and we're just waiting for Apple to review it. Once that's done, it'll be out on the AppStore and you awesome people who actually read my blog will be the first to know about it. You get more points if you actually download it too. I can provide hugs and/or personalised thank you messages with the download if you so wish.

It hit me in the shower last night that my trip to the US is really close. I am really excited. Excited about the chance to travel and get away for a while. Really excited about the food. Reminiscing about all the delicious things I ate in San Francisco last year - especially that Key Lime and Mango Cheesecake, oh my goodness it was soooo good. Excited about friends I'll be catching up with and friends who I haven't met in person before. It's going to be amazing.

In short since my last update:
- saw the Avengers movie (it was awesome)
- finished the game Limbo
- still playing weekly badminton (two new recruits this Saturday!)
- average weekly alcohol consumption has increased (hopefully tolerance too)
- helped to ship a project I didn't work on (I actually just pushed buttons on a webpage) - this is now out on the App Store as DreamWorks Dragons: TapDragonDrop!
- sang "My Heart Will Go On" at karaoke on the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking, and scored 100% for it
- decoded a secret message that said two of my good friends are engaged (most convoluted way ever - but still better than updating your Facebook status) - congratulations to you both!
- started watching Adventure Time, Invader Zim and Samurai Pizza Cats

The days are quite short now and the cold has definitely set in. Winter is here :(

(This is not an April Fools thing). From Gizmodo:



So I tried it out (direct link here) with these pictures:



And here are the results I got:

Bearded Me:
Estimated Age: 31
Max Age: 42
Min Age: 23
Gender: Male
Glasses: true
Lips: Sealed
Mood: Happy
Smiling: false

Clean Shaven Me:
Estimated Age: 24
Max Age: 32
Min Age: 19
Gender: Male
Glasses: true
Lips: Sealed
Mood: Neutral
Smiling: false

So the natural conclusion is that I look older with facial hair. Not bad! I was 25 at the time I took the photos so it looks like the age estimation stuff isn't too bad. At least for me. What are some of your results?

So my phone died about a week ago, leaving me semi-disconnected from the world and suddenly realising that hey, cellphones have become such a necessity in our lives. It's not that I'm addicted to one, it's just that I'm so reliant on it being there that when it isn't, it feels like I have been majorly inconvenienced. In any case, I borrowed my flatmate's phone so I can still receive texts and calls, I just don't have everyone's number (because most of it is stored on the memory card, not the SIM card) and the phone is really difficult to use so I'm trying not to use it as much.

I've also been feeling a bit disconnected in general, which is probably from the copious amounts of overtime I've been doing at work, trying to get this project product out the door (see what I did there, Sidhe guys?). And I've got a lot of faith in this game, it's just that it's needed a lot of reworking to get it feeling good and playing well. We're almost there.

It often happens that I forget what it's like to have free time while/after I've been doing a lot of overtime. My personal projects have been progressing in tiny increments. I have something ready for Psypoke's April Fools too! Haven't been playing many games recently - still need to play Limbo and Bastion that I bought from the Steam Holiday Sales - I have been playing an old, old, old favourite called Marble Drop, made by Maxis in 1997. I really need to finish all those PS2 games that I borrowed too... sigh. Oh, does Draw Something count as a game? ¬_¬

Random ranting and first world problems list:
- This weather is depressing and the days are getting shorter.
- The new give way rules are coming into effect tomorrow and there is going to be carnage on the roads because people are stupid. Also, this is amusing.
- I went aurora spotting a few weeks ago and saw nothing. Stupid Wellington clouds.
- My credit card bill is too damn high. Probably because of those airplane tickets I bought to the US. Giggity.

I was in Hamilton over the weekend for a friend's wedding. We drove up on the Friday and back down again on the Sunday - a surprisingly large number of roadworks being done on State Highway 1 meant the drive took longer than expected. We had some delicious woodfire pizza in Tokoroa before reaching our destination, a holiday home on the east side of Hamilton, around 9pm. I swear it was raining moths at one point, with the stupid insects committing suicide all over the bonnet of my car. Disgusting.

Saturday was the day of the wedding. Since the ceremony was not until after lunch, we decided to check out the city center and found some nice cafes along the main road. One could have easily mistaken the scene for Cuba Street really, the food was nice, with an the atmosphere to match. I guess if you go to Hamilton with the expectation it's a horrible void of swirling toilet waste, and it turns out that, hey, there's some nice places, then you'll come away with an improved opinion of the city. The weather was nice and sunny and certainly this was a nice change from the overcast gloom of Wellington - though I suspect the weather was equally nice and sunny in our absence.

Anyway, Jono and I performed our usheral duties admirably and the ceremony went off without a hitch. The reception also went well and the food was delectable - although my only complaint is that the ham was a bit too salty! The cheesecake however, was divine, as was the pavlova, and the wedding cake, which was masterfully decorated with 6kg of white chocolate planks, was also delicious.

We stopped in Tirau for lunch at the Cabbage Tree Cafe on the way back to Wellington on Sunday. Tirau, despite its size, has some excellent cafes and certainly ranks above Hamilton in terms of character and likeability. We were home by 6pm and that gave me enough time to clean the stupid suicidal bugs off my car.

What a weekend. Congratulations to the married couple, Jono and Karlyn Dixon! Photographs are in the gallery.

I always find myself being sentimental around Chinese New Year, mainly because I'm away from home and I'm missing all the great food you get, like yee sang and Peking duck. I try to go back to Auckland for Chinese New Year at some point during the 15 day celebration - even if I do miss the actual day of Reunion Dinner, we usually do have one and its meaning isn't diminished in any way.

This year, though, my parents are back in Malaysia and I was feeling a bit lonely when my flatmate suggested I do something special for myself. And that snowballed into making my own Reunion Dinner. I've never cooked for that many people before but it turned out well!





I know these may not necessarily usually be associated with Chinese New Year foods but I'm not that great a cook :(

To top it off for dessert, we had vanilla ice cream with Alphonso mango puree, and Jono's chocolate birthday cake.

In any case, wishing you all Gung Hei Fatt Choi in the year of the Dragon!