Firstly, the fabled remakes of Pokemon Gold and Silver are out in the US today with the Australian and New Zealand release 10 days later. Of course this means it's busy time for me and the Psypoke staff Mike and Stephen. In the past few days, our HeartGold/SoulSilver section has had several guides added to it, including game maps, TM/HM locations, a walkthrough for 16 badges, and touched up a lot of naming changes to various pages around the place. It has been a very productive weekend!



Shatter, Sidhe's revolutionary brick-breaking game, is out on Steam, with my name making a brief cameo under the Special Thanks to the original Shatter team. Go and get it!



And finally, on Thursday, the long awaited Rugby League 3 is out for the Nintendo Wii. Featuring slick menus, awesome player and team customisation, and of course some classic rugby league action using the totally unembarassing Wii Remote controls, why WOULDN'T you want this game? (sorry Americans, this game is not for you)

Should have sent a poet. T_T

(I'm playing the beta if you haven't figured it out)

The Eigenvalue is off!

Today is the 15th and final day of Chinese New Year, and I thought it would be appropriate to share a soppy love song at church this morning, so two weeks ago I recruited Jono and phonetically taught him some Mandarin and today, with all our friends watching eagerly and the church congregation not knowing what to expect, the two of us sang Tong Hua.

So nervewracking. I actually stuffed up in the middle of the song but thank goodness I managed to hit the right note to keep going.

Anyway, last night we were at Arashi celebrating the "end of Chinese New Year" ¬_¬ and it was just great for everyone to get together and catch up over a nice meal and an awesome dessert.

Strawberry Fare has three new desserts on their menu! I wanted to try the Chocolate Bleeding Heart which was chocolate pudding with Baileys in the centre, but unfortunately they had run out so I tried the Lime Tart which was absolutely delicious. Beth tried the Flourless Cake, which was a gluten free chocolate cake with some berries, much like the Raspberry Drenched Cake.

We were approached by a lady from a nearby Hen's Night table who was seeking a random guy for the bride-to-be to kiss and Dave volunteered, with hilarious results. We continued to analyse Dave's love life using the wine bottles, wine glasses and salt and pepper shakers to illustrate various people.

Last weekend I was up in Auckland for Hsin-Yao's wedding, so it was really good catching up with all my school mates at the same time. I figured I would leave the people photos for someone else to handle (I'm looking at you, Mat) so all you will see on my blog are food photos. You'll also notice we went to Sylvia Park to kill time between the church service and the reception, and I stumbled upon EB's shelf of Rugby League 3 games! \o/

On Sunday, I randomly turned up at KCC and attended the young adults bible study, before having Chinese New Year dinner with family and friends, before an 11 hour bus back to Wellington...

Happy Chinese New Year to you all, and wishing you wealth and prosperity in the year of the tiger! A bunch of us from Sidhe had yum cha at where else but Majestic Cuisine, where we proceeded to devour plates of dumplings, rice noodles, tarts and buns. Of course, I made everyone have the durian tart, and much to their surprise, it was tolerable! It was unlike anything else they had ever eaten...

It was good that Chinese New Year was yesterday and not today, because today was Epic Fail Monday. Fail #1: car rear ends another car in moderately heavy traffic outside the bus stop. Fail #2: I spent the entire day trying to get a build done to our level designer, only to have the machine have a major spazz and refuse to work. Sigh.

Nevertheless, I did manage to complete a build and deliver it, at approximately 6.45pm. It means I wasted the whole day on this instead of finishing my prototype which needs to be done by Friday... SIGH.

Last weekend was the famous Wellington Rugby Sevens tournament, so of course the city was buzzing with lunatics in crazy costumes and whatnot - fortunately I boarded myself up at home like the antisocial programmer I am, and had a quiet weekend.

Best Sevens costume I saw:



It almost felt like summer on Sunday, so we went up to beach at Waikanae and had a jumping good time.



In other news, Flick Kick Field Goal, which is an American Football-themed version of Flick Kick Rugby and Aussie Rules was put on the free app list to coincide with the Super Bowl in the United States. Downloads skyrocketed, with the game reaching #2 in both the US and New Zealand top free apps! That's the one where I'm listed as the only programmer ^_^

Whew.

I showed off my holiday photos at work on Friday, before rushing off to meet Chris at the library to embark on our seven hour journey across the North Island. We only just missed the curfew at Mystery Creek, but we were fortunate to have accomodation in nearby Cambridge for Friday night. We set out for Parachute early on Saturday morning to make it for morning worship.

The weather was fantastic on Saturday, with a light breeze and plenty of cloud cover to shelter us from the blazing sun. It was still very warm but pleasantly so, unlike many Parachute weekends before. Nevertheless, I made the most of the heat and purchased two Danish ice creams that day. Awesome.

Saturday night's big line up included the eccentric Family Force Five and the popular Switchfoot, before the birthday celebrations of the 20th Parachute festival began. There were free drinks and ice creams, fireworks, lots of singing and dancing, and the atmosphere was wild and electrifying. We decided to skip Underoath for Nathan King in the Palladium, a decision I did not regret after hearing some feedback about the type of music Underoath play.

And then on Sunday morning...it began. The rain came and drenched the entire campsite, causing some minor floods. Fortunately, none of the tents took on major water, but the huge inconvenience of having everything soaking wet was a pain. We attended morning worship armed with umbrellas, and retreated hastily to the tents after the sermon.

We only emerged later for Late 80s, and they were fantastic - finally playing some songs I knew (I'm Yours <3333) as well as some classics like Zoot Suit Riot and Living on a Prayer. It was still raining at the end of Late 80s, so we congregated in one tent and played Mafia (YAY) until dinner time, when we equipped ourselves with wet-weather gear once more and headed to the mainstage for the epic Sunday night show.

And epic it was. The rain cleared slightly, allowing us to enjoy such acts as Steve Apirana who was clearly the most unexpected outstanding musician that weekend. As the Parachute Band took stage again, the rain intensified and the crowd began to diminish, but the strong endured until Hillsong United appeared on stage.

I was pretty sulky all this time because I didn't really know many of the songs, and I'm not the biggest fan of Hillsong songs because of the repetition, and it was pouring wet and I was cold. But as Joel Houston began singing... "A thousand times I've failed", I stood to my feet, defying the wind and the rain (and the lightning) and joined the crowd in singing From The Inside Out.

It was epic.

There is something about singing at the top of your voice with a thousand-strong crowd in stormy weather. I can't think of any other word to describe it. It was epic. The adrenaline of standing against the elements of nature coupled with the power of the song and the resonance of the crowd...simply epic.

We were blessed to have a fine day on Monday to pack up our gear. We had lunch at the infamous 4th-form-camp Burger King where I unexpectedly met somewhere whom I have not seen in eight years, before departing for our seven hour journey back to Wellington.

When I look back over the weekend's events, I think of how there are so many people who are ten years younger than me, I think of the crazy messages you hear from speakers, I think about the excessive choruses that worship bands sing and of course the retarded weather.

But despite all of this, I had a really good time. Thanks for a great weekend, Parachute.

A Flash Puzzle Platformer that Bob linked me to while I was bored. Pretty cool idea.

My thoughts on Avatar.

Warning: spoilers follow. If you wish to proceed, click here.

It's only taken me a whole week, but my gallery now supports subcategories so that I can easily classify the food and non-food photos.

In addition, I've also resized, rotated and cropped several pictures from my Malaysia trip, and 570 of them are available for viewing in the gallery. If you would like the original, let me know via the Contact Form.

Phew!

Arrived safely into New Zealand yesterday afternoon after a shorter-than-normal flight - it was less than 10 hours, and during that time I managed to sleep, watch the remainder of Bolt, see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Aristocats, enjoy a Nasi Lemak and horde some Ferrero Rocher.

I was surprisingly quick through New Zealand customs despite being questioned by three airport security staff. They all asked the same thing: can I see your passport (I guess...), what's in the box (an LCD monitor), and how much did it cost (dirt cheap). Was picked up by Reuben and we went to Cornwall Park to catch up with the rest of the church, who had conveniently decided to have a picnic that day.

Spent the rest of the afternoon with my sister and had dinner at her place before she dropped me at the airport for my flight back to Wellington. Unfortunately for me, Wellington had decided that summer sucks so it shrouded itself in dense fog, preventing the plane from landing and, an hour after we were supposed to land, we had to divert to bloody Palmerston North International Airport (I didn't know it was an international airport...) where Air NZ kindly put us on a very air conditioned bus back to Wellington.

Stupid city.

First day of work for the new year and not too bad really. It was really hard waking up this morning and until about 1pm I was quite groggy and not concentrating well. I think my colleagues appreciated the love letter rolls, the green tea and lemon lollies and the mango chewies. It's Spicy Food Tuesday tomorrow!

I am the proud owner of one of these delicious babies, which I bought at a BARGAIN (under $450 NZD), AND it kills two birds with one stone (I needed new speakers...). So the hard part is finding out how to take one of these back to New Zealand...

Summary of the past few days: went for tom yum, met up with Sunni, ate some good old Malaysian kueh, walked pasar malam, had roadside durian, tried cold longan tau foo fah, had mango milk tea, played badminton and bought dinner for my extended family.

I have to go home soon! T_T

Arrived from Hong Kong International Airport to KL's LCC Terminal in Sepang early yesterday morning after a week-long excursion to Guangzhou in China and then Hong Kong. These damn Air Asia flights might be cheap, but you pay for what you get. I got the seat on the aisle right by the toilet and at the back of the plane, so people were walking by often, it was noisy, and I couldn't recline the chair.

After arriving at Baiyun International Airport two Saturdays ago, we met some relatives for lunch and then they took us to the Lai Family "Village" where my grandparents used to live. My #1 auntie remembered playing in a little lane there, and I believe my #2 auntie was born there too. The "village" is more of a suburban block of houses with pedestrian lanes weaving between them. The entire block houses our extended family - all the people there have the same surname:



I think that's remarkable, and it was certainly a surreal experience.

The next day, we were taken to Guangzhou where all we did for the next few days was eat and sleep. However, we did visit Baiyun Mountain for a much needed walk. The pond there is home to thousands of hungry fish who will literally swarm in a blanket of gold, red, orange, white and black to whatever food you throw into the water. I have never seen so many fish in my life...

On Tuesday, we took the bus to Hong Kong. A two hour ride, the bus trip is rather boring and uneventful, save the customs and immigration offices that require everyone to unload their luggage and reload it once clearance has been obtained. We stayed on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong in Yau Ma Tei, but that night, we met one of dad's friends in Central for dinner and a quick sightseeing tour around town. Unfortunately for us, the mist had settled in, so we couldn't really see a lot.

The next day started off with shopping in the morning. I have exceeded my clothes budget for this decade. But seriously, NZ$1 is approximately HK$5 and the clothes there are excellent quality despite being dirty cheap. Two pairs of Giordano jeans cost me NZ$70 - that's a bargain!

After lunch, I visited the Space Museum with my dad - I think he enjoyed it more than I did, despite his silly injury at the harness of the Moon Gravity Simulator. We took a quick tour through the Art Museum too, and walked around the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront before heading back for a late steamboat dinner.

The next day, we wrapped up the shopping and met dad's friend down by the piers to take a ferry to Lamma Island, where there's a pretty exquisite seafood restaurant. The view of the two waterfronts was fantastic, I love the neon brillance of the Hong Kong sky line. The ride itself was exciting, despite the choppy waves, I had my arms stretched wide on the starboard bow, listening to an appropriately themed song about boats - don't you ever forget.

That night, we also visited the Avenue of Stars, which is basically the Hong Kong equivalent of Hollywood's Walk of Fame. We saw the plaques of heaps of awesome Chinese film stars, including Jackie Chan and Jet Li.

Our final day in Hong Kong was Friday, which was mostly spent walking up the steep Old Peak Road after a wrong turn. Nevertheless, we made it to the Peak Tower for some breathtaking views of the city. We were blessed with clear weather that day, so we took lots of photos of the magnificent sights around us. We also took a gawk at the entrance to Madame Tussauds Hong Kong where I posed with Michelle Yeoh and the awesomeness that is Bruce Lee.

I even have something to say about Hong Kong International Airport! As can be expected with budget airlines, we were delayed for just under an hour, so there was plenty of time to walk around and see the shops at the airport. This one shop is full of those prize-draw slot machine things, where you insert a coin, turn the handle, and a little plastic container with a figurine pops out. Admist all the Japanese anime characters and whatever other things there were, there was a Kirby one, so I tried my luck and obtained a Bomb Kirby figurine, complete with Warp Star!

My last impressions of China and Hong Kong are a bit mixed, but mostly positive. There's a huge number of smokers in China and it's miraculous I didn't get lung cancer or something. What's worse is the driving - at one point, our driver was driving on the FOOTPATH on the LEFT side of the road, bearing in mind that people drive on the RIGHT in China. What's strange is that they drive on the left in Hong Kong, so it must have been weird for the bus driver from Guangzhou to Hong Kong.

The architecture in both is fantastic, with massively tall high-rise buildings in stylish and modern designs, not to mention at night time, when the neon lights come out. I was particularly fond of the MTR system in Hong Kong as well, and its very user-friendly navigation system onboard the train carriages.

I would have loved to spend a bit more time in Hong Kong, visiting the giant Buddha and I've also heard good things about Ocean Park. Ah well...next time.

Oh yeah, yesterday, I finally had the chance to go for a Japanese buffet at the Putrajaya Marriott Hotel, where I literally stuffed my stomach full of salmon and tuna sashimi, fresh oysters, tempura, teppanyaki, yakitori and delectable desserts.

Phew.

New Year's was pretty blah, we went for a good dinner then relocated to my uncle's house for more food and drinking. They had some really good pandan tofu fah which was served cold - nice and refreshing to counter the Malaysian heat. Midnight flew by pretty quickly with some epic booms heard in the distance, but alas, not many of the pyrotechnics could be seen.

Meanwhile, my cousins (who are 10 years younger than me) and their friends had gathered around the Wii and were playing Wii Sports and Mario Kart all night, and with nothing to do, I sat in with them and played along.

Whee.

I should go and pack - we're leaving for China tomorrow and I won't have Internet access, so see you in a week ¯\(º_o)/¯

Welcome to 2010 by the way.

It's New Year's Eve and I probably won't be making two blog posts today, so here it is, the last post of 2009.

In the two hours I have been awake, I have written up a 2009 Summary for your reading pleasures.

With that, have a Happy New Year and I'll see you in 2010!

Thanks to a speedy recovery from the food poisoning and all the other FML items, I was pretty much 100% yesterday - good enough to have a very good appetite and also play 3 hours of badminton.

Anyway I've been doing a bit of site work (zomg!) so that it's easier for people to contact me. I only just realised that the contacts page doesn't work so that needs to be fixed first and foremost. I also merged the Websites and Programs sections into my Portfolio to save room on the menu.

Edit: And the Contact Me page is now up and running again.

I have food poisoning and as a result I have to skip the all-important tom yum tonight (Although I'm sure there will be an opportunity later on in the trip).

I got woken up and bitten by mosquitos last night in what was possibly the worst sleep I've had this trip.

I was moody at yesterday's dinner because everyone was talking in Cantonese and I couldn't understand, and then dad said something which set me off and now they aren't happy with me either.

FML.

So I'm jumping the gun a little bit, who really cares?

We're just about to head to my auntie's house for a gigantic Christmas Eve feast. I'm expecting to see five of dad's six siblings at the dinner, and all their children (and for one, their children's children) - that's approximately 30 people. Truly a celebration in typical Malaysian style!

Anyway, here's wishing you all a blessed and joyful Christmas with friends and family, wherever in the world you are. To those of you who are hard pressed during this time, I really feel for you and hope things improve in the year to come.

My relatives don't seem to understand such a concept. Yesterday I had four meals and understandably didn't eat that much at each meal because I knew they would try and stuff me full of food anyway.

But hey, that's what I'm here for!

It's a pretty relaxed day today, and there's a nice tropical breeze blowing through to keep us cool. I'm supposed to be playing badminton this afternoon with my cousin, and then going to my uncle's country club for a swim.

Country clubs are strange things. They aren't as accessible in New Zealand, and they're more perceived as some kind of exclusive place out in the remote wilderness where the membership fee is a bajillion dollars and you play golf and drink pink champagne from a dainty little wine glass. Well no, they're not like that in Malaysia. They're more like oversized gyms or big recreation centres. It's common for a country club to have a swimming pool, a tennis court, probably some badminton or squash courts. Some of the classier ones will have libraries, restaurants, bowling alleys, and so on. So generally they're a place to go to for a bit of sport or to relax after a long day's work - which, by the way, happens a lot in Malaysia.

In any case, I need to go there to make sure I don't become morbidly obese at the end of this trip.

Arrived safely last night at just before 8pm local time into the humid awesomeness of Kuala Lumpur International Airport. The flight was quick, only 10 hours, and felt shorter by the fact so many good movies were on! I watched 101 Dalmations (nostalgia), G Force (adorably cute), Up (entertaining and heart warming) and half of Bolt (got cut short by the end of the flight). There were so many kids on the plane though, it was really annoying. This kid in front of me kept looking back and throwing his toys on the ground so I had to pick them and I just wish I could have backhanded him, or something. Sigh.

Anyway, the work Christmas party was on Wednesday at Park Road Post out in Miramar, and while I couldn't stay for very long, it was cool just chilling out and having some delectable snacks (eg, grilled prawns) and a bit of wine to accompany. I had to leave before the movie, but I was told it was 500 Days of Summer.

And yes I have Internet access, yay! So I'll probably be online in the mornings while I'm waiting for things to get in motion for the day.

It was Sunni and Ashton's birthday thing at the Kilbirnie Bowls club yesterday. Gloriously hot summer's day (rare for Wellington) but not without the strong gusts of wind that still persisted today. In any case, the sun was so enjoyable that I forgot about sunscreen and now I'm sporting some rather red arms and a pink forehead. Sigh.

Last week on Friday, we had the end-of-year homegroup get-together at Strawberry Fare (third time in November for me) and on Saturday, we had a Wine and Cheese night at the Treehouse, which was far less civilised than what it sounded like. I guess it doesn't matter what you call it, you know it's a recipe for mayhem when you have several 20-somethings and alcohol. Nevertheless, I had fun playing six-player 500. I was hopeful for Mafia but it didn't eventuate, unfortunately.

The Youth Band played last Sunday and it went pretty well. Still a bit more fine tuning in various places but always good to hear a different sound in church. Following that, Beth, Maxine and I went up to Kapiti Coast for a walk about since it was such a fine day. We had lunch at this Driftwood place, then a stroll along the beach, ice cream at Pukerua Bay and a quick tour of the sea shore fauna. We found these weird purple blob things that look exactly like poison orbs.



Edit: After an enquiry with the Department of Conservation, I've discovered that these are the sea anemone Actinia tenebrosa, or red sea anemone, which retract their tentacles when the tide is low. Fascinating stuff!

Introducing FlickKick Rugby and FlickKick Aussie Rules, the latest in Sidhe's iPhone lineup under the brand PikPok!

Yes you will find my name there under the credits. I made a small contribution in programming the camera (i.e., the field of view, the ball tracking, etc) as well as other miscellaneous bug fixes. Download it from AppStore for NZ$2.59 or US$1.99

FlickKick Rugby

FlickKick Aussie Rules

Since the other website I secretly work on is down, I thought I should come crawling back to this thing and post some stuff. I have a lot of photos on my phone I need to upload as well...

Anyway, something is definitely up with IGN's webservers because it's been down for the past two days. We found some malicious scripts in two of the PHP files which I managed to remove, but who knows what else has been compromised. Sigh. In any case, I can still work on it I guess, it's just that there's nothing to show for it.

Let's see, in the past three weeks:

There was an awesome fireworks display over Wellington Harbour on Guy Fawkes' Day. It was damn cold and really windy, but we were sitting by the back end of Te Papa so it slightly sheltered. We got to lean back against the concrete wall and watch the spectacular pyrotechnics in the sky.

There was the All Whites Victory Celebration and the Santa Parade. It was boring. There were three things that interested me: Snoopy, Pikachu and the adorable corgis. Oh, and I'm really happy for the All Whites, but I don't care much for soccer sport in general, so meh.

Sidhe celebrated two shipped projects (Madagascar Kartz and Hot Wheels: Battle Force 5) and two submitted projects (Rugby League 3...and one I can't say but it's for iPhone and I worked on it) with yet another ethanol-filled night at Red Square. Lasers were included, as well as a generous bar tab, thanks to securing more work for us. Yay employment!

Got invited out for a wonderful lunch at this couple's house in Titahi Bay last Sunday. I totally miss home cooked food. The wife is a magnificent baker - the Tiffany cake is for royalty. Besides that, it was cool to listen to their stories. They've certainly had some fantastic experiences, including a three week voyage over the Pacific Ocean from Auckland to Miami (back in the days when air travel was super expensive). A few years ago, they even got a photo with the then junior senator of Illinois... Barack Obama!

After a big lunch, we went for a walk on the beach. The sand was so perfect and untouched, I felt the urge to write in it.



Of course, this led to discussion about parabolas, trignometry, differentiation...all part of a normal day's work.

iPhone development has been going well. We just finished another game under the PikPok brand, so expect to see it in the online store sometime. You'll hear it from me as well :3

I acquired a new ornament for my desk.



Spent Friday night playing Hearts and 500 with three others from work. Way better than going out and drinking >_> Nevertheless, the drinking continued with my workmates the following night at a Halloween party. I went as a white guy dressed as an Asian guy. I know, it was an ingenious costume. There was a Bloctopus (from Shatter), lots of devils, a Zorro, a Rambo, a Nacho Libre, a Cowboy, some Vampires and lots of other weird and pretty hard-out costumes. Oh well. Maybe next year.

I also had dinner at the new flat (name pending) by the Botanical Gardens where Matt, Jono, John and Mel are going to stay. It's a nice place, but looks a bit dark because of its position. I look forward to spending lots of time drinking and being merry there.

Yum char today with Laura and Peter. Good to catch up with them, but it felt the quality of the food had declined a bit. We got to see Peter's new place, and then it was quickly home for an afternoon nap. Awesome.

Phew!

I love long weekends. Not only do you get more time to goof off and do non-work related activities, it also means the next weekend comes closer. Four day week yay!

Anyway, I got given some camera work to do on Sidhe's latest iPhone game - just making sure the camera clearly displays all the necessary game objects. Interesting stuff! Stay tuned for the big reveal.

Mat was down for Labour Weekend, mostly for the Formula 1 exhibit at Te Papa, but of course to visit me and catch up. Apart from Te Papa, we also went up the Cable Car and walked around the Botanical Gardens, as well as went to Strawberry Fare on both nights he was down, and visited Wellington Zoo. Pictures in the gallery!

Couldn't resist posting this.

Yay so I finally beat all four campaigns of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, properly too without cheating, although I had some initial problems when I had accidentally set the difficulty to "Hard" instead of "Normal". Next: The Frozen Throne!

Last Sunday we met up with John who was in Wellington en route back to his medical placement, and had a few drinks at St. John's by Te Papa. Following that, we split for a few hours while the Street Kids went to their church, then met up again at the TSB Bank Arena for the Diwali Festival celebrations there. I planned on getting dinner there but little did I know, it was all vegetarian! >_> Anyway, it was edible and we didn't stay for too long, but we did enjoy the fireworks over the harbour. The sound they make just echoes over the whole city, it's truly amazing.

We've been having a bout of rather inclement weather, with heavy rain and chilling winds still present in mid-October. Nevertheless, I've still had time to go out and socialise with various people along the way, so all is good.

Last week, I was up in Wadestown wat Katrina and Carmel's for their combined birthdays. I love going to their house, with their awesome selection of teas (I had feijoa tea!) and fantastic home-made goods like Doom Cookie (contains chocolate chips, grated chocolate, rolled oats and delicious), pesto and freshly-baked bread. The weather wasn't fantastic so the fireplace was on. So magical.

Charlotte was also down that weekend, and being the cute fuzzy animal lover that she is, we went to visit the pet store in Thorndon where she proceeded to baby-talk the adorable puppies there. Mmmyeah.

We had a farewell party for one of my workmates, Chris, who's leaving to be with his wife girlfriend in Australia, last night, at Matt, Pete and Owen's. Pete and Owen were doing a 24 hour video game marathon to raise funds for kids with cancer, so they were the centrepiece in the lounge. After watching them fail miserably in Devil May Cry, Megaman and Ninja Gaiden, we busted out Super Smash Bros Melee for the next five hours. At 5am, it was time for Chris to say his final farewells, so we left and dropped him at the airport, before dropping three others in town. I was peckish...well, I was starving, so I picked up some breakfast at McDonalds before heading home and passing out.

It's finally October and the year has gone by so quickly. Winter is technically over, but today's blustery conditions tells me otherwise (Thanks Wellington). Even typing this now, I can hear the wind howling outside, bringing a chilly southerly to sweep the streets of the city.

Anyway, Hot Wheels™ Battle Force 5™ has supposedly been sent out the door, which means we're just sitting tight and waiting for feedback. We're still playtesting this - it's really good and I like the story mode, but it's easily clockable in a few hours. The theme music is cool though! Rugby League 3 on the other hand is still there, just waiting for publisher dramas to resolve. Meanwhile, most of the programmers have been pulled onto research and development projects.

On the Pokemon front, HGSS was released a few weeks ago and I've been busy hacking away. Apart from the standard Pokemon stats, attack information, level-up attacks, breeding moves, trainer information, etc, I've also managed to learn from Eevee at veekun how to parse sprite data, which is something completely new for me, and provided a good challenge over the weekend. There's still things I don't know but I'm learning!