Four Year Canadaversary
Saturday July 31, 2021
Today marks four years since I landed in Toronto to start a new life and a new job at Ubisoft Toronto. It hasn't felt like I've been here for four years - although 16 months of pandemic has not helped - but it feels like I haven't been back in New Zealand for ages. The last year has definitely been quite trying on many people, myself included, but with 70% of Ontario fully vaccinated, things are beginning to return to normal and I'm able to see friends, dine in at restaurants, go to the gym and get injured at badminton.
I rolled my ankle quite badly last week on the badminton court, and ended up losing consciousness while I was icing my foot. The last time this happened was when I was cutting garlic and I split my thumbnail quite badly, and apparently this is called "vasovagal syncope", which is when your body reacts to a strong stimuli (in this case, pain, but can also be blood or other emotional distress) and causes a drop of blood pressure and heart rate, which in turn leads to fainting. My ankle hurt like hell and after passing out, my friends decided they should probably call an ambulance in case there was something wrong with me. The paramedics arrived and checked all my vitals - nothing wrong - then carted me via ambulance to Scarborough General Hospital where I got an x-ray taken. No broken bones, just a bad sprain, so I went home with a pair of crutches that cost me $35. Bless the Canadian healthcare system. The foot's healing well, I was able to walk around yesterday and bike around today, but there will definitely be no badminton for a while.
We continue to work from home for the time being, the office is scheduled to return in October but we will still have the option to work 40% of the week from home, and I think that's a good balance for me. I've taken on a lot more responsibilities lately so my days have been very busy, but I'm super glad that we get Friday afternoons off to enjoy the most of summer, which everyone can agree is something we have needed for a long time.
Posted by Jeremy at 7:56pm on Saturday July 31, 2021 :: 0 comments :: 
Kia Kaha
Monday March 18, 2019
It's hard to articulate what I've been thinking about over the weekend. Much has happened in New Zealand; three days later, the country still grieves for the 50 lives lost in a senseless shooting at two mosques in Christchurch. My heart aches for the loss of these innocent lives in my homeland, especially since the city is still suffering 8 years after a devastating earthquake. I'm angry, I'm shocked and I'm full of sadness, despite being 14,000kms away. Whatever belief there was of safety is gone; we are no longer innocent to violence of this magnitude. The history of the country has changed forever. The road to recovery will take a long time; mental scars may never heal.
Our prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, spoke powerful words.
We were not a target because we are a safe harbour for those who hate. We were not chosen for this act of violence because we condone racism, because we're an enclave for extremism, we were chosen for the very fact that we are none of these things, because we represent diversity, kindness, compassion, a home for those that share our values, a refuge for those who need it. And those values, I can assure you, will not and cannot be shaken by this attack.
We are a proud nation of more than 200 ethnicities, 160 languages, and amongst that diversity we share common values. And the one that we place currency on right now is our compassion and the support for the community of those directly affected by this tragedy and secondly, the strongest possible condemnation of the ideology of the people that did this.
From this darkness, we can see the true spirit of New Zealand. The outpouring of solidarity with our Muslim brothers and sisters after the attack, the vigils held in the major city centers, the fundraising pages, the hakas, the placards saying "aroha" and "kia kaha" - it is these images that make me proud to call myself a Kiwi.
I spent the weekend in my friend's cottage in Muskoka. It was good to get out of the city and see the beautiful white landscapes; it's still very much winter up there, despite the temperatures in Toronto rising above 0 degrees. It was a time of self-reflection and a wake-up call on what I should be doing with my life, yet I wonder if I came away with more questions than I went in with.
The past few months have gone by faster than I expected. I felt more alone in last year's winter, but this year I had lots to look forward to and I was more equipped to handle the cold. Instead of fully hibernating for three months, there's been many things to do: I went to the Toronto Light Fest in the Distillery District, we walked around Tommy Thompson Park and learned about the wildlife (and even saw two coyotes!), we chased after some frozen waterfalls in Hamilton and Niagara, and toured a maple syrup farm. I watched the super total lunar eclipse of January 2019, despite it being negative temperatures. There was karaoke and badminton and piano as well.
There has been plenty to eat too, the UbiTO foodie group went to Filipino Kamayan Feast specialist Tinuno, and the badminton crew had three buffets in the space of two weeks. I went for dinners around Chinese New Year and had hot pot and pot luck.
There's lots to look forward to over the next few months as well. I'll be off to the US for a friend's wedding near Atlanta next month. We're planning to go to Quebec City for Canada Day, and to Peru in August. Bruce Peninsula and Tobermory are also on the cards. But by far the most exciting event will be the E3 reveal of our game, and the subsequent release sometime during the year.
Posted by Jeremy at 2:57am on Monday March 18, 2019 :: 0 comments ::
A New Year
Thursday January 3, 2019
Finally back in Canada after a glorious two week summery excursion in the homeland. It's wet here, in Vancouver, and I'm told it's been snowing in Toronto. Sigh.
The end of last year was busy. We had our final work karaoke on Friday night in Koreatown. It was so epic and full of laughter and good times; there was plenty of Disney, 80s power ballads and 90s cheesy pop, and we even sang Phantom of the Opera - with Emily hitting those amazing notes sung by Christine at the end of the song. So good.
I went to the light exhibition down by Ontario Place as well. It was pretty serene walking around the island, but the art installations were pretty colourful and interesting. It's cool that even in winter when the weather is so cold, there's still some kind of incentive to go outside and see what the city has to offer.
Pokemon Go's long-awaited PVP feature dropped this month, but as expected, it was nothing more than a mind-numbing tap fest with only slightly more strategy than a game of rock-paper-scissors. The rewards can be obtained regardless of winning or losing, the cost to make your Pokemon competitive is extremely high, and there's just no incentive to take that plunge.
The flight to Vancouver and then Auckland was not too bad. I played Smash Bros for most of the time, but then ran out of battery power on my Switch heading to Auckland. It was an overnight flight, so I managed to catch some shut eye, but I also watched Ant Man 2 and Incredibles 2. I arrived in Auckland very early on Thursday morning, and I babysat my nephew for the day.
I'd been starved of decent Malaysian food for so long that my first three meals in New Zealand were Malaysian - Kampung Cafe in Glen Eden, KK in Greenlane and Little Penang in Wellington. I basically took the airport bus from Wellington Airport into town, said hello to my excolleagues at PikPok, dumped my luggage at Mana's house and went straight to Little Penang on the Terrace. Auntie Tee and Uncle Keith even recognised me while I was standing in line, it was so nice to talk to them and tell them how much I missed their food. They even gave me a free teh tarik!
PikPok has changed a lot since I'd left. The company's grown by 40 people in two years, and the kitchen now fits more than two people. It was good to see everyone and see how they were, and catch up on news in my absence. We also went for karaoke!
My two weeks was spent basically absorbing as much Kiwiana as I could. Burgerfuel, L&P, Hells Pizza, mince pies, feijoas, the accent, the sun. I even played badminton! I visited tons of my favourite places in Wellington and Auckland, and I caught up with so many people: old workmates, church friends, family, school friends, University friends. It seemed like everyone had either gotten a mortgage, a dog or a kid in the time I'd been away. Though I may not have messaged many people over the past couple of years, it was easy to slide back into conversation as if nothing had happened, and for that I'm truly thankful. Everyone was keen to hear how my travels were, and about my life and job in Toronto.
The weather was awesome. Even if it was raining in entire time, I would have still had a good time not freezing my face off. Most days it was cloudy, but the sun came through quite often, in that familiar ozone-less burny sensation. I got some great pictures of Wellington's waterfront and Auckland's Waitemata Harbour, and sent them back to some jealous Canadians.
But of course, all good things must come to an end. The flight from Vancouver to Auckland was another night flight, and I slept so much that I almost ran out of time to watch Crazy Rich Asians. I'm not looking forward to the cold months ahead, but I am looking forward to seeing all my Toronto friends again, and telling them about my adventures and how great New Zealand is.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:33pm on Thursday January 3, 2019 :: 0 comments ::
Countdown to Christmas
Friday December 7, 2018
It hasn't quite hit yet, but the end of the year is rapidly approaching, and that means I'll be heading home to New Zealand very soon. I'm super busy at work, trying wrap things up before going on holiday, as well as preparing to speak to a bunch of high school kids about the games industry and what it's like to work at Ubisoft.
My badminton racquet strings broke. It was really sad. I ended having to borrow a racquet from the front desk but it had no grip and I was getting increasingly frustrated and played so badly. Luckily it was easy to get to the Eaton Centre and get it fixed, but it wasn't that long ago that I had it restrung.
I went to the Cavalcade of Lights at Nathan Phillips Square a few weeks ago. Every year they light up the Christmas tree there and have a big fireworks display too, it was pretty awesome to watch. Though it was cold and slightly wet, there were thousands of people crammed into the square, listening to the music and enjoying the festivities, and I love that kind of busyness in a city. It makes it feel alive and vibrant.
There's tons of Christmas parties coming up and I have to do some Christmas shopping... but it really isn't long until I'm off, and it's slowly beginning to hit...!
Posted by Jeremy at 5:01am on Friday December 7, 2018 :: 0 comments ::
True Spring
Tuesday April 24, 2018
As we near the end of April, the temperatures have finally hit double digits - consistently. This weekend past marks the first day I have not had to wear my heavy winter jacket to go outside. In fact, it was so pleasant over the weekend that I walked to the Asian supermarket at the Stockyards - about 30 minutes away from my place - and treated myself with a tub of coconut taro ice cream, and pandan ice cream. At badminton yesterday, I was at Trinity Bellwoods Park just after 1pm, and with plenty of time to kill, I watched the dogs frolic in the park and eventually dozed off in the sun. Definitely a warm welcome from the frozen months of winter.
The Canadians tell me this is true spring, and what we experienced last month was False Spring 1 and Winter 2.
Last week was quite the adventure though. A massive ice storm hit the city, causing tree branches to fall on streets, widespread power outages and over 300 reported car accidents over the weekend. It somehow didn't stop me from going for a bloody Ex Raid, then to karaoke with my badminton crew, nor did it stop me from going to church and then to the shopping mall afterwards for Pokemon Go's community day. I also treated myself to my favourite mango and key lime cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory, so it was a good weekend despite the snow, ice, slush and liquid water everywhere.
I went to Video Games Live as well, an orchestral concert dedicated to the legacy of video games from the past 35 years. Headed by Tommy Tallarico, we heard songs from Castlevania, Metroid, Mega Man, Uncharted, Legend of Zelda, Kingdom Hearts, Mario, Okami, Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger. We had a guest conductor, Russell Brower, who was the music composer for Blizzard Entertainment, and he led the orchestra as they played music from Overwatch and World of Warcraft: Mists of Panderia. My heart lept for joy when music from Phoenix Wright was played, and I could not help but point my finger triumphantly in homage to my favourite virtual lawyer. The climax of the concert was of course the Pokemon segment, where the orchestra played themes from Pokemon Red and Blue, as well as the Team Rocket theme from the anime. But the final song was by far the greatest moment of the entire night, as Jason Paige, the original singer of the Pokemon Theme song, came onstage and performed it, with the backing of Tommy and the orchestra, and the thousands of fans singing along - I wanna be the very best!
Today, some madman was trying to commit suicide by cop by Yonge and Finch. I was at work while the incident happened, some 15km away, but I do visit that area often if I'm heading to Markham or Richmond Hill with friends. News reports say ten people have been killed, which is super grim. It's an odd sensation seeing familiar landmarks and roads on videos like that.
Posted by Jeremy at 4:19am on Tuesday April 24, 2018 :: 0 comments ::
2018
Tuesday January 9, 2018
The temperature peeked above zero for the first time in a few months. Snow turned to muddy slush on the sidewalks and roads, and it wasn't painful to walk around without gloves. It hasn't been an easy road though, last Friday and Saturday hit -20C with a windchill of -30C. That was tough.
It's a new year. Almost an entire 365 days since I left New Zealand. I had a relaxing week off, staying mostly indoors to shelter from the cold, but I did go into town for karaoke, badminton and a New Year's Eve party. They shot some fireworks off at Nathan Phillips Square, and hordes of people still turned up despite the severe cold warnings. It was a great atmosphere, though my time outdoors was thankfully brief. I ended up going to bed around 5am, it was that good. Later that day, I played board games with some of the badminton crew, and got to play around with some awesome VR games, including a 3D drawing sandbox.
We're back at work too. The first week was quiet, many still away on holiday. My manager has unfortunately fallen ill with pneumonia, which sounds pretty serious, so we won't expect him back until next week. Otherwise I'm just trucking along. Console projects take time, and they're definitely not as fast paced as mobile games. It's sometimes hard to see progress when you're focused on one small portion of the game.
I'm not as homesick as I used to be. I've expanded my social circles and have people to hang out with on weekends. Most importantly, I'm busying myself, because I think too much when I don't have anything to do. Today is particularly significant because it marks 19 years since Mum passed away and I still think about her a lot. She'd probably be pretty shocked to find out where I am and what I'm doing though, but secretly proud that I did what I did.
Posted by Jeremy at 3:24am on Tuesday January 9, 2018 :: 0 comments ::
Four Months
Tuesday November 21, 2017
Oh, hi.
I've been here for almost four months now, getting back into routine and doing all those regular mundane things that I never really had the inspiration to write about. I'm pretty much settled in, I've recovered from an injury I sustained while playing badminton, and I've started going back to the gym. The gym in my condo is basic, but as I'm still trying to regain all the strength I've lost in the past ten months, it's good enough. Badminton is now a regular thing too! Also, I've found a church to go to, and I've already started playing piano for Sunday services.
Work is going well. We hit a milestone last week, so there was a mad rush to get a bunch of things in to the build before it was sent off to Paris for review. I'm becoming more familiar with things and I'm gaining confidence as I traverse the codebase. It's still massive, and I'll probably never fully understand its structure, but at least I'm making progress.
Winter is rolling in. It's getting colder and it even snowed last week, which was great for about five minutes, and then my face started hurting. I know, layers, etc. I'll be fine. My walk to work is only five minutes. Hopefully it doesn't get cold enough that I'll develop frostbite in the time it takes me to get from my condo to the office.
I do think about home a lot and the life I had in Wellington. I really miss Little Penang. It's sometimes lonely here, and when I'm by myself, I think a lot. It fluctuates between self-doubt and disbelief - it still amazes me that I actually migrated halfway around the world to a foreign country to live and work. I wonder how people back home are doing, and I wonder about my other friends who left New Zealand and how they're coping. I honestly thought I'd be doing better than this, but some of it is impatience too - I want things to be "the way they were", and I often forget it took me nine years to build up that lifestyle in Wellington, yet I've only been here for four months. I've always been - and probably always will be - an introvert. I find it hard to talk to people I don't know, or socialise at parties or bars or clubs. I find it hard to meet new people and strike up a random conversation without any context.
I guess it's a good time to learn, huh?
Posted by Jeremy at 5:39am on Tuesday November 21, 2017 :: 0 comments ::
Serenity
Monday November 21, 2016
It was nice to get back into routine, especially after the earthquakes. Work was only out for a day and the gym was out for two days, but things have pretty much resumed normality. I'm lucky I'm not near any of the condemned or cordoned areas, but the disruption never really hit me until karaoke was in jeopardy. We ended up at New Kor for some soju-riffic fun, singing a lot of old, classic songs from their slightly antiquated song list.
Badminton was also back on, thankfully, or I would have been truly sad. The weather was gloriously sunny on Saturday but I ended up just sleeping in the afternoon and gymming quite late as a result. I spent the evening at Phil and Will's for a bit. On Sunday, I was at church for music, where I played Hallelujah in tribute to Leonard Cohen, who passed away two weeks ago. This did not go unnoticed by the congregation, and lots of people were quick to mention their appreciation after the service - and I'm so glad that I can make people smile like that.
The weather continued to be fine, so Dana, Loic and I went out to Owhiro Bay to see if we could catch the tail end of the Leonids meteor shower. At 10pm, there was still a bit of twilight to the west, but this darkened quickly, bringing out the Milky Way sitting on the horizon. Venus was so bright that you could see its reflection on the water. Overhead, I saw seven meteors streaking across the night sky over the course of the hour we were there. Truly beautiful.
Posted by Jeremy at 9:59am on Monday November 21, 2016 :: 0 comments ::
Overtime
Monday October 12, 2015
It's been a while since I've done such heavy overtime. It's made me remember how disruptive it is to life in general; gym schedule went out the window, food that I had planned to cook started to rot, I was tired and became less tolerant of people as the week progressed. By the time Friday hit, I was completely over it and couldn't stay past 8.30pm. All technical possibilities for solving our problems had been exhausted. I ended up escaping to Pan de Muerto with the Frenchies. It was Vincent's last day, and I had unfortunately missed yet another departure speech because I'd been working.
The weekend was full of sunshine, but all I wanted to do was sleep and relax. I did my regular badminton and gym exercise, but I also caught the final show of the NZIF - a battle of improv between New Zealand and the international artists that were visiting from the UK, Taiwan, Japan, France, Germany and Australia. Such amazing talent and full of laughs and feels, it was exactly what I needed after a long week of work.
Posted by Jeremy at 9:01am on Monday October 12, 2015 :: 0 comments ::
The End of an Era
Wednesday July 15, 2015
The weekend turned out to be busier than usual; we had a big party at Mexico to celebrate the "end" of our project - though we haven't officially finished, we decided it was a good way to get the team together for some sangria, margaritas and fried chicken. We ended up at Goldings for a bit, then to Pineapples for the rest of the night.
On Saturday, there was badminton in the morning, and then I met Jono and Karlyn and others at Strawberry Fare. I tried their black doris plum pie - the only item on the menu I hadn't tried before. It was a warm, hearty pie on a cold winter's day, without being too sickly sweet or overly rich. Yum! We had walked by the waterfront to the TSB Arena and had a squizz at the bookfair, but I was tired so I went home and napped for a bit. That evening, I was at Joe's house playing board games and party games like Quiplash over Steam. I had music on Sunday at Central, then went for yum cha at Big Thumb, then back home for a quick nap before heading to Beth's new place out in Newtown.
The big news in the gaming industry at the moment is the tragic passing of Nintendo's President, Satoru Iwata. One of his best quotes is "On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer". You can see in his work the passion he had for creating entertainment. He was a huge contributor to the industry and he will be sorely missed.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:26am on Wednesday July 15, 2015 :: 0 comments ::
One with the Wind and Sky
Monday December 22, 2014
The last week of work was a fun but hectic mess of frantic game jamming, as we pulled together to stick code, art, design and sound into an enjoyable experience that would wow our colleagues. Jimmy, Linda, Jayde, Nathan and myself were Team Four for Game Jam 2014 and unfortunately, four is also where we placed - just outside of prize money contention. Nevertheless, we produced something we were quite proud of so that's something we can take away from the week.
On Saturday, Mike, Will and Phil bundled into my car and we began our journey to Owhango, on the west side of Lake Taupo near National Park. Mike had kindly offered us the use of his holiday home for the night, so we took advantage of this and enjoyed the fireplace, pool table and spa pool. It was good to break up the road trip to Auckland, especially since we had a big day the next day...
I had been keeping close tabs on the weather for Taupo all week. The forecast had consistently said showers for Sunday, but as we drove towards Taupo, the clouds in the sky began to open up to brilliant blue and sunshine. We had one agenda in mind only: skydiving. This was an idea that began during the Great Kayaking Trip in Motueka but didn't happen because of strong winds. Two months later, this crazy idea became a reality as the four of us committed ourselves to the wind and sky, leaping out over the Great Lake Taupo with the most fantastic scenery around us. Mike, Will and Phil chose the 12,000ft jump; I opted for the 15,000ft jump. I watched them as they were forced out of the plane into the air below, becoming increasingly nervous as my time approached. My tandem master signalled and I shuffled forward to the exposed hatch, and then with no time to be scared, I was shunted out.
The few moments are completely terrifying, but once the free fall kicks in, you're much more relaxed and can start enjoying the scenery. I remember the glittering blue waters of the lake below, the greens of the forests around the area and the clouds in the distance that were covering Ruapehu. It was exhilarating but over too soon as the parachute deployed. I gasped and hyperventilated as my brain started to acknowledge just what I'd done, and as we continued our descent, I was still trying to get my head around just how lucky we were with the weather and conditions. It was absolutely fantastic and such an amazing experience.
We continued our journey to Auckland and I arrived back home around 7pm, in time for some soup kambing and sambal seafood that my parents had made for dinner. I rushed off to Massey badminton courts for a few hours of high-intensity badminton before finally hitting home and taking a well earned rest.
What an awesome start to the Christmas holidays.
Posted by Jeremy at 4:51am on Monday December 22, 2014 :: 0 comments ::
End of Year Shenanigans
Sunday December 14, 2014
It's that time of the year when the parties go wild and the people start gearing up towards Christmas and the end of the year. Most of us are looking forward to the holidays ahead, even among the stress of Christmas shopping and looming deadlines, and, for the PikPok crew, the competitive nature of this year's Game Jam. Several of the teams have already begun their prototyping ahead of the final week, so it's shaping up to be a tough competition indeed.
Again, despite my efforts to try and play Pokemon or failing that, work on my Game Jam game, this week was quite busy in terms of social events. We watched a horrible Ewoks spin-off movie for 80s Movie Night on Tuesday, then on Wednesday I was out at the Fringe Bar to watch Joe's improv graduation show and then stayed for another show by Wellington Improv Troupe. On Thursday, good old Bryce had come down for Kiwicon so we caught up with him at Crafters, and on Friday... it was karaoke!
Jules is turning 30 this year so she's been having a series of birthday-related events, one of which was an amazing karaoke session last Friday. We started strong, with some good classics like Final Countdown, Bohemian Rhapsody and Keep on Movin', followed by some more contemporary songs like Tay Tay's Shake It Off. But the highlight of the night was the Idina Menzel Let It Go battle between myself and one of Juliann's friends Sarah, who rose to the challenge and duetted the iconic Frozen song with me. We channelled the frozen fractals and icy blasts, crescendoing to the final note, and at the song's triumphant end - the cold never bothered me anyway - we high-fived a job well done as the entire room erupted into wild applause.
The night had not ended there, however. We finished up at KZone and headed to JJ Murphy's to see Vigz's band Zephyr playing some cool 70s and 80s covers. There was the oldest mosh pit I'd ever seen. But the environment was jovial and light-hearted, and we ended up mobbing the dance floor during Summer of 69, so there were plenty of good times to be had.
On Saturday we had the final PikPok badminton session for the year, and then it was off to the bakery for some pies, and then to LBQ with Thomas and Astrid for another MKR BBQ. Despite the weather, Ian and Sandie had set up their equipment and were making some delectable things. I chose the Hefe marinated Lamb Loin on Bruschetta with Goat's Cheese Mousse and Mint Pea Crush, which was pretty good. The goat's cheese mousse was wonderfully smooth and had such a good flavour to compliment the other ingredients. We stayed for an hour and a bit, and then headed off to the Apartment bar for the PikPok Christmas Party.
And boy was it a party.
There was Smash Bros set up on the Wii U and Giant Jenga all ready to go. We had five PikPok-themed cocktails from Oreo, Into the Dead, Flick Kick Football Legends, Robot Unicorn Attack and Rival Stars Basketball. There was much joviality and plenty of shenanigans to go round. At one point in time I was singing I'll Make a Man out of You and also Let it Go in French. At another point in time, I started the Animaniacs Nations of the World song. I was also balancing on top of a tower erected from the Giant Jenga blocks and I was also involuntarily trust falling into the loving hands of my co-workers.
We moved on to Little Penang for some food around 8pm, where I promptly declared how amazing the night was all over the table - it must have been those three shots right before I left. Thankfully Nic, Damon, Mana and James, who were with me, took care of the mess as I was ushered into the bathroom to clean myself up. I felt much better after that, and continued on to the Fork and Brewer very briefly to see Ben off, before being walked home by Polly and Vigz.
I posted a rather dire-sounding message on Facebook making seem I was in quite a bad place, so several people had texted me to ask me if I was okay, and I reassured them everything was fine, that I was just drunk and overwhelmed because it's the first time I've ever done that, and I amended the message on Facebook as soon as I could. But it's humbling to see that I can count on all these awesome friends to be there for me if I ever need them.
For that, I am truly blessed and thankful.
Posted by Jeremy at 9:29am on Sunday December 14, 2014 :: 0 comments ::
But I Just Want to Play Pokemon :(
Sunday December 7, 2014
My copy of Pokemon AlphaSapphire arrived on Friday, but unfortunately my weekend has been so stacked with events that I simply haven't had time to play it. On Saturday I had badminton in the morning, then I met Mana at LBQ to check out the food being served by Dai and Dal, the Laotian girl team from New Zealand's version of My Kitchen Rules. I stopped by the Southern Cross briefly to say hi to Sunni who was having her 30th Birthday, but my back started playing up so I needed to move... and ended up at Mana's for the Singstar Party. Paul texted mid-afternoon for a quick drink at the Sprig and Fern that night so I obliged too. I dragged Mana and Phil along and I met Paul's flatmate Alex there too. It was a pretty crazy Saturday and I was absolutely shattered by the time I got home.
Today has been pretty tiring too. I made it to church for the second Sunday of advent - peace - and I was out to Churton Park for the last family group gathering of the year. By the time I got home, it was 3pm and I passed out on my bed for a three hour nap. So good. I'll get a bit of chance to play Pokemon after I finish blogging...!
Last weekend was pretty crazy too. After badminton, I met Jimmy at the gym (because it was still Bring A Buddy For Free Month) for some more upper body workouts, but the highlight of Saturday was 8-player Smash Bros on the Nintendo Wii U. So awesome. I seemed to have some dominance with the Pink Powerpuff Duo, Kirby and Jigglypuff. The Wii U version feels great and looks gorgeous in 1080p. We had dinner at Little Penang and I hung out at Mana, Will and Phil's for a bit before heading home for the night since I had music at church the next day.
On Monday, I was at Campbell and Linda's for a very satisfying steamboat and Mana, Will and Phil's on Tuesday for the 80s Movie Night - this week's choice was Labyrinth. It feels like I've missed out on a lot of 80s movies, so this is a good opportunity to catch up on some of the films that have been so iconic of that era. The week before we watched Princess Bride - not particularly to Mana's liking but I appreciated the odd sense of humour which would have been far more appropriate for that time period than today.
We found out our Game Jam teams for this year and have started brainstorming ideas. GJ2014 will be in the last week of work, and will conclude what has been a pretty busy year for me at PikPok. Next year will be full of challenges too, and I'm looking forward to completing my first commercial Unity project.
Posted by Jeremy at 9:41am on Sunday December 7, 2014 :: 0 comments ::
Food and Gym
Tuesday November 25, 2014
I've started joining the QA Team at work on their weekly Monday morning weigh-ins. My first week I weighed 70.7kg; the second week I had gained a whole 100g to be 70.8kg. Not bad for the week, considering the amount of food I'd eaten, but possibly also helped by the fact I went to the gym for the first time ever. Those gains, indeed.
Last Monday I was at Loic's house for an extravaganza of French cuisine - a very impressive home-cooked three course meal, complete with Le Rustique camembert to finish the night. C'est delicieux! Bob and Angela were down too, so on Tuesday we met for dinner at Little Penang, followed by dessert at Strawberry Fare where I got the caramel and peanut butter cheesecake. So incredibly indulgent, and far too much to eat, I couldn't bring myself to eat the last few bites of the cheesecake. We were at Duke Carvell's for lunch on Wednesday and El Matador for dinner on Thursday. Continuing on the gluttony train, I got a patisserie from Louis Sergeant shaped like a jandal on Friday, as well as celebrated the one year anniversary of Flick Kick Football Legends with a giant chocolate cake at work.
Saturday was healthy exercise day, with a record sixteen people turning up to badminton in the morning. I had made a deal with Jimmy that if he came to badminton, I'd go to the gym, so sure enough, last Saturday afternoon, I went to Habit on Willis Street with Jimmy as part of their "bring a buddy for free" month. To be honest, it wasn't too bad and I certainly got a good introduction to the weights and machines - Jimmy's pretty awesome like that, and it seems that Hadley's teachings have been well received. However, it feels like the gym really isn't for me and I doubt I will be joining one any time soon. I might go again this weekend (the last weekend to take advantage of this free offer!) but I can't see myself paying that much for a service like that. That being said, if my metabolism slows down and I start packing on the kilograms, it might be a necessity in the future.
I went and saw My Neighbor Totoro on Sunday (neko basu!) and caught up with Raewyn and Andrew at Deluxe afterwards, but otherwise it was a pretty relaxed Sunday with some great sunny weather, even if it was a bit too windy. We were at Pravda Cafe last night for Fine Dining and Kaffee Eis afterwards because the meal was so lacklustre. It looks like my social calendar is slowly filling up for the rest of the year. It's gonna be great.
Posted by Jeremy at 8:27am on Tuesday November 25, 2014 :: 0 comments ::
Another Action Packed Weekend
Tuesday September 16, 2014
I felt so tired after last weekend that I was in need of another weekend to recover. Yesterday I woke up at 6am and fell asleep again, only to dream that it was a public holiday. One can only imagine how disappointed and frustrated I was when my alarm clock went off to remind me it was a Monday. It turned out Monday wasn't too bad afterall, apart from a visit from senior Labour Party candidates - David Cunliffe, David Parker and Grant Robertson - obstructing the passageway to the kitchen and preventing me from getting tea!
The weekend started off on Friday night at Kazu. Around 20 of us had gathered to celebrate Dewi's birthday with loads of food and loads of alcohol - plates of sushi, soft shelled crab, dumpings, takoyaki, tempura came out in droves and we ate and drank and talked and laughed. Naturally the only way to end the night was a solid round of karaoke! Woohoo!
Saturday morning came too early, but I was eager to get to badminton for a full two hour session. Still getting back into the swing of things, but have definitely retained some tricks from seven months ago. My back seems to be holding up more and more, especially with a bit of help from painkillers, so hopefully I can return to being a normal person soon. After some baked goods from Aro Bake and a solid nap in the afternoon, I was off to Bryan's house for his birthday celebration, where I caught up with a few people over some drinks and pizza. Good times indeed.
I was too tired to go to church the next day, but I managed to fit in groceries and marketing, before heading to the sauna for a bit to relax my back and left leg. Then it was back to town and off to Josh and Christine's for Mooncake Festival Part Two - another celebration with meats from land, sea and air. This whole process seems to be going smoother and smoother, so maybe I should do this more often? It was a thoroughly enjoyable night with fine company and fine food.
Posted by Jeremy at 9:17am on Tuesday September 16, 2014 :: 0 comments ::
A Spring in my Step
Monday September 8, 2014
With Wellington on a Plate well and truly over, and with such positive feedback from several people, I have decided to formalise the 'foodie' part of my blog in a separate section. It'll function pretty similar to this one, but it'll be focused on food only. I intend to keep it pretty casual and probably only for special occasions or exceptional food experiences.
Wellington on a Plate was a blast. I had an amazing time, dining in 26 restaurants, with 36 people, had 11 meals and 21 burgers, spent $971.17 and enjoyed every minute of it. So good to share my adventures with people who truly appreciate food in all aspects, and I am well and truly blessed to have friends like that - especially the crazy ones who came down from Auckland specifically for this! The Last Supper at Arthur's was poignant, with thirteen people in attendance as well. So amazing.
I played badminton for the second time in seven months on Saturday, and survived, but just barely. My quads are pretty sore from the jumping but my back held up quite well, so I just need to soldier on with some painkillers and keep on trucking. Following that, I met up with Jord, Joe, Jen, Josh and Christine for lunch at Leuven before heading to Escape Mate. In a very similar vein to all the escape rooms that I went to in Malaysia and Singapore, Escape Mate is nestled on Johnston Street in Wellington CBD, opposite from Leuven. There's a single puzzle room inside a vault, but another room is due to open soon. It was an intense afternoon, and we got out with 1 min 48 secs to go, but managed to break a bottle used as a prop in the process.
I've been playing Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright for 3DS too, and just finished that last night. Fantastic game, great characters as always, but I felt a bit let down by the ending and really missed the ability to yell ~OBJECTION!~ into the microphone. I think the writing is much better in Phoenix Wright games - you become very attached to the characters and it's clever how particular storylines weave together and intersect at the last moment for a dramatic finish, and that was missing in PL vs PW. Nevertheless, the game has amazing production quality - absolutely loved the artwork and character modelling, and so nostalgic hearing familiar themes again, especially Investigation ~ Cornered and the Turnabout Sisters.
And finally, yesterday, I celebrated Mid Autumn Festival by cooking my annual mooncake festival dinner, with roast pork, deep fried tofu, Thai prawn salad and lettuce wrap, and of course my favourite pandan mooncake to finish the meal. Yummo!
Posted by Jeremy at 9:46am on Monday September 8, 2014 :: 0 comments ::
Epic Karaoke
Sunday July 20, 2014
We had some epic karaoke on Friday night at New Kor. Ants, Jo, Luke, Mike and I met at 8pm for dinner there, but unfortunately the restaurant was full, so Mr Lee let us have some pre-karaoke while we waited for a table. And in the 45 minutes that we were there, we belted out some amazing numbers: Ants and Mike dueting Creed's "With Arms With Open" perfectly, in the exact same style; Luke and I hitting some sweet harmonies with Bette Midler's "The Rose"; some smooth baritone versions of "My Heart Will Go On" and "I Will Always Love You". So good.
After dinner, we were joined by Matt, Ben, Jill, Charlie, Jimmy and Thomas where the festivities continued for another two hours, hitting max crescendo with Bohemian Rhapsody as the night's epic finale. There was plenty of soju and plenty of song, and it was a fantastic night indeed.
It was an early start to the next morning however, as I played badminton for the first time in almost six months. With my leg feeling marginally tight, I was able to play on and off for the full two hours without too much strain and had a great time easing back into an activity I have been missing so much this year.
That night, I was at Jordan and Chloe's for their flat warming - a classy wine and cheese night. Another great night of fine conversation and an amazing selection of wines, cheeses and condiments, including's Nic's Cob Loaf, a hollowed-out loaf of bread filled with cheese, sour cream, spring onions and bacon. The night's activities included Josh and Damon visiting the rave party downstairs, and a flurry of selfie bombs on Damon's Facebook page.
Music at Central Baptist went well this morning. I wanted to spend more time reflecting on the devastating news on MH17 - yet another tragedy for Malaysia Airlines as one of their planes was shot down over the Ukraine killing all 300 people on board - but there were plenty of other wrongs in the world to pray for. There sure is a lot of conflict these days... it's pretty depressing.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:32am on Sunday July 20, 2014 :: 0 comments ::
Year of the Horse
Thursday February 6, 2014
I spent Chinese New Year up in Auckland. I guess I'm a stickler for tradition, Chinese New Year should be spent with family and it was good to see my parents, my sister and brother in law, and especially my two nephews. One day I hope to spend CNY back in Malaysia - I almost had a chance to do that this time round but Malaysia Airlines wouldn't have any of that.
Eight at the Langham Hotel had a promotion during January where all diners whose birthdays were in January dined for free! So I treated dad to the famous buffet lunch there and it was awesome. There was plenty of fresh oysters and some different things from when I went over New Years with Jordan, and some festive delights in celebration of the Chinese New Year too! Not surprisingly, the majority of the diners there were Asian. The amazing lunch caused me to have a three hour food coma, but I regretted nothing.
Saturday was our family Chinese New Year dinner. Though "reunion dinner" is supposed to happen on New Year's Eve, rules are a bit more relaxed these days to allow for working families and those who have to travel long distances to get home. Nevertheless, the spirit of the dinner was honoured, with plenty of dishes, each symbolic in their own right: chicken, duck, prawns, fish and vegetables made for a scrumptious feast, even if it was a bit chaotic preparing it.
On Sunday I went to church, followed by our regular lunch at Masala, and then I met a few of the old gang at Cornwall Park for a late barbeque picnic for Jacinta. So wonderful to feel the sunshine (and no wind), and great to catch up with people - even if I'd only seen them a month ago. It's been six years since I left Auckland, but I still enjoy the friendships I've made with these people despite the distance. I also got to play badminton on Monday night with them - so good.
I managed to get a login for the computers at Uni so I could work on a presentation about Dynamic Programming for the PikPok Developer Conference next week. I took the chance to wander around the city campus, admiring the new buildings and appreciating the old ones. I was astonished to find the entrance to the CompSci department completely different - they've removed the time tunnel and replaced it with a large hallway where the Science Student Center sits, as well as a time wall depicting various important historical events. Info Commons hadn't changed much (Munchy Mart is still there <3) and I was able to finish most of the Powerpoint presentation in the three days I was at Uni. I also caught up with Bobby and Raymond on Tuesday at Elliot Stables, and Graeme and Tom on Wednesday at Tony's.
Such a pleasant and relaxed few days. I should do that more often.
Posted by Jeremy at 9:45am on Thursday February 6, 2014 :: 0 comments ::
Christmas and Boxing Day
Thursday December 26, 2013
Whew.
Just been catching up with a bunch of my old schoolmates from Grammar. Good to see them and find out what they'd been doing for the past wee while, and also playing some good old fashioned Mafia for nostalgia. Boxing Day was otherwise pretty uneventful, but (excuse the geekout) I've managed to obtain yet more Pokemon for my Pokedex so that should keep me occupied for a bit while I try to catch them all.
Christmas was good too, a great feed at my sister's house and playing with my very excited and active nephew. I had a solid nap in the afternoon before heading out for some night badminton at the Massey courts. Not bad at all! I managed to hold my own against the hardouts! Quite impressed with myself on that one. It was exhilarating to get out on the court and push myself for a good couple of hours and sweat out all the delicious food I'd been stuffing my face with.
Not too many plans over the next few days, but am looking to go for a road trip over New Years. My Christmas has been great. Hope you've had a Merry Christmas too.
Posted by Jeremy at 1:35pm on Thursday December 26, 2013 :: 0 comments ::
Back at Changi
Wednesday June 5, 2013
I'm sitting spitefully outside the Changi Qantas Airport Lounge because they denied me entrance since I'm only "business class", not "business max". What the hell.
The Thai food last night was delicious, especially the tom yum soup and the mango salad. Thankfully I didn't overeat on this one, because one of my cousins called me up to go for a second round of badminton. After a quick rest from food, I headed off to the courts.
And boy did I get sassed :( I'm just not used to playing in the heat like that, I was sweating buckets and my serve was bad and I lost all three games that I played. Two were close, and though it was disappointing, it was fun and a good learning experience. The players there are super hard-out, as you can imagine, and their precision and judgement is amazing. With talent like that, it's no wonder Malaysia is the best at badminton.
Another two hours to wait before the departure gate opens. I haven't found anything worthwhile at duty free and I need to charge my electronic devices for the 11 hour flight ahead. I might grab some food around 5pm so I don't have to eat too much of Jetstar's crappy meals.
Home soon!
Posted by Jeremy at 8:05am on Wednesday June 5, 2013 :: 0 comments ::
March Misadventures
Wednesday March 6, 2013
A year older, a year wiser?
The days are shortening and the southerlies are definitely more noticeable. Summer has paved the way for autumn, though we may still see some more of that warm sunshine that we were blessed with this year.
Comet Pan-STARRS has been supposedly visible in southern hemisphere skies for the past week or so. Always in search for an adventure, I recruited Mitchell, Chloe and Hayden (while he was down here) and we went out to Owhiro Bay to see if we could spot the comet. No such luck, as we presume the southwestern hills around Red Rocks were in the way. We headed out to Titahi Bay, but still no luck. Today, we drove to Makara but there were still hills in the way; we decided we weren\'t going to leave without a quick exploration of the area, so we followed the track to Opau Bay and the wind turbine farm for about 15 minutes, putting us just over the western ridge of Makara beach and giving us splendid views of the Tasman Sea. As night fell, we gazed aimlessly at the stars, watching the brilliance of Jupiter in the north and seeing the Milky Way arching overhead. Then, in a moment of sheer magic, we caught two shooting stars streaking across the northern sky!
But no comet. Oh well.
Last weekend was pretty busy for me. Mark\'s last day with us was on Friday, and we had a \"final\" game of Battlestar Galactica. With Rob\'s horrendous dice rolling putting the humans dangerously low on population count, it looked like Team Cylon - Mark and myself, and Mitchell, kinda - might have clinched victory, but some sweet blind jumping from Jordan netted a destination 3 card which put them on the home stretch. Not about to be outdone, I shot Rob in the face and caused Tim to die in the same turn, but sadly that wasn\'t enough to pull morale down to 0. It all rested on a final dice roll, and Team Human took away the victory with a strong 8 roll. Epic!
After our regular Saturday morning badminton, I met Damon, Joe, Chloe and Mitchell for some hot drinks at Milk Crate, and we relocated to Caffe L\'affare for brunch. Afterwards, the group minus Damon visited Jos and Ian at Garage Project headquarters, before heading home to find Smudge - with little success. We trekked over to Central Park to play on the swings and flying fox, but there was some kid\'s birthday party going on and it felt awkward just shoving them off the playground, so we went our separate ways. I met up with Damon, Joe and Mitchell again for dinner at Oriental Thai, and we joined Alan and Aaron at their place by Chaffers Docks, right where Homegrown was on. Rocking times!
We had an \"autumnal celebration\" barbeque at the Treehouse, full of fantastic meats everywhere - my kilogram of roast pork that I had purchased from Yan\'s was very popular. There were sausages and skewers and steaks to be had, and for dessert, Charlotte\'s scheming resulted in a deliciously moist and rich chocolate cake with fancy sparkly candles, decorated as if it was someone\'s birthday celebration.
It\'s going to be a busy month, with both my work and social calendars full of events and deadlines to meet. Looking forward to time off over Easter, then the South Island trip early next month!
Posted by Jeremy at 10:33am on Wednesday March 6, 2013 :: 0 comments ::
Social Butterfly
Sunday February 24, 2013
I have been doing too many things with my life.
That\'s okay though, I have thoroughly enjoyed the fun times and the awesome people I\'ve been hanging out with over the past two weekends. Now is the time to make the most of the sun before it fades away behind the abysmal weather so typical of Wellington for ten months of the year. Summer has been great and it\'s sad (if not alarming) that it is March very, very soon.
Last weekend, we went out to Harcourt Park in Upper Hutt to watch some jousting after badminton. It\'s not particularly like what you would imagine (or what Hollywood would have you imagine). The tips of the jousting lances are fragile and break easily, and are colour-coded for each person. The idea is to land a hit against your opponent (with rules around where you can and can\'t hit - no hitting the horse!) and points are given based off aforementioned criteria. As the lances break, the resulting fragments are clearly identified by their colour to assist in the judging. There were also longbow displays and sword fighting re-enactments, but none as exciting as the jousting.
The next day, we were out at Adrenaline Forest in Porirua for part one of Ben\'s birthday celebration. Swinging, climbing, gliding and shuffling (often struggling) our way through the treetops proved quite the physical challenge at times; not so much the mental challenge I was expecting since I was so focused on the obstacles, I barely had time to look down at the ground. Unlike previous ropes courses I\'d been on, this one is more individually managed so you clip yourself onto safety ropes to traverse the trees instead of being belayed by a group of people on the ground. Additionally, you\'re equipped with your own pulley and hook system so you can clip yourself onto the wire and ride the gradient to the other side with some gravitational help. There\'s some great Indiana Jones-type swings, including one into a large spider web of ropes on course six!
Part two was competitive go-karting - teams of two doing 30 laps each. Jordan and I paired up to deliver a relatively unrisky and consistent display that landed us fourth place out of eight (not last, yay!). The karts supposedly reach 50kph and handle pretty well, though my skidding and sliding were not as masterful as I would have liked. I kept feeling like I was going to topple the kart over. There were fortunately no coloured turtle shells on the track.
I went for an improv show at the Gryphon Theatre on Ghuznee St, then to dinner at the Matterhorn on Friday night. I was last at the Matterhorn in 2009 and they have changed the menu and the style of eating since. The intention is that you order a selection of plates to share instead of having individual meals. Essentially it is like yum cha, except ten times the price. We found the concept complicated and were a bit nervous when the waitress asked us if she could have the authority to place food on our tab without our explicit permission. We shared some oysters with champagne sorbet, crispy pig tails, deer fillet with blackberry, potatoes with roast almonds and various other plates that I can\'t recall off the top of my head. The company was great and the food was good, but the messy logistics put me off and wouldn\'t recommend it - would have been much better if we had just had individual meals and maybe some sides to share.
Yesterday after badminton, we had the PikPok Barbeque at the Mt Victoria Lawn Bowls club. It was a family-friendly event, with a kids-only bouncy castle (much to the disappointment of many of my workmates), face painting and board games available. There was of course the lawn bowls outside, and in defiance of the Wellington wind, beer pong on a table decked out with some fantastic Flick Kick Football artwork. Time passed quickly and it got a bit chilly around 6pm so I left for another barbeque out in Island Bay with my church\'s family group. Though it was a brief event, it was good to catch up with various people and I was absolutely smitten with the two guinea pigs called Pip and Squeak. I ended the day over at Andrew\'s flat in Roseneath, taking one hour to set up a new board game called CO2 and three hours to play. Would not recommend.
Finally, to finish it off, I celebrated Chap Goh Mei, the last day of Chinese New Year, at Big Thumb in style, with plates of chicken, pork and seafood in dumplings, buns, rice noodles and deep fried!
Though we don\'t have the fireworks and fantastic lion and dragon dance displays that the Auckland Lantern Festival provides, I\'ve had fun celebrating Chinese New Year in my own way. This will be memorable for years to come.
<<edit>> Okay we just got fireworks. Yay!
Posted by Jeremy at 7:33am on Sunday February 24, 2013 :: 0 comments ::
Labour Weekend and Tatsumi
Saturday December 8, 2012
I've been meaning to write this up for some time but immediately after Labour Weekend, it was just full on work to get DreamWorks Dash n Drop out on the App Store. And we did it, and it was great, yaaay. More on this in another blog post...maybe.
I had a good Labour Weekend. I finally got to visit my friend Deanna's famous Moustache Milk and Cookie Bar, and I came away with four delicious cookies to share with my family. I met up with the old Grammar gang in Mt Eden for a nice lunch. I even got to play some badminton with Julia and Steven! Of course I got to catch up with family - my adorable nephew had just started walking and was even saying a few words! So cute.
I also had a mind-blowing culinary experience at a restaurant called Tatsumi. My parents had been raving about how good this place is ever since they had a 10 course degustation there. I just had to try it. I said I'd take them there for a meal over Labour Weekend and my stepmum gleefully made all the necessary arrangements. Tatsumi is on Davis Crescent, just near the intersection of Khyber Pass and Broadway. Originally from Christchurch, their premises were struck by the earthquake and condemned, forcing them to relocate to Auckland. They describe themselves as "European-inspired Japanese fusion style" and you'll certainly see how the food at Tatsumi has been so masterfully crafted to bring together these two cuisines to create something rich and absolutely delicious.
Since my parents had already sampled the degustation, they decided to go a la carte. I, on the other hand, was ready for a 10 course meal.
10 Course Degustation
- Tempura Oyster
- Chef's Choice of Assorted Appetisers
- Variety of Sashimi
- Tempura Soft Shelled Crab Salad
- Crispy Skin Salmon Teriyaki
- Braised Pork Belly
- Scampi Miso Soup
- Assorted Nigiri Sushi
- Passionfruit Sorbet
- Green Tea Fondant
![jousting](\"/gallery/pictures/chinesenewyear-feb2013/IMG_3510.jpg\"){kind=link}
![Adrenaline Forest](\"/gallery/pictures/chinesenewyear-feb2013/IMG_3546.jpg\"){kind=link}
It was so good.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:46pm on Saturday December 8, 2012 :: 0 comments ::
Counting Down
Wednesday May 2, 2012
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 :(
Posted by Jeremy at 7:51am on Wednesday May 2, 2012 :: 2 comments ::
Rugby World Cup
Friday September 9, 2011
So yeah, okay, blog post mentioning the World Cup. My wall on Facebook is filled with RWC-related hate and excitement, and it was abuzz about it even before the opening ceremony had started. I saw bits of the fireworks on television last night - they looked really amazing and I wish I was there to see it live. I did, however, catch the game against Tonga and luckily, started watching just before the hakas began. I've never seen the country this patriotic before, and you can definitely feel the hype in the air as you walk through town. I think the atmosphere will be amazing if we win - and I really hope we do.
In slightly related news, Sidhe's Rugby Challenge game hit the stores a few weeks ago and we've topped the New Zealand games charts. I wasn't on the development team for it, but I did make this nifty database exporter tool that they used. Yay. We had a launch party celebrating its release last week, with many of my ex-colleagues turning up for what was a fantastic night, and on Thursday, we got our own Rugby Challenge t-shirts. The Latin phrase "durum candidumque domi ludit" is written on the front, and it means "playing hard and fair at home".
Work has been tough for me lately. I spent a few late nights last week trying to wrap up some features and bugs. The end is in sight though, and I think we can make next Friday's deadline, though it depends on whether the company that we're doing this for can get their act together and deliver the final bits of information to us. The game will be our first social game on iOS and I'll be the first to let you know when you can download it.
Badminton time!
Posted by Jeremy at 9:00pm on Friday September 9, 2011 :: 0 comments ::
Wellington Anniversary
Monday January 24, 2011
Happy Wellington Anniversary.
My injuries have been healing well and the swelling and bruising in my right eye has greatly decreased. The ophthamologist said I didn't have to take so many eye drops as well, and that's awesome because eye drops cause me so much agony. I got my replacement glasses from OPSM too so I'm pretty much back on track with my life.
Work has been going well. Last Friday, we farewelled our iPhone producer and bid him the best for architecture school. We shared our "last" drinks with him at Southern Cross, which was unfortunately right across the road from that incident, so I was extra careful when heading home. Fortunately, I made it back without any problems, this time.
Saturday was pretty uneventful, save for some badminton in the morning. Jono (Dall) and Dave came over to watch a movie with Charlotte in the evening, but we played Dominion while waiting for the DVD to burn. Sunday was just pouring with rain so I tried to stay indoors as much as possible. We did go for Laser Strike for Jono's (Dixon) birthday then to Cha for dinner afterwards, and finally back to their flat for some board games including Sunni's newest acquisition, Carcassonne. Those Germans really know how to make board games, huh?
Today, Jono, Char, Dave, Beth and I bundled into my car and we roadtripped up to Lindale Park on the Kapiti Coast. There's a cafe there and some specialty shops for Kapiti-branded cheese, ice cream, wine and honey, as well as a farm with lots of adorable animals like bunnies, chickens, calves, goats, donkeys, alpacas, guinea pigs and several ducks and geese on site. We drove a bit further north and lazed about on Waikanae beach for a while before heading back to Wellington.
I'm tired.
Edit: I've just received a text from my brother-in-law and I am an uncle to a baby boy, weighing 8 pounds, 12 ounces! Mother (my sister) is exhausted but doing well. Squee!!
Posted by Jeremy at 8:01am on Monday January 24, 2011 :: 1 comment ::
Dominionated
Wednesday December 29, 2010
Wanted to play badminton after church on Sunday but I guess because it's a public holiday, the courts were locked up so we ended up going to Matt's house nearby and playing Rock Band, Raiden 3, and even Boggle.
I went over to Richard's house on Monday to try out his new board game - Agricola. The silly game took us four hours to complete, but it was kinda fun nevertheless. Maybe we'll be faster when we get better. I also snuck in some table tennis with Hsin Yao and of course the family pool and also the piano were well used that day. I led everyone in a rousing chorus of "The Tide is High"...
The next day, the rain came.
Despite the wet conditions, I met up with my workmates at Sun World in Newmarket for a delicious yum char. The place was absolutely packed and for good reason too; the food was tasty and the variety was fantastic, and all for a very reasonable $19. Jono and Charlotte went their separate ways but the Sidhe crew met up again at Bryce's house where we played Dominion and Cranium! Fun times.
Posted by Jeremy at 5:42am on Wednesday December 29, 2010 :: 0 comments ::
December
Friday December 3, 2010
It's December already and it is slowly hitting me that yet another year has almost gone by. Things are already starting to wrap up for Christmas, with farewell parties for people "leaving" work and a few birthday celebrations here and there. I still have photos dating back to Guy Fawke's night, I really should upload them sometime soon... Lately, I've been at Siem Reap (Friday dinner with workmates), Cha (End of year homegroup on Wednesday), Hede (Tyler's farewell), New Kor + Karaoke (Mike's farewell). I feel like going back to sleep but apparently there's some fundraising food at the Indonesian Embassy so I'll be going to that with Surya and Andrew.
Badminton is still going strong with some punishing games today; I've never felt so knackered in my life, and I don't suppose my current state of health helped at all. Even on Thursday, I had chronic hiccups which drove me insane (and probably all the people around me as well). All seems to be on the road to recovery now, so I'll sit tight and take more drugs. Bleh.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:46pm on Friday December 3, 2010 :: 0 comments ::
May Birthdays
Friday May 28, 2010
I've been to two birthday dinners this week, and boy am I stuffed. First was at Cinta with Charlotte, second at the Flying Burrito Bros with Ritu, both with lots of people and food and delicious moist cake. Ritu's cake was from Cha, which surprised me because I heard the Cha cakes were traps, but apparently not. The cream does taste rather artificial though, so as long as it's in moderation, it's okay.
I'll be burning off all that food at the badminton court tomorrow anyway.
Last night at 1am, the couple in the apartment above me decided it would be the opportune moment to have a domestic argument, firing F-Bombs every second word for a good 30 minutes or so. Being in the semi-conscious state I was, my first thought was "oh geez I hope I don't have to call the cops" followed by anxiously waiting for gunshot sounds. Sigh.
My horrendously bad Starcraft II streak continues. FML. I'm pretty sure I'm the worst player at work :(!
The weather has taken a turn for the worse, with bitterly cold wind and rain attacking the city for most of the week. Today was the first day I had to wear my polyprops. I have to say, the awesome jacket and gloves I bought from Hong Kong have definitely come in handy! I don't know how I survived last winter without something as snuggly and warm.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:37am on Friday May 28, 2010 :: 1 comment ::
KCC Youth Skit
Wednesday May 19, 2010
I just downloaded and watched the youth skit that the Ignite crew put on for the service on May 16th 2010. Great job guys! I felt compelled to share that with you.
I'm tired. I just got home from badminton. Whee~!
Posted by Jeremy at 9:34am on Wednesday May 19, 2010 :: 0 comments ::
Better Late Than Never
Sunday May 16, 2010
Portal is on Steam for free until May 24th, so I took the opportunity to download all 3.8GB of it. I'm still somewhere in the test chambers, but it's a very interesting (yet creepy) game.
Also on the gaming front, I finally gathered enough courage to play my first placement match in Starcraft II. I did a quick build for a banshee, got one out with a few more on the way, and took out all my opponent's SCVs with my lone banshee. When he realised what was happening, he sent some marines over but I had cloaked it and pretty soon after he quit. Victory was mine!
Yesterday I barely spent any time at home. It was an early start with badminton for an hour with Surya, Tyler and Leighton, a quick lunch at home, then the Wellington Food Show at Westpac Stadium with Mel and John. There was a lot of tasty things to sample, including oils, vinaigrettes, pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, cheese, pizza, bacon, sausages, smoked chicken, clams, mussels, ice cream, wine, fruit cider, cocktail mixes... We spent around three hours there, tasting and taking pictures, before heading out and going for dinner at this pub on Tinakori Road. Yum!
Posted by Jeremy at 8:48am on Sunday May 16, 2010 :: 0 comments ::
Twenty Five Inches of Liquid Crystal Goodness
Wednesday January 13, 2010
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
Posted by Jeremy at 2:34pm on Wednesday January 13, 2010 :: 0 comments ::
Site Work
Wednesday December 30, 2009
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.
Posted by Jeremy at 2:02am on Wednesday December 30, 2009 :: 0 comments ::
Bad Start to the Week
Tuesday September 16, 2008
Some things I forgot to mention last week: I saw Hamish Carter, Olympian, Gold Medallist and Auckland Grammar old boy, at the BNZ Food Court. He was buying sushi. I wanted to say hi to him but I was too shy and he was talking to someone else and it would have been cool to get a picture with him in retrospect but there were so many people around I would have looked really stupid and touristy and Azn.
Speaking of Azn, I got interviewed by some Azn magazine so if you see my mug somewhere, you'll know why. She asked me if the Government should be spending more money on the defense force.
Anyway, it has been a pretty bad start to the week. Yesterday I spent the whole day battling with freaking Metrowerksfail over some stupid access paths problem. Apparently, if you have two files of the same name but in different directories, and each of the directories are in your access paths, they are treated as duplicates. What a load of fail.
Following that, I played pretty badly at badminton. I was just smashing the shuttlecock in anger most of the time :p
Today I was just fixing some stupid sound problem and it boiled down to nothing to do with sound, but rather the directories in which the resources were located. Blah.
Posted by Jeremy at 8:24am on Tuesday September 16, 2008 :: 0 comments ::
A Symphony of Fail and Time
Friday August 29, 2008
Yes I have strung those random words together purposefully.
I've been pretty busy this whole week - been out late every day except Wednesday when I was on cooking for the flat. Monday was badminton as usual, and that was great because one of my workmates joined me and Sunni for that. The weather was cold and miserable, but I had the car so that was sweet.
Our favourite oboist, Alex, was down from Auckland with the New Zealand Youth Orchestra, so we enjoyed a night of classical harmonies and a touch of opera. Quite cultured, indubitably.
Epic fail on Thursday as our team gathered to submit our game to Sony. The requirements are eight authoring-quality DVDs, which means disks are $25 and burning takes up to two hours on a 1x speed burner. We were five disks through when we realised they didn't boot, and that we had some extra files on there that we shouldn't have. So that was a good $125 down the drain, thanks to my epic fail, and so I stayed late at work to help finish the disks. On the brightside, they were eventually completed and we couriered our precious cargo to Sony. Phew.
Also, I finally finished Braid - the best puzzle game I have ever played. It is an incredibly well thought-out game, with extremely clever puzzles and mechanics that will explode your mind. Braid is available on Xbox Live Arcade, and I highly recommend it for dedicated gamers who live for the satisfaction of solving intense problems.
Oh, by finished, I mean I got the 60 puzzle pieces as well as the Closure Achievement. I didn't get the stars or do a speed run ¬.¬
Posted by Jeremy at 10:16am on Friday August 29, 2008 :: 0 comments ::