Seven Years
Sunday February 8, 2015
It has been just over seven years to the date when I left Auckland to start a new life in Wellington as a fresh graduate programmer for a video games company that no one could pronounce called Sidhe. Seven years...that's a quarter of my life now. It's been an incredible journey and I've learned so much in that time. I've worked with heaps of cool people and made some awesome games, and I have many proud achievements from my time at work.
Despite the physical separation, I have kept in contact with many of my friends at KCC, my church in Auckland, and regularly see them and hang out whenever I'm back up for holiday. This past Waitangi weekend, I flew up specially for the KCC church camp at Chosen Valley in the Ararimu Valley, near Bombay. Though I did miss out on quite a few of the team activities, I managed to participate in the clue hunt and relay, where I was the kayaker for the first leg of the race. There was amazing food thanks to Uncle Sam and Auntie Cynthia, several games of late night Mafia, karting, flying foxes, archery, a bonfire, plenty of singing and lots of good learnings to take away from the camp.
The bonfire was quite a highlight. As we gathered around the warmth of the flames, we started singing some good old Christian songs like How Great Thou Art and Refiner's Fire. As the adults started to leave, we started busting out some more mainstream tunes like Maroon 5, Backstreet Boys and every Disney song imaginable: Let it Go, Circle of Life, Be Prepared, Colours of the Wind, I'll Make a Man out of You, Under the Sea, Be Our Guest.... so good.
And of course, Mafia was another big highlight. There were so many people interested in playing Mafia... it's been ages since I've last had to juggle more than 20 players. In addition to the regular detective, doctor and sniper, I threw in a resurrecting character (aptly named Jesus, because he rises again on the third day), the pig (who can only say "pig") and the jester (who wins if they get hung by the citizens during the day). Moreover, I imposed a six minute time limit with a random death if none had been decided on during the day, and the mafioso got to kill two people per night. The dynamics worked well once I had gotten my head around managing the characters, but I find with a crowd that big, interest begins to wane quite rapidly among several players (especially since we often play past midnight, people get quite sleepy) and it isn't as intimate or intense as with, say, fifteen people. It's good to see my regular crew being strong players - I feel like I have taught you well!
When I arrived on the Friday, I was a bit overwhelmed with how many faces I didn't know, but there's nothing like a good solid game of Mafia to get to know people. The congregation has changed so much while I've been away, but the people of KCC are always so welcoming and warm, it feels like I've never left at all. It's been a most memorable weekend.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:22am on Sunday February 8, 2015 :: 0 comments :: 
Friday Fail
Friday February 13, 2009
Okay yeah, I've been pretty much working on the BIG SECRET EXCLUSIVE SITE every night of the week, so of course that means blogging gets pushed out.
Anyway, Friday Fail is a term used by our senior programmer, Steve, on Fridays when we meet for our daily meeting at the couch area at work, and browse FailBlog. Steve left us on Tuesday, and now there is a failure of Friday Fail, and as a result, team morale was lower than usual and heaps of things ended up breaking.
Last week, in recognition of Steve leaving, we booby trapped our game for his last Show and Tell. He demonstrated our progress on the game and spoke about the various changes we made. As he wrapped up, we got him to go back to the main menus and *bam*, we sprung a picture of him in his "underpants costume" from Halloween (this was from his old work place), accompanied by Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On". Needless to say, his mouth gaped open for a good half minute and he scurried off stage. We'll miss you, Steve.
Show and Tell usually happens on a Friday, but as you're all aware, last week was Waitangi Weekend, so immedately after Show and Tell I had to rush to the airport and catch a flight back to Auckland. As tradition stands, I made a beeline to Momo Tea in Mt. Albert, and hung out with my youth group, having some hearty food and some delicious drinks.
Friday morning I had music practice, and following that, Bob's unsurprise barbeque at Ray's place. This pretty much lasted the whole day, with some awesome food and lots of Rock Band. No Stephen, this was the PS3 version so we didn't play Still Alive. We played some outdoor badminton too, until we started getting attacked by the mosquitos. Towards the end of the night, we hung out for more drinks at EasyWay and played last card, until we were pretty much sick of last card and headed our seperate ways.
On Saturday I pretty much lazed around, but in the afternoon I met up with Mat and Will and took a stroll around Albert Park, just observing the lanterns and inhaling the wonderful aromas of the roadside food. It was a gloriously hot day, and I am often reminded about the surprisingly large temperature difference between Auckland and Wellington.
I spent Saturday night with family for our reunion dinner, which I would say was the main purpose of the trip. I dunno, I kinda feel very sentimental about these things, I was a bit disappointed about missing Chinese New Year last year. Family's important to me, and reunion dinner is just one of those symbolic meals that you share with family, a bit like how Christmas is so important to some people.
Sunday was pretty much church and lunch at (where else) Ha Long, before I caught up with my sister, who insisted on showing me various painted windows, her coffee table, her new laptop and her photo board. And before long, it was time to head back to the airport and start the journey back to Wellington. Sigh.
Posted by Jeremy at 8:09am on Friday February 13, 2009 :: 0 comments ::