Frustration
Tuesday March 31, 2015
There's a story somewhere on the Internet that shows an insight into a couple's diary entries for the day. The girl laments about her boyfriend's inattention, the lack of conversation, and worries about his emotional needs, whether she's done something wrong, whether he's cheating on her, and it goes on and on and on. The guy's entry is a single line: "Code is broken, don't know why."
Well that's me today! Code is broken, don't know why. Yesterday I spent the day upgrading the project to Unity 5. The animation stuff is pretty fantastic, and hopefully provides lots of optimisations, but unfortunately they've reworked the internals of it completely so lots of our animation-related tools have broken. Today I was trying to fix up a tool that duplicates a Mecanim graph into several different layers, but the state machine on the second layer just won't serialise.
In addition to that, I'm also worrying about finding a new place to live. Our property managers, Quinovic Vivian St, served us 90 days notice because they thought we'd signed for 12 months but in fact we had signed for six months ending February 2015 and have since rolled on to a periodic tenancy. I know three months is a long time but that doesn't mean I can be relaxed about it. The sooner I find a place, the sooner I can move and get this over with. Being on a periodic tenancy does mean we only have to give 21 days notice if we find a place, so hopefully that works in our favour.
Posted by Jeremy at 8:59am on Tuesday March 31, 2015 :: 0 comments :: 
Supa Dupa Cuba Dupa
Monday March 30, 2015
Last weekend, Mat was down for a visit so we checked out the Cuba Dupa festival and its eclectic shows and performances, as well as the amazing smells of the street food being served by local businesses. Got a delicious Bluff oyster from Matterhorn, and unfortunately was too full to try the smoked ribs proudly on display outside El Matador! The weather was a little wet and windy, but despite that, the crowds had turned out in force. Good times! We ended the day with dinner from Origami and dessert from Strawberry Fare.
On Sunday, I caught up with Vaughan, Alan, Aaron, Charles and Megan at Spruce Goose on a very sunny Sunday morning. The weather worsened over the day and I was a little rained out heading to the gym, but otherwise it was good to see more of Cuba Dupa still happening in the afternoon. I joined some workmates at the Bruhaus for a very disappointing Cricket World Cup final.
Ah cricket.
It was only in this last week that the whole nation suddenly began caring about cricket. Normally, we find it boring as hell, with really only the highlights being watchable. But at the semifinals between New Zealand and South Africa, there was a sense of excitement and tension. There was drama. There were epic moments. We began strong, striking wicket after wicket but South Africa posted a commendable 281 runs from 43 overs. When it was time for New Zealand to bat, we had a tough 298 to chase thanks to the Duckworth/Lewis method for calculating targets from play interrupted by rain. But what a close call - Grant Elliot's final triumph in the second to last ball of the game. With five runs needed, he smacks the sweetest six you've ever seen into a crowd of excited Kiwis - moments before, so still and nervous at the prospect of losing this match. Truly fantastic.
Quick summary of the last few weeks: we farewelled Joe on Friday with some tequila shots and a strong showing at karaoke, it was Will's birthday on Thursday so we were out pretty late at the Bruhaus, had a Disney Marathon and saw Tangled, Tarzan and the Lion King, and also saw Chappie (it was the worst). Work has been pretty samey lately, but next month will be a tough slog. It's almost April already...sheesh.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:13am on Monday March 30, 2015 :: 0 comments ::
Definitely Not Anything Special Today
Sunday March 1, 2015
It's been a tough week. I've had to cram six days' work into four days (rather reminiscent of what happened on Auckland anniversary weekend), and towards the end of the week, both my lead artist and I have been under increasing pressure to complete our tasks as well as co-ordinate other members of the team and ensure we have a build to send out for our milestone. There have been a lot of distractions around our area and we've just found it difficult to focus and be productive. There was a big news bombshell dropped on us on Friday, as well as being Josh's last day at work. It's sad to see people go; we've lost so many in the past couple of months. It's not an indication of the company's health, I think people are just at that point in their lives, all coincidentally. I can't expect people to stay forever, but at the same time... it just seems to have happened all so suddenly. Sigh.
So I was thankful to Christine and Jen, as well as their co-stars Rose, Abby and Caitlin, for their performances at BATS Theatre in an improv show called Definitely Not Witches. Laughter truly is the best medicine, and the show on Friday was so impressive that I booked tickets for the Saturday show too. It was good to hang with friends and go for dinner and have the week behind me, but it was a bonus to be able to be entertained and laugh so much on two successive nights.
Yesterday was the PikPok family day too. We started off at Mission Inflatable just by the train station in the morning, then to Thorndon pools for a barbeque and dip in the afternoon. We learned that we aren't as durable as we thought we were, but still had heaps of fun on the obstacle course, mechanical bull and various other bouncy arenas. Didn't come away with too many injuries! The pools were a bit more relaxed, I busied myself with food preparation and cooking, but couldn't resist the chance to dive into the water just before lunch was ready. The spa was pretty relaxing too; again, it was just awesome to hang out with cool people whose company I enjoy. After heading home for a quick nap, I went into town again for a Chinese New Year dinner at Big Thumb, then the last night of Definitely Not Witches and finally a good solid two hours of karaoke at K Zone.
At some point heading home, I did let it slip that today was the 1st of March.
But it doesn't matter what day it is, people still turned up for a good time and I really enjoyed this weekend. Thanks to all who made it so memorable, I'm truly blessed to have people like you as colleagues and friends.
Posted by Jeremy at 1:33am on Sunday March 1, 2015 :: 0 comments ::
Chinese New Year
Wednesday February 25, 2015
So much food.
I've been up in Auckland with family celebrating Chinese New Year. 2015 is the year of the sheep! I drove to the airport last Thursday with Phil and was surprised to see Dana and Angeline taking the same flight to Auckland; Dana for the Foo Fighters concert and Angeline to get back to University. Angeline is taking CompSci and was keen to chat to me about courses and careers and things like that, and it was kinda interesting to hear that not much had changed with CompSci101.
I followed dad into town on Friday and saw Andy at Wedge Juice Bar, and met up with Bobby and Raymond for lunch at Nol Bu Ne, then dessert at Meet Fresh. We went home early because they had cooked a rich abalone stew on Wednesday night and needed to finish the leftovers before the weekend, so we gorged ourselves with this amazing dish, before heading out to Musashi for dinner - soft-shelled crab!!! Still in the mood for more, we went to Chiko's for their summer special dessert - halo halo, which is like a Filipino ice kacang. This one had taro ice cream, red beans, green beans, French pastries and some miscellaneous jellies and fruit strewn throughout the shaved ice. Yum!
On Saturday, we had music practice at KCC and yum cha at Wing Wah, before I headed home to help cook for our belated reunion dinner. I did my lettuce wrap, dad made a stir-fried prawns dish, Khim made dumplings and Anita brought some roast pork and barbeque pork. What a feed! Still, it didn't compare to the feasts happening back in Malaysia. Plenty of updates coming through from WhatsApp showing us all the delicious things we're missing out on! One day I will go back to Malaysia for Chinese New Year.
Music went well on Sunday morning at KCC, and I was back at Wing Wah for yum cha again. On Sunday night however, we went to KK in Greenlane for a special Chinese New Year banquet menu for invited guests only! It was a nine course dinner with dishes they don't normally serve on the a la carte menu. On Monday, I was in town again meeting up with my school mates for lunch at Mezze. I caught up with Will, who I hadn't seen in over four years, and we wandered around town via Giapo and Moustache. Good times.
Last week was the inaugural PikPok Plunge, a company challenge to jump off the wooden plank down by the waterfront. Brett organised a barbeque and Juliann, Mana and I sorted out the food for several hungry colleagues who had turned up to Frank Kitts Park to watch a team of thirteen sport their best costumes, dives and splashes into the harbour. The weather was absolutely stunning for the event, and it really is true that you can't beat Wellington on a good day.
We also farewelled Prashant, the animator on my project, and Jimmy, who has been my designer for every project except one, for the last five years. We celebrated their time with us with a meal at Thunderbird Cafe and some French delectables from Louis Sergeant afterwards. This one I got was a violet dome of white chocolate and blackcurrant mousse. Furthermore, I brought a black forest cake, pandan cake, pineapple, melon, lychee and mango biscuits, some sesame balls and some mango and lychee jellies to celebrate Chinese New Year, my work anniversary and my birthday at all once.
This weekend, we'll be at the PikPok Family Day and a Chinese New Year dinner that coincides with the beginning of autumn. There has been so much food, but there's no other way I'd celebrate Chinese New Year. Family and food are the best.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:18am on Wednesday February 25, 2015 :: 0 comments ::
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 ::