Bydood

Tag: 2014

  • How the new life is so far…

    It has been months since moving from UK to Australia. It has been crazy busy from when I moved and until now, I believe that I have come to a stage where it has kind of calmed down that I can sit back to write an update blog. It has been a while but lets go!

    So what’s changed? I started off with a bit of cash so the minute I landed, I was a little unstable but good thing that I had a place to stay so that was a huge benefit for me.

    With no time wasting, I immediately went job hunting. This initiated with a quick portfolio website for companies to see and whipping something up and looking for work, I felt like the portfolio was the key part of it all. Finding time to do it was difficult but eventually, it was complete… After an extra few days, companies started to call me and several initial tests were sent for me to do. Long story short, it came down to 2 choices where one company was interested and the other still in deciding mode but with a bit of thought, it became clear that I decided to choose the company that suited me best… So 1 month and a bit later, I was in the working life.

    So now the job was clear and out of the way, it came back into looking to find time for my projects, which were put on hold for so long. This became a little difficult as I gave the job priority. It was rather hard to find time since I did a few late nights and stuff but recently, my weekends have now freed up opening time for development.

    My progress now lies at a point where a new project that I thought of a while back can now jump into motion. At the same time, I have given more thought into a web project in collaboration with my brother so with that, I will be busy for the next few months. This is a great feeling as personal development starts here!! This deserves a smiley :).

    In another topic, networking is starting to look better. I am beginning to see a clearer forecast of friendly people to hangout with and stuff. Although this is still a small number, it should rise if I let loose but like I said, it’s only been a few months so let’s see in another fe months to find out where I get to…

    The games part of me have played a bigger role lately. Specifically, the Wii U is the console played most. I suppose I never really saw the potential in the beginning for the Wii U but with the recent games especially Mario Kart 8 (and of course, the multiplayer experience), it changes my whole opinion about the console itself. Maybe I am living in the good old days where play games next to people just makes a game 10 times more enjoyable. Whatever the case, it creates a great diversion away from the world.

    Moving on to a social topic, I ran into a few friends down in Melbourne to see how they were in the weekend. They were friends that I have known for years (since secondary school) and we all decided to redezvous in Australia! It was pleasant seeing these faces again and we had a great time just catching up and hopping from bar to bar. I guess I haven’t really had one of these nights since London but it was sure a good feeling that I was experiencing my first time in Melbourne with these guys! So if you guys are reading this, thanks for that weekend! It was awesome!

    So to sum up my entire time over in Australia, I guess I have been enjoying my time over here so far. The people are pretty nice, work environment is a splendid place to work in and the general networking is slowly happening making everyday a moment to remember. I did start off a little scared moving from a space I was once very comfortable in to an entirely new life but it is growing on me…

    Thanks for reading guys and I will try post more often. Until next time…

  • Kirby: Triple Deluxe – Nintendo 3DS – Review

    Kirby: Triple Deluxe, the Nintendo 3DS version, is actually the first Kirby game I have tried and playing from start to finish, I can give a full review of it.

    Kirby-Triple-Deluxe-300

    The game is developed in a 3D environment but keeping the retro feel by preserving the controls two dimensional. Considering the fact that I have only experienced Kirby controls on Super Smash Bros., the game feels the same when attacking enemies and avoiding the pits of death by inflating the pink bubblegum into the air (one problem: you can puff up Kirby infinitely so although some people will like this, I feel like the challenge decreases as you can float into the air throughout the entire stage).

    The layout of the stages and the interactivity of the game really challenges you ESPECIALLY when you are trying to get all of the Sun Stones and if you fail to comply, you are forced to either die and try again or complete the stage and do it again. I am the type to see that if a stage is not complete with 100% satisfaction, I prefer to do it again.

    It really keeps the player immersed with the variety of weapons Kirby can change into and the challenge of the puzzles. The game is very nicely laid out keeping the “learning as you play” formula. Also, there are some unexpected twists to the environment around every corner that surprised me.

    I feel there was a lot of thought considered into this game. I do believe that the cut scenes could have been good with some voice acting and I was rather disconnected from the storyline but truthfully, the gameplay really made up for those minor disadvantages.

    As a person, this game really fits my category of gaming as I enjoy my fair share of retro gaming. If I was to give a rating, it would be a good 9/10.

  • Experience with TFL!

    I generally never write or even complain much about public transport although there may be certain times where I mention how annoying delays kick in without any reason from TFL. But this one time, I experienced a service I was not satisfied with…

    underground

    Firstly, I’d like to mention my smart watch I purchased a while back. So this is a Sony Smart Watch where it gives you the capability to connect your phone to this device using Bluetooth. You’re able to read tweets from Twitter, statuses from Facebook, a trigger to call your phone in case you lose it… Oh and obviously look at the time. Although there are a few drawbacks to this device but I won’t go through it now. Anyway, back to the story.

    So in the morning around 8.40am, I was on my way to work and usually I travel from national rail, and then 2 underground trains. On the first underground station, I was prepared to get off and as usual, I am readying myself to pace to the exit as soon the doors open to get off the train. As the train door opens, I shot out with my foot onto the platform and my arm swinging pass the door. As my arm passed the door, my watch clipped on to the edge of the door resulting the watch to drop on to the side of the tracks. Here is one thing I did not mention – the smart watch was made of two parts: the wrist band and the watch itself. It gives you an option to detach the smart watch from the wrist band and clip it somewhere else.

    Seeing my small white smart watch on the side of the track, I could identify directly where it is and was very much annoyed with my action. I could even just jump down right there and then to pick it up but two things stopped me from doing that. The first being that it’s dangerous and secondly, a poster is plastered around the tube stations saying somewhere along the lines of: If you have dropped an item onto the track, have a little patience and speak to a member of staff. Trusting this poster, I marched to a member of staff on the same platform and described precisely what happened and said what can he do about it. He took down my details and told me that I should return back the next day to claim my little smart watch. Reason that he couldn’t get it immediately is because as I said before, it was dangerous to do it at that time seeing that it was rush hour and all but in the evening, the tracks will be free so a member of staff can check the tracks. Also, I couldn’t wait around as I had work so I left it and trusted them.

    The very next day, I followed the member of staffs advice which was to go upstairs and ask someone for a supervisor. So I found someone who was able to help me and he told me that he will check. I assumed there was a box of lost stuff so I described precisely what I lost just to put emphasis that the thing they are looking for in this box did not look like a watch, it was a clip on watch. About 10 minutes of waiting, I was told that no one checked the track last night! He told me “We logged it in the book for someone to check the track but I don’t think anyone did so you will have to check tomorrow”! WTF!? As patient as I am, I replied “Okay that is fine however, can I just double check that you have my details”. They confirmed it in the book and so I went off to work.

    The next day, returning back to the same place at the supervisors office, I bumped into “Supervisor Andy”. I told him my situation thinking “Yep… This is the last time I’ll be doing this” and he said “Ok, let me check for you”. He went to the back to check and came back saying “Nope. Nothing there and it seems like no one checked the track again…”. Standing there like a right muppet, I told him “Oooookayyyy. So what can I do about this?” He tells me “Can you go down to the platform and take a look to see if your smart watch is still there? If it is, I’ll just jump down and get it for you!” So hang on a minute, these people made me wait 2 WHOLE DAYS and then giving me a conclusion that if it is STILL THERE, they will jump down to get it at RUSH HOUR on a FRIDAY!? With my head firing out so many questions in my head, I accepted his quest to journey through the huge amount of people rushing to get to work versus me walking the opposite direction just to check. As to no surprise, the smart watch is gone. Returning back to the supervisor empty handed, he goes on to say “Ok you’re not going to like what I am about to say next…” At this point, I really didn’t care anymore. He says “You will have to fill out an online form indicating that there is a lost item”.

    After all this, I have accepted that I will never see this smart watch EVER AGAIN.

    So, my final thought is: Don’t make “have patience and get a member of staff” posters… You just make us look like a mug when you don’t do anything about it! Thanks TFL…