Saturday, December 31, 2011

om nom nom nom

12-31-11 - New Years Resolutions



Well, ponies, tonight's the big ball drop marking the arrival of the big 2012 (our last year on earth according to a buncha tin foil hat wearing nutjob theorists... as far as I'm concerned, the Mayan did not predict it to be the end of the world, just the end of a cycle :P )

And so it is also that time where we all make a resolution, or a specific goal to carry out over the next year. Well here's mine:

1.) To faithfully carry out all my personal projects, that includes the 3D Pony Project, the Spike's Quest videogame, a faithful return to my old webcomic series and the completion of a few other projects that had been sitting idle on my todo list for several years now.

2.) To mark this the year of The Hobbit. What with Peter Jackson bringing The Hobbit to the big screen again at the end of this year, I've made it a goal to make it a big thing. Towards the end of 2012 I'll be arranging a series of personal parties to celebrate the upcoming movie and in those parties we'll be marathoning all thing's Tolkien (ALL the movies, including the animated ones! :D ). And then on the 14th of next December I'll invite all my good local buddies to the premier of The Hobbit. I'll buy all the tickets and after the movie I'll buy everyone a nice meal at The Olive Garden.... Eeyep, I'm going ALL out on this thing!

2.) To also mark this as the second great year of The Pony. 2011 is already known as The Official Year of the Pony, but I'd like to see another whole year of this Pony madness! Let's bring it, bronies! And if SOPA fails, I might even celebrate this with some crazy Pony marathon (including that one g1 movie... shoobeedoo.........eeyeah.... c.c)

3.) This year I vow to be a more healthier individual. That includes watching my diet. Being more careful with my sugar/carbs intake, etc, etc...

4.) To finally get me a car so I can stop being stuck at my apartment all the time. I'm already well on my way to this goal. :3

5.) To join the local art club and also try to produce an original piece of artwork at least once each month for the whole year. Maybe if I stick true to this goal I could start doing commission work. Lord knows I could use the money :P

6.) And officially on December 22, 2012 I'll be throwing a huge "I've survived the end of the world" party. Or at least I'll try to throw one. If I have enough money left over from my crazy Hobbit party thing :P If successful, I hope to not only invite local friends but maybe some of my good online buddies. Who knows, maybe I'll make it an online stream event :D

And that's all I have for this next year's resolutions. :3 So who else is celebrating the ball drop with a pizza and some Smirnoff?

Thursday, December 22, 2011

12-22-11 - My New Tech Revealed



Well there you have it. My new laptop.

I went to Wal Mart yesterday as I said I would and went computer shopping.

unfortunately they did not have the computer I was looking for so I ended up getting the cheapest thing they had.

Its an Acer Aspire One Netbook built in with Windows 7 Starter Edition (say it with me. "Ewwwwwww... starter edition!")

For those who don't know, Starter Edition is the absolute worst version of Windows 7 in that its very limiting. Its actually just a demo of the actual Windows 7 os (you literally have to hack the damn thing to change the desktop background! *RAGE!!!*), and so I found out the hard way that I have to spend a ton more money just to purchase a fully function-able Windows 7 OS.... Microsoft, I am disappoint!

But aside from that, I'm actually loving my new toy. The keyboard is of a perfect (and comfortable) size for me to do my work on, and the Acer, despite how small it may look from a glance (its exactly the same size as my Bamboo Tablet) is actually just right!

Also the computer itself is surprisingly light, making it all the more portable :)

And the battery lasts a descent 4 hours.

I purchased a cheap wireless mouse with matching colors to go with it. (please take my word for it... cheap wireless mouse is cheap. And not really in a good way... :P )

I spent the whole day yesterday installing my usual software (in between playing with and caring for my new puppy.)

And now I'm looking forward to doing some actual work on it. :)

Once more though, I say stay tuned! I'll try to keep y'all updated on any kind of progress.

Half of the day today will be spent doing last minute Christmas shopping :P

Wish me luck!

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

12/21/11 - Updating my Tech / New Family Member

I've got a $100 holiday bonus for the month so today I'll be going out to buy myself an early Christmas present.

I'm leaning very heavily towards a new laptop, one that would be able to run all my needed software without dumb outdated errors :P I'm hoping the new  virtual atmosphere of a new computer may also help inspire me to be more productive on these projects.



I do have a valid excuse for not being very productive in recent days... (see picture) meet Millie (short for Millicent, and named after Millie from the oncew popular Ozy and Millie web cartoons), another early Christmas present from my grandparents. She's quiet the handful! Since its too cold to walk her I'm having to house train her on those expensive blue pet pads and at night I have to keep her in a little baby play-pin and dagnabbit, she gets LOUD at these times!

Still, she's quiet a bundle of joy. My grandmother sugested I keep her for a few days and see if I can handle such an extra amount of responsibility... and while I'm on the fense about it, I cant help but adore Millie regardless of how messy and yappy she may be :3

I'm trying to work out ways that I can keep a watch on her while I work on my projects. I'm honestly a bit stumped... so if anypony here has any good advise about keeping new young puppies while still maintaining large personal projects, please post your suggestions here!

I'll try to keep y'all updated!

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

11-13-11 - Enhancing the Map System

Today I'm putting the inventory system on hold in favor of enhancing the map editor. This will be in favor of an easier to use interface as well as the ability to use more than one tileset for different maps.

Also I've often considered making a special map editor that other people could use to make custom Spike's Quest levels with a level player emulator. This could be used to make some challenging levels of your own to share with others. Kind of like those Mario Bros level editors that we often see floating around the internet from time to time. Not sure if such an project would be ready for the next test demo, but we shall see!

Another note, I've been considering redoing Spike's sprite set making it look better and whatnot. its a huge 'maybe' though so dont go expecting it :P

Monday, December 12, 2011

12-12-11 - New Demo Deadline

Demo #5 will be due out for the 5th of January.

Why am I going back to using deadlines again? Well simply because since I've done away with them I've become way too relaxed even to the point of doing absolutely nothing for long periods of time... I'm pretty dang upset with myself about it... so yeah.

Strict deadlines for the sake of motivation and being productive. :P

Hurray.

MAJOR CHANGE:  I've decided to extend the deadline to the 30th, giving me more time to make the demo worthwhile ;)

but from this time until then I'll be working my flank off everyday (maybe except Saturdays) until the demo is finished to 'perfection'