Videogame Development Club

I decided to join the first meeting to see what the club was about.  I was under the impression that we would be going in there and playing some Rock Band 2 and having game developers come in and talk to us.  Oh man, such an awakening to me when the president of club went around in a circle (starting with me! o.0) asking for each person's name, e-mail, and "position".  I was shocked and started to wig out until I realized that were actually going to MAKE a game in that club.  These clubs are totally different from ones I've been in before from high school, this was serious and hard core.  I volunteered to do Animation, concept art, and Audio (such as sound effects and music).  By this point, I was thinking "what have I gotten myself into?"  Even more, my room mate joined me yesturday for the club and didn't know what we were doing, and he agreed to join!  LOL, but that's cool, we needed more people in that club.  There's only one girl in the club, so It's sad to see that not a lot of girls seem to interested in the Interactive Entertainment business.  Besides making a game, we'll be working with possibly mods using the Unreal Tournament engine, Marrow Wind, and even the Warcraft III map maker to mod games.  Other than that, we can LAN our games and "test them out" lol.  So after a while, I got really interested and realized the oppertunity I've been given.  I came to UCI hoping to be working with things relating to my future career, and here I am about to start!  (This is considering how boring my classes are too...).  Further more, there's a possibility that my club can sell our game commercially if it is completed.  That is awesome.

Anyways, diverting from making games, I checked up this morning on what games have the updates on them.  Appearently, Sonic Chronicles is out.  It's very different from its past games as it is a RPG game on the NDS instead of its traditional, fast-paced, 2d-platformer games.  I'll get around to playing that later in the future since I'm kinda busy with so many other things (such as other games I have yet to beat yet).

But more than anything, I got excited with the new trailer for Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia.  Michiru Yamane is yet again the mastermind for the soundtracks in the game, and the main theme is just awesome.

Hagakure Excerpts

Hagakure - The Book of the Samurai, written by Yamamoto Tsunetomo and Translated by William Scott Wilson is kinda like a diary of philosophical advice on how to live as a samurai and as a human being.  It was written between 1659-1719, the life time of Tsunetomo-sensei.  I recieved this book from my sister on christmas.....of 2006.  Yeah, I'm not a very diligent reader, but I can once I get into it.  Anyways, Tsunetomo-Sensei was a Samurai and was near the end of the wars and the end of his master's rule.  He was going to perform Seppuku (honorable suicide by dis-embowling yourself with your katana), but was forbidden to do so by his time.  So he became a monk, and started to record ways in which one should act as a samurai and as a human being.  While reading though, somethings were inspiring; however, the things he says sometimes is absurd within or modern age.  So I thought I'd share some of the excerpts from the book with everyone and tell you what I was thinking:

Page 60- "Senility is when one goes about doing only that towards which he is most inclined.  One is able to suppress and hide this while his vigor is still strong, but when he weakens, the essential strong points of his nature appear and are a shame to him.  This manifest itself in several forms, but there is not a man who does not get senile by the time he reaches sixty.  And when one thinks that he will not be senile, he is already so."

   Trenton- I knew it!!! We're all crazy, we just don't know it yet!!!

Page 60 & 61- "According to a story at the Ryuutaiji, there was a master of the Book of Changes in the Kamigata area who said that even if a man is a priest, it is useless to give him rank while he is under the age of forty.  This is because he will make many mistakes.  Confuscius was not the only  man to become unperplexed after reaching the age of forty.  Upon reaching the age of forty, both wise and foolish have gone through an appropriate amount of experience and will no longer be perplexed."

   Trenton- I guess we should listen to our parents more often?  I don't know, I think even at the age of 40, I'm going to be still very perplex in life.....

Page 61- "When I was young, I kept a "Diary of Regret" and tried to record my mistakes day by day, but there was never a day when I didn't have twenty or thirty entries.  As there was no end to it, I gave up.  Even today, when I think about the day's affairs after going to bed, there is never a day when I do not make some blunder in speaking or in some activity.  Living without mistakes is truly impossible.  But this is something that people who live by cleverness have no inclination to think about."

   Trenton- If I did that, STARTING a "Diary of Regret" would have been the biggest regret.  We would truly become senile if we were to mark every mistake we've done each day and pay attention to our mishaps.  No matter how old or intelligent we may become, we are bound to have flaws within ourselves and in what we do.  If not, growth in body and mind wouldn't be possible.

Well, if you're interested, this books sells for about $20 or so since it was written AND translated (yeah, I hate expensive books too).  But you could probably find Hagakure for cheaper somewhere else.

In UC Irvine!

Well, it has been one heck of a week with moving and constant walking around the campus.  There are tons of events and clubs on school campus as well as many shopping centers outside of campus.  I'm pretty well adjusted to the enviornment; however, I'm started to dread school life as school has started for UC students.  I recieved my first assignments and just today found out which books I need for 2 of my classes.  Other than classes, I'm thinking of joining the Videogame Development club and help me network into the business as many current employers of the industry will drop by the club and tell us about the job and what can be done to get in.  Other than that, I'm also thinking of joining Tomo no Kai (Gathering of Friends) club which is kinda like my Japanese Culture Club back in High school.  The first meeting started out with the Jodaiko club's performance:

School life here is a lot different from what I'm used to.  I get more tired than I usually am because I walk a lot around campus.  There's lots of misc. reading I do as well since I was thinking of applying for internships and for a study abroad program.  I was also thinking of working at my community center as a computer consultant, but looking at the requirements and expectations made me bored and wonder if I should put any effort into applying for it (resume, applications, questions, references, all that junk just to help people with thier computer problems....).  So I'm hoping to find a nice internship where I can actually learn something.  I hope school will be fun because I'm putting a lot of time, effort and money into it.

On weekends so far, I don't do much, so anyone wants to play an online game or something, feel free to call or message me.

Excite, happy, nervous, buh?

I got new laptop, ipod touch, yamaha headphones, keyboard sustain pedal, a new phone (same number, don't worry), external hard drive, a wireless mouse, and a really cool mouse pad to start my new life in college....which doesn't really start until next week.

It was very tiring trying to find out how to get applications on my new ipod (which appearently I can't because of my firmware) and getting my laptop to dual boot was a nightware as I spent 2 entire days working on it. I say it was worth it because I learned a lot more about computers through my struggle. School is approaching and I'm kinda nervous about the difference in enviornment is going to be. Doing my own laundry is one of my concerns, and so will living with a room mate. I'm just hoping for the best and maybe become good friends with my room mates. I am a bit excited about the new classes I'm going to be taking as well as dreading the ones I'm gonna hate (Art History, ewwwhwhehwwww, but not this quarter).

But enough of school stuff, I learned some new things in the gaming world that excites me!

Phantasy Star Universe wasn't a big hit to the fans of Phantasy Star Online, but it was sure interesting to me.  I haven't gotten that far on PSU, but I've been hoping for a handheld version of the series for a while.  So to hear that there's one coming out on PSP (a system I do not have....) I got really excite yet sad since I don't have a PSP.  But then I heard there was one coming out for the DS:

It's going to be 4 player co-op, Action RPG, with Wi-Fi online capabilties of playing with other players.  You would use the touch screen to give directions or ask for orders to communicate with other players.

It's....It's so beautiful~~~~~~Unfortunately for me, it doesn't come out till December.....In JAPAN!!!  Which means I might have to wait till next summer or longer before it comes to America.  It should be brought over considering the success of PSO and eventually PSU because of the expansion pack.

I don't have to be too sad, since Castlevania Order of Ecclesia is coming out (supposedly) October 28 or so.  Castlevania being one of my favorite francises in the gaming world, I am definately buying that game when it comes out.

mmm, hot girl that kills tons of demons and vampires...okay, she's not incredibly hot, but I like how they have a female lead character (I guess Charlotte counts from the last installment).  This character looks very serious and dire compared to Charlotte though.  And from what I understand, you don't pick up weapons in the game, but glyphs.  Glyphs have abilities of summons, magic, and effect by conjuring it and using a bit of mp (magic power).  So a sword could emerge out of thin air by using a sword glyph.  This is only a guess, so I'm not sure if that's how it really looks.

Another Castlevania game coming out takes a bold turn and becomes a fighting game:

Castlevania Judgement gave me a real shock when I first heard about it on Nintendo Power magazine (while I was down in Irvine during July too if anyone remembers that post).  But I like fighting games, and I love Castlevania, so I'm hoping this game will be at least decent.  A lot of fans didn't like the 3D castlevania, so it's no surprise to see a whole bunch of whiners complaining about this game (btw, I liked the 3D castlevania games and am trying to beat Curse of Darkness).

Well, I'm going to be leaving soon and going to Irvine, and I'm going to really miss everyone here and the ones going to different colleges.  I wish all of you the best of luck this school year and will continue to blog in the future~