Entry Ten: PoC Aftermath.

Carlos told us that Cast Away received an "Abnormally High" grade for PoC, a 94 percent. I couldn't have been happier, although i doubt my facial expression showed it very much. I've always tried to keep a serious and professional complexion during class-time and especially around the EPs, but I don't think that was why I couldn't bring forth a smile upon hearing this news. I have been really really "sick" lately, and the reason I put sick in quotations is because I don't feel sick at all, but my body has been proving otherwise. It's definitely been affecting me in a mental manner as well as physical. I seriously hope this passes soon, because I'm not a fan.

Entry Nine: Peee ohhh seeee

PoC is complete, i finally get a night off. I love life right now. my brain is too fried to think of anything to say here. i'm proud of our PoC - it kicks ass.

that is all.

Entry Eight: Proof of Concept

Monday is the deadline for us to prove our game's concept to our executive producers, and our group is 100% on schedule. I couldn't be more proud of the quality of work Painfully Awesome has put forth since day 1; I'm happy to be a part of this team. That is all.

Entry Seven: Late night's and hard knocks.

So today we faced our first major "omgwtfbbq" moment in our code. We're using a .txt file to read in the names of all of our textures with their corresponding number in our Enum into a std::map and we couldn't figure out why our code wasn't properly loading the textures.

Well, 2 and a half hours later we realized that we weren't calling one simple line of code to ignore new lines in our file-in reader. 2.5 hours for 1 line of code - can you say, facepalm?

It was a major "D'oh!" moment for all of us staring at the code trying to solve the issue; we laughed it off of course and kept working through the day.

Andy Phil and I stayed late tonight to help finish up some of our rendering techniques for our PoC - I feel like we made pretty good progress. At any rate, I'm quite tired and I feel it's time for some well deserved rest. Goodnight Internet!

Entry Six: Music

I feel that it's valid to make the assumption that music plays a huge part in just about every culture. I love music - I have more passion for it than anything else that I do; yes even programming! :O

No matter what i'm doing during a typical day, there's music to go along with it. when i'm working in lab, driving to class, sitting at home, hanging out with friends, eating and even sleeping I have music playing in the background. Music also greatly reflects my current mood, which sort of speaks for itself. People can tell how I'm feeling just by hearing the music that i'm listening to. I think that without music life would be certainly less exciting. I mean, thinking about how many things on this planet revolve around music itself there would be certainly less things to do should music be removed from the global standard.

Music also helps me get through the day. Like I stated earlier, there is music in the background for just about everything I do. It makes certain tedious tasks a bit more bearable and feel like they are easier to accomplish when i'm listening to a good mix. So thank you Musicians and Artists, keep doing what you do to make my day that much more awesome.

Entry Five: Milestone Acceptance

Greetings, Sir Bloggian.

Today was our milestone acceptance for our Proof of Concept. To be blunt: it wasn't as bad as I originally thought. Don't get me wrong though, there were a few things that happened that gave me a pretty huge headache. I'm glad I had this experience though, because its a good reminder that things like this will happen in the industry and I do need to be prepared for them to happen. I have also been thinking a lot about my career choice lately. Going straight into games may be the Best, or the worst thing for me to do; it all really depends on the specific job that I land. I honestly feel like I could have done a lot of things differently during my education here at Full Sail. I have an issue with learning: I only absorb the knowledge I need to pass tests and progress through courses, and once they're over, out the knowledge goes from my head. It's horrible, but its the only way I know how to "do" school. Ever since I was a child its the way I've approached the whole "School" thing. I feel that once I get into the industry that I'll be inferior compared to most of the others around me. It could just all be in my head though, I mean... could I REALLY have gotten this far through the program, know the things that I know, and pass the foundations exam without studying if I didn't know what I was doing? I suppose we'll have to see. I'm scared to death but so excited at the same time to see how the next year of my life plays out.

Entry Four: Spring Break

Hello blog, it sure has been a while!

It feels like months when in reality it was only about 9 days, but oh what a 9 days they were. I was hanging out with a new bunch of friends that I had met about a week prior to spring break; they're a really fun and interesting bunch of people. Coming out of it I feel like I now know some of these people better than people I've known for years, just by spending literally 5-6 days of my break with them at all times.

There were nothing but good times to be had. From spending the night laying on the sand at Cocoa Beach to grilling up hot dogs by the pool at the apartments, there was never a dull moment. I also met a connect at EA games through these new friends which was very cool. I plan on speaking with him more about his particular work; it always helps to know people!

In short, spring break was fantastic. It was nice to have the week off from working; I was beginning to feel really drained. But I've had my break, had my fun and relaxation and now i'm ready to get back to work. Tech doc here I come!