Celtore

I will become a fully fledged software engie, so that's exciting! I'm pretty confident I'll find a nice job locally too. I don't know what I'm going to be doing after this year, I haven't really written my tale this far in advance. I created a 4 year plan 3.5 years ago and I'm approaching a bit of a "now what" moment. I suppose that adds a bit of excitement to the coming years.

Motivational words for the year: CONSTANT VIGILANCE!

Positive highlights:

- I'm looking forward to seeing the switch, for better or for worse. I've always been a Nintendo guy.

- I'll probably get to witness yet another full cycle around the sun.

- I will get a lot of personal time back in April. I may get back into playing music again and pick up drawing again.

- I'm starting a bit of an exercise routine, so hopefully that goes well.

I'd have to say Android. It's not perfect and its development environment doesn't hold a candle to the painlessness of Microsoft's platform (and Java? Really?), but to me, it's still less bad than iOS.

I'm happy here in Canada for the most part. I love complaining about politics and the constant seasonal flip flopping between too hot and too cold, but it's not all that bad up here.

I do sometimes think about living in other places though. Alaska I've thought about a fair bit after I visited there a few years ago. The landscape is amazing and I prefer cooler climates, but politics in the US is a bit too scary right now. I thought about Australia, but I fear it might be a bit too expensive; a more likelier choice would be the Netherlands. Not only because of the whole WW2 thing, but from what I've seen, it looks like a lovely place to make a home.

Oh god no to all of the above. I hate the smell of both and my nose and throat are really, really sensitive to people who over apply the stuff. I prefer people that smell like nothing. I don't mind the smell of sweat either though, it's a natural thing that happens when you work hard.

I'm fairly sure the WiiU will be completely superseded by the Switch, although there will no doubt be an overlap before all support for the WiiU is withdrawn, just like Microsoft and Sony do with their consoles, let the new one bed in before cutting the old one adrift.

 

But abandoning the 3DS would be suicide.  The Gameboy (and its descendants) has been Nintendo's rock for many years, it's the one product that has outlasted all of the competition and has a proven pedigree of success.  If nothing else, it fits in your pocket and you can take it anywhere, the same can't be said for the Switch.  And with the new 3DS only (comparatively) recently launched and selling well, it would be a titanic blunder for them to do away with it in favour of a new system with no such track record.

I understand the fear of abandoning the handheld, but the handheld is unfortunately a dead end. With the emergence of smartphone technology, there's no need for a new handheld. The 3DS was a bit ahead of the competition at the time, Android was only on honeycomb and icecream sandwich, but times have changed and mobile devices keep getting more capable by the year. Why would a casual gamer buy the next portable generation? Especially if it's released with a very weak starting lineup like the 3DS was? The predictable answer is "better games", but nothing is stopping developers from publishing to these platforms too; heck, the next professor layton game is being pushed to the 3DS and android/ios.

Maybe I'm gazing a little too far in the future, but I see very little potential for growth in the handheld market and much more potential trying to unify their audience now that they finally have a feasible chance to do so. The 3DS has been selling a little bit worse than the previous DS and I can't see why releasing a new handheld would change that (especially now with mobile slowly becoming a genuine threat.) Perhaps their next handheld could be a "switch mini" to replace the DS at the price of forced portable mode and a smaller screen. They wouldn't fragment their market and it would offer the size option for the gamers who want something more portable.

I'm being carefully positive about the switch, there are a lot of things that could go wrong. The worst thing I think Nintendo could do is not commit 100% with the switch as their new platform. It must succeed both the 3DS and Wii U lines and not become an awkward product in the middle between "powerful console" and "portable console." I don't think the market will be accepting of a jack of all trades console if Nintendo maintains its portable and home console product lines; the hardcore audience will go to the classic console and the casual audience will stick with the DS line. This thing can't just be just another product line if Nintendo wants it to succeed and be embraced by gamers and developers.

Beyond that, there's also the question of power, battery life, third party developer support, starting game lineup, price, etc. But I believe these questions will be answered relatively soon. Hopefully, I mean the thing releases in a few months. Again, I really hope it succeeds, I've been a Nintendo guy since I was a kid and I'm probably going to buy it regardless.

With the start of 2017, I wanted to share something a bit touching. Yes it's an ad, but still a really nice short animation with a positive message.

Edit: Ok, never mind. Screw you too, landmark cinemas.

Probably a bird keeper. Flying is one of my favourite types because of how much versatility it has. It has a good mix of sweepers and bulky walls to make for a pretty terrifying team, of course including Skarmory, numerous dragon types, togekiss, talonflame, charizard, aerodactyl, etc. You know, something other than fearows and noctowls.

I really enjoy pinball when I get the chance to play it. I've never been very good at it, but it's pretty fun. As of late, I've only seen them around in random older or frugal establishments like certain golf driving ranges and family-owned restaurants, but I play those machines if I happen to have change on me.

Quite simple, I'd go flying around the world on the back of a (mega) pidgeot or aerodactyl. I'd catch only flying types; flying is my favourite type because of how varied the secondary typings are. I'd also catch a skarmory, crobat, talonflame and honchkrow, but that would be it. Just enough for one team.

I've had to go to the hospital a couple of times before where I had to wear one of those. It felt a bit dehumanizing to me. I get a bit nervous and somewhat frightened when it comes to going to the hospital or doctor's and the gown really doesn't help and triggers more nervousness. On top of that, yeah, there's the modesty angle. Fortunately at the hospital I went to, there are very few reasons for leaving the room. Food is delivered and each room has a toilet.

Sit there forever and mourn my poor life choices. Seriously though, it depends where I am. The toilet paper is always stored in the bathroom, so home that never happens. In public, I either ask the person next to me for a few squares or (when the bathroom is empty) stealthily move from one stall to another with toilet paper. A bit risky, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I also make sure to check to ensure this doesn't need to happen.

I like applicable physics, like forces, fluid mechanics and such. Im far more likely to encounter scenarios of moving objects around than playing with chemicals. That was one of my issues with chemistry in my high school days.

I'm also kind of interested in cryptography, but I'm not really that advanced at it. I can implement algorithms fairly decently for my own use, but I can't see myself ever rolling something custom like Bruce Schneier.

In some aspects, yes. It will be my last year of college after my 5 year plan to worm my way into the software industry. I'm a bit nervous of the next few steps following "get a job", but we'll deal with that when we get there.

A bit frustrated. I tried being patient with Microsoft and their crappy updates on this laptop, but then they start throwing random error codes at me. Whenever I diagnose one of them, another appears. I'm about five steps away from Linuxing this device up.

Edit: SCREW IT! Installing it.

I don't know, I slightly doubt I could pull off Luna's floaty space mane as mesmerizing as that would be.

Now, if I could have her mane as my beard...

Snow can be a royal pain in the butt. Even when you live in somewhere like Canada, drivers still somehow forget every year how to handle icy and snowy roads. Sometimes I adjust my plans accordingly to the weather, especially when it comes to bad snowstorms approaching after sundown. Snow can reduce your visibility so much when there aren't any streetlights on the road and you can only rely on your headlights.

On the other hand though, it can be really pretty and make for some great pictures. It's also way better than summer heat waves.

The heaviest thing I know of for certain are two bags at work, each of which were carrying about 40 pounds of clay bricks. However, I think moving my bed up a flight of stairs was possibly the heaviest thing I've ever lifted/moved.

There's sadly nothing I can really find specific for your use case. The closest is MUGEN engine, but they're 2d. I guess you could possibly use CryEngine and maaaaybe Panda3D (just blur your eyes a bit to make it look nice.) There's also Godot, which I remember being somewhat close to unity's UI. Didnt use it for long though because I messed up the compilation.

If you really want to go low level though and implement your own physics system, I couldnt recommend monogame enough. Its a fantastic framework.

A poster of King Lear which was actually hung up at the Stratford Festival Theater back in 1985 and a really nice new laptop Im typing from. It's the first laptop I've had in a very long time that I'm really happy with. I can touch type on it and I've only had it powered up for a few minutes.

I'd probably want to be my main OC if I did, so that would mean mare.

Yep, I've got a bright red mark on my stomach, just slightly up and to the right of the belly button. I was pretty fortunate about its location, it's in a pretty discrete place.

I'm a big fan of golden retrievers. I have yet to run into one who I haven't ended up becoming good friends with. They're just so sweet in personality.

Border collies are also up there. They're really friendly and they're really smart. They also have a really distinct appearance with their typical black or brown and white markings.

Oh heck yes I do. I gave ebooks a chance, but there's something missing in the experience of reading the book on an ebook reader rather than a physical copy. Its kind of like playing on a real SNES versus playing an emulator. Hypothetically it should be the same experience, but it's not. At any rate, my ebook reader can't power up anymore anyways and I'm back to reading real books.

I don't think so. I'm still seeing a lot of book stores around me in spite of ebooks. Speaking personally as well, I'm not a huge fan of them. I gave ebooks a fair try and I get the appeal of not having books take up as much space and saving on the physical resources, but the experience of actually reading the book doesn't feel right. There's something tangible about a physical book these devices aren't producing. At any rate, I sincerely hope bookstores don't become extinct.