Neetgeek Closing Ceremony

Ok.

It's time to close this blog.

The time and effort I spend trying to upkeep this blog is too much considering the things I have and want to do.

Might as well spend the time to do something more productive.

Till the next time this blog is open again!

It was a nice run.

You can try finding me here at best:

Twitch @ twitch.tv/momohoudai

or maybe when I actually get it up:

Tumblr @ faylar.tumblr.com

December! A bit of rant before New Year?

I haven't posted in a while (again), mostly because I didn't feel like I have any energy and time to rant about anything blog worthy. Living alone in Japan has been great, but it made me realize that the me before that wanted to live/work in Japan is very different from the me today (who also wanted to live/work in Japan, don't get me wrong).

I would always think that nothing is going to change. I'm not the kind of person that actively seek change, but it's amazing that despite that, things change not just externally, but also internally. Interests change. Motivations change. Reasons change. So on and so forth.

The most striking example would be fighting games. I wanted to quit fighting games so many times in my life that I have lost count. I started fighting games in 2004-ish I believe and have witnessed the death and incredible rebirth of not just the scene, but also the entire genre as an active member of the scene. I still remember having dreams of going to Japan just to play fighting games with the best. It was one of my many motivations to get better. When I finally got 12 years here however, I no longer has as that much interest anymore. The fact that I had not gone to Takadanobaba's Mikado arcade to play at its peak hours speaks for itself. Even when SFV is releasing, I find it difficult to justify investing time into it, let alone actually purchasing it. There still exists the possibility, but it's bleak as hell.

Well I'm not going to rant on about my fighting game career, but at this point, moreso than before, I'm willing to take a backseat and try to do other stuff.

I don't really know what "other stuff" really is. The problem now is that I have dumbed my goals down to:
- work in a Japanese company
- get a good paying job
- become a programmer
- work in the games industry

All of which I have already achieved.


So now what?

Honestly, I felt that I have already peaked in my programming abilities to the point where I'm more interested in managing and nuturing a team of programmers than improving on my own personal skills. Programming at this level feels very knowledge based. There isn't really any techniques outside of knowing if a method exist or not. It's not like drawing or playing an instrument where you have to train your body to improve. You just find or develop a tool based on other efficient tools to make life better for everyone. Don't get me wrong, it's a wonderful thing, but I felt that I should learn something else. Programming just isn't enough.

So I tried my hand at other things like digital drawing, relearning my piano, trying to relearn music theory to do arrangements, etc. Hopefully once I return from Japan in 2 years, I have a better set of skills.

Hopefully, anyway. It feels like it's time to prepare myself for the next set of goals I want to achieve.

But who knows.

Things might change again.

...

Aaaaaanyway, I officially discovered BL.

It was as eye-opening and somehow inspiring as the time I played an amazing H-game for it's mechanics instead of the H (/cough Sengoku Rance /cough).

I'm still trying to figure out why I like BL. Apparently, I only like a specific kind but then again, I can say the same for every other genre/topic.
It can just be a simple reason as "I just like moe, homoe or not".
I don't know.

Nevermind, I'll let the drunk ME figure it out > <

I'll just enjoy whatever I'm doing ^^

October in Japan!

I have finally settled down and have enough space and time to blog a bit. 

Well, the pieces are slowly coming together in my stay here. SIM card arrived a week ago, allowing me to freely travel to...places (ie Akiba). Before that, Johnny and I were sharing this Wifi rent thingy. It has caused a lot of inconveniences mainly because we cannot be separated from one another, otherwise we would not be able to contact the rest of the world. Internet is a wonderful thing /sobs.

So how's my stay so far?

Before I left, I already know from a 3rd person point of view that I do not want to move out of my comfort zone, so I created like a bunch of er...barriers? Okay that sounded very 'chuuni' but that's the gist of it. At the same time, obviously I want to work in Japan at least once because it has been a lifelong dream of mine, after many many years of modifications.

So yes, I got homesick for the first week either ways. My colleagues helped a lot in making me feel at home. My crib is slowly shaping up and I'm settling down. Room at the moment is still a mess and lacking some storage space, but with the amazing Japanese amazon services, I can pretty much get anything I want from my house. 

It's only a month so far, most of the things they said about Japan is true. 

Alcohol is cheap; I already almost done with my small bottles of Bowmore 12 and Glenfiddich 12, and halfway through the 1000-yen huge Suntory bottle. 

Japanese colleagues get to know you by asking if you drink or smoke, which it is actually okay if you say 'No' to both (my team has very few people who drink). 

Service here is ridiculous. There is an amazing about of pride in being behind counters and making deliveries, etc. I mean, I know it's amazing since I have been to Japan, but to see the same guy doing it every single morning is something to marvel at in my opinion. It's so amazing that when you are feeling down, just buy something at the convenience store; you'll feel slightly happier.

I find it a nice place to stay overall. The weather now is also super good (it's Autumn now), 10 billion times better than the stupid retarded haze we are/were having in Singapore. 

What seems kind strange now is that if I were sent to Japan 2 or 3 years ago, I would probably be doing different things, like playing Kancolle and similar games, probably buying card games stuff (that's what I usually go Akiba for) and hitting the arcades. Now I'm like playing Touran because there's this character I really like (actually now it's like a few more of them), and also because the game is much easier to pick up compared to Kancolle. 

I think I'm becoming fudanshi?? (or was always one but didn't know?? /thinks)

I mean just yesterday I visited Akiba and it's like "omg kashuu cups" and "omg kenma towels". I just strolled through the entire KinMosa, GochiUsa and Non Non Biyori sections.

....

^^/

September 2015 Update!

Umu! Just nice 1 month before last blog post！

This month has been kind of hectic off-work wise. My stay in Japan is confirmed and I will be leaving on the 1st of October, so I was dealing with things like Visa, shipping packages and all the other annoying details. The stay will be for 2 years...it's the kind of duration where people think it's long but it's really not. 2 years of army, then 2 years of university, then 2 years of working in my company, then now...it's just another 2 years.

This is my first time living away from my parents for a long period of time though, so it's kind of wktk. There's so many things I want to do that I hope that I have the energy to do them when I reach. Obviously the first thing I look forward to is the weather. Singapore weather destroys my mood every weekend. 

Being free of my responsibilities this month gave me some time to do some recreational stuffs! I have like, this stack of unfulfilled/abandoned hopes of dreams from around 10 years ago. Just random stuff like starting a webcomic. It just did not happen because I was more in love with maths than with arts at that time. Now that my pursuit for mathematical knowledge died down a bit, I guess I defaulted back to wanting to do more creative stuff.

Well, that kinda sounded sad but it really isn't. Think of it as I have reached a satisfactory point in a skillset and moving on to something new. Haha, feels like I waited 10 years for this to happen. It was all part of the plan of getting a stable job I enjoy though. The ideal was to be satisfied in what I enjoy first and during free time do what I enjoy second. Woo!

And in Japan too!

For those who didn't know, I have a tumblr and a twitch channel now ^^/ 

LiSA in Singapore 2015 recount!

I can't believe I forgot about blogging about this, but the truth is, the performance was so great that there really isn't much to say. It's pretty much close to undescribable, like most other concerts I attended.

The concert is what I expected it to be plus a bit more. Lisa is, as usual, energetic, engaging and terrific on stage. The plus side I got was that the VIP seats were extremely close to the stage, closest that I have ever been to a j-rock/pop concert.

Overall a great performance! Her hugging a minion passed to her by her fans and accidentally slipping and falling onto it was one of those once-in-a-lifetime bloopers that will never be released on any media, like how Minorin fell down the stage when I attended her concert 2 years back.

And...that's it! Anything more would be just me describing a regular awesome concert, going about "how awesome the guitar/bass/keyboard/sound system/pacing/etc" was. However, as much as I would like to end it here, there was one part that's quite annoying for me.

There were like 2 girls sitting in front of me who, I assumed, were huge fans of LiSA. There were sections where the crowd is 'not supposed' to sing along but they went ahead and sang anyway, which in some perspective I find it okay because, hey, they paid for their seats right, and from their perspective, they were supporting her.

The two girls kept turning around going "SHHH SHHH!" trying to silence the entire crowd. While I understand why they want to do so, I find that it is extremely annoying and disrespectful. In a sense, it seems as if they do not accept the crowd, who paid for their seats, to be her fans. Seriously they were staring daggers to the crowd behind them, trying their best at failing to shush them. It almost ruined the entire experience for me.

Well I won't talk so much about fans; all of them show their love for the aritste in different ways. I believe that LiSA need more fans that are as passionate as those girls, but it's what they did at the point that felt over the top and uncalled for...almost to the point where it feels un-fan-like.

Oh well I won't rant so much. The concert was great and worth every single penny. I'll definitely attend her concert when I'm in Japan ^^

August 2015 Update! SG50 version?!

Singapore's National Day has passed again, this time it's 50th year since independance. I'm personally not very patrotic when it comes to my country, but I do appreciate what it had done. Because of that, I don't really have many comments about what was done to celebrate this milestone. Some people say it's excessive, putting SG50 onto everything from locally themed apps, to fishcakes shaped to the number 50, some form of  50 extra something in any product. I just feel that it's fine. People are too whiney, seriously. I mean, it's okay to whine, but I feel that this kind of excessive celebration is justified.

Anyway, I got to enjoy the long holiday. My FF14 grind has finally stablized and I took lots of time off to practice my piano. I'm picking songs that are within the range of my abilities this time, so hopefully I'll get to upload more recordings. Hopefully.

Being a bit free during the long weekend, I realized that I have 10k yen unspent on the Nintendo eShop so I did some small shopping. I ended up buying 3 small games:

1) ハコボーイ. Pretty cool platformer game where you literally play as a box-shaped boy (we know it's a boy because he's trying to find box-girls...I guess?). It's your standard platformer with a novel mechanic, the kind of thing which you expect to see out of Digipen. I won't elaborate so much about the mechanic but it's pretty neat and you should spend the...what...500 yen to try.
 

2) 魔神少女. This plays like a repackaged Megaman. If you like megaman, you should try this.

3) コンビニドリーム.　Basically you run a convenience store. What I find interesting is that it's made by Arc System works, who are famous for making fighting games like Blazblue and Guilty Gear. I totally did not expect them to make something like this. Probably it's an experimentation?

Moving away from games, I was initially planning to use this long weekend to plan for my yearly Japan trip in November. Unforunately (or fortunately?), there is apparently a chance I would be sent there to work. Obviously I'm happy to hear this, since it creates the best case scenario where I can just go Japan and do whatever I want without caring about planning any iternary, but at the same time it created the worst case scenario where I do not get sent and have to do last minute planning for my trip. The worst case is not that bad but well, it's annoying still. I do want to go there on November just to see Minorin at the Animax concert.

Why don't I go early this year since she holds a Summer Camp concert every start of August? Well, this year the timing is pretty bad and I'm not a fan of summer either. August is quite an incredible month though. It has animelo and comiket on top of the concert.. Wow, if I am staying for the whole of August in Japan, it will be an incredibly busy month for me lol!

Well, hopefully it happens. It feels like that's potentially alot of things for me to do in Japan. Going to arcades to spend precious time and money is just the tip of the iceberg it seems, thought I will probably end up dogging in FF14, but the alternatives are there at least!

No point talking more about it until it happens I guess ^^;;

Mid-July 2015 Update!

I haven't done an update so since I'm feeling kinda down recently, I'll do one right now in the middle of July.

Games are really awesome right. They take you out of the real world and let's you enjoy the virtual...yada yada, you know what they say about entertainment. Well, Heavensward just dropped around a month ago and I have been spending most of my free time playing it. As far as the overall feel goes, I think it has delivered at least to its expectations if not better. There is so damn much to do! Hopefully once I start clearing them, I'll have more time to go back to doing other things.

Aside from that, Hearthstone's not so bad. I managed to hit rank 7 before the end of the month despite not playing as much. I tried a variety of cheap decks this time like Face Hunter, Hybrid Hunter, Midrange Hunter, Aggro Tempo Mage and Patron Warrior. Face got me all the way to rank 13 or 14 I believe before running into Handlocks that run double healbots. Midrange/Hybrid hunter then got me up to 10 and Patron Warrior all the way to 7. It's really interesting to see how the meta shifts over time and over ranks.

Meanwhile, my Persona Q is slowly...making some progress...lol

Now for more depressing news...mostly about the games industry because I care for it.

First, Iwata-san's passing. He's arguably the most engaging CEO in the games industry and possibly an inspiration of many aspiring game developers. It is truly a sad moment for Nintendo, for its fans and above all, for the games industry. Hopefully Nintendo recovers from it and continue creating great games. They just stepped into the social market, which is a big step but in the right direction imo.

That aside, a friend of mine discussed with me about starting his own indie game company. The last time I went to Casual Connect, it seemed that indie game companies are floating in SEA but now I know that Singapore is behind, if not sinking. Every indie game company I know are barely making ends meet. Some will probably be gone in a couple of years time unless they manage to land a crazy good title. Kinda depressing.

Starting an indie games company in Singapore sure is difficult. Basically what I heard is that you will get no funding until a playable version. 'Playable' is, of course, subjective but by normal means it takes like minimally 3 full months to create a 'Playable' version of a really small scale polished game. Money will then kick in through funding to keep everyone afloat to hopefully make their next game. Hopefully one day, one of your games will make it big and your company can grow.

Sounds nice in theory, except that there is no real incentive for people to stay in the company, I feel, other than your promises of a brighter future. As far as software development goes, there are so many higher paying jobs which practice better software development techniques compared to games so if you are your own boss running an indie company, you have to realize the 'competition'. I already have a couple of friends who are burnt out from a couple of years of games development despite studying to be a games developer for nearly a decade.

And this is just skimming the surface of the many problems that can occur.

Well, I'm not exactly rich, passionate or business-minded enough to start my own company. Just thinking of starting up an indie games company makes me jaded and tired.

Aside from that, Konami has done some questionable stuff a month ago from, I think, anyone's perspective. With Kojima Productions disbanded and the new Silent Hill cancelled, we can guess that internally, it's not very healthy. I do not have doubts that Konami will still be fine, but it seems like a mess in there so it will probably be some time before we hear any news I guess.

On the bright side, this weekend I have a LiSA concert and upcoming would be a Eir Aoi concert follow by maybe a Japan trip with hopefully another concert (Animax?), and following that would be AFA!

The best part of my 2015 is yet to come!

お楽しみ~！