*poke poke* Is it still alive?

Ok so not dead yet ... yet. Watch the vlog.

Maybe there'll be more ... maybe.

I go left, the world goes right

Ok so I've been pushing myself to starting things that I've had sitting around, mainly because I wasn't really going anywhere. Thought might as well while as I had time to try these things out. But God seemingly had other plans.

I had started to talk to others and move forward last Wednesday. Thursday I was told by my job search assistance that I had two interviews on Monday and both were promising from the sound of things. I haven't had an interview for awhile so I didn't think I'd just suddenly get two. I posted about my last interview, First Impressions, back in May. So I was happy I had interviews but thought it was quite odd with such a turn of events.

Had the interviews on Monday. The first was in Templestowe, then Blackburn. Really wished it was the other way round. Blackburn is pretty much next to my place. I had plans to go to brunch/lunch after which was in Camberwell. So instead of travelling like this, it was more like this.Actually surprised it was only 2.5k difference when I put up the two routes ... however think that driving pretty much past my house makes it worse with the feeling of backtracking.

So how did the interviews go? Well the first was okay. Quite the nice place with a very large back area. Had two floors which was quite interesting for a childcare. There was a ramp to the side which led to the lower floor for the kinders. Kind of impressive. The weird thing was during the interview they told me I didn't sound very motivated ... didn't think I had come off that way. It could have sounded a bit that way because they asked me what I wanted to do or something on that line and I answered mostly with my thoughts of teaching primary level ... they did ask. I think I convinced them because they wanted me to trial for a full week to gauge how I worked. Problem is setting up a whole week is hard as I already knew that the next interview already wanted to give me trial work. Their idea for me to do trial work was to compare me to people who have had completed higher education. So be it.

The one back in Blackburn was beautiful. Don't know how I explain that but just thought that when I saw it. This interview looked much better. Again they also wanted trial work for the next day. Pretty happy with this. However they wanted my working with children check card ... This was in process. I had passed the check but it was still in the post ... for the next 2 weeks. So unfortunately they told me to call back when my card arrives.

Adding to this on Tuesday I was given another interview on Wednesday. This one was far away all the way in McKinnon. Before going here I had no idea where it was ... but then again I have little idea where places are if I've never been there before. Anyhow got there and waited an extra half hour before my interview started. The previous two had me waiting only ten minutes. Think half an hour is almost unreasonable as the interview was shorter than the wait. Anyways it wasn't too bad. The place was only four weeks old so they also want people and trial work seems to be the thing. However they needed me to send them referee details but I got on my old phone ... so they going to get back to me once they have gotten that and called them up.

After all these interviews and promises of trial work, nothings actually happened yet. Hopefully I get my WWC card next week and be able to hear from some of the interviewers.

Getting the ball rolling

Been awhile again but I won't get into that. Also was going to post about Pokemon Go but think I'll update about what I have been doing. I mention Pokemon Go because it has been somewhat an idea about moving faster. With the Pokemon Go craze I find that opportunity to Poke evangelise will be the next few months. If I leave it any longer there would be less people out about catching Pokemon so less opportunity to talk to them. With this in mind I suddenly decided to push some things forward which I have been talking about doing but been left on the backburner.

So one of the things I've really left sitting around is the card game I designed about a year ago. It was quickly developed and then it just sat there after a few playtests. It a game about going to the gaming arcade and playing on arcade machines. I clearly state gaming arcade as people have been confused with shopping arcades so no its not a game about shopping. Pretty much went for this game theme because of my time in gaming arcades playing games with friends. It's a bit hard to explain the mechanics without visuals so if you want to know how it goes just ask me and we can play a game if I've got it with me. I stopped doing anything with it because it had become a physical thing already and would be difficult to move any further in production idea. Currently the card/boardgame industry has been pretty flooded with game developers so to even consider producing something would mean a lot of commitment would be needed. Not saying I don't have any commitment to producing this game but because I wouldn't be doing stuff like the graphics I would need to get someone else to do that stuff and its not like I have any money to pay them. That was pretty much the reason its just been sitting around.

However lately people have been telling me I should go forward with it (especially those who have playtested it). I took awhile thinking about it but so I did some research. It not like an impossible thing but there are things I need to consider to be able to continue. One, the most likely way I would be able to produce this way is through Kickstarter. Developer companies would only take a look at my game if I had a name for myself but I don't. They have too many people submitting games to them so would be unlikely they would have time to see mine. This means I'd have to be able to set that up. I'd have to one, make sure the playtesting is in its final stage, two, research the production needs, three, work out the costs and charge for the game and four, get a team to do the stuff I can't do. So that comes to the second thing I need to consider, the team. I'd have to find people who don't mind giving up their time to help with what I can't do. I don't have funding to actually pay anyone so the team would need to probably be volunteers. As said before there'd need to be some sort of commitment so I don't really want to bug anyone to just volunteer time for just a pet project. This is probably one of the big things that's keeping from moving on but with the people saying that my game might just be worth producing might as well give it a try ... And lastly I need to consider how much time this will all take. I've been told that playtesting can take years ... but I think with my calculating that hopefully I can reduce the time on that. That said with the volunteers, I don't expect to put the majority of their time on this so it would be hard to predict how long it would take. This is why commitment is such a important thing if I want to move forward with it.

So what did I mean when I said I was pushing forward? Well I've started asking people to help me. I mean there's no harm I guess as long as I don't expect too much. Everyone has their own lives too so I don't want to encroach on that time. I'm been somewhat careful with who I ask so not to put any pressure on them. I've been getting positive responses so we'll see what happens in the future. Currently got some graphics worked on and someone to work on finances but that'll be late game. If you know anyone who's up for helping on such a project contact me about it. If you want to help out that be cool too. Any help would be appreciated :). 

I'm looking forward to where this could possibly go. I don't expect to make money from it but it be great to be able to share this with people and see a completed product. You will be updated on any, if any, major progress is made. 

Bound to have happened

I've left it for another few weeks again ... nothing new. I had fully intended to post but procrastinating was easier, always seems to be something better to do. Not that I don't have any excises I wouldn't like to use, like my internet was capped or I was in the middle of building my computer ... but that was last week.

Brand spanking new

Old Computer Fan

So what have I been doing for the past week then? Well playing games on my new computer that's what. Why do you suppose my first blog was called When I'm not playing games? I sort of played less games because my computer got outdated ... after 8 or 9 years which is actually pretty good lifetime. Still use it to play some stuff but can't play any of the newer stuff because can't run directx 10 or 11 ... something round that. Capacity wise it can but just only after a certain graphics card can you run the newer directx. I even got games because with the numbers I thought I could run them ... just missing the right graphics driver. It was pretty up there for its time, not the most expensive but pretty darn good. 

This time it cost quite a bit. Guess the price of parts went up while I wasn't keeping updated. Was also a lot harder to put it together than last time. Not saying last time I didn't have any problems. Burnt through 2 USB sticks before I figured out I had put the usb power in the 10 volt slot instead of the 5 volt ... duh. This time I returned and swapped parts thinking it was something wrong with part compatibility but instead it was a stupid mistake of not putting in the power for the motherboard ... the second power plug!?! How should I have known I had to plug power in the motherboard at 2 different points?!? Also the CPU this time didn't come with a fan/heat sink because it was just that high qua that I had to get one separately. Beast of a heat sink fan combo. In the end it worked and that's all that it really matters. Also it looks so pretty :D. Still not the best but think for price and power it should hopefully last me for some time. Also it has pretty pretty lights ... I'm not going to geek out and list the components but if you want to know just ask me. 

Anyways post wise I will be posting hopefully about volunteer work which I had promised ... also something maybe about camp that was on last week ... maybe one more thing that I thought I remembered but can't put my finger on it.

Wasn't sick this Monday so went swimming and brunch with the other guys so here's some pictures just because I want to post these somewhere.

Trying to post photos

Caramel pipette!!!

Lost in Time

Sooooo ... with such a weird schedule without work and random events here and there I seem to be forgetting what day of the week it is. Just missed yum cha with friends ... so sad.

I mean most of a week is standard work days. With work days you look forward to the weekend, you can see it coming. However not saying I do stuff throughout the week unemployed, but a Saturday is somewhat the same as any other day. Sometimes have things on and sometimes just a chill day. 

With that said I really should have looked forward to yum cha ... but guess I didn't. Showing my age. Somebody just the other day said Peter doesn't forget anything ...

Under the Sea

After a two year break it was off to the aquarium again on Easter Monday. Seeing as in the past years I had only ever asked one person to go with, it was the same plan for this trip. However the person I asked me to invite others and make it a proper event ... which I was not so keen as I am never good at it. Weeks before the event I'd invited one person here and later there. By the Sunday it was two yes (me and original ask), one maybe, one last minute pike, and two unconfirmed. See terrible at organizing events ... So to not totally fail with just the original two I asked someone else so at least it would be three people. Before the night ends the maybe and both unconfirmed jump on board so now it's six people going. 


Morning of the day the original ask ends up sick so is out so interesting enough the one that wanted to meet others couldn't go. The meeting time ended up having everyone in different part of the city so an undecided lunch location was suppose to be decided ... by me. This is the sort of thing I stress about. Choosing things that make everyone happy. I'd rather have group consensus but everyone was everywhere else. With my limited experience of eating in the city I was able to remember Merrywell which was right near the aquarium. Success. Unsuccessful was it wasn't opened for another hour. So we went round the corner to Galactic Circus to kill some time. Shot some hoops, played some air hockey and was about to go but there was a dollar to burn. One of the others tried out a random game and without knowing it won 100 tickets. However the tickets got stuck so had to get it fixed. So lunch at Merryland was great. The red-eye is great with so many chilli :D. Yum. Finally it was time for the aquarium.

Seeing as I had been to the aquarium so many times I knew where to go to see the cool stuff however they had removed a lot of the things that I had enjoyed. We still had fun taking photos, playing in the crawling spaces, and stamping our maps. Two of us got separated when we spent time in the kids corner. Met back up at the croc. The others thought the croc was fake because it didn't move but eventually we saw it had closed it mouth Something different this time was the 4D cinema they had. 15 minute video with 3d glasses, fans, sprays, and vibrating chairs was predictable but still fun. Backtracked to see a few more things. Back to the kids corner and lost another person. Kids corner was fun because you get to color in pictures which are scanned with QR codes. These are then projected on the wall and move around. Pushing the things to do I scanned my iPhone onto a fish ... iFish. Finally we met up at the gift store to finish up.

After we hung out at Emporium and Melbourne Central playing some games I brought with me. Good day overall. Just through talking it sounds like I need to organize a Melbourne Zoo trip ... but I'm looking forward to it.