Christmas

Writing this from the food court at ATL, awaiting my connection to LAX.

Due to the actions of a certain moron there were "extra security measures" in place at Dublin Airport - a pat-down and a baggage search at the gate before we were allowed to board. Thankfully the no electronics or getting up in last hour rule appears to have been rescinded.

Ironically, there were separate boarding queues for men and women (so as to line up with the male and female screeners) - this struck me as something the average Islamic extremist would approve of. Good times.

As for the actual Christmas holiday, it was an enjoyable one.

Highlights:

• Samantha meeting the folks and friends.
• Catching up with said folks and friends.
  
• Showing Samantha around the Irish countryside.
• Christmas dinner with Samantha and the folks.
• Newgrange attempt 1. Roads were so iced up the shuttle bus from the visitors' centre to the Newgrange site wasn't running. Nearly got stuck in the car park, took to the top of 3rd gear in the Toledo to get up a verry icy hill at the car park exit. Ended up giving a lift to some ILUG people who were stranded in nearby Donore village. Good times.
• Birthday dinner with the folks and Samantha in Bellinter House
  
• Newgrange attempt 2. Weather greatly improved, was lucky with the timing, there were only 2 other people in our session, Samantha got some good photos.
• Galway. Stayed at the Glenlo Abbey hotel. I was distinctly underwhelmed. Upon arrival we were informed the heating in the Pulman restaurant was broke, and hence closed. The internet connection remained broken for the entire evening. The room itself was rather chronically underheated (even for a hairy Irishman), and the breakfast service was decidedly bad - took a good 15 minutes from being seated to someone coming to take my order, and that was only because Samantha caught the eye of a waitress. For the money, I wouldn't return to the Glenlo Abbey.
• New Years with Samantha, Sharon and Alan, had a low-key dinner and drinks at the excellent Eastern Seaboard.

The parents gave me the loan of (and insured me on) my old Seat Toledo, which made getting around and showing Samantha the country a lot easier. Much appreciated.

I should be back in LAX around 9:30pm local time - by that point I'll have been awake around 22 hours, so with a good night's sleep I should take up reasonably adjusted back to PST tomorrow. I better, as I'm back to work in Treyarch monday morning :)

Time goes by, tables turn

I need to blog more. I used to blog at regular intervals, but life has been busier, and frankly, I just can't bring myself to use Twitter.

I've been playing Borderlands. The depth and range of weaponry in the game keeps me playing. The storyline is pretty decent too. I'm usually quite averse to RPGs, but the first person shooter aspect in Borderlands makes it a lot more appealing. I'm glad to see they've patched the matchmaking tech in the game, it was a bit.. rough to begin with.

I bought a box of Coors Light in Costco at the weekend. It's actually not too bad, but I'm going back to Stella next time I'm beer buying.

Samantha reliably informs me it's 44 days until we arrive in Dublin for Christmas. Samantha will be in Ireland for the first time (in addition to meeting my family / friends etc.), so that should prove interesting.

Modern Warfare 2 is almost upon us. I will of course play it through out of professional interest. It's using Steam for distribution; first time in a long time the most secure SKU for any game has been the PC - usually it's the first to appear on various torrent trackers.

I've finally given up on the Heretic technique, and have joined the ranks of BEST shooters here in California. My friend Jeep coaches the USC archery team, and he recently completed his level 3 course with the man himself, Ki Sik Lee. He gave me some insight into the BEST method I had been unable to glean from the books. I dutifully gave it a go, and was able to get into much better line than previously. Still feels a little unnatural, but so far the results are promising.

Tomorrow (Thursday) marks the two year anniversary of my start at Treyarch. Time flies. I've shipped two games in that time, consulted for 6 weeks on a third, and generally made a reasonable niche for myself. I can't blog about what my job currently entails, but it should prove to be quite the challenge.

00 status confirmed

I ended up being awake all night thinking about the consulate interview.

I then went to the consulate this morning, waited for 3 hours and 58 minutes, and then had a 2 minute interview, at the end of which my visa was approved. I can pick up my passport on Thursday, and enter the US any point after Sept 15th.

I need to get the relocation people going on coming to my place and box up my stuff, and that's about it - then it's back to LA, moving in with Samantha and two cats.

Now, I'm drinking scotch, watching The Outer Limits, and chilling out.


I note Android finally finally has a Facebook app. Hurrah. I've also just found the joy of Android Widgets. Pretty cool.

Always remember, this is the life I chose

I'm moving across the world to somewhere undisclosed, to work on something undisclosed, for an undisclosed amount of time. I'll be going back to Vancouver again afterward (and, obviously, to LA - once I get a visa sorted out).

It means not seeing Samantha for a while :( Somehow, she has decided to stay with this workaholic madman. I'm a lucky guy.

Catchup, again

Been busy.

Work continues apace.

Samantha starts in UCLA today, this pleases me.

Going home next month for a week, looking forward to it.

Had the busiest Sunday ever yesterday - started off packing up 6 months worth of recycling and driving it out to the dump with my landlord; then drove out to pick up a Yamaha Virago 1000 he managed to spot for free on Craigslist. Got the bike loaded onto the trailer, drove it home. Did some gardening - cut the grass, dug up all the weeds, fertilized the beds. Help landlord take bike apart slightly.

Really need to get on with TargetScheme development - all the hard bits are done, just need to hook up dumping the scores out to SD card, and some menu contexts and it's ready for a public alpha. I've been using my ADP1 as my primary phone, and I've been very happy with it. The only issue I've encountered so far is Google Latitude sometimes stops updating my location, from googling this appears to be a known issue.

I've had some good progress in archery - it occurred to me whilst reading ArcheryTalk that I was rotating my bowshoulder toward the string instead of rotating my scapula / shoulderblade toward the string. I changed this, and my bowarm became a lot more stable, and I was able to shoot more. Time will tell if this is viable long-term, as setting it up doesn't quite feel natural.

Still haven't pulled the trigger on any new archery gear - going to wait and see for a while, no hurry.

There is a pawnshop around the corner from where I live - I'd never been in a pawnshop, so I wandered in over the weekend. Turns out they have quite the selection of XBox and PS2 games - got myself Spiderman II for 10CAD.

My sister Miriam texted me the other day to inform me I am to have a nephew soon enough. Wee.

My WRT54GL died quite suddenly - flashing power light and capacitor whine, it's well and truly dead. Shipped it back to Linksys today.

Memorial Day weekend

Finishing out the memorial day weekend watching Star Trek: The Next Generation and banging out a blog post. Samantha arrived Thursday night with my Casio Exilim FC100, and my HTC ADP1. Went to watch Ireland win vs Canada in rugby on Saturday. Samantha wasn't feeling that well, so spent the remainder of the weekend looking after her and generally trying to keep her comfortable. In between, I got a prototype of TargetScheme running on the ADP1 - needed to rework it a bit to take into account that I'm pointing with my finger instead of a stylus, but I think I have a workable solution. Currently have the UI layout hardcoded, need to figure out how to use the XML layout so I can add in menus, score lists etc.

Samantha just landed at LAX - I'm looking forward to doing the same, I'll find out in July if I'm here for 6 months or a year. It can't go quick enough (don't get me wrong, Vancouver is nice, and everyone I've met up here has been lovely), but I want to get on with my life with Samantha, and my career with Treyarch.

Catch up

It occurs to me that I haven't updated the blog since I moved to Vancouver. Have found a really great house to live in, just off Commercial Drive.Really great landlord, and really friendly housemates. Sharing a house has really worked out, as living in an apartment didn't seem like a good idea when I'm here on my own.

I've joined an archery meetup group - it's proving to be a lot of fun, as I can just shoot a wooden bow, relax and concentrate on my form. I've ordered some low poundage KAP limbs from a local archery supplier so I can really go to town on my form with the X-Factor. I've been thinking about a complete gear change - right now it's a toss-up between the Bernardini Luxor and the W&W TF Apecs. Very different bows, and I'll have to think about it carefully. The torque compensator in the Apecs is very interesting, and from what I've seen Frangilli has switched back from the Bernardini to the Apecs, and I've moved away from heavy risers since I gave up the 2001 VBS. More research needed. Either way, I'll be pairing the riser with W&W Apecs Prime Limbs and some form of stiff single rod stabilization, like the Soma CEX2 or Fiberbow S3 or something similar.

I dropped Samantha off at the airport earlier today, she came up to visit for a week. I miss her. It was really good to see her. She's very good to me.

Work has been busy; they've given me my own office, which has been kind of odd, and a little bit lonely sometimes, but such is life. I walk the 1.8km to and from work every day, and it's doing me good. I have a bike getting fixed up in the local bike shop, which will be useful for getting around.

Citizenship

I had the pleasure of watching my better half Yoeum (now Samantha, for the confused - she's changing her name along with her citizenship) be sworn in as a United States citizen this morning. 6000 people all becoming citizens. I'll need to be here 7 years as a permanent resident before I become eligible.

Things are starting to come together for the move to Canada - looks like I'll be up there for 6 months at the least. Still in two minds on whether to bring the mx5 up with me, or put it up on blocks and stick a tarp over it till I get back.