I fixed my laptop, and got a really nice upgrade in the process. I had the hard drive fail, which caused a kernel panic. I got an SSD hard drive and it is so much faster. I’ll also get longer battery life since it won’t suck up all the power. It is a good upgrade and I’m glad to have my big laptop working again.
We watched the Venture Brothers for much of the Afternoon and Evening. Nick was the person that was there the whole time, but a few others came and went. Riley and Rong came by for about 4 hours and hung out. Nick was nice enough to cook out and provide some dinner of hot dogs wrapped in bacon and burgers. I put orange sauce on everything and it was delicious. There were a few episodes of Venture Brothers that I hadn’t seen that were pretty interesting. I of course liked seeing the new one. The last few have had more plot than I had previously expected from the series. Adam came over and we talked about his time in Vegas, building planes, finding a place to live in the South Bay, and a little bit about companies and programming. I am going to try to learn everything I can from him. Even though he isn’t the person that I’d model my life after, he has a lot of experiences that I’d like to learn from without having to go through them myself.
Now that I am back from the DR, I’m working on the new game Apocalypse Overload. This is going to be a 2D infinite runner/platformer. I’m having a great time making it so far, and should have a very simple playable out soon. I’m also going to start up another blog specifically for the company, which will be posted here as well. Robert and I got a lot done as far as planning today, and I have the basic understanding of what needs to be done when to get it ready for a Kistarter campaign in August.
I had a talk with Ryan this morning about Big Data and how he can look at some small parts of it. We went over how things are composed of loops and funnels, how to look at problems to be solved, the difference between being a data analyst and a product manager, the logistic curve and it’s benefits over pure growth models, and A/B testing. I think he will be able to understand most of it in no time and master it quickly. We talked about it over omelets on University Ave.
I got a new phone number since Zynga canceled the previous one. I bought a number on Skype, and can call as long as I have wifi. I will get back on my parents plan when it makes sense.
This morning I dropped things off at Good Will that I didn’t want anymore, a lot of it the bad Zynga shirts. I kept the few good shirts that I like, but don’t think I’ll wear them often.
I got back to my house and biked over the CPR (Cell Phone Repair) and gave them my phone to fix the screen. I stopped by the post office and got a haircut. I then made it back home and finished setting up the mac mini I got on Tuesday. I set up a standing desk with the printer on the table next to it in my room. The dragons are roosting just above me as I work, making sure I stay on task. I also am using a folded up yoga pad to stand on, and it is making a huge difference compared with standing directly on the hard wood floor.
Said goodbyes. Need to set up a blog to keep everyone up to date.
Yesterday I put in notice at Zynga that I would be leaving. It is a big step in the right direction I think. I am looking forward to all the challenges that being on my own will bring about, and am ready to start.
At the mountain view art festival yesterday there was a company that was selling these trivets that turn into a bowl. I got one for Nana, which I will be giving to her when I visit later this month. These are amazing, and I was going to get one for the parents, but Steph was tired. After the nap we went to horseback riding.
Here is the bowl version:
here is the trivet version:
It's an Exciting World 