Picture: At the End of GDX2004

Picture: At the End of GDX2004 - As I've been posting alot of random pictures from the GDXCON 2004 that I managed to scan, I found out that I've been scanning over 100s of pictures form the seminar. Due to the sheer amount of the picture there, I guess it'll be best not to post all of them here, since this isn't a picture gallery. Anyway, if you are interesting in more pictures I've posted a link below that contains some pictures, and the rest of the pics here would be uploaded soon, once I finished scanning all the pics and find a server to upload all of it :) Once the time comes, I'll update people visitng this blog about the details ;)

Picture: A. Kasem Discussing with Dr. Wiwat Some Issues - In this picture we took, we had a picture of A. Kasem a representative from the Ministry of ICT talking with Dr. Wiwat (Digicraft Co. Ltd.) about a number of different issues in one of the networking sessions in our seminar :)

Picture: Attendees in the GDXCON 2004 - In this picture it shows how things are in the seminar. We had roughly about 200 guests from all walks of life - from students (over 10 different institutes) to developers (from multiple companies) to governmental organizations. On the right is Mr. Chaiwat Komrut, one of Thailand's most profilic game developer who also attended our seminar :)

Pictures: Group from Chulalongkorn University at GDXCON 2004 - This picture contains the picture of a group of about 30 Chula students lead by Dr. Pizzanu and Dr. Wisanu.

Picture: GDXCON 2004 - This picture is the picture when I was setting up the projector for the GDXCON 2004 seminar. The pesky projector caused alot of trouble during the seminar, but things turned out better as the day gone along - and turned out to be a real exciting seminar for the attendees :)

Picture: Luigi Restaurant Week #4 Burgers

Picture: Luigi Restaurant Week #4 Burgers - This is the picture recollection the events at Luigi Restaurant Week #4 in which our theme for today is homemade burgers, which was very different from the mass-produced stuff you get in MCDonald or Burger King ;) Check the brochure for details!

Pictures from GDXCON2004

The GDXCON 2004 that I've arranged with our crew was an immense success. I'm currently developing some of the pictures from the seminar and will be scanning and uploading here soon. However a few of our crew have got a few digital pictures from the seminar and you can view from the bottom. My own recollection of the event will follow soon once I get rid of a few more pressing RL issues ;)

http://www.gamedevx.com/webboard.php?board=1433
http://www.thaigamedevx.com/forum_viewtopic.php?17.3647
http://www.s-t.au.ac.th/news/GDX-gallery/index.htm

Currently Reading: Ho Chi Minh - A Life

Currently Reading: Ho Chi Minh - A Life - This is the last book I bought from a local bookstore. The book is called Ho Chi Minh - A Life and was written by William J. Duiker. I took up this book for a read because I found out there is very little information about this great revolutionary - which I find him to be vastly different from many of the other revolutionaries of that generation that include Mao Zedong, Stalin, Che, and Castro.

I'm interested in Ho Chi Minh's life because in most modern American world history textbooks that I've studied to study in HighSchool paints Ho Chi Minh as a Communist menace in an villianous way - and omits great deal of details about the background about the leadup to the conflict - that includes alot about Ho Chi Minh's struggle to reclaim his country's independence and freedom from imperalistic nations - which included the French, the Japanese, and later the Americans.

What would have changed if France agreed to give Vietnam freedom as the tenants of the French Revolution? What would have happened if the world paid more attention to the demand for self goverance for former colonies around the world? Would Ho Chi Minh still be the Communnist revolutionary he is known today or would he be known as a liberator of the country in another ideology?

There are many questions that I'm currently pondering, and I hope that reading ths book would get me a better idea of how things are, and what could have been.

Picture: Home-Made Stuffed Crust Tuna Pizza Anyone?

Picture: Home-Made Stuffed Crust Tuna Pizza Anyone? - I just got the pictures from the last party we did. We really were hungry so we didn't really post much here. This time its home-made stuffed crust (sausage crust) tuna pizza with a generous proportion of cheese and bell pepper - very delicious ;)

What is a Promise if Its Not a Promise?

What is a Promise if Its Not a Promise? Today, I'm in one of the most irritable moods I had for a long long time, and part of it has to do with the idea how casually some people will discard their promise to another person. Today someone broke a somewhat important promise to me, and it just makes my blood boil though I managed to keep a straight face through out the encounter.

I have met many people who break promises often, and after all of that I learn to always keep a backup or contingency plan up my sleeves when ever that happens. You never know what life throws at you. Best go out in power armor just to be safe ;)

Anyway got a busy day ahead of me, August 27, 2004 - the GDXCON2004. Hopefully things will end up great there and I'm certainly looking forwards towards that.

Picture: Cover of "Record of Yokohama Shopping Trip" Manga - This is the cover of one of my favorite manga - "Record of Yokohama Shopping Trip Manga". This manga is a very strange manga - as there isn't exactly a plot for the manga. This manga simply recollects the events of each passing day of Alpha a robot that owns a small rural coffee shop. Not much of an epic story, but what I like about it is its warm aura in how it pokes with every day life in a unique perspective.

I like to say it Manga is a way of life and this manga brings out some of the best of that when compared with all the superhero types of mangas/cartoons in the market ;)

Picture: Luigi Restaurant

Picture: Luigi Restaurant - This picture is a brouchure my little bro made. Well, we're kind of fans of the famous Iron Chef show, and so my little brother decided to imitate the format of that show in our little weekend cooking party when he made the little brouchure :P Anyway, the name Luigu Restaurant is just alittle joke we made. We kind of like Italian crusine - we make lots of things like Pizza, Au Gratin, and Spagetti/Maccaronni dishes - so we decided to give it a distinct Italian name just for the laughs :P

Discussion with a Movie Marketer

This morning while I was coming to work, I was approached by a marketer who quickly approached to ask me a few questions. This marketer that quickly came to market me, was this little lady, who seem to be working for some direct marketing company - which is hired to promote a local movie theatre chain. The bad news was that she decided to market movies to me.

In this case, I had a brief chat with the marketer and I think that moment should have been one of her most awkward situation. I didn't plan to trick her, or make her life miserable or such, but I was just answering the question in a totally honest answer.

I don't remember the transcript directly, but here is a short idea of what has happened:

Marketer - Can you spare me a few moments of your time?
Me - If it isn't long, I would be happy to entertain your questions.
Marketer - We would like to ask if you watch alot of movies.
Me - Not that much but a few.
Marketer - Ah, then that isn't a big deal. But you do watch movies right?
Me - Yes.
Marketer - Okay, then let me ask you when was the last theatre you gone to?
Me - I don't remember.
Marketer - Ah, that is very good, because it seems that the reason you don't go to movie theatres is because they are very forgettable. Let me introduce you to this theatre that is the best in country. If you have been there, I'm sure you'll never go to any other theatre in Bangkok.
Me - Errr?
Marketer - So what is the last movie you have seen?
Me - Lords of the Ring - Two Tower.
Marketer - That long ago?
Me - Yes.
Marketer - So why is that you didn't watch that many movies in the theatre.
Me - I find movie theatres to be cramp places and noisy places where I have to pay too much money for a shared seat at a designated time.
Marketer - Oh, but what about having the experience of seeing the movie before anyone else or going to the movie theatres with your girlfriend? What about going to the best movie theatre in town which gives you best bangs for your bucks?
Me - I have UBC (Cable) at home and I enjoy movies it at the comforts of my home instead of being crowded in a movie theatre. Regarding seeing the movie just because of it, I don't know why I should pay money just to see a movie before time just to have a conversation topic. It just isn't practical.
Marketer - ... (big pause) Are you sure you're not playing some type of sick joke just to make fun of me?
Me - I'm a honest person miss.
...long pause...

Picture: GDXCON 2004 Posting at Gamasutra

Picture: GDXCON 2004 Posting at Gamasutra - This is the screenshot of the GDXCON 2004 that was listed in Gamasutra website. Gamasutra is the world's largest online resource for game developers, so its kind of a high feeling to have some posts there :)

Picture: Devil Cactus

Picture: Devil Cactus - This picture is one of the more interesting catcus that my little brother is raising in his mini-cactus farm. I don't know what type of cactus is called, but oh well maybe someday I'll get to distinguish between all the different spieces of cactus.

I took this picture because when I looked at it the first time, I thought about how the flower resembles the horn of a devil. So I quickly took out my camera and took a snapshot of it. Interesting isn't it?

Picture: Traditional French Pudding with Cherry Topping #2

Picture: Traditional French Pudding with Cherry Topping #2 - This is the picture of the other tray of pudding we made. This one was the bigger tray and it came out very nice. We were planning that some interesting variation of this could be done with pear or peach.

Picture: Traditional French Pudding with Cherry Topping

Picture: Traditional French Pudding with Cherry Topping - This picture is a picture I took of a cake we baked back the last weekend which was a form of Traditional French Pudding with Cherry Topping. This dish is very very nice, and both the trays were goobled up very quickly :P

Japanese Name Generator

I was just browsing around the net when I found something which was like a Japanese Name Generator at the following link:

http://rumandmonkey.com/widgets/toys/namegen/969


Well my Japanese Name equivalent is Fujiwara (wisteria fields) Kenta (healthy and plump) but I really don't know why am I'm doing that for :P

Rock Against Bush Cd#2

If I'm not mistaken, one of my friends got this excerpt from Chris Rock's satire - Rock Against Bush CD#2. I read it and couldn't stop laughing. Attached below are the contents of part of the excerpt:


When Bush took over as President, I used to crack jokes about what insane policy he would attemot to enact next. My jokes were ridiculously far-fetched! For example, "I bet Bush will pass a super huge tax cut for the rich by saying he's endorsing a tax cut for americn families." Haha! That one was funny. Then there was, "Because of the California Wildfires, I bet Bush says that to save forests we need to cut them down!" That one got alot of laughs too. But the humdinger was, "Watch Bush say that Iraq has nuclear weapons and use that as an excuse to invade Iraq for its oil!" The absurdity of that one killed poeple, until as it turns out, every ludicrous joke i made came true! Horrified that my 'prediction jokes' were somehow singularly responsible for jinxing America and the world I quit making jokes, but even in a world with no insane jokes the Bush crazies were still pushing through the most insane policy ever! I began to wonder, "If my jokes aren't responsible for every horrible act committed by the bush Regime, how is Bush hood-winking the public into buying obvious bull**** that i was joking about only months ago?" After some contemplation I've come to a few conclusions.

For starters, the Bush Regime has taken the use of Orwellian 'doublespeak' to a new level, ensureing a benevolent, positive, upbeat spin is attached to policies that are anything but. They don't call cutting down a forest to 'save' it "Excuse To Let Massave International Logging Conglomerates Cut Down Endangerd Forests Act." No, no. That would be too reality based (sort of like the show COPS!). Instead they gave their destructive bill this positive upbeat name, Healthy Forests Initiative. Hell, put it that way makes me want to be the first guy to say "TIMBER! Cut down those pesky trees becuase i love camping.

How about the Clear Skies Initiative? What would be wrong with clear skies? Well nothing, except that this piece of legislation is not about clean air ot clear skies. The CLear Skies Initiative gives corporations the green light to release higher levels of pollution into the environment including mercury and greenhour gases. Maybe I've missed a major scientific announcement, in in the place i would like to refer to as "reality," allowing more pollution is not going to keep our air clean and breathable.

Finally, the Bush Regime didn't call the invasion of Iraq, "Operation Line The Pockets Of Our Buddies At Every Weapons Manufacturer And Every Multi-National Corporation Who Gave Money To The Bush Campain (Including Dick Cheney's Company Who Pays Cheney To THis Very Day)." No way! Instead they scared the **** out of us with endless references to Saddam "Insane" and is non-existent WMDs, and then they called the invasion which violated International and US Constitutional Law "Operation Iraqi Freedom." Red, White, and Brainwashed Americans listening to this misinformation repeated day after day, month after month, thought, "I'm scared! I wan safty! If Saddam is gonnanuke our ass, nuke 'em first! If you can give my safety AND set some oppressed pople free, I'm for it! Besides, doesn't that oil under their sand belong to us any way?"

Think my explanations and evaluations are too simple? I thought so too until my outrageous jokes started comming true! This revelation led me to this question, "Are the poeple of the USA actually voting for what they belive in?" So, i did some research and what i found out is that a majority of US citizens belive in Progressive, Liberal, Principals! It's true... Public Oppinoin polls show that a whopping 86% of Americans belive that there needs to be stricter laws and regulations to protect the environment; 77% think it is more important to maintain government services such as Medicare, Social Security, and Medicade then to cut taxes; 72% of Americans favor stricter laws related to the control of hand guns; 63% of Americans favor affirmative action programs designed to help blacks, women and other minorities get better jobs and education; 62% don't think Roe Vs. Wade should be overturned by the Supreme Court; and 62% would prefer a universal health insurance program run by the government and financed by taxpayers.

So we've got a population that, by almost a2/3's majority or more, disagree's with the policies of the current administration. Is anyone else feeling like their head is going to explode?

If this is the case, why are so many right-wing politicians holding public office and defining American culture when a majority od US citizens support Progressive, Liberal, Left-wing values? I hate to say it because it's the answer that no one wants to hear, but we have to pay less attention to the marketing that these right-wing mother, father, brother and sister****ers are inudating us with, and more attention to their true intentions and actions.

Picture: Pisal at The ROX Booth at ICT Fair

Picture: Pisal at The ROX Booth at ICT Fair - I went to the ICT Fair at Impact Arena on Saturday August 7, 2004 and I decided to visit the booth of the ROX which was a game that I designed for MFEC Co. Ltd. When I reached the booth, I found that everyone has already left, so I had to take the picture of myself at the booth :P Anyway, the ROX got the runner spot for the best game of this year in Thailand, and I'm proud of this deceively simple but addictive game :)

If you didn't know yet, the ROX is Thailand's first MMOG commerical game that is produced for the Mobile Phone platform which is a real-time strategy game in which you pit your wits in managing your country with thousands of other online players. This game is available for the Nokia platform for AIS users and you can find more details by visiting the website at http://www.gameyuppie.com to find out more about the game, and if you would like to, join us in the game :)