Just a perfunctory note to finalise this site and let people know (anyone who happens by) that this blog has been retired. A new site and blog will arise from the ashes (eventually) at fejalish.com, so feel free to check it out over there.

Cheers,
Jeff..

I’ve been up to a few thing again lately, and have posted a bunch of new sets to my flickr account. Links follow. ;-)

Firstly, there’s a small-ish set from my Cousin Blake’s wedding from last weekend. Not too many of my cousin and his new wife in this set (they had a proper photographer for that) – but a bunch of my relatives for sure. ;-)

This one’s a small set of two kittens my sis-in-law just got from her Dad from the farm. One of them will be kept and one is to be given away. I think the calico should be named after the drummer from Sonic Youth. :-D

This set is from a short two night trip to my parents’ RV camping at Guelph Lake. The water was all let out at the dam so the lake level was super low. As can be seen from this shot where the old tree stumps from before the dam was built are un-submerged. The colours are pretty!

Been a lot of movement in my life lately. ;-) I’m finally back in Cambridge, staying in my brother’s basement again. But of course I’ve been to Vancouver before here, and I also just came back from a weekend run up to Algonquin with my Dad. Of course, I was taking a few photos along the way, so here are a couple with links to the flickr sets of my recent activity.

And after this spate of recent activity, I am back to ground and head-long into job hunting and getting set up again here in Ontario. Anyway, here are some photos…

My apartment in before cleaning and after cleaning mode, days before leaving Thailand.

My final night in BKK with the crew down at the pub. :-)

My first week back in Canada, chilling out in Vancouver with my friends whom I haven’t seen for over 3 years!

This most recent weekend in Algonquin with my Dad, kayaking and having a good ol’time. ;-)

After a wicked nice week in Vancouver, I have arrived safely in Cambridge, ON. I flew WestJet from Van to the Kitchener/Waterloo airport via Calgary and it was allllllriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Got a pick up by my brother’s entire family and drove home in like 10 minutes. Was wicked. So good to see all my neices, including the newest addition. :-)

I have lots of good photos from Van that I’ll post soon also. Oh and cans of Guinness at home are super. ;-)

So I arrived safe and sound in Vancouver earlier today. I’m a bit out of it from the lack of sleep on the plane and just general jetlaggy-ness. ;-) But it’s nice to be back so far. I’m staying with my friend Pam and is so great to see her after like 3 years. It also was a temperate 16 degrees today which is a nice change. Will post more soon. Cheers.

Not sure if anyone is reading my blog anymore since I have been so quiet here, and well honestly I’ve been spending a lot of time on facebook where most of my friends are as well. So… Anyway, only one week left now until I fly back to Canada! I also handed in my final thesis for my Masters Design Practice program yesterday, and I will hear the results in September. Hopefully I get the degree. :-)

I will be staying in Vancouver for a few days to visit with friends after I leave BKK, and then flying home to Cambridge. As for now, I’ve a lot to clear up before I shuffle off home – cleaning, packing, job hunting, visiting friends, etc… So it should be a full week. It feels strange to finally be leaving, but also good. I’m glad to be heading home, and landing a good job with decent pay is a priority. It’s funny to think of all the small things I will miss, but of course it’s the big things I will appreciate when I’m home again. ;-)

So I’ve been quiet on the blog and flickr scenes recently. Some verve came up and bit me in the heinie this morning and I’ve posted some photos to flickr. Got two new sets. The first is some photos from my last visa run trip to Vientiane, Laos. A few good ones in there.

The second set is of my friend Kris’ house party which I attended last night. I realised I hadn’t been taking many photos recently either, and this seemed like a good opportunity. ;-)

So, as I mentioned previously I have been stalled overmuch in my practice lately, which has unfortunately meant that my progress with the Flying Long Horse game development have been shut down for a while. I am getting on top of my workload again finally and once again have come upon the semi-current challenge keeping things from moving forward smoothly (or at all! :-O) My previous method to deal with issues of work-stoppage and lapses in motivation was to parse the production down into baby-steps. Which, in most circumstances, would rock, and in fact kept me from overloading at the sheer amount of work “weighing down on me”.

After a bit of time dwelling on that shift, and working up those shortened objectives, I have come to the realisation that in many ways producing one level in a game too large for one person to reasonably do (at this time, at least) is fairly comparable to doing a small, one level game demo by itself.

So, I am shifting gears late in the game. It means shelving the Human Trap game development and coming up with a new, smaller game – but all of the graphic assets I have produced to date are still useable. Part of the justification for this move is that a smaller ‘demo’ game is more achievable and immediately useful in my portfolio. I still have the larger game design documents and can use them later on if resources become more readily available.

I still plan to do a demo similar to one of the level-puzzles from the original game design document. But the gist of the ‘story’ will be different and much more abbreviated.

So, here’s to progress – however slow and winding in its path. ;-)