Game Development

Consistency is the mark of a good blog. So, I'm going to write everything that's happened recently, and have the blog post the next installment of it on 1-week intervals.

I (Todd) spent a bit of time depressed this summer. I lost my job. Losing my job meant losing a lot of stability in my life--emotionally and financially.

When life gives you lemons. . . design a combustible lemon and burn life's house down (at least I think that's how the saying goes).

So, I decided to work. I chose to work--even though I wasn't getting paid for it. I decided to start working, in earnest, on a video game concept I had come up with a while back. I picked up a copy of Unreal Development Kit, and got started. At first, video game programming seemed out of my depth. I knew 3D math (vector calculus) and I knew quite a bit about programming and computers.

It wasn't too far into the project (I think about day 3) that I realized I lacked a very crucial skill associated with video game design: art. I have never painted--and my experience in graphical design didn't extend beyond stick figures. How on earth would I, an non-artistic technical guru, make a video game.

I quickly found out that video games don't just require art work, they require some of the best designed and most intricate artwork which mankind has ever conceived of. Drawing was an asset here, 3D modeling another asset. The only assets I had were an understanding of Gimp and Blender.

It was like being in a machine shop, and knowing how to work all the tools--but being expected to make a complete car from nothing but the steel and aluminum in front of you.

With that, I got started on it! Gimp became a powerful ally in the war against my lack of creativity. I spent hours upon hours agonizing over every little detail trying to make my in-game graphics look believable. It took a while, but I discovered where my niche lies. I can put real-world art into a game environment. I realized that to make explosions, I was starting with internet-found photos of campfires and tweaking them until they looked like an actual burst of flame.

To my delight, Dani owns an HD digital camera, and I live next to some mountains. We took a weekend and I took about 13 Gigs worth of pictures of everything you could imagine. Adapting those into the game environment made a very believable and realistic texture setting.

At that, half of my big problem was solved, so I started chipping away at what I deemed to be the smaller problem--which was programming the code.

A Dr. Who Halloween

We've been trying the last 2 years to have some sort or "plan" regarding our Halloween costumes. It makes the chances of possibly finding parts of our costumes at D.I. much higher and it I plan on making something, gives me time to.

This year might be hard for us to top again. We L.O.V.E. Dr. Who in this house. N shouts his name and asks to watch the shows. She we picked it for our family theme. And lets just say it took every negotiating skill we had just to make sure N didn't live in that costume for almost 2 weeks. She was very happy to be the Tardis.

Todd was Dr.Who, I was his current companion, Amelia (Amy) Pond, N was his time machine, the Tardis, and V was suppose to be a small Dalek, Dr. Who's mortal enemy, but I couldn't get the costume finished in time so she's the missing duck from the duck pond in the episode where Dr. Who meets Amy.

Unfortunately it was raining this Halloween and N almost didn't get to go out, it made us wish our ward had done a trunk-or-treat, but she did get a short window where Todd took her out and one of the ladies from our ward, who we're pretty sure is British, recognized their costumes and she seemed surprised we knew about Dr. Who. All I have to say is Lady, he's taking over the world!

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can, I can!

For those of you who knew me in High School, and more specifically when I was on the Track and Field team, you know I was NOT a runner. I did sports because they were fun, not because the coach had been scouting me out for my impressive mind blowing athletic abilities. But since having my time stretched between, husband, kids, house, church callings, and my own guilty pleasures, I don't have a lot of time to commute to and from the gym. The solution, running. I could hit the concrete right out side my front door and work on my cardiovascular. But could a girl, who never ran before and who had had two surgeries on the same knee really become a runner? Yes. Yes, she could.

So last year I invested in some nice running shoes. (Note: From personal experience, you can totally haggle at sports store.) But I immediately hit a road block. I was trying to start a running routine, and I was pregnant. Not the best combination. Needless to say those shoes didn't get used much. Until this summer. My in-laws like to participate in 5k's, 10k's, and some are starting half marathons. They were my idols (hope I don't go to hell for idolatry :S ). So with the Mesa, Arizona Turkey Trot coming up, my goal was to join the family in the run.

Todd and I laced up, tossed the girls in the double stroller and went for a run. I about died 1 mile in and Todd had to assault me with ridiculously bloated lines of encouragement to get me home. Needless to say I did not make the full 2 miles. We made plans to go again. But didn't. After about a month, I was having such a bad day and beating myself up for not keeping with the running and went out. And I did it! Almost, I had to take a small break but I did it.

After going out on my own and cranking the tunes from the i-pod my FIL passed on to us, I got my 2 miles to 21 mins. Major PB there. Then after about a month, my in-laws brought my SIL, Hills back to school. So Saturday morning, dad, Todd, Hills and I went for a run up the canyon. Todd went on ahead of Hills and I (dad having left us in the dust) and told us where to turn around. I made 5k with out stopping! Big thanks to Hills for letting me tag along with her. I was so going to be ready for that Thanksgiving 5k!

But it's not a 5k it's a 10k. Yeah, took me by surprise to. Well I had already blabbed about how I was going to run it, so I had to get there. In comes good ol' Google Maps. I found out how far it would be to run from the house and back to make the distance. And went for it last weekend. I made it to my turn around point and back to the house. 5.4 miles! Bam baby! Dang straight.

So here's my progress:

From the end of July to the end of August, 2 miles.

August 28th - October 9th, 3.2 miles.

Since then to now, 5.4 miles.

My goal now is to add on the last mile, then work on time. After Thanks giving, I'm thinking about adding more distance.

I needed a goal, something to want to do and my in-laws were that :D Love you all!

More N-isms

(This morning while I got her some of her Marshmallow cereal)

N: "Oh, thank you! I'm so happy. Happy day!"

(*N uses "happy day" in place of "birthday")

"Oh, such cute cheeks!"

Todd got N up from bed one morning and went downstairs to get breakfast started.

N: "Oh, no more happy day."

Todd: "But it's okay, because your birthday was a week and a half ago."

N: "Oh, ok."

N playing with her play kitchen set.

10:00 a.m.

N yelling from the top floor: "Dinner!"

no one coming

N: "DINNER!"

no one...

N: "DINNER! DINNER! Come up stairs!"

And if you try leaving that dinner table early, you're in for a bug surprise.

N turned 3!

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..

...

She's three.

She's Three..

THREE...

When did this happen!?

It happened the beginning of October that's when it happened!

We really don't know that many kids N's age, but we invited them and many of our friends and family to come celebrate with us. N and her two friends got to run around with fairy wings. Todd and I got to chat and catch up with friends, which is the reason why I completely forgot to take pictures of the party, I was surrounded by great company!

Here is what we got on film though.

(This pictures bugs me to no ends because I didn't center the decorations!)

(The masses have asked, so I'll be posting the recipe for th 7 layered jello along with my notes and suggestions and step-by-step pictures! Just have to wait till after Todd's LAN party this weekend because that's when I'm making it next.)

Birthday cupcakes

And the birthday girl!

Thanks to all who came!

It was wonderful to share this day with you and for N to be with all of you at one time! We know she loves you.

She's making good use of ALL her birthday gifts! (Honestly she's loving all of them!)

It's out

Some of you may or may not know that I love music. I've done a lot with it over the years.

Well, I've reached a monumental step in my love of music--I submitted a demo tape. These are the three songs I put on it--let me know what you think in the comments. These were for a demo, and aren't professional quality recordings. I did my best with them, but there are still some noticeable deficiencies. These are free to download for the time being--hope you enjoy :)

This one is called "Disappear" I wrote it in highschool while suffering from insomnia late at night in my room on my keyboard.

This is called "Numb." It's about my battle with depression. I wrote this one two weeks ago.

This last one is my favorite--and many of you have heard it already. One More Night. It's the first love song I wrote for Dani when we were 17. She dumped me shortly after hearing this.

Recent N-isms

1: I like to play with my kids and I'm very playful with them. So, when I was making N some Chocolate Milk, it was in her sippy and I was shaking it up. I made it into a little bit of a dance in front of N and started saying in rhythm, "shake shake shake."

N gave me a funny look, held her hand out in front of her in the "stop" position and said, "no no no, I don't shake."

2: N loves being a big sister. The newest development in this matter is that she's started trying to carry V around. She gets her in a full nelson lock and then squats until V's legs are just barely off the ground. It's very funny to see a near 3-year-old carry around a near 1-year-old

3: Again, when playing with N, we were doing the "superman" game, where I grab her arms, roll onto my back and then lift her into the air. Well, while she was in the air, she accidently let out a toot. Not a big deal, but she turned bright red, grabbed her bottom and said, "whoops."