I have slightly less than 2 months. Let's do more things.

So I convinced Cindy, Cindy's sister, Mike and Matt to all join a gym with me, everyone except Matt went to our first session yesterday ^_^

The induction guy asked what we wanted from our gym time and I blurted out "Get Ripped", so now that's written on my public routine sheet in captial letters. So that's nice.

Also played a little bit of Tennis in which Matt danced around and I stumbled about for an hour. He'll fall soon enough.

UDK, UDK, Udk... So frustrating to learn as everything seems so scattered.
So far I've managed to get custom weapon models and script in-game, I can create really basic but functional levels, I also have an understanding of the sprite + lighting + materials systems.

The problem I'm trying to crack at the moment is custom NPCs. I'd like to create a terribly generic zombie enemy. That means building a rigged model, fine, but what am I supposed to do next? How do I get a rigged model ingame? I want custom animations etc and I can't seem to find any tutorials on this, other than the fact that it will include possibly creating an animation tree.

I'm sure I could start off with something a little easier, but I feel that getting this working would mean I'd be ready to do other cool things, for example creating player characters with custom animations and abilities etc.

I'd kill to be mentored by someone who's actually any good with the UDK ^_^

I have 2 months. Let's do some things.

So I have 2 months before I start full time work with the awesome Infusion Development ^_^ I figure that in that time I should be able to do quite a bit.

1) Get proficient with the UDK.

The UDK is a game engine. It is awesome and huge and flexible and free. The problem is there isn't a "Pro UnrealScript and the UDK platform" book you can buy, information is scattered far and wide across the internets. I think after a couple of months I should be able to get to the point where I feel fairly confident making things with it. Also this will help me get back to doing some 3D modelling which I've missed.





2) Learn Tennis. Beat Matt at Tennis. Hard. In the face.

It'll happen.

3) Get my body back to being a finely tuned killing machine.

*Sigh* I've slacked off. I'm still in decent shape, but not in ninja-who-could-break-fools-without-breaking-a-sweat shape. That'll take a while to get but two months intensive running and gym will help set me up.


Two of those goals are conducive anyway. Matt and I are gonna really hit that stuff, especially in the second month when he takes his holiday time.

Cindy has started a blog where she has a week to design a web page from a spec, then write it up and talk about what she learned, in that spirit I'm going to really try and talk about my progress.

What the hell I've been doing

Wow... So yeah, I went to London for a year, fooled an awesome company into believing I was worth their time and went the whole year without screwing up enough to expose myself for the poser programmer I really am ^_^

I learned more than I imagined and learned I knew less than I imagined. Plus it gave me a taste for things I didn't expect to find as interesting as I do.

Outside of programming a ton of things happened, I wish I took more photos ! But to list some fun stuff:

Cindy and I got together ^_^









I wear awesome suits (which don't manage to hide the high levels of special inside em).

















We have to rapidly (i.e within hours) vacate a place we rented because our bastard landlord owed people money and went on the run (oh yes fun).








I meet Sogeking - The King of Snipers, and my favourite top shrinks in admiration.











I learn of the awesome game that is Go, and teach it to anyone who doesn't quickly tell me to shutup.










So what am I doing now? Now I'm in my final year at university, along with everything that entails I've started a little side project around events, which I'll hopefully be posting about soon.

Never forgetables ^_^

*Note: I wrote this a year ago before I got so crazy busy that I stopped writing stuff. It's pretty much done so I'll post it and then start with some new stuff*

Right, to start off I'd like to introduce 3 of the main characters in my life !


Heh, these guys ^_^ They're both very important people to me. The sharp looking dude on the left is Matt, my best friend since the second week of Highschool. The guy who's trying his best not to look smug is Ren , met him on the second day of Uni, he's been all up in my grill pretty much everyday after that and we lived with other awesome people for the last 2 years.

This is Cindy, she's made of unadulterated awesome. She completes my inner circle. We met at College and I'm not sure how but we became super close. Cindy knows me better than perhaps anyone, which means that she has the uncanny ability to answer the questions I want to ask, but hide in other words.

She's also excruciatingly honest.

"You're everything I want in a boyfriend, it's a shame I don't like your face"

Well Cindy it sucks to be you because now we've been going out for over a year !

^_^

Intro

Hey oh ^_^

My name is Azim Marc Palmer, I'm 21 years old and just about to go on placement in London (England) ! That's me in the black shirt, next to the guy who looks like he's about to hug-fu ya to death !

For once I'm gonna follow protocol and give ya a standard introduction, who I am and why I've decided that things I do are worth transcribing !

So the first reason, is because I hate how my memory works, when I try and think of all the awesome fun experiences over the years, I'm lucky to remember any. Nyah ! Wha- What if I'm this totally boring guy who hasn't done anything and is doomed to the life of a man-spinster ! . . . . *breathe*

Ok, so when this happens I run off and talk to my friends, they remind me of all the really cool stuff we've done together, jumping over razor-wire fences onto train tracks to escape a tent-hobo, "exploring" a deserted crack-house, the countless hours spent in nightclubs, playing games, going to different martial arts classes together, being chased in a car by my ex-fiancee, being pushed over by "Pastey McWhitey, the boy with leeks for arms", there are tons of stories that I'm scared I'll forget. One thing I'll do is write down the ones I remember (and post them) and get my friends to help fill in the ones I've forgotten. It's not that I have no recollection of these events, it's just I need a trigger to remember them.

Too much text is boring ! Here's the first time I was drunk, check out the hair ^_^

Maybe it's just me, but I had to pack my room into boxes a few days ago and between the tears I kept finding important things, some of them I'd hidden from myself to stop me having to keep thinking about them, like the list of reasons that I shouldn't get back with the aforementioned ex-fiancee, some of them I knew why they meant something to me, like the piece of car I found after we escaped the hobo or the broken umbrella handle I stole from my best friend after our gentleman's duel. But some things I had no idea why they meant so much to me, there's a small bead that was really carefully wrapped in notepaper and placed in my de facto "Fragile and important things" bag. I have no frickin' idea where it came from, I think Cindy gave it to me. . .

We call this one "Bedroom Ganstas"

Ok, so there's the first reason all explained and out the way, what's the second? Well, I mentioned earlier that I'm about to go on placement in London, this is over 250 miles from all the friends I've made in the last 3 years. It'll also mark the second time I've had almost everything just the way I want it, then had to move away in order to move forward. On the plus side, it's another chance to shine and another gateway to new experiences, it worked out great last time and with more experience I should be even luckier !

Think I'll name this move the "Leprechaun Shuffle"

The second reason is because I want to chronicle my life over this comming year, both in terms of a human being and as a programmer. An awesome programmer, that's what I hope to one day call myself, I've got to earn it first :P

For me programming sets my soul on fire. I don't know why exactly, but I Love it. I could (and later will) go on for paragraphs about how frickin' awesome it feels to grab the computer by the bits and make it do exactly what you want orders of mangitute faster than you ever could. If tools amplify talent, programming lets me split the world in half.

So there ! If you're reading this you still probably know next to nothing about me, but I think it's super hard to distill who ya are into text . . . hopefully you've got a feel of me though, and I'll be able to read this in X number of years and see if I'm any different ^_^