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Current Projects: Americana Engine (Game Engine Development)

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Senior Grad Party

The Senior Graduation Party occurred today. In addition to a free Alumni T-shirt and food (for up to 500 people, but it seemed like it fed a lot less than that), there were a few games as well as raffle prizes (which of course appeared to be horribly rigged as two people won two raffle prizes.)

Note I had to resort to my cellphone camera for this image - it helps to bring a camera, but not if you forgot to put your SD chip back in.

What drew people in: Free beers. Two of them. Quoted by a student on the event page: "How could I say no?!" *(Note that I don't drink beers or any other alcoholic beverages myself)

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Zuma's Revenge: Iron Frog Run

And now for something completely different... beating Iron Frog in under 20 minutes, focusing on speed rather than points.

Hints: Combos are your friend - they stall (and push back) balls giving you more time to think. Attempt gap shots to end the trail of balls quickly.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Epilogue: The Capital Banquet

The end draws near - Although we're given thanks* alongside a Capital Division Slideshow, we give thanks to Erin in the form of a thank you video and more.

Banquet Summary

Banquet starts with several introductory speeches, opening slideshows (which technically didn't work that day) as well as thank you gifts. We give our appreciation back to Erin. A pie-Erin done by Mo-Kang concludes the event.

Revised Erin Thanks

I wasn't able to get myself filmed for this surprise video (it was done around 30 minutes or so after I had to leave since I had to prepare for tomorrow's presentation, but the written transcript reads:

Erin, thank you for everything you've done this year - From the time I first knew about you last May during STC, you've been one of the most amazing and coolest LTG's I've met during my three years at Circle K. Good luck with the rest of the year!

Concluding Statements

The year finally comes to an end, and as Kevin says it, where an era ends, and a new one begins.

Sometimes, some of the best things comes to an end. For others... they are just beginning...

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Sacramento Zoo Zoom: ZooRunner


Surprisingly enough, Taffe can run eight minute miles.*

Event for ZooZoom - a variety of different marathons for people with all ages, including a 5K and 10K marathon.

We're busy working with Key Clubbers from nearby high schoolers and holding up various motivational signs for people to keep them going, until both races are over.

Action Scene: One person collapsed to his knees near our position - and all of us rush over to the scene in no time.

Fun Fact: The first runner for the 5K came by at the 15 minute mark, but my stopwatch was off by a minute and a half so I said to nearby friends that the first person crossed the finished time in 15 minutes 2 seconds. (I later verified this)

Additional Feature: Volunteers and runners get into the Zoo for free after the race is over. (Us volunteers, however, do not get the privilege of free food.) At least we enjoyed the experience of flamingos and giraffes.

Blokus Mindgames

Feature in Alex Ung's house: Blokus. I've heard about the game before but never actually played it - until now.

General Directions: You need to place down more pieces on the board than anyone else. You can only place down pieces which are diagonally adjacent to your existing pieces, and they cannot be touching next to each other.

Strategy Used: I tend to focus on not what might be the next good move, but rather a few steps ahead to know what pieces I might be using up, figuring how (in one or two moves) to reach certain squares to expand my options, etc.

Additional Feature: Learned about Perler Beads, the source for both a fundraising initiative for Sac State CKI as well as a distinction for Sac State on their nametags during DCON. I will personally get a set of these beads and use them to build a few things later on in life...

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Sac State EOTY Banquet: Pinning and Pieing

This is a one of at least a three part series of the final events this year at CKI. Sac State is the first one in the weekend long series of events (at least for UOP).

The Relay for Life events limited the audience to mostly Sac State and UOP people, as well as a handful of other students.

Sac State EOTY Banquet consists of the following subevents:

  • New Member Installation Pinning Ceremony. It's apparent that one does not simply pin (a) Princess.

  • Vinh's EOTYB Dare
  • Old e-board members step down, new ones step up. The old board receives a pin to award them as a past E-Board officer.
  • Words from the new President (Vinh Ke Ton)
  • Officer pieing. as seen in this video:

Note: Bianca Posada (secretary) couldn't make it to the event due to family-related stuff, therefore she is immune to (possibly) being pied.

Monday, April 9, 2012

UOP CKI EOTY Banquet: Hagoo?

There were three icebreaker minigames during the end of year banquet at UOP - one being ipod wars, two being Hagoo, and the third being a drawing contest. (What is hagoo? Look it up on Google. Or on Urban dictionary...)

Minigame: Hagoo: Form two teams of people and get a person from each team. Walk over from one end to the other after saying 'Hagoo', staring at the person at the other end, and don't smile. Some people may find it easy, others, difficult.

I was surprised that Davis arrived due to a previous conversation from a friend there that there was an event over there the same day that would prevent Davis from attending, but still happy to see those that came.

Post-Event: Links released as part of images over to blog commentary prove rather ineffective. Also, it appears that it's better to focus posts that were intended for CKI members towards a more general audience, so I'll go ahead and make all the changes as mentioned in my closing statement.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Solitaire Blitz + Tips


Video Replay of this.

Solitaire Blitz is a timed card game that tends to play more like Golf than Solitaire, but you get three decks to play cards with and the game tends to progress very quickly especially with the ability to use powers (which require silver, which is obtained by collecting treasures at the end of the game).

Tips:

  • Extra time might be helpful, but you are confident you can finish your game before the timer runs out, you should switch your power with another one if you don't need the extra 30 seconds because it doesn't count towards your time bonus at the end (if you full clear). The time bonus is 1200 points per second by the way.
  • Try to focus on unlocking the draw piles as soon as possible to create more opportunities to create longer runs.
  • Try not to make any illegal moves - it both resets your combo and deprives you of an accuracy bonus (10k points) after winning the game.
  • Focus priority on stacks with more cards - if you even out the piles you most likely won't be stuck with a single pile left which limits your options (and you will most likely lose).
  • If you're going for a high combo, try to avoid situations like 3-of-a-kind (which awards 3000 points) - you'll most likely have to flip new cards from the deck, ending your combo. Royal family (5000 points) is a bit better.
  • Additional jokers are extremely helpful for making large combos, this should be the last thing you play if you're out of valid moves.
  • Use starfish, mine, or depth charge if you can't make any more moves. They can safely send cards over to the decks and open more moves without breaking your combo.
  • The mine doesn't destroy cards but sends cards to the piles instead which might mean more matches. The same goes for depth charge.
  • Although Mine is generally used to clear a row of cards at anytime, they are extremely effective when used when you have one card left, and especially when you have a high combo. It added 100K+ to my score as seen above.
  • Although full clears are partially based on luck and more on how you play your cards, you will need a lot of luck to get 50-60 card runs. This luck is generally improved by way of powers.

Additional Stuff:

Treasure Loot List (as of April 9, 2012, missing a few rare loot entries)

Solitaire Blitz Gifting Guide

This will probably be one of the useless-useful guides I will write up, however I think this is kind of important to send/silver quickly without having to play lots of games for small amounts of silver (and by that, an average of 1500 per game if you play enough times)

TIP: MASS SEND SILVER COB to friends. (or Pearl), at 300 silver per gift. The rest is trash (or less than maximum), as essentially sending the following items to them gives your friends the following silver:

(Updated with gifts that were sendable as of July 8)

Scallop: 20
Sand Dollar: 25
Fish Eggs: 25
Snorkel: 150
Mussel: 25
Sea Glass: 25
Bottle of Rum: 300
Shark Jaw: 200
Crab: 150
Conch Shell: 40
Starfish: 200
Crab (purple): 200
Feather: 30
Pearl: 300
Spear Tip: 250
Lost Letter: 200
Compass: 250
Wooden Buckler: 250
Sea Cucumber: 250
Coffee Beans: 300
Horseshoe: 200
Cannonball: 250

Like Zuma Blitz, you can still use the fortune cookie method of sending players multiple gifts. The amount of gifts that players need to play a full power game here are around the same as a player who uses full powers+beetles per game on ZB (which is 35 of them).

Friday, April 6, 2012

Scoring in Diamond Dash

The scoring for the game Diamond Dash appears to be very simple unlike the more complex scoring mechanics covered in Zuma Blitz. They are as follows:

  • 3 or 4 matches: 100 points per block destroyed.
  • 5+ matches: 200 points per block destroyed.
  • (blazing speed) 400 points per block destroyed, if you make a match adjacent blocks are also removed.
  • Diamond: removes blocks from the column it was in and the bottom row, 800 points per block removed.
  • Bomb Powerup: 600 points per block destroyed, removes adjacent blocks as well (2 if blazing speed)

Essentially: Unlike other blitz games, where they are mainly based on skill (Zuma Blitz being Gap Shots, Solitaire Blitz being ways to get a high combo, and Bejeweled Blitz ways to get Lightning Powerups), this game favors fast people who are also accurate as well, as score is based on how fast you can click on groups of blocks.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Creative CKI Event Titles

On the other hand I tend to excel in a bit of creativity in the form of personal titles for CKI events that I've attended (or haven't). Many friends from Circle K might or might not know these alternative titles, so feel free to look. These are the titles that I would normally place on my blog when documenting events.

I like referencing stuff, but some people don't get it, so I've provided links as reference hints.

Note as years go by, titles start becoming less direct and more interesting.

Official Event Name Alternative (blog) Name
Safe Trick or Treat 2009More Volunteer Work
Laser Tag (Feb 2010)Laser Taggeded
Pixie WoodsPixie Platformer
Asparagus FestivalOne Day at the Asparagus Festival
UOP EOY Banquet (April 2010)From Just Khin to Kelly
STC 2010 (May 2010STC and Davis
Sushi Buffet (May 2010)Five Down
Fall 2010 CKI TablingTabling IRL (preceded by a sketch)
UOP CKI First Meeting (Sept 2010)CKI's Intro Meeting
Greek Festival (August 2010)in the long run
KFH Bricklaying (Sept 2010)Window Washer's Dream
Dixon Corn Maze (Oct 2010)A Mazed
Ihop, Davis (Oct 2010)Meanwhile in Davis
Mtg: Sac State / UOP (Oct 2010)Charades, Anyone?
UOP CKI T-ShirtsUOP CKI T-Shirts (before t-shirts out)
L&L FundraiserEvent Planning, Pt 3
UOP CKI Last Meeting (Dec 2010)We Sing, We Dance, We Draw Cards
Campus Day of ServiceCleanup on the Bike Path
DLSSP 2011Ascension
DCON 2011DCON's Champions*
Sac State + Sushi HookHooked on Sushi*
UOP EOY Banquet 2011Improv in the Banquet
Oz Korean BBQAt the Oz Korean BBQ Resturant
STC 2011STC Revisited
Vic's Ice CreamFirst Hangout of the Summer: Ice Cream Social
July DCMOne Day in Tahoe
August DCM (Emigrant Gap)Jumping off of Cliff Edges*
Sac State InterclubbingService in the Soup Kitchen
Ice Cream SocialIce Cream (Leatherby Style)
Garrett's HouseI Can Has Camera?
Social at SacramentoThe American River Trail
DSSS 2011On the Caravan
DSSS Day 2The Great Mall Hunt
DSSS Day 3Moar Cards N Stuff
DSSS Day 4Service over the Years
DSSS Day 5Welcome to Paradise Division
Greek Festival 2011already here
UOP CKI First Meeting (Sept 2011)Intercapital Interclubbing
California Coastal CleanupBike Path, Second Playthrough
UOP Book FaireBook Selling Floor
September DCM*Capital's DCM
UC Davis First MeetingLegend of Davis
Dixon Corn Maze 2011Corn Fields and Zombies
UOP MeetingSingin' the Poncho
Crazy Komp 2011Kompetitive Games
UOP Family CompetitionBlack Curtain of Mystery
Fiona's Gee DanceNo Gavel Gee Dance
Habitat for Humanity (2011)Tunneling Trenches
LHS Snackbar VolunteerIn The Snackbar Now
FTC 2011 Day 1Winter Came Early
FTC 2011 Day 2Penny Madness
Sierra Social (Nov 2011)Sierra Roller Games
November DCMPiper Opera
November DCMFire and Ice DCM
(referencing both wildfires and snowstorms that day)
UOP New Member Banquet 2011Cup Flippin Competitions
At Denny'sDenny's Storytime
Go West*Kiwanis Float Engineering
Winter RosebowlRosebowl Parade
January Intro*Badass Triana
January DCM24: The Interclub at Davis
Palak's Kiwanis Crab FeedCrabfeed and Nom Noms
Key2CollegeKey2College Audience of One, DCM
Key2CollegeDCM, Looking Forward
Laser TagDavis Crew
St. Mary's InterfaithSoup Servers
Car SmashPacific Car Smash
Campus Day of Service*Bike Path 2.5
DLSSP 2012 (Leonne)DLSSP In Stereo
MESA WorkAre You Smarter than a 6th Grader?
March DCM in FresnoCapi-Coast Capture the Flag
DCON TeaserN-Cubed
DCON: Service Legacy (2012)DCON Evolved
Nam + Boris WorkshopBro-nam-ced
Talent Show + DanceEnd of Line, End of CKI
April UOP MeetingCapitalFnMcrew
Davis Spring Mtg/Bowling Social (hidden event)Striked First
Pixie Woods Cleanup*Revisiting the Fairytale
UOP End of Year Banquet 2012Hagoo?
Sac State End of Year Banquet 2012Pinning and Pieing
Alex's HouseBlokus Mindgames
ZooZoomZoorunner
Capital Banquet 2012Epilogue: The Capital Banquet

Sunday, April 1, 2012

CapitalFnMCrew

Capital Film and Media Crew: After hearing about the recent successes and productions from the UNLV Film and Media Crew (like an Asian Drama), a new team was assembled in order to compete with the Desert Oasis school. By request of the new LTG, Fiona Cheng, filming and production started as early as this.

If you want something good, it's best to start early. I should probably allocate more time to presentations... it's costing me quailty points on my grad work.