And So It Goes

It's been many years I maintained this blog, but like Zuma Blitz, it's time to set sail to something new.

During this time back in 2009, I created this blog, in an hopes to join my other friends who were on the blogging platform as well during college, with posts serving as conversation pieces. It has within that same span also become a hub for Zuma Blitz related material, as well as other games I supported, putting my blog on the map.

Now with college long gone, the major games this blog centered on its way out, and my exploration options limited with a fulltime job, my topics I cover is limited to places and events I have time to go to, as well as commentary, and my reach is based on how well it does on search results.

I realize that the amount of people irl who actually knew about the existence of this blog was much less than I hoped to expect, especially post-college, where none of the people who I met would know my username, much less this blog. The audience was intended to be those who found it either from searching for certain topics (by chance alone), or my username from facebook / twitter when trying to find me on other sites. But after I find the majority of people who I know irl that it was intended to reach were skipping right past this and my content was not being factored in either what they know about me or their posts, I realize this has lost its true purpose, and as a result I've decided to retire this blog.

I'd like to thank the readers that have followed and gave me the motivation to continue posting about things.

2017 in Art

With a fulltime job, I can spend less of my free time focusing on various programming languages and more on pursuing creative projects. My goal (and new year's resolution) for 2017: Produce as much quality artwork as possible during the year.

The goal is designed to achieve the following things:

• Put a new tablet to use and establish expertise in Krita
• Improve my own drawing skills (from almost nothing)
• Turn text-only concepts into something that is more 'visual' and 'creative'
• Produce an alternative set of sprites for Americana Engine
• Learn Speedpainting
• Get better known out there to the general public
• Get out of the few active followers hole on Twitter

I'll probably put up a dedicated page for this, but for the most part these images need to be present on tumblr / twitter with the proper tags to be effectively visible to the proper audiences*, so I'll put the better ones up there, and include all WIPs and commentaries on this blog.

Things I will probably be working on (will add to later):

• Profile / Cover image
• Hard Drive icons
• Chibis (including paper ones)
• Drawings to explain various posts
• Shadow casting
• Rare pairings
• Beancoons
• Water Effects
• Glow Effects
• UX stuff
• 3D display effects (Wiggle and Split Depth)
• Some things from 2011
• Zuma Blitz closure

Notes:

• I can't be truly motivated unless I base my quantity / quality of work off of someone who's active and who I've knew or seen IRL, so I set my benchmark against Tv's artblog in 2016 (around 170); picking up this speed should allow me to fulfill deadlines on a more timely basis and participate in collabs without holding anyone back*.
• I will probably focus on a variety of topics; the general idea would be to plan ahead substantially to avoid running out of ideas.
• This post will be updated in the future, and this post may include its own image as well.

Heading Into the Unknown

When the walls fell

UPDATE: Update: The question(s) that I was ultimately trying to from the tweet were asked directly on tumblr instead, and was since answered.

---

Today marks the end of the first week of a new year - 2017. And today marks the end of a major original-content artblog that I was following for 2+ years, as well as the end of an era where the people I knew from college posted on tumblr on a regular basis. It became empty, filled with posts from people who I could care less about. More importantly, it marked the complete end of new OC content from people I knew IRL who I could get ideas from, which took priority over all other things - it's now completely deserted.

I would be better off explaining my relation to Tv and any commentary on internal things as well as any anon asks that I did / did not send off at some point in the future (I had various ideas from 2013 that I could finally get to now), but I will provide a summary here.

Return to Twitter

So I can see all my five year old posts at a glance.

As I begin to transition up to the smartphone era, I may be getting back to Twitter. Now that I'm back to a fulltime job, my smartphone will probably get significantly more usage time than before, and I'll need to find new ways to be informed about current events as I can't use RSS feeds here (I've used this since 2009 to keep me up to date, and I have no fewer than 70 on my main computer).

I have had worse experiences there when I was active five years ago with more spam accounts following my twitter than there were actual ones; however, there's probably a better chance of people noticing content there (with mentions / tags / media) than on this blog, which actually takes me longer to write these posts than the total time people spent reading them, so it's probably worth another go.

Unlike the past, twitter posts will now focus more towards what (and who) I care about as well as topics that interest me the most.

My next goal is to figure out what to start posting on a regular basis; most likely it will contain content I would normally post here (but are too short to be considered a post), any art posts, as well as commentary on other posts.

Process:

• Wipe old posts that were more intended to be towards closer hs-era friends
• Unfollow inactive, empty, or spammy compromised accounts (may be archived to list if I need to refer back to it later)
• Like any posts that interests me, based on my following list (or accounts I have viewed) - this is approximate due to searching for various keywords for each person I was following, and I might miss posts that I might otherwise like. I won't hesitate to like posts retroactively (up to a max of two years). No retweets will be done during this time.
• Create private lists, add people to list, and unprotect the list (accounts are not notified they were added during this phase)
• Unprotect Twitter (most follower requests will be accepted). I may or may not have recent posts up for a short period of time after this happens.
• Follow a lot more people. My twitter suggestions list is bad enough that I wouldn't follow a single one there, so I'll figure out who to follow manually - this might take some time. Most sites and people whose posts I'm currently reading on a regular basis (via RSS) are also followed if possible. They might be added to a side list instead (that I check regularly) if they don't fit who people expect me to follow, or they consistently occupy too much or too little of my main timeline.
• Will start retweeting at 50 followers.

Project: Unofficial Robinhood (Web) App Development

When I need more info and a substantial decrease in latency when making trades.*

The lack of non-mobile trading options on Robinhood has led to a large amount of unofficial implementations (most on Github) that allow you to trade while away from a smartphone (other than using an emulator), however a majority of them cover only basic functions to do trading (such as buy/sell stock, get quote information). Seeing an opportunity to enter into the field of web application development, I decide to join in as well, believing I can bring something new to the table.

My first open-source (and real C#) project starting my Github programming portfolio involves use of the console to assist with active trading utilizing the RH API. You still have to manually enter your orders, but it's able to enter positions faster (mainly by skipping the Trade Preview step).

This program was based on other open-sourced apps that used the API; I don't know why most of these implementations have been largely abandoned in recent times, but I guess I'm about to find out.

Github source for the above available here.

Please note: This project exists mostly as a coding portfolio piece; I only have part-time working experience but completing this might get me much closer to getting my foot into the door somewhere.

Progress:

This project is divided into four segments:

• Robinhood API docs: A forked version of an existing RH API documentation with more endpoints filled out and more focused on consistency.
• RobinhoodNET: A C# .NET API that allows easy access for most parts of the RH API.
• rh-cli: command line interface to get various quote information, buy/sell stocks, and a few other things. Stock quotes are updated once per second while placing an order.
• rh-alt: Alternate* Web Client interface (might be coded with a combination of Angular.JS, Javascript, HTML5 canvas, d3.js, and more)

Inverse Crude Oil

Falling too fast.*

It seems like investing in inverse crude is always a bad time; it keeps going up, and a day after buying, it drops sharply. I might have enough to put in a few more shares at this point but no more.

My stance on crude oil going down to sub-26 still stands (at least for the next few months), particularly because of increased efficiency of getting that oil, and that no one, especially smaller companies, can keep that much crude oil forever due to storage costs (the price has even gone negative in some cases).

Then there's the possibility that even if all countries agree to reduce oil production, someone might break it to gain increased market share...

Unlike the above screenshot, I was unable to buy DWTI for whatever reason so I went for SCO (which instead has a -17% drop in this case). This is probably better since it drops less overall during a period of high volatility and they are cheaper allowing me to average down for less. I don't have the ability nor the funds to buy commodity futures / options contracts yet but I would use them if I could.

I've seen this volatility before when I had money in bitcoin a year ago so I'm used to it; unlike the former this is an ETF so I can't margin call on this one. The best bet would to be buying shares when the RSI for crude oil futures is high... and hodl.

UPDATE: On Feb 9th, crude price oil went down very quickly below 28, and I have since sold those shares for a profit noting a possible rebound.

Robinhood Stock Trading

Still waiting, but no longer.

After hearing about Robinhood on a Reddit post in /r/investing back in December that allows you to trade stocks without commissions, I decide to sign up for it at the start of the year in order to get into more diversified stock trading without having to pay a lot from commissions.

What appears to be an easy entrance instead may turn out to be a high barrier to entry. Despite the official FAQ stating approval can take up to five business days, it was at least two weeks after signing up and stuck with an 'account pending' (with the buy button on stocks visible but disabled) before allowing me to proceed. It doesn't appear to be limited to myself, though, as a post shows.

I was eventually approved and was able to start trading at the beginning of February. Initially, trading was an issue as my tablet died and I didn't have a smartphone* available to get on; however I was later able to do so via an Android emulator (such as Bluestacks).

I obtained API access later that year and built my own program to execute trades when away from a mobile device and to focus on implementing the things I wanted to see. As of August 2016 over half of my trades are done off-app.

I opened an account on another brokerage generally as a backup, which got approved quickly, so I'll keep that one mainly for some other trades (such as leaps and options) and for other things RH does not yet support.

Would like to see:

• Updates the GUI based on actual current time, not the time on the Android device
• Show max shares to buy on order window instead of tap
• Buy up to X stocks over a period of time during the day below a set price
• Tap / confirm = quick market order (in the official app to a certain extent)
• Toggle line indicators on placed orders and/or breakeven points
• Notify at certain price (other than +/- 10%)
• Quick Stock Lists (useful if watching a lot of stocks)
• Trailing stops
• IOC, FOK, or pegged orders

Notes:

• The time between stock price updates is 5 seconds (and 15 during the order entry window). It takes at least 10 to buy or sell shares.
• Place any market orders made off trading hours as day orders so you don't get unexpected trades; market orders have a 5% collar and they're not 'immediate or cancel' (at least at the time of writing) so they won't trigger if the stock difference between closing and next day's opening is too high (ex. NUGT Feb 11, 2016, +20.7% increase from previous close), but they aren't cancelled either, so the queued order might trigger unexpectedly at some point in the future if the stock slumps. You also cannot tell what price the market order was made at (nor does the email) should it still remain active so you'll need to write it down somewhere.
• It seems like Twitter mentions to @AskRobinhood or through other social media channels are more likely to go through than standard emails if there is no reply from the latter.
• After account approval, it is strongly recommended you delete all messages related to any information you attached and sent to them via email, particularly since they now exist as web links and not attachments.
• You are more likely to get High Volatility Protection warnings when you start a day with a low amount of cash and your portfolio mainly consists of high volatility and/or penny stocks.

Negative Exchange Rate

On the DRKBTC orderbook on Bitfinex. For the first time I have seen a bid price which is below zero. I guess when it goes that low people are willing to give coins to you for selling.

Speaking of that the value of DRK has nearly doubled recently. Dunno whether it will keep rising (due to new privacy features on the coin) or drop sharply (due to people selling when they bought at sub 1.70s last week), so I should probably get a few at this point but have a larger buy order near the bottom just in case.

End of Cunningham

Over the past six months at Delta College, Cunningham center closed down... and went through a process of being fenced, scaffolds around it, covered up, and eventually torn down. They're expected to finish by this Fall. A new building takes its place instead.

I didn't get a last look at the place before it did, but I did manage to see the planetarium during the few times it was actually open, and went to the computer labs during HS (which those computers were large, had CRT monitors, and computers had floppy drives). And took classes in this area. And where I notably met KY at.

Animations

The animation loop generated in Americana Dawn while trying to script the Braddock Scene. It's done with a custom scripting system in the game, particularly since I didn't want to put the effort into using another preset scripting language (such as lua) and getting it to work properly with what's already in the game, including how it's stored when the script is saved into a map file.

I've decided to change the way things are displayed on the blog; sometimes a picture isn't enough to describe things, so a short video clip (without sound) might be used instead if the browser supports HTML5. If not, it will load a still image instead.

Cutscene Update: The finished cutscene was rebuilt a month later with a slightly different tileset and is viewable here.

Lunar New Year 2014

The sign celebrating Chinese New Year at Red Hawk. I'm a day late on saying this, since it occurred yesterday, but I couldn't make it to the Thunder Valley one, which occurred on a Friday. The lion dance was quite short but there were three performances that day (with some slight differences between each of them).

Also, there was no greeter at the entrance, contrary to what it said online.

Note: The lion dance group is different from the one that performs in Thunder Valley / Cache Creek this year.

Las Vegas Redux

Six years ago I first traveled to Las Vegas with relatives, it was a new place for me, a place to see lots of skyscrapers / hotels, and to explore everything it had to offer. Unfortunately the ability to see a lot of things were limited, due to being under 21 at that time. Fast forward to today. Not only am I over 21 (this means I can walk through casinos without a problem* and get to places which were previously inaccessible), but we're also using a Powerpass (that means being able to see as many attractions as possible in three days).

I had two goals to accomplish that week:

• Collect as many different poker chips as possible (although I prefer $5 because some are rare chips, white/blue ones are sufficient)
• See as many places as possible

General Notes regarding the Powerpass:

• It is strongly recommended you buy the Powerpass at Costco online for $105 covering three days. Redeem at the Planet Hollywood Store in the Forum Shops in order to get your cards. Anything less than 3 days would not be advised since you will have to rush between attractions in order to see enough to cover the cost.
• The 3 day period starts as soon as you use it in any attraction that it covers, best to use it at the start of the day.
• You will very likely not be able to make it to every place within 3 days, so plan carefully.
• Mob Museum is the one downtown, NOT the one at the Tropicana. (They mentioned that they no longer accepted it in Feb 2013, implying that they previously accepted it).

Recommendations for Powerpass: (based on what I've seen)

• Planet Hollywood Store or Restaurant Credit. The $10 dollar credit at PH is reusable and stacks so if you're going with friends or family and they also have a powerpass you can use your cards together and make purchases that way (ex. 4 cards give you $40 store or food credit that day).
• Hoover Dam Motor Coach Tour
• Wax Museum
• Bellagio of Fine Art (at the time this was posted, exhibit was Warhol Out West, yours may vary)
• BeatleShow (might as well see it since you are paying lots for the pass)
• Eiffel Tower Experience (the above image was shot from the top of Eiffel Tower)
• Stratosphere Observation Deck (Note: This does not include rides though there is a slight discount for some food items there)
• National Atomic Testing Museum

Notes regarding other things on the trip:

• At this time, it is very hot outside. As in 100+ degree weather, find shade or indoor shelter as soon as possible. Venetian + Palazzo connects together, as well as Monte Carlo + Vadara + Bellagio and Paris + Bally's. TI and Mirage connects via a Tram.
• If you book a location on the Strip (online), be prepared to pay an additional mandatory resort fee per night, the online pricing does not include this in calculating cheapest hotels. Use this page as a guide.
• McDonalds is by far the cheapest thing you can have on the strip, when you consider that burgers (or almost any place not considered fast food, for that matter) are an average price of around $11. Keep in mind that $1 will give you a Spicy McChicken, the regular variant is not available.
• The Flamingo Hotel might be cheap but it's the oldest on the Strip and it speaks for its price from the uneven carpeting (at least on the 10th floor) and in my room the bathroom knob was falling apart and the toilet seat was loose.
• I play one round per casino for this trip in order to collect a poker chip. (Don't collect the ones that you find in the souvenir shops though, they look too polished, have no cash value, and are more expensive)
• Based on observations from the various Roulette Tables while walking by, a black didn't appear for up to nine spins in a row on several tables, so anything can happen. And anybody using any sort of Martingale strategy would go bankrupt (or hit the table limit if they didn't).
• There's a F-Zero AX Machine at Buffalo Bill's, but it wasn't working at the time I was there.

Heard they were renovating, but they weren't quite finished yet. Guess they were right.

Facebook Spam via Tagging

More of these posts start showing up, usually you only know about this via email.

I've been getting a lot more of these spam messages lately, involving a friend (or friend of a friend) sending spam messages, and tagging others to improve spreadability. They're usually deleted within minutes after they show up, and due to its nature they appear to be automated. If that's the case it won't spread far, but there's a few things to get from it.

Stuff I do know about it: I know these messages exist because:

• I get an email the minute I get tagged, even though I was untagged or the post was deleted. I concluded that it was deleted, because tag review notifications include posts which were deleted, and deleted posts technicially still exist on FB's servers, with the privacy setting of that post set so that no one can see it.
• The email is legitimate.
• Who gets tagged appears to be random (though I don't know for sure because I never actually saw the live message)
• It would be quite hard to tag specific friends of friends because you need to type in at least their first name and need to start typing their last name in full.
• If the tags include friends, it can spread quicker because in most cases people don't use Tag Review and therefore any tag from a friend will auto-appear on their wall and a newsfeed post will be made about it. (With Tag Review on, it occurs only if a comment or like is made on the post in question.) Just tagging anyone will automatically hit their tag review wall.
• If it was automated you can apparently tag anyone in a status message... yet the official documentation for graph API for a status message doesn't say anything about tags.

I know there are some legitimate uses for tagging friends of friends (I usually do tags only if I am mentioning someone in a post that they can't normally see) but I feel like there are more ways for this feature to be abused. Although notifications that non-friends have tagged you can be turned off, it doesn't stop them from tagging you, so the activity log should be checked at regular intervals to ensure that people aren't associating you with... bad stuff.

Asparagus Festival Spear It Run

After going to the Asparagus festival from 2004 to 2011, it feels like almost the same each time: Head over for bus rides in order to get to the festival (or park over there), look at booths and get freebies, try various asparagus food items, that's it. Most of the booths are the same throughout the years, so it's a matter of finding what's new.

I've decided to try out something new: Run the Spear-It Run. I've heard about it for the past few years and saw the finish line, but always wondered where it started. I no longer have to look further. The run goes back and forth over a single street (this makes it quite prone for people taking shortcuts) but is decent enough.

Overall: Cleared in 28:42 (83rd place) - which is a 3:42 improvement. Getting closer to the 'under 20m 5k' goal.

Playlist: My playlist developed quite a few additions since I last did the run at Davis. It still consists of mainly electronic music, but unlike last time, there were many songs that didn't seem to fit right during the run, so I found myself having to skip quite a few songs while running.

The addition of K-Pop Songs during the run (I posted one as a comment on the photo) might get some of my friends by surprise.

• Cold Storage - Operatique
• Skrillex - Bug Hunt (Noisia Remix)
• Big Bang - Tonight
• M&H Band - Popcorn
• Daft Punk - Get Lucky (Mj edit)
• 2NE1 / Big Bang - Lollipop

New Additions: The Asparaberry Shortcake is a Strawberry Shortcake with bits of Asparagus on it, and it's 3 bucks - much cheaper than getting a shortcake at some of the other booths). I don't know if it was introduced last year, but it was featured this year.

Repairs

Looks like things have taken a turn for the worse when I got back. Although additional sprites were ready for me to use, KY's images for the menu were lost with the power outage, so I'll have to wait until the materials are ready. David's hard drive on his laptop crashed and pictures couldn't be recovered there. That makes three dead drives this semester.

My programming team is currently out at this time while they replace their laptops (via loans) and get stuff back to working condition - until then I'm on my own to carry AD to the finish... at least to a playable demo anyways.

Relay For Life

This was on a friend's Relay for Life donation page where the reason why to donate and Relay isn't taken very seriously. Guess she wasn't a fan of copypasta. Hand her the money to donate? Seems legit.

Things would get very interesting if it was a guy who wrote this but sadly this isn't the case - it's just a cute girl who doesn't like dresses and high heels.

I'm actually overdue on a new profile picture and I'll need one for AD anyways so I'll probably stick to Anthyvy for the donations.

Tryouts: David's Sushi (California Roll)

"This lone computer science gentleman is a sushi chef by day, video game programmer by night." - description for David on Americana Dawn Kickstarter

Work continues even during Spring Break - professors are more than happy to hand out assignments during this weeklong break. This game is no exception when there's a deadline to meet. One of our teammates made a California Roll. Given that he's the sushi chef at the UC, where hundreds of students are eating his stuff*, it's got to be good, right? Exactly. No avocado here (wouldn't this be the distinguishing feature of a California Roll?), but I can check off a subgoal here.

No longer would I have to go for Ngannu Rolls (UCD CKI specialties, named in a picture caption in the Ramble Apartments - which I know a friend makes) in order to reliably complete the goal - I know there's lots of sushi places around, but finding a friend that makes them that is close enough to sample is an extreme rarity. Prior to David, I only knew three others who did this (and the other two are in SF).

Day 1001 Project Goal #30b: Eat one of a friend's sushi dishes, if one is available. (Completed: 3/5/13 - David Ngo's California Roll)

Americana Dawn: Week 4

Challenge of February: Screen Space and Understanding how this DirectX stuff works. (Photo credit: The Lone CS Major)

Ironically, I would be the one resembling the lone CS major, not him.

Four weeks have gone by since I started the project, and plenty of stuff has gone on during that time. I recruited another developer to help with the project (from CKI, it's the connections btw), and over fifteen whiteboards were filled with game data, skillsets, overall game planning, etc. Work now begins on both the game engine and the editor in question. The game engine, as well as memory management (to ensure the game fits under 200MB, if possible) will make it a real challenge (see note below).

Less than two months to go before that demo rolls out. (The game won't be completed by end of April - though the engine might be completed, the assets for a large scale game probably might not be.)

CS and DirectX: DirectX was never taught in any basic or upper level Comp Sci course that I have taken - at most MFC was introduced in one project and practically everything else was command prompt.

Heartwood: Board of Broken Balls... and broken hearts

That board's not going to help with the latter. (You can, however, take a Pink Frog for use in future boards.)

Yep, it's Valentine's day, it's like past years - but now with a broken heart. Even though I may have a project or two to finish, and two people to talk things through, eventually there won't be a way for me to not think about this for a long time. Of course, there's a few other options.

Two people in CKI remain that I have interest in who are not taken, and I'm currently not friends with either. I'll either have to look elsewhere, or be more active in events to get a chance of getting them up to at least a friend. What will it be...

Board Strategy: Enough with the dating stuff - it's kinda typical anyways that gamers and CS students are less likely to get that gf.

Get a Spirit Turtle with Curvy Fries/Fruit/Inferno Frog/Timelord, the gaps might be tough to score well but you can curve clear in two hot frog shots. If you're not fast, then a Spirit Eagle with Chocolate Loves will work to a certain extent (up to around 13M). I'm not breaking any balls today... The Spirit Turtle did that yesterday with its 20M scores.

The 50 State Quarter Set

After hunting around for that last Alaska state quarter for years, I finally managed to find the last quarter I need to complete my 50 State Quarter Set. Unfortunately, the display is so old that other territories are not included.

Time to start searching around for those American Territories / National Parks quarters, they're going to go on for another eight years.