A month ago, I completed the CS50 final project. Some assignments really felt like I was dreading through it. Finally got started on my new website too, although it's very bare bones. Currently, I learning the basics of Unity again, because I've forgotten everything about that engine, so I can work with a friend on a project. I started learning the freeCodeCamp Responsive Web Design curriculum on the side. Perhaps this curriculum will help improve my web design skills because I am very rusty at that too. Now that my website is up and running, I can finally host images. Even got a new email address too.
I feel really tired the last couple of days. I've been sleeping in a lot. Hopefully, I can get it together and start completing simple tasks again. My cat has been sleeping all day too, and he's always by my side.
I've finally completed my freelance work. I think I did a decent job, but I wish I'd done more. I'm now currently doing my final project of my CS50 course, and it's going to be a game developed with LOVE 2D and Lua. Currently going through a youtube video from freeCodeCamp about it. In the meantime, I've been trying to improve my english grammer and punctuation because I've been making a ton of mistakes in my writing.
I've started development on a new website. I thought it was great opportunity to study vim since I'll be coding more than usual. I've beening using it since yesterday and still struggling with the keybindings. I'm even uploading the site to a public GitLab repository that Cloudflare Pages will get a copy of everytime I push new code. It's only a simple frontend website.
My cat gets lonely easily. He follows me around from room to room and usually just sleeps next to me. Today, I see him playing with a toy I thought I lost a while back.
There are so many things I want to learn, especially in relation to game development. Hopefully, I have the money, time and resources to do it. I've been looking into Adobe Substance for procedural material creation, World Machine for terrain generation, and Marvelous Designer for digital clothing. However, their licencing are really expensive. I want to learn creative writing and music too.
I keep waking up too late and even taking additional naps in the afternoon. I'm normally tired because of a side effect from my medication, but I've stopped taking them for a while. I'm thinking of going back to my home country to visit my parents. I hope the flight tickets are cheap, but it's near the holidays so probably not.
Here's to hoping I will complete my final project quickly, so I could move on to something else.
Been spending a lot of time with my cat recently. He's been sleeping a lot, like around 20 hours a day.
It took 2 weeks, but I finally completed the flask section of my computer science course. Now, the last thing to do is the final project which will be a game made with Lua and Love. I can't get started yet though as I have to study 3D modelling and sculpting for some upcoming work. It's tedious learning all the features and keybinds again in Blender, but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. Yesterday, I was learning sculpting for the first time, trying to make a fish, but it ended up being bad. Maybe I need more practice with sculpting.
I've been spending a lot of time over the past month playing a simple game called Webfishing. It was really fun. I think I grinded all I can in the game, and I've made a couple of friends on it.
Been feeling constantly tired lately, maybe from the side effect of my medication or constantly doing my computer science work. Recently took my cat to the vets for vaccination. He hated me for a few hours after, but I think it's fine now. Been watching a lot of episodes of the anime Hunter x Hunter because it was one of my friends favourite anime. I've even been binge watching the old Angry Video Game Nerd youtube videos where a guy reviews bad, retro video games.
I haven't updated the journal for a while due to mental health not being so good. Think I'm finally feeling myself again. I'm doing the usual like completing my computer science course. I've been spending a lot of time with my cat too. He always like to sleep on the bed. In the meantime, I've been binge watching House and Naruto. I started talking to my friends too. Hopefully, I'll get some more work done tomorrow. I hate myself sometimes.
Been really lazy yesterday. Pretty much just playing video games the entire time. Been strugging with sleep too, wish I could be like my cat and sleep whenever.
Been spending a lot of time in bed sleeping and chilling with my cat. Was stuck on a Computer Science problem with my course for a couple of days. When I got around to finally finishing it, i don't think I did it correctly. Sometimes, I try to take my mind of these problems by watching old movies. 3 days ago, I watched an old spaghetti western called 'Django, Prepare a Coffin', and today, I'm going to rewatch 'Fight Club', a cult classic. I downloaded these from archive.org. I don't mind the low bitrate. I find downloading from that website is faster when using a download manager or wget rather than downloading it through the browser.
2 days ago, I had a large english breakfast meal because it was easy to make. Been a while since I had a home cooked meal. Yesterday, I had pastries with cheese, mac and cheese in a cup, and potato salad. These weren't home made of course, most of the food I eat is just ready made.
Whenever I get bored, I play some new games I've downloaded on my PC, like Wreckfest or Clair Obsur: Expedition 33. These games are so long, I don't think I'll ever finish them.
Hopefully, when I wake up in the afternoon, I'll gain the motivation to finish off my CS course.
Had another lazy day today. Ended up playing video games, then got sick and went to sleep. Wish I could rush through all my to do list, but I'm not too smart or energetic to do it.
A couple of days ago, I was programming in C. I kept getting 'segmentation fault' errors before solving the bug. When I went to sleep that night, I had a dream where my mind when into a state of restless confusion, like it was trying to find something that doesn't exist. Sort of like the fault itself.
Anyway, I took a day off programming the next day, gaming with a friend.
Last month, I did a bootcamp for Unreal Engine, It was a lot of fun. Don't think I would be using the engine anytime soon, as I want to start of with a simple project with Godot. Currently, I'm doing the CS50 Intro to Computer Science course. It's taking up a lot of my time, and I'm making slow progress, but I'm gaining a better understanding of C. I still have to learn the linux command line as well.
Been lazy today. Did some light reading and listened to music. Later on, I think I'm just going to watch cartoons and go to sleep.
Finally finished reading Art Fundamentals. Now I have to get a sketchbook to practise it. Might read The Animator's Survival Kit next. I started the first tutorial for Unreal Engine 5, however, I still have a long way to go. So many mechanics seem similar to Unity 2019, yet it has so many features, and it gets complicated. It's like most of the default settings are built for simulations rather than small games. Regardless, I want to learn as much as I can about the engine. Forgot starting a new project takes forever to compile the shaders, and packaging a project takes even longer. Hopefully my PC can keep up, but I'm running out of disk space, so I might have to attach another SSD soon. Other than that, I've been practising typing, a little bit of drawing, and watching random animes.
I have been sleeping in many days lately. I'm pretty far behind on my TODO list. I have been recently reading up on the Linux Command Line and Art Fundamentals again, but I've barely made any progress. Perfecting English is also tough. I'm trying to get from a B2 level to at least C1.
Brought some cheap groceries for the week, including stuff like bread, ramen, and cake. Tried to spend some time with my cat too, but he's outside most nights. I worry about him. I stay in most days just to check if he's okay.
I have to get started with the website soon and the introduction to Unreal Engine.
Recently brought Tekken 8 and downloaded Tekken 7 again, so I could play with a friend. I love the mechanics of the Tekken fighting games. Every fighter in the roster has 100 to 200 moves, they have 10 hit combos, power crushes, heat moves, different stances, grabs and throws, counters and parries, punishments, rage drives and art, and the occasional unblockable attacks. Some characters have different mechanics and gauges which enables special abilities. It's really satisfying finally getting the hang of 10 hit combo and pulling it off in battle. I had a lot of fun playing these games even though I mostly lose.
Thinking of playing Kingdom Hearts 3 next, but I can never stand how long some RPGs are.
I went to see the new Sonic 3 movie on my birthday. I thought it was pretty accurate to the Sonic Adventure 2 video game. I think it was one of the best films I seen in 2024, and I'll definitely watch it again when they release it for DVDs next month. I thought Keanu Reeves voicing Shadow was a great and can't wait till the fourth sonic movie.
I decided to reset my PC for the new year too, since Windows 10 will lose support on October 2025. I really did not want to back up and reset my computer because it takes too much effort to reinstall all the programs and drivers I use daily, but I decided I had to rip off the band aid early while I'm not doing any important projects. I decided to upgrade my computer to Windows 11 IoT Enterprise and activate for free using the Massgrave methods. Hopefully they'll keep the promise that they'll provide support for it for 10 years. I encourage everyone to activate Windows/Office using the method from the Massgrave website and not give Microsoft any money.
I recently started the CS50 introduction to computer science course. I thought it might be better to understand basic programming concepts first and learn some programming languages first instead of going straight into Godot and learning GDScript. Currently still on my first task and building a simple Scratch platformer game.
I'm still reading ‘The Linux Command Line’ and still have a long way to go until I become proficient enough to start shell scripting. I love GNU/Linux so much. It has really come a long way with compatibility with consumer hardware over the decade.
Other than that, I've been spending my free time playing a typing game called ‘Nitro Type’ and replaying other games on steam like Sonic Adventure 2, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Insurgency Sandstorm. I had a nice 2 weeks vacation over the Christmas/New Year's holiday which I wasted most of the time sleeping.
My cat is still the same as always. His favourite spot has changed to a warm mat next to the radiator.
Hopefully, in the future, I'll start creating my website to host all the fun and creative stuff. I want the design to be similar to the old sites of the early 2000s, like websites from neocities, but I could never retain the information I'd learnt to make one.
Feeling like bad luck has been following me around since last week. Deliveries are being lost and machinery being broken at work. Recently my Xbox Controller got stick drift. Not surprise, they usually break easily.
Brought myself a new keyboard with Cherry MX Blue Key Switches. I never realise how loud they click compare to my former, cheap, membrane keyboard, but man, it feels good to type on it. Don't know why, but after I shower, I type better. It relaxes the muscles, maybe?
I've been reading two books, the Linux Command Line which have some fun chapters and commands to try if you have a Linux system. The first few pages describes how everything in Linux in a file with a hierarchy along with some basic navigation commands. The second book is the Debian Administrator's Handbook which is more like a reference guide for businesses and individuals. Debian is an operating system which contains old but stable programs. Both books are free, and I recommend checking them out.
Hopefully, I'll have some time over the weekend to finish Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Think I've spent an entire week grinding to pass through one chapter.
Listening to Eurobeat everyday because it gives me the energy to keep going. Found a mix on youtube that totally SLAPS!
Sleeping with my cat beside me. Sometimes I would take more of the blanket he's on, and he would get annoyed and leave.
Been lazy and sleeping most of the time. Always feeling tired unfortunately.
Been having movie nights in bed with my cat using my laptop. I had a few days vacation that I haven't had in a while so I spent it being lazy with my cat and catching up on movies. Recently I brought Yakuza: Like a Dragon on sale. Really enjoying it lately. Think I spent around 10 hours playing it yesterday. I have been sleeping a lot too over the past week, I had some wacky dreams too. I have trouble remembering them, but they're kind of hard to describe if I did remember.
I was playing Assetto Corsa Competizione this morning. Something about driving in circles around a track calms me while keeping my focus up. Been trying to get my safety rating up to 100 and trying to improve my racecraft as well.
Thought I'll fix my sleeping schedule today by drinking a large coffee with 4 shots of expresso. Last time I did this, it kept me up awake around 20 hours :/. Hopefully I can drift off but insomnia can be a pain sometimes.
Brought a cheap laptop, so I could practise ricing linux on it. I'm going to gift it to my father once I got back to my home country when I get my vacation time. I'll download some movies, music, and books for him too. I started creating a CSS theme for my notes app, Trilium. I based it off another theme with Hatsune Miku as the entire background, but I didn't get far enough to complete it.
I spent my entire afternoon trying to rip amazon kindle books with calibre (an ebook management software) with the DeDRM plugin. It worked when I started using an older version of the desktop kindle app. I'll definitely add some books I got from kindle and Humble Bundle to my open directory (that I will make eventually). Along with some music and movies.
Wanted to draw some assets for my game today, but I've been feeling tired and demotivated for no reason. Another lazy night I guess. Think my cat had a more productive day than I.
Had a ton of sweet snacks yesterday, including eclairs, root beer, and sweet/salty popcorn.
In the morning, my cat keeps jumping on my pillow where my head rests to wake me up. He wanted food, and there's already food in his bowl, but he likes people watching him while he eats.
Didn't do much work on my video game, just wrote the second page of the screenplay and drew a truck. Feeling lazy today and always a little bit tired.
Tonight, I'm just going to listen to Boxboys and finish reading an art book.
At the start of the month, I spent installing some services into an old Windows Surface tablet to be used as a dedicated server. I brought it second hand, and it had a broken battery, so I thought it would be great just to use it for a Tor Bridge Relay, Seedbox for my torrents, Internet Radio Broadcast, Open Directory and a IRC chat client/server. It probably wasn't a good idea since the computer only had one USB port. I would have to unplug the USB/Ethernet adaptor just to perform maintenance on it. I even had to plug a external hard drive into my router to act as a NAS so the server could mount it and use it for my torrents.
A little while after I finish that project, I started playing Little Big Planet using the RPCS3 emulator. It was the prequel to my favourite childhood game: Little Big Planet 2. It felt a lot more experimental in it's game design. Hopefully, in the future, I would play some community made levels from archive.org or connect to a community online server like Lighthouse. I think I'll play the whole series first before I do that.
Broadcasting music through the internet reminds me of when I was younger. I played a lot of Euro Truck Simulator 2 which had built-in internet radio. One of the more popular stations was TruckersFM (at least that's what I think it was called). I discovered some good songs from that station, and they had some volunteer presenters that would report on traffic happening on a 4000 player community server. It would occasionally play ads for VTCs (Virtual Trucking Companies) as well as other people's twitch streams.
Last night, I was binge-watching Junji Ito Maniac Japanese Tales of the Macabre until 4am for the spooks. I was thinking of rewatching Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities again for Halloween. Think I might make it a tradition since I seen it last year.
Today, I was taking pictures of my cat outside on the front lawn. He was lying and rolling around on the concrete so the photos didn't turn out so well. I think he knows.
I got some free time in the evening due to an injury I got at work. I'm going to try to write the script and draw some assets for my video game. I remember I recorded some audio of rain hitting a metal roof back when I was on holiday around 2 years ago. I really need to transfer stuff from my SD card to my computer.
Been meaning to start archiving movies from DVDs. I'm not sure I would archive blu-rays too, as I heard they need decryption keys which might be hard to find on the net.