January 21st, 2016

Project 52, finale and retrospective

I finished my Project 52 in the last week of 2015! This is the finale! To begin, I want to look back on the project and what I’ve learned from it. In my first entry, I mentioned that I completed a Project 365 in the past, and it just felt like a recording of my life through photos. While that’s nice, I really wanted a photography challenge, which is where the one serious photo a week idea came in.

These are the positive things that came out of it:

  • I took more photos and used my DSLR more frequently.
  • I took many photos that I would not have taken otherwise. For example, I purposely went out to take photos and also began exploring toy photography more.

    2015_06

  • I fine tuned my techniques for taking photos indoors. Since I work during the day, it can be hard to take outdoor photos before dark and sometimes the weather doesn’t cooperate. I learned to make my own indoor set-up and am still improving it.

    2015_17

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18 · Posted in Photography, Project 52
January 13th, 2016

Hello January

Every time January comes around, I remember why it’s such a hell month for me. If you think it’s because of going back to work after the break… well, that’s not it. It’s because of trees. Cedar trees to be exact. January is when many Austinites (yes, we call ourselves that) like myself suffer from cedar allergies. One of these days I’ll get around to seeing an allergist, but I’ve been managing with nasal rinses and antihistamines. It gets me to somewhat normal during the day, but I wake up feeling miserable, and I can’t sleep through the night. Ugh, allergies, why.

Come on, Texas. WTF.

Come on, Texas. WTF.

Speaking of work, I actually welcomed going back on Jan 4th. I worked from home the Mon-Wed before Christmas Eve, and then between Christmas and New Years, I didn’t really work. I kept an eye on my email and answered anything that came up, but otherwise, I stayed home. I slept in; I played a lot of video games. It was pretty nice. After a week, I felt kind of like a deadbeat and just… felt like I needed to do something with my life. It felt good to be productive again at work!

Plus, on Jan 7th, we celebrated our company’s 10th birthday by seeing Star Wars in theaters 🙂 Our work treated us all to the movie, and since it was a theater that served food and alcohol, we also got free lunch and drinks. Sure, most of us had seen Star Wars already (some multiple times), but it’s hard to complain about a free movie, food, and booze.

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14 · Posted in Life
January 3rd, 2016

Gaming year in review: 2015

Happy new year everyone! It’s time for my annual gaming year in review! This where I give a brief review of every game I’ve played in 2015. I only count games that I hadn’t played before, are remakes, or have new content. I don’t count any replays that don’t have anything new to them.

Let’s start with my favorites in 2015! (As usual, these are from the games I’ve played in 2015, which may not have released in 2015.)

Favorite Single Player: Dishonored
I really enjoy stealth games, and the powers that you can get gives you creative and fun options. I also liked that the game offered several ways for achieving your task. There are usually multiple travel paths, and you can choose between lethal and non-lethal solutions. I ended up doing a few play-throughs (stealth & non-lethal, murder everything, and a mix of both) just to try different things out.

yir_dishonored

Favorite Multiplayer: Gigantic
We were part of the alpha, and we really liked the guardians concept and how it felt like a MOBA + shooter. The view was over the shoulder, and you had to aim your shots. Plus, the community was actually nice. (A friendly MOBA community? Mind blown.) Unfortunately, we stopped as it went into beta, but we did have a ton of fun with it and met many cool people.

yir_gigantic

Favorite Indie/Download: Binding of Isaac Rebirth
I spent soooo many hours on this game and then played it again for the Afterbirth DLC. This is a roguelike game, where you start over from the beginning every time you die. Every play through is a different experience since you get a random map with random enemies and items. I thought it was very well done and super addicting. The more you play, the better you get, and the further you can go.

yir_isaac

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17 · Posted in Gaming, Year in Review
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