Game Over?

I'm sure some are wondering if I already lost the $100.00 a month competition, well, let me just say that the game is not over yet. So to save me from eating out for the rest of last week I bought myself some groceries to keep from going out for lunch and dinner.
Unfortunately, I don't only have an issue of eating out, but I buy gadgets. I had to spend $30.00 on a Nike + for a running challenge, but that's a whole new blog for you. So this gives me only $20.00 for the rest of the month. Until Saturday, I attended a friend's bachelor dinner and dropped another $10.00. It's only the 10th and I know what you are thinking, you lose Kham! Sorry folks, especially to those who have made it really clear that they have no faith in me, Katie and Robyn, until I drop my last penny, the game is still on...but it's really making me nervous.

Attempting to be a cheapskate

A friend came upon an article on how to live cheap, and these days, saving extra money has not been a bad idea for me. As we got to talking about ways to save money, it led to a contest to see who can live on $25.00 a week, or $100.00 a month. This only includes eating out, and buying things you do not need, also known as "doodads". As an incentive, the winner gets $25.00 from each loser. Sounds easy enough, right? I mean, why not, its a new year, so lets try something different and new. The key is to change a little bit of my life style and my spending habits...this is easier said then done my friends.
I went back to work today and I just had to go out to lunch with my coworkers, and on top of that, we decided to get sushi. We went to Sushi Connections in Woodinville, and if you haven't been to one its similar to Sushiland, where the food is place on different color plates running on a conveyor belt, and each color represents a price, ranging from $1.00 to $3.50. This lunch alone was $14.00, but you don't want to know how much I could have spent when I go for sushi. My weakness is food, if I didn't know that before, I do now.
Tonight, I went to a birthday dinner, and I could have just had bread and water, but noooo, I had to get a steak, and for those of you that know me, you know I love a good steak and I always order a steak. Let's just say after dinner and lunch I already spent two weeks of my allowance. A note to those that are in on this competition, its not over yet. I can't fall apart on the first month. So people, please don't ask me to go out to eat, because its not going to help my cause to stay in this competition and I can't lose yet. Focus Kham!

Final note on 2009

2009 is coming to an end and here I am at day 2 in pain recovering from a quad workout, over did a workout again. If I do end up going to a dance tonight, it's gonna be a little tricky, my legs are going to be stiff and I'll probably look like the tin man trying to bust a move.

For the past couple of days, while I've been browsing the web I've noticed a lot of best of 2009 or top 10s of 2009. I couldn't help but look back at my own year and I can't help but feel like I wasted a whole year. It went by way too fast, and a total blur. There's two thing this year I love the most and that's my family and friends. Getting together for birthdays and outings. Good times indeed. One of favorite Christmas movie I enjoy watching every year is "It's a Wonderful Life" and one of my favorite quotes from it, is where Clarence wrote a message in a book to George Baily, saying, "Remember, George: no man is a failure who has friends" I do want to thank my peeps for being there with me through the year, but more importantly I hope I did my best to be there for them.

Another thing I need to remember to do this coming year is to SLOW down when driving. Thinking back I counted myself getting pulled over 5 times this year, but, only 3 was for speeding. Sometimes I don't realize how fast I am going, hopefully the radar detector I got will help prevent getting more speeding tickets...or I can just remember to drive slow.
After the layoff and the shut down of the Amaze studio this year, I am glad I still have a job with Griptonite. I do have a feeling 2010 will be better for the company, but on the personal side, as a treat for you all, I will attempt to at least post some new artwork each month. I did promise a friend that I would post AT LEAST once a month and hopefully this will help me live up to that promise.

Well, good riddance to 2009 and hello 2010. To whoever reads my blog, I will leave with you a quote from the famous daredevil, Evel Knievel, to carry onto the new year. "We are put on this earth to live and not exist."

A little project

Due to work, I had to cancel my trip to Utah on Friday, boooo! So stuck here for the weekend I decided to take on a little project.
For my job, I get sit in front of a computer every day, clicking, typing, and clicking and typing...it's really not that boring, it just sitting around all day, on a computer. So when I get a chance to do something active, it's pretty refreshing. I decided to restore a dresser for a friend who needed one, but it had to match the other furnitures, brown wood just wouldn't do.
This dresser was found sitting on the side of a road with a "free" sign taped to it. It was pretty beat up and there was a lot of water damage on the top.
I thought I would document this little project, and here are some pictures of the process. Why document and post about it? I guess I'm just easily amused ;)

The dresser before the work.

The sanding process.

Primer time

Paint is on

The outcome of my work

This project was a really fun, I think I'm gonna do this again, but with my coffee table. It needs to be black too.

Penny Arcade Expo 2009

It has been one heck of a weekend. I am surprise that I even lasted 3 days at PAX. The Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) is a convention dedicated to gaming, from board games to video games. One may say it's the nerdiest time of the year and this I agree. I will admit, I am a nerd and a geek, but there were people there that really out nerd me. These are peeps and I give them props. I've also said, as long as there are gamers, I have a job. This year was probably the biggest year yet, as far as people and sponsors from the industry.
A lot of big games are coming out this fall, like Assassins Creed 2, Splinter Cell, Borderlands, Left 4 Dead 2 and Modern Warfare 2 (even though this wasn't there) I think this is going to do a little damage to the social life...yikes!
I also had the chance to attend some panels.
"Enforcement on Xbox LIVE: Tales From The Din" They talked about the Xbox LIVE Policy and Enforcement. This was really entertaining but good to hear we have guys out there making sure casual gamers and hardcore gamers are getting the best experience they can when playing on Xbox Live.
Anyway, there were others, but why should I bore you with discussing them. Let's just post some pics and videos. Some of you have already seen these posted on facebook.

Where the Wild Things Are...the game

I can't recall any time in my career as a game developer that a publisher has actually put some time to market a game I helped developed. Until now, Warner Bro. actually created a decent trailer for the "Where the Wild Things Are" video game. So check it out and enjoy.

WTWTA trailer #2

I haven't had the best luck keeping some postings up, especially regarding Where the Wild Things are. The last post, a featurette of Maurice Sendak, I had to take down because the link to the video was no longer available, hope some of you had the chance to at least see it. If not, I will graciouly present you with another trailer of Where the Wild Things Are.



It should be a good movie, but I could just be bias. I was able to read the script to this movie because we made the video game version of it, which I'm hoping they will show off some screenshots soon. Seeing these characters come to life on screen will be visual amazing and entertaining, especially coming from the mind of Spike Jonze. I don't want to hype it up too much, you decide for yourself come October 16.