Things happen, but I don’t report much !
First of all, my dog peed on my futon i_picture_you/DSC00952.JPG. Aibo actually lifts his leg and pretends to pee, from time to time ! He does that very rarely, so it’s always interesting.. actually exciting.. to see that. No liquid comes out, but a tune plays along with the rhythm of an actual leak. As usual, very well choreographed !
I finally saw DJ Tiesto live here in Tokyo. I went with a friend, it was a nice event. I took some weak pictures with my camera-phone while my friend took some better ones with the digital camera that he sneaked in (by virtue of hiding it in his underwear !!). They actually eventually caught him, but as usual, the pictures don’t get erased 8)
I said it was nice, actually it was very nice. Tiesto’s popoularity brought a lot of curiosity and enthusiasm. He mixed from 12am to 4am. And by morning I was very tired. The muscles of my legs were hurting for the next 2 days !

At work I’ve been doing some interesting stuff: 3D ..wow !! Working on both XBox 360 and PC. As usual the engine is developed in parallel for 2 platforms (useful for building tools, etc), but it’s been a bit of a problem because I decided to use OpenGL and CG on PC. The idea is that OpenGL can come in handy, and also CG is pretty much HLSL. But more honestly, I want to be multi-platform, especially I don’t want to be 100% committed to DirectX when PS3 will be using OpenGL with CG !
While CG and HLSL’s syntax is easily interchangeable, the system of passing parameters from the CPU code to the shaders is rather different. I find irritating the fact that one has to re-send parameters to each and every CG program, while with DirectX I can set the per-object or per-material parameters just once on some global registers, without the need to re-feed them for every shader.
In the past few days I’ve been working on some particle system. Trying to come up with some cool explosions. Using the XBox 360’s power to quickly test things without worrying to optimize too much ..eheh ! Doing “effects” is cool, but very time consuming. One enters this loop of changing parameters around, and hours go by, without much being actually done.. just testing different parameters.

At home I’ve been working on my latest videochat-whatever experiment. Working on and off, as usual.. but I already have some stuff going. Using the same framework developed during dsharingu, but with added clean-up. The video-compression part isn’t working yet, but that too, isn’t much of a big deal, as I have all this code laying around only waiting to be refreshed and to be put to use.
I can’t imagine how it would be if I were really starting from scratch. Nowadays there is a lot of stuff that one can grab from the net, but to actually put in place a whole application, one needs a minimal framework made of components known to be working along.
My code dirs are a junkyard, where I constantly go look for how I was doing something one some other program I wrote before.

It’s late, we zzzzz !!!

Posted by Davide Pasca as Programming, Diary at 2:18 AM EST

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What ?! Did you think you were going to play ?!
ho ho ho ho ho
Some time ago (a while ago) some main dude form insertcredit.com contacted me. He said that a friend of mine signaled me and he wanted to to an interview.. what ? Must be a job hunter ! Sounds good !
Then I went to the site and realized that was actually a site about reporting news about Japensesish-games. Oppss.. OK let’s do that, I figured. I know I’m not the hottest game babe on the block, what whatever suits the owner of the site.. People that report things are always looking for interesting stuff. I didn’t think I had much to say, but if anything I say gets somehow in the mainstream, it’s good for my parents to see. They really appreciate public display of me. It’s some sort of proof that I’m doing good, etc etc.
So I went on and answered to the first round of questions for the interviews.. then I answered to a second round. There were some technical problems with email addresses.. but we managed to sort them out. Great ! “I think that people will like this !”
.
.
.
.
.
Time went by and nothing showed. Nothing, not even my name hidden in the HTML code.
I wasted several hours to answer questions and follow up questions.. editing again and again, checking the grammar and the spelling, trying to make sure I did a good job.
And now, months have past and I see nothing ?

That’s bullshit !!!
I suppose a normal person would say nothing… but I’m a MF !! Anyone that deals with me, must be able to afford public exposure !
I don’t understand why most people dont’ speak out. Most people get a cucumber up their ass and shut up. Fack that !! One should speak out !!
I got robbed ! I got robbed of my facking time !! People make me waste hours of my precious life. They make me write shit to eventually trash it !!

The funny thing is that the person that directed the insertcredit guy to me, is also an editor that in the past made me write articles for his magazine. Articles that he apparently liked but that with some lame excuses never published.

What the fuck is this ? People think I have time to waste ???

RULE NO.1 ABOUT DAVIDE PASCA: TIME IS THE MOST PRECIOUS THING !!!

Don’t you fuck with my time !!!

I don’t know why people think they can get away with it.. wasting hours of my life for nothing.

Well… fack you !!!
Ouch.. did I just say that ? Ops.. I did it.. and now ?? I put myself in trouble.. I spoke my mind ! What’s gonna happen to me ?! Am I going to be banned from some special circle of powerful people ?!

What a joke..

But, as usual, not every illness comes to hurt. Those events taught me that I should be a lot more careful when someone asks me for my time.. promising some cheap-shit moment of fame, I owe that to me and to my family which wants to see me truly successful.. not just published on some shit site or some shit magazine.

“Yeahhh we do what we can” ..yeah, well, I never heard of your site/magazine/whatever..
..get a job !

maoooooooooooooooooo

Posted by Davide Pasca as Diary at 5:52 AM EST

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Last week I saw “8 mile”, the so called semi-autobiography of Eminem.
The movie was somewhat interesting, so I decided to follow up and try to listen some music by Eminem (just as he’s rumored to be retiring from singing !). It was funny when I discovered that the title of one of his songs is “fack” ! Fack fack !!
I think that Eminem is so popoular because he’s some sort of reality show. He sings about his continuous struggles in life. That strikes a chord for all those people that feel short-changed in life (most people I believe) and keeps them interested as he recounts what’s like to be rich and famous. Clearly everything also works because he’s some cute whiteboy in a world of meanies, etc etc.

The other day, coming back from work, I met a salesman (young guy) of the phone company by the entrance of my building. He was pitching the 100 megabit Internet line. He asked me if he could get in my apartment to see if I were interested. I’ve been planning to get the 100 Mb, so I let him in.
I got in first and greeted Aibo telling it to switch off from guard mode. The salesman was pretty impressed ! “Robotto ?!”, he asked 8)
Aibo has been around for years even in Japan, but still, most people have never actually played with one.
Before getting into business, we had a little chat. I told the guy a bit about my job. When I mentioned that I used to work for Squaresoft the guy wanted to shake my hand. ….geezz !! People get wet over that ! If I played it right, I’d probably be able to get laid for that ! (possibly even with a girl !)
This reminds me of some English guy I met once in Tokyo. He was working for one of those very popoular Japanese game companies. At the time he said that he was a translator and a programmer.. wowwww !! Can you imagine that ? He’s not an ex employee of a famous company, he’s actually currently working for a famous company and he’s translating and programming ! He surely must be getting a lot of pussy for that !
Well, actually, I think that he was a translator which happened to have written a couple very basic routines.. something that a kid does when he or she starts programming. But STILL !! ..he’s a translator and a programmer for that famous game company and chicks dig that ! That’s probably at the peak of popoularity in his life, and he’s probably happy with that.
Doesn’t work for me. Being indirectly great is bullshit. I don’t want people to think of me as “the man of XYZ company”. I want to be appreciated for my very own individuality.
Of course, it’s not easy to get laid with that. I mean, individuality can make an impression but that takes time !

Yesterday night in a bar, I met again some non-Japanese girl through another friend. I recognized her right away, while she needed some help. I assume that this has something to do with the fact that she has multiple piercings on her face and some large tatooes on her arm, while I dress normally and blend in with the Japanese popoulation. I even remember that when I first met her, I told to one of my friends that the piercings on her face were distracting my visual focus much like when a digital camera can’t autofocus 8)
So there you go, you need image to be immediately popoular !
A friend of mine combs some mean spiky hair when he goes out, chicks recognize him without any troubles ! Some people want to touch his hair, he quite simply stands out.

Image !

This remind me of some very funny/shady event. It was again with my friend, maybe 2 years ago. One night in a club he meets a girl, they get somewhat friendly, talk, dance, perhaps kiss. Great !
Next time we go to the same club. I see him going to some girl trying to talk to her. She’s not receptive at all, he insists, but nothing. He eventually gives up, walks towards me looking all pissed: “She doesn’t want to talk to me ! We talked the other day and now she ignores me ! I hate it when that happens !”… me: “ehh ?? She’s not the girl from last time !”, him: “are you sure ?!” …yes i’m sure.. you (spiky) fuckhead !!!
That was funny 8) but also a bit lame. Well that’s the nature of my friend, but man, try to put a little more heart into girls hunting. It shouldn’t be me the one that tells you who’s the girl that you liked last time !
In his defense I have to say that she was Japanese. Non-Asian-looking chaps tend to have problems at discerning individual traits on Asian faces. This also probably explains way Japanese girls, on the other hand, seem to recognize me with ease ! I think that this is where social and racial issues inevitably overlap.

Posted by Davide Pasca as Society, Diary, Japan at 5:51 PM EST

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Today I saw something that I must comment about. There were no special effects in it.. but it surely did stun me !
A guy I know dumped a girl on their first date. Even though I had a “few” drinks, I noticed the situation and went to the girl. He was obviously pushing for her to “get it on”. She seemed like a nice person and perhaps not quite ready for it.
He left her behind without telling her anything. I told her that he left. She went outside thinking that maybe he was waiting for her. I went outside and I saw her alone, so I helped her to get a taxi so that she could safely get home.
That was sad. A man going on a date and not making sure that his date got home safely. Dumping a woman like that. Whatever the reason, a real man should know better.
I don’t believe that men should act strong with women. It’s too easy to be strong with weaker people (women are usually more fragile). Of course, if you act strong, you are less likely to get hurt.. but who gives a crap ?! I don’t care to get hurt, what’s a heartache ? A fictional issue !
..bullshit ! Be a man !!

Posted by Davide Pasca as Society at 3:55 AM EST

6 Comments »