Year 2009 Summary

Well first please accept my apology of not posting anything on my site other then Twitter update for the past couple months. I know this is getting boring and stupid. Will try to update my blog more often in 2010.

2009 is a very interesting year. It is not my best year financially but experience wise is still quite interesting. Some of you which is close to me might know at the end of 2008 I have came back to Hong Kong due to my employer retreating from China. So I am in some way out of job. At the worst possible time in the decade to raised fund. I managed to get the capital and co-founded Humble Gaming an iPhone game development studio in Hong Kong and China. It wasn’t an easy ride but I manage to pull it off. Been to US twice and finally in Japan for my first time since I am mature! Planning to head back again at 2010 given my trip was pretty short!

In 2009 lots have happen, lots of new people coming in or getting much closer to me career and personal wise namely: SSM, PB, folks in Nuthon – Hohang, Leo and Bill, Perrie, Casey, Manav, Vincent, Rayfil, Lam and lot more. I also make a few new friend in WWDC such as Brain and Alex. Thank you all for helping and be friends with me (I know I am not an easy person to be friend with). If I forget to mention you can whine all you want or ping me and I will add you

Achievement wise I did say 2009 is not as bad as I originally thought. Got mention in WSJ Online, a few local magazine, spoke at a EMBA graduation tour for Baylor University and TEDxGZ. TV Interviewed by Phoenix TV. Lastly selected to be one of the 30 under 30 game developer award by DEVELOP Magazine. This ain’t too bad considering these all happen naturally

Plans for 2010 is a bit unsettle but I think have the general road map is quite clear. Personal wise, one thing for sure is I will get married in 2010 with my patient and always supporting finance Jojo. Also thinking of being a Professional Magic Player again still a bit undecided on this. Since it do feel a bit childish to do it AGAIN at age 27.

BINGO! DEVELOP Magazine “30 under 30 Game Developer”

I am please to tell ya’ll Jeff have did it again. This got to be one of the best gift for me and defiantly a nice surprise to conclude my year 2009. To check the mention you can check this digital version of the magazine! Thanks for everyone who have supported me in my professional career! Check it out http://issuu.com/develop/docs/dev101_web/29 for the full magazine  OR you can just view it here!

We invented technology enslaving ourselves?

Recently I stumble upon 2 very interesting articles one from NYTIMES and one from Telegraph:

Breakfast Can Wait. The Day’s First Stop Is Online.-New York Times

MySpace generation happier to talk online than real life - Telegraph.co.uk

Mostly when I read these article, I will be saying… yea the world is very screw and these people are stupid. Yet this time, I must confess I am defiantly one of the people they say in the first article and I should be partially excuse from the second one as I am quite confident expressing myself in public.

However no matter what, it is very very disturbing still. Because I know this is the trend and I don’t see this trend going to decrease. As technology and information become more easier to access I also see work increases. Seriously, think about it. Ever since Email is invented then blackberry or mobile device that access email. Your life have been taken over by it. Being passionate about your work and being slave to you work is different. Before, checking emails at weekends are a sign of being passionate about your work. Now a days, checking emails on weekend is almost a given. In some cases if you don’t is almost a crime. People expect once the message is deliver the work should be done, because of Internet and Cellphone, delivering a messages across is so easy is just a few keystroke away.

To extend this further, we always dream of inventing robots as slave of mankind. Yet if you look at a very macro view, we are the robots, slaves of the technology and in most cases very mindless ones too. We check Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Various IMs and Emails everyday without even knowing is there anything there that needs our attention, we just logon and hope there are something. Even worst, if there is NOTHING there, some or most of the people of this generation will actually be depressed. The sense of needed is not anymore about someone you know who actually needs you but actually how many emails you get per day, did anyone poke you on Facebook or the follower counts on Twitter. This is VERY VERY SCARY as I just realize it is also happening to me. Seriously, the person you are talking to across the ocean through IM, if real A.I. exist… you can’t tell is he an actual person or just an A.I. yet you care for him as much as you care about the person that sit besides you. A.I. that can interact with you on a very intelligent and meaningful level does not exist now, yet to talk crap with you is not that hard. Most important of all, you are probably just talking crap anyway.

Technology without a doubt brings us lots and lots of “Candies” yet these “Candies” didn’t really came without a cost as we all thinks or want to believe… it takes away our life and the real interaction between people that we hope technology should bring us. It is time one should think what did the cost one pay for it.

The few lines you should know it by your heart!

The following are some lines that you MUST learn it by heart if you want to survive in a relationship. (For guys)

• I am sorry… (Use it right away when you detect an angry tone)
• You are right!
• Yes, Sure, No problem. (or anything similar)
• I appreciate you!
• I love you! (You should start & end your day with this. Also useful at the end of a fight)
• You are the best! (Same as above)
• Yup it looks perfect on you! (Semi-Auto follow up line) No it doesn’t make you look fat. (When you are shopping with her, this is the default answer.)
• What? who? I don’t see any hottie (optional) around except you!
• Of course you are not fat! (optional) that is absurd!
• It is not your problem, it’s their.

Some smart women will tell you when you use any above line, they want to hear the TRUTH. Don’t be trick, stick with it! The moment you don’t you are doom as she will start REVISING every previous situation where you use any of the above line! Trust me you don’t want to go there!

An overpopulate yet cold city

Today I was waiting for a friend to meet up for a drink at Lan Kwai Fong. I waited him at Ben & Jerry. During my wait, tons of people walk by and suddenly one slipped just few meters in front of me. He slipped hard and caught everyone’s attention. Some just turn their head and kept walking, some laugh, some gave a weird look. Yet only few gave a “sincere” and only me and 2 other person actually walk towards him and see is he okay.

While I am walking towards him I realize he is in serious pain and my first reaction was already going for my phone. Yet I paused to see is there a need to call emergency. Before I realize, a women realize he dislocated his arm and yelled. In split second everyone around stop walking and gather around. There are probably 20 something people around yelling call 999 (the emergency hotline in Hong Kong). Yet I am the only who actually held a phone and made the call after realize NO one actually reach their pocket or is dialing. After I call I stay and make sure the man gets his treatment then left the scene.

After the incident, I realize something that annoys me. The people that is yelling to call the police, why NO one call himself? do they DON’T have a phone?? it is impossible… Another thing that annoy me is… people that come around and ask the guy “Are you Ok?” or “It is painful?” when they CLEARLY see the guy is in pain and dislocated his arm. After I made the call to the medic is here it took a whole 20 minutes. During this 20 minutes, NO POLICE came by… NONE… now it may be normal for other places but for HK police are EVERYWHERE… and yet when they are needed no one is around. Even after the call no police came… The ambulance, I was waiting to hear the siren of an ambulance but when I saw it came I am very confidential I have hear no siren so I am quite sure they didn’t turn it on so they don’t see it as an emergency. Lastly the medics, I ran over to grab the medics as they stopped the car 20-30 meters away in another street, I just want to make sure so I ran over to grab them to the scene exactly. I try to communicate to them but THEY DIDN’T even said a word to me from the start till I left, is almost like I am invisible.

Is sad to see how cold the city is… very troubling…