When I first started working on my secret project, I thought: "ok, this is going to be easier than the Nintendo (Revolution) site I'm working on. I won't have to deal with things like screenshots." Now that I am more advanced with it, I want to work on the Revolution site again because it felt much easier finally. All projects seem easier than the one you are working on.

However, this project is still very exciting so I will presumably keep rubbing my few neurones on it. By the way, talking about this project and rub (which makes me think of Project Rub, this is a twist of mind), I should name it instead of refering to it as "secret project". At some point I was thinking I should refer to all my projects here with different color names, that's a bit ridiculous but somehow it fit the different sites. Well, not anymore perhaps and anyway my priorities have changed.

Hmm, I'm not very creative at the moment, besides I'm in hurry, so I guess I'll stick to this "secret project" definition. As long as I don't talk about projects, it shouldn't be a problem. There are many things I could say about this project, especially the problems I'm facing, but once again, I can't say anything about it because I don't want to give away. All I can spare to say is that in early September, within 10 days, I managed to code the core of the idea. It's not so significant in a way because since then I've been changing and adding and I will have to change and add much more, still it was very satisfying in the moment.

Also because it happened during that time when I was cut off from the Internet and that was really paralysing. I could not access resources about PHP or Javascript, so it was blind coding and, even though I sometimes found myself in a dead-end position because I didn't know which function or method I should use, I managed to find my way out and write what I consider as the key part of the site. It's not the most complex or the most impressive perhaps, but to me it's the most significant, what sums up the site in a way.

Since then it's been moving very slowly, rewriting some part, rechecking, understanding what I've been doing, adding new pieces of code which forces me sometimes to change the original code. Programming is a fascinating experience, it's like architecture or being Frankenstein, not sure which comparison suits the best, you put pieces together with the intention to build something great. Oops, but my time is up, I should be going now, I'll continue with this topic later.

Lately, I've been working on my pet project a little everyday and late at night, very late at night. Somehow it seems easier to work on it very late at night. And when I say very late at night I mean it, around 3, 4 or 5 am. Wait a minute. Isn't that very early in the morning ?

Whatever. I also managed to somewhat update Samurai Nintendo with more recent news, to give this sparkle of life the site has definitely been lacking in the past months (since the E3 ended actually). I cleaned the forums from old useless messages I had written. But I still have this one GameCube review I need to write. Truth is, I have many more to write, but this one review has been blocking me for more than a year now (!) because I have no appeal whatsoever for this damn boring game (all I can say is that it's a Star Wars game).

1UP's reviews on the other hand are doing very well. A proof, if it was necessary to show any, that I'm more interested in old games than in recent ones. Perhaps it has also something to do with 2D vs 3D. Anyway, I published a review one week ago and one again today, am I going to be able to keep this one review a week rhythm for the whole month ? I sure wish so.

Anyway, because of all this and more, I haven't been able to write in this stupid, useless blog (that's kind of its official new name now).


Today's retro game: Super Smash TV (because it's the newest review on 1UP)

Today's recent game: Viewtiful Joe (because Viewtiful Joe Battle Carnival achieved something in the ranking and because it's a 2D-like game !)

Today I uploaded two screenshots I had on my hard drive, yeah, I'm really trying to save space now. You'll find longer comments about each in my Tabulas gallery.


Wario, King of the World


PayPal's Nifty Secret Code


Today's retro game: Basketball Nightmare (because: latest review on 1UP; one day earlier than expected, have no time tomorrow)

Today's recent game: Rebel Strike (because I finally reviewed it !!)

On saturday, I started to work again on a project I had put aside when working on my pet project. Let's call this project 'C' otherwise no one is going to understand what I'm talking about (but who's reading anyway ?) with all my different nameless projects.

I had first started to work on project 'C' a year ago I think, it feels much longer actually. Initially, I used it as a training exercise to see what I could do with PHP and MySQL, I was just learning, but then, if the exercise turned successful, I had planned to use it as a add-on for some of my sites. The exercice turned successful indeed, nothing really outstanding or original, but somehow I felt there was some potential in it and I could do better than my original plan.

So I kept the exercise under wrap and started to think of what I wanted to do with it, thus it became project 'C'. But nothing happened to project 'C' for a long time because even though I had a concept in mind, the details were lacking and at the time I did not have enough motivation and knowledge. I was not so confident in the original code either, so in the meanwhile I kept rewriting it and improving it as much as possible because it was the core of the whole project. I achieved a result that I'm really proud of - which is probably ridiculous compared to the huge amounf of time I spent on it and what any real programmer could achieve, but I like the fact it is a compact piece of code.

During summer, I had even less motivation to work on it, even though I consider this project as one of my best chances to make money ( which I really need currently, because next year I will be in big trouble, I might need to move, find another job, and I have nowehere to go, etc, etc. BIG TROUBLE), and then suddenly, last saturday, perhaps because I was tired of working with my pet project and needed some change, inspiration came and I started to work again on project 'C'. Slowly, but smoothly.

After a few hours, I had finished the bigger part of the main page design and for once I think I made a professional looking design. It's simple, almost minimalist, but unlike my other designs, this one looks more professional (which is not so surprising, when working on 1UP and Samurai Nintendo I had very little knowledge of web designs and no good graphics tools, basically I was making my sites with Paintbrush, an old version of Photoshop and no CSS). So this time I might finally have a design which will appeal to visitors, at least I hope so. There are still many things to incoporate and hopefully I'm not going to make the wrong choices. What I learnt from designing websites, from a graphical standpoint, is that a little fault in the design, a wrong color, a wrong font size, even just for one element of lesser importance, can spoil the whole thing and give a bad impression. Design is about unity and this is one very difficult thing to achieve. And perhaps the most important thing to remember is that when you are not entirely satisfied with something in your design, generally it means you should modify it, because what disturbs you when you make it will disturb visitors even more when they see it. Today for instance, I bothered changing a small part of my design and I'm so much happier with the change, no matter how long it took me to get it right.

Anyway, now it's 3am and I'm digressing as usual. The new site will launch very soon. I wish it could be this week, but I have some obligations and still many things to check and add so it probably won't be before next week or even next month depending how I feel about it. I'm really impatient to have it online though, I will finally have a site with some serious attention to the design. And of course, I hope the idea will attract people. It's nothing new per se, I'm using an old concept, but I present it in such a way that hopefully it will feel fresher, better and pleasant enough to draw the visitors I need so badly.

Today's retro game: Mario Paint (can I become a great artist like Mario ?)

Today's recent game: Charinko Hero (Charinko Power !! I'm tired...)

This evening I started writing an entry for Wikipedia, that will be my first significant contribution to this great site. Actually I will update an entry, a stub, "A stub is an article which is clearly too short, but not so short as to be useless." as defined by Wikipedia itself.

I won't reveal which article is concerned, all I can say is that it's game-related. Anyway, while I was writing I thought that maybe, instead of doing it for Wikipedia, I should publish this article in my own sites. In Wikipedia, authors don't really receive acknowledgement for their work which in a way makes it even more amazing so many people worked selfishlessly to build such a large database of knowledge.

I guess I will publish my article on Wikipedia, but it might also use it, before or after, for one of my sites. I really want this information to be listed on Wikipedia, but I think my effort will be worth publishing on my own sites where it's also fitting.

Earlier today I also worked on project 'C', the big question now is how soon I want to put the site online. It could happen this week end with some sections still under contruction, or I could wait more to have it completed or near completion. I'm not sure, but I'm impatient to have it finished now. Again I think I did well with the design, I spent a long time tweaking the details to achieve a well balanced result. The one thing I'm afraid of is the arrangement of the code, some things need to be changed because even though in some part it still looks like the "exercise" it now has a more ambitious purpose and function. So I must be careful how I'm going to handle all this. If I get it wrong I might spend a lot of time writing correction codes, which is definitely not the way I intend to spend my week end.

And when I'm through with project 'C', I'll have to rush working on project 'M' ! Seriously, there is another project and I'm not talking about my pet project, this one is simple and silly but my ex-girlfriend found it quite entertaining and so did I, at times. I must have it online before the end of the month as well, it's not too much work because for that one I don't really care how much under construction parts there are but I still want it to be finalized.

Today's retro game: Magic Sword (because I'm very much in a Super Nintendo mood)

Today's recent game: Fire Emblem Path of Radiance (finally a GameCube game I'm really excited about and looking forward to buying)

I've been completely wasting this week since Wednesday, all this because of a stupid addictive website. I'm such a sucker I fell for it, I didn't work on the site I'm supposed to launch soon and it even disturbed me at work. But at least it makes me realize two things about myself, two things so serious I'm ashamed to admit them here... hey, don't go imagining things !

Well, I'd better confess, besides I will use it as a reminder: these two things are that I'm becoming more and more lazy and stupid. Yup. This week proved it. I must do something about it because I'm just wasting myself completely.

Wake up you moron (me) before it's too late, you're worth better than that !!


Today's retro game: Super Star wars (latest review online)

Today's recent game: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker(because it's time to wake uuuup !)

Last week was wasted, this one was perhaps too, but above all, it was a dull week. It's getting cold here again, winter is back. I didn't even bother to turn on the heater, even though the temperature outside is 8 degrees below zero. Somehow cold indoors feels good, it makes me feel even more miserable. Misery sometimes gives birth to beautiful things.

Some say life is a bitch, I think it's stupid to say that. No one would say death is a bitch, although presumably everyone prefers to live than to die. Death is a dark beautiful woman and so is life, sometimes. At best both are a couple of dangerous sensual lesbians. Oh, I'm getting mental tonight, perhaps my way to keep warm.

I met this girl on the Internet, and I definitely fell in love with her image. Perhaps with the rest also, but I'm not sure about that, we barely exchanged mails, it's mostly her image. Can you fall in love with an image ? Oh yes, you can. She's definitely unique, she's a mix of a goth and a Japanese doll although she's not Asian at all. Beautiful and unique. Her name appeals to me too, basically it's an invitation to die with her, or perhaps to die for her.

Crazy things, I had no idea I would feel like this about an image. Winter is going to be cold this year. All the better.