Finally that's something for my 2014!

Hi all,

It has been few months since I updated my blog. I have to say I was lazy to update the blog, as I have been getting tired of my daily full time job, and also my part time effort in Android game programming. But guess what, I finally has my first Android game made from scratch by myself! I has been successfully made a few games by following several different tutorial from website or books. But this time, I swear, this is my first ever game made from scratch by myself.

As a proof, here's my hand drawn draft about the game user interface prior to coding it:

          

Yes, u guess it right, it is a simple classic Tetris game. It was programmed in Java Eclipse and incorporate a game development framework called Libgdx. Libgdx is a famous game development framework for simple 2D & 3D game, and it has the advantages of cross-platform compatibility. It means that I can test my app in my desktop itself rather than uploading to my device every time i change something on my code, which save me a lot of testing time. Its cross platform functionality support OS like Android, iOS, desktop, and HTML. However, for some God know reason, my game only works on android and desktop platform.

Enough words, picture speak louder than thousand words. Here's some screenshot of my simple Tetris game:

Main Menu Screen

Game Screen

High Score Screen

As u can see, it is rather simple. I have to admit that I am totally sucks on graphic design (which is common among engineers. Engineer deals with logic rather than artistic stuffs). Also, I made a few changes from the hand drawn draft I designed. The game itself has difficulty increases progressively (brick move down faster) as player proceed. The good thing is, it works well so far from my own testing and several other people testing. 

You can find and download this game from Google play if u have an Android device. I would appreciate it if anyone can give me some feedback on the game, be it good or bad.

Google Play Link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chinyung.tetris

Currently this is version 1.0. In future version, I plan to add in social media integration into it, so that player can challenge their friends, and compare their achievement with their friends in social media like Facebook, Twitter etc.

As a conclusion, this is my first step into the exiting world of mobile game programming. Wow, I feel happy for myself for what I have done so far, considering it was almost a dream for me last year if I able to publish an apps in Google Play. I would say that I've achieved what I set as a target for year 2014, which is to publish a self made apps into Google Play.

That's all for now, stay tuned as there are more to come!

Let's end my post with my favorite quote from Samuel Beckett, 

"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better"

My first Android App!

Hi! So I have started learning Android App development few months ago. After went through some basic stuffs, I have finally made a very simple app of my own, a standard calculator. So I will cut the crap and go directly to introduce my app.

This is how my Calculator app looks like in my phone, hehe.

And the calculator user interface.

This is just a simple standard calculator that I made. I can only perform arithmetic calculation like +, -, *, and /. Below shows an example of calculation my calculator can perform.

As u can see, it follow the maths rules of performing multiplication and division first, and then addition and subtraction. And the "<-" icon means backspace in case the user need to erase. The "C" icon will reset the UI to its original stage. 

So far, the app still have some bug to solve. This are my plan for the app that yet to be done:

1. To take care of negative number.
2. Decorate the UI to have my own custom button style and color etc to make the UI looks better.
3. Come out with a menu bar to let user choose whether to use scientific calculator, standard calculator, graphing calculator. (A big project for me to slowly figure out, need a long time to accomplish)
4. Try to think of making this app useful for secondary school student, for example in my mind I am thinking to add a feature to calculate the roots of quadratic equation (incorporate this feature in my scientific calculator) and able to plot quadratic equation in my graphing calculator. (still in collecting idea stage for this).

If I can accomplish the plan above, I will be very happy and will publish my app to Google Play for download! woohoo!

That's my idea so far, I will also try to learn how to develop some games soon. So, stay tuned!

What doesn't kill u make u stronger

It's been a while since I update my blog. The reason? Nothing much to update about my recent life. Everything are just routine, and everything seems to look good except one. But isn't life is all about perspective? Its not the situation that we are in that affect us, rather it's how we look at things, problems, and challenges in life. 

In fact, the one thing that bother me is about, guess what...MONEY! Yes, I started to feel the burden that will build up soon financially. It's actually about my PTPTN. So, I applied for the PTPTN loan exemption with my first class degree recently. I was optimistic that I could get the exemption, given my impressive results in uni. However, one day I received a call from PTPTN officer saying that there were some issues with my application, that I am not eligible to apply for exemption. The issue was actually about my course name. So FYI, in Monash, all engineering students will have a general first year, means we only get to decide on our major at the end of first year. I applied for PTPTN during the beginning of year 1, but the PTPTN requires me to fill in the major. At that time in my mind, I thought I was going into mechanical engineering, so I filled that as my major for PTPTN application. However, at the end of first year I changed my mind. I chose to enter electrical field rather than mechanical. So here comes the problem. The PTPTN officer says that the course I graduated with is not the same as what I applied for. True, its not the same, but can they be more flexible with this? Firstly, I am not switching from engineering to some other course that are totally different like business, medicine etc, it's just a different major in engineering, and given that Monash have a general first year, they should understand my situation. Secondly, if this is an issue, why they still continuously provide loan to me every semester? From my understanding, Monash did send them my course fee bill every semester. Sothey doesn't check their system to correct it throughout the 4 years? Thirdly, do u think its easy to get a first class? Ask any monash engineering student and they will tell u how hard they have to work and fight to get it. How can u denies the hard work from student just because a petty issue like this? 

For now, I have already talk to PTPTN officer in Monash, and I really hope they can assist me in this situation. Anyway, to avoid sudden sadness, I am now prepared mentally to accept this and plan my finance to payback the loan. 

Nevertheless, life goes on no matter what. What doesn't kill u make u stronger indeed! I have astrong  character so I will not be beaten by this.

Cheers!

Recent Life Update

Everything seems to go well lately. I have gradually catch up with the rhythm of working life. In fact, my life is more fulfilling now, everyday I am learning new things during work and I am just getting more and more interested in the company and the technologies. Besides, I also managed to get on with my weekly badminton training and go for jogging every week. Sport has been part of my life since young. Yes, I do enjoy my weekly badminton training on saturday morning. I like the feeling of sweating a lot and getting exhausted after training as it makes me feel very relaxing and comfortable and a much more refreshed mind everytime after training. Same goes to jogging. Now that I am working during weekdays, I appreciate my precious weekend time more than ever. I woke up early every sunday morning and go for a 30minutes morning jog in the past few weeks. Jogging let me sweat a lot too, and I think when u exercise, your brain release hormones that makes us stay positive, that is why I always like sports. Hope I can keep on with these routine of badminton training and jogging everyweek.

One more highlight of the past few weeks is that I have started learning Android App programming. Actually I always had the intention to do so in the past but I was either lazy or no time to learn. Now that I have started working, I spend some of my time every night after work learning bit by bit about Android apps programming. Hopefully by end of this year, I am able to have my own apps publish in Google Play! Lol maybe I sounds too ambitious but its possible given that I really have interest towards this stuff. Believe in yourself!

That's roughly all about my recent life. Stay positive, keep myself occupied, and less complaining about life and stuffs. Peace!

11:50pm

29/4/2014

My Burger Adventure

Time to add some different dimension to my blog. Yes, today I am going to post about food. Who doesn't love good food, right? So, I decided to post about my love for burger and my burger adventure thus far.

Well, my love for burger started since I was a kid, but it was largely about McDonald burger or those burger we can get on the street like Ramli burger. Last year, I started my burger adventure with a few good friends, my so called "food buddies". The story goes like this. That was the time when we were preparing our Freescale Smart Car Competition in uni. One afternoon, I suggest to go McDonald to have lunch, as it has always been my favourite. Then, one of my friend say, "No McDonald! Omg, you like McDonald burger? That's not burger man, let me show you the real burger tonight!". So, we had our dinner that night at Burgertory, a gourmet burger shop is ss15, Subang.

Since then, the burger adventure started! We google online for famous burger shop around Klang Valley, we came out with a list of shop, and we decided to try one by one.

This is my top-down ranking of burger shop around Klang Valley. *personal opinion*

1) The Burger Lab, PJ

'Say-cheese' square beef burger

2) Burger Junkyard

Texas Hold ME' beef burger

3) Big Hug Burger, ss15

Cheesy Chicken Burger. *Warning: Super big portion!

Mario beef burger

4) The Hungry Hog, ss15

Vesuvius Pork burger. Warning: Sibeh SPICY!!

5) Burgertory, ss15

Sumo burger

6) Tony Romas

Big Stack burger

7) The Grind Burger Bar

The Grind House burger

8) Crayon Burger, ss15

"The Boss" beef burger

9) Big Mouth Burger (near Monash)

Benedict Burger

Burger adventure to be continue..

11.55pm

7 April 2014

Birthday Celebration with Badminton Gang

Last saturday, I had an awesome birthday dinner with my badminton gang. It was to celebrate me and another friend birthday as we are born on the exact same day! Yes, exact same day, on 24th March 1990.

Really thank God for giving me such a group of amazingly cheerful and fun friends. Honestly, if it is not badminton, my life will be so boring! Badminton bring us together! So, thanks badminton! Haha

We had our birthday dinner at a restaurant called Bumbu Bali Restaurant in Puchong. The food was freaking expensive, but sibeh big portion, eat until you vomit, no joke!

This is what i had which cost RM37. It was really nice and sibeh full!! Lol

And our birthday cakes.

Me and birthday girl with the cake.

Our birthday present!

Group photos.

Second round after dinner. Its karaoke time!!!

And finally, end this post with my birthday present and cards from my badminton gang!

And they actually give me a condom! Trolling to d max! Lol, but no going to post it here, haha!

Had a wonderful saturday night with these bunch of people. Thanks!

11.20pm

31 March 2014

Passion vs Money

Today I have some thought about work and career. Let talk about two big part of a career, passion and money. Of course, it is the best if you can have a job that you have a lot of passion, and at the same time you are earning a lot of money from it. Well, who doesn't want that, right? 

However the reality is, we always been put into a situation to choose between passion and money. So let me ask you, which one would you choose? This is a rather difficult question for most people, and the answer differs depend on the weightage each part have in a particular job. For example, although you have a passion in a particular job, you would not choose it if it really pay you nuts, to the extend that you can barely survive (some people might choose it if they really really have passion of life in it). Same happens to the other end, even if a job pay you well, you would not choose it if it gives you the amount of stress you can't handles everyday and you have absolutely no passion and motivation in it (well, some people might actually take it if the pay is really a lot). 

Now, lets forget about the two extreme case mentioned above. Lets talk about a less extreme and ordinary dilemma faced by a lot of people. Say you have to choose between two jobs.

Job 1: a job that you really have passion in but the pay is rather less

Job 2: a job that pay you well but you have no passion in it

Which one would you choose? 

The choice for me is job 1, at least for now. People might say, "well, you are still fresh, you do not have much financial burden yet, you will change your mind after you get married, have financial commitment, influenced by society and friends and so on". This is what i heard most oftenly. Now, lets hear about my reasoning for my choice.

The best thing about job 1 is that you will enjoy your work. One of the best feeling in the world is to have something motivates you to wakeup every morning. You will be a happier person, and you are energetic to face everyday work. You wouldn't feel like wasting your time and your life as you are doing what you like. Most importantly, you will have a bigger sense of accomplishment and achievement and job satisfaction in your work. This sense of achievement is something you can't have if you choose job 2.

I think I am the lucky one such that I know my direction and what i am passionate about since young. I actually feel like i am perfect to become an engineer. I always like to know how things work, and I always have curiosity towards things. When i was a kid, i like to disassemble spoilt remote control and toys. I feel that engineering is just right for me.

So, to the person who is not clear about their direction, just keep looking and discover yourself, and u will find your passion and purpose of life. 

Well, just some thought of the day. Lets see if i will change my mind in the future.

12:47am

22 March 2014

Weekend update

This weekend was quite happening. I start off the saturday with a weekly morning badminton training with my badminton buddy. We had some smash training and a light stamina session. It feels good after the training, its like a mind refresh after a tiring weekday. 

Later on the Saturday, I hosted an old friend who just came back from studying in South Africa. He was my classmate during A level in Taylors. We went for dinner and also watched "Need for speed" afterward. The movie storyline wasn't nice at all. Its just like another typical commercialized Hollywood movie out to make money. (In my opinion)

On sunday morning, I brought my friend to the best Bakuteh in Klang in my opinion. I think I can be their ambassador already now having brought so many friends to this shop, haha. 

Heres how the bakuteh looks like if you wonder. Trust me, I think they added some drug in their soup la, it is soooooo addictive you can never get bored of it! So far all friends that I have brought said it was nice!

After the bakuteh, we went for cendol, before heading to meetup with some other friends we knew in Taylor's.

We met up at a cafe named "Kaya & Jam" located in a sport club which I forgot the name in PJ. Here is what i had. Some pancake cooked with eggs and mashed potato. 

We then had a light walk around in Midvalley before I head home.

At night, I celebrated grandmother birthday with all relatives in a restaurent.

These summed up my weekend. Bring it on the new week!! I am Ready.

Cheers!

12.15am

17 March 2014

Pray for MH370

These few days has passed as routine for me. However, its not routine for Malaysia. A lot of things happen lately, water supply shortage, crazy haze, Opposition leader Anwar being jailed for 5 years, missing plane, international criticism and so on. The only positive news lately might only be Lee Chong Wei winning the all England Champion for the 3rd time in his career.

The biggest highlight is of course about Malaysia airline flight MH370 gone missing. I personally think that Malaysia has been doing its best so far to find the missing aircraft though it has been missing for 6dyas till now. I dont think there are any cover up by the government as they are being closely watch by international party. A lot of criticism has been pointing towards MAS and Malaysia lately. I feel sympathy towards MAS staff as they have to face this unprecedented crisis they probably have never experienced before, bottle thrown at them by all those angry family of victims, angry words and comment from the 'expert' around the world. When you think about it, lets just imagine what most of us will be when facing with a situation this scale that we never would expect and experienced before. Its normal to be panic and certainly there will be mistake done and flaw to a certain degree. I just hope that the public and so called 'expert' will stop spreading rumours, be patient and let MAS and associated nation to focus on their task to locate the aircraft. 

I used to watch a documentary called 'Air crash investigation' a lot and i have came across the Air France flight 447 before this incident. There are indeed a lot of similarities between the two incidence. No distress signal sent from the aircraft, both happened during midnight in the middle of an ocean, both have good safety record of the aircraft, and even the number of passengers on board both flight are similar. I feel for all those victim and its scary to imagine what they might have went through. So many possibilities out there. It can be explosion due to attack, pilot suicide, engine failure, passengers might suffer from lack of oxygen in the middle of the air and eventually passed out and die, they might be falling into the ocean at high speed, or maybe they are still surviving in the middle of the ocean somewhere, who knows?

We are in the race with time now. The black box of the plane can continuously transmit signal for another 30days so hope that we can pick up the signal and locate the aircraft within the time frame. Otherwise, its really like finding needle in a big ocean.

Miracle do happens. Pray for MH370. 

11.48pm

13 March 2014

期待

最近很喜欢听的一首歌。渴望爱情降临。

范玮琪 

悄悄告诉你

电影 被偷走的那五年 主题曲
作词：葛大为
作曲：范玮琪

候鸟飞多远 也想念着南方
旅人的天涯 到尽头还是家
下一站 还感觉不来是冷还是暖
天一亮 我要离开

如果我回来 有没有人等待
如果我孤单 会不会谁明白
想像着 再见面却怕自己不勇敢
想拥抱 在你胸怀

时光隧道 传来回音
请你听一听
那是我们当时
幸福约定

有些人 在心底从来没忘记
有些事 有些梦 还找不到谜底
有些话 越欲言又止 就越是动听
让我们 靠近 想悄悄告诉你
多爱你

那颗心 还一直守候没离去
走遍了 全世界 还是你最亲密
记得吗 你最爱的歌 让我再唱起
让我们 相遇 要悄悄告诉你
多爱你
悄悄告诉你
多爱你

http://youtu.be/nfgBm4bSHnE

Attitude of life

To My hero,

You are my learning example. You are a legend. You are a national hero. You lost to the same opponent over and over again, but you simply do not give up. You fell down over and over again, but you always show us that you stand up once more and fight. You was so close to world champion over and over again, but you keep pursuing your dream although it seems less and less likely to happen as time goes by.

You remind me of the way we should look at life. The way that tell us not to easily gives up when there is a huge mountain in front of us. The way that tell us that although Fate seems like not on our side, we have to keep trying. The way that tell us that we should not forget our dream and try our very best to achieve them no matter how difficult it will be. The way that remind us that there's always high and low in life and we should not lose faith and confidence no matter what.

You resembles an attitude. You resembles my hope when I face my problem. You resembles a lot of people that have tried their best but still doesn't achieve what they want. You are like an angel telling those people, "Its ok, at least you tried your best, you have no regret"!

Thank you so much for giving us years of wonderful badminton. Thank you so much for showing us the right attitude of life. Thank you so much for consoling a lot of people that need encouragement just like this. Thank you so much for becoming so close to world champion but miss out on it everytime, because it doesn't matter anymore!

Skill wins' you champion, but attitude wins' you heart!

From your sincere fan,
Chin Yung,
1:20am,
8 March 2014

Working life as a fresh graduate

Throughout the last one month of working life, there are a few things I thought about and felt.

First, it is really tiring. My everyday life goes like this. Wake up at 6.30am, traffic jam, breakfast, work, lunch, work, traffic jam, dinner, shower, sleep. There is apparently no life! Started to experiment on Taking KTM instead of driving, hope it gets better.

Second, as a fresh graduate earning just a tiny 2k plus every month and a less than 10percent pay rise a year, how am I going to suvive? Not to mention having to buy car or house and spending money on family in the future. How many years I have to work to earn enough for me to retire? I have a big question mark on this!

Third, during lunch time with colleagues, who most of them are elder than me, everyone seems to take marriage and relationship for granted, They would expect a 30 years old guy to be married or at least have a girl friend. I doesn't understand it as I does not take it for granted. Is it really so easy to find someone that click with you and suit you? Why is everyone seems to take this for granted? Like it will definitely happen to everyone naturally? I really dunno, at least for now...

Life goes on. I feel that I have to stop listening to too much of advice and influenced by too many sources as it just makes my mind so complicated and confused. I have to focus on my goal one by one and hopefully life gets better. Who knows?

Cheers!
12:51am, 8 March 2014

2013 Conclusion and 2014 Resolution

There has been 2 years since I last update my blog. When I look back at my previous blog, all the memories about that time reappear in my mind. I was quite an pessimistic person at times, and I always been thinking too much and worries about things. The good thing is, I know I am getting better each and every year. I strive to be a better person and I just want everyone around me to be happy and of course including me myself.

To conclude 2013, is was clearly not the best year I had in my life. 

1)First of all, I was attracted to a girl which I know through badminton. I tried to go after her but eventually it doesn't went well. I feel sad of course and my self confident dropped a bit.

2)Secondly, due to the failure in relationship, it affected my result by a lot. I was down for a few months before everything went back to normal. My exam results for both semester in 2013 drop drastically compared to previous year. I doesn't want to blame anyone for this except myself. This incident has help me to be stronger and thank God I still graduate with first class degree. 

3)Thirdly, I encountered quite a few setback in my job applications. I applied to Intel in Penang and the manager offered me a position, But then in the last minute, they told me they were unable to hire me because the management side doesn't approve of the hiring. I guess it was because there are trying to cut human resource that time. After that, I also applied to a consulting company called Accenture. I went through their interview and after few weeks the HR told me I passed the interview and have to wait for 2 weeks for further process. However, it has been a month since then but still no reply. I did try to call them and email them but no reply at all. I was quite frustrated with this.

In short, though it was not the best year for me in 2013, I did learned a lot from the setback and I hope it help me to be a better and more complete person in the future.

About my 2014 resolution, I would like to make it simple. I will begin my new journey after CNY on 5/2/2014 as a product engineer in Western Digital. I hope I can perform well and show my value to the company. I will try my best to learn things and gain as much experience as I can. Beside career, of course I hope I can found my true love this year (although I made the same resolution last year but it doesn't work well). I believe God has a plan for everyone and I still put my faith in God. I will do my part and hope things work well this year. =)

Cheers!