Noted.

Apart from being a fine game, Tetris is also a perfect mirror of the human condition. For a while the game is entertaining, and we seem to have mastered it and are having fun. Then, something goes wrong. A rash mistake, or an unfulfilled wish, and we’re fighting to repair the damage, but we’ve been thrown off-balance, and the cancer is spreading. Blocks that were once orderly and harmonious are jumbled and filled with holes, and our cup is on the verge of running over. There’s always a point at which we stop planning for the future, and realise that we don’t have one – all we can do is cling to the present and concentrate, focus our minds on what it’s like to be alive, to play the game, before it’s all over.

You were waiting for a four-by-one block that never came.

Eventually we stare death in the face, and death will not spare us because we would warn the others to stay away and not play the game. Sometimes we resist to the bitter end, moving blocks left and right without thought or care, just to hang on, and sometimes we accept the inevitable and pull the blocks down to us, smiling inwardly at the great joke. The rest is silence. We admire the fox as it escapes from the hounds, but when the hunt is over we turn away, and go off and drink and be merry, and somewhere else someone or something is watching us as we watch the fox. But the fox knows it is being chased.

The first scenario was simple: three masked gunmen have invaded a home and taken a woman and her two children hostage. They are heavily armed and will be making their demands soon. You (as a group) are the police special forces unit, and it is up to you as a group to save the woman and two children.

I even made a floor plan of the house!

As a group, they were given the following rules:

• The game progresses in turns. You can make as many movements in an area that you like, but the minute you go to another area, you are moving onto the next turn. Certain milestones happen on certain turns.
• Actions with an ambiguous certainty in completion are determined with a dice roll (using two dice). For example, picking the lock on a door would have a dice roll for success or failure, the range of which is determined by the game master.
• Combat requires two rolls: a roll to determine the winner of the first exchange, and the loser must roll to determine what part of the body takes damage. 1-2 is in the legs, 3-7 is the torso, 8-9 is the arms, 10-12 is the head.
• The only limitation to actions is if it is completely infeasible or unrealistic. For example, you cannot curve a bullet around anything, or suddenly gain magic powers and blast the bad guys.

We got rolling and I think it turned out alright. Well, for me anyway.

As a group, they immediately decided to storm the house. Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed and they waited for the gunmen to make demands before doing anything, and THEN they decided to split up into two teams and break in through the back and lock pick the front.

Unfortunately, it all went awry when they were discovered inside the house (each action inside the house required a roll for discovery, as in, whether or not they made enough noise to be discovered) and a firefight broke out. During the firefight, two of the team were shot in the vest and taken out for the turn (wind knocked out of them) and a third managed to take down a gunman while getting shot in the limbs repeatedly. The other teams managed to storm into the living room, where the hostages were being held, and taking down the last remaining gunman. However, they were not quick enough and he managed to take out the mother and one of the children before he could be taken down.

I received plenty of feedback on how to improve the game and its mechanics, and the suggestions are definitely going into the next story that I craft for this. A really fun experience, and a wonderful excuse to flex my creative thinking while spending time with friends!

(Pictured above: my first day. Seriously.)

It has been an incredible year for me at TWG. I’ve grown a lot as a person, learned a hell of a lot, and made many, many friends. I love The Working Group, I love the brilliant people I work with, and I love what I do.

Thanks for an awesome year guys (and gal!) Let’s keep kicking ass and taking names.

I would love this.

I was lucky to have a very outgoing panel who had plenty of knowledge to drop all over the students. During the discussion, several points kept coming up that I feel I should share:

• Work hard. Your entry level job isn’t going to be your dream job, but you’re going to have to be persistent and tough it out until you have the skills and knowledge necessary to get there.
• Take small steps. You can’t go from student to super-star CEO of a company immediately, you have take a look at where you want to go and create a strategy on the steps you need to take.
• Don’t be afraid to look dumb and take risks. You’re going to have a lot of naysayers if you’re not following a traditional path. Ignore the haters and carry on.
• Have something to say. You need to have the knowledge to speak with your peers in your industry, and what better way to show that you have that knowledge by having opinions on important matters for that industry?
• Network, network, network. It’s easier said than done, but you have to hustle hard and create meaningful relationships with people and create that repor that establishes credibility.

The session had many more gems from the super intelligent people I was sitting next to, and in my opinion, these are the important ones.

I would love to hear any tips they would give to soon-to-be graduates from university. Leave them in the comments and I’ll add them to my list!

Here are some of the additional tips I have received:

• Know what you want? Chase it and be aggressive. If you have an idea of exactly what you want, you should actively chase it and aggressively ask for related responsibilities. (by Wendy Kwan)
• Learn to think outside the box, and be proactive. It shows that a person is analytically inclined, and capable of solving problems in new and innovative ways. (by Slxia1215)

I made this purchase because an Intel-based CPU meant I could dual-boot to Windows, for gaming, and use the OSX side of things for my media-related work.

Fast-forward five years and the machine is still in use, and it still works just as good as the day I got it. That MacBook saw me through all of university, helping me learn the ins and outs of much of the Adobe Creative Suite, learn how to edit videos with Final Cut Pro, and to develop iOS apps. I have since purchased an iMac, an iPhone, an iPad, and a MacBook Air, and it’s not easy to keep my loyalty toward a single tech company.

Steve, you were a legend, a hero, and an amazing role model. It sucks that you left the world so early, but your legacy shall live on through Apple.

As usual, I don’t deal very well with sad news, so I leave you with a bit of humour that I hope will put a smile on your face.

Rest in peace, Steve.

We grabbed some tickets from Porter Airlines for 50% off, flew into Newark, and caught the NJ Transit train into New York Penn Station; that was the start of an amazing adventure.

I have compiled a list of things that I have noticed during my time in New York. Hope you find them useful!

• Pedestrians are quick to jump the light or jaywalk; running yellows (as a car) is dangerous in New York because you never know if you might hit someone who has jumped the light early.
• The subway system may seem complicated at first, but you can easily learn. I started by looking at the closest subway stations for my destination and looking at what train line it was on, then how would I get onto that train line. The real mistake we made was not realizing that some subway stations aren’t connected on both sides and you MUST use the proper entrance. Google Maps directions will be your friend here.
• Airbnb is an awesome way to secure a decent apartment for much cheaper than any hotel room you will find in Manhattan. We were minutes away from Times Square, and we had plenty of food options around us as well as subway entrances!
• Figure out where you want to eat and map them out so you can easily figure out places to eat as you plan your day. However, feel free to just walk down the streets and look for any restaurants that interest you. Walking down 9th street from 40th all the way to 60th, we ran into MANY restaurants that we could have eaten at!
• Walking is FANTASTIC for discovery. It was a great way to explore the city, find interesting shops and restaurants, and get some much needed exercise. (Much needed because I was stuffing my face.)
• Many New Yorkers are super kind and helpful people. A lost traveler on the subway asked me for directions, and I really didn’t know much aside from which subway stop he should get off at, but plenty of others jumped in and gave him good directions.
• Listen to what the street solicitors yell at you; we managed to secure tickets to Avenue Q for almost half the price of retail ticket price, thanks to stopping and listening to what a guy off the street had to say.

New York was a blast to visit, and I definitely want to go back to experience more. Food, shops, shows, what else could you really want out of a city you are visiting?

Thanks for having me, New York.

UPDATE: Here’s a link to the map we used for food: New York City Eats

Still learning to shoot with a DSLR, but we’re getting there. Slowly.

Wink.