Tokyo Coding

Hello friends! Quick update because, as much as I hate to admit it, I’ve done exactly what every other blogger does and gotten really lazy about updating. Obligatory apologies etc.

Lately I’ve been doing a lot of coding, especially game dev. I’m making little crappy prototype games in Unity3D. I participated in Ludum Dare, the 48 hour game-creation competition where entrants are given a topic and then 48 hours to create a game based on that theme. My game is called So Long, Space Hero and it’s ridiculously simple, but I learned a lot. Now I’m working on a planet-hopper and I think I might actually try to make something worthwhile.

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Today I’m hanging out here, at the Open Source Cafe, a cafe/coding space whose menu, employee manuals, and other things are open sourced! It’s a great atmosphere: everyone’s got skateboards and is hanging out outside in the Spring weather writing code, and they’re having a “Coder Dojo” where they’ve invited kids to come and learn how to code.

But lately I’ve been going out to Pico Pico Cafe, home of Voxatron and Lexaloffle Games. Such interesting folks there, including the owner Joseph.

A picture’s worth a thousand words and I don’t want to type that much, so here’s some more image of what’s new in my life.

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Image & Video Update, Plus Rakuten Tech Conference

Today I put a pin down randomly in the middle of Tokyo on Google Maps:

tokyo-pin

Then I hopped on a train and went there.

It was this building.
It was this building.

I guess they can’t all be winners.

Anyway, the title says “Rakuten Tech Conference,” which I attended yesterday. Had a great time, and most of the talks are on Youtube. I gave a “lightning talk” about successfully implementing process changes on your team. In lightning talks speakers have a strict 4 minutes to talk on their topic, so I had to rush, but it was a good experience.

Afterward I got to hang out and talk with Nathan LeClaire of Docker (super smart guy working on and showing off some really neat things for a cool company) and the accomplished Jim Coplien who’s been in the software biz for decades, is well-read, and has strong and intriguing opinions on many things from scrum, kanban, & agile in general to organizational patterns and international politics, all of which were extremely fun to discuss with him over beer and Japanese food.

Now for some images and videos I’ve made recently.

Walking off the train, I have to take these baby steps and get knocked around by other commuters. Watch and feel my pain.

A kitten at a cat cafe wants to chew my phone cord (of course).

A man fights sleep outside of a McDonalds and loses. I have been this dude so many times.

Thanks to this walk to Doofles, the neighborhood arcade, I’m sort of OK at Tekken Tag Tournament 2 now.