A week of underachieving, tv time, a new girl, and love from Kojima Productions

A quick look back at underachieving on exams, 4 seconds of TV time, (possibly) landing a new girl, and being mentioned in the Kojima Productions report podcast.

I just went through one hell of a week. Monday had me taking a computer science/programming exam after a very rushed review session. I just hope I get a high enough grade for my performance to labeled “outstanding” (hey, it matters to me). I’ve been playing and programming with C/C++ and other computer science shit for years so not doing excellent is just underachieving.

Tuesday was my TV debut. Well, sort of. My boss (I do part-time work) got a TV interview regarding the 2010 national elections. Yeah, he’s a concerned citizen. So ABS-CBN, the nation’s number 1 (or 2?) TV station had cameras in our office last week. They took footage of my boss working and doing stuff and fortunately for me, they needed footage of my boss interacting and working with, well…co-workers. That’s where I came in. A few nights later, I saw my face (or part of it) on TV! We looked like we’re talking about some work related stuff. Hey, 4 seconds of TV time is pretty good. Have you been on TV lately? I even saw my laptop on-screen. It’s pretty big since the footage was broadcast globally. I’m moving up the ranks man!

Half my face is on TV!

Come Wednesday, things were moving pretty slow, until night time that is. I had dinner w/ this girl I’ve been going after for a few months now (read my Valentine’s Day post). Seemed like it was like any other night until it became longer and longer. God, I thought Wednesday night wasn’t going to end. And as perfect as it was, I didn’t want it to. This was girl-age win.

Thursday? It didn’t even start. Friday was better because it is Friday, and I’m in love. I actually thought Friday sucked. A little class called “elementary statistics” was giving me a hard time. But then I took the time to download the 92nd episode of the Kojima Productions Report. KP report is a podcast from Konami’s (yeah that famous Japanese game company that brought us Contra!) Kojima Productions studio, led of course by the legendary Hideo Kojima.

Kojima Productions are the creators of the award-winning and best-selling Metal Gear series of videogames.

I’ve been listening to this podcast since 2007. It’s about Konami’s and kojipro’s past, present, and future games; the videogame industry, and all the workings of a videogame company like Konami. Being a hardcore metal gear fan and dreaming of becoming a game designer someday, this WAS my favorite podcast. Two weeks ago, I asked a question to the guys (and gal) of the podcast through their website. My message read:

Hey guys I’m really glad that the KP report is back online. It’s been my favorite podcast since before MGS4 came out. Now, I have a question that I really hope you would answer on the air. I’m a Filipino communications major in college with my minor being computer science. Do you think that someday I can make it into Kojima Productions as a game designer? It’s been my dream job since I finished MGs3 in 2004.

Thank you guys for bringing the podcast back and thanks to everyone at Kojima Productions for creating the Metal Gear series.

What blew my fucking mind was that they actually read and answered my question over the air! Not only that, they actually gave me tips on how to join the game industry. And they even brought up my question and my name several times! Most of it was during the actual comments section and then near the end of the podcast. I think they spent a lot of time discussing my question and giving me advice. This is just fucking awesome! I appreciate and really kept in mind everything that they said. I can’t thank them enough. Damn, this means so much to me now. It marks my first contact with people who actually work within game industry, and hopefully, it won’t be the last.

I made a clip of the parts where they read and answered my question over the air. I also put pictures of the hosts of the Kojima Productions Report, Sean Eyestone and Christine Kogure. They mostly work with the design and language translation part of making games (two areas I’m interested in). Check out the clip below.

Finally, you can listen and download episodes of the Kojima Productions report from their website.

Wow, that was an incredible week. Seriously, holy shit;  possibly the most eventful and exciting week of the year so far.  It’s times like this when I have to agree with That 70’s show when they said, “It’s a wonderful life”.