hi,
well, its been a while since i blogged last...
so, hongkong....like anywhere, after a while a place can get a little routine, after exploring and looking around, i've found i only visit about 3 to 4 places...
mongkok....very busy , loads of things to buy, one cinema, one of the most populated places on the planet i read somewhere..slowly filling up with mobile phone shops , and mobile phone stalls in the middle of the street.
sham shui po....basically people selling crap in buckets, but crap can be worth buying...by crap i mean used copied dvds, copied games,films, proper dvds and things...they can cost as much as 35p for a dvd thats quite recent...and maybe a little less for vcds ...there area stalls selling used spoons, 80's mobile phone, mini disks, coins,badges, anything u may have seen in the gutter, someone here has picked it up, and put a price tag on it..there are some stalls that are more legit, selling lamps,bags,fishing tackle and things, but in amongst that, there is someone trying to sell a broken plate, an odd shoe, and tonnes of other bits of useless rubbish.
causeway bay...perhaps one of the busiest areas around hongkong, for both tourists and locals, its full of little shopping centres selling all the same stuff, directly aimed at under 20 girls with boyfriends who will buy them things...the pace slows down a lot, dont expect to take more than one step a minute sometimes, as hordes of teenagers try and get a look in a shop, that is barely large enough to have the owner, and anothe person in at the same time.its all tshirts,shoes,jewellery,badges and stuff, and every two or 3 shops, theyre selling the same stuff.pointless really, they could reduce these malls to about 5 shops, but there seem to be enough people to buy the stuff, and keep the shops all open and making a little cash.
central..i sometimes come here just to go into hmv, get my fix of whats new in music, listen to a few things on the booths, try and find invader zim on dvd....but no luck...so ive ordered it off dvd....i'm gonna buy ren and stimpy dvds too...and watch em over xmas while i'm loosing my mind at my mums house....but thats possibly for another blog...
and...if your coming to hongkong, theres more to see, but after 6 months, it'll be nice to have a change of scene...i feel tha same after a while in london, and tokyo...though to be honest i'm a bit lazy and dont have too much enthusiasm to go out late, clubbing etc...
so, i'm packing things up, putting all my stuff in storage, ready for xmas when i head back to the uk.it'll be quite odd, and different to the last few years..as im not workin in a large company anymore, theres no xmas party, and slow wind down for a few days while everyone splits and heads home....and argonaut went bust this year tooo, so i cant drop in and say hello which i used to inbetween japan/uk/hongkong visits..
...after years of mis management and making games that werent good enough, theyve actually gone bust...there were a lot of good people there, but it seemed very much to be 2 different companies at the main hq. one half, was run well, managed and the teams worked hard to produce decent games. the other, wasnt run very well(mostly due to short deadlines and the publisher)...but they also had a few big budget flops and games people just didnt really want (or ever likely to sell over 1million needed for an argonaut game)...upper management didnt seem to do what was needed...malice went on for about 5 years...during the time i was there, i worked on croc2,emporers new groove, harry potter, and i ninja...and through all those games, malice started, and wasnt actually finished when i left....it had many hurdles...design issues,engine issues, but again, a lot of people on the team were very capable...its just as u get towards the top, things start to go wrong...it was the project no one in the entire company wanted to work on, but the people on the team wanted to see it through till the end..they got all levels of management involved, but even then they didnt seem to do anything worth while...except get another job elsewhere before it all went pear shaped.the last project i work on, i-ninja, was decent enough, but didnt perform well enough, and with no sequel signed, and nothing lined up (which always happened at argonaut....they knew years in advance when games were due to finish, but never got anything lined up till there were teams sat around, doin nothing, at which point they had to take what was offered...which was games like catwoman..)
so this year, i' sure i'll meet up with a few , then head back home to my mums...which means i have none of my nice hifi,broadband,books,and freedom....where i normally live i can just wonder into the middle of town in a few minutes...my mums is about a half hour walk, into a town centre that is full of all the other shops in every town center, in hundreds of towns around the country...its great to see family and friends, eat loads of turkey... i havent been home for six months.
so while im here, i'll finally do some touristy things, take lots of pictures, and update the hongkong gallery. i might even put up a hawaii gallery, new york gallery and anywhere else ive been.
and every year i tell myself i'll write my album , learn maya, softimage and design some figures and things like that.....i did it last year (and didnt do any of the above)...so i'll do it again this year...
so...till next time....enjoy the run up to xmas...i'm sure all the shops are already full of xmas cheer....its nice and warm here,i havent seen any xmas lights or trees, it might even rain here for the first time is what seems like months...i should go to singapore for a few days, or taiwan,..but i'm sure i'll just watch all the million movies ive bought, watch the boxsets of anime and do some work on my website.
byee
wayne.
