Reread the Great Gatsby last weekend.  I was forced to read it in high school and vaguely remember enjoying it, but the second time around was even better.  Fitzgerald has amazing prose.  Something I didn't realize about the book the first time I read it is that it is actually quite funny at times (particularly the atmosphere of Nick's first party).

Trying to figure out how Minecraft generates its maps in "chunks" where the chunks match seamlessly.

I need something like this for my game but right now I can only generate large finite maps.

Perlin noise is what you want.

It's hilarious how many times Perlin noise is the solution to problems.

Playing airsoft with those who are willing to play with me... It's quite fun and could be a little work out, good for your eyes too, well, at least if you play it using safety glass, could be bad if you don't.
Go drifting... with RC Cars...

Airsoft is a blast.  My roommate and I started a college airsoft team my freshman year of undergrad...we even managed to get money from the university for equipment.  Haven't played in a while though.  We had AEGs but I think the most fun I've ever had with airsoft is doing springer pistol wars in somebody's backyard .

If you're near Atlanta there are quite a few places to go play.

Cooking Mama for iPhone and Team Fortress 2.  Thinking about getting a PS3 so I can finally try out Noby Noby Boy.

I read books / short stories and do creative writing.  Occasionally there are days when writing a story feels very much like writing code.

Finished up my particle systems demo....just in time for July 4th.  I'll probably post it soon along with screenshots, but I want to clean up my code and do some more testing first.

Just started on A Confederacy of Dunces

Confederacy of Dunces is great - one of the few truly funny books.  Check out the Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao afterwards if you haven't read it yet.  It's interesting to compare the two protagonists.

As for me, I just finished Kobo Abe's Secret Rendezvous and am starting on American Psycho.  I've already seen the movie but it seemed like the best intro to Ellis's work.

Forgot to mention Munchkin. Pretty fun "dungeoncrawler" game with humoristic characters, items etc. Great fun.

Munchkin is great.  The learning curve is quite low, although you will appreciate the game's humor the most if you have prior background in DnD/other RPGs.  Nothing like a game where the primary objective is to screw over your friends .

However, one specific part of Agile that I think is very valid, is Pair Programming. I think anyone who has done this, even on a casual basis, has realized how much you can learn either by being the one doing the code or the one observing/reviewing.

Pair programming is really cool.  I admit to having hated the concept at first, but now that I've done it on a couple of projects I see that it makes programming more fun (if you get a good partner).  Not to mention you end up writing better code faster.

However to overuse it in a situation would also be a mistake.

Absolutely.  Software engineering is a toolbox of techniques.  You pick the parts that are appropriate for the job you are working on.  You don't need a chainsaw (waterfall development) when a handsaw (extreme programming) will do.

Programming is all about code.  Focusing on what you're trying to do is software engineering.

Software Engineering is all about drawing UML and talking shit and buying expensive bloated tech to look like you know what you're doing and get funded once again.

Programming instead is all about solving problems with algorithms, and it's a way of viewing things that can be applied to a lot of situations... so I'm with bateleur.

I have a hard time reading this as anything but a troll post, but I guess I'll bite.

Software engineering is about way more than UML.  It's about getting programmers to coordinate their efforts to solve software problems.  Things like version control, pair programming techniques, testing, documentation, etc.

You may not need UML for a quick indie game (although you might want it if you write software for NASA...), but I can't imagine a scenario where you wouldn't want to document your code or thoroughly test it.

To disregard software engineering as a discipline is a huge mistake.

Just linked in with the SFML libraries to do texture loading and sound for the particle system demo I'm working on.  It works surprisingly well - the API is well documented and there are lots of samples.  I might end up using it for a game down the road.

(I know there are better libraries / engines for doing particle effects but I wanted to see how it would turn out if I did everything from scratch  )

Particle effects is something I'm missing from my codebase right now. What are these better libraries / engines?  Writing a particle renderer wouldn't be so hard for me but I dread having to write any sort of particle system creator / editor application. That could be a huge time sink.

Well, things like Maya plugins / Blender.  I'm not really doing this for my games, it's a standalone project just to showcase technology and help me learn.

Now I'm working on a pure OpenGL/C++ particle effects demo.  My plan is to have the user be able to walk around in a small field at night with fireworks being shot overhead.  It's not really a game but it should be neat when it's finished.

(I know there are better libraries / engines for doing particle effects but I wanted to see how it would turn out if I did everything from scratch  )

I think I'll stay with Steam.  I'm mainly a Valve guy anyway for my AAA games and I like the way Steam has progressed with usergroups and sharing screenshots.  Also Steam seems pretty indie friendly with Recettear, VVVVVV, Night Sky, Blueberry Garden and many others on there.

Absolutely incredible animations.  Everything looked so fluid in that trailer.

Currently reading The Tortilla Curtain by TC Boyle as well as various short stories by Haruki Murakami.  Both are excellent.

Still playing TF2!  Although now that I've seen that Steam has Shining Force II available I might have to succumb to nostalgia...

Just finished documenting/cleaning up an implementation of the Boids algorithm.  It's a neat little piece of code - I'm constantly amazed at how complex behaviors can result from simple rules.  I want to put this in a game sometime (Half-Life 1 used it for the flying guys in the Xen homeworld).

If anyone here runs MacOSX you can find the XCode source code here and the binary here.  Hopefully everything in the source code makes sense!

I made a bunch of strategy games with my Legos when I was little.  Also I used to play the Star Wars CCG and would make my own cards.

During high school I tried to learn how to program but nothing really stuck.  It wasn't until college that I first was able to really think like a computer scientist.  Our introductory language at Georgia Tech was Python, so I naturally slipped into Pygame.  Made a few Breakout clones, foolishly tried to make an mmo, started setting my sites smaller and finishing the things I was attempting.

I'm definitely a lot better about programming - still have a ways to go on good game design and art.  Right now most of my games are made in Python, although I've branched out to C++, Objective-C, and a little bit of Java.  One of my projects for the summer is to master HTML5/Javascript.

Now I'm in grad school and am getting exposed to even cooler algorithms so I can make more impressive games.  I think I'm ready for my first "big" project.