As you may have read on PixelBit’s blog we recently launched an iPhone/iPad/Android game called Wrangler Rope Your Rewards. While this may have been the first game the PixelBit team developed it was not my personal first. Way back in the early days of AIR mobile I developed Happy Peg for Android using the iOS packager for Flash before it was initially banned by Apple. I was amazed how easy it was to port the web version to mobile in little over 8 hours which included graphics changes. Though it did irk me a bit the file-size was a whopping 8mb.

Not satisfied with this even today i’ve decided to rebuild it using native iOS Objective-c but with a twist. I’m not porting any of the existing code or graphics. I’m using this as a test to see how quick I can design, develop and even add some features to an extremely simple game. The reason behind this is out of pure boredom this weekend and taking a break from wedding planning.

I don’t expect it to be the next Draw Something nor would I really want it to as then i’d have to support and enhance it for all those users. I actually pride myself and my team in staying small, working on niche projects and building awesome results for some pretty amazing brands.

Oh and as a final twist i’ll be releasing the standard version on GitHub for the world to fork and build from. A simple *hat tip* is all I ask if you build something cool!

While I realize this is a horrible tragedy (the killing of a young man) banning guns and going all “guns are evil” is a knee jerk reaction at best. Furthermore don’t be so quick to judge the man in question without knowing all of the facts first.

I’ve been a firearms enthusiast for years, went through NRA and LTC-required training in the state of Massachusetts in order to receive my license. Between the psych exams, FBI searches and criminal database inquiries (CORI) almost all avenues are covered for lawful acquisition of an LTC/FID.

All these anti-guns proposals do is stop lawful citizens from owning firearms, it doesn’t stop the criminals from going into any city/town and buying one from a trunk of a car. It doesn’t stop crime or even slow it down (aside from accidental injuries). In regards to police being the only ones that should be allowed to carry? I think not.

I witnessed a serious car accident outside my home and it took 4 minutes for a first responder to show up on scene! 4 minutes? I guess you would still be alive if that were a home invasion and the criminal got lost in your house but in reality the police would be filling out reports, not saving you.

Now back to this story. Its hard to come up with a definitive conclusion since we still don’t have all of the facts. Did he pursue? Was he in danger? Was it self defense? I wish the media would shut up for a minute and let the facts speak for once.. but that won’t happen anytime soon.

I’ve found that when you keep secret goals you are less likely to accomplish them. Of course this isn’t true for everyone but part of success is learning your limits/uniqueness. Me being one of those people I decided to publicly post my 2012 goals list so I can not only keep posted on the progress but also be held accountable for any that I mess up.

Would love to hear others thoughts on public goal lists. For now, here is mine:

2012 Goals List

01. Cook 50 healthy and new meals
02. Lose 25 pounds before wedding
03. Learn Portuguese. Finish Rosetta Stone Level 1
04. Improve my firearm proficiency. Visit range at least 25 times.
05. Continue to grow PixelBit and work with more freelancers.
06. Pay off ALL wedding expenses BEFORE wedding date.
07. Put away more money towards a down payment on a house.
08. Write 50 new engaging articles for Scriptplayground.
09. Learn a new programming language by building something.

As you can see some of these goals are much larger than 2012 but a new year is a perfect time to start new things.