China Moments

Shanghai, 2003-2006: In early 2003, I quit an IT job to follow my dreams of living abroad. Fortune smiled on me, and I landed my first job in the videogame industry at Ubisoft’s Shanghai studio. China Moments, my first blog, documented my first expatriation experience and my obsession with the craft of videogames.

  • WWCC

    My goodness. It’s like an epiphany! I just learned an acronym that defines me: Westerner With ...

  • Star Wars in Shanghai

    It’s done. After 25 years, the two Star Wars trilogies are now wrapped up. I remember hoping b...

  • At Last… A New Apartment!

    After a long and tedious search, Hélène, 西施 (Xi Shi) and I finally moved in to a new apartment. Need...

  • Breaking the Animal Crossing Addiction

    I’ve been playing Animal Crossing: Wild World for well over four months. It’s helpless: ...

  • The Miracle Build

    One of the most important, yet unsung part of making a game is the versioning. With next-gen console...

Happy New Year!

Helene and I are spending our last day in Ho Chi Minh City, as our plane back to Shanghai leaves tonight at 1 AM. Helene is doing some last-minute shopping, and I take the time to make one last post ...

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Post-Backpackerism: Follow-Up

Julie, a young Quebecoise currently backpacking around Southeast Asia, reacted yesterday to my post titled Post-Backpackerism. Allow me to trans-quote: I’m divided. I wouldn’t go so far as to call you a snob, because there’s a few things you said on ...

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The Celine Curse

(With apologies to my dear mother, who is also named Celine… This has nothing to do with her!) I have a travel-related curse. I hear Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On in every country I visit. Every single one. ...

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Post-Backpackerism

After spending three days outside of Ho Chi Minh City, Helene and I are now stationed in Pham Ngu Lao, the “backpacker central” of Vietnam. It’s a stark, and rather unwelcome, contrast to being pleasantly lost in the Mekong Delta. ...

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Getting Lost in Vietnam

Merry Christmas from Saigon! Helene and I just returned to Ho Chi Minh-City where we intend to spend the last leg of our trip. Vietnam thus far has been an exhilarating, fantastic adventure, and I’m glad we decided to come. ...

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