On Friday night, I had dinner and drinks at the Backstage Lounge on Granville Island. A large group of my former co-workers were there, nearly the entire Sonic Rivals team was in attendance. The game looks awesome by the way and I’m very proud to have worked on a great title. I think I might even buy the game even though I don’t have a PSP!
Anyways, I was really happy to see everyone. They’re just as friendly as I remember them. I got to hear how everyone was doing and how the project is going on their end. Everything seemed to go suspiciously well after I left. I wonder… It was just really satisfying to hang out, have a few drinks, and chat for a couple hours. There’s more of a family feel to Backbone that you don’t get at EA.
While Friday evening was enjoyable, so was my Saturday. My good friend Garrett Knights treated me to a Saturday matinee showing of Snakes on a Plane. We screened at the movie at Metrotown, which is a place I haven’t been to in about two years, possibly more. Being there reminded me a lot of the time when I worked at EA as a tester. The mall seemed a lot less ghetto than I remembered it to be. Maybe I might return to it in the near future.
Anyways, I am glad that I didn’t pay full price for the movie. Thanks for taking that bullet for me Garrett. While it wasn’t the worst movie in the world, it certainly was lacking something. Yes, I know it’s supposed to be a bit of a tongue-in-cheek movie but unfortunately, it wasn’t so bad that it was actually good. It was too good to be horribly good. Doesn’t that make sense?
After a pleasant meal at the Metrotown Boston Pizza, I bade a farewell to GK and headed quickly home. Nigel, my lead programmer on my first project at Backbone, was having a “back-to-school” dress-up party at his new place in Vancouver. We were encouraged to dress up but I didn’t have the time nor the effort to do so. I arrived about 9:30pm and saw that another former co-worker of mine, Hugh was already there. Nigel was dressed up in this schoolboy outfit that was about two sizes too small for him. There were a lot of guys there dressed up as nerds, with glasses and “kick me” signs. Two guys were also patrolling house as hallway monitors. The girls, well, let me tell you about the girls. Most of the girls that dressed up decided to wear short, plaid schoolgirl skirts. That was alright in my books.
To top it all off, Greg, another Backboner showed up later. Hugh, Greg, and myself wound up on a couch, talking shop for a while. We were quite into it but Nigel shook his head in disapproval. You can take three programmers to a party with girls in schoolgirl outfits but you can’t make them… something. By the way, I was making myself a drink in the kitchen when I needed some ice. I opened the freezer and saw two trays of ice cubes. Without a doubt, they were the nastiest ice cubes I’ve seen in my entire life. There were bits of crud, dirt, and other “stuff” that had been frozen into the water. It was gross. I felt like hurling. I had a lukewarm drink instead.
The party itself was pretty cool. Lots of random people came. Nigel’s parties seem to attract a lot of people from all over the place. About 1am I started to get hungry, so Hugh and I went to Denny’s for a late night meal. I know it’s bad for me but breakfast at Denny’s tastes good… like pork chops.
And that was my fun weekend.