SICK DAY

After over a year of employment at EA, I took my first sick day today. I’ve been battling this nasty cough that keeps me from sleeping at night. This morning, I woke up all groggy and decided it was probably a good idea to stay home. I managed to roll out of bed and sent out an e-mail to my manager around 10am. I rolled back into bed and the next thing I saw was the clock, which somehow was now reading 3:30pm.

I think I might be ok to go to work tomorrow. I am, however, extremely glad that EA is letting us all go home at 3pm because of Halloween.

NOW IN FULL COLOUR

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wffwg7pA0t8&rel=1]

Daddy is sick so there won’t be any Pulitzer material in tonight’s post. I know several of you find it creepy when I refer to myself as “Daddy” but that won’t get me to stop.

For this post, please enjoy the video above which features a rousing musical performance. A million people have made some negative comments about Ms. Hedger’s performance but I, for one, applaud her creativity for bringing together pantomime, Star Wars, and a trumpet. I’m serious!

And if you’re reading, happy birthday Sarena!

JUST SAYIN'

I know all of you are very eager to see how Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground did sales-wise in its first week of release. The above chart is from vgchartz.com for the week ending October 20, across all platforms. The snippet above only shows data for the Xbox 360.

Just for comparison, I included skate‘s position on the chart (keep in mind, skate. has been out for six weeks now). The last Tony Hawk game, Project 8, sold about 30K copies in its first week. Historically, titles almost always decline in sales from their first week on so its unclear if THPG will meet Project 8‘s 640K total.

One interesting thing to note is that the PS2 version of THPG did better in sales than the 360 version. THPG for PS2 sold 27K copies, good for 13th place on the charts.

FOILED

Tonight’s post entirely hinged on one web site being up and running. Since it is not now and I don’t know what’s happened to it, I really have nothing to write about. I guess I could just tell you what you would have seen but that takes away from it.

It’s kinda like if I had a really good video clip of Bigfoot or a UFO but I couldn’t show it to you. Instead, I would describe it to you in words. Not exactly the same is it? This not to say I was going to show you something of that magnitude.

For lunch today, I had roast lamb. So there.

SUGAR

Since Monday, I’ve tried very hard to decrease my intake of sugar from all sources. I am doing this for many reasons. First, both of my parents are now diabetic which means the chances of me of developing diabetes is higher. High sugar consumption can also lead to obesity. I don’t want to be tubby. Researchers are now saying that sugar can cause wrinkles in your skin. These are all very good reasons why I should try to limit my sugar consumption.

It is of course difficult to completely cut sugar out of my diet and nor should that be my goal. As long as I limit my intake, I’ll be happy. Sugar is in almost everything that we eat. Will I stop eating steak because it contains a little bit of sugar? No, that would be kinda dumb. I will however, think twice about consuming refined sugars.

On Monday, I was really good. I didn’t have any chocolates or candies or soft drinks. The only thing that stood out was that I ate two kiwi fruits in the evening. I’m sure that was my biggest hit of sugar of the day but it came from eating fruit, which I think outweighs any disadvantages.

On Tuesday, I was a bit off the wagon. I had one chocolate glazed doughnut from Tim Hortons which had 20g of sugar. Then I had a cup of french vanilla coffee where I added four packets of sugar which probably totalled 16g. I also had a can of Coke but it was Coke Zero which contains no sugar. I know I’m probably trading sugar for carcinogens there but hey, I gotta concentrate on one thing at a time. In the evening, I also had two kiwi fruits.

Today, I again had a single chocolate glazed doughnut from Tim Hortons for 20g. We also had a studio wide meeting at Canada Place today. They served refreshments and I was feeling thirsty (I have a cold right now), so I took a small cup of Sprite. It was about can-sized so figure about 30g to 40g sugar right there.

Some people have stated you should limit your added sugars to 40g or less per day. If that is right, I think I’m doing ok. It might be even possible to have a doughnut a day and still be under 40g if I’m smart about what else I eat.

Let’s see how long I can keep this up.

CONGRATS TO DR. ERWIN TANG

As I’ve mentioned before, even with unique names, like mine, there’s a good chance that someone else out there has your name. Of the several Erwin Tangs out there, Dr. Erwin Tang of Texas is probably the one that has interested me most.

From what little there has been on the Internet, I’ve determined that Dr. Tang is a well-respected and more than competent dentist. A family man, he was voted “Father of the Year” in Plano, Texas for 2001. He is also apparently an outstanding member of this community.

It is on the Internet that our worlds meet, perhaps not like an upper and lower molar but more tangentially. I’m fairly certain that’s he aware of this site and that I own this domain. Once in a while, I see random hits from near Dallas, Texas. Is it him or someone in his family visiting? Maybe. I wonder sometimes if he’s disappointed that a random dude like me has secured our namesake .com domain.

Well, Dr. Erwin Tang has entered into the online arena in his own right. I’m not sure when his web site went live but Dr. Tang now has an online presence to promote his thriving dentistry business. As far as web sites goes, it’s a pretty good one. There’s enough content to keep a reader interested, especially if you’re a prospective new client. I applaud it for being simple without being simplistic. I give it extra points for being able to book appointments online.

Once again, congratulations to Dr. Erwin Tang and his staff on his new web site!

DECKED OUT


Everyone at work who won a prize pack at the party were able to pick up their swag today. My manager and I picked up our stuff at the same time. One of the production coordinators made both my manager and I pick a number between one and ten. She picked three. I went with two. She got a PJ Ladd signature series deck from Plan B. I got a Danny Way model from the same series. Awesome! We also got an item of Plan B clothing. I got a white polo shirt that actually fits me. Short of the $1300 watch that was given away, I think this was the next best thing.

The board didn’t come with trucks, wheels, nor grip tape so it’s not ready to ride. It’s still wrapped in its vacuum sealed clear wrap so the board looks pristine. I’m probably better off mounting such a nice board on the wall and just getting a cheap board if I actually want to start skateboarding. Given my aging body, I’m not sure if that’s a smart idea.

Anyways, many thanks to Coralie and Amie for organizing such an awesome party and providing us with great gifts!

WRAP PARTY WRAP UP

The wrap party on Friday night turned out to be a very well-organized event. Held at the Century House, we had the whole place to ourselves. Inside, there was a huge skate. banner that almost hung from ceiling to the floor. All the wait staff and bartenders were decked out in official skate. t-shirts. Even the napkins had the game logo printed on them. Inside the former bank vault was a widescreen TV with the in-game videos running on a continuous loop.

The appies were plentiful and varied, ranging from cheese, to fruit, to meat, and seafood. There were lots of prizes to be won as well. I usually don’t win these type of things but I guess I was lucky that night. I won a Plan B prize pack which I still don’t know the contents of because I won’t get the goodies until I get to work tomorrow. I’m really hoping it includes a Plan B deck because that would be awesome. Coincidentally, my manager and I both won the same prize. A rendering engineer came up to us later wanting to trade his Fallen prize pack for ours. We both turned him down because we each were hoping we’d get decks. This is not to say Fallen doesn’t make great stuff but they don’t make decks and I already have a kick-ass pair of Fallen shoes already.

The turnout was pretty good for the party, though I was disappointed that some people did not showup. The great thing was that people who had left EA during or after the game release were still invited to the party. That’s a classy move. There were no “celebs” to speak of but I heard Alex Chalmers was there but I did not see him.

I didn’t have to pay for any of my drinks which might have contributed to the fact I forgot how many gin and tonics I had during the night. The party went on for a long, long while. I remember looking at my watch at one point and realizing it was nearly 2am. The surprising thing was that the majority of the people left at the party were the software engineers. We’re not the crazy ones are we?

One of the physics SEs was talking about taking the party to his apartment but I knew it was enough fun for one night. I left around 3am and somehow found a cab at that hour to take me home.

I am looking forward to hearing some stories tomorrow morning at work. I only hope they don’t involve me.

WRAP PARTY

Tonight is the night that the skate wrap party is taking place. This is only my second wrap party and my first EA one. Nokia held one for Shadow-Born but it turned out to be the lamest thing ever. Nokia’s idea of a “good time” was to schedule a two-hour block of time at a pub. That two hour block happened to be 4-6pm on a Friday. Lots of people weren’t able to attend. Nokia just bought us some drinks and appetizers.

EA does things a little bit differently. We’ve taken over most, if not all of a restaurant/bar downtown. They even printed out real tickets for the event. I already have my taxi voucher so that I can get home safely, sober or not so sober.

It should be lots of fun!