Since my Monte Carlo is frequently in the shop for repairs, I take public transit a lot. The bus is a mode of transportation that figures prominently in my travels among the public. For those who don’t take transit too often, let me give you some background on bus routes. For the most part, bus routes have a beginning and an end. There is a distinct place where the bus starts and another distinct place where the bus ends its route and has to stop. I’ve heard of routes that are circular but those are rare.
In all my years of bus riding, I’ve seen an odd occurrence that happens from time to time. When the bus is approaching its last stop, a rider will sometimes pull the cord to signal they want to get off at the next stop. This is redundant because the next stop is the end of the route and the bus is going to stop anyways. Even if no one pulled the cord, the driver would have made the stop. Of course, the cord is pulled sometimes because the person is new to the route and they just want to be sure the bus stops for them. In this case, I can understand. In other cases though, I’m positive that person knows the route. So why pull the cord? Is it just something to do? I wonder.
When I took possession of my apartment in February of 2009 I bought a lot of new household items. One of those new items was a bottle of dishwashing liquid. It took me until tonight to use the whole bottle up. That bottle was deceptively large. In the year and five months, I wonder how many dishes I washed.
Tonight the Vancouver Canucks were once again eliminated in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs in what has become an annual exercise in disappointment. Once again, a Canucks team, which did so well in the regular season, failed to live up to expectations and bailed out of the playoffs in disastrous fashion.
I have to admit though, I never thought this year’s team was really a serious Cup contender. Which brings me to my next point. There are dumb hockey fans no matter what city you look in but there are certainly a fair share here in Vancouver. Every year, at the beginning of the season, there are invariably a large number of Canucks fans who say, “the Canucks are going to win the Cup this year.” What a stupid statement to make, especially when they make that statement without even fairly assessing the team. A true hockey fan is one a knowledgeable fan, one who has watched enough hockey to know the makeup of a team that truly has the pieces to make a serious Cup run. Every year though, there are idiots here in Vancouver who proclaim the current team is the “best Canucks team ever”, just because it’s the current team. These people have no sense of history and are blinded to reality. It’s mainly younger fans who fall into this category, just because they don’t know better. Sadly, a lot of people thought this year’s edition of the Canucks “were the best ever” but that’s not true. If you don’t believe me, ask Jim Robson, he’ll tell you the truth.
I guess I should temper my criticism of this year’s team because they were riddled with injuries with regard to their defensive corps. Losing Willie Mitchell for half a season and all of the playoffs was a severe blow. Then continuing to lose d-men and having to play guys like Andrew Alberts just made things worse. Winning teams don’t use excuses though. They find a way to win, no matter what adversity they may face. It may not be fair but I have to single out one player on the team. The play of team captain and the highest paid player, Roberto Luongo was not at a satisfactory level. He has yet to prove himself as a playoff goalie. Let’s not even mention the Olympics. Winning the gold medal with the most talented players on the planet in front of him did not prove he could play under pressure when it matter. Bobby Lou basically sucked after the Olympics were over. Sure, he had short flashes of brilliance here and there but he failed to string together enough consistent performances. A true playoff goaltender puts together enough good performances so that his play makes a positive impact. Having one good period in every five or six doesn’t help your team.
Though I’m hearing it less and less, every year I hear people say Roberto Luongo is the best goalie the Canucks have ever had. Those people could not be more wrong. Since 1994, the best netminder ever that played for Vancouver has been Kirk McLean. His performance in the spring of 1994 exemplifies all the qualities a true playoff goalie exudes. He was brilliant throughout four long playoff series. He was calm, cool, and collected. He didn’t let opposing players or circumstances bother him. He stole games for his team when Vancouver had no business winning games. If you’re tired of watching Bobby Lou let in five plus goals in critical playoff games, I invite you to view the video above. Kirk McLean turns aside 52 shots to lead his team to victory in game one of the Stanley Cup Finals (not a measly round two game). When Luongo can lead his team into the Finals, you let me know.
The fourth game that I’ve had the pleasure of shipping is out on store shelves today. It is with some bittersweet feelings that I see skate 3 released to the public. The team that I worked with to make all three skate games will always be near and dear to me. They were simply the best people I’ve ever worked with. Unfortunately, I was deemed expendable as soon as the game was done, which clearly isn’t the best way for a company to show their appreciation for everyone’s hard work.
Nonetheless, skate 3 represents a whole lot of effort from a lot of talented people, some of which don’t have jobs right now. If you’re at all interested in playing a pretty good skateboarding game, I suggest looking for it at your local video game retailer. Buying it would be the digital equivalent of pouring one out for me, your homie. In any case, enjoy the above intro video from skate 3.
I spent almost an hour looking at WordPress themes on the weekend and nothing really jumped out at me. When I do pick a few themes I do like, I’d like you, my loyal readers, to provide some feedback as to what you’d like to see here. In fact, if you see a theme (free or not) that you think might work here, please let me know. I’d love nothing better than for someone to do a bit of the work for me. If you’re interested, you can take a look at some themes here.
We here et.com are always on the lookout for consumer products that might be of interest to you, my loyal readers. I have found a product that might fit into that category.
Reebok has introduced a shoe for women called the “EasyTone”. It’s apparently more than just an athletic shoe for women. Apparently, there’s some neat tech in the shoe that purposely introduces instability while stepping. The instability shouldn’t be enough to cause women to fall over but it’s enough so that one needs to compensate slightly. According to Reebok, it’s this slight compensation that works the muscles in the legs and butt more than a normal shoe would. Thus, the EasyTone tones muscles while simply walking.
I don’t know if the shoe actually does what Reebok says it does but it’s an interesting concept nonetheless. I encourage you to watch the commercial above. If you like that, then I strongly suggest you visit the EasyTone web site.
WordPress is an awesome blogging platform. I just installed a plugin, which took all of one minute and now I have a Facebook “like” button on all my posts. If I don’t like it, I can remove it instantly. Please note, I don’t expect anyone to really click on “like” but it makes me feel better that the option is there.
I’m slowly making small changes on this blog to make it more to my liking and more importantly, easier and better for you to look at. You might notice a few changes here and there if you poke around. Obviously I haven’t changed the existing theme yet but that’s a much larger task that will require more planning. Thanks for your continued patience.
My first day with my new team was alright. It’s expected that the day is pretty unproductive as you discover what tools you need to install and what documents you need to read. In that respect, that was fine.
There was, however, one morale draining moment. The lead engineer in my area was nice enough to take me around the team to introduce me to everyone. He introduced me to a lot of people as “Erwin, the new front end engineer”. Now for those who aren’t familiar with game development, the traditional starting role for rookies is in the front end area. Keep in mind that I’ve been writing code professionally for five years and have shipped four titles. So one dude who I get introduced me to says:
“Oh, are you from Group X?”
Now Group X isn’t the real name of the internal EA work group he mentioned but I need to be tactful here. Group X was described to me earlier, and these are someone’s else words not mine, as a “farm team” for junior engineers trying to crack the big leagues and get work with a game team. So dude here thought I was some fresh n00b who was getting his first taste of playing with the big boys after clawing his way out of the minors. I really had to try very hard to stay polite in that moment. Taking a deep breath, I simply said:
“Ah no, I was a gameplay engineer for all three skate titles.”
I really wonder how many other people I met today thought I was some junior engineer with very little experience and skill. Wonderful.
After nearly six weeks off, I return to work tomorrow. This isn’t a normal return to work however. As many of you know, I was cast aside from Black Box in mid-March, with very few options given to me. After a stressful week and a half, I wound up on the Fight Night team. They needed people and were kind enough to take me on, without requiring me to take a pay cut.
I’ll be physically working in the same facility in Burnaby, just 200 ft. or so away from the desk I used to sit at. Though it would seem like these were small changes, I’m feeling this is starting a completely new job somewhere else for all practical purposes. Being on Fight Night means I’m now working for the Sports label, not the Games label. Though there is some sharing of code and tech, Sports rolls along in their own way and Games does things in their own style. There is indeed a difference in culture, even in how projects are managed. Even at the executive level, things are different. When skate used to get the once-over by the execs, a dude named Frank was the one who would give us the thumbs up or down. Now that I’m doing Sports, we all answer to a dude named Peter.
The most difficult thing about going back to work is the sense that I’m starting all over again. I was part of the skate team for nearly four years. I like to think that in that time I garnered the respect of many of my co-workers for the quality of my work and the way that I went about getting that work done. Though now I wonder if I really had the respect of any the people that held the real power since I was tossed aside as soon as skate 3 was done. In any case, on the Fight Night team, no one really knows me. I’ve never worked with any of those people before. No one really knows what I’ve done before. I’m going in as the “new guy” and they’ll be wondering if I’m some idiot. I’ll have to prove myself all over again. I have to show people that I can actually write some decent code. I kinda feel like some stray dog that’s been taken in by someone who feels sorry for me and now I have to show off all my tricks all over again to prove my worth. Roll over. Sit. Jump through that hoop. Beg for food. All that “workplace capital” that I built up in the last few years has gone.
I suppose that had I left on my own accord for another job I’d still have to prove myself again at another company but to me, that’s different. Leaving on your own terms gives you the feeling that you’re in control and that’s empowering. I never asked to be laid off and I never thought in a million years I’d wind up on Fight Night. To be fair, I’ve heard that team is a very good one, so I’m trying to keep an open mind about things. It’s just very unfortunate that I’ll have to show them I can fetch a damn ball when I’ve done that and so much more already.