Month: December 2010

I ventured outside today for more than an hour for the first time since about Christmas Day. I’m still not feeling very well but I had to leave the confines of my apartment because of two reasons. First, I had postponed an appointment to get my haircut on Monday and re-scheduled for today. Second, I discovered this week that I had somehow managed to wear a hole in my bed sheets. I’d like to say it’s from all this crazy monkey sex I’ve been having in my bed but that’s sadly not the case. The hole is three-quarters down from the top of my bed (or one-quarter up from the bottom of my bed if you’re reading this from Australia). This area is suspiciously close to where the heel of my feet wind up when one of my legs is slightly bent. I’m not sure if I’m aware of any repetitive motions I do when I’m sleeping but it’s clear that some sorta of rubbing of the fabric has caused the tear. In spectacular bachelor fashion, these were the only set of sheets I bought for my new bed so they were constantly being washed and then used. I think I’ve learned a lesson here that you should switch between different sets of sheets in order to prolong the life of them. It’s a shame what happened to the fitted sheet, they were 500 thread count and felt almost like silk. I still have the pillowcases so that lessens the blow a bit.

So owing to my haircut and my holey sheets, I had to venture out into the public and the cold weather today. Things got off to an amazing start when I managed to develop a coughing fit not ten minutes into my ride on the Skytrain. I’ve attributed these coughing fits to the sudden changes in temperature, specifically from cold to warm. For some reason going to warm to cold is no problem. So here I am trying not to hack up a lung on public transportation and failing badly. The urge to cough can be such a strong physiological response. It was out of my control. After about five minutes or so, the fit ended for reasons I still can’t figure out. I had another minor coughing problem about ten minutes later but that was it for the rest of the day and evening.

My haircut was uneventful. I had a delightful discussion with my hair cutter. We caught up on our respective holidays, families, and of course, my stupid illness. She mentioned that many people had been rescheduling or canceling this week due to sickness as well. Indeed, as she was finishing up my weave, a young lady came into the waiting area. My stylist said that was her next client and she had also rescheduled due to illness. I watched as the young lady sniffled and politely coughed. This detail has absolutely no bearing on my story but I have to mention my stylist’s next client was absolutely beautiful. Though she might have been sick, she looked great. She did somewhat resemble a girl that was a grade or so behind me in junior high. Ok, let’s get off this creepy stalker tangent.

With my hair new coiffed and styled, I ventured downtown. Now with Boxing Day on Sunday, I discovered that a lot stores had their merchandise picked clean by today. Nearly everyone was still advertising Boxing Day sales but many stores had very little left to offer. I had my eye on a particular sweater at Banana Republic but they didn’t have a single one left, in any colour or in any size at all, at either of their downtown stores. Luckily, the majority of people don’t think of bed sheets when they think of Boxing Day (though I bet some women do), so I was able to pick up another set of 500 thread count sheets for 50% off. I hope this time around, I don’t rub a hole where My Little Pony’s face is.

I have no idea when I’ll be feeling healthy again but I think I’m able to go outside again. Yay! Outside!

I hope all of you are enjoying your holidays. I’ve been off work for a week now and I have spent all seven days being ill. As some of you read earlier, I got sick right when I started my new job. I managed to slog through the first few days of work while feeling awful. I managed to recover in time to have about two full days of work where I wasn’t sick before somehow catching another cold. It was one of those odd colds that started off pretty mild but grew in strength and tenacity slowly. It started to get really rough for me the evening of Christmas Day. I nearly hacked up a lung last night while trying to fall asleep. I think the only reason I got any sleep at all last night was because I coughed myself to exhaustion.

I was looking forward to spending my holidays at least partially outside my apartment but didn’t really work out. Since I can make it to the video store and back without too much effort, I’ve been able to catch up on some of my home video releases: The Other Guys, A-Team, and Salt. All three are fairly decent movies but none of them will go down as a classic. I like to think I’ll get healthy in time to spend some of my holidays not wrapped up in a blanket on my couch but we will have to see.

Everyone else seems to be having fun with their time off!

On behalf of everyone here at et.com, I wish our loyal readers a happy holidays!

Tomorrow is my last day of work before I go on my holiday break. I’m looking forward to finishing my last working day for 2010. As far as my career is concerned, 2010 did not go so smoothly. I’m looking forward to a better year in 2011 where I hope things will once again be on track.

So on Sundays, I usually head over to my parents’ place to have dinner with them. It gives me a chance to talk with them and see if they their VCR clock set. It’s also convenient because I don’t have to worry about finding dinner on Sundays. On this most recent Sunday, this was no different as I made my way over to Port Moody. When I got there, I discovered my parents had decided on having hot pot for dinner. I’ve had hot pot with them before and it’s usually quite enjoyable. There are plenty of meats and vegetables to choose from and getting to cook your own food is cool.

As I was eating dinner, I began to get thirsty. The boiling stock has got salt in it for taste and I’d been dipping my food in this soy mixture. It was all very tasty but I had to start drinking some water. Over the course of dinner, I had an entire bottle of water, about 500 mL. When I got home, I had another bottle of water almost right away. For the rest of the evening I had a few glasses of my beloved hot water (that everyone else thinks I’m strange for drinking). By the time I needed to go to bed, I didn’t feel thirsty but I knew I needed more water. It was bit of a weird feeling, like I was being brined (is that a word?) from the inside. So I drank more water and then climbed into bed.

I did feel somewhat tired but sleep did not come to me. I knew I was in trouble because I was wide awake. I felt like I needed to drink some more water so that’s what I did. It didn’t really help and the minutes blurred into hours. I don’t remember falling asleep but the next thing I knew it was almost light outside around 5am. Whatever amount of sleep I had gotten didn’t feel too restful. I got up to pee and then went back to bed and then fell asleep for reals. Unfortunately, my alarm clock went off at 8:30am and that signaled the beginning of a tough day.

I was out of it for nearly the entire day but luckily work wasn’t too bad. On the way home, I fell asleep on the Skytrain almost immediately and came pretty close to missing my station. Oddly enough, this isn’t the first time I’ve had insomnia because of dehydration but it was certainly the worst case for sure. My loyal readers, make sure you’re well hydrated before you go to sleep, even if that means you gotta go pee at night.

On Saturday evening I was had the pleasure of attending a holiday party at the home of two lovely people that I know, one of which I’ve known since I was 20 years old, in my undergrad years. In fact, we lived in the same residence together while at UBC. The majority of the other attendees at the party were also people whom I met when I 20 years old, when we all lived in the same residence as well. As a bit of a tangent, I’ve noticed my friends come from four main groups: people from undergrad, people from grad school, people from the games industry, and people in a miscellaneous category. I hate to paint these groups with a wide brush and there are certainly exceptions but I think each group has a slightly different perception of me as a person. I think this stems from when each group first met me and who I was as a person at that time.

Back to the last night’s party in any case. There was one guy there whom I’ve known since his first year at UBC. I wouldn’t say we’re friends but we are merely acquaintances. I see him perhaps twice a year, sometimes only once a year. For as long as I’ve known him, he’s had a sarcastic side to him but I know deep down inside, he’s a good person because he treats his real friends with genuine friendship. During the party, we talked about half a dozen times. It didn’t dawn on me immediately but after a while I realized he had some sorta backhanded compliment, verbal jab, or some joke at my expense every single time we talked. I distinctly remember the last conversation we had in the evening, he made some stupid joke about me, which no one really laughed about and in my mind I just thought, “so are you done yet?” as the people around us just kept awkwardly silent. It was at that point I made a huge realization that going back I don’t know how many years, the summation of my interaction with this guy was, for the most part, a series of conversations where he just made every other comment some verbal jab at me or some joke at my expense. There was the odd time where we talked about something normal but I think that was the exception.

For those of you, my loyal readers, who know me well, I think it’s fair statement to say that I don’t have thin skin. I have a good sense of humour and I can take the odd jab directed at me all in stride. It’s when you suddenly realize that your whole interaction with one person is basically based on how many digs he can direct towards you, that’s the point when you know something is wrong. Now we did have two short conversations last night that were somewhat normal. He told me about some tax tips for contractors and then he said we should play Xbox 360 together sometime. I even copied his Xbox Live tag down but when I got home, I thought, “why the fuck would I ever want to play an online game with this guy?”. I feel terrible for writing this but as it currently stands, I’d rather play online with dozens of other people before I’d even go into a lobby with this guy.

I’m trying to play armchair psychologist and trying to figure out why he acts this way to me and not other people (at least not as badly). One theory is that he genuinely has very little or no respect for me. I think perhaps he sees me as some dude he met along with his other real friends and I’m some sorta mascot that’s just part of the whole deal. I often get the feeling that when he’s talking to me, he’s doing me a favour by letting me interacting with him. It’s very condescending. Most of the time after we end our conversation, it feels like he was talking to me as if I was mentally-challenged person even though I have no helmet on. The other theory I have is that he actually respects me as a person but he either thinks it’s ok or doesn’t even know about all the stuff he says to me. I’d like to think the second theory is more plausible but either theory is still pretty shitty.

So the question remains, what should I do going forward? I think the mature and correct thing to do would be to tell him, the next time I see him, that I think he’s been very disrespectful to me most of the time and we should talk about why he treats me the way he does. Yeah, that’s the mature and correct thing to do but to be honest, it’s gonna be at least another six months before I see him again and it’s gonna be some random bullshit conversation on the street when we just happen to bump into each other. I sure as hell won’t go out of my way to get a hold of this guy and hammer out a peace accord. Again, I hate to be brutally honest but that’s not something that’s on the top of my “to do” list for a guy that I run into twice a year. It feels really bad to write that but it’s the truth. Now, I gotta be clear, I don’t wish the guy any bad luck or ill will towards him. I think he treats his real friends quite nicely and they cherish his friendship, so you know he’s got some good qualities.

Now some of you are probably wondering if it was a good idea to write this post given how anyone can read this. To be frank, he doesn’t read my blog. Do you think a guy like that is pounding away at F5 on his keyboard every morning to see what drivel I’ve written? No chance in hell. Now there’s a possibility someone might send him the link to this post but I don’t care, if he reads it, whatever, it’s about time he knows what I feel anyways. Then the next time we meet, we can dismiss with the pleasantries and get down to a more meaningful conversation.

I think if I were younger, I might just let this slide and not saying anything, just because we don’t see each other so often. It might be another six months or a year before this gets resolved but whatever, I won’t lose any sleep over it. I’ve gotten too old to chase after people to get their undying approval.

Tomorrow is Friday and it signals the end of my first real week of work. It seemed like somewhat of a long week, mostly because I haven’t had to work five days in a row since the end of October. It still seems a bit surreal that I work downtown again. When I leave the studio, it still feels a bit weird that I’m in Yaletown. I am just minutes away from my friends who work at other game studios. I can go shopping. I can meet people for drinks. I can do all of this within five minutes of leaving work. It’s the convenience that I loved before and that I’m enjoying again now.

I wonder if there will be beer after work tomorrow?

The video you see above is a guided tour of the EA Canada campus which was where I used to work. The guide on the tour is Trey Smith, creative director on the recently released NBA Jam. Trey just also happens to be the husband of a former co-worker of mine. Hey Carolina!

Now if you watch closely, when Trey is at the IRC (the EA library), the video cuts to some fool looking at stuff. No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you, that’s me. Here are a couple of things you might not from the 2 seconds that I was in the video. First, I was randomly chosen to be in the video. I was already in the IRC one day when these two dudes came in, one of which had a camera. Trey wasn’t even present that day. I was the only one there and I was looking at which Blu-ray discs were available. They asked me if I would be interested in being in some B-roll footage for some EA promo video. I agreed, because honestly, I had nothing else better to do that day. Second, I’m actually acting in the video. They made me move over to the DVD section and asked me to pretend to browse. I really wasn’t interested in the movies I was pulling off the shelf but I don’t think you can tell. If I had to do it over again, I would have worn different shoes in the shot. I like my Adidas skate shoes but that outfit really called for my black leather slip-ons. Lastly, it is indeed possible to feel self-conscious just by standing there and looking at the back of DVD case. The entire time I felt like someone was watching and videotaping me, which I guess was true.

I just found out my holiday break is from the 23rd to the 3rd (inclusive). I’m pretty sure I don’t get paid for all those days as I’m a contractor but I don’t mind. For the next few months, every day that I get paid at my new job, EA theoretically pays me as well. I’m looking forward to having the time off.

My access card is magically working again. I no longer have to follow people into the studio anymore. It’s a lot less creepy that way.

In the last two days, I have spent $50 on just lunch alone. I need to really start having more economical lunches. Tomorrow, I’m gonna head off to an old favourite of mine, Taco Del Mar. I have the mondo burrito in mind. Yay!

My parents have asked me to help them research buying a new HDTV for them. They’re still watching a huge 36″ CRT. It came as a surprise to them that you need to buy the HD channels separately and an HD cable box is required. I foresee some more interesting conversations will ensue before this is all over.

I arrived at the studio this morning to find that my access card no longer worked. Thankfully, there was a crowd of people behind me so it didn’t matter all that much. I was told to inform the office manager about my problem. She copied down the serial number of my card and said she’d ask the security company about it. I don’t think they have temp cards so I had to just hold onto my busted card. That made leaving and then re-entering the studio a bit problematic but I have no other option. I’m lucky, I just surf behind someone else coming in, otherwise, I knock on the glass door and make the poor receptionist have to buzz me in every time. I hope I get a working card soon.

In other news, I started getting bugs assigned to me. I got a total of four bugs in my bin. By the end of the day, I only had one left. Two of them were really old bugs and someone else had fixed the problems. One of them I forwarded off to another person. Getting through three bugs a day is pretty good, especially if you’re just on your third day of work like me. The only bug remaining actually requires real work to fix it, so this one is gonna take me a bit longer.