E3 UPDATE

As many of you know, E3 is less than two weeks away. The game I’m working on will be at E3 and this was something the team has known for a while. We originally thought the exposure to our game would be tightly controlled, very scripted on-stage portions, mostly videos, and just some backstage hands-on (if that even). Today we were told that our game might be demo’d live and on-stage, at one of the main press conferences. These events are packed with press and are watched live by millions through streaming and TV. Millions more will watch later in the day. These press conferences can sometimes set the expectations of games for months in the future.

I’ve never had any of my games presented at one of these huge E3 pressers, let alone demonstrated live on-stage. Some of my team are kinda worried but I’m sorta excited. Sure, things could go horribly wrong and the game could be mocked for months before release but the risk makes life interesting. The next few days will determine exactly how our game will be revealed.

EYE UPDATE 2

When I woke up this morning, I saw that there was a development with my infected eyelid. The swollen part of the eyelid had become, for a lack of a better term, ripe for popping. I could see a visible amount of pus just underneath the skin. It looked like a giant pimple ready to explode. Everyone enjoys details like that right? I was really tempted to lance the thing and drain it but I stopped myself for two reasons: first, all the medical advice I read about my condition specifically warned me again popping the infected area because it might spread the bacteria, and second, I needed to go to work and I had no idea how messing lancing this thing would be.

Well, it turned out the whole thing was out of my control anyways! At work, my eye was getting itch and in the process of just gently rubbing the area, the thing popped with the slightest provocation. I felt a bit of wetness on the eyelid so I grabbed a tissue to dab at my eye. I saw a tiny bit of pus. I though there would be a lot more. I went to the bathroom to take a look and it wasn’t that bad. Based on how swollen the area was, I was anticipating a large amount of pus, followed by an equally large amount of blood. I’ve popped some pimples before where it seems like it just won’t stop bleeding for whatever reason. Luckily, I wasn’t sitting at my desk with blood pouring from an eye.

Hopefully, this is another sign things are getting better as usually most infected things start healing quicker after you drain the area of all that badness. Thanks for letting me tell you about my infected eye.

BROKEN GARBAGE

For reasons that still escape me, my garbage disposal unit is not working. I was hand washing some dishes last and went to flip the switch. Nothing happened. I heard a slight hum as if the motor wanted to run but it was caught on something. I got a flashlight and poked around in there. I couldn’t see the culprit. I saw bits of food but nothing that seemed like it would stop the blades of a garbage disposal unit. It was getting far too late for me to continue diagnosing so I just left it.

This happened to me once before. Unbeknownst to me, a ceramic spoon had fallen into the unit. I turned it on and was greeted by a horrible crunching noise. I quickly cut the power and went to look at the crime scene. Pieces of white ceramic had wedged into the blades. It took me several days to pick out all the broken bits. That was a terrible exercise in frustration. I triumphed, however, and the garbage disposal had been working fine until this most recent calamity.

At least with the previous problem, it was clear what the issue was. I don’t even know what’s wrong this time. I loathe to call a plumber though, as they are expensive and prone to showing crack. This is the type of thing that seems perfectly tailored for using a Saturday afternoon to solve.

DAY OFF

So last weekend was a long weekend because it was a public holiday on Monday. This weekend was also a long weekend too but only for me. I took the day off today. In the past, I don’t think I’ve taken enough days off. This summer, I’ve decided to give myself one extra long weekend a month, over and above whatever public holidays there might be. It seems like the smart thing to do.

For my extra day off, I didn’t want to make it too ambitious. I slept in and got a healthy amount of sleep. I saw a movie with a friend. I got some exercise. I bought some fruit at the market. I was happy with how I spent my extra day off. I think it was good for the soul. Let’s do this again next month.

EYE UPDATE

Infection!

In the photo above, you can see my infected right eye in its glorious condition as of Sunday evening. Over the weekend, the slight pain of the infection went away. The area is no longer tender to the touch but the swelling and redness is still there. The photo doesn’t really show how red it is.

I think the fact that the pain is going away is a good sign, so I’m gonna hold off on the antibiotics for another day. If the swelling and the redness don’t show any improvement though, I’ll have to seriously consider filling out the prescription. I just want my eye to go back to normal.

EYE HAVE A PROBLEM

It was the afternoon of yesterday when I noticed an odd discomfort near my right eye. The pain was slight and only flared up if I pressed near my eye socket. This was strange because I didn’t remember smashing my face against anything. I looked into a mirror in the bathroom but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary so I let it be until I got home. When arrived at my abode, I looked in a mirror again. The bottom eye lid was puffy, swollen, and a bit red. Something about this was not right.

It wasn’t that painful if I didn’t touch it but any contact in that area did stir up some sensitivity. I made a decision to see a doctor the next morning. This was something that I didn’t want to wait for my family doctor to see, so I just went to one of the two walk-in clinics that are a stone’s throw from my home. I waited about ten minutes for a doctor to tell me I had a hordeolum or more commonly and stupidly called a stye, an infection of one of the glands near the eyelids. One of the glands is blocked and infected. In my case, you can see a white dot on the bottom part of my eyelid, that’s where the problematic gland is and where the pus is trying come out. Nice eh?

The doctor told me that this is a very common infection and the standard course of treatment is warm compresses to the area. The heat is supposed to open up the gland so the infection can drain and I can get pus in my eye. If the compresses fail to make things better, the doctor gave me a prescription for antibiotics. I’m going to hold off on taking drugs for this because I’m a believer of not using antibiotics until absolutely necessary. I was warned, however, that if the area gets too infected, it will have to be lanced.

I’ve never had one of these before and I hope to never have one again. It’s more of an annoyance than anything but right eye looks stupid.

DVD COMPRESSION

dee vee dee

If memory serves me correct, I brought home my first DVD movie in 1999. I believe it was A Bug’s Life. I had just bought a DVD drive for my computer. They were still relatively new at the time and I remember being very excited to get one. The memory of the first time I saw a DVD movie playing on my 14″ CRT monitor is still very clear. The picture looked as sharp as anything I had ever seen, I was amazed. Of course on my 14″ CRT, with a resolution of 16 pixels by 16 pixels, it didn’t take much to be impressed but I was nonetheless impressed.

From then on, I stopped renting or buying VHS tapes. It was DVD all the way for me. I began buying DVDs for movies that I really enjoyed or hadn’t seen before. In total, there was about seven years where I collected DVDs. My collection isn’t that large, I’d figure about 100 in total. I stopped around 2006, when Blu-ray made its appearance. Knowing there was a high-definition format out there made it seem like a waste of money to keep on buying standard definition DVDs.

Since then, my DVD collection has sat on a bookshelf, taking up space. I can’t remember the last time I even popped a DVD movie into my computer, Xbox 360, or Blu-ray player for the express purpose of watching a movie. Over the weekend, I decided it was time to retire the collection. I thought about just giving them away but the hoarder in me doesn’t want to do that. Instead, I settled on just taking the discs, saving those, and recycling the disc cases. I bought one hundred disc sleeves, the cheap paper ones with cellophane window on the front. I’ve started to move the discs to sleeve but some of the disc cases give me pause. Some of them are quite nice, while others contain inserts that I’m not sure what to do with. What should I do with things like maps, posters, and unique promotional items? The easy answer is just recycle them too but perhaps I’ll have to give it some thought.

When I’m done, I’ll have freed up two whole shelves for other stuff. I may finally have room for my 8-track collection.