It has now rained for the last two days. The skies are gray and depressing. Just last week the weather was warm, sunny, and wonderful. Are those days now gone for the rest of 2014?
Summer always ends abruptly in Vancouver. One day the sun disappears and is replaced by the rain that never let’s up until next May. Have we reached that point here?
I just ate like 20 won tons with hot sauce. I am also very tired. I’m going to bed. Good day to everyone.
Today was the first day of the exhibits for SIGGRAPH 2014. I went there with a co-worker during our lunch break. I shamelessly grabbed as much swag as I could. There wasn’t a lot out there. As far as I know Pixar hadn’t given away their teapot yet. Instead, I got a lot of pens, probably ten in total. The best pen came from American Express who strangely had a booth. Their pen was made of wood. ILM had a pretty cool Lucasfilm iron-on patch and a nice Yoda sticker.
I’m returning tomorrow to see if I can get some more stuff. I’ll take pictures of everything at the end of the week.
EA had a little recruiting event near the SIGGRAPH venue tonight. I went because in about two months I’ll be jobless since my contract ends in October. I did a tiny bit of networking but I mainly used my two drinks tickets and ate canapes. Mostly importantly, I picked up a bit of swag. I don’t own a PS4 but giving away a free game was cool. I hope I get some more stuff tomorrow.
This year’s SIGGRAPH returns to Vancouver after being held here back in 2011. Three years ago, it was the first time that the main conference in the computer graphics field was ever situated in a city outside of the US. It’s my understanding that the 2011 conference was such a huge success that organizers decided to return to Vancouver as soon as practically possible (which was three years given that subsequent venues had already been decided upon).
I had a chance to attend SIGGRAPH, just visiting the exhibits, back in 2011 and it was one of the most impressive conferences I’ve ever seen. I was most impressed by the fact that thousands of the smartest people from animation studios, software developers, FX houses, university researchers, and game studios all assembled to showcase their work and to take in the work of others in one giant conference. The weather was great for the entire time and I think many people who hadn’t been to Vancouver were quite impressed with the city and conference venue.
I’m lucky enough to have another ghetto exhibits only pass again for SIGGRAPH 2014 but I’m still super excited about going. There’s going to be lots to see and hopefully a lot of swag to pick up! My only disappointment is that SIGGRAPH has already chosen venues up to and including the 2017 conference, so the earliest it can return to Vancouver will be 2018. That is in the future though and there’s still this year’s conference!
I worked OT all week, marking the first time I’ve done any significant OT since October of 2011. That’s about three years, spanning three different jobs, none of which required me to work any crazy hours. For a guy working in the games industry, that’s amazing! I almost forgot what an OT dinner looked like.
Well, it was a good run but now I’m back to the grind. Hopefully, there’s just one more week left and things will go back to normal. Now that I look back on it, it’s crazy that I used to do OT for months on end. That’s youth for ya.
Ok, I need some sleep.
Ok, I know, things look different right now. Before anyone gets too excited, please understand this is not the final look of this blog going forward. We can all universally agree the previous theme I selected was terrible. While I haven’t selected the final theme, I believed it was better to move onto something else, even if it was temporary because I couldn’t stand the last theme. As such, some of the archives might look weird. Please bear with me. Please also note that I reserve the right to take as much time as possible to choose the next theme.
So the above video is interesting for several reasons. First, I think Bobby Lee is a funny guy and second, I know some people who worked on this game. Also, Khalya and Bobby have a relationship that is somewhat out of the ordinary.
The above photo is one I took of a glacier while on a boat during my Alaska trip. I used my phone’s photo blur feature, which admittedly, is way better for things closer to you. It’s supposed to keep your subject in razor-sharp focus while blurring the objects around it. It was hard to focus on the glacier given it was miles away. Anyways, it was a nice attempt at a photo.
In the last week or so, I have two random dudes, people who I’ve never met before, compliment me on my clothes. Specifically, they really liked the t-shirt I was wearing. I was actually wearing a different t-shirt each time I received the compliment, so I must be choosing my clothes properly.
The first time, I was walking in a suburban mall with my Weyland-Yutani t-shirt, Weyland-Yutani being the fictional mega-corporation in the Aliens universe. This is one of my favorite t-shirts, not only because of its simple design but because I love the deep shade of blue and because it’s made of a very thick cotton. The whole thing just adds up to a really great t-shirt. Anyways, this dude was walking in the opposite direction and as he was just passing me, he said, “awesome shirt”. I barely had enough time to process that he was talking to me and I quickly blurted out a “thanks”.
Then, just a few days ago, I was walking into the dollar store downstairs when some dude sitting on a bench outside yelled out, “love your shirt”. I was in this awkward predicament of being halfway in the store and half out, so all I could do was yell back, “thank you”. I was wearing my Black Mesa Research Facility t-shirt at the time. It looks similar to the shirt I linked to but mine is a much more fashionable dark grey rather than black and my silk-screened logo isn’t distressed and is of a much more reasonable size.
I don’t usually get compliments on my clothes but in the last week or so, two dudes have given me their verbal thumbs-up on my threads. Given the subject matter of my t-shirts, I’m content knowing my geek cred is legit. I wish women would start complimenting me on my clothes but I’ll take what I can get!