Month: July 2015

Paul Rudd appeared on Conan tonight and this is what happened.

Actor Paul Rudd will be appearing on Conan O’Brien’s show tomorrow night to promote Ant-Man. I’ve been anticipating this appearance for weeks now as Rudd has appeared on Conan’s shows many, many times going back several years. The video above summarizes most, if not all, of Rudd’s stints on Conan.

Will he bring out the infamous Mac and Me clip again? He must!

As I have written previously, I was in the process of changing mortgage lenders in the last few months. My previous mortgage ended its term on July 3rd. After signing the last of the paperwork, July 3 came and went and I didn’t hear from anyone. My mortgage broker was silent, my old mortgage company didn’t send me a goodbye message, and more importantly, I heard nothing from my new lender.

Just to be sure, I phoned the new people who actually own my condo now, Street Capital Financial Corporation. The nice lady on the phone asked me if I knew my mortgage number and I was honest with her, I did not, because I had not received any formal documentation from them. After a few minutes of looking, she found my file and said that at least from her end, everything looked fine. She also told me that they would be sending me a welcome package. I was relieved to hear that but that was over two weeks ago and I still haven’t received anything in the mail.

The most interesting thing is that I have made a mortgage payment in about three weeks. No one has been deducting any money from my bank account. I believe that if all goes well, the first payment from the new lender will happen this Friday. Who knows if that will actually occur though.

As we all know, Mondays kinda suck. This Monday almost sucked even more than usual had it not been for Facebook. I was quite tired Sunday night so when I fell asleep, I was in a deep slumber. When morning arrived, the familiar notification tone went off on my cell phone. I barely heard it in my sleep but it was enough to rustle me into consciousness. I grabbed my phone to see what time it was. It was then I realized my alarm had not gone off. It fifteen minutes after my usual alarm time.

Being fifteen minutes behind schedule wasn’t going to ruin my day but it certainly wasn’t a great way to start off the week either. My phone is set to be in “quiet” mode in the evenings until 8:30am, when I should already be awake. It was a Facebook notification that woke me up this morning. If that hadn’t come through or if no one had sent me any messages at all, who knows how long I would have slept.

I’ve been using a new alarm app that I downloaded recently and I think when I rebooted my phone on the weekend, it must have deleted my alarm. I think I’m going back to the default alarm app. Who would have guessed Farmville actually was useful for once?

Former astronaut and Canadian living legend Chris Hadfield visited Comic-Con for the first time this week. As someone with that much street cred within the “geek” community, he probably could not have walked the show floor without having stop frequently for pictures. As such, he joined Adam Savage of Mythbusters fame in his yearly attempt to dress up in a costume without anyone realizing who he is.

For 2015, Savage replicated the space suits from 2001: A Space Odyssey. In the video above, we see both of them go over the suits in detail, including the cooling system and the lunch boxes that Adam made. The video also shows them at the show and it appears that no one was able to recognize them with the helmets on. From a personal perspective, it looks like they were staying at the Manchester Grand Hyatt (where I stayed in late February) as the golf cart ride they took from the show to the hotel is along the seawall which I’m quite familiar with now.

About two days ago I woke up and was lounging in bed when I felt a cramp coming on in my left calf. I can’t remember the last time I got a muscle cramp but when I do, it’s always in my calves. You can sometimes prevent a cramp, even if you feel it coming on, by quickly relaxing the muscle. The window for this is very short though and unfortunately for me, I wasn’t able to relax it enough. My left calf began to seize up and that very familiar and excruciating pain started to sear through my leg.

A few months ago, I read about some technique that was supposed to end a cramp earlier. As I laid in my bed gritting my teeth in pain, I forgot what that technique was, so I was left to ride it out. I used to get cramps because I didn’t hydrate enough but I’ve changed my habits to drink lots of water throughout the day, especially when I get home. Whatever the cause was, the cramp ended after what seemed like a very long minute.

The great thing about a cramp like that is once it’s over, the muscle will be sore for a few days afterwards. I can feel some discomfort in my left leg every time I walk, now almost three days after the fact. If I try to get up on my toes with my left leg, the calf muscle gets very painful and it almost feels like it might cramp again.

Stay hydrated out there folks.

This year, Conan O’Brien is the first late night talk show host to bring his whole production to the San Diego Comic-Con. He’s doing a whole week of shows from San Diego, one of my favourite cities in the United States. His guests will include the cast of Game of Thrones, Hunger Games, and The Walking Dead.

The video above is from the opening of his first show from Comic-Con (which aired tonight). If haven’t seen Max Mad: Fury Road it might not have that much meaning to you but it should be entertaining nonetheless.

Last September, I wrote about a popular YouTube personality that brought back Skate 3, one of the games I worked on, back into the spotlight. Felix Kjellberg, better known as Pewdiepie, recorded himself playing our game. At the time, I also explained that he probably gained several millions dollars in the previous year from shared ad revenue with Google. A Swedish newspaper has now stated Kjellberg made $7.4M USD in calendar year 2014. Combined with his earnings in 2013 alone, he is without a doubt a very rich man.

To put into perspective how much money he makes doing what he does, consider this: Kjellberg made more than probably 99% of the developers of the games he recorded himself playing. I don’t know if he made any GTA V videos but I’m guessing if he did, it would be one of the very few rare games when one or two people (the Houser brothers) on the development side made more than $7.4M. In fact, in some cases, some of his videos probably earned him more revenue than the actual total sales of the game he was playing.

If you allow yourself to get riled up that a dude became a millionaire by filming himself playing video games, you’re liable to make yourself go crazy. I don’t begrudge Kjellberg. He found a way to make himself a lot of money in a very unique way. It used to be that you only got rich by being in business. If he had been born twenty years ago, he might have missed his window as the technology just didn’t allow for millionaires like him.

Pewdiepie will without a doubt will make several more millions in 2015 and I hope he makes his fans happy while doing it.

I have decided that I will finally go to E3 in 2016. The Electronic Entertainment Expo is the most well-known convention or trade fair for the video game industry. I’ve heard about E3 since before I became a game developer. I’ve always wanted to go. Now, with my 12 years in the industry under my belt, I’ve realized no employer of mine will send a low-level schmuck like myself on the company dime. It’s up to me to get there.

There are a few obstacles to hurdle before this becomes a reality. First, is getting a hotel. There will be literally thousands of people in Los Angeles just for E3 and everyone needs a place to stay. I’ve already started looking online for a hotel that fits my budget. I’m not afraid to go a bit pricier but I’m also not paying $500 a night for a room. Second, I actually need to procure a pass to E3. Contrary to what the public might think, E3 is actually not open to the public. You must have a connection to the industry to attend. I believe that I know enough people now and have worked on enough games to get a pass. Lastly, I need to book the flights, which would be the easiest part of this adventure.

Anyways, it’s now just over 11 months away until E3 2016, time to start cracking!

For most of the weekend and especially Sunday, the greater Vancouver area has been blanketed by a smoky and thick haze originating from the dozens of wildfires blazing through the province. The haze has allowed people to take some amazing photos of the city. Vancouver is normally not covered in a thick layer of particulates, so it’s very odd to see.

Looking outside my window this afternoon, I could see the haze had descended through out my local area. I usually can see several miles away but not today. As the day wore on, it got progressively worse as the haze got thicker. I also began to smell the smoke as well. It smells like someone had lit a small fire outside my window, except that everyone in the entire city is smelling the exact same thing.

It was a blazingly hot and sunny day today and I was expecting to see a beautiful sunset. Instead, the smoke and haze got so thick, it was impossible to see the sun. From around 8pm and on, it looked like it had turned into a cloudy day but instead of clouds, it was the smoke that had blotted out the sun. Even now, at night, you can easily see the haze from just the streetlights as it lingers across the city.

I’ve never see this before in the Vancouver area. Some people with breathing issues are having to juggle closing their windows to stop the smoke from coming in versus the blistering temperatures that arise from having no circulation. I have an air purifier in my bedroom but I don’t think it’s been able to keep up. It still smells like smoke in there.

I’m hoping these fires get put out quickly and we get a respite from this heat. The whole province could use a few days of sustained rain.