Month: October 2018

So there’s a fairly serious problem at work (other than the state of our cafeteria). We are running out of space to put people.

This is an interesting problem because about six or seven years ago when EA wasn’t doing so well, there were entire floors that were devoid of people. I had a former co-worker tell me that he’d go up to these empty floors and it would be silent with empty desks and cubicles. I wasn’t around then as I was involuntarily de-employed from the company, as many other were.

Well, we have the opposite problem now. The company is doing much better and the business needs require us to hire on more people to do the work to help make video games. The studio is bursting at the seams. To alleviate the problem, we have actually moved a significant amount of people to a satellite studio, located in the building Capcom Vancouver used to be in. Not the one they recently just vacated but the one they had near Still Creek. Interestingly enough, the new location is called EA Still Creek.

People are still shuffling over to the new location but in early next year, about four hundred people will be in that space. This only a temporary move though. The long-term goal is to move those people back into the original campus once expansion is done.

Starting in 2019, the plan is demolish a portion of the studio, and build several new floors on top of what used to be sorta two floors. I have heard that this will take somewhere around three years to complete. In the meantime, some people will have to work out of the satellite studio.

Even with people shuffled off to Still Creek, I am told that still won’t be enough to alleviate the space problems. Management has been hinting that additional moves will need to take place but they’ve been real coy about it. This could mean leasing another satellite location close by, which would be hella boring or it could be the holy grail that everyone has been waiting for since late 2010, the return to a permanent, downtown location.

Having an EA Motive Vancouver studio in the downtown area would be a return to greatness and a sign that the company is invested in the long term. Plus, it would be just hella cool to be working downtown again.

I can only dream and hope but there definitely will be more moves in the next few months.

So this is that Vancouver rain everyone warned me about all summer… pic.twitter.com/wh9R5MqBJc

— Adam Cooper (@adamcoopnz) October 29, 2018

It rained quite heavily this evening in the Lower Mainland and it led to flooding in many parts of Vancouver. I had to drive to dinner and it was torrential rain with low visibility in many parts of my drive.

Once on foot, I was amazed at the amount of leaves in the street and on the sidewalk. There was a thick, mushy layer of autumn leaves just padding the ground. This probably explains all the blocked drains leading to the flooding. The rain is supposed to stop overnight but showers will return for Monday. The forecast is for rain and showers for the next ten days!

One of the joys of my work day, no matter where I worked, is lunch. A break in the day to re-fuel and get something delicious to satisfy the body and the soul. I no longer get to have this joy at work anymore.

I have endured almost a year of just terrible meals from the cafeteria. Today’s lunch pretty much captured what is now a typical meal at EA Vancouver. Lunch was a breaded pork chop, with rotini pasta in tomato sauce, and a side green salad. The side salad was the most palatable thing on my plate. The pork chop was dry as a bone and as tough shoe leather. I had two bites of it before deciding I didn’t want to expend more energy trying to chew that what I’d get from eating it. The pasta was this goopy mess with the consistency of glue. It had been cooked too long or sitting too long and got soft. It was like eating a pile of mush. Like I mentioned, the salad was the best thing about my meal and it was just a few pieces of lettuce, spinach, and other small chopped up vegetables.

I now dread going to lunch because I’m faced with trying to find me a meal that will disappoint me the least. It’s all about managing low expectations now, not trying to find something tasty to eat. It’s amazing how low the bar is now. We’re a billion dollar company and we can’t even feed people properly at lunch.

Well, the Bank of Canada raised the interest rate today to 1.75%, which means I’ll be paying more for my mortgage. At this point, I’m still paying less monthly than if I were renting my apartment but the margin between the two figures is getting smaller.

While that was happening, the stock market continued to tumble. Since I have lots of money tied up in the market, I am now worth less paper. Who knows how far the market will continue to plunge.

Having to pay more and being worth less is not a great combo.

There’s a guy at work who has a mullet hairstyle. It looks awesome. He pretty much looks like Jagr in the above picture but better. He’s also shaved the sides of head, not down to the scalp, but enough so that it accentuates his free-flowing mullet.

There’s no way he doesn’t know he’s grown this awesome mullet, you kinda have to know what you’re doing to get it like that. It’s no accident. Perhaps he’s doing it for fun or he’s going for that retro look.

I’d say if he sported that mullet fifteen years ago, it probably would have gotten more negative reactions. Enough time has passed now that mullets have reached retro status. It’s no longer out of style, it’s just a style that popular a long time ago and you can probably wear it ironically now.

Anyways, it takes a certain braveness to have a mullet still and I salute this gentlemen for having the courage to look so good.

The official today was 14 degrees Celsius but it sure felt warmer that that. The sun was out all day and it was a very pleasant Sunday. I was out in shorts and a t-shirt this afternoon and the sun felt warm on my skin. It wouldn’t take much physical activity today to work up a sweat.

I wandered down to the local park by the river front where the sun was bright and shining. I saw people in coats and I felt a bit sorry for them as it seemed like they were a bit uncomfortable in the warm sun.

We’re a week and a half away from the beginning of November and I’m still gallivanting around in shorts and t-shirts. I guess I’m not complaining but it is warmer than average this month so far. I wonder if this is a taste of things to come due to climate change.

On my way out of Las Vegas back home, I was quite early for my flight, so I again opted out of the body scanning machine used by the TSA. I can’t remember the last time that I didn’t opt out.

Some people complain that when they opt out, they are harassed by TSA personnel but I can only give you my experience with this. I have only been treated with courtesy and professionalism. I never felt like I’ve been punished for choosing to opt out, for example, making you wait a long time before someone can manually pat you down. I believe two minutes has been the longest I’ve had to wait for a TSA dude to do the pat down.

The examination is also consistent across personnel and airports. They always do it in the virtually in the same order and in the same manner. I always know what to expect when they pat me down. It’s the same “back of the hand” brush across my “sensitive” areas, checking my feet, and the weirdly comfortable back “massage” they give me.

Some people get really offended by the nature of the exam but if the TSA intends to know if you’re smuggling or hiding something in your groin area, they’re gonna have to do something to figure that out, there’s no getting around that. Personally, I don’t think some TSA dude really wants to brush the back of his hand against my junk, so I don’t take any offense.

Like I’ve said before, I view it as a friendly and free pre-flight massage before you get on a plane.

The week after a vacation sure drags on. It’s only Thursday!

I don’t know how the cafeteria at work does it but they seem to have this crazy way of serving the driest and toughest pieces of turkey in all their culinary offerings. Every single time I think it’s going to be different, I always get bone dry, tough as leather turkey meat. I don’t know why I keep thinking it’s going to change.

Today I had turkey bacon club sandwich and I couldn’t even finish it. I got half way through choking down the dry meat before I gave up and just ate the remaining cheese and bacon.

I can honestly say, without exaggeration, the work part of my job is having to eat the food at the cafeteria. It’s certainly a first-world problem and something minor in the grand scheme of things but man, you should taste how bad this food is.