EARLY

In an effort to get to bed earlier, I tried to make things easier for me to actually get into bed. I usually shower right before I go to bed so that’s something in my routine. I figured if I did that earlier, that’d be one less thing I had to do before bedtime. So this evening, I showered at around 8pm. That’s one less thing I need to do now and that will shave off about 10 to 15 minutes off my bedtime routine. Let’s see how this goes.

GLUTTONY

There was a time-limited Amazon deal today and I was able to buy 96 Fererro Rochers for $22. Considering that a box of 16 goes for sometimes up to $8, this was a great deal. I also did the math and 96 of these chocolates is over 7000 calories over 500 grams of sugar. They are so delicious though!

WORK FROM HOME

So I discovered an interesting perk that one of the teams at work is currently rolling out. They are formalizing a “work from home” strategy for every member of this team. The general gist of it is that each member of the team is allowed to work from home one day at week, the day of which is their choice.

At least in the Vancouver studio, EA doesn’t have a formal “work from home” policy. It’s usually done ad-hoc, like if you need to stay at home during the odd day because a plumber needs to come fix your kitchen sink. I’ve done this a few times over the years but it’s rare. To roll this new policy out for an entire team, is an amazing change.

I imagine this will be sorta of a pilot program as other teams see how well it works. I think it’s quite possible to be successful, as long as it’s done smartly. Sometimes you’ll just need to be at work for a meeting or something like that. Overall though, I think it won’t affect productivity at all.

I can’t imagine how much better it would be if I could work from home one day a week, every week!

LUDDITE?

A few weeks ago, I was going to work and there were several employees entering the studio at the same time I was. In front of me was a young lady. She went in through the door first with her pass card and I went in after her.

After walking a bit, she and I both arrived at the elevators. I assumed since she got to them first, she would press the button to call the elevator. What she did next surprised me. Instead of pushing the button for the elevator, she started pushing the round area where the fire department inserts a key to manually control the elevators. You can see an example of this key entry on this web page. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The actual button to call the elevator is right there. It looks like a button, not a place to put a key. How could you mess this up? Hadn’t she taken the elevator before?

She must have realized what she was pressing wasn’t the button, since it didn’t give. What she did next was even more odd. The wall along the elevators is a decorative one, with all these crazy metal designs on it. I guess the wall is attached and fixed in place with what looks like these large rivets, some of which are placed near the frame of the elevator door. Well, for some reason, she started pushing one of these rivets, thinking it was the elevator call button! Why would anyone think that the button would be located near the top of the elevator door frame, off to one side?

In my lifetime, I’ve gone to a lot of buildings and approached elevator banks where I have never been to before. I’m pretty sure that 100% time, I figured out where the elevator call button is. And even if I didn’t I’m pretty sure I’m not pressing rivets and places where keys go. Elevator call buttons are usually designed to look like they can be pressed. They’re put in central and easy to reach areas.

Anyways, by this time, I was getting impatient and I wasn’t interested in seeing what else she was going to try to press to get the elevator. I politely stepped around her and pressed the real button so that I could get where I needed to go. I made sure not to look at her and embarrass her any further. The elevator arrived about ten seconds later, we both went in and to my utter shock, she was able to press the button for my floor without any trouble.

When we both arrived at my floor, she kept walking to the other part of the studio, so I’m not sure which team she works on. Did she really not know how to call that elevator? Didn’t she see how other people called it the other times she went to work? Even if she was new to the company, it’s pretty easy to know how elevators work, right? Who is this young lady that doesn’t know how buttons work?

VACUUM

On a whim, I’m thinking about buying a new vacuum? Why? I’m not sure really. I bought my current vacuum almost nine years ago when I moved into my apartment. It still works fine but it’s noisy, big and the dust container is designed in way that you get dust and dirt on the vacuum itself every time you empty it. As such, the vacuum gets really dirty the more you use it.

I know I don’t want a Dyson but something lighter, quieter, and with a more thoughtful design for emptying the dust container would be nice.

LOCAL EXCITEMENT

At approximately 10pm this evening the fire alarm went off in my building. Now in the almost nine years that I’ve been living in my apartment, there are so many false alarms that no one takes the alarms seriously anymore. The problem is that the fire alarm system for an entire long city block is all connected, including the retail space and all the condos. This means if there’s a fire alarm that goes off in a small store down the block, the fire alarm goes off everywhere else, even in buildings not connected to where the alarm is, possibly even 300m or so away. It’s a terrible system and has led to no one listening to the alarms anymore.

So, tonight another alarm goes off and I just ignore it. I hear sirens, which is normal, because the fire department has to attend, no matter what. I keep doing what I’m doing. An hour later, I have to go downstairs, so I get dressed, and take the elevator down. When I get to street level, I see both ends of my street are blocked off and the fire department engine is still there but packing up. This seems like a lot of activity for a false alarm.

I’m curious enough to walk closer to one of the police vehicles blocking the road. The officer is inside the vehicle but he’s looking at his computer or something. He actually looked sorta bored. I cautiously approach his window and he rolls it down. I tell him I live in the building nearby and ask what happened. He tells me that there was a fire earlier in the evening in the first building out of the three on my block. The fire blew out a window or multiple windows. He also says I should be careful because there’s glass all over the sidewalk and street. I hadn’t noticed this before because I exited the building from a different way. The officer says they’ll open the street once a street cleaner arrives to clean the area. I thank the officer for this time and decide to walk back towards my building. Now that I know what to look for, I see shards of tiny safety glass glistening in the road and sidewalk. Though the police are blocking entry into the street, they’re letting people leave. While I’m on the sidewalk, I see three cars just roll through the broken glass, making crunching noises as they go by. Yikes.

I walk back to my apartment, avoiding the glass. Weird. So there was an actual fire but two buildings down from me. I think it’s possible to classify this as a false alarm still. There was no fire in my building technically. The fire alarm system is supposed to be separated now but I guess that work hasn’t been completed yet?

I wonder what type of fire causes windows to be blown out? Meth lab? I’ll see if I can get more info.

SINUS

This pesky sinus infection that I have appears to be getting better. It’s lingering though, which is annoying. It’s still a minor inconvenience compared to this massive sinus infection I had years ago where it lasted a month.

I never had a sinus infection until I was in my late 20s but now it seems like I get one every year or every other year. I wonder if this a product of getting older or is it my environment. Both?