Author: Erwin

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0hzuOPKnNg]

Pro skateboarder Rob Dyrdek and his friend/bodyguard “Big Black” have a reality TV show on MTV. It is simply entitled Rob and Big. The show follows the duo around in their daily lives.

One episode involves Rob and Big travelling to Vancouver to do some mo-cap for the game I’m working on. They were in the studio a day before I started work downtown. I was finishing up my last day at boot camp in Burnaby.

Anyways, that episode debuted on MTV last week and it’s probably being re-run at various times. You can actually watch the whole episode on the MTV site but only if you’re located in the US. MTV Canada will show the episode in about two weeks.

In the above clip from YouTube, you can see Rob playing the game with a few of our producers. If you read the comments people have left about the clip, the major debate is whether or not that’s actual in-game footage that’s being seen. Some people think that it’s just a pre-rendered video and in no way represents what the game will look like. Others swear that’s actually the game running in real time.

I’m not going to comment about the whole debate since it’s really not my place to answer such questions. All I will say is that the game is looking great from my perspective. When the game finally comes out, I’ll be able to tell you definitively.

Is that time of year already? Last week, the fine folks at Victoria’s Secret held their annual fashion show. This time around, the venue was the Kodak Theatre in LA.

CBS will air the show on December 5th at 10pm. For now, it may please you to peruse from over 250 photos from the runway.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsBeiMZah8k]

In this Big Red segment, Alan has a message for the newly or soon to be divorced Britney Spears. These pieces always have me laughing.

I was delighted to leave work at 6pm today. It’s so nice to have just a regular work day. I arrived at my bus stop with a few minutes to spare. The 160 soon arrived at the stop. I usually take the 190. The 160 driver opened the door and yelled at us. She told us that it was parking lot between Main St. and SFU. That’s a massive stretch, spanning the cities of Vancouver and Burnaby. She recommended we take the train. She meant the West Coast Express. With that, she drove off.

The 190 still wasn’t there but I began to hem and haw. If it indeed was a parking lot between Main St. and SFU, that would be a huge delay. It might be upwards to an extra hour of travel time. It was 6:10pm and I knew the last train left the station at 6:20pm.

I decided to go for it despite being at least five minutes away from the station and not having taken the train before. After a brisk walk, I entered the station at approx. 6:15pm and followed the signs. I was met with a ticket machine. I punched buttons and followed prompts as fast as I could. I quickly jammed in $6 worth of bils into the machine. This was gonna be a costly ride home.

With the ticket printed out, it was down to the escalator to the platform. No one was there to check my ticket. I entered the first car I saw and looked around. It was moderately full. I found a seat in the aisle and sat down. Two minutes later the train began to trundle away from the station.

The ride was quite smooth and I was unable to see much outside the windows. About twenty minutes later we were in Port Moody! Amazing! I de-trained with a bunch of other people. This was the neatest thing since sliced bread. After a ten minute walk, I was home by 6:50pm.

I’d like to do this more often but at $6 for a single ride home, that’s expensive.

So they finally announced where the company holiday party is going to be. They don’t say Xmas party anyone because that ain’t PC. Anyways, it’s gonna be on the evening of December 1st at the Commodore Ballroom. It’s also going to be Egyptian themed.

I think the date is a bit early and I won’t even mention that we have a huge deadline to meet on that exact day. I’ve been around the video game block more than enough to say with some confidence, we’ll be working OT the entire week and by the time Friday rolls around, we’ll be working right up to, if not beyond party time.

The invitation stated that the dress is classy or “dress to impress”. I hate that phrase. I’m not really sure what I’m going to wear. I’m definitely not going to wear a suit, mainly because I don’t own one. Maybe it’s time for me to buy a new blazer. It being a video company though, I feel like there’s a good chance I won’t be the worst dressed guy there, which is all I’m hoping for.

I can bring a “guest” which I wasn’t planning on but I’m open to suggestions. I could bring a friend. If it’s a girl, I’d more than be happy to explain to all my co-workers about why it’s better to own than rent property in a certain zone. If it’s a guy, it would really get those gay rumours started at the office. Alternatively, I could hire a ridonkulously hot woman to be my “social escort” for the evening. People could then try to guess how much I paid her for the evening. Maybe like start an office pool and on the following Monday, we’d see who got the closest.

And with that, it’s time for bed.

The long weekend is over. That’s too bad. I really needed the three days off. I’ve been working OT for the last three weeks. It was good to just to sleep in everyday.

I’m looking at a map right now and I just realized I hiked around 10 km total today. It didn’t seem so far at the time but I’m really tired right now. I essentially hiked from North Rd. in Coquitlam, up to SFU, and then to Burnaby Mountain Park where the lovely Horizons restaurant is located. I’d never been there before. The view kicks ass from the park. You’re so high up you can see so far into the west. I was able to see all of Burnaby, downtown Vancouver, and it just visible but I could make out the tall buildings on campus at UBC. The sun had just broken out too while I was looking at all this. It was beautiful, sorta like that “stay gold” moment with Ponyboy.

Then it was time to head back. Not ten minutes into my journey home, the sun was behind the mountain and trail got dark quite fast. By the time I got back to my car about an hour later, it was nearly pitch black. I gotta start bringing lighting with me or start earlier. Anyways, I’m beat now.

Time to go to bed.

So this dude wrote some guidelines that men and women should follow to maintain a healthy, platonic friendship. Well, at least that’s the title. If you read the guidelines though, it kinda makes you think the title should be, “How to maintain being friends with a girl you are hopelessly in love with”. I don’t necessarily believe in all of these but I’ll list a few of the suggestions here:

1. No hugging for greetings or salutations. Hugging is only allowed for personal tragedies or blessed events when the emotional significance of the situation blocks out the knowledge that your boobies are pressing against me. We have hands; lets shake them.

10. No confiding in me about boys. I am not your girl friend; I am your reluctant man friend who officially hates all men that you date now or in the future. Asking for hypothetical guy advice is okay; just don’t slam me with details about particular guys you are sleeping with. If this rule seems contrary to rule 7, just remember that I’m a beautifully complex being.

14. No dating any guy who treats you bad or neglects you in any way, that’s just a slap in my face. I fucking adore you.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2PyiuxfZ5Q]

I know some of you must be tired of all the Borat exposure in the media. He’s been everywhere but you have to admire Sacha Baron Cohen. He’s been across the world doing a million interviews in character. The man is a machine, and a comedic genius as well. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan is unlike any movie I’ve ever seen and that’s a compliment. Cohen went to the extreme to make this movie as funny as it could be, including one outrageous scene which defies description. I can only encourage you to see it.

The above interview took place the Monday after Borat was released, debuting at the number one spot. Borat is talking with the people at the Today Show on NBC. It was the second interview with Matt Lauer in less than two weeks. Look for a cameo from douchebag Bill O’Reilly near the end.

Hey, it’s almost midnight and I’m coming live to you from downtown offices of EA. I’m quite sad that I’m still at work. Someone better appreciate the work I’m doing here.

So the Democrats took the Senate. Maybe the average US voter isn’t as dumb as I thought. And Rummy resigned today as well. Yay! That’s the first bit of good news politically in the US since probably 1996. Could Palpatine’s rule be at an end?

Ok, I’m going home now.

A week ago, I predicted “business as usual” for the 2006 midterm elections in the US. I was wrong. At the time of this post, the Democrats control the House with a wide margin. Nancy Pelosi, stands to be the first female speaker of the House. I can’t imagine in a million years that the Republicans would ever let a female lead the House.

What’s even more surprising is that at this very minute, the Senate is still within grasp for the Democrats. They need two more contests to go their way and they’ll have it. Despite all the good signs of this evening, the Republicans will retain control there. Remember, the GOP still has the voting machines on their side.

The bad news continues with six more states voting to ban gay marriage. The states of Idaho, Colorado, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Virginia, and South Carolina all now have new material for their tourism campaigns! Way to go!

The overall interesting question is whether or not the US voters actively voted for change. Control of the goverment swings back and forth between those two parties naturally anyways just like how our magnetic poles do every couple thousands of years. Was this a conscious change or just nature working it’s usual magic? Hard to say.

Ok, back to Stewart and Colbert!