Category: Uncategorized

This morning I’m getting on the bus to get to work when I see a co-worker get on with me. We both wound up at EA after working at UFG on Halo together. The bus is usually full of students but there’s enough room for us to get seats, though not together. We both get aisle seats across from each other about three rows from the back of the bus.

As the bus pulls away, the last few passengers get on. There are about only three people standing, which is a pretty empty bus that takes students by a polytechnical school. The three people who are standing go right to the back of the bus, which normally is the right thing to do. My friend and I are having a conversation, which should be clear to anyone who has observed human behaviour before. As the standees are moving to the back of the bus, the third guy stands right between myself and my friend and turns his body so he now is blocking the both of us from continuing our conversation. I look up and of course it’s a stupid student with his headphones on, pretending to be oblivious to the situation.

I look to see if he actually he needs to be squished right up to where is because of more people on the bus. Nope. He is literally the only person standing closest to the front of the bus. The whole 4/5ths of the front of the bus is free of people and free for him to move to. If he even just moved one foot forward, he wouldn’t be acting like a dick.

So now my friend and I are trying to talk around this asshole who clearly knows we’re there trying to have a conversation. I really wanted to punch him in the penis but that would have made me late for work. Luckily, the bus ride is less than ten minutes. Eventually, it just becomes to awkward to talk around this douchebag but our stop is coming up anyways.

As I’m about to get up, I decide to exact some payback. Since he’s right next to me, I get up and then step on this fucker’s foot with all my weight. I make eye contact with him, give him a look and I say, “Oh sorry buddy, didn’t see you there” and I then proceed to get off the bus.

That idiot was a total moron. I know he has exams coming up and I hope he fails all of them.

In a recent post, I mentioned how my mortgage is up for renewal and I’m determined to find the best lender for me instead of just blindly renewing with my current lender. This led me to examine the other parts of my financial life, particularly which credit card I use.

Years ago, I used to have two credit cards, both Visa from CIBC. One had an annual fee of $29 but it had a low interest rate. I used to carry a credit card balance but it been about ten years since the bank have made any money off of me from credit card interest. I kept that card though, even after paying off all my credit card debit. One day I realized I was paying $29 a year for nothing. I cancelled that card and went down to a single credit card, one that offered cash back.

Last week, I re-examined how that cash rewards card worked and how it compares to the cards that are now available (that might not have been years ago). In summary, it didn’t take long to see my current card sucks. It has tiers of rewards, starting at 0.25% for the first $1500 in spending for the year, then 0.5% between $1500 and $3000, and then 1% only after you break the $3000 threshold.

In comparison, the MBNA Smart Cash Plus Mastercard, offers you %5 cash back on gas and groceries for the first six months, then 2% cash back on gas and groceries after that. For purchases that are not gas and groceries, you start off with 1% cash back right away, no tiers. There are also no annual fees. As you can see, it’s way better than my current Visa credit card.

I filled out an application form on the weekend and I’m hoping to get my new card as soon as possible. I’ve never had a MasterCard before but I’m willing to jump ship for more $$$ back. Once I get my new card, I’ll be transferring over all my re-occurring and monthly bills to it, like the Internet, Netflix, and the like.

Take it from me, it’s worth the five minutes to examine the financial products in your life.

On Friday, EA debuted the trailer for Star Wars Battlefront, the first game in a ten-year agreement between EA and Disney.

After I watched the trailer, I thought back to the my trip to San Diego, which I took right before starting my current job. While I was doing pre-clearance, I had to talk to one of the US Customs and Border Protection agents. In his standard line of questioning, he asked me why I was going to San Diego and I said I wanted a quick trip before I started my new job. He inquired who I was going to be working for. I answered EA and he perked up and mentioned how much he loved playing the Battlefield series. He also said that he was really, really looking forward to seeing Battlefront. He was quite concerned about its development and right before he stamped my passport, he implored me that if I knew anyone over at DICE, I should tell them they better not screw it up.

I have no doubt the border guy saw the trailer on Friday and I hope he wasn’t disappointed.

After five years, my mortgage is up for renewal in July. My current lender just send me a letter detailing my renewal options. I currently have a variable rate mortgage with a current rate of 2.25%. They gave me two viable renewal options: a 5 year fixed at 2.79% or a 5 year closed, variable at 2.35%. It doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to see that they are offering me the same mortgage product, the variable rate one, at a rate that’s one-tenth of a percent higher. Why would I choose to renew at that rate and pay more?

A quick look at a mortgage comparison site showed me in less than two minutes that I can similar mortgages at 2.00%, a substantial amount lower than what I was offered.

I’ve read that lenders try to take advantage of the convenience factor so they can lock you in at the higher rate. Indeed, they sent me all the forms for renewal and all I have to do is fill out a few boxes, sign my name, and then mail it off with pre-paid envelope. Boom! Then I’m paying more money that I have to for another five years.

It’s clear that I’m going to do some shopping around before choosing what mortgage product I’ll be going with for the next few years.

Out of curiosity, I recently downloaded an app for my tablet that analyzes your sleeping patterns. You’re supposed to run this app while you sleep for many nights in a row so you can gather lots of data points. I’ve only recorded one night of sleep so there are no trends to report and everything is subject to how good an app can be at analyzing a human being while they sleep.

The app makes use of the accelerometers in my tablet to detect motion and I’m guessing they have an algorithm that determines what phase of sleep I’m in and good that sleep is. As such, my tablet needs to be on the bed with me. The app can also use the microphone on my tablet to detect snoring and/or sleep talking. I decided to turn this feature on and also record any disturbances it detects. For snoring detection, it necessitates my tablet had to be also near my head for the night.

The results after one night of sleep are as follows, according to the app. I got approximately six hours of sleep (I know, I stayed up way too late playing video games). Of that six hours, about one hour was spent in deep sleep (consisting of three separate cycles). I also spent 7 minutes snoring (according to the app). The app also recorded every time it thought I was snoring. A few times it just recorded the sound of me just turning over or the rustling of my water bed but sure enough, it did record me snoring many times. I played back all the clips and while I do snore, I don’t think it’s that loud. I knew I was snorer before this, it’s just interesting to listen to it in detail. I was kinda afraid I’d hear myself struggling for breath as that’s a sign of sleep apnea but I don’t believe I heard anything like that, just regular snoring.

I need to have a few more data points before I can see a trend of how my sleep is. Maybe I do talk in my sleep and I just don’t know it.

The 2015 NHL playoffs start tomorrow and the Vancouver Canucks have returned to the post-season after a one year absence due to a crazy man. The Canucks have caused me much emotional pain and grief through out my entire life as it requires much strength to follow the team year after year. Some of you might remember that I traditionally bet against the Canucks each series they face. The reason is quite simple: if they win, I lose some money but I’m happy they move on but if they lose, the pain is somewhat dulled by the extra cash I win. The last two times the Canucks were in the playoffs, it was an easy bet to make. They lost in the first round in both 2012 and 2013, getting handily beat by Los Angeles and San Jose. You could tell the Canucks were not in a good state either of those years and were ripe for a beating.

This year, the Canucks face the Calgary Flames. Both teams are quite evenly matched, with many experts saying it’s a toss-up at this point. On paper, the stats give Vancouver the slimmest of advantages which might explain why Bodog, an online betting site, marks Vancouver as the favourite. I disagree with Bodog, however, as I think it’s a mistake to just go with the stats. With such closely matched teams, I’m hesitant to make a bet right now. Had Vancouver been paired with either Chicago or Anaheim this round, I’d be itching to put money down but that’s not the case.

I still have a few hours before the puck drops, so I can still make a bet until then.

I recently re-discovered the joys of napping. Two weekends ago, on the Sunday, I woke in the morning and perhaps had stayed up too late the night before. I dragged my ass to Fan Expo Vancouver because I wanted to hear Brent Spiner speak at a Q&A session. Once that was over, I left almost immediately for home. Once back at my palatial abode, I debated doing productive things like laundry but I felt really tired. So instead of washing my genital coverings, I crawled into bed for what turned out to be a two-hour nap. I woke up feeling quite awesome and very refreshing, despite knowing that you’re not really supposed to nap for more than an hour.

This evening I was feeling quite tired, possibly because I had a case of the Mondays all day. I took a 20 minute nap around 9pm. Again, perhaps not a good idea since it might affect my ability to sleep for reals later on but I did wake up feeling much better. If you haven’t napped in a while, you might want to try it out again!

Last week I was at work and went down to the cafeteria to get some lunch. I went to the salad station to see what the feature salad was for the day. I saw some people already in line and I noticed a gentleman there. My brain processed that his face looked familiar but I couldn’t place where I knew him from exactly. As my brain worked to figure out who this man was, I just stood there staring at him from about 10 feet away. I must have stared at him for about a good five seconds, which is a long time to be staring at someone if they don’t know you. By this time, he sorta noticed that I was creeping on him and I quickly diverted my stalker gaze. Fortunately, my brain was able to recall where I knew this dude from.

When I first started my current job, I watched hours of tutorial videos about a particular piece of software that EA uses internally. Nearly all the videos featured the dude I saw in the salad line up. That’s why he looked so familiar to me. I’d say a lot of people in the company across many studios have seen these videos now, so I’m guessing he gets that weird look of recognition frequently when he visits other EA locations. To close this story, the feature salad did not tickle my fancy, so I chose something else for lunch that day.

Well, the three pounds I gained since starting work has now materialized into five. This is definitely not a good trend, despite my efforts to only eat salad for lunch at work. The only course of action is to eat healthier and get more active. On the diet front, I’ll have to do better and I’ve already stopped eating doughnuts as my afternoon snack. That was a bad habit for one week. As for exercise, I came up with an idea last night.

I wanted to see if it was viable to walk home from work. According to Google Maps, it would be a 9.8 km walk going by the shortest route and it would take me two hours and eight minutes. That’s not exactly a short stroll but certainly within the realm of possibility. There are some pros and cons of doing this. One of the pros is that I can cut through a large urban park by using their trails. Theoretically, this should shorten the amount of time and distance of the walk home. It’s also much nice to walk through nature than on the side of the road with cars whizzing by me. Unfortunately, it’s been many years since I’ve been to this park and I’m unfamiliar with the trails. I also don’t want to be caught out in the trails once the sun sets. These two problems can be solved however. I walk the trails one weekend and get my bearings. As for the sunlight, every day that goes by the days grow longer and sun sets later.

I definitely will also need to eat something before leaving work. I’m usually starving by the time the work day is over so there’s no way I can go on this monster walk without fueling up first. I also think I’ll attempt this on a Friday, just in case it kicks my ass so bad I’ll be a mess the next day.

I do not want a repeat of 2013 when I ballooned up to 175 pounds. I can’t imagine that I weighed that much!

I wish more interviews would be conducted in this fashion.