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A few weeks ago, I requested VPN access to the EA network and today was I was granted that. What that means is that I can now check my work e-mail away from the studio and using remote desktop, work from home. Having such access is a double-edged sword. While having VPN access allows you to respond to messages quickly, keeps you aware of potential issues even while away from work, and can make you more productive, no one can dispute that you’re essentially working more and doing so on your own time. The key to using this access properly is using it in a smart way. Some of the tasks I do on a near daily basis involve kicking off a build, which means my computer has to crunch away for several minutes as it constructs the latest version of the game. For the most part, I can’t do anything while this happens, so it’s not productive time. If can get this going before I head off to work, the build will be ready for me once I arrive at work. That’s just once example. Now I’m sure some of you out there are thinking I’m a fool for giving up that time where I can surf the Internet while my build is going.

I used to have VPN access at EA starting way back around 2007 or so. It was a bit different then. I was given a physical token generator which generated an authentication code every 60 seconds. I kept this thing on my key chain for years and only surrendered it when I got laid off in late 2010. This time around, the authentication code is now generated by an app that’s on my phone. It’s cheaper and more convenient to do it this way since you don’t have to hand out physical tokens anymore. It’s interesting how smartphones continue to make life easier(?).

Well, time to go check my work e-mail! 🙂

Funny man Will Ferrell appeared on Jimmy Fallon’s show last week to promote some items for a company he’s now working for. Rather than be sneaky about the deal, he was very open about being a pitchman.

Though I am settling into the routine of being back at work, I’m still finding it a bit tough to get up in the mornings. This is happening despite the fact that I’m in bed between 12:30am and 1am on most nights and get up around 8:30am. That’s a very early bedtime when you consider in my previous working days, I’d go to bed around 2am and get up at about 8am.

Perhaps it will take another few weeks for me to adjust or perhaps I’m just getting old. Not sure what it is. The only good thing is I usually don’t have that afternoon dip where I get tired a few hours before going home.

Well, I better head off to bed.

I recently wrote about the demise of Redbox in Canada, which was my main method of watching movies after their theatrical run. Now that Redbox is gone, I’m faced with the reality of having to pay triple the price to stream movies in HD for $6 online. Sure, my workplace has a library that stocks relatively new Blu-ray discs but waiting for one copy of say Big Hero 6 to become available amongst hundreds of other employees isn’t ideal.

I saw a torrent for Interstellar on the weekend but I resisted. I don’t want to go that route. What a wonderful first-world problem this is.

US President Barack Obama appeared on Jimmy Kimmel’s show recently and the host asked a question which needed to be asked. Kimmel inquired about the President’s knowledge of aliens. Interestingly, Obama did not flat-out deny knowing about aliens nor did he say aliens do not exist. He also jokingly said that “aliens exercise strict control over us”. I am sure that some conspiracy theorists will take statement more literally. When Kimmel finally was more insistent with his line of questioning, Obama said he “can’t reveal anything”. Again, that was not a complete denial of the existence and/or knowledge of aliens.

This maybe the fatigue talking but this short segment on a supposed comedy talk show may wind up being historically important in later years. Ok, I gotta go patch up my tin foil helmet, I suggest you do the same.

Don’t ask why, just enjoy these.

A few days ago I was at a local department store to buy an extension cord. I approached a cashier to pay for the item and I noticed a small box of chocolates at the sales counter. The Tabasco people had combined their famous hot sauce with chocolate. This small bar of chocolate cost about $1.50 so I decided to try it out.

As you can see above, the bar isn’t that big so I knew if I didn’t like it at least there wouldn’t be a lot of it to eat. The chocolate itself is a really dark colour which I was glad to see since I much prefer dark chocolate these days. I broke off a piece and ate it. The first piece was underwhelming. It tasted like a normal piece of dark chocolate, though admittedly it was pretty good and not too sweet. Not a hint of that familiar Tabasco hot sauce flavour. I encountered the same thing with the second piece. It was only by the third piece did I started to detected a bit of spiciness. The final piece had a slight kick to it.

Unfortunately, at no time could I even tell this chocolate had any of that Tabasco flavour in it. It was just chocolate that happened to have this generic mildly spicy kick. If I hadn’t seen the wrapper, you could have said it was chocolate with black pepper in it and I would have believed you.

I can’t say i would recommend this as a purchase. At this point, I’m wondering if you’re better off just buying regular dark chocolate and pouring on some normal Tabasco sauce on it.

I’ve gotten into the habit of eating two scrambled eggs and two pieces of bacon for breakfast at work. What a great way to start the day. Though after having that three days in a row, I was concerned by my bacon consumption and this morning I decided not to have any breakfast at work. That just led to me being super hungry well before lunch. I’m going back to the bacon and eggs tomorrow.

Speaking of work, I get paid tomorrow. After two full weeks of work, I finally get compensated. I haven’t received money that wasn’t a government handout since October 10. I wasn’t hurting for money but I’ll take it.

To satisfy my curiosity I went to Target to have a look at their sales. It was clear the stores have already been picked over for the best stuff. There was still a fair amount of product on the shelves though. That can be attributed to the fact that most stuff was only 30% off. That doesn’t seem like a “going out of business” discount, that’s more like a “we’re still in business but here’s a sorta good discount”. For some items, even with the 30% discount, the prices were still very close to other retailers like Walmart (and those are their regular prices). I did buy one thing however. I got a new shower curtain for $10. Over the course of Target’s presence in Canada, I bought less than a half a dozen items at all their stores.

Ok kids, have a great weekend.

Most people try to be efficient when they’re at work. I get it. The more time you waste not doing work means you’re not as productive. Sometimes wasting time is fun but in general, you just want to get your stuff done. So people try to be efficient with their time. Case in point is not having to make two trips from your desk when you have to use the washroom and when you need to get some coffee or tea. Why not combine both things into one trip?

Earlier in the week, I’m going to the washroom and there’s a guy ahead of me. He’s holding a coffee mug in one hand. He brings the mug into the bathroom and leaves it on a shelf that’s attached to the wall across the from the stalls. We go do our business and I leave before he’s done (I did wash my hands). I’m not sure what he did with his mug afterwards but I would never bring my mug, cup, or glass into the bathroom with me. Who knows what kind of poop or pee particles are in the air that could land into your drinking instrument?

Sure, his mug might have been empty and he could have washed it after he got out of there but feeling is it would have been better to not even have those poop and/or pee particles in there in the first place. So what is the better solution? Well, outside the washroom door is a much smaller shelf that seems to be somewhat decorative but can fit a coffee mug easily. Leave your mug there. Alternatively, you can just leave your mug temporarily at the coffee/tea station while you go do your business. In that short amount of time, no one is going to take it.

Let’s not bring out drinks into the washroom with us.

I installed a new hard drive in my computer tonight. I replaced my old Windows drive with an SSD. It’s one of them “new” fancy drives that has no moving parts like a USB memory stick but different. I thought this would be a time-consuming and tricky procedure to move my Windows installation over to a new drive but it turned out to be rather simple.

I didn’t do any before and after testing but my computer boots up really quickly now. I really wish I could quantify that more but trust me it’s quicker. Anything on that drive actually comes up lightning quick. The only downside is it’s 128 Gb in size which is too small for all my data fit on it. Hmmm… maybe if I just put all my porn on that drive…