Category: Uncategorized

So as an employee of Electronic Arts, you have lots of information at your disposal. One of these information portals is a web site that employees use to track and enter in all their personal info. It contains things like your address, emergency contacts, past performance reviews, salary history, and basically just about every detail of your employment with the company. Last week when I logged into this site, I went into the compensation section and I was surprised to see I was making $3K a year more than what was in my final offer letter. Of course, I wasn’t going to run to my manager to correct such an egregious error. I simply left it as is and hoped that no one would notice.

Well, I checked it again today and my salary is now back to where it’s supposed to be, matching the salary in my offer letter. I’m not sure who noticed it or who fixed it but my joy was short-lived. Also, because no paycheque was given to me yet, there’s no money to give back. Oh well, for a while, I was making bank. Now, I’m just a scrub.

I received a letter from my bank in the mail a few days ago. The letter was informing me that my bank was willing to increase the credit limit on Visa card by $2,500 which would bring that number to five-figures. I didn’t request an increase so my bank is doing this on its own.

This isn’t the first time they’ve just randomly decided to give me a credit increase. Banks really don’t do things for you unless it ultimately makes more money for them. Since I pay off my Visa bill completely every month (and have done so since about 2005), my bank makes no money off me. I don’t pay any interest at all. I believe this credit increase is another ploy to change my spending habits so that I get into a situation where I start carrying a Visa balance from month to month. Perhaps with a higher limit I might start thinking about a bigger vacation or more expensive purchases.

Of course, there is one actual benefit to having a higher limit and that’s the peace of mind knowing you can afford to handle a significant financial emergency if one were to happen. I’ve also heard this might be beneficial to your credit score if you don’t change your spending habits. Essentially, you have more credit at your disposal but since you’re spending the same amount, that looks better on your credit report.

The onus is on me to agree to this increase but I think I’ll probably go ahead with it. As long as I don’t go on a crazy shopping spree, this is beneficial to me in the long run.

It’s Friday tomorrow and I’m so excited that it’s the weekend. I haven’t been this stoked about a weekend since October when I still had a job. Though I am reminded of what someone told me once where I proclaimed “TGIF” at work. They responded, “Oh yay, only two more days until Monday.” That guy was a bit of a downer. Anyways, next Friday will be even more exciting when it’s the weekend and payday!

Despite having lots of great discounts for many different things, I’ve discovered the EA discount for bus passes can’t match the discount I get from “this guy” I know. My supplier of my bus pass, whom I shall keep private, is still the best deal when it comes to public transit. I don’t ask too questions, I just give him the money at the end of each month.

I lamented in a previous post about the loss of Redbox in Canada, which was the only way I rented Blu-ray movies for cheap. Now that I work for EA again, I remembered the employee-only library has Blu-ray movies in their vast collection. The only problem is over a thousand people can contend for a single copy of a movie at any one time. For some titles they buy two copies of the Blu-ray but that’s still not very good. Well, this is better than nothing I suppose.

Last May I wrote about a post about The Last Man on Earth, a new TV show featuring, well, the last man on Earth. The show, starring Will Forte, finally aired on Sunday night. I didn’t realize it would take ten months for it to show up but whatever.

It was a two-part premiere, featuring episodes one and two back to back. As I expected, the show started out with Forte’s character, Phil, taking advantage of not having any rules to follow. He travels in a large RV home, collecting pricey items as he explores America looking for survivors of some unmentioned plague. Among the items he “acquires” are: a Heisman trophy, Hugh Hefner’s PJs, the Declaration of Independence, and a fossilized T-Rex head.

Eventually, he starts to break down from the lack of human contact. Just as he’s about to crack, the show introduces the only other character we’ve seen so far. Phil finds Carol, played by Kristen Schaal. This is where the show keeps viewers on its toes. You would think that Phil would be so pleased to find another human being to associate with and a woman no less! It turns out Carol is devastatingly annoying. She corrects Phil’s grammar constantly and insists on following rules like stopping at stop signs and not parking in handicap spots.

Phil quickly discovers he really can’t stand Carol, despite her being the only other human he’s seen in two years. I think this is where the show can find its strength going forward.

I’ve been informed that other survivors show up in later episodes, so I can’t wait to see what happens.

While I was in San Diego, I used the vehicle service Uber for the first time. I received a promo code beforehand which offered a free ride up to $20 for first time users. At one point in my trip I needed to get from sunny place A to sunny place B and didn’t feel like walking the 20 minutes or so. Faced with a taxi or Uber, I decided to go with the option I never tried before. It also didn’t hurt I had the promo code.

Downloading the app was easy, especially since I had mobile data the entire trip. Signing up was easy too, except for slight hiccup. I had intended to use the local San Diego number I had and associate that with my Uber account but it turns out it had already been used. Not only had it been used with Uber, that person had left his account in arrears to the amount of $30. You need to confirm your number by replying to a text message that Uber sends and since the local number was associated with the bad account, there was no way to proceed. My only option was to use my own Vancouver number with the account. That required me to swap SIM cards briefly, just to reply to Uber’s text to verify my number and also to confirm that I wanted an Uber pickup. It was a bit of a hassle but I don’t blame Uber for it.

As for the actual service, I was quite impressed. I like how the app shows you on the map how many Uber drivers are available in your immediate vicinity. When a driver is selected for you, you can watch their progress as they approach your location. You can also even get an estimate of you fare for the whole trip even before committing to a ride. You even know the name of your driver and the type of vehicle they are driving before they get there. Once they pick you up, it’s pretty much like a normal taxi. The great thing is, once you’re dropped off, you’re able to contact the driver again if you forget something in the vehicle. I left my cell phone in a taxi once and because it was hours before I realized it, it was very difficult for me to track down who my driver was.

Overall, I really liked my limited experience with Uber. I am well aware though that Uber is not perfect. Their “surge pricing” practice is nothing but a huge price grab and I find it laughable that they even try to defend it. I also understand it there are concerns about ensuring the quality of the drivers and their vehicles. Even with its problems though, I think Uber has a lot going for it. The tradition taxi business seems to have stagnated and perhaps Uber will pull it kicking and screaming into the 21st century. I’m disappointed Uber had to retreat from Vancouver but I’m hoping it will return soon.

As I expected, my first day back in the working world was a bit rough, mainly because I had to wake up at 7am and I’ve been nothing but a bum for the last four months. I was told to be at work for 8:45am on my first day so I didn’t want to be late. I can’t remember the last time I woke up that early for work. I know I rolled into work around 10am on my first day on Halo.

The work day itself was fine. I was met with a steady stream of familiar and friendly faces. People went out of their way to welcome me back and they seemed pleased to see me. As with almost every first day, I had to set up my computer, install some stuff, grab a crap-ton of files off the server, and read up on some documentation. I’m still without a TV for my consoles and need a few cables but that should be ironed out in a few days.

I can say it was a bit surreal being back in the big Burnaby campus. I’ve had two separate stints working there: two years as a QA tester between 2000 and 2002 and then about a year when Black Box was forced to move from downtown Vancouver in late 2009. I wasn’t exactly happy with my job when EA finally laid me off in November of 2010, so I was pleased to leave Burnaby behind at the time. As you might imagine, there were a lot of different memories going through my head today.

My energy was fading fast in the late afternoon. The early morning coupled with actually having to do real work during the whole day made me want to nap bad. The first couple weeks of a new job is usually not that great as you try to figure out all this new stuff. I need to get settled and learn so much new tech. Obviously these last few months have made me soft. Nothing was a struggle for me. I woke up whenever I wanted to and I did pretty much whatever I wanted. When you work, you develop a certain cadence or rhythm to your day that helps you succeed and survive. I don’t have that right now. It’s like a callous that you form, when work grinds at you. I don’t have that anymore. I’m as delicate as a newborn baby right now.

I wish I could ease my way back into the working world. Work two or three days a week for the first month and then slowly ease into the full work week. Alas, life is not so kind. I have to go back tomorrow for another eight hours. Mondays mean something again. I already crave a Friday. Things were a lot more fun when I didn’t care what day it was.

If Wolfram Alpha is to be believed it has been 4 months and 20 days since I last had to go to work. I must admit, I enjoyed every single one of those days. Though I loved the people I worked with and the company itself, working on Halo was not an easy task. I think a lot of my co-workers were at risk of burnout and I certainly was feeling some stress, so when October 10, 2014 rolled around, I was pretty happy to see that day. I felt particular elation on the first Sunday evening after my contract ended, that evening being October 12th. I didn’t have to be at work on Monday morning, didn’t need to be anywhere really, so there was no need to bed at a decent hour. I stayed up late, turned off my alarm clock (oh how good that felt), and slept in until I was good and ready to wake up.

That whole first week was just about getting rest and recovering from a whole summer’s worth of long hours. I immediately started eating better and though I didn’t know it at the time, I was also immediately started losing six pounds. After refreshing myself with a week’s worth of rest, the whole world was in front of me. I had a liberating sense of freedom. Admittedly, there was a lot of video game playing and late nights/early mornings. I recall a good stretch of time where I was staying up very, very late. Seeing the sunrise was a common occurrence and I began sleeping when people were just getting into work and waking up when people were going home from their jobs. I was just getting up at 3, 4, or sometimes 5pm. I recognized that I the complete freedom to do so but somehow it seemed like it would be better if I went to bed at a more decent hour. So, I dialed it in and started to go to bed at a more decent 4am hour.

I’ve appreciated my time off. I know that most people don’t have the luxury of just deciding not to work for four plus months. No matter what job you have, it kinda sucks to have to get up every day and go to work. Almost everyone wants to be doing something else with their time other than being work. I always kept that in mind during my time off. After an eight-hour gaming binge that started at 2pm on a Monday, I was more than aware that most people couldn’t spend that much time on a leisurely activity on a random basis. I was very thankful that if I decided that I wanted to just read a new book for the entire day, I could, and without any second thoughts.

Of course, there are some regrets. Every time, I have these long periods of freedom, I regret not being able to accomplish a few things. I regret not taking perhaps one more trip. I briefly toyed with going to London, England in late October but laziness took over. I regret not getting farther with that game I was making. I had the high-level concept figured out and installed all the tools I needed but again, I got lazy. When faced with either putting in some work or playing games or watching cat videos on YouTube, the lazy won out again. Lastly, I regret not leveraging my freedom of time more. Most people can’t regularly be somewhere at 3pm every Tuesday or 4am every Monday morning. I didn’t want to be at my local Denny’s at 2am every night but I should have explored things like what does a sunrise on Grouse Mountain look like? What kinds of foods can I get at 4am at the airport? Is there a weird club that only meets at 3am every Wednesday? Stuff like that.

So, once again, tomorrow morning I shall re-enter the workforce. It is my sincerest hope that I picked the best job that was available to me at the time. I go back to EA at the big campus in Burnaby for the first time since I was laid off November of 2010. It’s been over four years since I’ve worked there. I am sure it will be weird for a few days as memories (both good and bad) flood back to me. This is a one-year contract, so I know I have another opportunity for free time coming up in early 2016. Until then, however, tomorrow is another first day on the job.

My latest trip to San Diego was quite different from my first one. I didn’t try to jam in activities and sight-seeing every single day like last time. My only goals this time were to relax and enjoy the weather.

The weather didn’t exactly cooperate the first day. When I landed, the skies were a bit overcast and sun was hiding behind clouds. I was hoping the clouds would go away but instead, as the hours went on, it got more gray. Then in the late afternoon, as I was out by the water, it started to rain. I was a bit dismayed that I’d traveled all this way to experience rain, which I knew was not falling in Vancouver at the time. It was raining so hard that I had to retreat back to my hotel because I didn’t bring neither a proper jacket nor an umbrella. Luckily, the rain went away by dinner time and that was the only inclement weather during the trip.

It was sunny and warm for the rest of my time in the city, with temperatures around 20 degrees Celsius. It’s still such an amazing thing to experience warm temperatures likes that in February while in North America. I wore shorts and a t-shirt during the day, though if you’re out on the water, you probably need a light jacket or a hoodie.

I can’t say I really did or see a lot during the trip other than eat and enjoy the sun. That was the plan though, so I feel good about that. I did take in one harbour tour by water though. The boat took us past a huge US Navy shipyard and under the Coronado Bay Bridge twice. I’d never seen that many US Navy ships in one place before. In general, there is a large military presence in and around San Diego, mostly from the navy.

One particular thing I have to mention is that this was the first vacation I took while having mobile data the entire way. I purchased a three-day talk/text/data plan from Roam Mobility before I left. For less than $4 a day, I had my own local number and could call locally and even back to Canada. Having access to mobile data was the biggest win though. You get 400 Mb a day, which rolls over to the next day if you don’t use all of it. It was so nice to be able to use Google Maps and look stuff up while I was around the city. When I was on the boat tour, I was sending pictures to a friend over instant message as the tour was proceeding. All of this is done over an LTE network too which means everything is super fast. I’m not on an LTE network at home and that was my first time seeing how fast it is. In a way, I wish I had never seen how good LTE is, now that I’m back home on my regular 3G network. Anyways, if you’re Canadian and visiting the US, Roam Mobility is the way to go.

I would not hesitate to return to San Diego for a third time. No matter how much you see and do there, the weather will always be something I want to experience. I shall think of sunny and warm San Diego for months to come.

About 48 hours ago, I was at Coronado Beach, enjoying the 20+ degree weather and getting a tan. Now, I’m back in Vancouver, where I woke up to grey skies and much chillier temperatures. The fact that I returned to the warmest region of Canada by a country mile gives me no solace. On Monday, when I had a lovely seafood lunch on a warm patio, the wait staff had to open the umbrellas to shade the patrons from piercing sun.

I will write more about my vacation but alas, I have to go to bed early as I need to practice getting up early for Monday. 🙁

Some of you might be surprised to know that I’m currently in San Diego right now. I arrived early Sunday afternoon. This trip came together quite quickly as I wanted a short vacation before starting my new job. I chose San Diego because when I visited previously in 2012 and stayed for six days, I had an awesome time. The weather was so good too! Twenty degrees Celsius in late January!

So this seemed like a natural choice for a repeat visit. Unfortunately, the trip started off badly even before I left Vancouver. On Friday afternoon, I was downtown running errands when I noticed considerable muscle aches all over my body. I knew this was bad. When I got home my head started to hurt. Later, I got the chills and began shivering almost uncontrollably. When that passed, I felt hot, like I had a fever. I’m no doctor but I was sure I had the flu. I felt just awful and I had to be on a plane in just over 24 hours. I honestly wasn’t sure how this was going to work.

I went to bed early (at least for me) and I planned on dropping by a walk-in clinic to see a doctor on Saturday morning. When I woke up I still felt terrible and I was just exhausted. It took a good ten minutes for me to even muster the strength to get out of bed. I got my ass to the clinic somehow. When I did see the doctor I asked if I was a candidate for Tamiflu, which is the only drug known to reduce the effects and duration of some kinds of flu. He said I was, so he gave me a prescription.

Now I’m not sure if it was the Advil, the Tamiflu, or just my own body fighting the illness but I started feeling better Saturday afternoon. The headache went away and the muscle aches reduced. I was still a bit tired though. That was enough for me to finish packing.

By the time I boarded my flight at 7:30am this morning, I was feeling almost normal. I’ve never really experienced anything like this before. The difference between how I was feeling in just 48 hours was two extremes.

Anyways, I gotta go, I need to see if it’s practical for me to go to Tijuana tomorrow.