Category: Uncategorized

I wasn’t feeling very well this morning so I took a sick day. In my younger days, I probably would have tried to go to work. Perhaps I wanted to prove I was a dedicated worker that didn’t need to take days off for anything. Now that I’m older, I understand the company you work for isn’t going to fall apart if you’re not there for a day. It also sucks to be at work when you feel like crap. Lastly, being sick at work means you’re potentially spreading your sickly germs around.

I spent most of the day in bed and under the covers. I slept in very late and in fact, I didn’t get out of bed until 2pm or so. It was hunger that drove me to get up. A hearty soup kept me warm for lunch.

I think I feel well enough to go back to work tomorrow. I am glad, however, that the weekend is right around the corner and it’s a long one at that. I hope to have this cold done by Tuesday.

I’m still sick as a dog. In the meantime, look at these bloopers from season four of Parks and Rec.

I can’t remember the last time I had a cold but I sure have one now. I was feeling a bit odd last night but thought nothing of it and went to bed. I woke up around 6am this morning and my throat was very sore. One of my sinuses was also a bit congested too. I almost contemplated not going to work but I got up, drank some water, got dressed, and sucked it up. I felt a bit better once I got to work.

My throat is still sore and there’s a bit of congestion that remains in my sinuses. I don’t expect it to go away full by tomorrow but let’s hope it does. I made it into November before getting sick! I was shooting for January and beyond too.

So in my previous post, I wrote about being tempted by the new Nexus 5 smartphone that just came out. At the time of writing it didn’t really matter how tempted I was because the phone was sold out at the Google Play store. Over the weekend though, the phone miraculously was somewhat in stock again. Orders placed now would be shipped in four to five weeks.

During a moment of weakness, I added the cheapest version of the phone to my virtual cart. It didn’t help that Google already has my credit card info stored on their servers because it saved me from that step of needing to enter in all my data. The next thing I knew, the damn order was confirmed. If there was a silver lining to this, it’s that I won’t be charged until the order ships and I can cancel the order until then. There is a possibility I will actually cancel the order. Unfortunately, I just checked my order status again and it might ship in as little as three weeks now! If I’m going to develop enough regret to cancel the order, I better do it quickly!

This evening I returned home from a dinner with my parents at their place. I borrowed my father’s car so I could drive home. I get into my parkade and go up to the level where my parking spot is located. I’m about 20 feet or so from said spot when I see a van parked where I need to be. Someone was parked in my spot. I decide to pull into the spot to the right of the van because I haven’t seen anyone parked there for about three years. I get out and take a look at the van. It doesn’t have a parking pass so I guessed it was some visitor who got access to the parkade from a resident.

On my way up, I saw a security guard patrolling one of the lower levels. I run down to see if he’s still there but I can’t find him. I decide to go back up to my apartment so I can call security and figure out what to do next. As I’m walking out to the elevators in the parkade, I see this older couple get out of an elevator. They seem to be a bit flustered. I’ve never seen them before. Instead of going upstairs, I stay near the elevators to see if these are the parking violators. Sure enough, they walk up to the van. I walk back up to them and tell them they’ve parked in my spot.

The lady is very apologetic. She says they are here visiting their daughter and they just figured out they were parked in the wrong spot. At the time, I forgot to tell them that they need a parking pass for the van and the pass has the spot number printed on it. I watch them pull the van out and then park in a spot just a few feet away. I get into my father’s car and put it back where it’s supposed to be.

I guess if I had been just five minutes later, I wouldn’t have even known anything was wrong. If I was way earlier, they wouldn’t have been able to park in my spot at all. Since I don’t have a car with my all the time, I wonder how many times someone has used my spot without me knowing.

This morning Google released their latest official Android phone, the Nexus 5. The phone’s release also coincided with the unveiling of the latest version of the Android operating system, version 4.4 dubbed Kit Kat. Yes, that refers to the chocolate bar as each version release is named after a dessert. Anyone remember cupcake?

I was assuming the new OS would be coming to my phone, the Galaxy Nexus which is also an official Google phone. It was released in late 2011, which makes it barely two years old. Unfortunately, the word on the street is that the Galaxy Nexus will no longer receive any official OS upgrades. Whatever functionality I have on the phone now is the way it’s gonna stay. No more new toys for this old dog as it will stay on version 4.2.1.

To be fair, it’s not like my phone is slow as molasses. It still works great. It’s fast and responsive enough for all my needs. Apps, both existing and new, will continue to work on my phone for probably a year and a half or even more. If I don’t update those apps, they will continue to work for way beyond that. It does, however, feel like the future of all Android features are taking off into distance and I can only watch as they speed away.

I bought my first smartphone in 2010 and I waited until August of 2012 to buy my current phone. It hasn’t been even a year and a half since I got my Galaxy Nexus. Is there a Nexus 5 for me in the near future? Doesn’t matter I guess since the new phone is already sold out. First world problems!

On Tuesday, I got an instant message from the recruiter that hired me at my current job. Part of me thought he wanted to fire me but the reason for his message turned out to be quite innocent. He wanted to know if I was willing to judge the pumpkin carving contest at work.

I thought it was interesting that he wanted me to be a judge. I’ve been there less than two months. While seniority at a company has no bearing on how well you judge a jack-o’-lantern, I thought they’d pick someone who’s been there longer. Perhaps they couldn’t find any other fools to do the job.

Nonetheless, I accepted the job. I’ll be judging and inspecting carved pumpkins tomorrow along with two other trained sets of eyes. I’m hoping to see some creative cutting.

For whatever reason, I started buying some lottery tickets earlier this month. On average, I’ve spent about $3 a week, so it hasn’t been breaking the bank. I am acutely aware of the odds for lottery I enter in, which is a typical six numbers out of forty-nine. The odds are not good at all. I have one chance in about 14 million to get the big prize. Statistically speaking, it’s better just to save my money for something else. Life, however, is sometimes not best lived from statistical point of view.

Though it’s quite easy to buy lottery tickets in the traditional way, I still found myself missing out on draws. I’d be out and about or still at work before the 6pm deadline. I discovered you can buy lottery tickets online. I immediately thought this was either super awesome or super bad. Now I can buy lottery tickets anywhere and at anytime. I can set up a direct link to my bank account to transfer funds. If I had a problem with gambling, this would be the equivalent of hooking up cocaine directly to my veins via IV.

So far, it’s been nothing but convenient. I bought one ticket for tomorrow’s draw and that’s it. In fact, that ticket was free since they had a promo going on. I got $5 worth of lottery tickets for free by going through the web site.

There is one interesting I learned. If I win some amount for a ticket, the winnings are automatically deposited to my online account. I’m sure this is just for smaller amounts but it’d be interesting to see a grand prize winner have his or her millions deposited directly to an online lottery account. I hope to personally see if that’s the case tomorrow.

So next week, my studio has decided to take my team out to an event, most likely to build camaraderie and cohesiveness. Some studios go go-karting, paint-balling, or to the movies. We get to go take a three-hour bartending class.

It should be fun since I don’t know how to make many drinks. The video above shows what Conan O’Brien did when he went to a similar class. I hope it’ll be half as fun.

On Friday evening I had no plans after work. I was thinking I’d go home, get some dinner, and then start relaxing for the weekend. Before I was about to head home, a friend of mine invited me to have a drink with him and another game developer we both know. They were the two Chrises.

They were at the Hastings Warehouse which I’ve been to before. It was a somewhat regular destination for a few us at PopCap Vancouver. I quite enjoy the place. The food is alright and the establishment has a bit of character.

After a few drinks, one of the Chrises got up from our table, walked to the back of the bar, got on all fours, and then proceeded to look into a small hole in the floor. He told me there’s a small peephole on the floor and if you look into it, you can see a lit diorama of sorts with dolls. The other Chris got up and did the same. By now, the two tables on either side of the hole were really curious as to what my companions were looking at. They said it was my turn to go look.

I got up and walked over to where they were getting on all fours. Sure enough, there was a small hole with a beam of light coming out of it. I kneeled down to look into the hole. There was this weird scene with dolls in a small space. I picked myself up from the floor and went back to my table.

A bit later, a young lady from another table also bent down to take a look at the hole. The whole thing was a bit weird.

If you’re ever at the Hastings Warehouse, look for the hole in the floor.