Category: Uncategorized

Last week was my first full week of unemployment and I quite enjoyed it. Of course, part of the reason I can enjoy this time is because I got a decent severance and I have no one that really depends on me. Actually, I know two guys who also got laid off and they have families but their severance packages were huge, so they’re pretty content with life as well.

I went from working OT almost every night to not working at all and I have to admit, that’s been the best part so far. I feel slightly bad for a few of the dudes I left behind. They’re still crunching away. I checked up on two of my former co-workers on the Saturday and they were both at the studio. Do I wish I was with still with them? They’re great guys and all but the answer is a definitive no.

If you’ve known me for any length of time, it’ll come as no surprise that I’ve easily transitioned into a night owl schedule. I go to sleep between 3am and 4:30am every day now and get up around noon or later. I certainly do enjoy getting more sleep now but I sometimes feel bad that by the time I wake up and have breakfast, most of the day is already gone. On days where I have errands to run, I try to wake up earlier so that I don’t have to cram everything I have to do into the last business hour of the day.

On the job front, I will admit that I haven’t been standing still. I won’t get into the specifics of exactly what I’ve been doing or who I have been talking to. I will say that right after I announced I was laid off, there were a few interesting pieces of info that presented themselves to me and I’ve just been monitoring that. I’ve been counseled by several people over the last few days that I should really not think about getting a job anytime soon. They believe a nice, relaxing break is what I need. I agree with them completely and I will endeavour to ensure I get a suitable amount of time off.

I’m using my free time to do several things. I’ve been hitting the video games pretty hard. I have a large backlog of games to get through and this is the perfect time to get started on them. I finished Medal of Honor on PC. It wasn’t a bad game but I think it could have been better. The game at the end teased a sequel would be forthcoming. I hope that is true because I believe there’s a lot of room for the franchise to grow. Currently, I’m playing Dead Rising 2 on Xbox 360. I just started the game but I’m already less frustrated with it than I was with the original Dead Rising. I’m not sure if that’s because I’m now experienced in the Dead Rising universe or if the Blue Castle did such a good job ironing out the stupid parts of the first game.

I also have a list of various things I want to take care of while I have all this free time. I want to get started on painting the exposed drywall parts of my apartment. I’m going to take a look at where I have all my money tied up in my various bank accounts, RRSPs, mutual funds, and tax-free savings accounts. I’m sure the end analysis will be that I have no money but I want to make sure that’s true. I also want to learn how to cook up a decent piece of salmon. I certainly know how to eat it raw but it’s a shame I don’t know how a good salmon recipe.

Last but certainly not least, I want to fix up this blog a bit. Now for those of you who are perceptive, you might have already noticed a change already. The font for the majority of this blog is now in Georgia. Georgia was the font that I used in the previous incarnation of this blog and I like it quite a bit better than the font that came with this theme. There are more changes ahead. The next thing is to import all my previous posts from the Blogger version of this blog into the current WordPress version. It’s taking quite a bit of time to do this as the Google API doesn’t really play well with WordPress right now. I’m currently investigating a work-around but it might be several days before you’ll see anything.

Alright, it’s 2am in the morning and I have stuff to do!

One of my favourite social media web sites used to be Digg. The site provided people a place where they could find countless interesting links to explore. If you signed up for an account on Digg, you could also comment on those links and have discussions with other Diggers. I really enjoyed visiting Digg several times a day.

Then a few months back, the people behind Digg rolled out what was dubbed Digg V4. The new version of Digg was immediately panned by just about everyone. There was a lot to complain about. First, the site became broken and unavailable for many users. Some features that had been core to the Digg experience were just removed without explanation. Digg user accounts were also butchered. Usernames were changed without warning and people’s commenting history (which for some spanned years) was deleted overnight. It was a complete mess that Digg is still trying to fix to this day.

For many people, the alternative to Digg became Reddit. Though Reddit is another similar social media site, I resisted at first because Reddit’s user interface looks horrendous. There was no other real alternative though. At first, I just visited Reddit without signing up. Then, with the urging of a friend, I actually made a Reddit account. Over the course of several weeks, I learned to overlook the barebones UI and discovered Reddit was actually quite entertaining.

One of the best sections of Reddit is one called “I Am A <insert whatever you are> Ask Me Anything“. It’s essentially a section where Redditors reveal whatever they are, whatever job they might have, whatever life situation they might be going through, etc. and then call upon other Redditors to ask them questions. In my opinion, it’s the most fascinating part of the web site. There are IAmAs for strippers, a guy who’s dated a stripper, a US Special Forces soldier, a pizza delivery driver, a guy who lost his wife to a car accident, Joe Rogan, a former AHL player, woman who just had an abortion, porn store employee, and many, many more.

As you can see, some of these can be quite entertaining, while others are quite serious. It’s the serious ones that remind me that while life is full of great experiences, there is a lot of adversity and hardship that people go through on a daily basis. Consider browsing through some of these people’s lives. I am sure you’ll find some fascinating ones.

Today was a very busy and long day. I am very tired. I will take advantage of being unemployed and will endeavour to sleep in until noon tomorrow.

Recently, the Edmonton Oilers became the first Canadian NHL team to announce that they would be introducing official cheerleaders to their home games. Over 20 other teams in the league already have cheerleaders or women as part of their “ice crews”. The announcement was not met with unanimous excitement however, as there were indeed some opposed to the development.

It’s interesting to me that previous to the Oilers decision, all teams that had cheerleaders were exclusively American. I don’t think that was a coincidence. Part of it is that the whole cheerleading thing is more typical of an American sporting tradition than what what we have up here in Canada. The primary reason for the cheerleaders though is because hockey is much harder to sell to your average American sports fan than your average Canadian. In Canada, if you so much as even hint there might be some ice, a puck, and two teams, people will show up and pay to watch whatever hockey might transpire. It’s not that simple or easy in the US, especially in those traditional hockey hotbeds like Carolina, Florida, and Tampa Bay. It’s clear that those organizations are not relying on the team or the sport itself to get fans into their arenas.

For those teams who have decided to “enhance” the fan experience, they’ve gone one of two ways. Some teams have cheerleaders in the stands where they can implore fans to cheer louder. Other teams have opted to have the ladies as part of the “ice crew”, where they are responsible for cleaning off the snow that accumulates on the ice. In either case, the young ladies are usually attractive and wearing outfits that easily reveal their level of fitness. Of course, some teams dress their ladies more conservatively than the others. Depending on your view, both the Chicago Blackhawks Ice Crew and the Dallas Stars Ice Girls are some of the best or worst examples of this. Just purely for research purposes, if you’re interested, there is a web site that reports all the latest news on NHL cheerleaders and ice crews.

Now here’s my opinion of the bringing cheerleaders to Canadian NHL teams. I think when a hockey organization decides to do this, it’s a clear admission that they realize the product they put on ice isn’t good enough to keep fans returning to the rink and supporting the team. Again, is it a coincidence that the worst team in the entire league last year became the first Canadian team to bring in cheerleaders? I believe there is a fundamental difference in how hockey is viewed in Canada and how it is viewed in most other US cities.  In Canada, if a team is winning and successful, people will pay for tickets no matter what superfluous entertainment is in the arena. Take for example, the team in my city. The Vancouver Canucks have sold out every single home game for over five years, without the use of cheerleaders or ice girls. In fact, the Canucks even have dudes who clean off the snow.

The US teams can do whatever they want to get more attention to their organizations. In Canada though, I think what the Oilers have done detracts from the good old hockey game. Perhaps this is just my Canadian side showing but I believe that the game of hockey has a certain purity to it that doesn’t need all this extra fluff to make it more attractive. Hockey is an amazing sport that combines speed, skill, and toughness. The majority of Canadian hockey fans love the game for what it is at the most basic level, not for what promotions happen to be at the arena that night. I don’t believe the other Canadian teams should follow what the Oilers have done. Let the product on the ice speak for itself.

To close, I do want to mention that I’m no prude when it comes to attractive women wearing small bits of clothing. Hey, I like looking at pretty ladies as much as the next guy but there’s a certain time and place for that which is usually right before bed in front of an Internet connected computer.

I’ve never received a severance package before so some of this stuff is new to me. For example, I am receiving a lump sum payment as part of my severance in about a week. Now keep in mind, the amount I’m getting is equivalent to me being paid my salary until well into the new year. The unfortunate thing is that I’m getting all of this money now, as in this tax year. Receiving that extra money all at once has some pretty serious income tax implications.

The government still views this as income even though I’m technically no longer employed. My T4 for tax year 2010 will indicate I made a substantial amount more than I did in the last tax year, all thanks to that lump sum payment. There are ways, of course, to lessen the tax blow. I can put some of the money into an RRSP so that at tax time, I will be taxed less. If I go that route though, there is a balancing act to consider. Exactly how much money I should put into the RRSP is something I don’t really know how to calculate. On one hand, I want to put enough money into an RRSP so that the tax benefits are appreciable. Putting too much in though might not leave me enough money to spent on bills and my mortgage. On the other hand, putting too little money in leaves me open to being taxed enough that I might actually have to pay income tax.

I’ll need to make some guesses in the next few days as to when I think I might get a job next and do some rough calculations from there. Or, I could just screw all this RRSP talk and take the money to Vegas and see what lady luck will bring me.

You’d think after getting laid off I’d be able to sleep in on the first Monday afterwards but that’s not the case. Because of fire alarms inspections in my apartment building which start at 8am, I have to be awake in the morning to let some dude into my apartment so he can spend all of one minute to test my alarm.

In other news, I had a very low-key weekend. Interestingly, I saw my parents for the first time since being laid off. Though I had told them on Wednesday night that I no longer had employment, they still had some interesting questions for me. They asked me if my sister knew about the news. They also asked me if one of my good friends knew as well. It’s clear my parents don’t understand the power of social networking. I can tell over 200 people something in a single status update on Facebook.

Well, I look forward to taking a nap tomorrow afternoon when everyone else is at work.

You’d have to go back to June of 2005 to find out the last time I didn’t have a job. I had just finished grad school not a month earlier and was looking for work. It took me about a month to find a job at the now-defunct Backbone Entertainment. I was employed from that point going forward until Wednesday. That was a pretty good run.

I’m not sure what my next step will be. I’d like to take some time off and relax. I think that’s something I deserve and need at this point. Beyond that though, I have a myriad of choices before me. What will my next job be? I’m keenly aware of the pitfalls of taking any job that comes along first, just because I’m getting nervous about my situation. I want to love my job again and if that is to happen, I might have to make some tough decisions in the next few months. Of course, ask me about my resolve if I haven’t found anything by the time my severance money runs out.

In the meantime, I’m going to try to enjoy my time off. I’d like to sleep in most days. There is a huge backlog of games that I need to get through. I want to enjoy the simple pleasure of a weekday movie matinee again. I’d like to watch Oprah at its regular time slot instead of downloading the show off torrents. You know, the regular stuff dudes like to do.

There are many, many other things I’d like to do with my time off. If one of them is get another job, that would be ok but I won’t be bothered if it’s not the first thing I take care of.

“Having said all that, it wouldn’t really come as  a surprise if I actually got laid off tomorrow.”

The above quote is from my previous post. It turned out to be a prophetic statement as I was indeed laid off today. This time there was no forced march into a job I didn’t want. I was truly set free today. Getting laid off wasn’t a complete surprise to me. I can be honest now and admit that I knew I was going to be let go. The only bit that surprised me was that I thought it was going to happen in January when Fight Night was almost done.

While I’m being forthright here, I’ll also admit that I lost whatever passion I had for my job at the end of March of 2010 when I was essentially forced into a position that neither engaged me nor satisfied my interests. I really had no choice at the time. It was either take whatever handout job they had for me or walk away with nothing after four long years of service for the company. I didn’t have another job lined up at the time, so who would have walked? Who would have left with nothing, to go onto nothing? So I played their game and took their charity. Now here’s the thing you have to be clear on. If they had given me a choice, if they had offered me either a severance package or the chance to work in the sports label, I would have been fine with that. I would have taken the severance package. It would have allowed me to move onto something else, a new job on my own terms. That didn’t happen though, so I was forced into a job that I didn’t want and they got an employee that wasn’t doing what he did best.

For six months, I just did as I was told, trying to do my best while my heart wasn’t really into it. While I wasn’t super awesome at what was I doing, I actually wound up doing a decent job and would be able to find several people who can attest to that. At the end of the day though, having an employee do decent work when he or she isn’t invested or engaged in their job isn’t really good for anyone in the long run. Now if you’re wondering if I expressed my discontent to anyone, the answer is yes and no. I didn’t want to be a distraction to the rest of the team, so I only told my new career manager about how I was feeling. I worked with a lot of other people that didn’t need to know about my feelings about the job so I kept my mouth shut.

Being laid off today is the option that should have been given to me last March. I had to wait six months for it but at least I got what I wanted in the end. While I’m relieved it’s now all over, I cannot help but think about the last four years plus of work. This is the longest stretch of time that I’ve ever been employed. Even if you don’t include my time in QA (two years), this is the longest I’ve worked for any one company. In that time, I’ve used the same computer, monitor, mouse, keyboard, and TV. I’d hate to see what’s lurking in between those keys in the keyboard.

When I think back to the best memories of working at EA, the early years easily come to mind. Strangely enough, I found my job to be the most rewarding and most fun between August of 2006 to June of 2009, the exact same time the skate team was in downtown Vancouver. I loved my job back then. I was thrilled to be working downtown. The skate team was filled with so many great and good people. Working on skate and skate 2 provided me with so many good memories, enough so that I would like to share some of them in separate posts in the coming weeks. In sum, my working life was the most rewarding when I was working downtown on the coolest 12th floor possible with the best people I’ve had the pleasure of working with.

Now going forward, if you’re concerned about my well-being, at least financially, please don’t be. Though I’m not at liberty to disclose the full terms of my severance package, I hope I can mention that I’m getting my full salary paid (with benefits) for a decent amount of time (well into the new year). I will allow myself to take about a week off to relax, get some rest, and think about the next step in my career.

Finally, I’d like to thank everyone who gave me support, wished me well, and had kind words for me today. When I mentioned the awesome people I worked with in the past, those are the people who were there for me today. You guys are the best!

For the last week or so I’ve been writing posts about rumours of layoffs at EA. Today, I received word that some of those rumours are turning out to be true. When it comes to these types of matters, the whole truth is very difficult to ascertain and today was no different. I can start out with what I would classify as the most reliable info I have so far. I heard from two different sources that a small number of people from the EA Sports Active development team were laid off today. I don’t know the exact number but it certainly wasn’t a mass layoff of the entire Active team. Even then, I feel for the people who lost their jobs today. When you get laid off, it doesn’t matter if you’re the only one or if you were one of hundreds, it’s still an unfortunate thing to go through.

So let’s get to the stuff that still remains firmly in the realm of rumour. Any of the following is purely based on speculation or guessing. I have heard today won’t be the only day of layoffs. Tomorrow is supposed to be another day of action and that the numbers will be significantly higher. I have also heard that most of, if not all of, an entire development team might be let go.  Again, this is purely rumour so I won’t state which team that might be. If you follow the sports video game news, you can probably piece together which franchise that might be. I’ve also heard some other stuff but there’s not enough substance for me to write about for now.

If you’re at all worried about my own job safety, don’t be. A job in the video games industry is never really that safe, you just go back and forth between periods where your job is less safe and then more safe. More often than not, your performance has very little to do with how secure your job is. In any case, though I could get laid off any day just like anyone else, there are some things to consider. First, the game I’m working on isn’t finished and we’re working hard to get it done fairly soon. Another thing is that I know the area of the game I’m working on better than anyone else on the team. Sure, there are few dudes who know my code but it’s easiest for me to finish features and fix any problems related to my area. Having said all that, it wouldn’t really come as  a surprise if I actually got laid off tomorrow.

Stayed tuned for what will probably be an interesting post tomorrow night.

I was at a T&T Supermarket tonight when I noticed something I had not seen before. I quite enjoy going to T&T because I often discover new food items. Tonight was no different. I was in the seafood section when I saw packages of frozen sashimi. This was new to me. I’ve had sashimi in restaurants countless times before but I’d never seen it offered in a supermarket.

I know that restaurants in British Columbia have to freeze their sashimi as well due to health concerns. The freezing is supposed to kill any parasites that might live in the seafood. For the price T&T was selling these packages, it is way more economical to have your sashimi at home. You just have to wait for it to defrost and then cut it up into pieces. No cooking required!

My only concern is how safe it is to be consuming raw seafood from a supermarket that you defrost on your own at home. I suppose you’re putting all your faith into a restaurant when they prepare your sashimi, so at least in this manner you’re partially in control.

How many of you have prepared sashimi at home? If you’ve never done it, would you consider eating sashimi supermarket sashimi?