Category: Uncategorized

Tonight I’ve been playing around with a new feature to Google’s Gmail which allows you to make free phone calls to landlines and cell phones within the US and Canada. This is pretty much what Skype can do except that it’s currently free.

The voice quality is fairly decent and what you’d expect with a normal VoIP application. The neat thing is that it’s essentially free calls to anywhere within North America with no restrictions (so far). The number that the calls originate from belongs to area code 760, which is the San Diego area. Everyone will have to know not to hang up from those numbers since it’s people using Google to call. Everyone should try it out!

There is no time for a lengthy post tonight as I was out quite late. I attended a farewell shindig for one Ben K, a former co-worker of mine. Ben and I worked on skate 3 together. Ben also randomly met up with me along my commute about 90% of time at random Skytrain stations. Unfortunately, Ben and I also got laid off together. His dismissal was quite a surprise since he is a very good software engineer. Maybe management saw that we rode the same bus together all the time. Sorry about that Ben.

Ben is going back to Ottawa. He says he’s not done with Vancouver just yet. I’ll have to remind of that statement every once in a while. If you’re reading this Ben, remember, no matter where we end up, you, me, Grant, and George will always be the LTFO crew.

Over the last six months I’ve had the displeasure of seeing many of co-workers become former co-workers. The manner in which they became  “former” co-workers went through either one of two routes. The first route is the one everyone is so familiar with, the every popular “massive layoffs”. In this scenario, people who are relatively content with their jobs are told, without warning, their services are no longer required and they can begin watching daytime TV at home. The other route consisted of people who decided their jobs just weren’t satisfying anymore (for whatever reason) and willingly made the choice to leave the company. They just didn’t want to be there anymore even if EA were perfectly happy to have them stay.

Now you can see the big difference between those two groups of people. One group was forced to leave and other group left on their accord because they wanted to get the hell out. Now here’s where the corporate response to these two groups gets a bit weird. This is what happened on the skate team. The people who no longer wanted to work there and wanted to get out were given personalized skateboard decks that were signed by the team. It was a nice gesture and a thank you for the people who weren’t interested in their jobs anymore. What did the people who got laid off get? Nothing. Yes, in the cases where people were outright laid off, they got severance but that’s mandated by law. Did they actually get anything that was of a personal nature or a thank you for their hard work? No. No personalized skateboard. In the other cases where people got re-assigned, they got much worse, in most cases a dead-end job that was a million times less interesting than their previous job.

I’ve been trying to figure out what the logic behind all of this is. People who no longer had the desire to work at the company got rewarded with a nice, personalized gift. The people who wanted to keep their jobs but got laid off got nothing. That’s like giving the partner who wants a divorce a big reward for leaving the marriage while giving nothing to the partner who got left behind. How does any of that make sense?

To be clear, I’m not bemoaning the layoffs happened. I’m beyond that now and I understand that’s what companies do. It’s just that the response to the two different ways that people left the company is so odd that I can’t figure out the rationale behind it. I guess what this has taught me is that given the same level of effort and dedication on your part, you’ll be appreciated more if you leave on your own compared to if you hang around to get axed by the company.

I”l have to keep this in mind going forward.

This evening I went out to dinner with some former co-workers. Among the four of us, we managed to eat 10 lbs of chicken wings. The place we went to made some great wings. I’d definitely go back to try some of the varieties I missed out this time around.

The problem with consuming about 2.5 lbs of wings each is that I’m nearly comatose right now. I’m also extremely thirsty. I believe there is a lesson to be learned from my experience tonight but I’m not sure what that lesson is. I’m going to put my head down on my desk for a second.

Despite being a big fan of comic books, I only read one series on a regular basis and that is Marmaduke. No but seriously, I’ve been reading The Walking Dead since about 2008. As you might infer from the title, the series is about a world in which a zombie apocalypse has befallen the planet. Readers follow the struggles of a small group of people who are trying to survive against both the zombies and other people. In some cases, other humans are just as much of a threat as the zombies are.

The comic has now been adapted for the (HD)TV screen. AMC, the makers of Mad Men, is producing the new series. Frank Darabont, the man behind The Shawshank Redemption is one of the people helping to get the show off the ground. What you see above is the first trailer for the new show. It was shown at this year’s Comic-Con. The trailer features protagonist from the comic, Rick, who is just discovering that the dead are walking the planet. The series debut is slated for this fall.

Just for kicks, I decided to take out my $8 web cam and have some non-illegal fun with it. I placed the camera on my balcony and made it take a still photo every five minutes over a 24 hour period.

The capture period was done yesterday, ending this morning. When it was finished, I made a time lapse movie with the images, using 4 frames per second. The result is what you see above.

I’ve never done this before so it was interesting to go through the process. My web cam really sucks though so that degraded the quality of the images. The resolution is only 640 x 480 and it has a difficult time adjusting to varying light conditions. I’m tempted to get an HD web cam just for kicks now.

Anyways, enjoy the show.

I’ve never been a big fan of spicy foods. The more spicy the food, the more uncomfortable I get. My mouth burns and the top of my head gets all itchy. As you might imagine, that isn’t a pleasurable dining experience in my opinion. I know for some people the spicy kick is the appeal and the hotter is it, the more they enjoy it. I think these are the same people that like getting punched in the testicles.

Lately though, I’ve been giving a hot sauce a try at work. This might be in response to my perhaps boredom now with the EA cafeteria. For a while there, I’d have this daily snack of kettle chips with a squirt of Tabasco red pepper sauce on each chip. It was delicious. The red pepper variety of Tabasco sauce is extremely mild. It’s not very spicy at all but still retains a bold enough flavour for me to notice. Because of the vinegar in the sauce, it also has a bit of sharp and sour taste. The combination is quite tasty. I stopped eating the chips this way because I was consuming a large amount of potato chips on a daily basis.

My new “thing” is adding the Tabasco sauce to the breakfast wraps. To me, this is the tastiest thing on the menu right now. The combination of eggs, hash browns, bacon, cheese, salsa and the Tabasco sauce in a spinach wrap is the most delicious way to start the day. It’s certainly not the healthiest but it tastes so good. When I have one of these in the morning, I usually don’t have lunch until 2pm.

In light of my new spicy experiences, I am going to buy a bottle of green and red Tabasco sauce for my own home. I am already looking forward to chugging these bottles while drunk and in my underwear while alone in my apartment on Saturday night.

Yesterday I was thinking how tubby I’ve become since I was 20 years old. Back then, I fit into 28″ waist pants and I believe I weighed some where around 130 lbs. Now I squeeze into 32″ pants and I clock in around 160 lbs.

To be fair, I looked like really skinny when I was 20. I saw this picture of me from that time and I looked ridiculous. My head was still the same size but I had this skinny neck. It was like having a pumpkin on a toothpick. I don’t think I’d like to be that skinny again but I’m pretty sure it’d be healthier to lose a few pounds here or there.

I’ve always admired people who got into better shape as they got older. I bet it is sure fun to go to high school reunions for those people.

Because I don’t know what else to do with my money I’m thinking about getting some more promotional items made up with my web site address on them. If you recall, I made up a batch of t-shirts with my domain on it. Over the years, I’ve flirted with the idea of getting some women’s panties with my web site address silk-screened on them. As exciting as that might be, I don’t think it would be very practical. At least half of my readers are dudes. What would they do with a pair of women’s panties? Do I want to know? Maybe. Anyways…

A more practical item would probably be more appreciated by all my readers, male or female. In light of that, please take a look at this page here. Tell me which items you think would go over well with my readers. Keep in mind, I don’t want to spend more than $5 per item. Also, don’t choose anything that requires some crazy minimum order count of like 250.

So what’s your pleasure? Stress ball? Key chain? LED flashlight? Stainless steel water bottle? Summit clock radio?

It was a scorcher of a day here in the Vancouver area with temperatures well above 30 degrees Celsius. I was fortunate enough to spend several hours out by Stanley Park where I played tennis. One half of the court was shaded while the other half was not. Despite playing in the shade half the time, it was still made for a sweaty, ball-stroking three sets of tennis.

Though I was smart enough to apply sunscreen, the error I made today was not drinking enough water. I now have a slight headache because of this and I am currently trying to replenish the fluids I lost today. In any case, it was beautiful day to be outside. We should enjoy the weather as much as we can, as in Vancouver, the rains can be less than a month away.