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On Tuesday the lender for my mortgage was holding off on releasing the funds because they required some documents from the seller. After short number of phone calls, this is was resolved today. With that, it appears there are no more hoops to jump through. On Saturday at noon, I will pick up the keys to my apartment.

Saturday isn’t exactly what I would call a “move-in” day as I still haven’t bought a bed, couch, or TV. I’ll be moving in quite slowly but that’s a luxury I don’t mind having. I am thinking about bringing on Saturday some toilet paper, a towel, and some soap. At least I can use the bathroom on day one.

Based on a random draw done by the all-mighty being that is the Internet, Zanne has won the copy of skate 2. I thank the other contestants for participating and hope they enjoy their second-place prizes of et.com women’s thong underwear.

I received two free copies of skate 2 from the studio. I’m obviously keeping one copy for myself but I’m giving away the other one. So if you’re interested in a copy of the NTSC (North American) version of skate 2 for the Xbox 360, just leave a comment on this post with your first name. The lucky winner will have their copy mailed to them.

In the interest of fairness, after 24 hours I’ll put all the names in a professional lotto ball machine and the winner will be the first name drawn. Though to be very honest, I’m expecting no one to leave any comments in the next 24 hours. The last time I decided to give away free stuff, which happened to be my et.com t-shirts, I was literally begging people to take the shirts from me (which included postage as well). I guess you can’t give away anything.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLXVuy0h29c&hl=en&fs=1]

So undoubtedly some of you have now heard the audio of Christian Bale going on a tirade on the set of Terminator 4. If you haven’t, the clip above is available for your listening. Be forewarned though, it contains about a billion f-bombs and he gets very, very angry.

Supposedly, Bale lost his cool because the director of photography or DP, wandered into his sightline while he was doing a scene with actress Bryce Dallas Howard. From what Bale says, this wasn’t the first time that happened. Bale’s fearsome verbal assault on the DP is stunning in its ferocity. Though only the audio is available (for now), you can imagine that this is happening on the set with dozens and dozens of people on hand to listen. Bale essentially rips the DP a new one and he wasn’t at all kind about it either. It goes without saying that the DP probably felt belittled by Bale. The threat of violence near the end didn’t make things better either.

I think Bale is a great actor. It’s clear he commits to his role fully and he’s well-known for the lengths he’ll go for a movie. He wanted to starve himself to 100 lbs. for The Machinist and he didn’t only because he was stopped by the filmmakers who were concerned about his health. So it’s clear he’s very intense when it comes to his craft. Despite this passion, I believe it doesn’t give him the right to belittle another human being in front of his peers. His tirade was very unprofessional, even if the DP did walk into his shot for the second time. What was at stake? A life or Bale’s millions of dollars? No. It was a scene in a movie. Yeah, I get he’s really into his work and no one likes it when someone else screws with you while you’re working but this was way over the line. Being respectful and professional are qualities you don’t leave behind just because you’re a highly-paid actor.

In a similar situation but reversed, consider what happened on the set of Three Kings, the 1999 George Clooney movie. Director David O. Russell was having a difficult time during shooting and was under tremendous stress. For whatever reason, Russell began treating his crew badly, both verbally and physically. Clooney stepped in to defend the crew knowing he was probably the only one in a position to do so. After Russell threw an extra to the ground, Clooney verbally admonished Russell for the act. Depending on what account you read, Russell either did engage Clooney in a fistfight or at least the two got very close to brawling. You can view this in a few different ways but my take is that Clooney is a dude that never forgets about the importance of having respect and being professional at all times. You might wonder if pumelling a director is being professional but I bet if you asked the crew of Three Kings, they’d probably tell you damn right that was the right thing to do. It’s not difficult to understand why Clooney is well-liked on movie sets.

So yeah, that was a dickhead move on Bale’s part and I hope that since that clip was recorded (in July 2008), Bale has had a chance to apologize for the way in which he expressed his displeasure at being interrupted. Having said all of that, I will mention one last thing. If you’re going to put yourself out there and act like a raving asshole for millions of people to hear, I’m pretty sure he did it the best way possible. He didn’t stutter or trip over his words in any of the three and a half minutes of bile. He was crazy intense the entire time and the switching of accents between American and Welsh was unbelievable. He’s even laser-focused when he’s angry, that’s amazing. He loses a few points for mocking the guy though.

I wonder if this little bit of drama will cause more or less people to see T4 when it comes out.

Thanks to everyone who replied to my plea for insurance guidance. I just have one more question. How many of you have opted for earthquake coverage? Why did or did you not opt for that?

You might remember in the first skate game, the city of San Vanelona contained a series of lobster restaurants where I was the owner. For skate 2, the artists on the dev team have once again placed signs through the rebuilt New San Vanelona featuring the names of everyone who worked on the game. The signs are much larger and fancier this time around. Some people even have 3D signs as opposed to a simple 2D texture placed upon a polygon. As you can see above, after the original San Vanelona was destroyed, I was able to rebuild my food empire. Leaving lobsters behind, I now sell quality fried chicken items to city residents. EFC, as I like to call it, apparently has done quite well in the new city, as several outlets can be found in the Old Town district. If you look carefully, you’ll find my flagship location featuring three EFC signs side by side.

The image you see above is from the clothing selection feature of skate 2. In the original skate, you couldn’t play as a female. For the sequel, as you can see, we’ve remedied this. Note the wickedly awesome acid wash jean vest the character is wearing. I actually own the real world jean vest from which the digital version was modeled after. At the beginning of development, there was a call for certain clothing items to be brought in so that the artists could begin to fill out the library of clothing to be used in the game. One of the items requested was a jean vest, so I brought mine in. Whoever was in charge of the clothing decided my vest was good enough, so I was told that it would make it into the game. What I didn’t know until almost half a year later was that my vest was going to be a female only clothing item only! Also, if you don’t believe I really own the item in question, I invite you to look at this picture.

So there you have it! Aside from the hundreds of lines of code I wrote for skate 2, these are the two most visible references to me in the game.

I find it incredible to believe that, should all go well this week, I’ll be taking possession of a brand new apartment in exactly seven days. I’m not really sure if this is actually happening.

In any case, I have a whole new set of responsibilities to take on now that home ownership is imminent. One of the first things I need to do is ensure my apartment is covered by home insurance. As a renter, I never bothered with tenant insurance as a combination of being lazy, cheap, and not owning expensive items led to me dismissing the peace of mind. It’s amazing how buying (and going into debt for) something for a couple hundred thousand dollars can change your mind.

For those who live in the Greater Vancouver area, I am asking you for your suggestions on where to buy home insurance, specifically condo/apartment unit insurance. If you yourself don’t have any, I’d welcome advice from family members or friends who do.

This is one of the many, many things that I never had to deal with and I am going in kinda blind. I would appreciate any suggestions you might have, lest I go with Lenny’s Crib Insurance and Tanning Salon.

The video game development community in Vancouver continues to be rocked by major job losses. Just today, Propaganda Games, which is owned by Disney, laid off a significant amount of people. While that was happening, fifty-five people at nearby EA Canada got their walking papers today as well.

It’s been a stunning week of developments for anyone who makes video games in the Vancouver area. Starting with the 100+ people out of work last week from the action at Black Box, then the complete closure of Humanature which affected about ninety, and then today’s events, I conservatively place close to 300 hundred developers are now unemployed in the city. It is my opinion that the job market never fully placed all the people from the massive layoffs at Radical months ago and now to have all these people join them makes for a dire situation.

On a personal note, two of my most loyal blog readers were among those who got laid off today. Out of respect for them, I will not identify either party. I will say I was extremely disappointed to hear that news. Please know that if there is anything I can do for either of you, do not hesitate to get in touch with me.

I will admit these events make me extremely nervous. The development community is very close-knit in Vancouver and it’s been tough to concentrate at work lately when people you know are reporting layoffs on what seems to be a daily basis.

I said it before but I will say it again, please let this be the end of it for a long, long while.

There is so much to buying a home that I did not know until now. One of the steps that is required by a lender is to get a home inspection done on the property that is to be purchased. If you are managing to buy a home without getting a mortgage, this step is not required. The lender is just doing due diligence. They want to know if you’re overpaying for the home or if there is something that potentially may cause the home to be worth significantly less than the purchase price.

Keep in mind the appraisal is not a replacement for the home inspection. It in end, it’s the lender’s way of making sure they’ve helped you buy something that they can get their money back on if they are forced to take the property away from you.

It nearly all cases, the home appraisal is paid for by the purchaser. I paid $210 for mine, tax included. The appraisal fee falls under the awesome set of items called “closing costs” which is money you have to spend to get the privilege of spending a huge amount of money for the home itself.

My appraisal happened this week and I was looking forward to seeing the results. Of course, I was hoping that the appraised value would be higher than my purchase price. I was e-mailed a copy of the appraisal today. It turns out the appraiser believes I purchased my apartment for approximately 7.5% less than their calculated current fair market value. In other words, I got a good deal but it certainly wasn’t a bargain of any sort.

I told a friend of mine the good news and he suggested I immediately flip it for a tidy and quick profit. There a million reasons why that isn’t a good idea, not the least of which is the fact I’m tired of doing paperwork now.

Today Nexon America, a Korean-based video game publisher, suddenly and unexpectedly closed their Vancouver development studio, Humanature. It has been reported that 90 employees were let go. The video game development community is quite close in Vancouver and it was not difficult to find people who knew someone at Humanature. I personally know three people who worked there. For two of them, this will be the second studio shutdown they have experienced in less than a year.

The last few months have not been kind to the development community in this city. In recent memory we’ve had the massive job reductions at Radical Entertainment, the relatively minor layoffs at Black Box and EA Canada in October, and then considerable layoffs at Black Box just last week. There are rumours that EA Canada will face their major reductions this week.

In 2006, I remarked how it was undoubtedly a job seekers market for the video game development. Back then, I had so many options to choose from, beyond just EA. Times are now different. From actions from just the last two weeks, there are now approximately two hundred people in the local area now looking for jobs relating game development. I am sure there are much less than two hundred open positions in this city. I am not even sure if there are two hundred positions open in all of North America.

Though the action Radical was probably not related to the current recession, I am guessing that the other layoffs were. By my count, before this one, I’ve lived through two recessions: one in the 80s and other in the early 90s. Of course, I was just a kid in those times. When you’re a kid, you don’t really pay attention to these things. Also, I’m pretty sure my parents shielded me from concerns that I had no control over.

Things are different now. I’m an adult and I need steady employment. Hell, I’m on the verge of legally owning an apartment and having a mortgage. My concerns are very real-world. Though I am not in a state of panic, a small part of me remains cautious and slightly nervous about where the world economy is headed. How much worse can it get? No one can answer that of course and that’s why people are worried now.

Let’s hope this is the last of the bad news coming from my industry.