WELL NOW WHAT

I was about half way through writing a post when I realized I might get someone in trouble. I was telling a story anonymously about a friend of mine. Then it dawned on me, that however small the chance, his girlfriend might be reading this. Actually, it’s a really small chance but I’ve learned over the years that it’s amazing who’s reading my blog.

I don’t want to get him into trouble. Is he breaking the law? No. Is he cheating on his girlfriend? Definitely not. Is he making me ask myself questions? I don’t think so.

So I got nothing else to write about. How about this weather eh? Wind storms suck. The Canucks are doing well lately, isn’t that interesting? How’s your mom doing? Good… good… I’m getting a haircut tomorrow. Right…

Ok, good night folks.

NO FATE BUT WHAT WE MAKE FOR OURSELVES

So I’m sitting at my desk this afternoon when I get an e-mail from one of the production coordinators on our team. She wants to know if anyone on our team wants new business cards and to fill in the form if we do.

I just stared at the e-mail for a bit. This is an opportunity to get business cards from EA. If you’ve been with us since the beginning, you know business cards have a certain influence on my life. I outlined it in an earlier post. Essentially, everytime I’ve received business cards, I’ve quit my job within 45 days of getting them.

Mind you, I’ve only got business cards twice in my life but I’m batting a thousand so far. So you can understand my conflict when I got the e-mail. On one hand, I don’t want to tempt fate because I really do like my job. On the other hand, EA business cards would be really nice.

I think this is an excellent chance for me to break this crazy cycle. While I certainly was entertaining thoughts of leaving those two previous jobs when I got the cards, I have no such thoughts this time around with EA. I believe I’m going to go for it!

I’ll check in with you about 45 days from when I get the cards.

BABY GAP

I went shopping for baby clothes for the first time ever tonight. I didn’t have a lot of time to be creative, so it was straight to Baby Gap. If I say so myself, I’ve been blessed with a good and classic sartorial taste, so it was in this belief that finding clothes for a three month old baby would be both easy and fun.

Upon entering the store, I realized I was the only male in there. I was surrounded by female sales staff and mommies of varying ages. I was also amazed by the myriad of choices that newborns and toddlers have in clothing. There was so much to choose from!

A sales person must have sensed my wonderment because she asked me I needed help, at which point I confessed it was my first time shopping for baby clothes. She explained the sizing structure to me, which basically separated newborns, 6 to 12 months, and so on until you got to toddlers. Actually with the inclusion of Gap Kids to normal Gap, you could be clothed by Gap Inc. for the rest of your life.

I must have gone over every piece of newborn and 6 to 12 month clothing in the store. Everything seemed so cute and tiny. There was a jean jacket like mine, except it was tiny. There were a pair of jeans like mine except it was tiny. There was a dress like mine, except…

All of the clothing seemed cute but like all clothes, some choices are better than others. I knew this, but looking at it all, I couldn’t discern what looked better on the target baby. My worst fear was buying some items in a clueless manner and then having the Mom refuse to clothe her daughter in them.

I won’t say what I bought in the end, just in case the father reads this but I think they’ll like it. I’m especially proud of one item I got. I think it’ll look really sharp on her. She’ll have to grow into it but that’s ok.

And I learned something today.

NEW PET PEEVE

As most of you know, I’ve been working in a high-rise office building for about five months now. This is the first time I’ve worked in such a location.

After riding the office elevators day in and day out I’ve developed a new pet peeve. People who take the elevators for two floors or less really bug me. Come on people, the stairs are clearly marked on every damn floor of the building. Would it kill you to walk up a single flight of stairs?

The worst offenders are the ones who get in on the ground floor and then press the “2” button. What the hell is their problem? Are they so inconvenienced that a single flight of stairs would ruin their day?

Don’t even get me started on the people use the elevator to go down a single floor. These lazy office bums won’t even let gravity assist them down the stairs. It’s gotten to the point where I start to roll my eyes at these 1fers or 2fers. I’m afraid one day I’ll actually make a comment aloud to some of these people.

So what’s it to me? Let’s say I get on at the bottom and I’m going up to 12. Everytime one of these 1fers get on my damn elevator, that’s like 10 seconds for them to get on and then another 10 seconds for them to get off. If I get just three of these up to 12, I’m over a minute beyond my normal travel time.

Now, don’t think I paint everyone with the same broad brush. I’d like to think I have perspective on issues. Very often I see people get on the elevator with stacks of documents or boxes in theirs arms and if they do need to go up or down one floor, sure that’s very reasonable. Sometimes people have mail carts or trolleys, so yeah, the elevator is the only way to go. One lady even got on cradling several large books in her arms and she actually apologized for going up one floor. No apology was needed of course but I appreciated the sentiment. I only wish the corporate suits with nothing in their hands would be more like-minded.

And that’s what grinds my gears today.

THE PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT

Admittedly, I did not plan on waking up at 2pm this afternoon but seeing as how I went to bed at 5am, it could not be helped. That damn Wikipedia sometimes can waste hours of your time at a blink of an eye.

Undeterred, I got up, had some breakfast, got changed, played some Xbox 360, and then proceeded with my original plan. I was going to work today. We’ve got lots to do on the game so the more I can do before the break ends, the better shape I’ll be in when crunch time comes. Plus, I wanted to see how it felt going to work in the late afternoon instead of the late morning.

I breezed into work a little before 5pm after leaving the house just after 4pm. Surprisingly, one guy was in the office but he was using his computer to play Battlefield 2142. It took me about an hour to settle in and remember what I was doing before the break. Looking through my code, I planned what needed to be written next.

Around 7pm, I got hungry and it was off to the Japanese restaurant up the street to pick up a bento box for dinner. Returning with my dinner, I spent the next twenty minutes eating and reading Xbox 360 game reviews on the web.

It was then back to work. I worked straight, essentially without any breaks, until 11:30pm when I decided it was probably wise to take the second to last bus of the night.

There were several things I noticed after I did my stint at work. The first was that I really enjoyed being there. I got lots done and I felt like I was super focused on my tasks. Usually, I feel a dip in my energy level in the afternoon on a normal day but not tonight. I powered right through the six plus hours. In general, I felt very productive and wished every work day could be like this. When I returned home, I felt completely relaxed and quite pleased with the whole evening.

I only left because I didn’t want to get caught downtown after the buses stopped running, otherwise I would have stayed later. In fact, I was on the verge putting some really cool stuff into the game. I think I might return to the studio either Friday or Saturday afternoon to finish off the current task I’m on.

I’m of the opinion now that I’d probably enjoy a 4pm – 12am shift if that could be arranged. Now, I know some of you are probably wondering how that might impact my social life, but to be very honest, nearly all my friends have moved away, so it wouldn’t change it all that much.

If you’re wondering, the title of this post refers to an incident (real or fictional, depending on the source) that occurred on a US Navy ship in the 40s. According to some, an accident caused the ship to briefly teleport to another location. Upon it’s return, some say five crewmen were found fused to ship. Neat stuff!

HOLIDAYS

As with most people, I get a much needed week off starting on Monday. It’s been a very exhausting couple of months. Making a new game from nothing is hard work. There’s a lot riding on what we do, so people want to get it right.

If I only do one thing during this week off, I’m hoping it’s to get caught up on all my sleep. Since around September, all it seems I’ve been doing is chasing the sleep I need. I probably have a massive amount of sleep debt right now. I need to get some rest.

Well, I should probably go to bed now.