blog.erwintang.com

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmS7OMI9Ets]

To say that Japanese television is entertaining is kinda like saying I like fried chicken. Both are understatements. There is a Japanese television show called, Trivia no Izumi, which if I had to reach for a clumsy North American comparison, would sorta be like Mythbusters.

The show answers “what if” type of questions. These questions might be things you have thought about but never had the resources to figure out on your own. In the video above, is one such question being answered on the show.

The clip purports to answer this simple question: what happens if you drive a vehicle in a straight line at 100 km/h and then fire a ball in the exact opposite direction at 100 km/h? I bet you’re itching to find out.

If you like this video, there are more on YouTube. For example, this video answers the question: how big does a fish need to be before cats can’t carry it away to eat it? I know it sounds stupid but I was fascinated!

According to a new survey done by Michigan State University, one-third of the US population rejects evolution as scientific fact. The survey sampled responses from 32 European countries, the US, and Japan. The US would have been the least accepting of evolution but at the last second, Turkey took that crown.

The survey, which appeared in the Aug. 11 issue of Science, also explains that the number of people in the US who believe in evolution has dropped since 1985, even though Americans, on average, have more years of education in 2006.

According to this account of the study, the waning belief in evolution in the US is attributed to the strong influence of religious fundamentalism in that country. The authors remark “there is no major political party in Europe and Japan that uses opposition to evolution as a part of its political platform”. Such a stance, however, is a cornerstone belief of everyone’s favourite political party, the Republicans.

Finally, the study showed that those with pro-life attitudes in the US were much more inclined to reject evolution that their pro-choice counterparts. I don’t think that stat surprises anyone.

Keep up the good work down there! Carolyn, Suzanne, and Dana, you’re welcome to sleep on our couch when the time is right.

Bonus points to anyone who gets the reference in the post title without Googling it!

“You think, six months ago I had a great on-campus job and social life. Now, I’m living at home, I have two friends and no academic stimulation for the first time in 20 years — sitting in the basement, surfing the Internet, looking for work.”

I hear ya loud and clear sister but I am thankful I have a job at least.

So on Friday, I finally went to work downtown where I’ll be permanently placed. In hindsight, the first two weeks in Burnaby were quite comfortable. At EAC, I knew the layout, had many friends there, and it all felt like putting on an old shirt again. Friday morning, as I strode into the lobby of the office building, I realized exactly how nervous I was.

I don’t think your first day at a new job is ever easy, no matter how many jobs you’ve had. After riding the elevator up to reception, I told a lady behind the desk that I was here for my first day. A security guy then gave me another pass so I could access all the restricted floors in the building. An HR person then took me in for a short orientation and a tour of all the floors. The way EAX is organized, four floors are contiguous, so if you’re on these floors, the stairs are really all you need. There’s a fifth floor that EA has in the building and that one is five floors away from the set of four. Does that make sense? Anyways, it turns out I’m on the isolated floor which means I gotta take the elevator up to get to the snacks, the store, and outdoor lounge.

As I went through the tour, it was clear that there’s a big difference between EAX and EAC when it comes to space. EAC is on several acres of land. They can do whatever they want and they have oodles of space to work with. That’s why in Burnaby, there’s lots of open space to use architecturally which leads to some nice work areas. At EAX, there’s no escaping that it’s essentially in an office building and people are being hired on a constant basis. It’s definitely crowded in there. An area where only two people would sit at EAC probably has three or four at EAX. There’s talk of taking over another floor but that can only happen if a tenant decides to vacate that floor.

Having said all that, the views are spectacular. Some windows face Burrard Inlet and over to North Van. Here’s the weird thing though… lots of people have screens down which cover their windows because they don’t want the glare on their monitor. These are mostly artists who really need to see their work in the proper light. As I walked past the artists though and went into a payroll and HR area, they all had their screens up and were enjoying a glorious view of the water.

At the end of the tour I was shown my desk, which turns out to be a temporary location until they can move me into my permanent location. My computer also wasn’t ready just yet, so I spent the morning and a bit of the afternoon reading documents. When my computer did show up though, oh boy was that a treat. Check out the monitor they gave me. Weighing in at 24″, this is the largest monitor I’ve ever used. It’s ridiculous. Maximizing applications is a waste, since so much of the screen is left over. I maximized a Word doc and two-thirds of the screen was just whitespace. This thing begs to have at least two applications on screen at all times.

With my computer at my desk, I started the process of setting up all my development tools and got all the latest code. Despite a small hiccup, I was even able to build the game. By that time, it was the end of the day.

As a contrast, you might want to read last summer’s day one.

What an awful way to go. How people even think it’s remotely safe to put any of their limbs near a machine like that is a mystery.

Several times before I’ve fallen asleep in bed I’ve thought of some interesting ideas for blog posts. At the time, I realized that I would never remember them and made me wish I had a pad and a pencil next to my bed.

I’ve also woken up and realized I had some crazy dreams that would also make for some great blog posts. Again, I never seem to remember them as well. I believe your brain does that on purpose because it doesn’t want you to remember dreams and think those things really happened.

This is a bit of a tangent but it’s kinda interesting. A few weeks ago, I was asleep but I regained consciousness while my body was physically still sleeping. When you sleep, your brain prevents you from controlling your arms and legs to a certain extent to protect you from acting out your dreams. When your mind is awake though and your body refuses to move, it can be a bit unsettling. It felt like being underwater and I was fighting to get to the surface and break through.

All I knew was that I was in this black fog and I needed to desperately wake up so I could control my limbs again. There was this urgency that I needed to wake up immediately. For several moments I willed myself to move but my entire body wasn’t responding.

After what seemed like a minute, the blackness disappeared in a quick snap and the world came rushing into focus. My eyes were open and I could see the room. I was awake and I could move my body again.

It was a really weird feeling. I’ve only had it happen to me a few times in my entire life. When I thought everything was ok, I went back to sleep.

I don’t know how many people start a new job on a Friday before going on the weekend but that’s what I’m going to do this Friday. After reading various conflicting documents, I was definitively told today that boot camp at EAC ends this Thursday and we’d go back to our respective teams on Friday. For some, this will mean going upstairs but for me, I’ll be heading downtown to EAX where I will meet my new team for the first time.

Beyond the weekend, I’m also looking forward to “beer and cake” on Friday which is something of a tradition at EAX. The event is supposed to celebrate any birthdays that happened during the week. I’m not sure if there’s a birthday every week but beer and cake is served nonetheless. I’ve been told I can even invite guests if I want. That’s pretty cool.

So, starting Friday, I’ll be in some office tower like all those other business people… except I can wear t-shirts…

Last week, we only had four working days before the weekend rolled around but it sure felt like a six day week to me. Coming back to your regular job from vacation is tough at best but try doing that when it’s a new job.

On Friday, I was happy to go home and basically nap for an hour before grabbing some dinner. Then it was off to UBC to say goodbye to my good friend Tyson. Bone is off to Toronto to start med school in the fall. He’s driving across country to his new home. Good luck Tyson! Slowly, but surely, all the people I’ve met at SJC are moving away.

I didn’t do a whole lot on Saturday, I was just happy to sleep in and get some rest. Well, I did get a haircut. It’s been six weeks since my last one, so I really needed it. The weird thing was that I had to get my hair cut by someone other than my regular haircutter lady. My regular was all booked up until the start of her vacation and if I wanted to wait, it’d have to be until September 3. By then, my hair would have been an afro the size of the moon. The lady who actually cut my hair is someone who I’ve seen around the salon for literally years but who has never touched my hair.

She did an awesome job with my hair but it did feel a teeny bit weird having someone else cut my hair. It’s amazing how stylists do the little things just a bit different. I wonder if this is what men experience when they cheat on their wives for the first time after like a decade. Anyways, I’m pleased with my hair and I’ll have to thank her again when I see my regular stylist.

I went shopping today but no one wants to hear about that. I also went to Dairy Queen which was quite pleasant. Ok, so that’s a post!

Yes, I said no more work related posts but hell, I spend nearly eight plus hours in a classroom these days, what do you expect?

I had another Cam sighting today. After passing him on the staircase on day one, I saw him stroll through the cafeteria at lunch with his food on his way to Phase II. I was at a table with Chris D., Barr star, and the Gunq himself, Garrett. I saw Cam from afar and mentioned to everyone that he was going to pass our table. As he walked by, everyone looked at me as if they expected me to say something. I did not.

Everyone then laughed at me. I didn’t want to change this perfectly weird way that Cam and I communicate together. We have never met formally in person. Our entire set of exchanges occurs purely through comments on this blog. What could I possibly say to the man in person?

One final thing, EA has very strict policies on accessing personal e-mail from work. This policy extends to webmail. I’ve been told by the IT guys that we’re not supposed to check our own e-mail from the studio. Informally, someone has told me people do it nonetheless. Now since I don’t want to get in trouble less than a week into my new job, I’m going to adhere to that policy… for now. That means if you send an e-mail to my et.com account, I won’t read it until I get home. If you need to get ahold of me during the day, leave a message on my cell phone or feel free to e-mail me at etang at ea.com and CC me using the et.com address as well. Thanks!

I swear this is will be the last post about work for the next little while. Man, going to work is tiring. I’m in training until next Thursday and each day begins at 9am sharp. Don’t get me wrong though, I thought the first day went really well. We all got a big binder full of lecture notes and reference material. We also got a schedule of what we’re going to cover for the whole course.

I have to say that this is the most comprehensive on-the-job training I’ve ever seen for any company I’ve worked for. The training is quite impressive. It also nearly guarantees that any software engineer starting at EA will have a known set of skills when they complete the course. This way, managers know exactly what each engineer is capable of even before that engineer starts on a project.

Now that I’ve been spending full days in the Burnaby studio, I’ve had several instances of deja vu come over me. For example, parking my car in the back outside lot this morning (like I did hundreds of time before) made me wonder if this was really 2002. Sitting in the cafeteria eating my lunch today made me realize how many countless hours I’ve spent inside that building. It was all very weird.

Adding to all this was that I actually talked to two people whom I worked with when I was a tester. In the cafeteria, I ran into Cindy who was my lead when I was testing FIFA. She still recognized me and asked me what I was doing here. I told her I was here for training but I’d be at EAX when I was done. She seemed almost relieved when I said I was a software engineer now. She also told me she’s out of QA now and into the production side.

At the end of the day, I was walking to go see Garrett when I heard someone yell out my name. I looked over to my left and it was old Petey himself, the man with the infectious laugh. Peter and I tested Triple Play Baseball together back in 2001. He said that he thought he saw me earlier but didn’t believe his eyes. He went to his desk and checked his Outlook address book, and sure enough, there I was. He tells me he sent me an e-mail but who knows when I’ll get it since I can’t even check my e-mail while I’m EAC. Peter is now a producer on some unannounced game and he invited me to check it out sometime. I will take him up on that offer.

Alright, I gotta try to get to bed a little bit earlier tonight, the operative word being “try”.