LEAST NERDY

Over a month ago, a new producer joined the Sonic project. Zoe has been a great addition to the team. She’s helped smooth out the crazy process of trying to get a video game done on time. Plus, being in a video game company, it’s always nice to have another female around to help fix the gender ratio.

A few days ago, while we were unpacking the Thai food that the team had ordered for dinner, Zoe mentioned our team had the least nerdy programmers she had ever seen. I asked her how many programmers she had seen before coming to the company. She said lots since she had worked at a school where programming had been taught.

Apparently, until taking her current job, she’d never met any programmers that worked out during their lunch hours. About half the Sonic programmers go to the gym regularly during their lunch hour. Some of them are actually quite buff.

In general, I’ve been quite surprised by how non-stereotypical most of the programmers are in the company. Some have girlfriends and a lucky few have even managed to marry a woman. A lot of programmer participate in sports and have interests outside of the computer.

And you learned something today…

CURSE OF THE BUSINESS CARDS

Further to my previous post about my change in jobs, I’ve discovered an interesting development. I’ve only been at two jobs where business cards have been made up for me. The first was when I was working as a mechanical engineer in 1999. The company I was with had business cards done up for all the employees. About a month later, I quit my job and was left with a stack of useless business cards. I hated that job so I’m pretty sure I tossed all those cards into the trash after I took them home. I wish I had kept at least one of them.

So, when I was given a whole of box of business cards in late May of this year, I did actually think about what happened the last time I got cards. I shrugged it off and thought it was just silly thinking. Here we are though, less than two months after getting those cards and I’m about to head off to EA.

Out of the three real, full-time jobs I’ve had, business cards have spelled the demise of two of the jobs!

If I make it to the point where EA wants to give me business cards, I might actually tell them to not bother.

FULL CIRCLE… SORTA

Do you know the story behind why I decided to become a software engineer? Some of you know this already but I’ll give the rest of my readers a short version. After abandoning my career as a mechanical engineer after only one year at one crappy job, I decided to become a video game tester at Electronic Arts Canada.

I started this crazy adventure in the summer of 2000. Being at EA was nothing like I had seen before. The whole business was to make video games. It was a lot of fun and the job was rewarding in many ways, except for the financial compensation part. Over a year into my testing career, I realized that two raises in, I was still only making $12.50 an hour. As I was 27 years old at the time, I began to worry perhaps this wasn’t the best way to earn a suitable living.

I also wasn’t using my brain as much as I wanted. Being educated as an engineer, I liked using math and it really bothered me none of my hard-earned knowledge was going to good use. One day, I was upstairs helping a software engineer recreate a bug at his desk. He stepped away for several minutes and I couldn’t help but spy a pay stub next to his monitor. Using my powers of multiplication, I realized the dude was making $60K a year!

Soon after that day, I decided that I wanted to give it a try as a software engineer in the video game industry. I also realized that I had to leave my job as a tester if this dream was ever going to come true. The QA department is wasteland when it comes to promotion and I surely did not have right education to do the job as a software engineer. So, I quit my job and got myself into grad school.

Now, I hadn’t planned on the whole SJC thing being such an important and life-changing experience but hey, I’m not complaining. Three years later, I exited UBC with a Master’s degree in hand and my dream still burning inside of me.

I tried fulfilling my dream soon after graduation when I applied to EA in May of 2005. That didn’t go so well. I made it as far as the in-person interview but that was about it. It wasn’t so bad however, since I soon found employment with Backbone Entertainment. They took a chance on me and I’ll be forever indebted to them for that. As you know, I’ve been with Backbone for over a year now.

I have to announce though, I’ll be leaving my job at Backbone in early August for a software engineering position at Electronic Arts. It was a very difficult decision and something I hope I don’t have to go through again. There were many things that I would have stayed for at Backbone but EA made me an offer that I couldn’t refuse, to reuse a tired cliche. There’s no doubt in my mind that my new job at EA will be an extremely challenging one. I’ll be honest and admit that sometimes I’m not much of a risk taker. This opportunity, though, was one I had to take. There’s no guarantee of success but I’m hoping I’ll rise to the challenge.

The odd thing is that I won’t be working in Burnaby where I used to do testing. EA maintains a studio downtown in Vancouver and that’s where I’ll be. All my remaining EA friends are back in the studio in Burnaby which is unfortunate. We’ll all be co-workers now but I’ll see them as much as I did when I worked elsewhere. Garrett, Tim, Chris, Cam, Petey, and Jeff Mac, we’ll have to think of something else.

I want to make it very clear that I have nothing but good things to say about Backbone. More than any company I know, they are willing to take chances on people. Sometimes, that’s all you can ask for in company, a chance to show what you know and what you can do. They did that for me and allowed me to learn. I wouldn’t have been able to be where I am today without that chance.

So, in some weird way, I’ve fulfilled my dream of returning to EA. It’s amazing to think I started this whole journey with a wage of $10.50 an hour. Where will this adventure lead me next? I don’t know but let’s hope some good times are ahead.

RANDOM

All through the day, I was trying to think of what I’d be writing tonight. I had a very big post in mind but I think I’ll save that for later in the week. I also thought of a rant I’d like to write but then again, I went to the Atlantic Trap and Gill last night which was also interesting. So I’m gonna mash those topics into one poorly written post.

I’ve decided that my former and beloved graduate residence, St. John’s College is a lot less fun that it used to be. This is only my opinion but all the interesting characters that used to be drawn to that place have been replaced by boring morons. Where’s my evidence? I ask you to find a single person that plays croquet at SJC. Yep, I’m basing it on the fact that no one at SJC even uses the two croquet sets that are sitting in the pool room closet. Back when I used to walk to school uphill both ways, croquet was the sport to play in the courtyard. From the likes of Dana, Bryan, and Kent, newbie residents were taught the finer points of ball striking and mallet handling.

Croquet was a social sport that brought together residents and initiated friendships. As the finest residents that SJC had ever seen began to move out, they were replaced with asshats who didn’t care for croquet. Not only did they not care for croquet, they did not care for tradition, SJC tradition to be exact. They went about their own business, not even realizing for a moment that the place they stayed in had a history that pre-dated even their own egotistical undergrad days.

Ok, it’s getting late so I have no time to talk about the Trap and Gill. Suffice to say, the place is a lot more interesting when you’re the only non-white person there except for Tim and Ron.

REAL LIFE BRIDGE TROLL

“A man who acted as a modern-day bridge troll faces charges in Boulder after he and his companion allegedly got into a confrontation with an off-duty sheriff’s deputy.

According to a police report obtained by 7NEWS, Robert Hibbs, 19, was arrested Friday in a park near Foothills Highway and Colorado Avenue after demanding money and attacking the deputy.”

The story goes on to reveal how LSD and a golf club was involved but for that you’ll have to read the full article here.

I WONDER

In my previous post, I wrote about my all-time favourite teacher, Mrs. K. That got me thinking about contacting her again. I wonder if she ever thinks about her former students. I’m sure she thought a few of them would end up in jail. I wonder if she ever thinks about me. Would she be disappointed at how I turned out?

I think she still teaches at a local high school. Maybe I’ll go e-mail her in a few days time. Now that I’m an adult maybe she might tell me stories about my other junior high school teachers.

ON NICKNAMES

As I look back on my years, I’ve discovered that I’ve had my fair share of nicknames. That kinda surprises me because I’ve never thought of myself as a guy that was prone to being nicknamed. I have no distinguishing physical features, except for maybe a large, unwieldy head or perhaps being slight in stature.

The very first nickname I can remember having was given to me by my all-time favourite teacher, Mrs. S. Kilpatrick. She was my homeroom teacher for grades 8, 9, and 10. She called me “orange flavoured crystals”. I don’t think anyone else called me that but she did. Mrs. K. also introduced me and the other students in English 8 to the book, The Outsiders. If you ever hear me say, “Stay gold Ponyboy,” you know I mean it.

In junior high, I also garnered another nickname. One Andrew Brown began calling me “Irv”, a play on my first name. I actually liked that moniker and several people picked up on it. It stayed with me through high school but it eventually fell by the wayside after we graduated.

I don’t remember any nicknames during my undergrad days, which is weird since a lot of rabble-rousing occurs in your school days. Maybe people called me names behind my back but I never heard those.

It wasn’t until the heady days of grad school where I would once again be known by another name. Fellow SJC resident, Miriam, the pride of Creston (or was it Lytton?), began calling me E-dawg. Then again, she started calling everyone something-dawg so I suppose I shouldn’t feel too special. Just today, a former co-worker of mine called me E-dawg. Small world!

I forget if this was slightly after grad school but I gained another nickname from the infamous lawyer of SJC, Joel himself. He took to calling me Winnie. Independently, during the summer of 2005, my co-worker Dave, started calling me Winnie as well. I have to admit, I quite like Winnie. Some people are reminded of Pooh the bear but most people think of Winnie from The Wonder Years. If you may indulge me in a slight tangent… hey, maybe that could be a nickname too… anyways, the actress that played Winnie, Danica McKellar, went onto attend Stanford where she received a degree in mathematics. She even got a proof published. A girl that knows her math is hawt! The special spelling denotes extra hawtness. If anyone is interested, here’s her photo shoot from Stuff magazine. In the interview, they discuss the proof.

And that’s my collection of nicknames thus far.

THE WINE KONE

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Q82jKX7eE2c

I’m sure almost everyone who surfs the Internet has viewed at least one video via YouTube. Allowing people to easily post videos for others to see seems like a simple idea but YouTube did it better anyone else. Sure there was some luck involved but it’s the favoured site to post your videos to.

Because anyone can post their videos and because the site is so popular now, YouTube has created Internet stars. As far as the Web goes, these people are genuine celebrities. Their videos are viewed by the thousands. In a course of a week, a video can generate as many as 100 000 views. A single video can elicit over a thousand comments in the same time frame. I can only dream of a blog post with that many comments.

One such Internet sensation is a twenty-something male from Toronto, Ontario. His name is Tony but he’s much better known as “The Wine Kone”. He’s a bit of rarity on YouTube since most stars there are teenage girls. TWK’s videos, for the most part, are funny, well-edited, and entertaining. There’s no doubt he has a sense of humour, which skews at times towards the self-deprecating. Now where have I seen that before? Hmm…

Strangely, TWK has garnered YouTube groupies. These are girls who find TWK attractive and funny. They leave flattering comments for him to read. It’s almost rock star in nature.

Now with stardom does has his price and in this case, it comes in the form of detractors. I believe the kids these days refer to them as “haters”. On the Internet, it’s much easier to criticize than to create and TWK has dealt with his fair share of critics.

Nonetheless, I find it fascinating that in this day and age, you can be well known to hundreds of thousands of people without being a TV star, movie star, or serial killer. Be sure to check out one of TWK’s latest videos above where he describes his university graduation. I know it might seem long but it’s well worth your time. Funny stuff indeed. His entire collection can be viewed here.

BAD HAIR

If you’ve seen me in person in the last week or so, let me explain something. Yeah, I know my hair looks terrible. I’ve run out of that wax crap that usually tames my wild locks. Plus it kinda gives it a shine that I like. On top of that, I’ve let my hair grow out so much it looks like a bird’s nest.

I know this post is useless without pics but I’m not about to go take a picture of my hair just to upload it. Instead, trying doing a Google image search on “bad hair“.