blog.erwintang.com

I started watching Land of the Dead at around 1am last night. That was a big mistake. I have a fondness for zombie movies. I told myself I’d stop watching at 1:30am. It wasn’t until 2am that I turned it off.

It’s about 12:30am now and I’m thinking about watching the rest of it before I go to bed. That would be an unwise move given I have to work tomorrow.

Hey, by the way, the movie stars Simon Baker who was born in Australia. There was a guy that used to live in SJC named James, also from Australia. At least in my opinion, there’s quite a resemblance.

The bus to work was surprisingly empty this morning. I got a seat all by myself where I rode in comfort all the way downtown. When I got to work, there were lots of people who stayed home sick from apparently the flu. I’m not sure if it was that avian kind that the news keeps talking about.

For lunch, I went to Bimini’s. I had the BBQ chicken burger. I indulged myself with fries and gravy as my side. It was decadent.

Right before I left work, Tim showed me this horrendous bug in a part of the game that I wrote code for. It nagged me but I had to leave it for the next day since I had to go catch a bus downtown. I wanted to get some pants into the alteration place before they closed.

I then went home and made dinner by myself since everyone else had gone off to do other things. And that my friends, is a day.

If you’ve been following an earlier post, you know that I had planned for Friday night to be the time that I’d clear my name with Meghan/Megan, the Swiss Chalet server.

Prior to the 7pm meeting time with the boys at the Chalet, I had printed out a portion of my bank records to show Meghan/Megan that I had indeed paid for my meal. I arrive at the Chalet a few minutes after 7pm to find the Adam, Tyson, and Derm sitting at the bar portion of the restaurant. I thought we were going to sit in her section so I asked Adam what the deal was. Apparently, the restaurant was quite full so the bar was a quicker way to get a table. No problem.

After ordering our food, I brought out my bank statement and went up to the front of the restaurant. There were two hostesses awaiting me. I asked to see Meghan/Megan and they both kinda had puzzled looks on their faces. One of them said she wasn’t sure if she was working tonight but that she’d go in the back and check.

I was left with the other hostess who I gave an explanation as to why I wanted to see her. Shortly, the other lady came back and informed me that Meghan/Megan was indeed not working that evening. Bummer. She wasn’t even sure if she’d be in the next day.

I had to bring the statement back to our table where I informed the guys of the news. The truth will have to wait for another day. On the other hand, I had an excellent double leg dinner.

Inexplicably, my voice mailbox account for my phone number just disappeared. If you’ve been calling my number and not getting my voice mail, that’s why. I’m going to get this all straightened out very soon, believe you me.

Usability guru Jakob Nielsen weighs in with his Top Ten Design Mistakes for Blogs. It’s an excellent read for anyone that owns a blog. I am guilty of the following mistakes on his list:

1. No Author Biographies

To be fair, a link to a short bio exists on my main page which would take ten minutes to add to my blog. Maybe someday in the near future, I’ll go and do that.

2. No Author Photo

I mulled over the idea of having a photo when I first started my blog but being the Adonis I am, I wanted my words to be the focus not my chiseled looks.

3. Nondescript Posting Titles

Hey, that’s an erwintang.com hallmark. Ain’t no way that’s changing.

5. Classic Hits are Buried

This is true. Some of my best work is buried in the archives. I’ve been thinking about publishing a “best of” series.

6. The Calendar is the Only Navigation

Guilty as charged. This is a limitation of blogger itself.

8. Mixing Topics

I’m not sure if I agree with this one. The best thing about having a blog is I can write about anything I want.

If you own a blog, go and see how yours does against the list!

I don’t have the time to post anything of importance today. Oh wait, maybe I’ll just say that I think Bill O’Reilly is a douchebag. Damn, that wasn’t very nice. Perhaps I should have said his opinions evoke an emotional response in me. That’s better.

Web site thedigitalbits.com recently attended a media event at both Skywalker Ranch and the Letterman Digital Arts Center in San Francisco. Both properties are owned by George Lucas. Until recently, famous Lucas companies such as ILM and Skywalker Sound were based on the Ranch. This summer, they moved everything to a new campus near the Presidio.

Click here for a photo tour of both facilities. Notice how clean and well-maintained everything is not to mention the lightsabers in display cases. Also, don’t miss the statue of Yoda on the fountain.

If you want to know more about the Letterman Digital Arts Center, point your browser here.

Somewhat like the premise of the classic TV show The Fugitive, I have been accused of a crime I did not commit. Luckily, I hold proof of my innocence and my quest to clear my name has begun.

Before I continue further, there are some details that must be explained. Adam, Tyson, and Joel have been frequent visitors to the Swiss Chalet located on W. Broadway and Trutch for several months now. They patronize the establishment usually on weekends and for some reason or another usually get seated in one particular section. This section is patrolled by a server named Meghan. Ah Meghan. As you can imagine, after coming in to partake of the chicken so often, Meghan has gotten to know the boys a little. At the very least, she recognizes them on sight and can almost guess when they will visit. Also, you didn’t hear it from me, but Joel seems to have developed quite a rapport with this young lady.

Anyways, because of my exile out in wastelands of Tatooine, I’ve only joined them at the Chalet here and there. Nonetheless, I’ve been there enough that I’m pretty sure Meghan could recognize I was part of the crew.

I take you back, my readers, to the evening of Friday, September 30, 2005. After a long week at work, my co-workers and I decided to have dinner and a few beers at the Frog and Firkin next door to our office. Adam and Tyson have invited me to the Chalet as well. I decide finish up dinner at the Firkin and then head over to the house that chicken built. I arrive at the Chalet. Joel cannot make it but Adam and Tyson are there. We ask to get seated in Meghan’s section of the restaurant.

Since I’ve already had dinner, I decide to order an appetizer, the chicken spring rolls. They are delicious if anyone is wondering. The meal goes without incident, or so I thought, we pay and leave.

Fast forward to two days ago, Friday night. Adam and Tyson are again at the Chalet but not in Meghan’s section. She sees them and comes over to inform them that we stiffed her on the bill the last time we were there. Specifically, she accused me of not paying for my chicken spring rolls. To cover the bill, she had to kick in $1.32 of her own money.

When I was informed of this, I thought it was quite odd since it’s not like me to forget to pay for a meal. How can you forget to pay? It just seemed kind of fishy to me. I then remembered she left us the bill and then didn’t return for quite a while. I was also paying by debit card so instead of waiting for her, I just went up to the front and paid there.

The lady up front seemed kind of wary I was there to pay with debit but she processed the payment anyways. I’m almost positive that I also told her it was specifically for the chicken spring rolls. I took my receipt and then went back to the table. Now I’m not sure if I left the receipt on the table so that Meghan knew I had paid via debit. I may have taken the receipt with me but that’s my copy of the transaction! Technically, the lady up front already has the restaurant copy.

Just to be sure I wasn’t going crazy, I looked up my bank records on-line. I indeed use debit on that weekend. The rolls were $4.99 and I paid in total $6.50. The dates are off because the bank doesn’t do the processing until the Monday after. Nonetheless, here’s the proof:

This Friday, I am going back to the Chalet with a copy of these records and I am going to clear my name. I’ll update you then. Stay tuned!

So last evening I had a social function to attend to at UBC. Rather than have to bus it all the way home from UBC late at night, I decided to drive to work so I could have the car for the trip home. After work, I make my way to the West Parkade which I’ve parked in many times previously.

Now each time I’ve parked there, I’ve had to pay to enter the parkade. You tell the machine how long you want to stay and then it processes your payment. Afterwards, you can then drive in. This time, however, things were different. I drive up and the machine thingy has changed. It simply says on it, “Press to receive ticket”. Ok, so I press the big green button and it spits out this ticket. I’ve never seen this type of ticket before. Printed on it is “Place face up on dash”. I do as I’m told.

After getting out of my car, I notice other cars have the same type of ticket on the dash. Now I’m wondering when I’ll pay for the privilege of parking in the parkade. I see there’s an attendant in the booth near the exit. I’m thinking they must have changed the system so that the attendant uses your ticket to see how long you’ve parked there and then charges you accordingly.

Then I realize the attendant can stay there all night. They’ve got to go home sometime. So how will they get my money if I leave late? An automated pay system for after hours then? If so, why not use that all the time and not have an attendant? I decide I’ve spent too much time thinking about this and I better get my ass inside SJC where people are waiting for me.

Several hours pass and events occur that may or may not have been photographed in a digital form. It’s about 1am and I leave SJC for the parkade. Now I’m all curious again. I take a slight detour by walking over to the exit arms of the parkade. The attendant is gone. Two of the lanes are for cars with parking passes. There is one lane for visitors which is what I am. In that lane, there’s no machine that you can put any money in or slide a credit card in. There’s no sign telling people what to do if you’re here after hours. There is this “drop box” but I have no idea what it’s for. There are no envelopes nor is there any sign telling you what the rates are.

I walk back to my car, jump in, and drive off to the exit lane. I stop in front of the arm. It raises up. I drive off without paying a dime. As I deal with the torrential rainstorm while driving my mind spins. In this day and age, it’s highly unlikely UBC would ever let anyone do anything for free on-campus that they could charge even a penny for.

It’s possible they could have written down my license plate number and then just send me a bill to my home. That would require them getting my home address from my plate however and that seems like a lot of work (and some privacy issues) for a measly couple of bucks.

The other option that comes to mind is this, they just don’t care about people who leave after the attendant’s shift is over. Many, many years ago, the B-Lots on-campus were staffed with attendants at the exits. Anyone could drive in, but you had to pay when you left. The neat thing was that the attendants were only there until 11pm. After 11pm, if you were still parked you could leave for free. Everyone knew this, so there would be an entire parking lot full of cars with people waiting for 11pm to come around.

Perhaps this is a variation of the old B-Lot loophole. It could be but I’m still very wary of getting something free from UBC. And thus ends my lengthy post on free parking.

In a previous post, I mentioned that it would not be anytime soon before I could say what game I was working on. It turns out I was wrong or specifically I was given some wrong info. Today, Nokia issued a press release regarding the game I’ve been slaving away on for months now. Here’s an excerpt:

Shadow-Born Poised To Push The Boundaries Of Mobile Gaming On The N-Gage platform
October 13, 2005

Barcelona, Spain – Nokia today announced Shadow-Born for the N-Gage platform. Developed by Backbone Entertainment, Shadow-Born is set to change the way gamers use their mobile phones for gaming by integrating smartphone functionalities into the game. Imagine a game where characters leave text messages, schedule calendar appointments or set alarms in your smartphone. Shadow-Born promises a genuinely immersive and interactive experience, taking game play to a new level of involvement.

You can read the whole thing here. Keep in mind the marketing types write this stuff, not us. Read it with a grain of salt.