10 Jun 2008
It’s been a long time since I posted here. It isn’t a lack of things going on, so much as them not being complete enough to really write about mixed with a lack of time to put them down.
Work is busy right now. Not insanely busy, not like it gets around a milestone, but busy enough. I’m slipping a little on one of my tasks. Mostly because the last 2+ years of history has shown that it should take less than a week to do this task, but this time around it is starting to slip over the edge of 2+ weeks. It has been a road plagued by crocodiles and pitfalls. Hopefully it will be done soon. Every time it starts to look up, something new breaks, and it starts all over again.
Holly and I have been living out of the our bedroom lately. The living room floor is all torn out now, down to just the concrete subfloor. All of the living room furniture is crammed into the spare room and our room. I’ve discovered that the bed isn’t nearly as comfortable for watching TV as the couch is; which is very contrary to my initial thoughts on the issue.
The playoffs have come and gone. My Detroit Red Wings have once again been crowned Stanley Cup Champions! It was a great playoff run. Zetterberg and Datsyuk put on a clinic game in and game out of how hockey should be played. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that shift where the Wings were down two men and Zetterberg killed nearly a minute and a half of the penalty on his own. I’m concerned that the Red Wings won’t be able to afford all of their players for too much longer.
I’ve been mulling over the idea of taking another writing course. It just don’t see how I can fit it into my life. They always say that if it’s important enough you’ll make time for it, so I guess we’ll see what happens.
The diet has sort of stalled. I guess that’s normal. I’m down to losing in the vicinity of 1-2 lbs a month. The pizza hungry center of my brain constantly tells me I could do better by exercising rather than dieting, but that requires even more time out of the day.
In the famous poem “The Night Before Christmas” when it talks about visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads… I know what that’s like. Only I don’t have to be asleep to see the tempting dancing forms of pizza slices, sandwiches, toast, pasta, etc. Only about 190 days left to go.
That isn’t to say that I haven’t been eating wonderful food. Just last night we had a flank steak rolled around chorizo and caramelized onions, pan seared and then roasted until finished perfectly. I miss having a slice of bread or a roll with something like that though. I’ve even been known to consider potatoes to look sort of yummy these days.
This morning our flooring finally arrived. Just a few more days and we will once again have a living room floor. We can even put a couch or two back out there. I look forward to “moving back in” to our place.
Today I also finally RSVP’d to the wedding of my friends Alex and Julie. It has been a long time coming and I look forward to it. Next comes booking the flights which will happen today or tomorrow. It looks like we’re going to attempt the red-eye again… I’m not looking forward to it, but I’ll take some Gravol this time around in the hopes that it will put me to sleep.
All in all, life is great :)
16 May 2008
I was looking at the NHL 2008 Playoffs leading scorers today, and I stumbled across this very interesting comparison:
<table border=1 cellspacing=0>
<td colspan=12>NHL Scoring Leaders
<td colspan=2>PP
<td colspan=2>PK
| RNK |
NAME |
POS |
GP |
G |
A |
PTS |
+/- |
PIM |
ATOI |
SOG |
SPCT |
G |
A |
G |
A |
| 1 |
H. Zetterberg, DET |
LW |
14 |
10 |
9 |
19 |
14 |
14 |
21:09 |
74 |
13.5 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
3 |
| |
Sidney Crosby, PIT |
C |
13 |
4 |
15 |
19 |
4 |
8 |
20:03 |
39 |
10.3 |
1 |
9 |
0 |
0 |
| 3 |
Pavel Datsyuk, DET |
C |
14 |
8 |
10 |
18 |
12 |
0 |
20:36 |
41 |
19.5 |
2 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
| |
Evgeni Malkin, PIT |
C |
13 |
8 |
10 |
18 |
4 |
16 |
20:36 |
57 |
14.0 |
4 |
4 |
1 |
0 |
</table>
Assuming the Penguins and the Red Wings make it to the final against each other, it paints an interesting picture for how things could end up. The most interesting comparison to make is that the top four players, are the top four players. Tied for 1st and 3rd respectively. The huge diffference is the +/-. The Red Wings’ forwards are much more responsible, while still putting up the same number of points.
The Penguins’ forwards aslo take a lot more penalties, which will give the Red Wings more time on the power play.
It paints a pretty picture for the Red Wing Faithful out there.
09 May 2008
Tomorrow morning sometime between 8am and Noon there is someone supposedly coming to look at our dishwasher. Hopefully after that time period we will once again have a functioning dishwasher. If it doesn’t work out, then there will probably be a new dish washer on its way, and I really want to avoid that. I want to have the dishwasher now. In fact, I wanted to have it a month ago, or however long ago it was that the old one finally died.
Tonight I’ll finally get to play Army of Two. I’ve been looking forward to this for quite a while and I’m totally stoked about it! My Brother-In-Law and I have what we call Friendly Fire Fridays where we get together on Xbox LIVE and game. We’ve already defeated Halo 3 on Legendary and annihilated those poor unsuspecting Locust in Gears of War on Insane. Now at long last we have Army of Two to progress through. It appears to be right out of a bad action movie, which can only be a good thing.
I’ve always got my eyes open looking for upcoming co-op games. Games such as the aforementioned Halo 3, Gears of War, and Army of Two. There are a few on the horizon such as Gears of War 2, Mercenaries 2 and maybe even Saints Row 2. I’m not really into the gangster/thug genre games, so the jury is still out on Saints Row 2.
We have tried a few other games that offer “co-op” and multi-player, but none of them really seem to get it right. I like to play co-operatively through games. There’s a sense of camaraderie to it. A sense of accomplishment. I prefer to work toward a common goal rather than directly compete against other players. I also enjoy a story when it comes to gaming, so multi-player death match doesn’t really cut it.
There are a lot of games that almost offer great co-op experiences out there. I know games like NHL 08 have what they call Online Team Play where you and some friends can get together and play against another team of friends. That’s cool and all, but I’d rather be able to go through a season or a dynasty with a friend over Xbox LIVE. Or be able to go through a season or dynasty where a friend can control one of the other teams in the league.
You can also look at racing games that feature things such as “racing teams”. Of course they tend to only offer them as players vs players. I would love to see a feature in a racing game where a group of friends can make a racing team and race co-operatively on a team and progress through an actual season of racing. After all, that’s what racing is really like. It isn’t a bunch of random people having one-time showdowns.
One of the reasons I do enjoy playing co-operatively primarily against computer opponents is that there is a realistic measurement of improvement. If you were playing online you always be playing against people way better than you, way worse than you, and equal to your level. In doing so, it’s hard to notice that you’re getting “better” at the game. It is harder to get that sense of satisfaction of improving as a team.
Also since, as I’ve covered in previous entries, I’m not on the bleeding edge of gaming these days, when I do finally make it online it tends to be after everyone else has perfected their craft. It’s like just jumping into any game at a difficulty level of Highest + 1. Halo 3 did a good job of getting around the entry point problem by making everyone play a few matches in a small level before being promoted out to play against the people who have played 2000+ matches. It has its flaws, but its a step in the write direction.
So as a final though: we need more games that have co-op story modes!
24 Apr 2008
I started my second tour of duty with EA this week. It feels great to be back. Honestly, when I look back at leaving, I have a hard time believing that I left.
It was definitely good to leave though. I needed to go out, see what was there, and get some perspective on every thing. Perspective has told me that EA is damn near the best place in the world to work. It comes with unbelievable perks.
Part of why I left was personality conflicts with my boss at the time. We just didn’t click. Part of it was the direction of the project, it just really wasn’t as exciting the third time around. They were moving to focus on things that, I myself as a fan of the series can say, honestly didn’t interest me.
Part of it was the counter culture within EA. I started to get sucked into the “I hate EA” mentality. I won’t let that happen again.
Part of it was that a lot of my friends were moving on from EA to other companies. There was both a sense of not wanting to miss out, as well as not wanting to be the only one left.
Part of it was that I had chased what felt like my impossible dream of working on a specific game franchise for what seemed like forever, and then caught it. What do you do once you’ve run out of goals? I’m still trying to figure that out, as I don’t really have any career oriented goals anymore.
And finally, part of it was just my gypsy soul. There is some broken part of me that loves change. A part of me that loves starting over and redefining who I am. A part of me that just craves the adventure into the unknown.
The job I wandered to was not as advertised to say the least. They didn’t want me, they wanted someone with my brain, but who was willing to become a mindless automaton that constantly did what they were told even when they knew that it was wrong. That just isn’t me. I’m too damn headstrong for that kind of nonsense.
The commute was a big factor too. I thought I could handle it, but 60+ minutes of travel each way is just too much. It extends an 8 hour workday into a 10+ hour workday. Effectively extending the work day by at least 20%.
Yesterday I got stuck in some crappy traffic on the way home, and I was still home in less than a half hour. People must have thought I was crazy because I was just laughing to myself about how happy I was to be stuck in traffic. I should say over how happy I was to be stuck in that traffic, rather than what would have been a good hour behind it if I was traveling from my last job.
It is good to have all of the perks back as well. This time around I am taking advantage of everything that EA has to offer. Milking the cow as they say. I took a paycut and sacrificed a weeks vacation each year to come back to EA; and I have to say, that for me, it was definitely worth it.
When I look at the whole situation I’m proud of myself. I was able to stand back, look at everything and admit that I made a mistake. More than that though, I acted and rectified the mistake. I think a lot of people would have just stayed; feeling trapped by their situation.
10 Apr 2008
I was standing on the SkyTrain today just minding my own business on the mind numbing trip to work this morning, when an old friend stepped into the car. He looked at me and said “The grape vine has been talking to me about you.”
That damn grape vine. It just goes and goes. I swear, I have told almost no one that I was leaving my current job to go back to my old job; but everyone knows.
Most of them even know what I’m working on and who I’ll be working with. Hell, even I didn’t know for sure who I would be working with.
Since the world at large seems to know then this probably isn’t news to anyone reading this, but yes, the rumours are true; I am leaving my current company to return to my old company.
This has been an “educational” experience. I am very much looking forward to returning to my old post, even with the pay cut and the reduction in vacation time.
I’ll be working on something new, exciting, and completely unannounced. I plan to work there forever and ever and ever; or until I am in a position to either work for myself or to work at one or two select startups that may or may not happen over the course of the next couple of decades.
I’m going to hack away at a new toy engine at home that will be used for the three games I have in the design and prototyping phases.
If anyone has a suggestion for a name for the engine, I’d love to hear it. So far in the past I have written the following engines never to be released:
- Cebidae
- LiquidSpace
- Orion