Not really Bob Dole...

This Goes Out to My Pal, Rich

2007-10-19T00:53:00.000-07:00

'Sup, Rich? I hear you were poking fun at my lack of blog updates to Tara! So I'm posting this out of spite :P

Anywho, FIFA08 is done and on store shelves. Exciting stuff. I worked on the "Soccer Academy" feature in the Wii version. While there's definitely room for improvement, I think it turned out alright. I'm also on to the next project, but since it's not announced yet I'm not supposed to say what it is. It won't be a big surprise, though ;)

Haha, so the funniest thing happened at work the other day. I was in the washroom, doing my thing, when I hear a phone start ringing in one of the stalls. I knew it was going to be awesome right off the bat since the ringtone was the Superman movie theme. Anyway, the guy picks up and is talking to what sounded like a new hire candidate (possibly looking to organize an interview). The guy says that he's a bit busy at the moment, but can he get their contact information. He gets their phone number and, right when he's getting the email address, the person in the next stall decides they can't wait any longer to leave and flushes the toilet.

Now up to this point, the person on the other end probably didn't know the guy was taking a dump, but only one thing makes a sound like that. And just to clarify things, a person in another stall leaves and flushes their toilet. Twice. The guy gets their email address and then says "So what was your name again? Ah, Melissa."

At this point, I was doing everything in my power to not bust out laughing. He hangs up and mumbles under his breath "Jesus Christ, that wasn't embarrassing." Possibly one of the funniest things I've witnessed first hand. Lesson learned: never answer your phone when you're dropping the kids off at the pool. Don't even take your phone with you to the pool. It's for the best. Gotta give him credit for keeping his cool throughout the whole thing, though.

I've also been getting into a new band called Mastodon. They're pretty well known by metalheads, I just never really heard them before. Awesome stuff if you're into metal!

Misc Ramblings

2007-07-22T02:36:00.000-07:00

Well, it's time for my quarterly blog post of doom! A fair amount of stuff has happened in the 3 months since my last update, so I've got a bit to ramble on about.

Work is going well. The PSP version of FIFA is going to hit dev-beta this week (which means 0 bugs) and will hopefully be declared beta for real later this week after we hold 0 bugs for a couple days. The Wii version will be following behind by about 3 weeks. We're almost done, which is always a bit exciting. The next step is finding out what I'm working on next, getting a bit of comp time and then waiting around while we wait for the game to make it through Sony/Nintendo.

I've decided to go ahead and make myself a timeline of having a demo of my adventure game idea ready for the end of the next round of titles at work. Then I'll present it to management and hopefully it'll be considered for the next SKU plan. It'll be an all new universe and characters, so the potential as a new IP should be reasonably high. The demo will be quite a bit of work because I'll be writing my own engine for it along with the complete toolset, but I think it will be worthwhile. Sadly I can't really say much else about it if I want it to be considered for actual production ;)

So, the new Smashing Pumpkins album is out. Thankfully, and somewhat surprisingly, it's actually pretty good. I quite enjoy it. It's amazing how it takes me right back to memories of high school, though.

Lastly, we got awesome news a couple weeks ago. It turns out that one of our good friends has been transferred back to Vancouver from way up north. He's moving back down at the end of the month. I predict many drunken Friday nights in the future since that's pretty much what happens whenever we visit him anyway!

Also, everyone say "Happy Birthday!" to my brother. He's turning 27 today (holy shit I feel old)!

It's Been Awhile!

2007-05-12T01:28:00.000-07:00

So I somehow got talked into starting a crazy website. It all started when I got a new tshirt that says "Have you got your tickets to the gunshow?" with arrows pointing to my (not particularly huge) arms. It was a hit at work and, over lunch one day with my coworkers, we came up with this crazy plan to start a website.

I give you The Travelling Gunshow: http://www.travelling-gunshow.com/

The concept is to wear the shirt and take pictures next to famous landmarks around the world. Eventually I'll have a way of doing user submitted pictures and provide a link to buy a "gunshow" tshirt to wear for said pictures (from Cafepress or something).

Should be entertaining!

Hot Damn, Pics!

2007-03-31T22:49:00.000-07:00

My God, I finally got around to uploading a couple pictures.

This was coming back through Jasper after Christmas (in Hinton, I think), taken from inside our car. I just liked the way the light was. It wasn't really that dark, the camera was adjusting the brightness because the sun was actually slightly in view.

This is me in January when we went up to Whistler and took a snowboarding lesson (man, I hurt the next day). I now have a bunch of snow gear, used once! Next season I think we'll try to make it up more often since it was pretty fun.

Hey, I wonder who these crazy kids could be? I think the one in the back is known around these parts as the "Earmuff Nipple Molester" and the one in the front was just some innocent bystander caught unawares. At least, that's the word on the street.

Well, the Canucks have made the playoffs, which makes me a happy guy. And not only have they made the playoffs, but they go and resign defenseman Sami Salo to a 4 year deal (at $3.5 million per season) complete with a no-trade clause. I was actually worried that we were going to lose the man with the 100mph slapshot and then this news came in out of the blue. It's not even the normal time of year for contract negotiations to be going on. Not that I'm complaining, especially since he could have got way more money on the free agent market.

And last, but not least, "Phoenix Wright" is awesome. Everyone with a DS needs to get into that series!

Pics Forthcoming!

2007-02-20T00:21:00.000-08:00

I know you don't believe me, but they seriously are. I actually got them off the camera, I just need to resize them (lol, 2816x2112 images) and then they'll be up! For reals! I even promise no nudie pictures of myself, no matter how strong the temptation or demand might be.

Anyway, been busy at work for the last while, with preproduction coming to an end next week. Then on to the "real" work, which shouldn't be as bad as the last project. We're entering production at about 85% capacity (like we're supposed to) as opposed to the (according to my rough estimates) 200% capacity on The Sims. I'm more relaxed already.

Tomorrow (today? since it's past midnight) is also the first game of the EA Ball Hockey League. Somehow I ended up as captain of my team, so we'll see how that goes!

Back At Work

2007-01-23T00:15:00.000-08:00

Well, my vacation is over and I'm back at work again. It was a good seeing Jamie and Rich again, not so good seeing over a foot of snow in one day. Luckily the weather cleared up for our trip back over the Coquihala, most likely because Tara and I each bought chains for our car. Fate probably looked at that and decided we were no fun and moved onto some other poor sap.

My second Wiimote (actually part of Tara's Christmas present) finally showed up in the mail while we were away. My order had gotten messed up last time and they shipped me a Nunchuk and classic controller. A quick email to their customer service and a couple days later I received notice that the Wiimote had been placed in the mail and to keep the erroneously shipped classic controller. I celebrated by downloading Street Fighter II for Virtual Console and playing it until the wee hours of the night/morning.

One day I'll get off my lazy ass and finally post a bunch of pictures. We've got some of Jamie and Rich (along with the rest of the gang) from the vacation along with a bunch of pictures of our trip to Saskatchewan that I promised so long ago.

But for now I'm going to go play with my Wii some more. Zelda and Hyrule are still in peril!

Wow

2007-01-08T15:37:00.000-08:00

So during the storms here the roof of BC Place Stadium collapsed (it was cloth, held up by air pressure). Someone was lucky enough to film it happening:

Sweet Cracker Sandwich, I Can See!

2007-01-04T23:13:00.000-08:00

We got our replacement TV today, so we can watch CSI (and pretty much everything else) in glorious HD again! Our PVR was set to record our favourite programs so we pretty much haven't really missed anything, we just have a crapload of stuff to go through now to get caught up.

Now I just have to move my Wii back downstairs so I can play in widescreen progressive scan again :)

FutureShop's insurance department is also freaking awesome. Booked an appointment, walked in, they had all the paperwork done, we just picked up a gift card for the replacement cost of the TV (they didn't have it in stock at the Broadway location, so we had to go to Kingsway to get it) and the replacement remote. I think it took longer to actually purchase the TV than it did to handle the insurance claim. So two thumbs up for Al at Reclaim (name of the insurance department)!

Oh, I got that "sweet cracker sandwich" thing from the comic strip "Get Fuzzy". The cat in it (Bucky, whom we name our cat after) used that and for some reason I find it hilarious.

Amazing Informational Video

2007-01-03T00:44:00.000-08:00

Is It New Years Yet?

2007-01-02T22:30:00.000-08:00

Woo, I'm back in Vancouver. Tara's still visiting her dad and sorting some stuff out, but they'll be down here before the weekend (hopefully tomorrow sometime). Surprisingly, the drive to and from Lloydminster wasn't too bad. Almost no snow (there was a bit heading into Jasper on the way that was gone when we came back) and light traffic. I guess people tend not to travel on Boxing Day and on whatever day it was when we came back. Overall, the trip was good, aside from the 3000km or so I put on the car in about a week.

Christmas was about as good as it was going to get. I got a remote control Zamboni (pics forthcoming since Tara still has the camera), a subscription to Jugheads Double Digest (sweet) and a bunch of other stuff. Apparently I may still have another present bar fridge for my desk at work still on the way, but it's gotta wait for Tara to get back.

Our townhouse was not broken into over the break, which made me happy, and my extra Wii controller/nunchuk came in the mail and was waiting for me at the post office. And to top it all off, the Canucks beat the Flames tonight, their fourth straight win and third straight against Calgary. Awesome. Nothing makes me happier than seeing Kiprusoff get scored on, except maybe seeing the Leafs lose. Iginla was also held pointless in the game, warranting a victory beer after the game.

So we're slowly moving past Tara's moms death, me more so than her, though, because she's still taking care of her stepdad. She'll be able to get back to her routine soon enough since he's going out to visit an old friend on Vancouver Island. I think that's going to help him lots, which is good.

Also, we should get our replacement TV this week. Then I can hook my Wii back up and start playing Zelda again, dammit (when Tara's not playing Rayman or Monkey Ball, that is)!

So look for pics of the trip in the coming days!

Merry Christmas

2006-12-24T19:07:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas, everyone!

We're back visiting Tara's step dad and sister right now. It's been stressful (really, I was expecting it to be) but I think Tara and her family are going to be alright, it may just take awhile. We haven't been getting much sleep because Tara's having trouble falling asleep and her step dad wakes up really early and we don't want to leave him alone right now.

We're going to be driving him to Lloydminster on Boxing Day so he can be with his sons (it's like a 15 hour drive, over 1000km). We both think he's going to start getting much better once we get there. It's going to be a long drive (going through the Rockies in winter should be fun) and we're pretty much going to be turning around and coming back as soon as we get there since I have to be at work January 2nd, but I completely think it's the best thing to do. I'm not worried about the drive at all, at least.

Rich and Jamie, thanks for calling. Tara really appreciated it and we're looking forward to seeing you in January. I got an email from Nintendo and my second Wiimote had shipped, so it's probably in our mailbox right now and we'll be getting our new TV pretty much as soon as we get back!

Apparently I've Been Tagged!

2006-12-21T00:50:00.000-08:00

I've been hit! So, six (6) things that are odd about me... Hmm, let me see.

I am ridiculously anal about formatting source code at work. It drives me batty when code blocks/braces don't line up nicely, so much so that I'll reformat the code so things look all pretty. On the plus side, people don't hate maintaining my code. My old boss used to find it hilarious.
I have really good hearing (I can hear our cat creeping up the stairs at night when he's hunting for exposed extremities), but I sometimes have trouble listening to people talking. Like there's too much background noise or something. Not all the time, though.
One of my teeth is smaller than the rest and grew in sideways. My dentist thinks I should leave it the way it is. She says it's a good luck charm. I also play with it with my tongue when I'm thinking, kinda like stroking a beard thoughtfully.
I'm a really shy person at heart. All through high school I had a hard time making friends because of my inability to talk to people. At my last job I worked from home and started to get quite antisocial. I'd avoid hanging out in large groups and any situation where I might have to talk to someone. Thankfully, I got laid off and I got a job at a huge corporation so I have to talk to people all the time. I still have trouble initiating conversation unless it's with someone I know quite well, but I've gotten much better in the last year and a half.
For some reason, one rule that has always stuck with me, all the way from elementary school, is that you shouldn't start multiple sentences in a row with the same word. I can't for the life of me remember when I was taught that, but I'll go out of my way to rework and reword entire paragraphs to avoid that. It makes writing technical briefs at work really fun.
I may be mildly OCD. I always brush my teeth the same way in the morning, running through my mental checklist to ensure that I got all the different areas. At the mall, I'll park in the same area so I won't lose my car. I'll take the same way to a place, regardless of whether or not Tara finds a more efficient/quicker way to go. It actually makes me upset when I break those routines.

I've got more stuff, but the requirement was for only 6 things, so that's all you get! It appears that I've run out of people to tag... I'll hold onto the opportunity for awhile until I find an unsuspecting victim.

Oh, and you know that Twisted Sister video down below there? I got the album. They made an entire Christmas album, the whole thing is available to listen to on their site. It's 100% pure awesome.

When It Rains, It Pours

2006-12-20T00:43:00.000-08:00

My mother-in-law passed away today. It happened suddenly during a hospital visit. She had been having health problems for quite some time and had been on some heart medication, which is why she was at the hospital today (having some blood tests done). They're not sure what that cause is yet, but apparently she had very thin "watery" blood.

This caps off a great fall for us. We moved at the beginning of September to our townhouse and had about a weeks notice that the move was a go. My mom came over to help and ended up falling down some stairs and hurt her ankle. At the time she thought is was just a sprain, but found out later it was a fracture and got a cast for a month. Shortly after the move, Tara's step-mother passed away due to liver failure. She had been on dialysis for a long time, so this wasn't a huge surprise, but it was still bad news. We made quick arrangements to fly back to Lloydminster to visit Tara's dad and attend the funeral.

Of course, during all this, I was working on the project from hell (aka: Sims 2 Pets PSP) and was under lots of stress at work and Tara had recently started at her new job, so there was stress there as well. Then our place got broken into and our TV got stolen. And then this.

Next year better be good.

Yay For Being Sick

2006-12-16T23:09:00.000-08:00

I thought I had managed to avoid it, but I finally succumbed to Tara's cold. Or maybe it was my coworker who's been sick since he got back from Chicago. At any rate, I felt like crap last night and most of today. Thankfully, I have this amazing ability to sleep as much as I need to when I do get sick. So I finally got out of bed at about 6:30pm today, feeling much better, to watch the Canucks game (we won, that's a whopping 3 game winning streak now). At least I'll be able to salvage some of the weekend, assuming I'm feeling better tomorrow... I still have to finish shopping for Christmas!

Last night was Tara's work party, down at Hotel Vancouver. It was pretty fun, although it probably would have been better if we weren't both sick. The people she works with are just a bit different than the people I work with, though. Maybe I'll finally get off my ass and post some pictures. We've got some good ones of Bucky, too. I can't help myself from taking pictures of him, he's a very photogenic cat.

Oh, and my replacement sensor bar for my Wii has shipped, so it should be here on Monday. We still don't have a replacement TV yet, so I still can't play it, but it's one step closer to me feeding my Zelda addiction again.

Getting Close to Christmas!

2006-12-13T23:14:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas! Here's a little Twisted Sister to get the yuletide festivities going!

Vancouver 5-0

2006-12-12T23:48:00.000-08:00

So the police stopped by today to check for prints. Looks like the guy was smart enough to wear gloves, but not smart enough to take the power cable for the TV. Anyway, talking to the building manager and apparently there was a rash of car break-ins yesterday to go with our home break-in. Tomorrow we get to do the whole insurance thing, so that should be exciting. Haha, the window they got in through is so "Canadian ghetto" now. We didn't have a piece of wood long enough to keep the window from opening, so we've got a hockey stick in there until we can get to Home Depot and pick up a piece of dowling or something.

No soccer today, either, as the gym we use is all decorated for a school function. As a consolation activity we went to the pub next to the school and drank while watching the end of the Canucks game (they won 5-2, believe it or not). There better be floor hockey on Thursday, dammit! It's funny how quickly you can become dependent on physical activity.

Blogosphere!

2006-12-12T02:00:00.000-08:00

I hate that word so much. For a techie guy, I can't stand so many of the tech phrases in use today. They just seem so forced. It actually makes me cringe when people use them. Who makes up these terms, anyway? It sure as hell isn't a programmer, that's for darn tootin'.

So my last project finally shipped: http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/psp/sims2pets. I can't believe it's actually on shelves; I thought it would never be done! So now it's on to my next project, which is as-yet unannounced (not that it'll be a big surprise when it is, though).

And last, but not least, I'd like to give a big "F U" to whomever it was that broke into our house and stole our TV. I can't play my Wii now because of you! However, I must say that I'm puzzled as to why you left the Wii there (component cables, Zelda and all), along with the power cable for the TV and it's remote. And everything else, for that matter.

Well, that's all that I've got for now. Maybe one day I'll work on a catch phrase to sign off with. Yeah, that'd be awesome!