I've been commuting to and from work and school for the past couple of years and man, there is a whole list of people who make the commute that much more painful. It's as if people get dumber and dumber the more of them you add to the mix. Here are some of my favorite commuters ...
1) The Aisle Seat Passenger - The passenger who sits in the isle seat on a crowded bus and doesn't move over when the window seat is vacant. Usually middle-aged ethnic women or white guys in their teens to mid-twenties. I haven't yet figured out a method to deal with these people that isn't too confrontational.
2) The Aisle Clogger - These ones vary in sex, race, and age which leads me to believe everyone does this. All the seats are taken and the standing passengers form a line in the aisle. But for some reason, many people don't move all the way to the back of the bus, instead choosing to stay at the rear doors and never move further back. On especially crowded occassions, the driver will have to take matters into his own hands and order them to move to the back. If the driver doesn't do this, the best way to deal with these people is to rudely shove by them, and make it seem like you're having a really tough time getting by them, so they get the hint.
3) The Backpackers - These range from highschool to college age students who wear their backpacks while standing in the aisle without any regard for the seated passengers, whom they might accidentally hit if they so much as turn around. Not to mention the extra room they'd take up. The way to deal with the Backpacker is to wait until they position themselves with their backpack hovering over your shoulder (assuming you are a seated passenger). And then rise from your seat with full force, throwing them slightly off balance. Sure you'll get decked with their bag, but seeing the look of shock on their faces might help them think twice about boarding a bus with their backpack still on, instead of setting it on the floor as they should.
4) The Impatients - These are people who never look before boarding a bus, to see if there are any alighting passengers exiting from the front. Instead they barge right on, getting in the way of anyone who wants off. The most common culprits are east Asians of both sexes and all ages. The best way to deal with these is to verbalize your displeasure with an irritated "Excuse me." Or if you are in a bad enough mood, a nice body check will get your message across clearly and concisely.
5) The Turtles - Ethnic old ladies and students of all races and sexes are the main culprits of this offence. You've seen them before. The skytrain doors open, ready to receive a long lineup of passengers and these people are always the first in line. They enter the skytrain and remain positioned by the doors, forcing the people behind them to squeeze by them, taking up precious time for all the passengers to get in. Those unlucky enough to be farther back in the lineup sometimes don't make it in at all and will have to wait for the next train. The solution? YELL at them to move or shove them as you're trying to "squeeze" through, knocking them out of the way for your fellow commuters behind you who are also trying to get into the train.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
At Work
I'm just starting to write this first paragraph at work so I want to make it snappy. Lol, just had to shut down the computer because Alex had a classifying issue with my last bug. I feel a little guilty typing this up at work but with only 5 minutes till lunch time, I don't feel so bad.
I started this entry at work but now it's 20 minutes to midnight and I can tell you it's been a long day. We actually made our bug count by about 2:30 yesterday. By the end of today we're between 7 and 8 hundred bugs, which has earned us our paid day off this Monday. Donovan doesn't get the day off because he joined our team but Pouyan does, so Donovan will be replacing him on the FIFA team that day.
Justin tried organizing a group of us to go to the Shark Club after work but nobody really wanted to go. I was in the mood for a beer so we just went, the two of us. Besides I think I still owe him for last time early in our final quarter when he bought me a jug of beer. We went to TD bank first to deposit our checks (payday today!) but I couldn't get mine cause apparently TD bank doesn't cash checks for people without an account with them. So I had to mooch more money off Justin, but it doesn't matter since I'll be paying him back on Wednesday when I get back to work.
It's Sunday morning, 4 in the morning as I'm writing this. Haven't gone to bed yet. Yesterday was a pretty eventful day though I didn't hang out with anyone. I woke up at 20 to 4 in the afternoon after being up all night last night. It was a really warm day today, to the point where it was even too warm for comfort in the house. After the parents got back from church, I headed down to the bank to deposit my check and then headed off to the mall to spend some money on something.
I knew the mall would be closed but I decided to head off to Future Shop to see what good deals on games I could find there. I thought about getting a PSP with Crisis Core. Been wanting to play that game. Heard it was bad, but as a FF freak, I figured I needed to buy it anyway. But after discovering the PSP itself was $170 bucks, decided against it. Sure, I technically have enough money but I don't feel comfortable shelling out that much money and another 40 bucks on top of that for Crisis Core, so I think I'll save up a little for it first. I ended up buying Silent Hill Origins for the PS2 instead. Just finished playing a round of that a couple minutes ago, and I'm enjoying it. I think I'll be getting Silent Hill 4 if it's as fun as this game is, maybe even 5. But the game I'm REALLY waiting for is Resident Evil 5. One of my reviewers on FF.net claims RE5 is coming out this Halloween though IGN says it'll be out December 09. It's got to be a mistake because I really can't wait that long. And one of the interviews with the developers of the game says it'll be out for March 09. I sure hope so because I don't think I can wait for over a year at this point! I've been waiting long enough!
I started this entry at work but now it's 20 minutes to midnight and I can tell you it's been a long day. We actually made our bug count by about 2:30 yesterday. By the end of today we're between 7 and 8 hundred bugs, which has earned us our paid day off this Monday. Donovan doesn't get the day off because he joined our team but Pouyan does, so Donovan will be replacing him on the FIFA team that day.
Justin tried organizing a group of us to go to the Shark Club after work but nobody really wanted to go. I was in the mood for a beer so we just went, the two of us. Besides I think I still owe him for last time early in our final quarter when he bought me a jug of beer. We went to TD bank first to deposit our checks (payday today!) but I couldn't get mine cause apparently TD bank doesn't cash checks for people without an account with them. So I had to mooch more money off Justin, but it doesn't matter since I'll be paying him back on Wednesday when I get back to work.
It's Sunday morning, 4 in the morning as I'm writing this. Haven't gone to bed yet. Yesterday was a pretty eventful day though I didn't hang out with anyone. I woke up at 20 to 4 in the afternoon after being up all night last night. It was a really warm day today, to the point where it was even too warm for comfort in the house. After the parents got back from church, I headed down to the bank to deposit my check and then headed off to the mall to spend some money on something.
I knew the mall would be closed but I decided to head off to Future Shop to see what good deals on games I could find there. I thought about getting a PSP with Crisis Core. Been wanting to play that game. Heard it was bad, but as a FF freak, I figured I needed to buy it anyway. But after discovering the PSP itself was $170 bucks, decided against it. Sure, I technically have enough money but I don't feel comfortable shelling out that much money and another 40 bucks on top of that for Crisis Core, so I think I'll save up a little for it first. I ended up buying Silent Hill Origins for the PS2 instead. Just finished playing a round of that a couple minutes ago, and I'm enjoying it. I think I'll be getting Silent Hill 4 if it's as fun as this game is, maybe even 5. But the game I'm REALLY waiting for is Resident Evil 5. One of my reviewers on FF.net claims RE5 is coming out this Halloween though IGN says it'll be out December 09. It's got to be a mistake because I really can't wait that long. And one of the interviews with the developers of the game says it'll be out for March 09. I sure hope so because I don't think I can wait for over a year at this point! I've been waiting long enough!
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
The job hunt continues ...
Well all is not lost. It's not like I was fired from QA at EA or anything. In fact things couldn't be better (now that I reread this, things probably could be alot better in life, but they couldn't be better in QA, anyway). We lost Pouyan yesterday to the FIFA team so the Face Breaker Wii team is just me, Dave, Adrian, and the new kid Donovan. Today was his first day on the QA team and he looked a little nervous. I guess its a little intimidating on your first day and you're not on the same team with anyone you've trained with. At least me, Dave and Pouyan knew each other somewhat beforehand. The deal with us is if we get another hundred bugs by Friday - that would be the day after tomorrow - we get a paid day off on Monday, which means 4 day weekend!
Originally the offer wasn't extended to us newbies but then Dave made a good point on how it wasn't fair for us to help contribute to the goal and not reap the rewards after. The original plan was we'd get the day off, but it'd be unpaid, which would defeat the whole purpose of having us work hard to earn that day off in the first place. Anyway after making some noise, Alex told Dave that he'd try and figure things out for us on our behalf. And Pouyan went to talk to Sanaz about it, and I was the only one who remained quiet about the situation. Adrian didn't have to worry about it cause he is a member of the old team who got pulled back, and Donovan hadn't joined the team yet. Whatever talking Dave did to Alex and Pouyan to Sanaz, it worked and we're getting that day paid for and off work - IF we can get another hundred or so bugs in by this Friday when the game reaches Alpha, so here's hoping.
Anyway so I decided to continue job hunting anyway. Figured it takes companies a good few weeks to get back to shortlisted applicants so if I apply now, I might be pleasantly surprised down the road. Not like I'm expecting a callback from Piranha about the concept artist position. Eric told me he applied too, but he doesn't think he's gonna get it. I'm pretty doubtful I'll get it either because there are alot of talented artists out there. Speaking of which, there's this guy who emailed me today I wanna talk about. But I fit their required bill quite nicely - even have experience modeling in Maya and graphic design. So here's hoping they take my abilities and portfolio into consideration. But if they don't, it's no big deal. I'm still trying to work my way into an EA development position. Which reminds me, I have to email Dan Chandler, EAC's version of Black Box's Amanda Pugh, about what it'd take to get into an artist position with EAC. Just play up the whole "i just want advice" deal. Then WHAM, show him my website and capabilities and he just might forward me to the development team for Face Breaker II. Gotta weasel my way in there.
Anyway the guy who emailed me today is named Spug Williams ... if I can recall the name correctly. Says he's seen my work on the polycount forums although I don't really remember him - its hard to remember all the people who post on there. But we talked on msn for abit and he showed me his website. Seriously WOW. I can't believe this guy has to resort to doing freelance work for Mark at Wikiatlas. With that kind of skill, he deserves so much more. But at the same time, it seems with the game industry, its the people who have connections who get the jobs over the people with talent. And having both is ideal! That's pretty much what I'm doing in QA after all. Don't get me wrong, its the easiest job for the most pay I've ever had, but I've got my sights set on something a little more ambitious but completely attainable at the moment.
Also, another thing I just considered today is this - say I do get this concept artist job with Piranha (or any other job at any other company). That means I'd be leaving EA when my contract ends. And after having the EAC experience, I'm not sure I'd want to work anywhere else - except Capcom of course, lol. Well, I won't even consider that yet. Chances are I didn't get the concept artist job, or the environment job with Slant Six. Oh yeah, I applied there too. Well, nothing wrong with getting your name out there even if you are employed, I guess.
Originally the offer wasn't extended to us newbies but then Dave made a good point on how it wasn't fair for us to help contribute to the goal and not reap the rewards after. The original plan was we'd get the day off, but it'd be unpaid, which would defeat the whole purpose of having us work hard to earn that day off in the first place. Anyway after making some noise, Alex told Dave that he'd try and figure things out for us on our behalf. And Pouyan went to talk to Sanaz about it, and I was the only one who remained quiet about the situation. Adrian didn't have to worry about it cause he is a member of the old team who got pulled back, and Donovan hadn't joined the team yet. Whatever talking Dave did to Alex and Pouyan to Sanaz, it worked and we're getting that day paid for and off work - IF we can get another hundred or so bugs in by this Friday when the game reaches Alpha, so here's hoping.
Anyway so I decided to continue job hunting anyway. Figured it takes companies a good few weeks to get back to shortlisted applicants so if I apply now, I might be pleasantly surprised down the road. Not like I'm expecting a callback from Piranha about the concept artist position. Eric told me he applied too, but he doesn't think he's gonna get it. I'm pretty doubtful I'll get it either because there are alot of talented artists out there. Speaking of which, there's this guy who emailed me today I wanna talk about. But I fit their required bill quite nicely - even have experience modeling in Maya and graphic design. So here's hoping they take my abilities and portfolio into consideration. But if they don't, it's no big deal. I'm still trying to work my way into an EA development position. Which reminds me, I have to email Dan Chandler, EAC's version of Black Box's Amanda Pugh, about what it'd take to get into an artist position with EAC. Just play up the whole "i just want advice" deal. Then WHAM, show him my website and capabilities and he just might forward me to the development team for Face Breaker II. Gotta weasel my way in there.
Anyway the guy who emailed me today is named Spug Williams ... if I can recall the name correctly. Says he's seen my work on the polycount forums although I don't really remember him - its hard to remember all the people who post on there. But we talked on msn for abit and he showed me his website. Seriously WOW. I can't believe this guy has to resort to doing freelance work for Mark at Wikiatlas. With that kind of skill, he deserves so much more. But at the same time, it seems with the game industry, its the people who have connections who get the jobs over the people with talent. And having both is ideal! That's pretty much what I'm doing in QA after all. Don't get me wrong, its the easiest job for the most pay I've ever had, but I've got my sights set on something a little more ambitious but completely attainable at the moment.
Also, another thing I just considered today is this - say I do get this concept artist job with Piranha (or any other job at any other company). That means I'd be leaving EA when my contract ends. And after having the EAC experience, I'm not sure I'd want to work anywhere else - except Capcom of course, lol. Well, I won't even consider that yet. Chances are I didn't get the concept artist job, or the environment job with Slant Six. Oh yeah, I applied there too. Well, nothing wrong with getting your name out there even if you are employed, I guess.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Life in EAQA
I've started eating regularly after 2 years of starving myself at AI, lol. As much as I sound like I'm joking, it's definitely weird feeling hungry and often. Every morning, I make a pit stop at EAt, which is the cafeteria at work. And I always have the same thing - two sausages, one hash brown, sometimes some bacon, and whatever the special of the day is. I still eat the lunch my mom packs for me and then when lunch time comes around, I go off and buy more food. And coffee ... having free Starbucks coffee in the office does NOTHING for my coffee consumption. Yeah, life in the office is definitely better than any other job I've had.
Training came to an end last Tuesday, and Wednesday was my first real day of work. I've got a workstation consisting of a TV, a computer monitor, a thin client server and a Nintendo Wii. The game I'm testing at work is FaceBreaker, a cartoony boxing game by EA but it's NOTHING like Fight Night. I can't discuss the details here due to the terms of my contract, but I will say it's a fun game. It's fun enough on the Wii, but graphically inferior when you compare it to the 360 and PS3 versions. If the controls are intuitive enough for fighting game fans on those versions, I just might consider getting that game. It's not due out until November so I've got some time to wait.
Our team testing the Wii edition of FaceBreaker seems to be newly formed. The previous team working on it was dispersed, sent off to work on other teams. So whatever work they did, we continued. And when I say we, I mean 5 of us including our assistant test coordinatior. Initially, 4 of us from our training group were assigned to the game but then one of them got transferred to another team, which left 3. Then we got a permanent replacement, which turned out to be another AI student who was supposed to graduate with me last quarter, but Jason failed him.
So there's the 5 of us now, including the ATC. Every morning after breakfast, I grab a vanilla flavored coffee from the in-house Starbucks and go outside for a smoke where I usually run into Sara, Matt, Tricia and George - the smoker crew of our training group, lol. I'd they the five of us have gotten to know each other relatively well ... better than the rest of the training group, anyway. Even after we've been split up into separate teams, we still meet outside during breaks.
First thing I do when work starts is sign out my copy of the game and start testing it. Any bugs I find, I'll submit it. This is besides the task list that's given to us - and the purpose of this task list as I understand it is to make sure everything is running fine. If there are any bugs found as a result of running those tasks, the bugs need to be linked to those tasks. During training, I found it really confusing at first, but now as I'm getting more practice, it's making more and more sense. When the first break comes, I meet up with the other smokers as usual and talk about nothing and everything at the same time. Break ends and I head back inside, make myself a coffee and get to work. And when lunch time comes around, I usually sit with whoever I can find. Sometimes its Mike (another character artist) and the smokers, and sometimes it's the usual AI crew (Shiach, Gray, Loi, Steve and Nearing). Then when its over, back to work. This repeats till the end of the day when I usually bus home with Sara - she lives in the Coquitlam/Port Moody area too.
Now that I'm recalling the past week, I'm realizing this is getting really routine, and there's really nothing much to talk about. Whatever bits of information I'm leaving out because of my contract isn't even really that exciting. I suppose I could go on about that too ... But knowing now that I've finally gotten my foot in the door at EA, I'm trying to decide what my options are for getting that artist job. They told us that EA hiring managers are more likely to look at Volt employees because they're familiar with the organization. But I haven't yet met anyone worth knowing who is directly employed by EA. My ATC is the one who writes up reports on my progress so he's the person I have to convince that I'm a good employee. Then if Sanaz is convinced I'm great, she'll forward me onto the EA hiring managers. That's a really long path *just* to get an interview. That's why I'm considering other options as well, which pretty much ends at going to whatever company meetings I'm allowed to show up to. Anyway, 3 days into my job, it's hard to say what I can do at this point. I'll have to get a feel of the job and the company a little more before I can decide what the next move should be. Till then, I'll be writing this blog up as usual.
Training came to an end last Tuesday, and Wednesday was my first real day of work. I've got a workstation consisting of a TV, a computer monitor, a thin client server and a Nintendo Wii. The game I'm testing at work is FaceBreaker, a cartoony boxing game by EA but it's NOTHING like Fight Night. I can't discuss the details here due to the terms of my contract, but I will say it's a fun game. It's fun enough on the Wii, but graphically inferior when you compare it to the 360 and PS3 versions. If the controls are intuitive enough for fighting game fans on those versions, I just might consider getting that game. It's not due out until November so I've got some time to wait.
Our team testing the Wii edition of FaceBreaker seems to be newly formed. The previous team working on it was dispersed, sent off to work on other teams. So whatever work they did, we continued. And when I say we, I mean 5 of us including our assistant test coordinatior. Initially, 4 of us from our training group were assigned to the game but then one of them got transferred to another team, which left 3. Then we got a permanent replacement, which turned out to be another AI student who was supposed to graduate with me last quarter, but Jason failed him.
So there's the 5 of us now, including the ATC. Every morning after breakfast, I grab a vanilla flavored coffee from the in-house Starbucks and go outside for a smoke where I usually run into Sara, Matt, Tricia and George - the smoker crew of our training group, lol. I'd they the five of us have gotten to know each other relatively well ... better than the rest of the training group, anyway. Even after we've been split up into separate teams, we still meet outside during breaks.
First thing I do when work starts is sign out my copy of the game and start testing it. Any bugs I find, I'll submit it. This is besides the task list that's given to us - and the purpose of this task list as I understand it is to make sure everything is running fine. If there are any bugs found as a result of running those tasks, the bugs need to be linked to those tasks. During training, I found it really confusing at first, but now as I'm getting more practice, it's making more and more sense. When the first break comes, I meet up with the other smokers as usual and talk about nothing and everything at the same time. Break ends and I head back inside, make myself a coffee and get to work. And when lunch time comes around, I usually sit with whoever I can find. Sometimes its Mike (another character artist) and the smokers, and sometimes it's the usual AI crew (Shiach, Gray, Loi, Steve and Nearing). Then when its over, back to work. This repeats till the end of the day when I usually bus home with Sara - she lives in the Coquitlam/Port Moody area too.
Now that I'm recalling the past week, I'm realizing this is getting really routine, and there's really nothing much to talk about. Whatever bits of information I'm leaving out because of my contract isn't even really that exciting. I suppose I could go on about that too ... But knowing now that I've finally gotten my foot in the door at EA, I'm trying to decide what my options are for getting that artist job. They told us that EA hiring managers are more likely to look at Volt employees because they're familiar with the organization. But I haven't yet met anyone worth knowing who is directly employed by EA. My ATC is the one who writes up reports on my progress so he's the person I have to convince that I'm a good employee. Then if Sanaz is convinced I'm great, she'll forward me onto the EA hiring managers. That's a really long path *just* to get an interview. That's why I'm considering other options as well, which pretty much ends at going to whatever company meetings I'm allowed to show up to. Anyway, 3 days into my job, it's hard to say what I can do at this point. I'll have to get a feel of the job and the company a little more before I can decide what the next move should be. Till then, I'll be writing this blog up as usual.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Job Search is Over
It didn't work out for me at Blue Castle, since I guess my characters weren't up to the hiring manager's standards. I suspect they went with GavImage, cause I saw on the Polycount forums that he managed to get a job as a character artist there, so most likely I was actually up against him. In that case, there is no way I would've gotten the job over him since he is among the best I have ever seen.
On the other hand, I am feeling quite abit put off by that company. I was interviewing for a junior artist position. And yet I lost the job to someone experienced. A junior is someone who ISN'T experienced. Anyway, I don't really want to talk about Blue Castle anymore since it's starting to put me in a foul mood and right now I'm feeling anything but foul.
Andrew left early this morning for Winnipeg. Hung out with him last night even though I was exhausted from work (up since four in the morning). Went for Pho with Lee earlier that day. I was actually supposed to meet up with them around six, but forgot there was a presentation at AI by Microsoft Game Studios. Yes, I already have a job but it's not like I want to stay in QA forever, so I decided to check out the presentation and see what it's all about. MGS seems like a really great place to work. They don't seem to be very particular about skill sets when looking for a character artist - just things character artists should already know and they should be good at it. The thought of doing another character right now is making me sick, especially since I have a Wild West Town and a car on the go (and some more finishing touches on my previous projects. I can't say anything is 100% complete at this point).
I started training last Wednesday as a "WorldWide" QA member for EA's quality assurance team. I've been training and haven't actually gotten to see the labs or meet the team yet but that comes next week. I have to say it's quite disappointing to spend so long working hard as an artist and not getting an artist job because I'm not intermediate enough as a character artist ... even though I did it knowing full well this would happen. Nonetheless I still quite enjoy the fact I've actually got a job my foot in the door with EA and I have an opportunity to move up from there. I just have to work hard at bug testing, lol.
Having a regular daytime job is forcing me to sleep at regular times, which is something I could use since I've been sleeping at odd hours for a long time now, and I can actually appreciate the meaning of a weekend now. At the same time, having a full time job takes alot of time away from working on my portfolio. That is replaced by actually having an in with EA. So I guess it makes up for it. Well, I'd still like some time to do art since I'd be doing it if I was working in the industry or not.
On the other hand, I am feeling quite abit put off by that company. I was interviewing for a junior artist position. And yet I lost the job to someone experienced. A junior is someone who ISN'T experienced. Anyway, I don't really want to talk about Blue Castle anymore since it's starting to put me in a foul mood and right now I'm feeling anything but foul.
Andrew left early this morning for Winnipeg. Hung out with him last night even though I was exhausted from work (up since four in the morning). Went for Pho with Lee earlier that day. I was actually supposed to meet up with them around six, but forgot there was a presentation at AI by Microsoft Game Studios. Yes, I already have a job but it's not like I want to stay in QA forever, so I decided to check out the presentation and see what it's all about. MGS seems like a really great place to work. They don't seem to be very particular about skill sets when looking for a character artist - just things character artists should already know and they should be good at it. The thought of doing another character right now is making me sick, especially since I have a Wild West Town and a car on the go (and some more finishing touches on my previous projects. I can't say anything is 100% complete at this point).
I started training last Wednesday as a "WorldWide" QA member for EA's quality assurance team. I've been training and haven't actually gotten to see the labs or meet the team yet but that comes next week. I have to say it's quite disappointing to spend so long working hard as an artist and not getting an artist job because I'm not intermediate enough as a character artist ... even though I did it knowing full well this would happen. Nonetheless I still quite enjoy the fact I've actually got a job my foot in the door with EA and I have an opportunity to move up from there. I just have to work hard at bug testing, lol.
Having a regular daytime job is forcing me to sleep at regular times, which is something I could use since I've been sleeping at odd hours for a long time now, and I can actually appreciate the meaning of a weekend now. At the same time, having a full time job takes alot of time away from working on my portfolio. That is replaced by actually having an in with EA. So I guess it makes up for it. Well, I'd still like some time to do art since I'd be doing it if I was working in the industry or not.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
June 5th & 6th, 2008: Weird Trip Down Memory Lane
I've always wanted to see Ava again. Before Andrew even came back, I had actually looked her phone number up in the phone book, dialed it, only to find it was disconnected. I was wondering what was going on, especially since the last I heard, things weren't going to good for them. And it wasn't like I could have just called up Matt to ask. Not that it was any business of mine to begin with, but I just wanted to know. I mean this was the lady who happily took us into her home when we were children and made food for us, for five odd years.
Anyway when me and Andrew were hanging out, I told him that I would have liked to see Ava again and to my surprise, the considered going all the way to their place to check it out. I thought it was great since I would've never bothered to go all the way out there not knowing whether she was home or not, but if Andrew was willing to drive, I thought it was worth a shot.
As we were driving there, he started having doubts. With good reason too. I could see how weird it would be if my son's two best friends suddenly showed up at my door years after not seeing them. But I legitimately wanted to know how she was doing and somehow managed to convince Andrew, even after all the doubts he was having, that it'd be fine.
We went around the back to try and figure out which house was theirs going by the car (I know, acting like stalkers) but we couldn't find their car in the driveway so we decided to see if there were any telltale props at the front of the house to be able to tell which one was theirs. Then we found the house with a tin boat and that was the telltale prop for me.
It was nerve racking as we stepped up to the door and I rang the doorbell. I wasn't sure if ti was the right house, what if she no longer lived there, what if she didn't recognize us, what if she did and thought we were stalkers for showingup at her door after so long? She didn't come to the door at first so I reached out and rang the doorbell again and behind me, I could tell Andrew was silently praying that she wasn't home. But then the door opened and Ava pokes her head through. I was the first to say something.
"Ava." I say happily. And she just had this look of "who the hell are you" on her face.
So I had to tell her my name and Andrew told her his and we both said "Matt's friends" and suddenly she knew. And christ, the woman seemed incredibly happy to see us. Opened up the door and told us to come in. She took us upstairs to where their living room was and couldn't stop talking, made us coffee, updated us on her life (after we did the same) and that of all the family members.
Apparently grandpa had a heart attack but managed to survive. But as a result this year he won't be taking his yearly 6 month trips to Croatia by himself (Ava theorizes it's to get away from Nona who was the one responsible for giving him the heart attack in the first place, lol). Lino is working in Richmond, Maggie is working in the medical department at UBC and going to school there while Matt is living on his own with housemates. He's engaged to Nicole Wright, of all peopple (where the hell did she pop out of after all these years?!). Ava also gave us Matt's number and encouraged us to call him. After me and Andrew said our goodbyes to her, we had another smoke outside the house by the elementary school, and Andrew did the craziest thing.
He called Matt. After 4 years of not seeing him, after deciding that he wasn't a friend of ours, Andrew decides to pick up the phone and call him anyway just to see how he's doing cause he's feeling "nostalgic" after that meeting with Ava. I thought Andrew was crazy. There was no way Matt would receive us warmly years after we'd written him off. But surprisingly, they managed to organize a dinner for us the next day. Andrew said he was feeling pretty good about it and it would be nice to see Matt again. I still thought he was crazy.
The next day we left at around 5, got a quick coffee and Starbucks before going downtown to grab Matt. We were kind of apprehensive at this point, not sure what to expect. But everything turned out pretty good. Went to Matt's house, met his room mates - and he introduced us as being his best friends from elementary school which was more or less accurate. And here we were visting him more than ten years after the fact. We went to a nearby bar with Nicole and the four of us sat around for dinner and a couple beers talking about all the times (good and bad) we went through at Heritage Mountain Elementary. Matt explained to us the full story behind Ava which I won't repeat here, but the situation was pretty bad. Found out that in the few years we hadn't seen Nicole, she went to photography school and is currently studying computer programming. We talked abit about photoshop technicalities and typographic basics while Andrew and Matt talked about saving the world through the medical field and environmental preservation. Now that I reflect, years ago we probably would've been talking about irrelevent stupid high school shit which is amazing considering what growing up does.
The night ended well, dropped Matt and Nicole off at his house and I went with Andrew to Starbucks. It was good seeing them both again after so long.
Anyway when me and Andrew were hanging out, I told him that I would have liked to see Ava again and to my surprise, the considered going all the way to their place to check it out. I thought it was great since I would've never bothered to go all the way out there not knowing whether she was home or not, but if Andrew was willing to drive, I thought it was worth a shot.
As we were driving there, he started having doubts. With good reason too. I could see how weird it would be if my son's two best friends suddenly showed up at my door years after not seeing them. But I legitimately wanted to know how she was doing and somehow managed to convince Andrew, even after all the doubts he was having, that it'd be fine.
We went around the back to try and figure out which house was theirs going by the car (I know, acting like stalkers) but we couldn't find their car in the driveway so we decided to see if there were any telltale props at the front of the house to be able to tell which one was theirs. Then we found the house with a tin boat and that was the telltale prop for me.
It was nerve racking as we stepped up to the door and I rang the doorbell. I wasn't sure if ti was the right house, what if she no longer lived there, what if she didn't recognize us, what if she did and thought we were stalkers for showingup at her door after so long? She didn't come to the door at first so I reached out and rang the doorbell again and behind me, I could tell Andrew was silently praying that she wasn't home. But then the door opened and Ava pokes her head through. I was the first to say something.
"Ava." I say happily. And she just had this look of "who the hell are you" on her face.
So I had to tell her my name and Andrew told her his and we both said "Matt's friends" and suddenly she knew. And christ, the woman seemed incredibly happy to see us. Opened up the door and told us to come in. She took us upstairs to where their living room was and couldn't stop talking, made us coffee, updated us on her life (after we did the same) and that of all the family members.
Apparently grandpa had a heart attack but managed to survive. But as a result this year he won't be taking his yearly 6 month trips to Croatia by himself (Ava theorizes it's to get away from Nona who was the one responsible for giving him the heart attack in the first place, lol). Lino is working in Richmond, Maggie is working in the medical department at UBC and going to school there while Matt is living on his own with housemates. He's engaged to Nicole Wright, of all peopple (where the hell did she pop out of after all these years?!). Ava also gave us Matt's number and encouraged us to call him. After me and Andrew said our goodbyes to her, we had another smoke outside the house by the elementary school, and Andrew did the craziest thing.
He called Matt. After 4 years of not seeing him, after deciding that he wasn't a friend of ours, Andrew decides to pick up the phone and call him anyway just to see how he's doing cause he's feeling "nostalgic" after that meeting with Ava. I thought Andrew was crazy. There was no way Matt would receive us warmly years after we'd written him off. But surprisingly, they managed to organize a dinner for us the next day. Andrew said he was feeling pretty good about it and it would be nice to see Matt again. I still thought he was crazy.
The next day we left at around 5, got a quick coffee and Starbucks before going downtown to grab Matt. We were kind of apprehensive at this point, not sure what to expect. But everything turned out pretty good. Went to Matt's house, met his room mates - and he introduced us as being his best friends from elementary school which was more or less accurate. And here we were visting him more than ten years after the fact. We went to a nearby bar with Nicole and the four of us sat around for dinner and a couple beers talking about all the times (good and bad) we went through at Heritage Mountain Elementary. Matt explained to us the full story behind Ava which I won't repeat here, but the situation was pretty bad. Found out that in the few years we hadn't seen Nicole, she went to photography school and is currently studying computer programming. We talked abit about photoshop technicalities and typographic basics while Andrew and Matt talked about saving the world through the medical field and environmental preservation. Now that I reflect, years ago we probably would've been talking about irrelevent stupid high school shit which is amazing considering what growing up does.
The night ended well, dropped Matt and Nicole off at his house and I went with Andrew to Starbucks. It was good seeing them both again after so long.
日本語で
僕は日本語をよく使わないんだから、練習するために今度使っています。 十四歳時、中学の一年に初めて勉強してた。 その前、八年で中国語を勉強してた。毎週、土曜日の朝早く起きなければならなかった。授業は九時から十二時半までだった。だから僕は子供時に毎週六日に学校
に行かないとだめだった。高学(この漢字は正しいかわからない)に受けてすぐに中国語の勉強をやめた。
でもお母さんは僕がどんなのアジア語を勉強するのがほしかった。あの時まで日本語のこと全然知らなかった。僕の日本語の勉強は十四歳から十八歳まで。六年前、日本の文化と言語をべんきょうに大阪へ行った。四週間で坂ファミリーと泊まってた。その家族に五人がいた。お父さん(直樹)、 お母さん(伸子)、 お兄さん(広樹、十九歳)、 お姉さん(直美、 二十一歳)、 妹 (佳美、十四歳)。皆僕に心切にしてくれた。週末に野球ゲームとUSJと奈良に遊びに行った。それとも映画を見に行って、いろんなレストランで食べに行った。毎週の月曜日から金曜日まで授業があった。毎週二回藤本さんは皆を特別な所へもってくれた (文法はここにめっちゃ違うかもしれない)。
これまでは「桃山大学プダグラスカレージ留学生プログラム」って言う。その次は「京都外国語大学留学生プログラム」と言う。このプログラムは一週間でホスオファミリー家で泊まって、そして二週間でアパートで泊まる。私のホストファミリーは高畑家族だった。その時にお父さん(彼の名前も直樹だけど書き方が俺は分からない) が働いてたから会えなかったんだ。お母さんの名前を忘れてしまったけど本当に料理できました。お姉さんは私一緒学校の学生麻姫と言う。弟は私と同じ年俊介君と呼ばれた。その一週間後、アパートで泊まった。食べ物とか飲物とか買えるため、皆は学校に二万円を送らせた。
に行かないとだめだった。高学(この漢字は正しいかわからない)に受けてすぐに中国語の勉強をやめた。
でもお母さんは僕がどんなのアジア語を勉強するのがほしかった。あの時まで日本語のこと全然知らなかった。僕の日本語の勉強は十四歳から十八歳まで。六年前、日本の文化と言語をべんきょうに大阪へ行った。四週間で坂ファミリーと泊まってた。その家族に五人がいた。お父さん(直樹)、 お母さん(伸子)、 お兄さん(広樹、十九歳)、 お姉さん(直美、 二十一歳)、 妹 (佳美、十四歳)。皆僕に心切にしてくれた。週末に野球ゲームとUSJと奈良に遊びに行った。それとも映画を見に行って、いろんなレストランで食べに行った。毎週の月曜日から金曜日まで授業があった。毎週二回藤本さんは皆を特別な所へもってくれた (文法はここにめっちゃ違うかもしれない)。
これまでは「桃山大学プダグラスカレージ留学生プログラム」って言う。その次は「京都外国語大学留学生プログラム」と言う。このプログラムは一週間でホスオファミリー家で泊まって、そして二週間でアパートで泊まる。私のホストファミリーは高畑家族だった。その時にお父さん(彼の名前も直樹だけど書き方が俺は分からない) が働いてたから会えなかったんだ。お母さんの名前を忘れてしまったけど本当に料理できました。お姉さんは私一緒学校の学生麻姫と言う。弟は私と同じ年俊介君と呼ばれた。その一週間後、アパートで泊まった。食べ物とか飲物とか買えるため、皆は学校に二万円を送らせた。
About to head into work
I've been working for Mark for about 2 months now. At first I thought getting paid 14 an hour US for making tiling textures was easy money and I shouldn't have a problem doing it. But turns out, I actually hate what I'm doing. The rate I procrastinate is crazy and I could really get those textures into him alot sooner than I actually do. But repeating textures is just dead boring work, nevermind that I never see them applied to any live models. I don't know what the software is exactly that he's working on, but my guess is it's a simulation software since he talks about what the "user" is able to do. My work ethic with this project absolutely sucks and it makes me feel more guilty that he appreciates me enough to want to extend the contract.
Jacob from Volt called last Wednesday but I was out meeting Garrett. He wants to launch an add campaign for Innovative called "No More Paper" and consulted with my about some marketing ideas. I have no qualms with the suggestions he's made but coming up with a whole advertising campaign is bigger than anything I've ever done, graphic design wise. I understand what he wants to say, I know what he wants to do to spread the word but as for HOW we get the message out there, I can't think of anything. And as a matter of fact, Garrett was throwing out more ideas than I was. I'm tempted to let him do all the creative work while I just sit back and slap the marketing pieces together but clearly that's not why he brought me on board. At the end of the day, I forwarded the notes I wrote down during our previous phone conversation and he told me he'd talk over the ideas we generated with Aita. Haven't heard back from him yet.
So I didn't end up getting the phone call Jacob meant for me.The next morning sometime I called Vaughn (Jacob had left on vacation) who told me I was scheduled to start the following Wednesday. I'm relieved to finally have found a job that'll help in my career and not get me falling back in on graphic design. Sure it's QA, but at least it's within the games industry and I'll be working directly with EA employees. I look at it as a 3 month interview with EA as opposed to a 20 minute sit down interview. I keep repeating this to myself since I'm still sore over the fact that I've yet to land an artist job. I realize none of it is my fault and that character art is far rarer and more competitive of a field to get into than environment art, that and combined with the fact I don't have an environment reel ... anyway I'm not gonna delve into that. Important thing is I'm doing what I can in my job search, and simultaneously working on multiple environment pieces to throw on the website. I just have to keep this up and my portfolio will be that much bigger by the time I'm finished with Volt.
All in all, I'm pretty relieved to have something within the games industry. Doesn't even have to be an artist position (I realize I'd even be happy as a graphic designer in the marketing department for EA or another design studio). It might be the longer route, but it's better than taking the wrong turn altogether.
Jacob from Volt called last Wednesday but I was out meeting Garrett. He wants to launch an add campaign for Innovative called "No More Paper" and consulted with my about some marketing ideas. I have no qualms with the suggestions he's made but coming up with a whole advertising campaign is bigger than anything I've ever done, graphic design wise. I understand what he wants to say, I know what he wants to do to spread the word but as for HOW we get the message out there, I can't think of anything. And as a matter of fact, Garrett was throwing out more ideas than I was. I'm tempted to let him do all the creative work while I just sit back and slap the marketing pieces together but clearly that's not why he brought me on board. At the end of the day, I forwarded the notes I wrote down during our previous phone conversation and he told me he'd talk over the ideas we generated with Aita. Haven't heard back from him yet.
So I didn't end up getting the phone call Jacob meant for me.The next morning sometime I called Vaughn (Jacob had left on vacation) who told me I was scheduled to start the following Wednesday. I'm relieved to finally have found a job that'll help in my career and not get me falling back in on graphic design. Sure it's QA, but at least it's within the games industry and I'll be working directly with EA employees. I look at it as a 3 month interview with EA as opposed to a 20 minute sit down interview. I keep repeating this to myself since I'm still sore over the fact that I've yet to land an artist job. I realize none of it is my fault and that character art is far rarer and more competitive of a field to get into than environment art, that and combined with the fact I don't have an environment reel ... anyway I'm not gonna delve into that. Important thing is I'm doing what I can in my job search, and simultaneously working on multiple environment pieces to throw on the website. I just have to keep this up and my portfolio will be that much bigger by the time I'm finished with Volt.
All in all, I'm pretty relieved to have something within the games industry. Doesn't even have to be an artist position (I realize I'd even be happy as a graphic designer in the marketing department for EA or another design studio). It might be the longer route, but it's better than taking the wrong turn altogether.
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