Sometimes, it’s weird how a small change can cascade into a big one. Ended up changing something big based on the way something really small didn’t work out the way certain people expected, and it could have lasting, and large-scale ramifications on the game. It’ll be interesting to see if this goes through, because for me, it’s something that I’ve been pretty unhappy with. I got handed the system as it was, and something had always bugged me about it. I knew what it was, but since it had gone through so much review, it didn’t seem like the kind of thing that I could change, since it had been passed to me as-is. Still, one thing that people really wanted simply wouldn’t have worked as designed, and because that thing was broken, it leads to the opportunity to see if I can make larger-scale changes for the better. Keeping things as straightforward as possible, naturally, but it definitely makes things interesting… er. Interestinger.

EA
Originally uploaded by helava

I’ve got a great cube, overlooking EA’s football-sized field. When it’s nice out, I can roll up the blinds completely, and bask in the sun. On top of that, because of the way the cubes were laid out, I’ve essentially got about 20 sq. ft more than anyone else around me. It’s a cube, but for a cube, it’s pretty rad. Exactly where I sit’s on the second floor, about the middle of the photo.

Saw Sin City again tonight, and it was as stunning as it was before. This time, rather than really marvelling at the technical beauty of it, I got to sit and watch the stories unfold, and try to watch them for how they were in the movie, rather than how I remembered them in the stories.

I know this is weird, but Mickey Rourke’s performance as Marv is, to me, Oscar-worthy.

There were some really weak performances, most notably Brittany Murphy, but also to a lesser degree, Jessica Alba – though she does a pretty good job, Nancy Callahan is, in the comics, essentially the perfect woman, and as good a job as she does, there’s no real way to compete with the “real thing.”

All in all, though, both the fidelity, and the quality of the movie is astonishing – just a fantastic film all around.

I’ve discovered that I can do two things simultaneously pretty well. Three things, and things begin to drop out of my mental queue. Four things, and I start faltering on bits and pieces of virtually everything. Five things, and I might as well not be doing anything at all.

Recently, I’ve managed to focus down to two things, and I’m having a really good time with ’em. I’ve got two other things that I’ve had to essentially force into the periphery, but it’s ok, because I’m not really critical on one of ’em, and on the other, there’s not much to do. As long as things stay that way, I’m good to go. If they change, and either of them suddenly becomes as important as either of my two primary tasks, I’m fucked.

Still, I’m definitely enjoying work, and I’m actually *really* enjoying the fact that Ei-Nyung’s been working late, because it gives me some time when no one else is around (or few people, anyway) to actually get stuff done without distraction. So that’s nice. The downside is that Mobius is alone the next two weeks, but I think he’ll be ok – I’ve been actively playing with him, trying to tire him out more, so though I’m sure it’s just a drop in the bucket, hopefully he’s at least having some fun. Maybe Monte will come over tomorrow.

Mmm. Property tax. Fun fun. Check’s going into the mail tomorrow. Gotta love it.

wowzers. Quite a haul this year. Got a PSP, two Calphalon pans, The Incredibles, America’s Test Kitchen Live!, and best of all, three copies of my 24 hour comic, printed up in book form.

The pans are great, The Incredibles is hilarious, the ATK book is excellent, and the comics are a wonderful keepsake.

The PSP, though, is the surprise of the bunch for me. I knew, once Lumines was announced, that I’d have to have it. Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s games are system-sellers for me, and Lumines is no disappointment. Fundamentally relatively simple, but very fulfilling, and just a great experience all around. Now, the question is what’s next? Untold Legends isn’t supposed to be all that great, but three people at work have it, and are looking for a fourth to play with. Wipeout Pure looks really fun, and Metal Gear Ac!d looks like it could be quite interesting. Any of the EA games would be cheaper (for me), but neither of the two currently available really blows me away.

But yeah – the PSP’s a wonder – ergonomically, it’s everything the DS should have been but isn’t, and the screen is *gorgeous*. The speakers completely stink, but with headphones, the audio is quite good. The discs are curious – I expected they’d have a minidisc-like enclosure, but strangely, they’re actually open to the air. I’m worried that they’re going to get full of crapulence, and that having that cover is actually going to be worse than better. We’ll see, though. I’m definitely more impressed than I thought I would be, that’s for sure.

So. 29 years old, in a couple hours. Pretty odd, I think. I can’t say I really think of age, one way or another, with the exception that in my mind, I’m still ~26ish. So it’s a little odd to realize that I’m on the cusp of 30. Am I happy with what I’ve done? Do I think I’m where I’d be when I was say, 18 looking forward to 30?

I used to use thirty as a benchmark, because my dad was 30 when my parents had me.

I suppose next year, I’ll be able to figure out how different my perception was from reality. If I have to look at it now, I don’t think it’s that off – by next year, I expect to be more or less where I thought I’d be. Very different, in terms of employment, but apart from that? Well on my way.

… and so, back to square one. All three windows are leaking again. Mind you, the rain today was *insane*, but still. Not good news.

Gah. So the bedroom window still leaks – that’s sort of a given. But the living room windows were looking fine, and one of them still does. But the middle window had one single drip of water after last night’s bizarre weather, and as a result, “still leaks”.

Fuck.

It’s about as close as you can get to not leaking, but still be leaking. Literally, a single drop of water that hadn’t even fallen from the frame, but was hanging there when I checked the window. One drop. Argh.

It’s weird – I’ve got essentially … one main job, one secondary job which was one person’s main job before he quit, and essentially another fistful of *other* tasks to do that are essentially support for other people. AND I’m taking care of a coworker’s tasks while he’s out on a long-scheduled vacation that his manager didn’t know about, and had fully scheduled him for. Fun!

I suppose that’s what I’ve ended up doing at all my other jobs. At Sega, I was doing the work of at least three people, while also working two other jobs. At Fox Group, I didn’t do multiple people’s worth of work, but I did a huge variety of random stuff – enough so that it would have been difficult to find one person who could have done all the stuff I was doing. It’s just strange – I know a lot of people do a lot of different things at work, but I think that looking around, I’m definitely doing a wider variety of stuff than most. Which is good, and I enjoy it, with one exception:

If it were just the work, I think I’d really enjoy it. But because I’m essentially doing three people’s work right now, I’m beholden to a number of different managers, and schedules, and the *meetings* take up so much of my time, I’ve taken to actually scheduling chunks of time so that I can work on a single thing at once, without being rescheduled for other meetings. It’s *crazy*.

Entertaining, though, and fulfilling, so long as I can keep my head above water… 😛

Two things:

food.helava.com

and

… the housemates, Ei-Nyung & I all watched the last two episodes of MI-5 tonight. If you haven’t seen it, it’s essentially a spy thriller that originally aired on the BBC. Imagine Alias, without the ridiculousnes, with a hundred times more intelligent writing, and that’s more or less what you have. It’s topical, it’s interesting, and most of all, totally, totally engrossing. Maybe it’s the difference between 1 hour and 44 minute episodes (BBC = no commercials), but they pack *so* much content into a single show, it feels like you’re watching three or four regular American shows. That, and the end-of-season episode is astonishing. The kind of episode that it’s almost impossible to believe was shown with a several month break between episodes. A Sylvester Stallone, if you will.

So, of course now I’ve gotta go get the second season of MI-5, which is finally out on DVD.