1st Day

First of all, I made the playlist on the right a few days ago but the service was down. It's a playlist of songs I listened to on my drive out here, and been listening to a bit since I got out here. Very "life is changing" songs.

So today was my first day at Bioware. I can honestly say it's the best job anyone's ever had anywhere. Ever.

Woke up at 7:30 AM! That's a new one for me. Had my morning smoke outside while I watched the sunrise. Then I caught a ride to work with Bill.

Today was mostly training and paperwork. It was me and 3 other new guys. Nathan, Pieter (his last name is Parker... Spiderman!) and... Can't remember the other dude's name. We waited in a meeting room and played 360 and PS3 on big LCD tvs. There were posters everywhere of Bioware games, framed articles from the best video game magazines about their games and interviews with some of the staff I'd be working with.

Met my mentor Richard who showed me the ropes. It was cool meeting the people, in person, who are responsible for some of the best games Chad ever played...

Come lunch the senior staff, including my cousin, took us noobs out to lunch. Went to an awesome Asian place called OPM. We ordered tons of food and all just talked about video games and other nerdy stuff. Loved it.

For the second half of the day we started setting up our computers at work. We had to do an initial build update which takes hours, so while we waited we just went on Facebook, MSN, etc... We're allowed to use those things all the time at work, so long as we're focussing on work. I chatted with Kyra, Chad and Craig on MSN while it updated. When it was almost done it failed and I had to restart. So I didn't get to do much, kinda disappointing.

At 4:30 all the staff suddenly burst through the door with all kinds of nerf guns, including a gattling gun, and we got seriously hazed. For like 5 minutes we were chased around the office taking a shit load of nerf bullets to the face. Funny stuff.

Towards the end of my shift the update finally completed and I got to try the game I'll be testing, Dragon Age. Only got to play for 10 minutes before the day was over though. Hopefully tomorrow I can get some more hands on stuff instead of just browsing the net and chatting.

Bill wasn't quite ready to go so I hung out in the AMAZING staff lounge. A wall full of arcade games and a pinball machine, all free. A tv with all the systems on it. Ping Pong table, pool table, etc... Awesome. And a really nice smoker's balcony.It was an awesome first day. It doesn't feel like work, cause when I come home I do the same thing. Work on some project with MSN and facebook open on the side, periodically going out for a smoke. I work with a ton of cool people, and we all joke around about the same stuff. I work in an office where it's perfectly acceptable to chase each other around with Nerf guns (it's a big thing, there's an ongoing nerf war). I got home and realized how backwards it was that I was counting down how long till I could go back!I love my job.

P.S. We got these cool pass cards that we wave infront of a sensor to unlock our doors. Lots if sensitive I.P. (Intellectual Property for those of you who don't know... lol) and secret stuff. Makes me feel all important. Goes right to my head, lol. It's hanging off my belt in one of those cool little zip line things. And you get a pleasant little beep as the door unlocks.