Windows 7 has an awesome feature of autoscrolling through wallpapers. I have mine set to change every half hour and it does a nice crossfade. I love Windows 7. If anyone has Windows 7 and wants a copy of theme let me know! I’m loving Windows 7!
And now for something completely different:
My solution to getting a virus was get a new OS. To do this I had to download a Windows 7 disc to boot from. Unfortunately the virus was rebooting my computer every 15 minutes at most, so I had to continually restart the download. Fortunately I had Batman on 360 to keep me occupied (awesome game). After 2 straight days of babysitting the download it completed, then I had to fix my DVD burner, and then burn a copy of the disc and hope the virus wouldn’t reboot the PC in the middle of the disc burning. But it got through, I installed Windows 7, and everything is good again! It feels good to have a clean OS, after totally formatting my C:\ drive.
Life has not been going great lately. Seems everything is falling apart all at once. I can’t / don’t want to get into too much detail, but all at once I’ve found out my chances at getting fulltime at work any time soon are slim to none, I’ve come into some major financial woes, I’ve been sick for almost 2 weeks and my computer just got a brutal virus forcing me to reinstall Windows (downloading Windows 7 right now). Not a good time lately.
Of course I will stay the course. I’ll continue to work my hardest and hope somehow I am rewarded, and I become the exception to the incredible odds against me at getting full time and the career of my dreams, I will somehow find a way through these tough financial times, though I certainly can’t count on a pay increase through full time, if anything I should start planning on what to do during my mandatory 3 months off between contracts… I’ll eventually get over this sickness, and I’ll reinstall windows.
It’s just hard not to get downtrodden at a time like this.
When Death met the philosopher, the philosopher said, rather excitedly: "At this point, you realize, I'm both dead and not dead."
There was a sigh from Death. Oh dear, one of those, he thought. This is going to be about quantum again. He hated dealing with philosophers. They always tried to wriggle out of it.
"You see," said the philosopher, while Death, motionless, watched the sands of his life drain through the hourglass, "everything is made of tiny particles, which have the strange property of being in many places at one time. But things made of tiny particles tend to stay in one place at one time, which does not seem right according to quantum theory. May I continue?"
YES, BUT NOT INDEFINITELY, said Death, EVERYTHING IS TRANSIENT. He did not take his gaze away from the tumbling sand.
"Well, then, if we agreed that there are an infinite number of universes, then the problem is solved! If there are an unlimited number of universes, this bed can be in millions of them, all at the same time!"
DOES IT MOVE?
"What?
Death nodded at the bed. CAN YOU FEEL IT MOVING? he said.
"No, because there are a million versions of me, too, And...here is the good bit ...in some of them I am not about to pass away! Anything is possible!"
Death tapped the handle of his scythe as he considered this.
AND YOUR POINT IS...?
"Well, I'm not exactly dying, correct? You are no longer such a certainty."
There was a sigh from Death. Space he thought. That was the trouble. It was never like this on worlds with everlastingly cloudy skies. But once humans saw all that space, their brains expanded to try and fill it up.
"No answer, eh?" said the dying philosopher. "Feel a bit old-fashioned, do we?"
THIS IS A CONUNDRUM CERTAINLY, said Death. Once they prayed, he thought. Mind you, he'd never been sure that prayer worked, either. He thought for a while. AND I SHALL ANSWER IT IN THIS MANNER, he added. YOU LOVE YOUR WIFE?
"What?"
THE LADY WHO HAS BEEN LOOKING AFTER YOU. YOU LOVE HER?
"Yes. Of course."
CAN YOU THINK OF ANY CIRCUMSTANCES WHERE, WITHOUT YOUR PERSONAL HISTORY CHANGING IN ANY WAY YOU WOULD AT THIS MOMENT PICK UP A KNIFE AND STAB HER? said Death. FOR EXAMPLE?
"Certainly not!"
BUT YOUR THEORY SAYS THAT YOU MUST. IT IS EASILY POSSIBLE WITHIN THE PHYSICAL LAWS OF THE UNIVERSE, AND THEREFORE MUST HAPPEN, AND HAPPEN MANY TIMES. EVERY MOMENT IS A BILLION, BILLION MOMENTS, AND IN THOSE MOMENTS ALL THINGS THAT ARE POSSIBLE ARE INEVITABLE. ALL TIME SOONER OR LATER, BOILS DOWN TO A MOMENT.
"But of course we can make choices between-"
ARE THERE CHOICES? EVERYTHING THAT CAN HAPPEN, MUST HAPPEN. YOUR THEORY SAYS THAT FOR EVERY UNIVERSE THAT'S FORMED TO ACCOMMODATE YOUR 'NO', THERE MUST BE ONE TO ACCOMMODATE YOUR 'YES'. BUT YOU SAID YOU WOULD NEVER COMMIT MURDER. THE FABRIC OF THE COSMOS TREMBLES BEFORE YOUR TERRIBLE CERTAINTY. YOUR MORALITY BECOMES A FORCE AS STRONG AS GRAVITY. And, thought Death, space certainly has a lot to answer for.
"Was that sarcasm?"
ACTUALLY, NO. I AM IMPRESSED AND INTRIGUED, said Death. THE CONCEPT YOU PUT BEFORE ME PROVES THE EXISTENCE OF TWO HITHERTO MYTHICAL PLACES. SOMEWHERE, THERE IS A WORLD WHERE EVERYONE MADE THE RIGHT CHOICE, THE MORAL CHOICE, THE CHOICE THAT MAXIMISED THE HAPPINESS OF THEIR FELLOW CREATURES, OF COURSE, THAT ALSO MEANS THAT SOMEWHERE ELSE IS THE SMOKING REMNANT OF THE WORLD WHERE THEY DID NOT ...
"Oh, come on! I know what you're implying, and I've never believed in any of that Heaven and Hell nonsense!"
The room was growing darker. The blue gleam along the edge of the reaper's scythe was becoming more obvious.
ASTONISHING, said Death. REALLY ASTONISHING. LET ME PUT FORWARD ANOTHER SUGGESTION: THAT YOU ARE NOTHING MORE THAN A LUCKY SPECIES OF APE THAT IS TRYING TO UNDERSTAND THE COMPLEXITIES OF CREATION VIA A LANGUAGE THAT EVOLVED IN ORDER TO TELL ONE ANOTHER WHERE THE RIPE FRUIT WAS?
Fighting for breath, the philosopher managed to say: "Don't be silly."
THE REMARK WAS NOT INTENDED AS DEROGATORY, said Death. UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES, YOU HAVE ACHIEVED A GREAT DEAL.
"We've certainly escaped from outmoded superstitions!"
WELL DONE, said Death. THAT'S THE SPIRIT. I JUST WANTED TO CHECK.
He leaned forward.
AND ARE YOU AWARE OF THE THEORY THAT THE STATE OF SOME TINY PARTICLES IS INDETERMINATE UNTIL THE MOMENT THEY ARE OBSERVED? A CAT IN A BOX IS OFTEN MENTIONED.
"Oh, yes," said the philosopher.
GOOD, said Death. He got to his feet as the last of the light died, and smiled.
I SEE YOU...
Yes, I finally got around to uploading all my videos to Vimeo. Some of them are really old. My personal faves are the ones Tim made, “Happy Holiday(s)” and “New Years 2009”. Good times.
I found out yesterday I didn’t get the QA Design position I applied for. I didn’t even get an interview… I knew the position was a long shot and was just hoping to use the interview to make an impression for when my contract is up and they have to decide if I’m worth keeping on fulltime. But I at least expected an interview. From the sounds of it it’s very seniority based, and very very few people got an interview, so I can’t take it too personally. Still a bit disappointing though. Oh well. 2 more months left in my contract, I’m getting more and more integrated into the PRC team, hopefully they can’t afford to let me go come the end of October!
Servers up, everything working. As soon as I got home Chad and I started playing immediately. It was good times.
Anyone on the fence about buying it, or looking for a new MMO to try, something different from the usual fantasy fare, give this game a shot. Chad and I had a great time playing it on Open Beta, and we’ve both deciding we’re definitely picking it up. Really fun!
Mike installed Champions Online at work, and it looks swell. When I get home I’m gunna play with Chad and we will run around a world filled with copy-written super-hero knockoffs. Yay!
Chad and I stayed up hoping to get this working since we got in the open beta, but no luck. Took all night just to be able to install it, and that was just the beginning, then the servers were down… We’ll give it another shot tomorrow after work.
I was right. Yesterday was a good day. Got called into a meeting around 1:30, and upon walking in I was handed a beer. All of us drank beer while talking about milestones and stuff. I love my job.
I’ve decided to start writing down my dreams, because I’ve been having a lot lately, and they’re always very bizarre.
Last night I had a dream I was smoking some cigars, and they felt weird, and after a week of smoking them I knew something wasn’t right. Then one night as I was coughing I saw a small little bug fly out of my mouth. At first I didn’t think much of it, but it kept happening. I finally figured out that the cigars had millions of insect eggs in them, some rare insect from across the ocean or something. They’d gotten into my lungs and formed some sort of hive in there. Every time I coughed more of these bugs were flying out my mouth. And that’s not it. Because these bugs were from Africa or something, they ended up spreading some huge epidemic in North America. All because I smoked some cigars…
I had some other dreams but this was the only one that was coherent enough to actually write down.
I fell asleep really early last night, so I’m nice and fully rested. Made it to work early, and in the morning meeting I got some good feedback.
Yesterday was the senior in my room’s last day, so today I stole his window desk. Now I have a great view of the city right by my desk, and it’s nice and sunny! This week I’ve been training 2 new guys, one of them is in my room, the other across the hall. Now that a spot in my office has opened up he’ll be moving into my office next week, and I’ll be the senior of the room now, and they’re my team. Good stuff.
Good day.
This weekend if Fringe and I’ll be going with Melissa, Merne, Dann and maybe more. Good weekend ahead too!
I’d seen some of these before and had a laugh, but this one is amazing! It’s actually damn catchy!
The current QA Design lead on the PRC team is gone for a week to take care of some Dragon Age stuff at Gencon, so for this week I’ve been put in charge of QA Design on PRC. It’s a big week too because we got 2 new term testers, and it’s my job to train them, delegate tasks, etc… I took it on myself to write a training document for them, and passed it on to the higher ups hoping they use it for future hires. There’s no company secrets here, so I figured I share it, since I’m rather proud:
This document details the bug submitting standards for QA when dealing with issues of Design specifically. If you are new to the position, or just in need of a refresher, please read this over, and maybe print the bullet points for reference.
Your job:
QA Design’s job is to play through the content with an eye on design. Design “bugs” are not as simple as something working or not (though don’t ignore those bugs either!), but tend to be much more subjective. As the player, how do you find yourself experiencing the game? Monitor your own emotions when playing the game. When you catch negative emotions arising such as frustration or boredom, or suspect your reaction to the content is not what the designer intended, such as finding something cheesy, or disliking a character you’re supposed to identify with, ask yourself why you feel this way. What could have been done differently to create a more positive experience, one the designer was more likely to have been aiming for?
QA Design’s job is not to re-design a level, it is to help the designer accomplish his or her vision for the content. This content is the result of many hours of hard work, late nights and much brain-storming, and as such it is important to remember and empathize that these projects are often their babies. When making a suggestion to a designer about changing some portion of their content the goal is to be working with them, together, trying to achieve the best possible experience for the player. You are not looking to criticize, but help the designer find opportunities to improve their creation. There are times you will have make your case, which is where knowledge on topics such as narrative, cinematography, story structure, even psychology, all come in handy. The more you can familiarize yourself with the many applications of design, the more opportunities you’ll recognize for further improvement, the more you’ll be able to emulate the role of the player, and you’ll have that knowledge to help you make your case to the designer. It is important to keep all this in mind when submitting QA Design bugs.
Common issues to look for:
A few pointers for filing well-written, non-confrontational bugs, and to help save on un-necessary extra work for both you and the designer:
A new playlist for ya. Good progression to this one I think. Enjoy!
I wasn’t planning on making this, but started and couldn’t stop. This is a map of Edmonton with highlights of places that have become a part of my life here. Most have pix from my flickr too. I strongly suggest checking the full page view to get a better view! Full view has a list on the left side of the screen with all points of interest you can just browse through. Give it a look, see what my life in my new city is like!
Scheduled power-failure at Bioware yesterday. I’ve never seen so many people so restless as Bioware during a power failure. People walking in circles in the hall, everyone on their iPhones and Blackberries, smokers deck packed with… smokers.
But Bioware, ever the awesome employer, gave everyone free Sundaes! I had chocolate and vanilla with sprinkles and whip cream! Yum!
I finally figured out how to sync my work calendar with my iPhone, which is insanely useful. Now, even if I’m away from my desk, I can get a meeting request, accept it, and have my calendar update automatically. I’ll always know where every meeting is, what it’s about and who else is going. Genius.
Weekend starts tonight! I have myself a date with the Turtles In Time remake on Xbox Live Arcade!
Was looking through old texts the other day and found this mass text I sent out before leaving Winnipeg.
Weird. I didn’t know anyone in Edmonton yet, had no idea what working at Bioware would be like, or that I’d become so ambitious about it as a career. The city was a distant memory from the time I went with my family when I was 11, and I had no idea the life that lay ahead of me.
It also makes me miss the life I had in Winnipeg. That life is over, even if I went back everyone’s drifted apart, doing their own things. But I had some good times in Winnipeg, and haven’t thought about them in a while. Right now the plan is for my next visit to be in October/November. By then I’ll know if I have full time or have to take the mandatory 3 months off.
Yup, long weekend! It was fun. Been hanging out with Melissa a lot lately, very fun.
Saturday I picked her up and we met up with Dann for some pho. He was playing some games with another friend so he took off after that and it was Melissa and I. Spent the day clothes shopping at “WEM”. It was much fun, and bought a t-shirt and sweater.
After that we went to see 500 Days Of Summer. It was a good movie. Afterwards we headed back to Melissa’s and watched more movies. She showed me Sabrina, the original classic. It was really good!
