I haven’t been posting a lot lately, but not because things haven’t been going on. Rather, a lot has been going on but I’ve been reluctant to mention anything because, yet again, everything seems to be in major flux. Hence, it’s hard for me to comment about things knowing that by the time I finish a post, they will have changed. And then, when I post an update, they have changed yet again. That tends to drag down my enthusiasm a bit.
Currently, the main news is the job. Things continue to be very difficult in terms of the administration side; nothing bad where people hate each other in the office, but just that all of the optimism and hope that was there when I first started is pretty much entirely gone. The real starting point of the spiral into suckiness is when a game project that we had lined up was “put on hold indefinitely,” and we never were able to recover from that. Now, we just have the one project, and it’s been nothing be an absolute nightmare in working with the client. The miscommunication is profound, and currently we are still owed 2 months worth of pay. We “should” have a paycheck next week, but beyond that, honestly, things don’t look good at all. After the Hell that was last year, it looks like I’m just going to be going through the whole thing yet again. Maybe this time I can work some of the contacts I made previously, but offhand, I fear that I’ll be starting from scratch all over again. What’s worse is that because of the lack of paychecks, I’ve already burned through any money that I had saved up from the first few months. The only good thing is that I might have made enough to get back on unemployed.
I have reached out to some of my former contacts with other companies, and will continue to do so. The trick is, as always, nothing is available right now, so I will need to wait for something to open up. I also will be looking at non game-design field jobs, again, in hopes that I can at least land something to pay the bills.
There were plans to move a couple of weeks ago — the idea was to move in with a couple of the guys from work, and the money that would be saved in rent, as well as the money that would be saved by selling the car, would have been substantial enough to make an instant difference in my budget. But, all of that is on hold (and apparently canceled), as the lack of the aforementioned paychecks makes it impossible for us to actually pay the cost of moving in the first place. Even though it would be far cheaper in the long run, nobody has the cash to make the initial move and cough up the money the first month rent, security deposit, moving costs, and possible realtor fee.
Now, technically, I could foot the bill of moving. I finally broke down and transferred money from my small CD to my checking account, so I would have enough to cover my share. The other guys, however, would not. Likewise, I could, theoretically, move into a place of my own, but the rent will then be much higher, and wash out most of the savings generated by selling the car. Still, I should look into it, I suppose, just to weigh my options, as it’s still better to be in the city than out of it.
On the dating front, I had the opportunity to date a lovely young girl who got along with me surprisingly well. Naturally, such happiness cannot be allowed to continue, so she’s going to Washington tomorrow for the entire month of August. Story of my life. Or, should I say, “SOML.” All the cool cats are doing the abbreviation thing. In any case, I am grateful for at least the dates that we have had; one should enjoy the sliver of sunshine that breaks through the overcast sky, not bemoan the brief existence of it.
Also, next week I shall be off for my annual pilgrimage to Wisconsin for the family bash. Ironically, however, on the actual day of the Bash, neither of my parents will be there. Mom will be taking TMG off to Michigan for a shin-dig her side of the family is having, and Dad is off on a canoe trip, which still totally blows my mind. Keep in mind that this is the man who never joined me on an Boy Scout camping trip, but a week-long canoe trip? No problem! I suspect that something else is at play, here, and my Dad is actually a top agent going on some classified mission to preserve peace and stability in the world. Makes perfect sense to me, anyway.
The bright spot in all this gloom is that I have a chance to really get back into one of my projects and start major work on it. I want to get some video work done, I have a number of game ideas, and even some drawings I want to tackle.
More later, I am sure.
I actually didn’t watch the universally-panned “The Decision” on ESPN wherein LeBron James decided to tell all of Cleveland in the most public forum possible that he was leaving. I’m also proud to say that I completely forgot it was on, being busy with other aspects of life (playing video games, naturally).
My own thoughts on the matters are fairly simple:
1) No matter what, I felt good because he didn’t go to the Knicks, or the Nets, even. Apparently, there is some speculation that neither one was even considered to be a top choice. This was the most important thing for me, just because the amount of hubris and arrogance coming from NYC fans was absolutely galling; for 2 years whenever a basketball fan in this city said something about LBJ in free agency, they acted like it was a given — that the city alone, and not the fact that James would have to go to a very poor team and wait for another 3 years or so before even being considered a contender, was all that mattered. So, for me, it was nice to see that sense of entitlement shattered.
2) I said all along that wherever he goes, it’ll be where he thinks he has the best chance to win a ring, and to do so now. Certainly, with Wade, Bosh, and James on the same team, it looks more likely than it did in Cleveland. Of course, now, if fates should decree that he does not win a ring with Miami over the next three years, his legacy will be tarnished moreso than if he had stayed in Cleveland and not won. But hey — every Cleveland sports fan knows the truth: now that he is out of Cleveland, he’ll win the championship next year. That’s just the dark cloud that looms over our town.
3) Finally, this really shouldn’t surprise anyone. LBJ wore a Yankees cap to the Indians home playoff game. At the Browns home opener against Dallas, he hung out the whole time talking to the Cowboys. And growing up, he followed the Bulls, not the Cavs. Maybe Akron really is his home, but, outside of his contractual obligations, he certainly never was a part of Cleveland sports.
I had neglected to mention a certain occurrence upon my return from the airport:
It was late, and surprisingly hot for the evening, especially since I had figured that ha left all of the heat back in Florida. As I unlocked the door to my humble bedroom apartment, I was greeted with the stretch of putrid poultry and rotting pork.
Cripes, I thought, I could have sworn that I had cleaned out the fridge, and emptied the trash. Where was that smell coming from–
“Hello,” said The Bearer of Bad News.
“Oh,” I replied, as I felt my stomach tighten and intestines cramp. “It’s you.”
“In the decomposing flesh,” TBoBN cheerfully replied. “How was your trip?”
“Since you weren’t there,” I noted, “you should guess that it was really quite good. More relaxing than I realized.”
“Glad to hear it,” it said with a nod. “Maybe it’ll soften the sting.”
I merely grumbled in response as I dropped my luggage off on my bed and starting opening windows before the odor melted the glass.
“First of all,” it continued, following me around like a hellhound puppy, “you recall those Disney Trading Pins that you bought? The ones that cost about $50? Yeah, they’re gone. Lost like a tourist trying to navigate the West Village.”
“Swell.” I didn’t mean it, of course, but you can’t encourage The Bearer of Bad News. Not that it needs encouraging, really.
“Also, you know your fear about losing your job over vacation, like last year?”
“Kinda hard to forget,” I answered.
“Well, you still have your job, so rest easy on that part. But there’s been a major foul-up happening, not by any fault of the company, mind you, and your paycheck won’t be coming in for a while yet.”
I grunted. That one hurt.
“And just to top it off and show why you should never, ever, ever go on a vacation again, that one girl that you had a few dates with – you remember, the cute one that was a huge World of Warcraft fan – has decided to stop seeing you because you don’t have a living room set.”
There was a pause.
“Seriously?” I asked.
“Yeah,” it replied in a voice of uncertainly. “Honestly, man, I don’t quite get it either. I think it has something to do with the fact that you, as the modern day adventurer, do not look like someone who has all that stable of a career. And I mean, hey, given what I just told you, can you blame her? People don’t get involved in games to get rich.”
“Well, that’s all just spiffy,” I said sardonically. “Are you done now? I have pictures to transfer over to the computer.”
“Yeah, my work here is done,” it said cheerfully. “Oh, and before I forget: don’t use the bathroom for a while. I sort of cut a hole in the ozone when I was in there, if you get my drift.”
“Unfortunately, I do,” I said, fighting my gag reflex.
A snap of thunder, flash of deep red light, and the ending notes to “It’s a Small World” echoed through the apartment as The Bearer of Bad News vanished.
As always though, it’s going to take more than a bottle of Pine-Sol to get the stink out of my nose.
Walt Disney World, to be precise. It was a fun trip, visiting with the family, despite the fact that I lost every single Disney Trading Pin I bought there, which was about $50 that went down the drain. Oh well — at least I didn’t lose my niece’s pin, which would have been far more sad. I think it’s just a sign that I should stay away from the whole pin aspect.
I took many, many pictures in many, many locations. This basically means that I will be spending many x4 hours uploading, balancing, and organizing them. But, hopefully it won’t take too long, and I will be able to post several on the blog.
Now, I need to work on catching up on a wide array of things, and thus shall be off. Onward!
For those who don’t already know, the birthday went pretty well. I went in to work, had a basketball game that night (we lost three of four, but at least won the last game), and afterward hit up a little restaurant/bar with the teammates for some nice celebration time. I had 4 shots bought for me, and also drank 6 beers, and hence wowed the crowd with my Plotecher tolerance. I had a slight buzz, but nothing major. I felt fine when I went to bed, and still felt fine when I woke up the next morning. It’s nice to know that I at least still have the “good” genes from Wisconsin….
I also have started the beach volleyball league, which is definitely more causal than the basketball one. Some folks, truth be told, are still a wee bit too serious about it, but overall it’s definitely more relaxed. My v-ball skills aren’t quite up to snuff (the serves were less than graceful), but hopefully it catches up next week. Especially as we lost all three games the first night.
This post shall be short, and to be frank, the main reason for my silence the past couple of weeks has be due in large part to my rediscovering Team Fortress 2! I forgot how fun, well-balanced, and often hilarious it is. There are still people who are just too good to be real, but the flip-side is that since it is a team game, you can actually have those guys on our team as well, and recently it seems like my wins and losses have been a bit more balanced. I’m also looking at getting back into WoW, so it’s probably really good that I’m already signed up for beach volleyball, or I might have some issues getting out of the house.
Days like today reinforce nicely my belief that I can can sleep in and still have a productive day. I was up until around 3:30 AM last night, revisiting the glory that is “Pyschonauts,” and so this morning decided that I didn’t need to get out of bed until around 1 PM. And it was great. When I did get up and start moving around, I swung into action like a summer blockbuster hero:
- Caught up with some emails
- Did my 30 minutes step aerobics
- Played through another level of “Bikini Samurai Squad” during that 30 minutes (the game is a good one for that, because it really doesn’t require a lot of concentration)
- Got my car’s oil changed (by the way, I have 8,500 miles on my 3-year old Escape; this is so odd for someone who used to put on close to 20,000 miles a year)
- Got a much-needed haircut; the poof is gone… for now
- Picked up groceries
- Walked over to CostCo for a few items
- Dropped off my rent check in the mail
- Finished up the laundry
- Sorted through the heap of papers in my bedroom
And it’s still pretty early. This will be spiffy, as it means that now is a good time to go ahead and start working more on the computer, but I won’t feel like I should have been outside.
Incidentally, I think the two main reasons why everything seemed to click today was because with football season over, I have much more time on the weekends, and since I had been waiting to take care of a few things, I had a nice string of things to do in all one trip. Efficient, my friends!
More is on the plate for tonight:
- Make pasta for dinner
- Wash dishes
- Chop veggies for the upcoming week
- Wash off grapes and get them in a snack-ready bowl
- Play some more Pyschonauts
- Reply to some more emails
- And so much more!!!
Also, while at the Oil Change spot, I started resorting the tasks I have listed in my Blackberry. Doing so has made it much easier for me to scroll through and see what it is that i want to tackle, still. I have to admit, doing this now has shown just how many other projects I want to knock off. I should be able to do some work on one or two of them tonight, although I suspect that actually wrapping one up may be a bit too much.
As long as I maintain some momentum, though, heck, I’ll call it a success.
In the game (so to speak) of WiiFit, there is what’s called a time piggy bank, or a time bank, or whatever. This keeps track of how much time you’ve put into the game, and by extension, your exercise. When you first start out, it begins as this rather bland brownish color, although shiny. But, a while back, I noticed that when I topped 20 total hours, it shifted to a silver — ah! The brown was actually a Bronze!
I guessed that if I topped 40 hours it would turn gold, and last night, I was finally able to confirm it. This was quite spiffy, although I’m wondering if I get to 60 if it shifts into platinum, or diamond, or something. If not, well, then, I guess we might as well give up now, right? Can’t get any better.
The sad part is that 40 hours over the past 325+ days that I’ve had the game is not all that impressive. In fact, it sticks. Basically, it means that I’ve been using it much, much less that the lovely golden piggy bank would have me believe. True, there have often been times when I have not recorded in the WiiFit (via the Activity Log) my exercise for the day, such as the various rec league sports I partake in, but the reality is just that I tend to swing back and forth in spurts of activity. The past week, I have gotten back into it, and hopefully I can keep it up for a while. If nothing else, just doing something outside and then recording it in yonder Activity Book would be good. After all, I have managed that in the past, and it was quite cool to look over my month history and see some work happening every day.
Beach volleyball is supposed to start up, so I’ll be continuing to hammer away at WiiFit, I think, both to stay moving, as well as to try to make a last ditch effort to get myself “beach ready.” Personally, I would need a personal trainer, personal chef, and an act of God to shape up within the week or so that we have, but every little bit helps, right?
Last night the team went 3-1 again, but I admit I wasn’t as jazzed as I should have been, and I think it’s because the way we lost the last game. It was a close one, but we bugged me was that the team we played was very physical, and at one point the guy ran right into me and no foul was called. I’ve never been too comfortable playing against teams like that just because it means that slowly turns into sort of a “what can I get away with” contest. And those never end well. Also, I think I’m starting to take the game a little too seriously, but to be fair, we had a shot to go 4-0, which would have been really spiffy. Ah well, the most important thing is that nobody got hurt. Oh! And I made a free throw at the line! Woo!
Also, to be fair, the first game we played we were scary good. I don’t know if the other team scored at all (I think they did) but I know that we snagged 20 points, and since our average is around 8 or so, it was really quite impressive. We had everything working on that game — lots of moving around, good passes, cut-ins, and it certainly helped that the other team was out of gas from the game they had just played previously.
According to Jack, we should solidly be in the playoff hunt now. Naturally, the next game night our best player and easily the top scorer will be out, so I suspect it’ll be a tough set of games.
I’m currently out of cereal at home, and given that I’m forgoing eating out/getting take out, this morning looked like I would be skipping breakfast (aside from water and the last packet of hot chocolate I have by my desk), but then I ran across a package of breadsticks in my backpack. This was from last Thursday, when I had the (sometimes) weekly meeting about my side game project over at a trusty diner. I got one of those side packets of breadsticks, and not being hungry enough to eat them, but also not liking to waste food, I put them in my backpack. And here we are now, where this handy foresight will provide me with something to nom-nom-nom on. Yay!
My decision to avoid eating out is two-fold: First, to just save some more money, as it’s very easy to wind up eating out in the city, and the second reason is to also control my food intake a bit more. Even though I have been active in rec leagues, I’m not as active as I could be/should be. Some Wii Fit should help, but before I started packing away huge plates of pasta again, I need to get the body moving, so that I can counter-balance the calories coming in. I’ve been looking into gyms, but am pretty sure that unless I find a really cheap deal, I won’t be deciding anything for a few months. Besides my own desire to move, my actual workplace may be moving, as well. So, if I can’t base my gym on the location of my home or my work, it’s not worth it to make a selection just yet. And besides, I can do home workouts — I just have to up my dedication. And it’s not like I don’t already have a fair amount of gear at home that I can use; sure, the rebounder keeps breaking springs, but hey, can I help it if I’m that intense?
[ S H I E L D B R E A K ! ! ! ]
The goal for this week is to maintain some productivity, both at work, as well as home. Things have been moving forward fairly well at work, although I still don’t feel like I’m getting as much done as I would like. At home, it’s a mixed bag — there are always chores and errands to do, so that takes up some time. There are also the various video games I’m working on, so that, too, takes up some time. But I also admit that there have been other things that I tend to slack off on, usually in favor of — to use my mother’s term — froofraing around on the Internet. I know, it’s so unusual — someone being distracted by the Internet! Shock! Horror!
I keep thinking I should try actually blocking out time for a project each night, as if I was in a college course again. Set aside 3 hours or so to putter away on one project or another. I never wind up doing this, largely because I like keeping things free. But hey, now that I think about it, it’s not like I can do any worse than I already am, right?
Hmm. We’ll have to see how that works… I’ll get back to you on that….
To be honest, I haven’t really be spending as much time on the online dating sites as I planned. This isn’t exactly a bad thing, as the main reason is due to things like taking care of things around the house, playing outside, and otherwise spending a little more time away from the computer. That, and there are days when I just don’t feel like dealing with the amount of time and effort that it takes to write up proper emails. Oh sure, I could just use the good ol’ copy-and-paste method, but trust me, it’s like being enthused about making a girl’s parents: she can tell when you’re faking.
Still, my time back on the sites thus far has reminded me of a couple of issues I’ve had with them in the past; in this case, one each, that is unique to the particular site.
On OKCupid, the problem lies in the defaults they use when you search for matches. Even if you set the presets during a previous visit, the defaults snap back into place. Three of these are very noteworthy:
- Distance: Set to “Within 100 miles.”
- Last online: Set to “Within the last decade” (mind you, OKCupid has not been around for a decade yet, so this is really “Anyone who ever made an account that has not been erased.”
- Age: Set to 24 to 56 (this, I assume, is based on your own age)
What bugs me about this is that it’s a pretty blatant attempt to pad their results as much as possible. It’s not going to be as noticeable for someone like me, who’s living in a major metro area. But, if I was been back in Dayton, then OKC would have had to pull this trick, as it’s far fewer pickings back there. You have to basically cast a very wide net in terms of miles if you hope to actually find someone that you’re interested in dating.
But even then, the Last Online setting is completely whacked. Why would I want to see a profile of someone who hasn’t been on in over a month? Let alone a year or more? The whole point of a dating site is to meet someone “today.” Writing to an abandoned profile is about as useful as a carpool lane for Segways.
Match does not have this problem; their search page remembers the last settings you entered; and to be frank, they do have many more users than OKCupid does, so padding isn’t that big as of a need (although I’m sure that they don’t mind when it happens). Also, when they display results, they always show the most recent users first, unless you’ve entered some strict criteria that severely limits the number of results.
The problem that Match does have, however, is in their profile review service. Best I can tell, what happens is that it is sent to a computer program that scans through it for a variety of naughty words, email addresses, or other types of personal information. While this is faster than having to wait for some underpaid, overworked intern to read through a slog of submissions, this process is deeply annoying for two reasons:
First off, it limits your “voice” a bit, because a number of things can set off the filter triggers, some of which are so obscure that you might not even have thought about them as a “bad word.” This can include just a mention that you like a particular website, like hulu.com, because the filters seem to treat any use of the “.com” as some sort of attempt to get around the need to use the in-site mail system.
But it’s the second reason that is really, really grating, and I found this out the hard way:
I made a minor change in my profile a while back, noting that I was working as a Game Designer. One line was changed, and even then it was just a change from “have been working as” to “am now working as.” I sent it in for review, and was quite puzzled when it returned stating that it had been rejected because some “questionable content” was contained within. Questionable? Really? I changed, like, 4 words, all of which were prepositions. They gave a list of possible causes as part of this form letter, but did not say what the exact thing was in the profile that set off their rejection stamp. And that’s what snowballed things in an epic fail of customer service.
Since the only change I had made was one line about working as a Game Designer, I could not figure out for the life of me what was the problem. I surmised that they must have updated something in their filters that snagged on a part of my profile that had originally been deemed worthy. I tried a number of different takes on the profile (all minor, as I have gotten a number of compliments on it, even from those with no interest in dating me), but each time it got pushed back. I tried writing letters to their customer service email, explaining the problem: I couldn’t “fix” my profile because I had no idea what the problem was — the lack of any feedback meant that I was just firing my shotgun randomly in the dark, hoping to get a headshot on an approaching zombie. When their “official” customer service reply arrived, it was just another @%$# soulless form letter, with basically a direct copy and paste of the exact same rejection notice I had already been getting. It was starting to look like Kafka was the Director of Customer Service.
Finally, after some careful dissection on my own, I figured out what the issue was: in my profile, I make a reference that I felt all keyboards should come equipped with a “WTF key.” I re-spelled it as “W T F,” and sure enough, the profile was then approved. So, apparently, Match had updated their filters and determined that WTF was a bad, bad word. Or, acronym, anyway. Now I’m tempted to try and work in FUBAR and see if they catch that one or not.
Whatever the case, I never should have had to figure that on my own. Instead, what should have happened was that I should have gotten a rejection notice, explaining exactly which word or phrase was the one the tripped up the alarm. After all, if you can detect it, can’t you just make a note of what it is from the list and include that on the email?
Ironically, it could be worse — I remember back in Dayton I had a profile rejected because there actually was someone reading it, and did not get the concept of sarcasm, which I had peppered throughout the writing. I think I eventually convinced the person to let it through anyway, but still: this isn’t an English paper with only one proper form and structure. If I want to do it in iambic pentameter, well, then, I should be allowed. I’m paying for the site, after all.
For the record, OKCupid doesn’t even bother trying to police the profiles. Rather, they follow the web 2.0 approach and the the customers do it for them. Same with photos. Now, I do think that OKCupid has some filters of their own in place, but maybe not. What they do have is a button on every page and for every photo that allows the users to “flag” something that they find objectionable. When a user flags something, then OKC checks it out and determines if a deletion/removal is warranted.