Home from another World

 Life in General  1 Response »
Jun 292010
 

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!

 Posted by at 9:45 am  Tagged with:

Another Nice Point from Terry Pluto

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Jun 142010
 

Tom Izzo should take money out of the equation as he ponders Cavaliers | cleveland.com.

For the 23 people on the planet who are not aware, LeBron James is currently a free agent. Lesser known outside of the NBA is that the Cavs are also looking for a new coach, who may or may not have LeBron as a player.

Terry Pluto has written a nice column about why the potential coach, Tom Izzo, should not be looking at the money when considering the job, and brings up a truism that I’m reminded off often in my line of work:

I once took a project for the money. But I made a list of all the non-financial reasons that I wanted to do it. The idea was to convince myself that I wasn’t doing it for the money.

It was self-deception.

The project also was a disaster. Because money was the ultimate bottom line, and my heart wasn’t in it. When challenges came, I wanted to bail out. I finished the job, but it wasn’t anywhere close to my best work.

I had a discussion with my mom last night about whether or not I had made the right choice with my current job, as opposed to the offer from the larger company, which would have paid more.

But in the end, everything else about my job is great: the people, the work, the working climate. As a small game company, money is always going to be a concern, and it’s something that I knew going in.

Of course, I suspect that I would have really liked the people and work at the other company, too, but I doubt that we’d be having nearly as merely discussions about Team Fortress 2, The Disney Afternoon, or why Captain America could totally take out Batman in a fight.

By the way

 Life in General  1 Response »
Jun 102010
 

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.

From the Tallest Mountain to Deepest Ocean Trench

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Jun 092010
 

Infographic: Tallest Mountain to Deepest Ocean Trench.

I ran across this today, and it’s one of those cool graphics that basically puts things into perspective that deals with height/depth — I knew the Grand Canyon was deep, but not that deep.

And just why the heck do Sperm Whales have to dive that deep in the ocean? What secrets are they harboring down there? Someone should investigate!