Pay-Per-Punishment

For some reason I thought it would be good for me to sign up for some personal training sessions at the gym at work. I was getting kind of bored with just lifting weights and figured someone who has experience and knowledge in the human body might help me work out more effectively. It was also the fact that I’m looking at just over three weeks to go at EAC and there’s some weird sense of urgency that kicked in; it’s as though I needed to take part in more that the workplace had to offer before I was shown the door.

So, two sessions in and I’ve learned a lot. First, that I’m not stretching enough. Second, that I probably don’t need to do a wide variety of weightlifting to maintain what I’ve gained. But most of all I’ve learned that I’m still not in great shape. The girl who’s training me has been very encouraging and tells me I’m doing a fantastic job, but I suspect she tells that to all the slobs that wheeze and pant and stumble through training sessions.

Today my session involved running a whole bunch, something I actually used to love when I was one-third my current age. But I haven’t done a lot of cardiovascular work, at all, so it didn’t take long before I was sucking back wind and feeling close to barfing. The good side to this, though, is that I can at least recover faster than expected. I’m not so winded that I can’t move for the next ten minutes. In addition to the running, I had my body fat measured. I don’t have the results from that, or from any of the fitness testing, but I’m going to go ahead and predict that I’ll be basically at the average for my age and weight. Or slightly below average. Thankfully the body fat test didn’t involve putting calipers on my second chin - that would probably have skewed my results considerably.

Anyway, please enjoy this Nike ad from 1992. I proclaim this to be the best athletic-apparel-brand ad ever made. Plus, I’m in it. (Warning: someone in this ad barfs.)

What’s the Buzz, Tell me What’s A-Happening

Ah. I see it’s time for my monthly blog check-in.

So what’s going on these days? Well, the biggest thing on my mind lately is the impending end of my contract at EA. I’m frustrated how hard it’s been to try to stay on longer, since there are legal rules the studio has regarding contract lengths that prevent me from staying in my current capacity. While I totally understand that this is the nature of contract work, and really, I was extended from six months to ten, I do think I’ve done all that’s been asked of me. When I see other postings at the company for more contract work, and I’m immediately disqualified from it, it’s a tough thing to deal with. There’s still five or six weeks left for me, and something could always come up, but I’ve started looking elsewhere too. It’s just doubly unfortunate that there’s not a whole lot out there for me right now.

A couple of weeks ago my special ladyfriend and I decided to go a week without eating meat. I won’t go into too much detail, but three days into it I had what can only be described as a “cleanse”. That day aside, I think it went well. I didn’t miss eating meat much at all, probably because I supplanted it with copious amounts of cheese, thus negating any dietary benefit meatlessness might have given me. It was difficult going for a team lunch to an Earl’s restaurant, as there was a grand total of three menu items that weren’t meat-based. If nothing else I got a taste of how limited dining-out could be for those who do this as a lifestyle choice (not easy, and not tasty).

I keep going to the gym three times a week, and while I’m happy with my progress of adding 10 pounds of muscle to my weakling frame, it’s clear to me now that I will never be “ripped” like the majority of gym-going dudes. I consider this due to not having particularly athletic genes; spending my 20s being a couch potato; and not spending hours in the gym. Do I have more muscle and “tone” than ever before? Yes. But I’ll never eliminate my perma-flab, mostly because it’s not in my interest to spend two hours a day trying to lose it. I like going to the gym, but as mentioned, I also like eating cheese and watching Game of Thrones.

Also, with my birthday approaching, I’ve decided I want to get out of town and go somewhere new. I haven’t done this since I turned 30, when we drove to Prince George, which was obviously the best way to turn 30. This year I think we’re going to head south to Leavenworth, Washington, an odd village that bills itself as “Your Bavarian Getaway”. Since there’s little to no Teutonic presence in Vancouver, and a trip to Europe is still a couple years off, this might be a fun taste of something German.

A list of things that really need to no longer exist.

BMW drivers. It’s chicken and egg time! What comes first, being a self-important prick or owning a BMW? When I was a kid I used to think Beemers were cool. Now that I live in a city where people with imagined wealth drive them, it’s become clear to me that drivers of BMWs are the worst ones on the road. Doubt me? When was the last time such a car owner gave you a thank you wave, or let you merge, or didn’t pass you on the right, or signalled a lane change, or didn’t tailgate, or went less than 20km/h over the speed limit?

Vampire Stuff. Can we move on to sparkly, emo teenage goblins now?

Cleaning Products in Dissolvable Sacs. Adding detergent to a dishwasher or washing machine isn’t complicated. We don’t need this stuff pre-packaged in gelatin. I realize there may be a small segment of the population - bachelors - who can’t figure out how to work cleaning machines, but these people don’t wash plates or clothes or shower anyway.

Social Network Causes. In some societies, Twitter and Facebook have helped foster real change and pushed people to revolt against oppression. In North America, our version usually ends up as us sharing a link about a documentary or changing profile photos to support a cause in a country many of us can’t find on a map. This isn’t activism. This is lazy. To be fair, I’m not sitting on a high horse telling people to get involved - I don’t. I have my political leanings and beliefs, and one of them is self-determination. I also believe in the old axiom, ’shit or get off the pot’. Sharing a link or a status update isn’t helping anyone. If you won’t open your wallet or dedicate your time to change things, don’t pretend you’re concered.

Union-bashing. Being that this is British Columbia, the union-bashing capital of Canada, I know this won’t really come to an end. But come on. Trying to divide the working world into good and evil according to whether you’re a private or public sector worker is infantile. Neither side is perfect. Get over it.

These God Damned Energy Efficient Bulbs That Keep Burning Out Too Soon. You’re supposed to last seven years, not seven weeks! I’m burning more energy going to the store to buy more than I would have just using an old fashioned bulb!

Daylight Savings Time. This should have disappeared with the steam engine and bloodletting as a medical treatment.

Big, Ugly 80s Eyewear. Kids these days, with their beards and their flannel and their dumb 80s glasses. Boy I tell ya, I grew up in the 80s, the decade when ‘looking reasonably good’ was on hiatus. We didn’t have a choice. If you had to wear glasses, you looked like a moron. Now I see people wearing them for some expression of irony - with a huge selection of good looking glasses, they choose the worst. I suffered through wearing horrible eyeglass frames. Our society has progressed - perhaps you kids these days should too, and quit looking stupid.

Crime Dramas on TV. It’s hard to believe but once upon a time there weren’t any crime dramas on the television. I imagine it was filled with Lawerence Welk instead.

Anything with the name ‘Kardashian’. No explanation necessary.

Just in time

Aha! I’m sure you thought I’d miss the month of February here on garrettknights.com. Well, thanks to a special x-tendamix version of February, I’m squeezing in one blog post this month.

So what happened? Well, the first week was spent in Maui. As with last time we went to Hawaii, it was fantastic, and just made me want to stay forever - or go back again soon, which is a little more plausible. I got a tan that’s only now wearing off, drank a decent amount of mai tais and coconut rum, sampled plate lunches and ate greasy breakfasts, went to a nude beach, played in the warm ocean, and of course filmed the only “special location” episode of Fat Magnum. I still have to post photos with smart-ass captions, and when I do I’ll make a note of it here too.

The rest of the month has been busy, though not with anything exciting. It’s tax time, I’ve been reading a lot, and in general avoiding the computer whenever I have spare time at home. The gym-going continues, and I’m happy (?) to say that I now weigh close to 180 pounds … if the scale at work is correct. This means I’ve put on about 10 pounds of muscle over the last 6 or 7 months, no small feat for an eternal weakling like me.

Thankfully spring is only a couple of weeks away. I’m really looking forward to later sunlight hours and possible dry evenings for strolling around the neighbourhood or down near Ambleside beach.

The game I worked on leading up to the new year, SSX, hit store shelves yesterday. Critical reviews are very good, at roughly the 80% mark. It would probably be slightly higher if not for some real outlier review scores that are sub-70%, but what can you do; editorial opinions are never consistent. Regardless I think it’s the best game I’ve worked on in my career, even though my actual part in that was small. I’m really hoping the studio does a follow-up/sequel, but who knows what their plans are in that regard. Even if they told me about it, I wouldn’t be able to share that information here.

And finally, for the first time since I was a teenager, I bought the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition. I’ll leave it to you to figure out why.

Social Nutworks

First off - I wish I had some testicular joke to make regarding the name of this post. “Social Nutwork” makes me giggle, because I’m mature like that.

Anyway, if you’ve read this blog for the last few years, you’ll probably recall my sneering at social network sites. First it was Facebook, which I was reluctant to join about five years ago but eventually gave in. Last year I finally signed up for Twitter after calling it stupid and lame and pointless. Well, it is - but I actually like it a lot more than Facebook. So much so that I’m going to do another month off from Facebook in February, and if I don’t miss it (I didn’t last time I took a monthlong Facebook fast) I’m deleting my profile from it.

A lot of people complain when Facebook changes stuff, and there’s a big change in their stuff coming very soon. I’ve never really cared or been bothered by Facebook’s changes. I just don’t get a lot of benefit out of using it. My main excuse for staying on was so that I’d get invites to events, but then I realized I have no friends that invite me to events. I haven’t posted photos on Facebook in more than a year, and any messaging could just be done through email. Chatting is already taken care of via MSN and Google Chat, and typically I don’t use those unless I’m at work.

So that leaves Twitter. Basically, it takes the photo-sharing and status updates of Facebook and removes the implicit need for responses or acknowledgement from it all. You write 140-character updates or (though I haven’t done it yet) post a photo. Or share a link. No one can click a “like” button, there’s no page of biographical information required - there’s just people writing stuff, most of the time. Additionally, I can follow pretend girlfriends from Hollywood or the professional tennis circuit, or comedians. None of their stuff is directed at me, of course, and even though I occasionally try, I’ll never actually get a Twitter response from them. But again, that’s not the main focus of Twitter. You put your sentence or two out there, and if someone likes it, they can do so without you ever knowing. It’s not irony, but the fact that I looked down on Twitter so much until I signed up for it, and am now on the cusp of quitting Facebook, wasn’t expected.

New Year, New Project

The start of the 2012 work year meant it was time to switch from SSX to NHL development teams. I really, really enjoyed working on SSX, and didn’t know (and still don’t really know) what to expect from NHL. The biggest change, a week in, is that the pressure and looming deadlines of SSX have been replaced by some very easy-going early development scheduling on NHL. In a somewhat odd twist, I’m now sitting in practically the same spot I was in when I left EA five years ago. No more panoramic window seat for me - although that also means I may not need to fire up the portable heater anymore either.

On the weekend I went to see the Muppets movie with my ladyfriend, as it was one of the few holiday movies I was looking forward to. The generally positive reviews were right; it’s a fun G-rated comedy, one that refreshingly is free of cynicism and dick jokes but still ‘mature’ enough to not treat kids or adults like idiots. I’m not really sure it’ll lead to bigger and better things for the Muppet gang though. The movie’s plot is basically that the old Muppets are completely outside of modern pop culture, beyond irrelevant, and they come together to try to prove they still ‘have it’. But in real life, is there much left for the Muppets? They’re not getting their old show back. Despite making buckets of money off this movie, I don’t think Disney knows what to do with them. Oh well, it was a fun movie and worth it for a bit of nostalgia anyway.