Stupid bloody no good cars!

As I drove in to the parking lot at work I noticed the red battery “warning” light had lit up on my car’s dashboard. A look at the owner’s manual suggested checking the alternator belt, and sure enough, the belt was hanging loose like a pair of warm testicles. It was also coming apart in strands that looked like black spaghetti. Tomorrow my lady friend will drive me to work, because she likes me just enough to do that sort of thing, and I’ll have to get the belt replaced. I’m predicting a repair bill of $250. I’ll keep you posted as to whether I overbid, or if I won the Showcase Showdown.

The whole car repair ordeal makes me want a different vehicle, although that’s hardly a better situation since things wear out or break on all cars. Even a $250 repair once a year is less than even one monthly payment if I bought a new car. But those who know me know I don’t like my car, and I’m dying to own a little hatchback with an automatic transmission. Maybe if those company stock options ever increase in value I’ll use those to finance a car purchase. Or maybe I’ll just sell the car and get a Vespa.

Not the best way to end a week

This past Friday my special lady friend was essentially forced to quit her job.  I won’t go into exact details but needless to say it was a very upsetting experience for her, and for me. I’m naturally going to be frustrated when my lady friend gets treated unfairly, and that’s exactly what happened. In time everything will work out, and we’ll both realize that she’s better off not working at that particular place, but for a lot of the weekend it kind of hung over us like a cloud.

However we did manage to avoid moping around by spending a lot of the weekend outside. With the dog to keep us company, on Saturday we headed to Golden Ears park, which is one of the few things in the area we live that I absolutely love. It is great to take a 20 minute drive and end up in dense forest and pristine lake. Sunday we spent in North Vancouver, our old hangout area when I used to live in Burnaby (again, a short drive from the city and you’re surrounded by nature). It was a good way to cheer ourselves up. However, in the process of spending our days outside, I managed to snub my close personal friend Erwin. Sorry Erwin. I’m not a good friend.

Last night I watched the Fantastic Four movie. It was rather bad, but then the only reason I watched it was to see Jessica Alba in skin-tight clothing. I have a tendency that I’m not ashamed to admit to: I will rent movies for the sole reason of seeing attractive actresses. For example, I’ve watched most of the movies Rachael Leigh Look has starred in, despite the fact she couldn’t act her way out of a paper bag. Or however that metaphor is supposed to work.

And finally, work is almost complete on the game I’ve been a part of for nearly a full year. Medal of Honor Heroes is scheduled to hit store shelves in November, and now that I can finally look up from the work I’ve done on it (and hear peoples’ feedback) I am starting to feel a bit proud of what I’ve done. Sure, mistakes were made along the way, but the final product speaks for itself. I have my fingers crossed that when reviews of the game start coming in, the front end will get a mention. It would be a landmark occasion for a reviewer to mention anything not related to gameplay.

A tax on the stupid (me).

Since it’s obvious I’ll never be independantly wealthy in my lifetime, I count on the one-in-one-and-a-half million chance I’ll win a lottery. I currently only spend about $2 or $4 a week on tickets, and usually I favour a draw called PayDay. Basically you pick four numbers between 1 and 77, and if all four are picked, you win $2000 every two weeks for the next 25 years (or a lump sum of $675 000). PayDay has been around for only half a year or so and to date only one person has ever matched all four numbers. The chances, as I said, are terrible, but it’s that faint and unrealistic glimmer of hope that’s going to keep me coming back for more.

I’m also going to buy PNE Prize Home tickets this year. Really, the only thing I want out of winning a lottery is to own a home outright. I figure if we own a home, and aren’t paying rent or a mortgage, all we need to pay for are bills and groceries — items that can be paid for on a $10 an hour job. Thus, should I win a house or the money to buy a house outright, I will quit my current job and spend the rest of my life in a lovely home working at Starbucks.

Moving on, the vacation my lady friend and I had planned for the end of this month has to be delayed. Due to an unfortunate back injury she’s spending the next few days away from work, and there’s really no way her employer would let her take what would be two weeks off. Hell, I’ve worked at my job for almost three years and only now am I taking two weeks off. So the trip to the island will be postponed.

Judgementalizing

Yesterday evening I went to a burlesque/fashion/makeover show with my girlfriend. It was generally a good time, and proceeds from the event went to a women’s charity on the Downtown East Side. I’m a big fan of burlesque, as I’ve mentioned in past posts, but unfortunately the performers last night came across as more of the “minor leagues” of burlesque, as though they were practicing their skills in order to eventually get called up to the big show. I mean, they did a good job, but it just lacked the polish and energy when compared to some of the top acts we’ve seen. Probably the best girl we’ve seen perform has been Miss Indigo Blue. She definitely had a professional attitude and had some great energy.

Which leads into another discussion of professionalism (barely) — yesterday I also logged on to Threadless, a fancy t-shirt site from which I’ve bought a couple of cool designs. Their catalog of custom shirt designs is based entirely on user submissions, and memebers of the site vote on which shirts are good or bad, based on a scale of 0 to 5. I spent about twenty minutes combing through submitted designs and found myself voting 0 or 1 on many of them. I felt pretty harsh, because I’m sure people spent some decent time making their designs, but the fact is a lot of them are really unworthy of shirt designs. Dismissing so many reminded me of how things at work often operate, with quick assessments and outright dismissal of hard work or designs. So for a fleeting and anonymous moment, I was art directing on a purely subjective level. Maybe I can climb the corporate ladder after all!

Let’s play money making game.

I checked my Adsense balance today, for the first time since signing up a few months ago. Total balance: $2.02 USD. Obviously the people who read this blog aren’t doing their part in making me rich, so please, once you’re done reading this post I encourage you to click on a Google ad on the right side, then click on a link that comes up. It won’t cost you a thing, and in the process you’ll help me save up for my college education. Think of all the good you’ll be doing!

On a related note, if you put my name into a Google search, it will finally come up with this site as a result… halfway down the page of results about a bunch of stupid comics or something. And Google stock is worth $300? Their god damn search engine can’t even put garrettknights.com at the top of their results of a search for “Garrett Knights”.

Anyhow, if something exciting happened in my life recently I’d be telling you about it in this space. I’m afraid the only noteworthy event was that I downed a Redbull for the first time in my life, to help ward off the effects of what turned into an 11-hour work day. I can’t say I see the appeal; honestly I think people who love Redbull are just consumer whores who have bought into advertising. If it was 1974 they’d be in love with KOOL cigarettes or something.

“It smells like grilled cheese in here.”

Today, to my great surprise, my longtime friend Erwin found me at lunch in the cafeteria. My friendship with Erwin, of erwintang.com fame, is currently the third-longest-running friendship I have right now. I’ve known him since the summer of 2000, when he and I started testing at EA. Yesterday was Erwin’s first day as a software engineer at EA, and will be at the same studio as me for the next week or so before landing at his new home at EAX. Anyway, later in the day I found Erwin and we took a trip to the QA department. I hadn’t gone through the QA doors since the day I stopped testing at EA (early 2002). We took a quick walk around, and things have certainly changed in a lot of respects: the layout is now just dozens of rows, back to back, and there’s no one we recognize still working there. One thing hadn’t changed, and that is the warm, musty smell of unwashed game nerds. On the way out I mentioned to Erwin that it smelled like grilled cheese, which I’m sure is a staple of game testing lunches.

Ironically, tonight I ate grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner.

In other news, I’m eagerly awaiting my two week vacation at the end of the month. My lady friend and I are headed to the island, which we do every summer, to visit family and friends and the city of Victoria. I haven’t had two weeks off since starting my current job nearly three years ago. I’m overdue.