Well, there's good news and bad news. The good news is my wrecked car only suffered cosmetic damage. My dad drove it back home 9 hours with no problem (lol). But that's where the good news ends.
Today, I was let go from my job, just one day before my probation period ended. I was not given a specific reason why other than "you're not working up to the company's standards." I was not given anything I did wrong nor was I given any ways to "improve" myself. I asked for advice from these HR people but got none. There were no programmers/engineers there to say anything. They simply ripped the band-aid off and told me "tough shit, we don't need you anymore," which is asinine when I showed up to work every day, did the necessary hours, completed all my tasks in time, added & polished new features in the game that were never there before, had a good attitude and made friends. I know nothing what I did, nobody warned me about my bad work, I was led to believe I was doing good, and frankly, some of my co-workers were equally shocked that I was shit-canned.
This is fucking awful. At least my previous job was laughably pathetic because it was an internship for a company that would cease making video games and lay off half the staff in the next month anyway. But here, this game is on the upswing. It got a six month extension (expected to release August '14) and they are moving into a larger studio to make room for additional openings. So basically, I'm terrible and I don't know why.
Just fan-fucking-tastic when you spend $80,000 on both a Bachelor's and Master's degrees and you can't hold down a job for more than three months. I don't know who's to blame--me or the company. I will never know. There could be a few individuals who just don't like me for some arbitrary reason, hence their ability to will the HR people to fire me. At this rate, I will never accomplish anything that's "good" for the dreadful video game universe at this rate. Won't be able to work at Sega or Sumo Digital. Just packing it up. Fuck it, you want $10 mil budget "realistic" games, fine, take it. No help for you guys. Fuck video games, fuck my life, and now I gotta go home with my family once again and find a job at which I won't get fired for some shitty reason. FML...
Friday, May 31, 2013
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
OOPS, WRECKED MY CAR!!!
Well guys, one of the least pleasant things in my life happened today. You're not going to believe it coming from me but here goes...
I wrecked my car for the very first time. Before everyone panics, let me get some good things out of the way now. Nobody, including myself was hurt. The car, for the most part, is intact. Very little damage to everything else besides my car. I have insurance and a AAA and the cops didn't treat me like some outlaw or adrenaline junkie. My dad is on the way here to help me get my car fixed. Still, I wrecked my car.
Let me explain what happened. It's raining, I'm in the office complex's parking lot and have one left turn to go before I made it to my building. The problem was this black pavement turns into black ice when wet. I really had no idea until it's too late. I can't steer or brake at 25 mph as I careen forward into a dumpster behind a fence. No thanks to the lack of ABS but meh, it wouldn't have helped much anyway. The air bags deployed but I wasn't slapped in the face or anything. I was able to start the engine, turn the wheel entirely left & right, play the CD, turn on the air conditioner, and roll up & down the windows. The main damage came from the right front light which was smashed along with some usual rumbling on the front right wheel, plus the windshield was cracked, the right door won't open, and the air bags obviously went off.
I sorta wept man tears for a while knowing that I had potentially killed my companion of seven years over a stupid incident that could've been prevented. Thankfully, everything else went okay. A utility worker called the police for me (lovely), the cop didn't ream me too hard with a ticket ($130), and I was able to drive the car into a nearby parking spot (boy, it would be nice to leave work and see my car parked next to yours...just needs blood on the windshield and doors). I am feeling better about the car's chance for survival and my ability to rebound. Personally, I would prefer not to buy a new car for three main reasons--odds are it won't perform any better than my old car (as in it handled well, was clean, and required minimum maintenance), I plan on moving to Britain in a year or two to work for Sumo Digital assuming I get a job there, and I love my old car. It's a real shit-sucker but to be honest, if you KNEW you were going to get in a wreck some day, this is the best way to wreck. No one's hurt and everything's being remedied rather quickly.
Still...this has to be the most punk ass bitch way of causing a wreck. Basically sprinkle the ground with vasoline, make it rain, and don't warn people about potentially slipper terrain. I mean, put a "slow down when wet" sign or even a speed bump for God's sake--those things suck but at least they would've saved my ass. Had this been a wreck on dry terrain and/or involving another driver, my morale as an "outstanding driver" would've been shot to hell. But here, I'm just fuckin' pissed and want to get back on the road as soon as possible. I don't want to pay a bunch of money, talk to a bunch of random strangers, and wait a long-ass time to get driving again. That's what makes this so difficult...
Really, could be a worse wreck...see my family friend who decided to ramp a ditch in his Corvette and end up deep in the woods. Lol, really, you can still see the tire marks where he went off road. Me on the other hand, just get a hammer and some duct tape and you're ready to go. Finish 20 laps down but hey, you still get credit for finishing.
There is a mixed blessing among this. One being that I get to hang out with my dad again. Another being that I've "experienced" a wreck and have a new-found appreciation for life. Third being that it gives me more ammo to joke about. Like being fired or vomiting after a large meal with some friends, it's like "hawhaw, here's some funny jokes at my expense." That's more source material which is good!
I'll probably post pics later cause I don't care. I certainly hope I recover soon. Plus I want to talk about the races over the last two weeks so hang on for those. Car wrecks aren't going to break my stride. Semi-relevant video:
I wrecked my car for the very first time. Before everyone panics, let me get some good things out of the way now. Nobody, including myself was hurt. The car, for the most part, is intact. Very little damage to everything else besides my car. I have insurance and a AAA and the cops didn't treat me like some outlaw or adrenaline junkie. My dad is on the way here to help me get my car fixed. Still, I wrecked my car.
Let me explain what happened. It's raining, I'm in the office complex's parking lot and have one left turn to go before I made it to my building. The problem was this black pavement turns into black ice when wet. I really had no idea until it's too late. I can't steer or brake at 25 mph as I careen forward into a dumpster behind a fence. No thanks to the lack of ABS but meh, it wouldn't have helped much anyway. The air bags deployed but I wasn't slapped in the face or anything. I was able to start the engine, turn the wheel entirely left & right, play the CD, turn on the air conditioner, and roll up & down the windows. The main damage came from the right front light which was smashed along with some usual rumbling on the front right wheel, plus the windshield was cracked, the right door won't open, and the air bags obviously went off.
I sorta wept man tears for a while knowing that I had potentially killed my companion of seven years over a stupid incident that could've been prevented. Thankfully, everything else went okay. A utility worker called the police for me (lovely), the cop didn't ream me too hard with a ticket ($130), and I was able to drive the car into a nearby parking spot (boy, it would be nice to leave work and see my car parked next to yours...just needs blood on the windshield and doors). I am feeling better about the car's chance for survival and my ability to rebound. Personally, I would prefer not to buy a new car for three main reasons--odds are it won't perform any better than my old car (as in it handled well, was clean, and required minimum maintenance), I plan on moving to Britain in a year or two to work for Sumo Digital assuming I get a job there, and I love my old car. It's a real shit-sucker but to be honest, if you KNEW you were going to get in a wreck some day, this is the best way to wreck. No one's hurt and everything's being remedied rather quickly.
Still...this has to be the most punk ass bitch way of causing a wreck. Basically sprinkle the ground with vasoline, make it rain, and don't warn people about potentially slipper terrain. I mean, put a "slow down when wet" sign or even a speed bump for God's sake--those things suck but at least they would've saved my ass. Had this been a wreck on dry terrain and/or involving another driver, my morale as an "outstanding driver" would've been shot to hell. But here, I'm just fuckin' pissed and want to get back on the road as soon as possible. I don't want to pay a bunch of money, talk to a bunch of random strangers, and wait a long-ass time to get driving again. That's what makes this so difficult...
Really, could be a worse wreck...see my family friend who decided to ramp a ditch in his Corvette and end up deep in the woods. Lol, really, you can still see the tire marks where he went off road. Me on the other hand, just get a hammer and some duct tape and you're ready to go. Finish 20 laps down but hey, you still get credit for finishing.
There is a mixed blessing among this. One being that I get to hang out with my dad again. Another being that I've "experienced" a wreck and have a new-found appreciation for life. Third being that it gives me more ammo to joke about. Like being fired or vomiting after a large meal with some friends, it's like "hawhaw, here's some funny jokes at my expense." That's more source material which is good!
I'll probably post pics later cause I don't care. I certainly hope I recover soon. Plus I want to talk about the races over the last two weeks so hang on for those. Car wrecks aren't going to break my stride. Semi-relevant video:
HE'S SEEN THE FEAR...HE NEEDS SEGA RACER THERAPY!!!
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Xbox One Roast
Congrats, everyone, you are looking at the brand new console to be released by Microsoft at the end of the year. And yes, that's really the new Xbox One, can't you tell?
Anyway, to celebrate this glorious occasion, the game studio decided to throw a pizza party and air the conference on a projector. Me, I was just trying to hang myself from the other room cause I knew it wasn't going to be the Dreamcast 2 so what's the point of going on??? Anyway, Xbox One...really? What did we call the original Xbox? Just the "Xbox." Wait, you can't say that since you might be talking about any one of the three Xboxes. Damn, the "first Xbox." Well that ALMOST sounds like Xbox One cause "One" sorta equals "First." Fine, "original Xbox." Now that's just a mouthful and doesn't roll off the tongue at all. Screw it, the name is the least of our worries.
Remember that rant from a long time ago? About how games are trying to move away from gaming and more into the realm of electronic entertainment or "interactive stimulation"? Well, the future is here ladies and gentlemen. Games are secondary now. I want to be able to haul my console up to my damn room just for the sake of playing games--not to watch TV, make Skype calls, update my fantasy football, or be bothered by other people in general cause those are things I can do rather easily without the need for the Xbox One. Besides, people are the worst. Would you really like to be FORCED to interact with other people on your game console? Aren't we already loser nerds as it is, forced to play our games by our lonesome for hours on end? Last thing I want is to talk to anyone, geez.
I specifically remember playing this video from a year ago at Microsoft's E3. Oh how nothing's changed for the better.
Ah, finally, about 30 minutes into the conference, they finally mention games. Speaking of which, I really didn't expect many games to be shown here because E3 is around the corner (though odds are that'll suck too). But they went ahead with the same expected pre-rendered crap (they actually said "in-game footage" late in the conference, inferring everything before it was a sham) from the same games--EA Sports games, Forza 5, Call of Duty: Ghosts. Graphics are always nice to have but I'll say this--I'll fucking lose it if these games only run at 30 FPS max. I would rather play Xbox 360 games with 60 FPS than Xbox One games with 30 FPS. It makes a subliminal impact on the gameplay. I'm looking at old games like Daytona USA that run at 60 FPS and have responsive controls. THAT GAME WAS RELEASED NINETEEN YEARS AGO!! If we are still obsessed with graphics that bad that we need to crank up the level of detail to the point where the human eye can't notice it anymore, then fuck it, I'm done with this generation of games before they even started.
Oh, by the way, the Kinect is mandatory. So you can do Minority Style movements to navigate the menus. Okay, cool. They also said the detail is now more fine-tuned than ever. They say that "the Kinect can even recognize wrist turning" which translates to "the Kinect THINKS it can recognize wrist turning but it does such a shitty job at picking it up therefore the broken wrist turning mechanics will be shoehorned into your games, thus breaking certain aspects of the game because some fool thought that shoving the Kinect up your game's ass like a dildo was a smart idea."
Forza 5. Okay, great graphics, the cityscape was pretty, other than that, what else is there to be expected?
Call of Duty. Somehow, features in video games like "feeling affection for your characters" and "character customization" are groundbreaking in the year 2013. Oh, and lighting in the year 2013 as well. And the dog.
EDIT: Oh, and Microsoft employees were the only one cheering.
Somehow, to suppress the fact their console is laden with a bunch of shit, they decided to announce the rest of the bad news at a tech conference proceeding the main show. Never mind the fact that Sony's stock went up 9% at the very moment you guys unveiled the name "Xbox One"! Here's a couple of QA questions that should alleviate maybe 2% of your concerns. BTW, their answer to always-online is flat out deceptive--the console must be connected to the Internet at least every 24 hours to remain functional off-line. I can see why they'd give you the 24 hour leeway in case your connection drops for a moment but still, the fact you have to sign in often is ridiculous. EDIT: Also dawned on me, I know Microsoft has like some 3000 servers up, but what should happen if the servers (or at the ones near you) went down? Could you even play the Xbox One anymore if that was the case?? Ya know, cause of the whole mandatory sign-in thing. Brilliant, we've seen it before with Diablo 3 and SimCity, let's do consoles next.
Then there's no backwards compatibility. Congratulations, Xbox One, now I have no reason to buy your console right away (assuming I felt like buying this giant VCR-shaped paper-weight) because the library of games over the last 7 years is meaningless! And with the rate that 360's are bricking (RRoD), then it means that within a couple of years, it'll be nigh impossible to play any 360 games, awesome!!!
Also the used games debacle! You must pay a fee for each unique console you play a game on. No longer can you just toss your friend a copy of the game for him to borrow--he has to pay money to play it on his machine too, even if you can't play simultaneously with him. Again, sticking fingers up the ass of the used game market. Oh woe is me, I bought a used car, house, furniture, clothes, those are okay. But video games aren't. How about you stop making such shitty games and maybe I will actually buy them new instead of used.
Do the math. Mandatory Kinect + Always Online + No Backwards Compatibility + Death of Used Games = our worst nightmares come true. I will not be supporting the Xbox One, period. And the fact is, I bet a lot of you people agree. But the fact is Microsoft is still part of the console oligopoly. How long can you hold out until you buy the Xbox One? Look at the Xbox 360--it's debatably the most mainstream of the three console (at least in North America) because of huge library and tons of other cool features. If the Xbox One, God forbid, starts to pick up steam after its release (and it will, Microsoft will pimp that out like they did with the Kinect), how long until you cave? Fact is Microsoft can frankly have their way with you, you can detest it, but in the end, you'll probably give them a little more leeway, "this thing sucks but at least I can play the games I like so I'm okay," etc. etc. Same thing with Electronic Arts and so forth--how they still continue to look good despite the fact that large swaths of the Internet hate their guts. "Mass Effect, Battlefield, Madden...okay I'll support EA, but just this once!!!" Whew, good thing Sonic is staying Nintendo-exclusive after all...
EDIT: Hey, here's another infograph I saw comparing the Xbox One's specs to the PS4:
Yep...stick with the PS4.
Whatever, just one more kick in the balls before I'm through. I caught this on Kotaku out the corner of my eye. It's the first revealed screenshot of the new Need for Speed game.
Someone tell me what's wrong here. If you said "lack of colors" you're absolutely right. Grey skies, dingy hues, "grungy shaders" (literally, some guy came down from Epic to lecture some artists about shades of brown). Somehow, being colorful is "gay" while being colorless is "cool, epic, beast mode." Well, I'd rather be gay than all those other things. Gay as in "happy" you sick freaks. I'm out, deuces man...DEUCES.
In case you hadn't seen it before...TV TV TV TV TV TV XBOX WATCH TV TV TV MOVIE TV EXPERIENCE MOVIE TV TV TV SPORTS SPORTS SPORTS SPORTS SPORTS SPORTS SPORT SPORTS TELEVISION TV TELEVISION WATER COOLER TV TV TV CALLOFDUTY CALLOFDUTY CALLOFDUTY CALLOFDUTY DOG CALLOFDUTY CALLOFDUTY DOG CALLOFDUTY
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Beautiful Cinderella NASCAR Race!!! Very Inspirational!!!
If you didn't see the end of this Talladega race, you're a big dummy.
Congratulations! Welcome to Victory Lane! You made it!!
Just so you know, I helped that guy win.
Basically, teammates David Ragan (#34) and David Gilliand (#38), two of the Sprint Cup's "perennial losers," starting 11th/12th on the green-white-checkered finish, made a mad dash at the end of the Talladega race to finish 1st and 2nd respectively. Unlike other cars, the two bump-drafted each other through the field. I'm no David Ragan fan (who is anyway?) but I went NUTS when I saw him just slip into the lead and win. Beautiful. Especially teammate Gilliland, who had never won before, helping push his teammate across the line. A very selfless deed...
Just for reference's sake, I decided to look up both Davids' records for the start of the 2013 season and let you know how poorly they had done up until Talladega, just to illustrate how amazing it was to see their 1-2 finish:
Track: Ragan's position - Gilliand's position (out of 43 cars)
Daytona: 35th - 38th
Phoenix: 38th - 37th
Las Vegas: 31st - 28th
Bristol: 21st - 24th
Fontana: 24th - 29th
Martinsville: 30th - 28th
Forth Worth: 26th - 32th
Kansas: 30th - 23rd
Richmond: 20th - 27th
Talladega: 1st - 2nd
To be fair, you look at Ragan in the #34 car last year and he fared very well at both Talladega races (7th and 4th) so you could tell that for this team, Talladega was their one bullet in the chamber...took a chance and won the race. You'll probably lose next Sunday but savor this win as long as possible...
Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is you take a look at someone like David Regan and Gilliland and you think "well, they can't accomplish anything, they have no chance." Well they had a chance with 2 laps to go and they WON. Don't quit, don't ever give up, don't let people tell you "you have no chance." JUST WIN, DAMMIT!!!! Winners never quit and quitters never win. Ok, you get the idea so GOOD NIGHT, POTENTIAL WINNERS!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)