Its OVER! (Finally...)
After months of working like a dog, and the last couple of weeks of SHEER HELL...its finally over. I found out today, that we are officially done and I couldn't be more happier. Though, technically, I was done by 3:30pm on Saturday, it wasn't official til today when I came in to work this morning...
But I knew it was over from the moment I woke up this moring, because normally I would be very stressed out and tired in the morning, fighting just to get up and get to work on time. But not this morning....I actually woked up VERY EARLY...like 7am, not one bit tired...very relaxed...cooked myself breakfast and took my time to work. But it was at that point I knew, it was over, and I no longer had this horrible weight on my back...
Upon hearing the final official word, the whole team gave out a huge sigh of relief followed by a really boring day. No one wanted to do anywork today. Everyone was just exhausted. Granted, a lot of the team members actually didn't have anything to do yet (have not been assigned what they will be doing next), a few of us actually still needed to work on the Japanese and European version for the next 2 months (though it shouldn't be hard) like me. But me, even though I tried to get something started, I just couldn't. I was pooped. I ended up leaving work at an early 6pm and I had absolutely no idea what to do getting off so early. Ended up walking around the mall and then going home to catch up on my Tivo, which was pretty much catched up since I spent a nice portion of my first weekend off watching TV (and watching a movie and driving around and doing errands and helping one person set up a bed, while taking another person bed apart).
You know, I should talk about the last week cuz there was time it was just insane. Working late and rushing a new ROM to testing. 11pm conference calls to Japan and last minute confirmation that we had to stay late (we stayed late everyday last week even though we shouldn't have). Not only that, I had a birthday party to go to where, even though I was up working the night before really late, still went to work early the next day...went to that birthday dinner...went back to work at 9pm...worked til 1am (while the bday girl and friends partied hard) and then I met some of them at 1:30am for a late nite meal...stayed up talking til 3am...went to bed at 4am...only to wake up at 8am to go back work...work til 3pm only to tell us we had to work til 7pm...i was really dead...
Btw, (few) pictures of that birthday dinner here:
http://public.fotki.com/namofni/captured_moments_in_time/
And not just that...but last week, I had some pretty incredible news given to me, like Jon and Thea and their new kid. That was a totally unexpected surprise for me cuz I thought they were dued in April. But a nice surprise nevertheless.
I also found out that one of my friend is getting married. Congrads to ennay!!
And then I found out from my sister that I am going to be an uncle (again). My younger sister is pregnant. I was SOOOOOO EXCITED and HAPPY about this...but I was also a little sad. Turns out that the baby isn't due til September which means my sister knew about this for awhile. Now, I am not sad cuz she kept it a secret from me but I think she kept it from me cuz she really wanted to tell me in person, when I was supposed to come home to Toronto in March. I now go home in late May / early June but I think I should make another trip in September...
Anyways, I am soooo glad this is all over. Though I still have work to do, I can now start my life again here. I think there is going to be a few interesting things coming up in the next year. Stay tuned...
Tuesday, March 30, 2004
Friday, March 26, 2004
Saturday, March 20, 2004
Wednesday, March 17, 2004
One More Lost Weekend...I hope
This will be the last possible weekend of my non-life. Possible, because unless we find a major bug that fails us next week, I will FINALLY free from the grip that is this game!! (er until localization)
We are now fixing bugs and locking down everything. And its pretty smooth. There's still a lot of bugs but we are getting there. But this weekend will be crucial.
One bad thing about this weekend is that this Saturday, there's going to be a huge party for my friend Priscilla, in which we are celebrating both her birthday and the fact she will be leaving us all to take a job in Toronto. I REALLY dont want to miss this party, and though I will miss the drunkeness of the clubbin portion, I hope i can at least make it for the dinner.
Anyways, I finally uploaded my Birthday Celebration pics onto my online photo album. Check them out here:
http://public.fotki.com/namofni/birthday_2k4/
This will be the last possible weekend of my non-life. Possible, because unless we find a major bug that fails us next week, I will FINALLY free from the grip that is this game!! (er until localization)
We are now fixing bugs and locking down everything. And its pretty smooth. There's still a lot of bugs but we are getting there. But this weekend will be crucial.
One bad thing about this weekend is that this Saturday, there's going to be a huge party for my friend Priscilla, in which we are celebrating both her birthday and the fact she will be leaving us all to take a job in Toronto. I REALLY dont want to miss this party, and though I will miss the drunkeness of the clubbin portion, I hope i can at least make it for the dinner.
Anyways, I finally uploaded my Birthday Celebration pics onto my online photo album. Check them out here:
http://public.fotki.com/namofni/birthday_2k4/
Thursday, March 11, 2004
14 Days (13 in Japan Time) and Counting...
First off, I like to thank everyone who came out or wished me a happy birthday. It is greatly appreciative especially during my time in CRUNCH mode. And despite being in CRUNCH mode, I still took some time to celebrate it.
Oiyan organized a Birthday dinner for me over the weekend at one of the best Chinese restaurant in Seattle, Top Gun, where we all sat very close together in a big table eating the finest in Chinese cusine. We then later went to her house to eat her homemade birthday cake, open my presents and sing karaoke and look at photos til 3 in morning. Good times.
And on the day of my birthday, my co workers took me to Dim Sum for lunch and had dinner with some other friends at Todal, all you can eat seafood buffet, where any one who comes in on their birthday eats free! Considering that its like 25 bucks, it was a very good deal and I was totally stuffed. Pictures coming soon...
But today marks the 14 days before the end of this project and I can see final see the end of the tunnel. This past week has be a rollercoast ride. Despite having a birthday, I did take Saturday night off to celebrate it but went back to work on my birthday after dinner to work til midnight. Though I still stay up til midnight everynite, its not too bad. There are days where its actually kinda layed back as everyone is fixing bugs.
But there are also the days of utter madness. One in particular, was the day before my birthday. My director became very ill with the flu and I suddently became in charge. I was constantly talking to people face to face or on the phone trying to put out fires thoughout the whole day. By the end of it, though I did it all, I was dead tired and left early around 8pm for the first time in about a month. I went home, cooked my own meal (something I haven't done in 2 months) and went to bed around 11pm. That's unheard of!
But it is winding down and I can't wait. Once this month is over, I will finally have some breathing space. Of course, it still wont be over for me. I still need to help finish the Japanese version as well as the European version. So, I will be stuck on this project for another 2 months but at least I hear it wont be as bad. I look forward to finishing this project, hopefully getting to go to E3 and finally getting to go home back to Toronto for a break. This will mark the longest I have ever been away from Toronto (last time there was 2002 Xmas).
BTW: here is some leaked pics of my project:
http://media.gameboy.ign.com/media/566/566895/imgs_1.html
and a cool write up in US Today:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/marcsaltzman/2004-03-09-saltzman_x.htm
Enjoy
First off, I like to thank everyone who came out or wished me a happy birthday. It is greatly appreciative especially during my time in CRUNCH mode. And despite being in CRUNCH mode, I still took some time to celebrate it.
Oiyan organized a Birthday dinner for me over the weekend at one of the best Chinese restaurant in Seattle, Top Gun, where we all sat very close together in a big table eating the finest in Chinese cusine. We then later went to her house to eat her homemade birthday cake, open my presents and sing karaoke and look at photos til 3 in morning. Good times.
And on the day of my birthday, my co workers took me to Dim Sum for lunch and had dinner with some other friends at Todal, all you can eat seafood buffet, where any one who comes in on their birthday eats free! Considering that its like 25 bucks, it was a very good deal and I was totally stuffed. Pictures coming soon...
But today marks the 14 days before the end of this project and I can see final see the end of the tunnel. This past week has be a rollercoast ride. Despite having a birthday, I did take Saturday night off to celebrate it but went back to work on my birthday after dinner to work til midnight. Though I still stay up til midnight everynite, its not too bad. There are days where its actually kinda layed back as everyone is fixing bugs.
But there are also the days of utter madness. One in particular, was the day before my birthday. My director became very ill with the flu and I suddently became in charge. I was constantly talking to people face to face or on the phone trying to put out fires thoughout the whole day. By the end of it, though I did it all, I was dead tired and left early around 8pm for the first time in about a month. I went home, cooked my own meal (something I haven't done in 2 months) and went to bed around 11pm. That's unheard of!
But it is winding down and I can't wait. Once this month is over, I will finally have some breathing space. Of course, it still wont be over for me. I still need to help finish the Japanese version as well as the European version. So, I will be stuck on this project for another 2 months but at least I hear it wont be as bad. I look forward to finishing this project, hopefully getting to go to E3 and finally getting to go home back to Toronto for a break. This will mark the longest I have ever been away from Toronto (last time there was 2002 Xmas).
BTW: here is some leaked pics of my project:
http://media.gameboy.ign.com/media/566/566895/imgs_1.html
and a cool write up in US Today:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/marcsaltzman/2004-03-09-saltzman_x.htm
Enjoy
Thursday, March 04, 2004
My HELL so far...
You know everyday I wanted to write in my blog about how I was doing and how as bad as crunch time is, its not as bad as I once remember. Yeah, Yeah, I wrote this before and I was starting to believe it. I mean, last Sunday, though I was at work til late, we spent most of the night testing our ROM and watching the Oscars over pizza. It doesn't get more lax than that!
But once again, I spoke way too soon and what was coming up, I couldn't predict in a million years...
Basically...we have less than a week of production left and we should finish up things before we do nothing but debugging...right? WRONG!! Though this whole week, we had lots of "minor" new tasks to do (which, of course builds up), today took the cake. Today we find out of a MAJOR FEATURE we had to implement!! When I say, MAJOR FEATURE, I MEAN something that took us a year to do the last time, now we have less than a week to do the same!! I kid you not!! You will be amazed what we have to do in such a short time. You will be even more amazed when you actually play our game and find out that that certain feature was only put in one week before it was done!!
It truely boggles my mind. I am sure that at any other company, we just laugh it off or say "that's what sequels are for" but NOT HERE. I signed up for this shit and now I live the "dream".
Help me again...
On a Lighter Note
My birthday is coming up which honestly, I had nothing planned and really had no time to plan anything. In fact, if I wanted to do something, it would have been next weekend, and if that was iffy...
Well...thanks goodness to my friend Oiyan...she is planning a nice bday dinner for my on Sat which looks to be a very good time. I am so glad I have friends like her who really look out to me. I will tell you how it goes...
And for Kahn...
No...i am not going to be in SD then. I will be working on the Japanese and European version then...and then hopefully I get to go home (Toronto) for vacation...but even that is not set :(
You know everyday I wanted to write in my blog about how I was doing and how as bad as crunch time is, its not as bad as I once remember. Yeah, Yeah, I wrote this before and I was starting to believe it. I mean, last Sunday, though I was at work til late, we spent most of the night testing our ROM and watching the Oscars over pizza. It doesn't get more lax than that!
But once again, I spoke way too soon and what was coming up, I couldn't predict in a million years...
Basically...we have less than a week of production left and we should finish up things before we do nothing but debugging...right? WRONG!! Though this whole week, we had lots of "minor" new tasks to do (which, of course builds up), today took the cake. Today we find out of a MAJOR FEATURE we had to implement!! When I say, MAJOR FEATURE, I MEAN something that took us a year to do the last time, now we have less than a week to do the same!! I kid you not!! You will be amazed what we have to do in such a short time. You will be even more amazed when you actually play our game and find out that that certain feature was only put in one week before it was done!!
It truely boggles my mind. I am sure that at any other company, we just laugh it off or say "that's what sequels are for" but NOT HERE. I signed up for this shit and now I live the "dream".
Help me again...
On a Lighter Note
My birthday is coming up which honestly, I had nothing planned and really had no time to plan anything. In fact, if I wanted to do something, it would have been next weekend, and if that was iffy...
Well...thanks goodness to my friend Oiyan...she is planning a nice bday dinner for my on Sat which looks to be a very good time. I am so glad I have friends like her who really look out to me. I will tell you how it goes...
And for Kahn...
No...i am not going to be in SD then. I will be working on the Japanese and European version then...and then hopefully I get to go home (Toronto) for vacation...but even that is not set :(
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