This year has been particularly bad trying to final our games. not just my projects but across the board. Just one of those years. Always trying to do too much. Not enough time.

This year we re-wrote pretty much the entire game. 14 million lines of code. That's a lot. Twice as much as last year. Had we known, or had I known, I would have made significant changes to the budget. Mind you, we blew past our budget by... well, lets just say several times more than I make in a year.

But the end is near. Well, not near enough though. NHL 11 hits the streets Tuesday. The game is good. It's awesome being associated with a title that gets high critical acclaim. NBA JAM will be on the streets in October and that too was a cool project. Right now we're working through NBA Elite. We'll get there but boy it's been work. I haven't played basketball games for... years. But this game is fun. Completely re-written gameplay with new control scheme. I'm not sure how the hardcore NBA simulation fans will take the changes but it's putting the basketball video game genre in a new great direction. And it could use it. Really badly.

On Tuesday, I'm heading to the great state of Louisiana. The low cost test centre we use on our hockey and basketball titles are in Baton Rouge. This was a tough year for them as they've been forced to grow probably a little faster than anyone was ready for. This week is their post mortem session and I've been invited down since I'm their primary customer. I think the conversations will be good though I've got quite the agenda I want to discuss. I'm not sure if they are going to be ready for it. Believe it or not, but I can be a real hard ass sometimes.

HOWEVER! On Thursday night, we're heading into New Orleans. We have sponsor tickets into a pre-NFL concert with the Dave Matthews Band and Taylor Swift then an evening in one of the French Quarter's fine establishments watching the Vikings take on the home town Saints. Woot! Because I booked my ticket late, I couldn't fly directly into Baton Rouge so I'm flying in and out of New Orleans. With this event on Thursday, I changed my hotel for that evening to one directly in the French Quarter. Lucky me!

Oh, and i had a birthday. Yet another one. The great part of the day was Rachel surprising me with tickets to Bard on the Beach (Much Ado About Nothing) and having my friends there as even a bigger surprise! I got out of work early (6pm... that's VERY early) so just being not at work would have been good enough. But this was a thousand times better.

Well... now I'm even more tired. I'm going to be here at work for a couple more hours at least. Sigh.

I hope you are least enjoying your summer...

In my job, I'm responsible for communicating both up and down the food chain. Primarily up. I have people who in turn communicate up to me. I'm constantly harping on my people about the importance of visually representing the information they are trying to communicate. I'm big on clear, accurate, simple, colourful graphs, charts, displays, etc. I don't communicate well with numbers and words. I don't know if it's a form of dyslexia but even while I'm having a conversation with a colleague that pertains to any form of data, I need to visually represent that data in my head. I'm often, if not always, instinctively grabbing several colours of dry erase markers and going up to the whiteboard to 'draw' our conversation.

Now, i know this presentation is on how visualizing data can put greater perspective on information and not necessarily how visualization is necessary for better understanding. I, on the other hand, can only comprehend information through visualization. So when McCandless starts to go through his slides and talk about how this opens up opportunities for communication, I could completely connect with what he's saying.

It's possible if not probable that everyone is like this. I know there are people, even on my team here at work, that can 'talk numbers'. I envy them. And they don't understand why I send back their reports and ask them to add 'more colour'...

Well that's just swell. And so's you're old man!!

Bardwell & McAlister Spotlight, originally uploaded by dishevld.

Went to a moving sale for a photo studio on Saturday. They were selling the stuff they clearly don't use anymore... for many reasons. And they've been around for many years.

I was hoping to get some stands and softboxes to put together a mini home studio but the only decent stock they had was sold before we got there. However, they did have this keg style modeling spotlight with barn doors on sale. I have no idea how old this is but it works! And... it's cool!

And it was cheap. Very cheap. At the very least, we could gut the insides and turn it into an actual lamp which our loft desperately needs.

Anyway... that was the highlight of our weekend.

It didn't start that way though.

I was working for a government agency. I have no idea which one. There were a series of natural disasters that we're hitting the planet. Floods in Europe. Avalanches in the Rockies. Tornadoes in the prairies. Pretty normal stuff except the death toll was quite high and occurrences were happening concurrently around the globe. To the average joe, tragic but normal. To us in the 'government', we knew it was something different.

There were aliens among us. Bodyless entities that can take the form of natural disasters to slowly scrape down the earth's population. Because these aliens had no physical characteristics of themselves (what we would consider physical), they could influence weather. They can also take over possession of dead people. But they could not actually kill people themselves... I.e. they can't take over the body of a corpse and then use that body to kill another person. They can start a flood that drowns people but technically, in this example, they don't kill humans, water does. Ok, I know this is thin but work with me here... it's a dream.

So we knew this was going on and we didn't know how to stop it. We also didn't know how we could warn people because we weren't sure what we would be warning people to do. "Stay way from floods"? I do remember being somewhat scared. For whatever reason, we felt that as long as we were with another agent, we were safe. I have no idea why. At one particular point, I found myself alone, standing in the middle of a frozen lake. Pretty much alone as you could possibly get. I was about 500 yards from the shore looking back at the cold, grey, single level government building and seeing no one. Complete stillness. There was a vacant playground in front of the building with a typical swing set. Not the new ones with a rubber U shaped seat... but the old ones that had a flat wooden board to sit on (remember those? Am I dating myself?). It was normal one moment, I looked away, then looked back. Half the swing set was missing. I was struck with this eerie sensation knowing I was in a bad place. I then saw it coming for me. The swing set had separated itself... the large upside down V of it's frame had turned into legs and it was running towards me. The other half of the set had inverted itself, turning it's V shape right side up and onto the newly formed legs and acted as it's arms. It had pulled the long wooden seat off it's chains and was now swinging it back and forth like a bat. And it was coming for me so quick. I ran.

All I could think about was running towards other people. Get myself in a public place and maybe this would go away. Maybe I will be protected somehow.

At the far end of the lake and close to one end of the building we're a group of cyclists. Yes, I know I was just on a frozen lake but again, I don't control these dreams... Anyway, I ran as quickly as I could to this group of 100 or so people. I could find protection in the masses somehow. I found myself catching up to and surrounding myself with the group. Looking back I could see the pieces of the swing set scattered along the ground lying still, far back. I was relieved. However, many of the cyclists were already possessed by the alien species and I was a like a fly finding refuge in a spider's web. In moments they were on me. Everything went black.

I woke in a cage. We'll, it felt more like an office cubicle than a cage. But I was captured and with several other people who looked like beaten office workers. I didn't know them but we all knew we were being held by the aliens... guarded by dead humans. One of the captives explained what was going on. They can't kill us but they can wait for us to die. We're the next upgrades as the bodies they currently posses eventually deteriorate. They need constant back up and this way they can keep us in fairly good condition until the time comes when they can assume control. Oddly I remember feeling ok with this. It's in their interest to make sure we aren't damaged. And we know they won't actually kill us. We had time to think of a way out.

Sadly, I don't actually remember the escape. For some reason I think we just 'left' but that doesn't make for a very good story. I guess I could make something up but my subconscious is somewhat more creative than my conscious.

I remember being in a building... the government building and there were lots of activity. Many people, soldiers, running around and yelling. A natural disaster had hit our city and it was tearing everything apart. These non-natural disasters had now covered almost the entire earth's surface. We had no way to fight back. Not against Mother Nature. It was only a matter of time before either the earth was destroyed, or every living being on it. We had nothing.

The furniture in the lobby of the building had been thrown about. I and another woman we're taking shelter behind a leather couch. Windows were smashing. The sky was black illuminated through moments of lightning flashes. An army general stood above us and was yelling out instructions. It was hard to hear above the wind now filling the building. "We're going to get you on a rocket. We need to get the two of you off the planet. Our species depends on it." The general yelled. I knew what he was saying. This was our last hope. Me and the other woman I was with were being asked to leave everything... find a new home... and procreate. The general didn't have to spell this out. It was pretty clear.

At that moment, I can remember thinking how bad I wanted to get away. To leave the planet. To have hope... I turned and looked at the woman crouched beside me and thought...

You really aren't that attractive. Maybe there is someone else more suited to go with me...

Then I woke up.

Today at the managers meeting we were discussing yet another new 'initiative' which would require further time and energy. While the idea makes sense, it also made sense that I was the best person suited for the job. Hey, I'm all for new initiatives and maybe working on initiatives is part of my job but i've also GOT A JOB TO DO! I can't keep up. It just gets piled on more and more. I fully acknowledged that maybe I need to go to time management school or something but I had a bit of a conniption when I realized I was being burdened with yet another assignment.

Fortunately my peers found my freak out both entertaining and well founded. For some reason it always seems to be me arguing back at these meetings. I'm not sure why. Maybe because I'm the least able to control my emotions. Normally I have my little spaz attack and halfway through I realize I've gone too far. So I need to only let the genie out of the bottle a little bit. I think I have valid points but sometimes I think I sacrifice what dignity I have left when I let lose.

Regardless. I still have this new assignment to tackle...

For those interested readers, you'll notice that I used the word 'spaz' up above. Apparently, this is a really bad word in some parts of the world (mostly those heavily influenced by Great Britain). I innocently used the word 'spastic' in an email I sent by father in law in Australia. I think he found it both funny and disturbing that I would use such a word. Meanwhile, I was confused by what the fuss was about. So naturally, I googled it. In England, this is almost a swear word. I think we all kind of know what spaz references but in the UK it's 100 times worse than using the 'R' word. You know the 'R' word. It's followed by 'etard'.

Anyway, I cut and paste from Wikipedia.

In American slang, the term "spaz" is largely inoffensive, and is generally understood as a casual word for clumsiness, sometimes associated with over excitement, excessive energy, or hyperactivity.

Ok. So how about the UK?

The current understanding of the word is well-illustrated by a BBC survey in 2003, which found that "spastic" was the second most offensive term in the UK relating to disability (retard was deemed most offensive). In 2007, Lynne Murphy, a linguist at the University of Sussex, described the term as being "one of the most taboo insults to a British ear".

Whoops. I guess the R word followed by "etard" is actually more offensive. I apologize to everyone for using it so very, very often. It's just so fun to say.

Ok, this post is almost over.

I'm going to finish with a couple of game videos.

The first one is called "Limbo". It's an 'arcade' title on the 360 and looks so out of the ordinary and original, I simply must get it. There are thousands of games made every year but when something truly original comes out, it's so refreshing. Actually, it's still a side scrolling adventure game at heart (like Mario) but illustrated so... spooky.

But then again, sometimes originality is overrated. My friend at work who has friends at Dice Studios in Sweden just got me in on their closed beta program for the new Medal Of Honor. Grimoire, I know you're jealous.

Jump-Front-B&W-Crop2, originally uploaded by dishevld.

So it took much longer than I was anticipating. I couldn't settle on just 12 images. I think I have just over 20. Some of which are now on flickr.

It's late so I'll talk more about the class later. What I can say now is that I really, really, really dig taking nude photos.

Good night.

Studio-Set-Nude, originally uploaded by dishevld.

So my weekend has comprised of whittling down 200+ photos from my last photo class to 12 decent shots. I thought I was going to have a hard time finding 12 but it's even harder to decide which ones are better than others. That's not saying I have dozens of Life Magazine worthy photos and really deserve to present them all to display my greatness... it's just hard to pick out a few from so many. You certainly start to question your judgement. I try and pretend that it's all about what I like but really? Is that true? Don't we really do what everyone else likes? I could select photo 'A' and delete photo 'B' because I like photo 'A' more. But really, photo 'B' may be the 'better' picture. Thoughts like that cripple me.

Anyway, I'm down to 62 pictures. I need to delete 50 more. Sigh.

Did I mention they were nude photos?

Rachel arrives very early tomorrow morning so my days of being lonely with a dog that doesn't really trust me are coming to an end. My expectations for this month never really came to fruition and sadly I have no one to blame but myself. Oh, and the dog. Nice thing about having a dog is that she now assumes blame for most things. Like funny smells. It's all her... But I digress.

I had so many plans. I was going to pick up my guitar again. I was going to paint some of the walls. Clean out the closet. Mount the TV. JOG! I was even thinking about writing a novel and establishing world peace. But nothing.

I finally got around to cleaning the apartment though. Today. I wanted to scrub the whole place down the first chance I got. Which of course I didn't. So the place has been a disaster zone and only until today does it look presentable.

In fact, and this is just crazy, I've played maybe 1 hour of video games over the past 4 weeks. That's just crazy. Where did the time go? Oh, I know... taking care of the dog. This might sound strange but I realize that my entire life (for the past 4 weeks) can be broken down into small chunks of time. Chunks of time between walking the dog. That's it. My life have been a series of boring nothingness connected to when my dog needs to go out to the bathroom... Which apparently is quite often. Even when I was walking my dog, I was thinking about when I would have to walk her next and what I could squeeze in between now and then. But of course what I did do was either feed her, eat, work, sleep or watch TV.

This does sound like I'm blaming her. But I'm allowed. She's a dog. Please see paragraph 2.

So anyway, this is it. Rachel arrives. I did nothing. Well, that's not 100% true. I did do something.

I missed Rachel.

ZuZu 3D, originally uploaded by dishevld.

Tonight we're off to see Toy Story in 3D.

ZuZu approves...