I've had the entire week off work but I returned to the office this evening for our company's open house. We moved offices in late February so the bigwigs wanted to show off where we are and what we do. There was a smaller open house about a month ago for close friends and family but this one was open to industry friends, schools, and the media. I probably would have not attended tonight but I had invited my friend Garrett to come check out the place. I also have not seen Garrett in months so I looked forward to the evening.

GK and I go way back to my early days of testing at EA. We've since escaped those chains of labour and the experience has left an indelible bond. I got there a bit early and every other person was asking me, "What the hell are you doing here? Aren't you on vacation?"

After Garrett arrived, I managed to lead him to a somewhat satisfactory spread of appetizer and finger foods. Just as we were about to leave the stiffling crush of people in the lobby we got caught by the start of the studio head's presentation. After that was over, I led Garrett upstairs where I gave him a personal demo of Shadow-Born, the game I've been working on since last June. Garrett was brought up right so if he doesn't have anything nice to say, he won't say anything, which is why he sat pretty much silent as he played the game.

I also brought Garrett around to Taylor, a producer at my company. Those two had worked together before and greeted each other warmly. After the ass-slapping was done, I led Garrett around for a quick tour of the office. It was there, that I ran into Yuko Shinyashiki, whom I went to elementary school with. She was there representing The Art Institute of Vancouver. This was the second time I've run into Yuko in three weeks as she was at office for an earlier visit. I took her business card and returned my attention to GK.

The tour got quite boring for Garrett afterwards and I kinda felt bad about that. He did, however, point out that Maestro Fresh Wes was at the open house. It's been years since I've seen the rapper in the media but Garrett, the young whippersnapper that he is, noticed him immediately. I am sure that "brush with greatness" was the highlight of the evening for the both of us. It is weird though that his most famous song was "Let Your Backbone Slide" and the company name is Backbone Entertainment.

Garrett and I then ate a significant amount of vegetables and dip while discussing plans to go hiking together in the near future. After a bit more chit-chat it was time to put an end to the fun-filled evening. I walked Garrett to the door so he could salvage the night.

If you want a slightly alternate take on the evening, feel free to read Garrett's account at his blog. It's like watching the Zapruder film taken from a different angle.

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I went to the Eatery for dinner tonight. It's a nice place with some fabulous food and a really great atmosphere. While we were dining, Sarah pointed out the restaurant sold Eatery merchandise, specifically panties (link has music). You can see actual customers modeling said panties in photos when you go to the bathroom.

This only makes me want to order up a batch of erwintang.com panties myself and see if I can give them away. Sarah says that would be creepy. I don't see the difference between the Eatery selling panties and me giving them away. Anyways, the debate rages on.

On the t-shirt front (get it? ha ha ha), I have sizes from everyone except Nic, Chris D, and Jonathan. Nic probably didn't check his e-mail. Chris D probably read my e-mail but is way too busy to respond just yet. Jonathan didn't get an e-mail and probably hasn't read this post, which would make it a good time to make fun of him. Let's hope those three send in their info so I can start the ordering process.

And last but not least, let me publicly congratulate Tyson for being formally accepted into the medical school at Memorial University. He's been working his ass off for about a year studying for the MCAT and finishing his Ph.D thesis. He might even get into a few more schools as well, so the celebrating might not end here. In any case, good job Bone!

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After much research, I've picked a vendor and a specific style for my web site t-shirts. The next step is to get sizes from those people who've indicated they want one. I'm about to send an e-mail to everyone. I have everyone's address except for Jonathan and Cameron (at least I think you wanted one Cam). You guys can either e-mail me or leave your size as a comment here.

Please refer to the size chart below.

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Ron, a former co-worker of mine, was in Paris recently for a business trip. While touring the city, he happened upon an interesting dining establishment and took the above photo. It says it's a Chinese restaurant but it also looks like a grocery store. Maybe it's a combination of both. A quick search of the web reveals it makes a pretty good hot and sour soup.

It seems like a place my Mom would go back to, three nights in a row while on vacation, thus preventing her children from experiencing their first ever Red Lobster visit... but that's another story.

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It wasn't until I started working as a software engineer that I realized video game companies have wrap parties, much like movie productions. I worked on four different games as a tester and they didn't even tell us about a party that we weren't invited to.

Now that I'm in a role that offers a bit more respect, I'm finally invited to these damn things. On Sunday night, the producer for our game arranged for a little shindig at Mark's Fiasco. A lot of people are going on vacation starting on Monday (myself included) so sooner was better than later for this.

Quite a few people quit the company during the course of the project and some of them were kind enough to attend the party. It was good seeing them and it reminded me how much more fun I had when they were around.

One of the former team members attending was Ron, he of the infamous "The Bet". Oh, there were some fun times when the "The Bet" was brought up again. Ron seems to be a lightning rod for these types of discussions and I'm pretty sure my sister thinks he's a bad influence on me. The discussion also elicited the most odd/funniest comment of the night:

"Hi, I'd like you to meet Wang, my boyfriend."

In general, many drinks and much food was consumed. They make a kick ass fish and chips there. A single piece of fish there is about the size of your forearm. I didn't order that but mooched off other people that did.

As can be expected for a video game related party, the males outnumbered the females by a fair number. It was, however, nice to get the whole crew out of the office and into a bar for a change.

As a final note, on my way to the place, I saw Pierce Brosnan downtown doing an on location shoot. Though I'm at least 85% straight (a web site quiz told me so), I have no shame in admitting Brosnan is pretty good looking dude.

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