There are times when I have to give credit to people who design games. In the Flash game see you above, you control a rolled up piece of newspaper or something. There's also a naked guy who appears to be sleeping on a cockroach infested floor. Why, I don't know. Anyways, when a cockroach touches his body, his stress levels goes up. Your job is to smack as many cockroaches as you can using your mouse before the guy freaks out.
It might seem weird but you know what? It is weird.
As reported by several news reports today, Saturday Night Live will begin its new fall season with a much smaller cast. Already gone were the likes of the irreplaceable Tina Fey and Rachel Dratch. Fey was the show's first female head writer and a staple of the Weekend Anchor desk for over half a decade. Fey and Dratch (of Debbie Downer fame) are appearing on 30 Rock, a new NBC comedy that is about the people who produce and star in a sketch comedy show.
Today, however, it was announced that three cast members did not have their contracts renewed. Gone are Horatio Sanz, Finesse Mitchell, and Chris Parnell. I'm most choked about Chris Parnell. He was a highly underrated cast member who once had Will Ferrell help him get his job back when he was let go a few years ago. Parnell played the straight man to great effect. His rapping skills are also well known. He and Andy Samberg appeared in last winter's Internet sensation, Lazy Sunday. That rap video is widely acknowledged to have introduced millions of people to the site YouTube. The popularity of the video also got many people talking about SNL, most of whom had stopped watching the show.
There are unconfirmed reports that Parnell is now taping a pilot for a sitcom. He's a funny guy and I hope he finds some decent work. Parnell also appeared in Natalie Raps, which was also quite entertaining.
From just about the first minute that I accepted my job at EA during the summer, people started asking me what I'd be working on. Unfortunately, I had to give them that standard, video game industry answer of "I can't tell you." I understand the reasons behind keeping things secret but when you actually have to be all James Bond about it in front of your friends, you look silly.
Well, today EA finally announced in a press release the game I'm working on. It is simply called Skate or SKATE. I'll leave it up to the marketing types. Anyways, it's a new game. It's not a yearly iteration of some sports title, nor is it a tie-in based on some movie or literary source. It's all new ideas and it'll be for the PS3 and Xbox 360.
Oh, I guess I should say it's a skateboarding game too. So, I expect some of you right now to be shaking your heads, thinking it's gonna be a tough climb going against Tony Hawk. There's no doubt that the Tony Hawk games are the titles to beat when it comes to skateboarding. No one has even come close to beating them so far.
Time will only tell what happens when our game is compared to theirs. I will say one thing though. There are a lot of super smart people working on my team. Each one of them geniuses in their own right. There are also a lot of very creative and passionate people working on the game. EA has assembled some serious talent for this project.
I'm looking forward to what we come up with in the next few months.
Despite that the fact I love gadgets and that I have a relatively high-tech job, I seem to be one of last people to try out a new technology. One of those things is wifi. Until last week, I'd never owned a device that had wifi nor had I ever connected to a wifi network. My Palm T|X bought over Ebay arrived in the mail last week.
I quickly discovered that someone, probably one of my neighbours, has generously left his or her wireless network open for connection. It's a pretty good signal and it how I was able to wirelessly surf the Internet on my Palm for the very first time. It kinda made me wonder if I'd be able to cancel my ISP account. Nah, that's being cheap.
Anyways, I brought my PDA to work for the first time today. Let me tell you, downtown Vancouver is alive with wireless networks. Just walking the one block to work from the bus stop, I was able to detect half a dozen access points, some secured while some not.
On my afternoon break, I was able to confirm that Sinclair Centre indeed has a public wifi access point. The signal is pretty strong on the ground floor but you have to keep away from the food court. I was able to check my personal e-mail account and even send off a quick message. All of this just across from where I work. Yay!
When I was waiting for the bus to go home, there was a strong enough signal from who knows where that I could check my mail one last time before hopping on the bus.
I don't know how you feel about it but this whole Betamax thing is pretty damn cool. What will they think of next?
Comedian and fellow Canadian Norm MacDonald has never pulled any punches when it comes to comedy and he demonstrated that during a recent appearance on The Daily Show. Norm commented on the Steve Irwin tragedy. I'm not sure what it means if you laugh at his comments but Jon Stewart does change the subject. Jon asks Norm if he knows anything about Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay. You can certainly laugh at his response.
