F.E.A.R. Wrap Party!
So today I get back from break and the production guy just above our lead comes over and gets us to go to conference. I'm thinking "Great, they broke somethign else and need us to work a weekend to get a good patch in quickly..." Turns out he got the "Tiger Team" (half the final QA team who stayed on post-release to provide competiton in multiplayer for early-buyers, along with testing tools and any quick fixes which might show up -- there's been two drivers and some small change son that side for us), among others, invites to the wrap party for F.E.A.R. being held at Yankee Doodles in Santa Monica. I was like "I'd love to go but I lack transport..." but some of the other guys hooked me up.
Open Bar, but that's not really my thing, so what was I going to do? Not a problem, they had a Texas Hold'em tournament going. So I signed up -- I didn't know how to play, but didn't really care, it was just somethign to do for a while and maybe meet some new people. Went home, changed into one of my new clubbing outfits my bro helped me pick out when he visited, and got picked up shortly thereafter. Arrived a little late, so I missed two or three hands at least, but jumped in and proceeded to flatten two bluffs with a mighty pair of 9's. Now with a giant stack of chips, I learned to play the game. Lots of guys were tossing in hands early - I just didn't see the point. You had two cards, and even if they sucked unless someone jumped the opening bid, it was always worth sticking it out until you saw the next three cards. I cleaned out two other guys just by tossing in my blind and seeing what the rest of the hand had.
Then the bar girl came around and refreshed drinks. Getting another was a mistake. Several uneventful hands pass while I sip at my third Midori Sour (I still blame thatcashfor introducing me to these lovely things), then I decide my pair of 9s can win. It becomes a trio of 9s on the end card and I clean out another person! Hooray! Feeling lucky on the 9s at this point, I bid high on my next pair of 9s. Ends up two-pair, 9s and 8s. Other guy sucks away 3/4 of my chips with his Kings over 8s fullhouse. Bastard. Would've cleaned him off as well if I'd won. Oh well. Tables had been condensed once and were startign to be condensed again... and about 5 hands later I'm out. Made it past the point where they called that half the people were eliminated, and was probably still in for when it was down to 1/4. No money wagered (VU sponsored the prizes, so it wasn't like I was playing for my own money), so no big deal.
Played a few rounds of pool with Jeff, the awesome animator-come-tester who sits next to me these days. He's really fun to chat with. I was looking at the Free Allegiance page during break once and he said we should make a Babylon 5 mod. I said, "Yeah, that'd be kinda cool -- I think we have more Star Wars and Star Trek fans, but it'd be neat... I'm not sure how easy it would be to get models, though. I know Trek and Star Wars have a lot of freeware models floating around, not as sure about Babylon 5..." He says, "I've got them." "Really, cool, some sort of fan project you did?" "No, I mean, I have them. All of them, the ones from the show. I was an animator on that, I still have a disc with them on it around." See, totally awesome to talk to. Anyways, we played a few rounds of pool and both decided we needed to play more at work because neither of us could get a ball in.
Wandered around for a bit listening in on conversations, finally ended up with some of the other testers and chatted a bit, then went and watched the last table of the Poker tournament. It basically seemed to boil down to you toss in your hand if it isn't awesome, and stay in if it is awesome -- if you get low on chips, you bluff, toss all in, and pray.
Bar went from Open to Cash, ride decided she'd had enough, so we gathered on up and headed out. Fun time, probably should've mingled more. Maybe next time. At least I looked better than most of the people there (lots of jeans/t-shirts, and not even new-fresh looking variants of these things). You could tell the production staff apart, they generally had on that casual-suity-like thing going, I was somewhere slightly below that, but still doing well.
Ride home had a little work talk happening. Sounds like some promtiony things are up (a few leads moving on to other areas), so there's some shifting happening. I'm hoping that means I can nudge up a notch, maybe -- general consensus is the guys I've been working for are more about talent, which they all consider a good thing (including the guys who admit it means they won't be moving up anytime soon), whereas some of the others are more about if you go out drinking with them after work or the like. I stayed out of it, since I don't really know anything about it yet (too busy working and avoiding the politics), but I think this is just one more sign that I'm getting noticed. If I can make Floor Lead (one step under Project Lead) or even Dedicated Tester (one rank above the regular kind) within a year, I can happily flip off EA for rejecting me. If not, I'll still flip off EA, but it won't be quite the same without the proof of my awesomeness that I'd like to have. ;)
Side note: Damnit, I still can't access Google. It's like half the intarweb is missing. WTF?
Open Bar, but that's not really my thing, so what was I going to do? Not a problem, they had a Texas Hold'em tournament going. So I signed up -- I didn't know how to play, but didn't really care, it was just somethign to do for a while and maybe meet some new people. Went home, changed into one of my new clubbing outfits my bro helped me pick out when he visited, and got picked up shortly thereafter. Arrived a little late, so I missed two or three hands at least, but jumped in and proceeded to flatten two bluffs with a mighty pair of 9's. Now with a giant stack of chips, I learned to play the game. Lots of guys were tossing in hands early - I just didn't see the point. You had two cards, and even if they sucked unless someone jumped the opening bid, it was always worth sticking it out until you saw the next three cards. I cleaned out two other guys just by tossing in my blind and seeing what the rest of the hand had.
Then the bar girl came around and refreshed drinks. Getting another was a mistake. Several uneventful hands pass while I sip at my third Midori Sour (I still blame thatcashfor introducing me to these lovely things), then I decide my pair of 9s can win. It becomes a trio of 9s on the end card and I clean out another person! Hooray! Feeling lucky on the 9s at this point, I bid high on my next pair of 9s. Ends up two-pair, 9s and 8s. Other guy sucks away 3/4 of my chips with his Kings over 8s fullhouse. Bastard. Would've cleaned him off as well if I'd won. Oh well. Tables had been condensed once and were startign to be condensed again... and about 5 hands later I'm out. Made it past the point where they called that half the people were eliminated, and was probably still in for when it was down to 1/4. No money wagered (VU sponsored the prizes, so it wasn't like I was playing for my own money), so no big deal.
Played a few rounds of pool with Jeff, the awesome animator-come-tester who sits next to me these days. He's really fun to chat with. I was looking at the Free Allegiance page during break once and he said we should make a Babylon 5 mod. I said, "Yeah, that'd be kinda cool -- I think we have more Star Wars and Star Trek fans, but it'd be neat... I'm not sure how easy it would be to get models, though. I know Trek and Star Wars have a lot of freeware models floating around, not as sure about Babylon 5..." He says, "I've got them." "Really, cool, some sort of fan project you did?" "No, I mean, I have them. All of them, the ones from the show. I was an animator on that, I still have a disc with them on it around." See, totally awesome to talk to. Anyways, we played a few rounds of pool and both decided we needed to play more at work because neither of us could get a ball in.
Wandered around for a bit listening in on conversations, finally ended up with some of the other testers and chatted a bit, then went and watched the last table of the Poker tournament. It basically seemed to boil down to you toss in your hand if it isn't awesome, and stay in if it is awesome -- if you get low on chips, you bluff, toss all in, and pray.
Bar went from Open to Cash, ride decided she'd had enough, so we gathered on up and headed out. Fun time, probably should've mingled more. Maybe next time. At least I looked better than most of the people there (lots of jeans/t-shirts, and not even new-fresh looking variants of these things). You could tell the production staff apart, they generally had on that casual-suity-like thing going, I was somewhere slightly below that, but still doing well.
Ride home had a little work talk happening. Sounds like some promtiony things are up (a few leads moving on to other areas), so there's some shifting happening. I'm hoping that means I can nudge up a notch, maybe -- general consensus is the guys I've been working for are more about talent, which they all consider a good thing (including the guys who admit it means they won't be moving up anytime soon), whereas some of the others are more about if you go out drinking with them after work or the like. I stayed out of it, since I don't really know anything about it yet (too busy working and avoiding the politics), but I think this is just one more sign that I'm getting noticed. If I can make Floor Lead (one step under Project Lead) or even Dedicated Tester (one rank above the regular kind) within a year, I can happily flip off EA for rejecting me. If not, I'll still flip off EA, but it won't be quite the same without the proof of my awesomeness that I'd like to have. ;)
Side note: Damnit, I still can't access Google. It's like half the intarweb is missing. WTF?