What's up...

Not much...
My cars have been delivered in pure Sam style: The transporter called at 6pm to deliver at midnight. I succeeded in getting the cars delivered the next morning around 8am.
I don't know how they did it, but they ripped the exhaust pipe just n front of the muffler in two on the Nova...
So now I have to call them to try to get a reimbursement or something. I sent a couple of email but they never came back at me... Funny... They were calling me every 3hours when they were waiting for their payment.

On another note, I went climbing in a gym close to my hotel. It sucked. It's more expensive than the one I was going to in SF and they are a 1/3 of the size. The bouldering area is tiny (like 12 routes) and they are fucking hard.
There is another gym I am going to try next Sunday.

It's quite frightening, they have a lot of expectation for me. I am not sure I am going to be able to live up to them. But at the same time I want the fame and the glory of having pushed a project or something like that... Well I wanted the same on my last two projects and it never happened...
So we'll see.

I have a full rant on the public transportation, and a quick review of a game I am playing right now, but it's gonna have to wait. I have to wake up early tomorrow to do more paperwork with the health system (I don't get it, I am paying for an health insurance, but I still need to be under the equivalent of Medicare... Crazy...), so it's time to sleep.

Montreal IGDA chapter is wonderful...

I never realized how the Montreal IGDA chapter was vibrant and alive until I moved to San Francisco.
Last Thursday I went to their last gathering of the season, and it was awesome, even though I didn't win the PS3 at the raffle.
The event took place at the Montreal Spanish Social club. That club is awesome, it's a place where spanish people gather to feel at home. If I come back to SF, I will probably start a French Social Club.
We had a lot of Sangria and beer, I hanged with a group of people developping for mobile and it was really interesting to talk with them and see the difference in their approach compared to big houses on consoles or PC.
I hope the SF chapter is going to flourish again, as it is a really cool experience. Keep up the good work, Mr. T.
And all the kudos to Jason Della Rocca and the Montreal Chapter team for the organization...
Pictures here

Panicking...

So last Wednesday, my moving company sent me an email telling me they would deliver my stuff around July 4th.
I was like: "cool, I have time to shop for a place, a week before I can find a storage solution"
The next morning, I check my email (I can't check my email at work and I came home late that night) and I had an update telling me they would in fact deliver the next day. It's 2 weeks earlier than planned...
I had to run around that day to find a storage place. I finally found one late that afternoon. It's really conveniently placed, twenty minutes from my work and in a walking distance from a subway station. On Friday, I went to the customs (for some reason, Canadian customs require me to be there to clear my stuff).
Then I got a ride on the truck, a 75 ft long moving truck. It's 4m (12ft) high. It was really hard to get it in the docking bay at the storage facility. It took 4 people and 15/20 mins. We were lucky that the truck was equipped with air ride shocks and was able to lower itself because the door was 4m high.
The driver was alone to unload so I helped him. He is a really nice guy.

So now it's done. I still need to find a place and unfortunately the relocation specialist is not available on Monday, which would have been the best for me.

On the other hand, I still need to get some update from my cars. For all, I know they might be used for parts in Mexico.

Ranting is starting already...

So there is already a couple of things that are pissing me off...

I went back to the routine of taking the public transportation which I don't overly enjoy. It's crowded, smelly, always late but I can deal with that.

But I really miss the ergonomic desk and chair from LucasArts. Dushan is crazy not to love those chairs. I am ready to pay the freight to exchange chairs with the Dush...
I got a standard desk and a really crappy chair. It's rolling way too easily, there is no support for the back, and it's overall a really bad chair.

I already have back pains after only 3 days and I am thinking about shelling out for an Aeron for the job. The fully loaded goes for 1200$.

But I have to relate what happened today. I remember that the ergonomics guide told to set your monitor (did I say that my second monitor is an out of focus CRT... CRT are dead, we are in the 21st century) so that your eyes are roughly 1/3 down from the top of the screen. The top of my screen is level with my nose.
So I went to the company store and asked for a monitor stand, the plastic shit that cost 15$ at Staples. They told me I had to fill a form, a person would come to evaluate my workstation and then maybe I will get one. For a fucking 15$ piece of garbage...
I decided I will buy a crate of wine and use the crate as a stand.

Back in the game...

Tonight for the first time in 4 months I went back to running...
I was way out of shape, extra slow, but I made it.
It was my first time since I broke my collar bone, my previous attempts ended really quickly.

I ran 5km with a .5 km in the middle. My pace was fairly slow but it's a start.

I need to ramp up pretty quickly because I want to be able to run a half end of August/ early September and I am still determined to run a full mid October.
I hope my SF posse will be there to cheer me up/collect me at the finishing line.

I'll keep you updated with my progress.

Btw, I didn't puke and I didn't stretch...

Back in Montreal...

So yeah, for those of you who don't know already, I am back in Montreal...
It feels really weird being back there. Nothing has changed much and it is frightening me. I hoped people from Quebec would have become a little more open minded and ok with english speaking surrounding them but it seems the other way around...
Right now I live at the hotel but I don't really like the area where it is situated. but it's only temporary so no biggy....
It's fun to see my friend though... The newbie tour was hilarious because each room we would stop at someone would dart across the floor to hug me or shake my hand.
There is one thing that piss me off though, there is a Stephen Watson on my team so it's going to be confusing (actually it has already been when he joined last year since some friend though it was me coming back and, knowing them, he probably cried under the flood of emails). Plus I am Samuel Watson 2, probably because they kept my old account somewhere... Actually, my email didn't change so I am still receiving email from the old mailing lists I was part of.

Now I have to find a place to live, but I am a little worried about my stuff. I haven't had any update on where they're at. I am going to start by finding a storage place tomorrow and I should probably start by getting a phone number.

I'll keep you updated with what is happening...