Posted On Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 By Zen Render
I didn’t go to last night’s AGM at Mole Hill. Not only did I not run for re-election, but I didn’t even go to vote. Show’s how little faith I have left in whether or not the board is still a functioning part of the Society. I don’t feel like I’ve given everything I can, but I do feel like I tried to fight the good fight, and that (most of) the folks on the board I was really in direct opposition to are now gone. Initially it was because the Executive Director was really sketchy, and had a really suspicious background that had obviously not been checked. I went in swinging, and fought for four months straight before the ED left citing health reasons that made it impossible to fulfill his duties. Funny that it didn’t stop him from finding a new job two weeks later somewhere else. The treasurer quit shortly thereafter (or was it just before?) after a heated flamewar in which he told me that “living at Mole Hill, and having cheap rent was a privilege, not a right.” Lovely. Just freakin’ lovely. Been a long two years. Been a lot of sleepless nights. A lot Continue Reading
Posted On Thursday, November 12th, 2009 By Zen Render
So, today the phone rang, and it was my mom, sounding a little shaky, and she said “I’m homeless.” I had visions of the roof of the house in Chilliwack collapsing or something. We had a conversation like this once years ago when the University building she was staying in caught fire and she (while still not really awake yet) figured she needed to buy a computer, now, this instant. I could hear the sirens in the background. So when a conversation with my mom starts with “I’m homeless,” you take notice. Turns out she was just between hotel stays with a checkout at Noon and the next checkin at 5 or somehing (geez, don’t DO that), and was looking for a place to kill a few hours, so we all got a free random visit, and a slideshow of elephants, giraffes, and South Sudanese folks in combat fatigues. Yeah, really. My mom’s become this total globetrotter, and she’s not doing the jetsetting “what a lovely hotel” thing, at least, she’s not setting out to do that during any of her trips. Instead, she’s going to places like the South Sudan (Juba) and Bangladesh. Who’da thunk it? This teacher from Continue Reading
Posted On Monday, November 2nd, 2009 By Zen Render
Long post warning: You has it. November 2nd. No point in posting the picture of my alleged moustache, ’cause there’s hardly anything there unless I have *just* finished shaving with a Bic, and I don’t have a camera or the patience to even bother getting anything approaching a macro setting for some hairs on my lip. Also, even though I initially thought I was going to go for some sorta triple-threat thing and blog every day AND grow a stache for Movember AND ALSO PLUS cycle to work every day, I can’t, ’cause my back tire has a slow(ish?) leak and is currently flat. Yes, the back time with the kevlar tube guard thing that’ll stop anything sharp from getting anywhere near it unless that sharp thing happens to be on the road, I guess. Oh! Story about the crazy who jumped my bike last week. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow okay? Okay. Coffee? What coffee, YOU shut up. Ahem. Starting now. [Monty Python Man At Desk]: Good evening. I like to think I type gibberish like that because it’s witty, somehow, but mostly it’s just that I’ve found that typing damned near anything will get me going Continue Reading
Posted On Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009 By Zen Render
“Boom, headshot!” {Something the gang at EAC IT used to yell out whenever someone was terminated that we didn’t particularly care for. Something I was tempted to yell out when I was laid off last year. Given what’s been going on in the gaming industry of late, you’ll forgive me a little gallows humour.}
Posted On Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 By Zen Render
In which our hero stays glued to CNN for the evening, watching the election, and constantly feeling like “How are they going to steal it this time?” Spoiler alert for those of you who TiVoed it: It wasn’t stolen, and Yes, They Did. I’m not feeling 100% today. Little sore throat, a tiny headache in the side of my neck (?) but other than that a good day. Hard to complain when the good guys win, for once, though, woohoo! Oh, and just in case you’re American, and voted, and felt like it didn’t matter much? Mr. Saul Williams would like to have a word with you (hat tip to DreamPepper) about the whole idea of history. Click here for more videos from Vote For Change My fave piece from this video is this chunk: Dear History, You are behind us and we are no longer looking back. We are standing on the threshold of new times, new days, new worlds, and charging forward without battle cry or trumpet, while cynicism, apathy, and cowardice take their place beside you, behind us. Also, the HipHop-For-Thinkie-Types guy over at Ill Doctrine had some smooth stuff to say about voting, ’cause you’d feel Continue Reading
Posted On Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 By Zen Render
I’m trying to write this before the shock wears off, so apologies now for rambling or moebius story-telling. So, today I got some news from a succession of people at my old job that the guy I spent the last year and a half sitting next to passed away at his home some time after Monday evening. He’d gone home Monday morning complaining of trouble breathing. Maybe his heart gave out, I dunno. He was a big guy, sizewise, but he always was during the five years I worked there, so it’s not like he suddenly took a downturn in his health. Who knows? Maybe when he went to doctors, he was told to lose weight, instead of actually looking at what was going on? That response from hospitals almost killed my mom last summer. But I digress. I was laid off from that job three weeks back, and the first thing both my wife and my mom said when I told them was (verbatim) “But you loved that job!” It was true, too. I liked the work, mostly, and enjoyed working for the largest studio of the largest gaming company in the world. Mostly though? It was the people. Continue Reading