Man, It's Been Awhile.

Just figured I'd pop in and lay down some random thoughts.

Right now the day job is going great I guess.  I really just have to look busy and the people around me just leave me alone.  There are some days that I really don't want to come to work because I know I'll be behind a computer all day just checking Facebook, reading funny internet stories and blogging.  I can do that shit at home?  Why do I need to wake up at 7:30am and go to work for that?  I've continuously kind of molded and made my job into what I want.  Now I'm able to reap the benefits of relaxing and doing the same old shit everyday.  NOTHING!

I look at so much shit sometimes and open so many Firefox tabs that I crash my workstation.  I guess 4GB of RAM and a Xeon 2.4GHz processor isn't good enough? 

I've started a Word document now with about 3 full pages of just web links.  Just videos I need to watch.  It's my new Tivo.  I feel empty or behind if I don't see all of the shit the internet has to offer that day.  I keep wanting to go home after work and just sit there for hours and watch all of them, but there is this unmitigated force called Jen that lives in my cave as well.  Can't really ignore the Grendel monster that hangs on the couch and reads all the damn time.  Oops! Love you babe (if you read this).  But back to what I was saying, I have a long list of things to watch, read and listen to, as well as write up for Loot Ninja.

Speaking of which, the writing gig for Loot Ninja continues to go well.  I had an absolute blast going out a few weeks ago to go to E3 in LA.  That's something I would never been able to do if I were just being me.  I could complain and pay almost 300 dollars for a guest pass, but that is retarded.  Loot Ninja got me in for free as media.

Last year I watched about 80% of the coverage on G4 and thought about how cool it would be to go and see that.  I know deep down that 45,000 media, press, and video game podcasters showed up to cover E3, but deep down I really felt like I was king shit.  Like, yeah, respect this fucking badge you fucking peon blog from the Netherlands.  I don't know!  It really got me thinking about this whole writing gig?  That people actually make money off of this stuff by ad revenue and people are able to quit their day jobs if their site gets big enough.  Loot Ninja is a great site and I hope maybe one day we'll get to that point, but I'll still just be happy doing my podcast Twisted Gamer Radio and writing for the site.

With all of those thoughts going through my head, going out to E3 really opened my eyes and helped me compare it to my normal day job.  Out there I was in the company of such big wigs as Peter Moore (head of EA Sports), Peter Molyneux (creator of Fable), David Jaffe (creator of the Twisted Metal series) and got to see loads of other celebrities.  I think back to being able to see Joel McHale perform at the Ubisoft press conference and then what my normal company does for "quarterly kick-off meetings".  It's complete polar opposites.  All of the guys that work there asked me a few questions and then it was time for me to get back to "testing servers and loading pallets".  Really?  The 5 minute obligatory response to ask about someones vacation when I know goddamn well all of you play video games and want to know every detail.  You guys want to get back to work at your shitty job?  Yeah, that's nice.

I will say that Mafia II, just one of the HUNDREDS of games on the show floor brought Playboy Playmates to their booth to show off their game.  Quarterly Kick Off Meeting at my normal day job?  I get cold rank cookies, a soda with a cup of ice from the Renaissance Hotel and a few beers afterwords.  I still have to sit through a bullshit presentation on Monthly Recurring Revenue, Churn, and Marketing crap.  That seriously puts me to fucking sleep.  I want to see gameplay footage of some shit.  Maybe someone raping a Big Daddy from Bioshock?  It just really put the thought in my head that after I saw my companies quarterly numbers of making millions, that still was only a spit in a bucket for a huge company like Square Enix or 2K.  They probably spent that much on their one time E3 booth for 3 days.  Hell, fucking Activision spent 6 to 8 million alone on renting out the Staples Center where the Lakers play to put on a kick ass concert for twenty thousand gamers and media people.

Damn, I thought this was only going to be a short blog post, but I guess I rambled on like always.  Long story short (wait, why am I telling you this now you've already read this whole damn thing?), life is great.  I hope to continue to produce great material for Loot Ninja and boost my numbers for Twisted Gamer Radio on iTunes.  Check it out if you haven't already.