a sketch a day - October

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And another week has past. It's only been two weeks but it seems like a month! The energy here at the Shanghai studio is very different from back home. Because of the newer people to the industry, one can feel the excitement as they work on something real for a change, instead of just outsourcing. People play games after work a lot more than back home, too, and I have to say I like it. It's been a while since I've worked in such a vibrant environment. The feeling is more of a small studio, where everyone wants to be there and work hard at something fun, than a big corporate office, where a lot of people, and not necessarily good ones, get lazy, bitter and way over paid for too little productivity. Oh, yes, BTW, I heard that there was a little lay-off action going on back at the big "H". Makes me wonder if there's going to be a job when I get back, hahaha. Frankly, I don't care any more. That's sounds so bad:-I Anyway, today was a full day of checking out of the hotel, moving into an apartment. One nice thing that finished off the day for me was an email from one of the artist, thanking me for helping him with his modeling and texturing. Although what I taught him is considered common knowledge back home, it's all knew to them - It's nice to be appreciated. Then again, that's why I was sent out here to do. I can sure see some writings on the wall. Sigh...


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Sorry for the late posts, but like I said before, updating this blog is not as easy as back home. As per Jane's questions, I see this experience as a glass half full. The artist here are excited about working on a real title instead of cranking out asset after asset, but the experience of doing things the best way are not yet learned, so they are doing things the "outsourcing" way, which is to do things according to what is given. They need to learn to think for themselves in terms of doing things more efficiently to save time and budgets.

Saw an accident for the first time today while outside the office while hailing a cab to go to lunch. This cabs screeches in front of us, and in turn cut off a lady on a moped, who slammed on her breaks, but were to close to stop in time. All of us heard a loud "CRACK" as the front of her bike hit the rear bumper of the cab. "Oh, shit!" I thought as my co-workers and wondered if she was ok? I think she must have collided around three or four miles and hour, but still, people are quite fragile, if you think about it. Anyway, the funny, but unbelievable part was that when the cabby got out of his cab, the first thing he did was to inspect the damage of the bumper! What the hell? He's not concerned about the person, but about his freakin car? Good thing the lady was ok. My co-worker said that "Yeah, that's the way they are, here." Nice... Yes, indeed, if you ever visit Shanghai, don't expect "pedestrian's right of way" here, or else you're going to eat pavement! Cars have right of way, and don't you forget it, hahaha!


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Wow, what a week! this is the first work week here across the Pacific and it was a hectic one. Got into the office Monday to find that the computer they gave me was not totally set up - I had to do it. By late Wednesday, I was finally synced up to all data required for actual work. while checking all the applications, I found that the system seemed a little slow, so I checked the hardware specs and found it shockingly under powered - a 1.89GHZ with 2GIGs of RAM. This was their standard issued artist machine? I guess since they've been working on individual objects, a 1.89GHZ machine's not bad, but when they're expected to start building actual levels here, it ant going to cut it! Needless to say, I raised the alarm bell to the brass back home and got the ball rolling for some better hardware, some one's going to be eating this fat cost, and it's not going to taste very good!

Hardware issues aside, I found the artist here art quite talented, the only real issue here was their experience. Since China is just starting to get into the game development business, ala the increase demand for outsourcing from the States due to cutting development cost, there's just not very many experienced game development people. All the artist that are on this high profile game are junior grade at best when it comes knowing the best practices of building assets. As the TAD(technical art director) and I get their systems set, this whole week, for integration and production for the game, we were hit with a lot of problems that are too hard to get into for now. Needless to say, these problems should go away when they get new computers.

Communication is a huge barrier and that was one of the reasons why I'm here. So far things have been difficult between EASH and EARS due to revisions that were supposed to be done not totally resolved, but the artist seems to appreciate that someone from the head office is here to help them out with translations and issues, that's not to say that it's going smoothly. I'm not a native speaker and I can only understand simple conversation, but I guess a little is better than nothing at all. Now that I am here, I think I'm in for one hell of a ride - a lot is dependent on the success of this studio, and it CAN NOT FAIL! Talk about no pressure, sheesh, because there's no other options due to the fact that this game have to ship next year, so I have a feeling that the "four" month stay may become a six month one, I will have to explain that one later. I definitely feel that I've been thrown to the wolves - SPARTAAAAAAAAAAAA!

But on to happier things. Food here is freakin great and this city is all about eating. I've had three free lunches this week because I'm the "new guy" and all the places that we went to is close to work. After work a couple of ex-pats who's here on two year contracts showed us some other good places that frequent - a food blog will definitely be started when I get the chance. The hotel I'm staying at is a nice one bedroom with a small kitchen that's pretty much useless because there's not silverware, dishes, pots or pans. I do a 1.3 mile walk to and from the hotel to work, but that's going to change sometime next week as I find out whether or not they find me a place to live. Like I've mentioned before, blogging is going to be a bit difficult because a scanner is not easily accessible. Oh, yes, one last thing; somehow, when the price of gasoline throughout the world is quite expensive, gas here is around two bucks a gallon, go figure:-I


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Well, looks like blogging's going to be a little rough for a week or so as I'm getting settled. There's no scanner I have easy access to and I'm not sure if I should activate the online service at the hotel. I think the easiest way to get the pictures up is to take a snap shot of it with my camera and get it ready when I have the work machine set up. Again, there's no guarantee that I can view my own blog sometimes for some stupid reason, even though I can update it. Updates might be a little sporadic due to opportunity.


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While waiting at the airport, totally bored, I did some sketches of the waiting passengers around the terminal to fulfill my daily sketch. The flight was not too bad due to the fact that I was able to change my window seat to an aisle - thank goodness. Many thanks to the check-in lady who was kind enough to do that for me:) Arrived in Shanghai today, or rather, the day after, and it's already dark. Work had a driver waiting for me at the airport and I was dropped off at a hotel to settle down for the weekend. Co-workers want me to start a photo blog of my four month tour of duty so I'll start when I figure out what's going on at work Monday.


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Today was the last day to enjoy the foods that I will not be able to eat for quite some time, and one of those foods is the dollar tacos that's found on the edge of little Mexico in Redwood city off of Middlefield Road. I ate four of those delicious tacos; one pollo, one asada, one carnitas, and one el pastor, and washed it all down with a nice cold glass of horchata, mmm, mmmmm. For dinner, my friends treated me to all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ and for desert, a two scoop ice cream sunday. I have not consumed this much calories in a very long time, and damn it, it was good! The ID is now satisfied and the EGO is back in charge....for now.


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Had a wonderful going away dinner with some co-workers tonight at our favorite Japanese restaurant, Hotaru. We must have ordered at least twelve to fifteen dishes of sushi and rolls of all kinds. Of course I had to order some tuna sashimi all to myself - just can't get enough of that stuff, mmm, mmmmm! I'd figured that I had better get my fill now because who knows when I'm going to get another chance over seas. It was unfortunate that not everyone on the invite list could make it. It was also unfortunate that not everyone who went to dinner could go bowling afterwords, which was a good thing, for bowling didn't end until late, and I was getting quite tired. Tomorrow will be my last day to go eat dollar tacos for lunch and I plan to enjoy every last one, heh, heh.


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I hate to say, but I'm not sure that I'm looking forward to this field assignment across the seas. A month or two would be OK, but having to put everything on hold for four months just don't sound fun, but maybe I'm just a bit scared that it won't work out. It seems like they're expecting a lot from me, especially making the outsource team work. But like they say "nothing tried, nothing gained" hahahaha.


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a sketch a day - September

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The gather yesterday was held at the craftsman's house. That was the first time that I have ever been there, so it was great to see his pad. Even though I was not able to stay for very long, and therefore, had to bail on the first Rifts game, the warden and I was privileged to sample the Craftsman's collection of old single malt Scotches! That was awesome! We had a sampling of a fifty year old Scotch, which was quite mellow and very smooth going down, and then a thirty year old Scotch, though not as smooth as the fifty, but smooth none the less, also the thirty had a nice bite to it which the fifty did not. We topped it all off with a Johnny Walker Blue Label, though good, did not compare to the other two. Now I under stand where the Craftsman got his Scotch snobbishness from, because I'm there with him, hahahaha!


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Today was a long day, and it's not due to having fun. No, it was long because I actually had to apply myself to finishing DevTrack tasks that's needed for next week's mile stone. On top of all that I had to participate in a video conference with the people in Shanghai and other meetings to get situated with what's going to be happening over there in the next month, as they're finally getting integrated into the art pipeline that's been established here - no more grace periods from here on out.

I have to say that I'm not ready! I'm not ready to go into another crunch, and I'm not ready to leave the comforts of home and putting my life on hold because I still have a lot of things I want to do, like making more boxes, which I have had no time to do any more, sorry guys. But on the other hand, it should be interesting to see what it's going to be like living in a foreign country and immersing myself into another culture. It's just too bad that I'm not much into shopping, otherwise, I'd be like a kid in a candy store, hee, hee.


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Only a week into the new project and I'm already slated to meet a mile stone for Wednesday, and I'm not even fully familiar with the new pipeline at that. What a pain in the ass. On top of that, I've only got two more weeks left before heading off to help transition the team in China over to this new pipeline, as well as help them out with "best practices" for modeling and texturing for the assets that they're going to be creating. "Outsourcing" is going to be the norm.


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I had the strangest dream the other night. It was so unusual, that I can't forget it that quickly. So the dream goes; I was in China, and I'm in a connivance store getting a soda. All of a sudden, an old man bursts into the store screaming and weaving a gun. He screams all kinds of words that were incoherent, maybe because I don't really know the language, or he was screaming in some Chinese dialect, or what ever. What was strange was that, while everyone else was scared to death, or for their lives, I was not scared. I mean, I was standing there as if I was playing a video game and could not be hurt. But, I think it was more then that. I think why I was not scared, was because I was not afraid to die - that was such a strange feeling. It was strange because I felt at such a peace, that I was happy enough to take it in stride, because I have no control over the situation and that what ever happens, happens. As the madman starts directing everyone to a corner of the store, and everyone else is cowardly and fearing, I was walking upright like I was strolling through a park on a sunny afternoon. As I'm walking I kept glancing at the madman, and getting glimpses of his face. every time I look at he him, his expression would get from mad and determined, to angry and confused. And I know why: It's because I'm not like the others, all scared and cowardly, ready to do anything and everything to save their lives. No, I was an "arrogant bastard", who's all high and mighty to be above the rest. And who the hell am "I", to be all in control and not scared. "I'm going to teach him a lesson. I'm going to make an example of him in case anyone gets any ideas about not listening to what I say." And I'm OK with that. I knew that there was a possibility of getting shot if I keep acting the way that I have. What's even more interesting was that I was playing a video game with the character looking exactly like me...And I think to myself, That's crazy. Then I woke up.

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I don't like Mondays. It's the name of a song and I totally agree with it today. This is my first "official" day starting on the new team and project and they insist that I move myself over to their new area. And so, I pretty much spent the entire day packing up my stuff, computers, monitors, and a freakin huge 32" tube TV. Not much fun, and a whole lot of sweaty work - all by myself! Then unpack and set up everything again so I can start work tomorrow for a mile stone that's due next Wednesday. Just wonderful. I don't like Mondays.


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Today I went over to Mutt's house to finish his closet enough to be functional, meaning that the shelving is finally in. All that's left now is the facing for the exposed studs. This has to be one of those perpetual projects that gets dragged on and on and never sees the finish line. While I was doing the closet, the Warden got so fed up with Mutt's filthy kitchen that he decided to clean and organize it for him. The Warden stuffed all the cabinets that he found space in, with all the bottles of booze and food stuffs that's just laying about the counters. He put out what he considered trash and unused crap. He even vacuumed the floor and wiped down all the counter tops. Now there's actually usable counter space where mounds of crap once were. Chances are that it's all going to revert back to it's messy state in a week, and I can't disagree. His room mates were very appreciative of his work. At the same time I also installed a new hanger bar higher up in the room mates closet ,so they can better utilize the high ceiling in the closet cavity.


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Ever since I got back, I've been sleeping very deeply. I think all those days of sleeplessness bottled up from the trip to Shanghai have been uncorked. Or maybe it's my own bed and I feel much more relaxed sleeping in it. Tonight's also the first time that I've gamed in a while, and it was a lot of fun. It's great hanging out with old friends that you've grown up with. I really like to have that level of comfort with the friends I know. It sure seems like good friends are hard to find and even harder to keep. I only hope that I can keep making more and keep them as well, but that also requires a lot of energy and sometimes I just don't think I have it.


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It's a good thing my current manager's letting me slack this week because I've been getting up quite late and going to work quite late. He knows that I'm a bit burned out from the constant crunch schedules back to back and told the other project that I won't be starting with them til next week, which is totally awesome! It's a good thing, too because I've been getting into some really deep sleeping patterns the last few days. I think it's due to the fact that I'm home in my own comfy bed, hahahaha. I guess I should enjoy it while I can for I've been assigned a four month tour of duty to the EASH office to help facilitate the art pipeline there. With another aggressive production schedule, they need someone to make sure the production process is going to be smooth across the seas because they are going to be doing half the game. No pressure or anything, sheesh!


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Well, today didn't start off very well. I was supposed to go over to Mutts' house this morning around eight, and get the shelving that I still haven't done in a while. But I totally slept through the alarm and it wasn't until ten thirty that I was woken up by the ringing of the phone - which I totally knew who it was before I, embarrassingly, answered. I feel small. Will try and make it up later this week.


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A few things I have to say about the old Shanghai neighborhoods: although they are a bit run down, they are none the less, a part of Shanghai's history and are more than a hundred years old. If this was another part of the world, great measures would be taken to try and preserve as much of it as possible. Some of the architectural elements and details are quite wonderful such as doorways and window frames. It would be totally great to restore them and use them as commercial property, but instead, blocks and blocks are being torn down at an alarming rate to make way for new shiny high rises. Oh, yes, and don't break and laws there, because the Police have great incentive to give tickets because they get a percentage of every ticket they give out - they do make a pretty penny and lots of people wants to be on the force, HA!.

Finally back home and loving it. Shanghai's fun, but I can do without the humid weather. I haven't slept much for the past forty eight hours due to getting things done around the house; laundry, unpacking, paying bills and preparing for a work day tomorrow. And here's all the sketches from the past two weeks.





































































































































































































































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Day 13 - Shanghai time 9/06 10:25pm
Not much to do today. Walked around the block and watched people hustling about with serious faces on. I am so ready go home and get in some serious sleep time because it's so noisy here in the middle of the City. Every morning a wake-up bugle sounds off around six near by, and every other day I can hear a group of older ladies practicing some kind of drum dance in the park below, banging away around seven in the morning.

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Day 12 - Shanghai time 9/05 11:31pm
Went and had dinner with the Friend and his Roommate. They took me to this noodle place that served one hundred RMB bowls of noodles. They rave about it saying it's the best noodles, ever. Best noodles or not, one hundred RMB is a fortune for these people, consider that you can get a bowl of noodles for five RMB and still taste pretty good, one hundred better be damn mind blowing. Of course, converting the RMB to US currency, for us, twelve dollar bowls of noodles are no big deal. Some places in the States do get that expensive, but nothings going to sell at a hundred dollars a bowl. When the noodles came, I have to say, looked pretty good. Not only does one get a large bowl of noodles, but one also gets a plate of the stewed beef that the broth is made from, along with a small bowl of pickled veggies (for mixing with the noodles), and a glass of what tasted like prune juice. It was delicious! What made it better was that they picked up the tab, hee, hee.

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Day 11 - Shanghai time 9/04 11:48pm
Not much going on today except walking up and down a street where a lot of music stores are located. I was in search of a tuner for the niece's violin so she doesn't have to rely on her teacher for tuning. Fro what I can tell, prices for guitars, electric and acoustic are pretty comparable to those in the States, no savings there. I was surprised to find real Gibson Les Paul's! How people can afford them is beyond me. Chances are they're just going to hang there for some time.

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Day 10 - Shanghai time 9/03 11:38pm
Went to check out EASH's local office to meet a friend for lunch. The dev studio here is located about eight miles from the old city center where we are. The studio is small, compared to EARS, but with the way we're going, it's going to get a lot bigger. With outsourcing as the planned solution for cutting development cost, I have a feeling there's going to be less and less people doing the real work in the States and more managers, not like there's too many now... The friend of mine is here on a two year assignment, along with his friend, and room mate, who's also doing the same. His friend's from the EA's LA studio where he used to work. From what they've told me, they don't like it here as much as the States. They find that they have to work harder and longer, for not only are they helping the local staff with their questions, they have to sync up every so often with the home office through teleconferencing. That means staying up later so as to be on par with the home offices. when I asked them about exploring their new surroundings, they say that they don't have time and when they do have free time, it usually just staying home to relax. That's pretty scary, for the other half is also saying the same thing.

After the lunch, I headed back. I've decided to walk the distance because I'm too much of a chicken-shit to get on public transportation. also I wanted to see the city on foot. As I was closing in on the main part of down town, it started to rain. As the rain got harder, I had to duck under a freeway until it subsided enough for me to continue. All in all, the walk took one and a half hours.

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Day 9 - Shanghai time 9/02 10:22pm.
Another overcast day today, as well as a rainy one. Not a whole lot going on and I've been pretty tired and bored from sitting around doing a whole lot of nothing. I must have ate something bad today for while watching a bit of the X games rally championships, I felt the pain of something grabbing my bowels and something was about to make a break out the other end. I jumped off the couch and made a beeline for the porcelain thrown. As I was halfway down the hall, something wet and bubbly pushed past my tightly pinched cheeks. Needless to say, I was at a panic as I realized that I might have just soiled my freshly washed underpants. I barely had my pants down and inches before hitting the seat, when I hear the explosion echo out of the bowl and foul fumes burned my nostrils - that was close! I was greatly relieved to find nothing wet and smelly was left in my underpants. Let's pray that this is the last of it for the trip. Let us pray...