You Cannot Loot in Beast Form

Star Wars Uncut: Director's Cut

Game On Attempt #2

I went to floor hockey again this evening.  There was only one person I recognized who was at last week’s game.  But I felt a bit more welcome this time.  The team I ended up on gave me some pointers and got me yelling a bit more while I was on the floor.  Damn, I’m out of shape.  But I inadvertently scored my first goal as I took a wild shot at the net and it bounced off someone and in.

There was also a guy there named Toby who made some conversation with me.  All I know is that he lived in Australia for a few years, has visited Vancouver, and recently came back from partying in Brazil.  He told me some info about visiting New Zealand as I have just started reading up about how to travel around there.  He was pretty cute whenever he smiled at me, and seemed a little bit interested that I worked in games.  Chances with him:  Zero.

You Are Not Your Fucking Khakis

In North American culture, you tend to be your job.  You learn later in life not to identify so much with work, or any one specific thing rather.  Because when you lose it, you end up losing yourself.

I had a conversation with a Danish woman over the weekend who is a surgeon in training.  She worked in London for a year and didn’t like it.  Too many hours, high expectations to go above and beyond, had to do additional research.  She was glad to be back in Denmark and work her 37 hours a week because she didn’t become a doctor to live her entire life as a doctor.  It was interesting to hear.  But with the way I have grown up, it almost sounds lazy.  Especially in that field.  If you chose to be a doctor, a profession that is supposed to help people, it would be expected that you may have to put your own needs aside in order to help others.  But that’s just my opinion.

It is not uncommon to meet people with Masters or PhDs here.  It is less common back home.  The majority of people I know at home stop after attaining their Bachelors and then enter the job market.  But the thing is that education back home has to be earned in a sense.  Tuition costs, student loans, paying your rent, being the top of your class.  So you work hard because you have to, or because your parents worked hard to get you there.  Here, post-secondary education is free, and you can even get paid to do it by the government.  So it’s an easy choice to just continue studying, and most do well into their late 20s.  There is no competition.

This morning on the bus ride into work, I bumped into a co-worker.  He’s a game designer and this is project was his first and only job.  He hopes to get to the US some day, but again, the industry in North America tends to include a lot of overtime.  Like the surgeon in training, my co-worker expressed that a job is just a job and if he ever won the lottery, he would not work and just live his life.

If I ever won the lottery, I’d travel for a while, pursue more hobbies.  Live life comfortably. But I’d also consider going back to school to improve my animation skills so I could pick and choose the projects and studios I want to work at.  I don’t want my job to identify me either, but it is a passion I’d like to keep in my life.