Friday, October 10, 2008

A chillaxing kind of weekend.

Here at Greenspeak Central, the work never stops. You may think this is just done by me, but, frankly, given everything that happens on this page, you really should know better. I'm not that good! In fact, since leaving Ziff Davis and starting at EA, I have slowly assembled a crack team of trained monkeys and recently graduated college English majors--along with some offshore phone operators in India--who work tirelessly around the clock in an unlit, windowless basement to bring you all of these phenomenal posts. So, before I go any further, I just want to acknowledge the team and say "thanks." I've left an extra pile of bananas by the door as a token of my appreciation.

So...I'm gone for a couple days. (Not the team though--don't worry! They're still on the job!) It is my birthday on Sunday (92nd, I believe), and my wife is absconding me and taking me up the northern California coast for a weekend of rest and relaxation. Yay! I think I have earned it! Also, before proceeding further, let me clarify that the use of the word "chillax" in the header above is done only with pure irony. In fact, I don't know if there is a more annoying or useless word in the English language today (except maybe for "work"). You are either chilling and/or relaxing. They are synonyms. They do not need to be combined into one word, because they both mean the same thing. I can chill out, and/or I can relax. I do not need to "chillax", no matter how many frat boys say I do. Mmmmkay? I will not accept this word. Nor should you.

I've got a lot to celebrate this year on my birthday. I weathered a tempestous 12 months, including the loss of my cat, a serious illness, the closing of my magazine, and--in more positive news--my daughter's so-far successful transition to high school and my so-far successful career change. That's a lot. Not a lot as many, many people on the planet, because, yeah--compared to most people, I have an easy life. I recognize this. But we all only play the cards dealt to us, and even those of us with pretty good cards have our trials and tribulations, our headaches and disappointments, our tough times and challenges. So I am grateful, on the eve of my (okay) 47th birthday, that all in all, I'm hitting this milestone in a better place than I was 12 months ago. Well, all except for the loss of my cat PJ, who I still miss every goddamn day.

And for those of you wondering, I am loving my new job. I really am. I will admit that I am not remotely up to speed yet (I'm somewhere between 1st and 2nd gear now, I think), and hopefully my new co-workers have not hit the "when is this retard gonna start doing something?" phase. Though I could let them know that my wife has been in that phase for 22 years now, and she's still with me. Switching to this side of the gaming biz has been a serious eye-opener for me--not that I didn't know it would be. Of course it is. But knowing it intellectually and then experiencing it on a day-to-day basis are two different things entirely. I will post more about it all in the coming weeks and months, I promise. If my posting has been slightly frivolous and erratic since starting, that is entirely because my head is invested full-time in getting myself in gear and worthy of being part of the big brains that make up The Sims team.

So, though I wouldn't normally be taking a break after a mere three weeks of work, the birthday is a convenient excuse to take one anyway. And getting out of town and into nature is going to be a nice head-clearer for me, before diving head first into the job again on Monday. The good thing is, however, I'm looking forward to Monday already. Now how lucky is that?

Happy weekend, y'all.

59 comments:

jeffk said...

Happy birthday, Jeff - have fun this weekend!

Simon said...

Happy Birthday Jeff, have a good one.

ICallItFutile said...

Have a nice birthday Jeff! Your deserve it.

rkeith said...

Happy Birthday! And, they don't give you off for Columbus Day? What the hell is that :)

scott said...

(I'm somewhere between 1st and 2nd gear now, I think)

So in other words you're in neutral? You're not gonna get very far that way...

Dtrescott said...

Happy Birthday Jeff

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday Jeff, you're the same age as my father.

Anonymous said...

Hapy Birthday Jeff! It seems the virtual world will be getting more populated considering the real world is going to hell in a handbasket..

Unknown said...

Happy birthday Jeff, hope you have a "chilaxing" weekend. Kidding. Glad to hear you're enjoying your job as well. Miss hearing GFW podcasts!

dLindner said...

They didn't celebrate your birthday @ your new job? I told you they were cold-hearted corporate entities! Beware... :D
Enjoy this and upcoming weekends Jeff.

Joril said...

Happy Birthday Jeff!
Sad to hear about your cat though, but you're not alone, a pet cat of mine got hit by a car about a month ago, she wasn't much older then a year. Going to work a few hours later was hard to do, but life goes on eh? Heh, I don't want to end this on such a sad note, sorry for that.
Luckely life is not all bad, not at all. Exept for the economy part...
So, enjoy the weekend!

Congrats once again!

Anonymous said...

Happy birthday, Jeff! Looking forward to future posts about your new gig.

Unknown said...

Happy Birthday, Jeff!
You're the same age as some old guy I know!(But seriously, only a year older than me!)

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday Jeff. Enjoy your relaxing weekend.

Good to hear your settling in to your new job :)

Anonymous said...

Woah dude, chilax.

Happy birthday and good luck at EA.

@Scott, he's almost over the hill now, so he can coast the rest of the way.

ToddYoung said...

Happy Birthday! You'll never be old if you're always young at heart. And speak in terrible cliche's.

Unknown said...

Should the 'b' in 'birthday' be capitalized or not? Meh. Happy Birthday Jeff.

Eric Majkut said...

Happy Birthday Jeff :)

John Rivett said...

Happy Birthday Jeff..

Lay off the wine..

Anonymous said...

"You know youre doing alright when you can actually look forward to Mondays" - as said by... someone, probably (and me, obviously)

Happy Birthday, Jeff

Patrick said...

Happy birthday Jeff and always remember-terrorism jokes are never funny!

Gentry said...

I'm sorry, but how are you "somewhere between 1st and 2nd gear?"
You are either in first gear, or second gear, there is no between! That's not how gears work! I'm perturbed by your metaphor!

Anyways, have a good weekend.

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday Jeff!

Anonymous said...

Happy birthday, Jeff!

Somehow I always got the impression you were older on the podcasts but maybe that was just all the young guys playing up the age difference.

Flavin said...

Hey, today is my birthday! Have a good one, birthday buddy!

Jeffrey Norman Bourbeau said...

I think in 1984, "chillax" would have been the Newspeak word for chilling and relaxing. You should take up your gripes with the ministry of truth, Jeff.

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday Jeff! Enjoy your weekend!

Malachi Constant said...

Happy Birthday, Mr. Green.

Mr. Gamer said...

Have fun, Jeff! You share the same birthday as my mother (and rest assured, she is much older than you).

Anonymous said...

Happy Bday Jeff.

Anonymous said...

Oh jesus... for just a second there I thought Green was going to write about his job.

Shit.

Sorry about the cussin' y'all - but a'm reelly lookin' foh-ward ta reading about Jeff's jawb.

Happy birthday, Jeff - I sure hope the next twelve months are less chaotic than what the previous twelve months were like for you.

Then again, I remember hearing Deepak Chopra relating an incident that happened to him one year at Christmas time - every year at Christmas his family would huddle up and everyone would close their eyes and make wishes for the upcoming new year. Deepak said that his son had a very intense look on his face, so he asked him afterwards what he had wished for.

His son said he hoped that the upcoming year would end up being as unpredictable and as chaotic as the previous year had been.

Hey, how come there are other people who are anonymous here?

There's only one anonymous here, and that's me, baby!

Anonymous said...

Happy birthday Jeff, have a "chillaxing" weekend!

Anonymous said...

Merry birthday, Mr. Green!

My cat also got a right dose full of automobile recently, which was tough going. People drive maniacally around our streets, our pets rarely stand a chance.

Also, I'd like to comment on how impeccably well versed your off-shore team of Indian workers are. Whenever I come into contact with Indian wordsmiths, normally via the telephone, they are not very accomplished with the ol' English. On one occasion I almost ordered 12 Dell laptops, when in actual fact the purpose of the call was merely to get the one I did own fixed. Bless 'em and they're relentless efforts to ruin me.

Brain Blurbs said...

Have great weekend and birthday as well. Good luck on the new job!

Matt Myers said...

Happy Birthday, man. That Minutemen album is still awesome.

Unknown said...

Happy birthday old dude! Glad things at your new job are going well.

Anonymous said...

Glad your parachute landed you in a good place Jeff. Happy Birthday - Hamilton

Unknown said...

Happy Birthday, Mr Green!

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday Moses ;)

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday Jeff!!!

The Meehoo with an Exactlywatt said...

Happy birthday! And now for a dutch birthday song!

De kop van de kat was jarig, zijn pootjes vierde feest.
Staartje mocht niet mee doen want dat was pas ziek geweest.
Het kwam past uit het ziekenhuis en had zo'n pijn aan z'n keel.
Dat dansen en dat springen werd hem allemaal te veel.

Repeat at nauseum.

It's a song a about a cat that celebrates it's birthday. Except each limb of it's body has a different idea about how to do that and goes it's separate way.

It's pretty grotesque for a children's song. It's also the reason it was one of my faves as a kid : P

Alfred P McLovely III said...

Happy birthday Jeff.

Anonymous said...

Happy 47th Birthday Jeff! Man, I wish I had 40 people I didn't know say that! Though you deserve it, you may say you don't work hard, but merely churning blogs (that you don't get paid for) out at the rate you do is hard work!

Anonymous said...

Holy shit Jeff.
My Birthday is 11 OCT as well!

Anonymous said...

'appy burfday pops!

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday Jeff!

The whole of Scotland hopes you have a good one!

...that's right, I speak for the whole of Scotland :P

Anthony said...

Happy Birthday and have a great weekend bud! We'll see you Monday, or so.

Anonymous said...

i would like to meet you someday,maybe we should have a jeff celebration of something, jk. i would like to say i am a huge fan and i once accidentally join a room with shawn elliot and some temp in company of heroes, it was funny. i dont know how this relates to anything but in anycase.....i love you. keep the great work, and honestly you're an inspiration to many i think and i am now wanting to make my own podcast/blog/jounalism/etc.

Shawn Elliott said...

http://s4.tinypic.com/2mqp4xf.jpg

Anonymous said...

Happy birthday, Jeff. Thanks for the laughs.

William said...

Happy birthday, have fun, and don't do anything I would do.

Anonymous said...

Shawn - When I saw those as a feature, 1up went down a notch or two for me.

Unknown said...

Happy b-day jeff.

I also lost my cat after 20 years. I have had him since the age of 2. I understand how that feilds

Slapshot said...

Happy Birthday! We missed you at Blizzcon, however!

SPOD said...

Not sure if this will work, but maybe this will help with the cat pain... CATS!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veUjdTbe6PE

Anonymous said...

Happy birthday, Jeff!

Anonymous said...

Jeff wrote: "... switching to the gaming business has been a serious eye-opener for me."

Okay.

But care to elaborate?

Let's just assume that you were given these three weeks at EA while you were still in the employment of GFW - I'm guessing that at the end of those three weeks you'd have a pretty damned interesting story on your hands?

That would also make for a very interesting podcast.

I realize that there's only so much information you can provide to Joe Public - but if you were to blog about some of those 'eye-opening' moments I'm sure it would make for some very interesting reading.

What you really ought to do is consider writing something for the 1up website.

This would be great publicity for The Sims - you could simply write about... well, all the things you'd wished you'd known about while you were still an editor at GFW.

Run it by your bosses at EA, and then contact one of your old pals at 1up. It would be a super interesting article. You're one of the few people on the planet who has actually seen things from both sides of the fence, so to speak.

Unknown said...

Crazy 92 years old? And you still don't need a Darth Vader like apparatus to help you breathe? You sir are blessed.

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