Truth is, I must be more than a little crazy to sign up to do NaNoWriMo this year. Well, actually, I must be more than a little crazy to sign up, start writing, and then realize that nope, this is not working, so I will switch my entire story to something else on day 5. Which I did, and now I am now running behind in keeping up with the word count, but hey, it is the weekend, and my Muse might kick in.
On top of that, I just have to keep up with everything else. Work is being really uninspiring at the moment, as I finished one project and am now between projects meaning that I get to do a little thing here and a little thing there. Still, it would not have been all that bad, if it had not been for the working conditions that keep getting worse. And no, Internet, we are not talking about the physical working conditions (cause they managed to turn on the heat finally, after just a week or two of testers complaining about freezing their asses off), we are talking about all the policies that the company is currently enforcing. Written warnings for arriving late (sure, it is understandable, but noone gives a shit about you staying a few minutes late after work to make sure that you have everything in order) and now, the 20 minutes of talk allowed between testers.
Atop of that, dear readers, we also have the admin staff telling us to act professionally and arrive on time and so on. But is it really professional to stand by the screen where we punch in and say to people "you are late"? No, it smells of kindergarten, and that, my friends, is just not...cool.
Gah. Oh well, at least I can now disappear into my own fictional world and think about something else to calm down and relax. Who knows, maybe frustration will make me write 50 000 words this year.
Showing posts with label work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label work. Show all posts
Friday, November 07, 2008
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Canada...and an update on me
Yup, Canada. I am here, since the 25th July. Sometimes, I cannot believe that a month has gone by already. Where the heck did August go, anyway? Probably into the jaws of work.
I am now a Swedish linguistic tester at Enzyme labs in Ste-Adele. That means, I play video games on different consoles, and test them for bugs in Swedish. Like...wrong translations, inappropriate language, overlapping text...and so on. And when I am not assigned to a Swedish project (which will happen in the low season, noone apparently wants to release games in Sweden), I am doing functionality testing. That means, I am checking for everything that will make the game crash, freeze, not work, looks funny and so on. You get the idea, I am sure.
It is an interesting job, that I will gladly admit. You get to see a lot of different things, you are certainly stimulated when trying to get to the next task/level and so on - and the people you work with are great. We are linguistic testers from all over the world - Scandinavia (Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark), Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Holland, Japan...and I am pretty sure I might have missed some countries. So, it is so awesome to get to meet all these people - and to hear all the languages.
Language, yes. I am a non-French speaker in freaking Quebec - that's one tough thing, Internet. Mostly, I can get around it with an "English, please?" - but not all people in Ste-Adele do speak English (did I mention that Ste-Adele is a small countryside town?) so you have to be good at coming up with solutions. Yeah, and I am already learning the useful stuff like "Bon jour/Bon soir", "Comment ca va?" and "Do you want to eat it here or bring it with you?" (well, the last one I understand, but I certainly cannot spell it in French).
So, the job is good, the pay is less good. I suppose I can survive on it, but it will be a little tougher when the low season comes (that's when you do functionality testing, and just work 35 hours a week). Less work, a lot colder - yes... I do come from a cold country, but it does not get that cold. And Halland - not so much snow there, either. So, this is going to be...interesting, to say the very least.
Ste-Adele, yes. Small town, and for rich people, I would think. There are tons of hairdressers, art galleries and cafes/restaurants - and that is about it. Then there is one or two boutiques with expensive clothing...and um. Yeah, that is pretty much it. And considering that I do not have a car, it is slightly more difficult to go to the other towns around here to get some shopping done. And to go to Montreal, which is an hour away. I will have to go there by bus some weekend, I think.
Well, I will keep you posted on this adventure. Sometimes, it does feel like Wonderland to me...but eh, that's Quebec for ya.
I am now a Swedish linguistic tester at Enzyme labs in Ste-Adele. That means, I play video games on different consoles, and test them for bugs in Swedish. Like...wrong translations, inappropriate language, overlapping text...and so on. And when I am not assigned to a Swedish project (which will happen in the low season, noone apparently wants to release games in Sweden), I am doing functionality testing. That means, I am checking for everything that will make the game crash, freeze, not work, looks funny and so on. You get the idea, I am sure.
It is an interesting job, that I will gladly admit. You get to see a lot of different things, you are certainly stimulated when trying to get to the next task/level and so on - and the people you work with are great. We are linguistic testers from all over the world - Scandinavia (Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark), Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Holland, Japan...and I am pretty sure I might have missed some countries. So, it is so awesome to get to meet all these people - and to hear all the languages.
Language, yes. I am a non-French speaker in freaking Quebec - that's one tough thing, Internet. Mostly, I can get around it with an "English, please?" - but not all people in Ste-Adele do speak English (did I mention that Ste-Adele is a small countryside town?) so you have to be good at coming up with solutions. Yeah, and I am already learning the useful stuff like "Bon jour/Bon soir", "Comment ca va?" and "Do you want to eat it here or bring it with you?" (well, the last one I understand, but I certainly cannot spell it in French).
So, the job is good, the pay is less good. I suppose I can survive on it, but it will be a little tougher when the low season comes (that's when you do functionality testing, and just work 35 hours a week). Less work, a lot colder - yes... I do come from a cold country, but it does not get that cold. And Halland - not so much snow there, either. So, this is going to be...interesting, to say the very least.
Ste-Adele, yes. Small town, and for rich people, I would think. There are tons of hairdressers, art galleries and cafes/restaurants - and that is about it. Then there is one or two boutiques with expensive clothing...and um. Yeah, that is pretty much it. And considering that I do not have a car, it is slightly more difficult to go to the other towns around here to get some shopping done. And to go to Montreal, which is an hour away. I will have to go there by bus some weekend, I think.
Well, I will keep you posted on this adventure. Sometimes, it does feel like Wonderland to me...but eh, that's Quebec for ya.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Ignore the Cursing...
....please ignore the cursing right now, I am right in the middle of writing tutorials. And it is the most infuriating thing that you can do, I swear. Whatever possessed me to think that I could write a whole program for avatar design? Yeah, that would be the small voice in my head going on, but really, it is a pain in the ass to write tutorials.
To have to really think about how you do things, and make sure to take screenshots, and did I skip a step there, is this even understandable and did I really get that screen shot? I did, yes, but then I have to make another one, cause the screen shot doesn't show all of it now that I have cut it down, and damn, can you see it now that I have resized it, too?
Yes, you can very well imagine how things are going in my mind at the moment.
Other than that, there is a new week coming up, and I am feeling slightly nervous about Tuesday, Internet. On Tuesday, I am going to Stockholm for a job interview, and honestly, I really want the job. Really, really. The position is called something along the lines of Release Manager, but looking over the tasks - it is more of a project assistant thing. At an international fashion company, did I mention that? Guess what I associated it to? Ohyeah, the Devil Wears Prada. My god, if I end up like that, Internet, you won't see me for half a year or so. So I better keep writing on the damned tutorials, so I can at least get ...half...of them ready?
What am I sitting here for? I should be making more lessons/tutorials/work on the tutor program.
To have to really think about how you do things, and make sure to take screenshots, and did I skip a step there, is this even understandable and did I really get that screen shot? I did, yes, but then I have to make another one, cause the screen shot doesn't show all of it now that I have cut it down, and damn, can you see it now that I have resized it, too?
Yes, you can very well imagine how things are going in my mind at the moment.
Other than that, there is a new week coming up, and I am feeling slightly nervous about Tuesday, Internet. On Tuesday, I am going to Stockholm for a job interview, and honestly, I really want the job. Really, really. The position is called something along the lines of Release Manager, but looking over the tasks - it is more of a project assistant thing. At an international fashion company, did I mention that? Guess what I associated it to? Ohyeah, the Devil Wears Prada. My god, if I end up like that, Internet, you won't see me for half a year or so. So I better keep writing on the damned tutorials, so I can at least get ...half...of them ready?
What am I sitting here for? I should be making more lessons/tutorials/work on the tutor program.
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