My trip to EA

Yesterday I took CalTrain down to Redwood City to visit my friend Mark at work. He's an animator for Electronic Arts (EA). I had been looking forward to going down to visit him because I've always been a big video game fan and I also think it's neat to check out where your friends work at. We spend so much time at the office yet very few of the people close to us get to experience any of that.

My trip down to Redwood City took about 50 minutes since I had to take two forms of transit to get there. I found the CalTrain depot to be rather pleasant (although getting there took awhile since there's no direct route from my house to the station) and the ride down the peninsula was scenic and comfortable. My roundtrip ticket (1 day 2-zone pass) on CalTrain set me back $8.

Upon arrival at the Belmont Station, Mark picked me up and drove me the 2.4 miles to EA's campus which sits on reclaimed land and the old site of the Marine World Theme Park, which moved to Vallejo in 1986. The main lobby was impressive which wasn't surprising since EA makes some huge titles. Mark gave me a tour of the division that he works in, which was really cool and then we had enjoyed bbq at the EA cafe. Mark then gave me a tour of the rest of EA's campus, which included a maze that he said you can see on Google Maps! How cool is that? I ended the day by playing the new Sims game that he's been working on, which is set to be released next month. I got dropped back off at the CalTrain station and took the northbound train back to the city.

I enjoyed my trip down to Redwood City and EA, but I have to admit that I really wanted to play video games when I got home!




CalTrain Station in San Francisco.


The entrance to EA's campus.


Video games set up in the lobby.


Mark!

Tuesday Morning

• Jackass Joe Lieberman has been un-invited to weekly Democratic meetings. Next step is being kicked out of the caucus entirely!
• Sarah Palin is a big fat liar and her church says they can "Pray Away the Gay".
• The 15 yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty called on the Huskies at the end of the game against BYU last Saturday really upset me and I'm sure just about anyone who watches football has some strong opinion about it. The bottom line is, the refs made the call based on the rules. I think the rules for unsportsmanlike conduct are too overreaching and too stringent.
  
• American Idol runner-up, David Archuleta, has a new single out and I'm trying to figure out who exactly he has a crush on.

Kickoff Weekend 2008-09

I am a college football maniac and I have really been looking forward to this weekend's non-stop College football extravaganza. For the past two seasons, I have been out of the country during football season so I this year's season has been highly anticipated. This year, I get to enjoy it on a flatscreen in HD with DVR (I <3 acronyms).

Unfortunately, my much beloved Washington Huskies got their asses kicked at Oregon. It's not exactly the way I want to start the season. Next up is BYU who is picked by the MSM to be the BCS Cinderella story. Everyone loves an underdog, even if that underdog Morman.

I'm watching Tennessee at UCLA right now on a 4 hour tape delay, which is awesome. I was able to have people over on a Monday holiday, then go out for some fun and then come home to watch the game in HD. Live is good.

UCLA Fight Fight Fight!

Gossip Girl

Yuck. I just threw up a little in my mouth.