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Name: Irvin
Location: Washington, United States
Birthday: 2/21/1981
Gender: Male
Interests: Drawing, cars, designing, music, photography, shopping, cooking, tennis, movies, trying new things and enjoying life!
Expertise: Designing and developing something that falls between anything and everything.
Occupation: Web Developer
Industry: Entertainment
Portfolio: view my portfolio
Website: visit my website
Message: message meEmail: email me
AIM:  pOpKuL
Member Since:
1/21/2004
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| I feel like a lifeless sack of potatoes. Every day feels the exact same, get up at the same time, do the same things, drive the same routes, same routine. Even weekends feel like clockwork... run errands, clean up, laundry. I feel like things are so dull and boring, even with all the new things that occur - movies, dinners, softball games, batting practice. When I go for a drive in the twisty mountain roads of Mercer Island or a loooong walk somewhere to take my mind off it, there's no joy or experience. And here's why:
http://www.helpguide.org/mental/burnout_signs_symptoms.htm
When you are on the verge of burnout, you may feel:
- powerless
- hopeless
- drained
- like a candle burning at both ends
- frustrated
- detached from people and things around you
- little satisfaction from your work
- bored
- resentment for having too much to do
- like a failure
- stuck in a situation from which you cannot extricate yourself
- unsure about your choice of job or career
- withdrawn, isolated from coworkers and friends
- insecure about your competence and abilities
- cynical
- irritable
- anxious
(I checked all of the above)
I also nearly wrecked when driving. Taking a left turn to get onto the freeway, I saw a green light as I was approaching it and proceeded. Problem was that it was not a green ARROW, and busy oncoming traffic travelling at 40mph was already at the intersection. I gunned it after I realized this fact and barely escaped what would have been a T-bone by two vehicles, and then major pileup behind them. Driving is the one thing I'm most proud of, and I nearly screwed it up big time.
In addition, I've been sick, I've been finding ways to injure myself repeatedly... getting hit in the eye by a flyball, overstrained Achilles tendon... and even Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. I've never felt more useless as a person than when I can't move my wrist or any finger on my right hand without incredible pain shooting up and down my arm. So now I'm mousing left-handed, using things left-handed until the pain goes away.
HOW LONG BEFORE I CAN BE "ME" AGAIN? 
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| I suddenly felt obligated to write something, considering a lot has happened for me and I wanted to share. I've been so busy that Xangaing hasn't even been on the radar screen. So everything is basically old news...
Ever since I landed my job, I promised that I would treat myself to something as a reward. Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out what I wanted to buy for myself for the longest time. It wasn't until January when I thought of what I wanted and I started looking all over the Puget Sound for it. All the stars finally aligned in mid-February and I found it.
But before I get to that, I'll finish the rest of the obligatory updates first. I turned 25 last month  And I was totally thrown off when my coworker buddies took me out to eat for lunch. And I got to milk the birthday thing for the entire week  Thanks to those who wished me happy bday! I also finally got my company nametag, which coincidentally came that week:
May I now present to you... the condo that I purchased and also coincidentally moved into the long weekend of my birthday...
On this special edition of Cribs, check out the crib of wonderboy Irvin.
Crib Profile:
Location: Newcastle, WA
Built in 2001
1177 sq. ft.
2 bedroom / 2 bath condo
$285,000
Wassup, this is Irvin, and welcome to my crib. Come on in...
The big kitchen where I cook practically every day. From time to time, I'll pretend like I'm Iron Chef Wong.
This a cool gift from the condo association for moving in. What we got here... bottle of wine, a few boxes of cookies, held in this basket in the shape of a house. Awww how nice.
A look at the living room, dining room, and kitchen.
Super mini home theatre, complete with a mini-big screen for watching movies and playing games.
Best part of this room, I think is the fireplace. At the touch of a button, flames. No firewood, no smoke, no mess, no fuss. Uber hawt.
Let's head on over to the south wing, let you guys check out the master bedroom.
This the big closet where I keep all my gear. Got some of the famous DVD games, there's others somewhere around here.
This the bathroom, nice and clean.
It's nice to have a choice on relaxing in the tub on one side, or a shower on the other. As you can see... I haven't touched the tub yet. But it's nice to know it's there.
Stepping outside onto the private balcony, I can enjoy the weather and take in the scenery.
Right next to a lake, in the middle of a small forest, nobody in the way.
There's a gym and outdoor hot tub downstairs in the other building, but it's too cold to go outside and show you. I also got the 2002 Acura TL in the garage, but there's nothing special about it.
Now you've seen my crib, you know how I'm livin'. You're welcome to come back anytime... but you know I gotta say it...
GET OUTTA HERE!!  Wait, I was j/k, come back!!
FAQ:
Q: Where is Newcastle??
A: A little town right next to Factoria Mall.
Q: How did you afford that after being employed for only 5 months?? Your parents must be paying for it. Or you gotta be selling drugs or something.
A: Nope, I had help on the down payment from my parents. They matched whatever I put in. So I scraped and saved as much as I could in that time period. And I'm paying off the mortgage on my own every month.
Q: Ok fine. So they probably did all the paperwork for you then...
A: Wrong again. I went at it mostly on my own. I was researching from start to finish, everything from looking and comparing [location, price, features, fees] on condos, contacting brokers and agents and banks, filling out paperwork, closing. It made for a hellish two months, going full blast at work in the day (while making calls to agents), and doing this at night until wee hours in the morning. So if anyone is looking to buy a place of their own, I can help. And I can definitely recommend my agent, totally awesome and helpful. It was pretty stressful experience, but it turned out easier than I had originally imagined.
Q: Details of the mortgage?
A: 5/1 ARM, at 5.875%. Locked right before interest rates started shooting back up. I'm paying about $1400 a month including tax and home owner association fees.
Q: And the car?
A: I'm borrowing my parents' car for the time being while I save up for my own. You all know I basically haven't driven at all for nearly a year and a half, partly because I didn't NEED a car. Strangely enough, my dad retired in early February, so they could give up a car no problem, the timing was perfect. So now I'm just rusty as a nail in driving, and especially in parking. But it feels SOOO good to drive everyday.
Q: So how does it feel?
A: AWESOME. It's only starting to sink in after a month that I can come home to a place I call my own. Everything's practically brand new, it's big, and buying stuff to decorate will be a blast... as soon as I can save up for it. Going from a 500 square foot 80 year old busted up apartment to this... I feel so lucky to even have this chance. Everything had to go in place for me to even have considered buying a home. Party at my place after I scrounge up enough to buy a sofa
Edit: Pictures fixed. Sorry...
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| Red is in tired.
My eyes are red and I am tired. 53 hours of work in five days last week, including 24hours combined back-to-back last Wednesday and Thursday. Emergency after emergency kept popping up on top of the rush jobs I've already got. For the red icing on the cake, I volunteered to help the productions teams playtest a game looking for bugs so that it could be shipped out on time last Friday afternoon.... I was literally hallucinating after staring at the TV for five hours. And didn't even stop to breathe this weekend, was doing freelance website work for an up-and-coming Seattle music group DeathCabForCutie.
And on top of all that, I'm closing in on a big goal of mine... whoever guesses it gets a cookie.
And will I have the energy to finish my design for a contest to modify a Scion TC for a magazine by Friday?
I'm as incoherent as can be, please help a kid in need. 
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| Time to think backwards... in time.
Wow, the last few months just flew by. How was your Christmas? Hope you're all having enjoyable and relaxing winter vacations!  I've been working to hell and back ever since I started the job up until this week, only because the holiday rush is over and a lot of people left for the holidays. Creating and maintaining six different websites more or less simultaneously, meetings left and right, emergencies that pop up, it's been really crazy. And then there's all those side jobs and events that consume the rest of my waking hours. But I don't know if I would have it any other way, it's exciting (although quite stressful) and keeps me on my toes every day. Besides, it's all worth it in the end since a lot of the company people now know who I am based solely on my work, even if we've never met face-to-face. Plus I got a great end-of-year review and a nice bonus 
2005 has been quite a strange year for me. Things started out so promising, then it just kept going down. I took risks where I shouldn't have, I missed the boat when I should have. It was like there were a series of candles, and I kept lighting the ones that were really sticks of dynamite. But in the process, I really watched myself grow as a person and learn, exponentially more so than in any other year (more so over the past few disappointing years), so I'm pretty happy with what I've accomplished, especially towards the last quarter of this year.
I don't follow the typical new year's resolutions deal, it's wishful thinking to set all your goals for the year on one day. I figured it would be easier to follow through on successfully if you continually learn from and improve upon the things you do throughout the year by setting goals every day and at the end of each week. So as a side effect, you'd be achieving some big things every few months, whether you knew it or not, right?
So in my last post of the year, I BEAT THE MIDNIGHT MARK BRING ON TWO OH OH SIX AND HAVE A SUPER-SIZED DELUXE ULTRA HAPPY NEW YEEEAAAAR!! 
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| No I'm not dead... yet.
Why am I still up so late? Because I've been recoding an otherwise no-brainer web project for a client. What began as a simple copy the scripts - create the database - upload files and be done with it... has turned into a nightmare of hunting down why the tool was persistently not working for the widest variety of reasons. So six hours later, I've got it nearly all fixed. Still got one more day before delivery...
Ok so the real point of me blogging was really to tell you that if you still hadn't found the right gifts yet, may I suggest the just-released Friends edition of Scene It? The first shipment just rolled off the UPS truck earlier today. I know some of you guys are major Friends fans so it'd be a great gift to someone (or to yourself, if that's the case ). I've seen some of the clips as we were dissecting some production issues earlier in the month, and the video quality in this one is the best one I've seen of all our games BY FAR. So if you want to order a box or twenty, email/message me so I can give you employee holiday discount and rush the shipping in time for Xmas!!! Don't say I don't give you guys the hookups 
Hope you're all doing well! I'll be posting later this week to fill you in on the last couple of months... 
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