Thursday, July 17, 2003
Where: Uncle Manjit's House, Brisbane
When: 1:42pm local time
I DO NOT WORK FOR MICROSOFT.
I had to get that out of the way for two reasons. The first is that right now more than ever I despise PCs. Using a Mac, we don't get virii or worms or adware or spyware or spam like PC owners do (simply because there are way more PCs than Macs, so the creators of those programs focus on the bigger market), and now that I actually have to USE one to get on the net here I am getting incredibly frustrated with the amount of junk you get just being on the Internet. It's ridiculous. An ad window pops up regardless of the website you're on every minute here, freezing the computer. What makes life even better are the new ads running on websites now that just appear in the middle of a block of text that you're reading. What makes them even WORSE are the fact that they all are required to have CLOSE WINDOW buttons, except only a few actually WORK. Very, very frustrating.
The second and more pertinent reason is that my mother has been carrying around a copy of the Official Australian Xbox Magazine to show everyone my column and picture... and to say how her son works for Microsoft. And of course, once she says that, everyone listens, including the other relatives here and the kids, meaning I'm bombarded with constant questions about working for Microsoft. I don't work for Microsoft. Hell, I don't even work for the Official Aussie Xbox Magazine anymore -- I used to contribute a monthly column from the UK for them, but given that I do not live in the UK anymore I had to resign. Mind you, it was kinda cool to pick up a magazine with your face in it on random newsstands.
Still, this Microsoft thing is annoying me. My mom is certainly not a dumb woman by any stretch of the imagination but I don't know why nobody can quite get their heads around the fact that Microsoft do not publish their own magazine. Can't anyone see the stupidity in Microsoft reviewing their own products? Think they (or any other company for that matter) would be fair? Come ON people!
The irony is that the "Microsoft" work I do is the smallest part of my monthly freelance work, but because my picture is there it happens to be the only one anyone cares about or remembers. And it extends to everything. I went for lunch yesterday with the esteemed Cameron "Gazunta" Davis, an old friend and colleague who I've worked alongside for a long time, the last time being with... the Aussie Xbox Magazine. And so even though he now works for Brisbane's own Krome Studios on Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2, everyone thought I was going to meet with Microsoft for lunch. And even though I said it was an informal lunch with an old friend, when I got back to see everyone the first words that left my uncle's mouth was "So did you get the job with Microsoft or not?". What job! What Microsoft! What is going on!
Incidentally, lunch with Cameron was good. I didn't get to hear much about Ty 2 -- serious security lockdown, apparently, which is why the front door was wide open and a whiteboard full of info on their new game was sitting unguarded in the entrance hall (no, I didn't have my digicam, yes, I should have brought it). Still, what I DID hear sounds good, so all seems well out there.
Posted at 2:11 PM
