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Boyfriends that disappear for months on end, always work late, and seem tired are either spies or work at EA. I’m neither, so I’ve taken the next step, and I’m now a fiance. That’s right, the respectability factor of slanty.net posters continues to increase.

Hooboy, this one has generated a lot of comments.

A blogger simply named ea_spouse has posted a rant or a plea about the overtime conditions at EA. One exerpt from her post:

Within weeks production had accelerated into a ‘mild’ crunch: eight hours six days a week. Not bad. Months remained until any real crunch would start, and the team was told that this “pre-crunch” was to prevent a big crunch toward the end; at this point any other need for a crunch seemed unlikely, as the project was dead on schedule. I don’t know how many of the developers bought EA’s explanation for the extended hours; we were new and naive so we did. The producers even set a deadline; they gave a specific date for the end of the crunch, which was still months away from the title’s shipping date, so it seemed safe. That date came and went. And went, and went. When the next news came it was not about a reprieve; it was another acceleration: twelve hours six days a week, 9am to 10pm.

The original thread on LiveJournal has generated 1800 comments. Many of the comments confirm ea_spouse’s story, but of course, there are always people who suggest “Like it or leave it.” The discussion is pretty heated.

Here’s an articulate post by a former EA employee who confirms everything. And there’s yet another great post that does the same and makes suggestions for change.

The post on Slashdot has generated 800 comments.

Here’s a small local discussion on the subject.

Having seen (or more accurately, not seen) a certain Slanty somebody near his crunch time, I’m certainly of the belief that everything that ea_spouse says is true. I’m also agree with the opinion that long hours for a prolonged period of time are a guarantee of non-productivity. If that’s how they are doing business, something must change.

this looks to be the new all your base, perhaps:

Just give me two minutes at 11AM, a pittance of time, to recognize the dead.

How do the French stay so skinny in spite of eating frites, ice cream and croissants?

They eat good food slowly and snack less.

There’s a map here showing a county by county breakdown of election results, not in straight red and blue but rather a blend appropriate to the voting results in that county. Very interesting.

Update: here’s another graphic, warped to reflect population

PS: While we’re talking politics, I think many of us were shocked by the vote on same-sex marriages that occured during the election. The votes were pretty much one-sided, support must have crossed party lines. Americans by and large believe that marriage is something between a man and a woman. Well, most of Canada disagrees. And the rest of the country probably will follow suit shortly.

Free States and Slave States, before the Civil War:

red and blue states, 2004:

Osama got tired of hearing, “We don’t even know if Osama is still alive,” from the USA. He decided to send George W. Bush a letter in his own handwriting to let him know he was still alive.

Bush opened the letter and it appeared to contain a coded message:

370HSSV-0773H

Bush was baffled, so he typed it out and e-mailed it to the CIA. No one there could solve it so it went to the NSA and then to MIT and NASA and the Secret Service.

Eventually, they asked Canada’s RCMP for help. The RCMP called the White House:

“Tell the President he is looking at the message upside down.”

anyone else have good timely jokes? i needs me the humor to offset the despair.