Category: administrivia

When Six Months Feels Like 10 Years

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“Your hemoglobin is pretty low so while we wait on some of the other panel work we’re going to give you a blood transfusion.”

These aren’t words you expect to hear casually, offhand like “I need to check your blood pressure.”

I was sitting in an ER in Vancouver and reflecting on how things could get more stressful. Divorce, new job, relocation to a new country, job doesn’t quite work out, find new employment, feel run down and generally not well, bam hospital with a blood transfusion. I mean, who gets one of those “just because?” Besides Lance Armstrong I mean.

That was early winter. I had just changed over my cell phone plan to Canada, had a little condo in New Westminster, and everything suddenly got…complex. Fast. Due to a surprise health issue I spent some time hospitalized, had to find new work to pay the bills (and lawyers) and rebuild little things you forget in life until you don’t have them anymore like “oh shit, I need a toaster.” Mentally and physically it felt like I had no time for friends or doing anything but working and staying stationary on the couch while getting better.

Most of that, thankfully, is moving well into the “behind me” timetable. I thought most of it would be done by March but I took some extra time to sort of get all my ducks in a row at once. Little things bring a weird sense of returning to life, like getting a new cellphone and number back in the US, going house hunting, lucking into a great role I think I can do well in. Looking around and trying to figure out where you left everything and how you put it all back together is both daunting and exciting. I don’t know if turtling up for a few months was the best way to go about things, but in a way it got me through to this point.

So now I’m back, and that’s on several levels, back on this blog, back in the US, back in the computer security industry, back to writing and performing on the side. It feels strange, but also good! Hopefully all the ancillary stuff is passed, we’ll see. Sorry for the long hiatus, but I was broken for a bit and am more or less back together. :>

Everything Old is New Again

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In February of 2012 I left Microsoft, a company I had worked for ever since I was 21. It wasn’t a bad break, it was a good break. I wanted to go off and experience all new adventures. And I have. In the past year alone I’ve worked for an *amazing* team of engineers and developers at the HBO Code Labs here in Seattle. I can’t say enough about what an incredible experience that was and what they are doing for the future of providing their customers with HBO’s top notch content.

But I am a gamer first and foremost. Have been since I was five. Will be when I shuffle off this mortal coil at the cyber enhanced ripe old age of 120. And in that moment at age 120 I will *still* remember exactly where I was when I first saw this.

I don’t know a console gamer who doesn’t remember that incredible introduction to the world of Gears of War. I was hooked. I was sold. That was a day one purchase for me.

Since then Gears of War is the only title I have played every release through in coop, with my friend Mark. We’ll put off playing the game until we can set aside a week to play it together. I’ve played multiplayer, and done the entire 50 waves of Horde mode for charity with my friend e.

So when the outstanding team at Black Tusk asked me to help them make the best Gears of War experience to date by representing the community and being their advocate, how could I say no?

As of today I am now the Director of Community Engagement for Black Tusk Studios. I’m not sure there is a word that properly expresses my excitement at the opportunity to represent this community. Gearstastic? Lambentocity? AWESOMES OF WAR? I have time to work on it.

I’ve been hiding, I confess. I’ve been shadowing the Gears forums and looking at people’s thoughts. I don’t just want us to make the best next generation Gears of War game ever, I want to make sure that everyone playing the game today feels just as good today and down the road in their investment into our amazing world as we do. There’s a Gears nation out there. I’m a part of it and it’s amazing.

So now it’s out. So hit me. You can email me directly at Stepto@microsoft.com or Stepto@stepto.com or my twitter at twitter.com/Stepto or the official Gears of war social media feeds at @GearsofWar and @BlackTuskStudio.

It’s not like we’re just starting out here, we’ve been passionate about the community from the get go. We’re expanding that commitment from the fine work Jack Felling have been doing and going big.

I want to be flooded with your thoughts. I want to hear everything you like, dislike, want, don’t want and hope for in relation to this rich and amazing world. Spare no detail. All thoughts will be entertained. Depending on volume I cannot promise I can respond to everything, but I do promise this: I will forego sleep to try.

It’s a mad world. Let’s get busy and Jump in.

Welcome to the new Stepto.com

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Stepto.com is now on a quad core 8 gig RAM server and wow the fastiness is awesome.  However since I have moved over to a new blogging platform it will take some importing.

 

I’m working on importing the past 9 years of content.  Please be patient.  In the mean time, enjoy the new enabled comments that use Disqus or Twitter or Facebook.