Video Game Review: Battlefield V

Recently I finished playing Battlefield V from Electronic Arts or EA on my PS4. I enjoyed playing both Battlefield 3 on the PS3 and Battlefield I on the PS4. Interestingly enough, you cannot rely on the ending number to figure out which game comes before others as the number one in Battlefield I refers to the World War I experience and came out after Battlefield 4.

I started playing Battlefield V several times for various research projects at work. When PlayStation Plus released Call of Duty: WWII, I became interested in the history of World War II. After completing the game, I headed back and restarted Battlefield V. While both games are fiction, they do have ties to actual events in the war and I enjoyed the historical aspects of both games.

While earlier versions of EA's Battlefield games focused on a single-player campaign, Battlefield I and Battlefield V have a relatively short campaign with an emphasis on online play. I didn't mind as I don't have as much time at home to play video games and didn't want to spend months on the same game. Battlefield V is only a 9-hour game to complete all of the campaign missions. There are 5 of them and the last one you play as a German tank commander towards the end of the war. All of the campaign battles take place in the European theater and so if you are looking for anything in the Pacific, you will have to try one of the online experiences.

I used to be a huge online player but had too many negative experiences where I would go online and get continually annihilated before I could fire my first shot. Since then I haven't really bothered except in the rare case where I want to get the platinum trophy for a particular game that requires an online trophy or two. The online experience for Battlefield V looks pretty good and so you will want to look at another review to get a complete picture of the game.

I have a work associate that used to work at EA who picked me up the game for only $20. Best Buy has the game for only $18 right now and I think it is well worth the price even if you only play the single-player campaign part of the game. If you are looking for a WWII-genre game and have not yet played Battlefield V, I recommend giving it a try. 

The game has an ESRB rating of M for Mature because of violence and language. War is never pretty and one thing playing war-related video games has taught me is that I never want to fight in a real war.

Video Conferencing Suggestions

I am finishing up my sixth month of working from home and last night found myself trying to decide between 2 different video conference calls. Actually there was a third one I could also have attended but opted not to long before last night. Video conference calls are not just for work either. One of the calls I didn't bother attending was for a personal hobby. I know that families are also holding them in place of getting together and risking the spread of COVID-19.

In the first few weeks of working from home, people tried to continue holding meetings as usual. It didn't take long for insightful organizations to realize one or two changes needed to be made. My company put out some specific guidelines for video conferencing and I think many of them are worth sharing.

One of the benefits of face-to-face meetings is that you get up from your desk and walk to a conference room. If you need to stop and use the restroom, you have the option. You also get a minor change of scenery. With video calls you can schedule them back-to-back all day long and never have to leave your desk. An early suggestion we received is to cut back on the length of meetings. Instead of a 30-minute meeting, make it 25. If it is usually an hour, make it 50 minutes. This will allow people time to gather thoughts between meetings, grab a drink or snack, and take a bio-break if needed. My personal preference is to start meetings on the hour or half-hour and end early. Starting 5 or 10 minutes late is a bit tougher for me as I find myself waiting at my desk for the appointed start time.

Another suggestion we received is to see if we can cut down on the number of meetings being held. Some days are so full of meetings that people don't have the chance to do actual real work. What I have done with my team is remove one of our daily stand-ups each week. For those that don't know, daily stand-ups are short meetings where the team quickly reviews progress of daily work. We have them Monday through Thursday but not on Friday. Should something come up and we need to cancel one of the meetings, we reserve Friday for a make-up, just in case.

Cutting down on the number of meetings also goes along with another suggestion: setting aside one day a week with no meetings, if possible. Unfortunately this is a tough one for some people. My boss has multiple meetings every day and so even though we don't have stand-ups on Friday, he still has meetings. I am one of the fortunate ones that has no meetings on Friday and so I don't have to worry about making sure I am at my desk during specific times throughout the day. I generally use this freedom to actually get stuff done. So far this morning I have taken care of a load of paperwork I haven't had time to get to during the week. I am also making sure to put together this posting during my lunch hour so it doesn't distract from the time I am at work.

There are many other suggestions ranging from what to wear (you don't have to wear pants as long as nobody can see your legs), how to make sure you pay attention (taking notes helps me), and always making sure you are muted unless speaking in the meeting. For those that find themselves attending way too many meetings, you can put together an avatar that will attend your meetings for you. It is a funny read and should put a smile on your face even if it does have one or two issues. Good luck with your next meeting.

What Will Work Look Like after COVID-19?

We had a group weekly meeting today at work and the question came about what the office environment will look like after COVID-19. A year ago I worked for a company that felt it important to show up at the office every day. My being able to work from home one day per week was considered a very special circumstance. Now that everyone is working from home, people are questioning the old corporate culture. Furthermore a lot of people are much more effective working from home.

Recently we hired a new project manager and while some of us are effectively working from home, on-boarding a new team member is less than ideal. It takes a lot more mentoring and hand holding to get the new person up to speed. So how will this effect work after COVID-19?

 The meeting at work today was held over Microsoft Teams, which is a relatively new video conferencing application. With the large number of people using the service, there is a lot of innovation happening with the tool. Furthermore there are a number of other similar services that are advancing at an equally rapid pace. Some of the new features being offered are making video conferencing a much more viable option as a replacement for in-person meetings. So how will this effect work after COVID-19?

My wife and I went for a walk this evening and the topic of our cancelled vacation came up. This led to the discussion of whether or not I will need to travel as much for work. I had one year where I went to Japan something like 7 times. We don't think it will be necessary to ever fly that much in the future but are not quite sure. Will other people want to be travelling as much as they have in?

Unfortunately I don't have any answers. I could make a prediction but will most likely be wrong. I would like to believe that I will be able to work from home most days of the week. That would really help me rack up the ski days in winter. I would like to believe that I will still get all of those wonderful trips to the exotic country of Japan. Unfortunately that doesn't work with the scenario of working from home more often. Ultimately the current work environment is evolving and we are not done yet. Hopefully we can all look forward to those changes. While many people are filing for unemployment, I sincerely hope there is a place for everyone and think there will be. Of all the things I want to be right about the last one is the most important.

A Free Meal from Uber

A few days ago I got an e-mail from Uber telling me I had a free meal up to a $30 value simply because I have an account with them. I have to admit that since I have not been flying much, I have not needed their ride-share services. I did recently try a restaurant delivery service and enjoyed it and so I thought I would give Uber Eats a try this evening. The catalyst for doing so is because my wife is helping my oldest daughter drive to Alabama for graduate school and I didn't want to cook anything for myself this evening.

The e-mail made it really easy to get a meal as I just needed to click on it. The link took me to ubereats.com. I just had to log into my Uber account and it had all of my billing information. It even showed an old $5 credit I had from using the ride-share service earlier this year. Then I looked for a type of food I might want for dinner. That can be tougher than it sounds.

This evening I selected Greek food. I had up to a $30 credit and so I made sure to get plenty of extra food so I have a few more meals later in the week. After all, my wife won't be back until late Thursday evening and while I am not a bad cook, I am preoccupied with other activities . . . like watching movies, playing video games, and practicing the guitar. I picked up a gyro for this evening along with a salad for tomorrow. The total came to something like $20. As with all food-delivery services, there are other fees to be aware of and my $30 credit didn't cover any of them. Those added up to $10 and so I had to come up with a small sum of money. I knew I would and so that didn't surprise me.

I placed my order and did not feel like it needed to be rushed to my house. Selecting the take-your-time option took $1 off the delivery fee and my estimate is that it slowed down the order by a maximum of only 5 to 10 minutes. It still arrived 20 minutes before the expected delivery time. Then I watched the map with the status of my order. I finished up a few projects from work and just kept the map in the background on my 3rd monitor, glancing at it every few moments.

Eventually a car appeared on the map and it surprised me that the car headed away from my house. I couldn't figure out why until I realized the Uber driver was headed to the restaurant to pick up the order. Then he headed towards my house. He took a much different route than I would have taken but I learned something new, he got there faster than I would have. I will have to remember that route the next time I am in that part of town.

My meal arrived earlier than promised and that is always nice. Furthermore it was still warm. I ate the gyro and put the rest of the food in the refrigerator. Now I just need to hope my youngest daughter doesn't investigate it when she comes home from work.

I still prefer to go out to restaurants as opposed to take-out food. However during these times of COVID-19, I would rank my experience with Uber Eats very similar to that of Doordash. I think they are about equal in price and service. If you get a coupon in your e-mail, I highly suggest using it.

First Flight Since March 7

This weekend my wife and I braved air travel and headed to Ohio to visit our son and his family. It is the first flight I have been on since March 7. I have to say that I felt reluctant to get on the plane due to COVID-19. After taking the journey, the flight was probably the safest part of the trip.

Normally I would have had someone drop us off at the airport but our daughter had to go to work. We could have parked at the airport but instead opted to take the train to the airport. It meant a 1-mile walk to the train station but I don't mind the exercise and so we did that. In hindsight, we should have parked at the airport. We had to change trains and have a 29-minute wait for a different train line in downtown Salt Lake. Neither my wife nor I minded the wait for our next train. What we did mind was the lack of thought for others on the train. I am not a fan of masks but they are required on the train. Not everyone felt obligated to wear one and about half of the passengers didn't bother. Unfortunately the people that didn't wear masks are part of the demographic in Salt Lake at most risk for COVID-19. I couldn't wait to get to the airport and off that train. Once there, I made sure to use a liberal quantity of hand sanitizer. I hope it works.

The security line at the airport moved very quickly and we found ourselves at the Southwest Airline gates. We had an early boarding number and found a row 4 seats back. I put my wife at the window and I took the isle. Southwest is not loading the planes to capacity so they can ensure all middle seats on the flight are empty. I appreciate that. Furthermore you are required to wear a mask on the flight. If you have some medical condition that prevents you from wearing a mask, they won't let you on the plane. The only exception is young children under the age of 2.

The flight went well to Chicago. The 2 and a half hour flight is the longest I have worn a mask since COVID-19 started. I hated it but am not complaining because I want everyone around me to be wearing a mask. We landed in Chicago and had to continue wearing masks until we got a pizza at one of few open restaurants in the airport. Once we finished the meal, the masks went back on. I have to admit that the airport really felt like a scene out of a zombie apocalypse movie.

The flight from Chicago to Cleveland lasted only 45 minutes and went quickly. My son picked us up at the airport and we had a relatively short drive to his home. Once there I could reflect on my flight experience. I feel a lot more comfortable about flying but it is not something I want to do frequently. In other words, I won't be doing it for work any time soon. I don't think I will be using the train any time soon though and would discourage anyone from doing so until COVID-19 has been resolved.

Growing Importance of Video Editing

There are a number of changes that have taken place in the world because of COVID-19 and more changes are coming. One of the changes I have noticed recently is the growing importance of video editing skills. It used to be that specialists would be responsible for such tasks. Now more and more people are having to put together videos as we are restricted from meeting in person because of the pandemic.

I first noticed videos proliferating as a form of communication within my community in Utah. Once a month I am being sent a link to a video. That video is very high-quality and provides updates on the local COVID-19 situation along with a message of encouragement in dealing with all of the various situations we are facing.

Now I am starting to see a number of presentations being done at work with videos instead of PowerPoint. The reasons for this are many. Some people feel more comfortable creating a video instead of speaking live. Others are trying to ensure time constraints are followed. I'm also sure others feel that video allows for a more flashy presentation. Ultimately video has some distinct advantages with more and more people taking advantage of them.

Several years ago I started putting together videos as a self-improvement project. I figured it would be a nice skill to have and have put together 4 videos so far that are available on my YouTube channel. I am in the middle of writing the narration for my next video about when I sailed a 37-foot racing sailboat from Hawaii to Los Angeles many years ago. Hopefully I will have it finished soon.

Here are some of the lessons I have learned creating my videos and hopefully they will help you:

1. Find a video editing tool that works for you and stick with it. Most tools have a number of features and it takes a bit of time to discover the full capabilities of the software you have chosen. I prefer using the Mac over Windows and so I use iMovie as it comes preloaded on all Macs.
2. Try to continually improve on your work. When I went to put together my most recent video, I went back and reviewed my 3 previous videos and made notes on what I could to improve. My 2020 Yurt video is my favorite because I fixed quite a few shortcomings found in the other videos.
3. Have people help review your videos. One of the most difficult things for me is to ask for someone to review my videos. While most comments I get are how well they look, I cringe when people find problems with them. Unfortunately those are the comments that will help you improve. I have one of my coworkers who is great at this and provides very useful feedback. He isn't malicious but sincerely wants to help me improve my work.
   
4. You don't have to use all of the features in your video editing software in every video. When word processing software began widespread use, some users felt obligated to use every font possible in a single-page document. In the end, it detracted from the work. The same can be said of video editing software. You don't need to use all 50 video transitions in a single 2-minute video. Make sure the features you use add to your message and don't detract from it.
5. Keep track of the settings for what you did so you can use what works or make things better for your next video. I feel like every time I go to create the narration for my videos, I have to relearn what settings I used on the last one. Now I keep copious notes during the video creation process so I don't have to relearn the various tools I use. 
   

Hopefully these 5 tips help should you want to start creating your own videos. As I get more experience with my next video, I'm sure I will be able to provide more hints and tricks.

Video Conference Meeting with Lunch

One of the downsides to not attending meetings in the office is not being able to do lunch meetings. My personal belief is that lunch meetings are not very productive, however, they do reward the participants for attending a long meeting. They also have a benefit of allowing meeting attendees to spend a little personal time together and find out more about each other.

Today I had a several-hour long meeting that included lunch at the end. As I am in Utah and most of my coworkers are in the Bay Area, it is tough to eat lunch together during COVID-19. As a reward for sitting through the whole meeting, one of the department admins sent out gift certificates for Doordash. This is the first time I have used Doordash and so I needed to set up an account. Next I went in and added the coupon code from my office and saw that I had a $25 credit. You can kill yourself with $25 in fast food and so I thought I would see what other healthy choices exist.

I have to confess that I spent all free time during the lengthy meeting going through various menus of local restaurants. There are a number close by that I have never visited and so I had fun filling my cart with items and then erasing my order. Ultimately I decided on a local mid-priced restaurant that I know prepares excellent food. 30 minutes before the meeting ended, I clicked the purchase button. I had some of the $25 credit left over and added it to the recommended tip and submitted the order.

A map appeared on my computer and I could see the progress of my order. I saw when the order was completed at the restaurant and when it started driving towards my home. I thought it great to see the order come straight to my house. I guess that is what happens when you include a larger-than-recommended tip. 15 minutes later, the order was at my door and still very warm. My wife answered the door but the website also showed a picture of the order sitting on my front doorstep. I still had 15 minutes to go in my meeting. I didn't care, I just brought my laptop upstairs with my camera turned off.

I have to be very careful with how much and what food I eat. I ordered enough food for two people even though it was a single order for lunch. I split the meal in half and shared it with my wife. She loved sharing lunch with me and I appreciated involving her in my work meeting without anyone else in the meeting knowing she attended. We didn't discuss anything confidential and it was only for a few minutes but has to go down as one of my best lunch meetings ever.

If you are working from home but miss those lunch meetings where food is brought in for everyone, I highly recommend Doordash, Uber Eats, or some other form of delivered food. I will definitely remember this for future meetings. After the meeting finished, I made sure to send the department admin a heart-felt thank you.