China Moments

Shanghai, 2003-2006: In early 2003, I quit an IT job to follow my dreams of living abroad. Fortune smiled on me, and I landed my first job in the videogame industry at Ubisoft’s Shanghai studio. China Moments, my first blog, documented my first expatriation experience and my obsession with the craft of videogames.

  • The Crunch

    Here we are. Crunch Time. If you’re unfamiliar with the terminology, “crunch time”...

  • Sundaycadence

    When we talk about China to people back home in Canada, and when they can be bothered to ask questio...

  • What Did You Eat Last Night?

    Me, I ate Beijing duck. Oh, and a helping of scorpions. These little buggers are a little-known Chin...

  • I Wish I Was Exaggerating

    After nearly 3 years in Shanghai, there’s a number of things that seemed strange and fantastic...

  • The Last Hours

    As the E3 Producer, it’s been my task to carefully plan the E3 demo, so that we would finish w...

Montreal: It’s Official

Just to keep you up to date: I have now signed my offer letter from Ubisoft’s Montreal studio, and will move back to Montreal this fall. The actual date is still under consideration… It should be around October.

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The Small World of Expatriates

Here’s a sample of a conversation I had with a guy called Phil yesterday, at a colleague’s party: Phil: “It’s so weird. Every expat seems to know each other here in Shanghai.” Me: “I know! I used to be jealous ...

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One Small Electronic Miracle

Remember my atrocious evening at Microfabrique last February? At that time, I had sworn off the electronic music scene in Shanghai, disgusted by people forcing me off a table because I wouldn’t pay 1000 RMB in alcohol, so that morons ...

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Comfort from the Eggplane

Yesterday, I went and investigated a new convenience store one street corner away from the studio. The small, welcoming place is called 飞蛋 (“Fei Dan“), which can only be translated as “Eggplane”. Very weird. When I asked the girl at ...

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西施 Misses Helene

Boy, I think I don’t spend enough time with our cat 西施 (Xi Shi)… She’s obviously missing Helene, who is currently in Thailand enjoying sunshine and quiet. Yesterday, when I got back home around midnight, the phone was off the ...

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