GDC, snowboarding, exercise
Last week was GDC. I took a fair amount of notes from the sessions, have to figure out if I am going to try and write them up or not. I found the panels and lectures that I went to to be good, a worthwhile use of time. I really enjoyed participating in the Free to Play, Pay for Stuff roundtable, I'm looking forward to hopefully having new information to contribute soon. I figured out what I am going to pitch a GDC talk about for next year, hopefully I can finally get to give one. :)
I had a fantastic time seeing old friends, catching up on their lives, both in and out of work. Lots of good meals and interesting discussions. I got to hang out with folks I respect that I've developed professional friendships with through years of attending GDC and actively participating in discussions. Definitely one of the benefits of the roundtable format.
Wednesday night was a dinner outing that Seth organized with a bunch of old buddies from the GT days. It was really nice hanging out with so many old friends who I don't see enough (especially the ones who are local, Marin is disturbingly far from the south bay). Thursday I had dinner with Sulka and Eyjolfur and we had a fascinating conversation of many aspects of managing the economies of MMOs, from technology to process, then I met up with Ming and hung out at The View (awesome view bar on top of the Marriot) for the evening chatting about life, games and girls. Friday Jason and I hung out with Alice after GDC had wrapped, then the two of us had a really tasty sushi dinner outing to Ozumo in SF, before I dropped him at the airport, it is nice getting to spend time with friends you've had for many years. Lunches gave me lots of chances to see friends from Wizards like Paul and Greg.
I had some great conversations with people I worked with at various companies on the Expo floor, got to hang out with lching333, and the whole experience was totally worth the money and time spent. I'm looking forward to GDC2012. I am sad that I didn't manage to see Damion.
The weekend was spent in Tahoe with some old Cryptic coworkers and their friends. We stuffed 5 people into a motel room saturday night, which was nice from a keeping it inexpensive standpoint. More delicious sushi was had, it was fun meeting some new folks, and the boarding was fun. I like my new boots, and now I am worrying that the discomfort I am having is from my bindings rather than my boots. ARGH. I had a lot more control, which was nice, but I am definitely only at a working my way through blues level at the moment. No black diamonds for me this trip.
Climbing last night at the gym was great, I did some more challenging stuff, sent the 10d that I've been working on, and added my friend Ylia to our climbing group. Good times. This morning I was up at the crack of dawn for another workout with Leyla. I'm enjoying the exercise, but oy, I need to improve faster for the rapidly approaching Tough Mudder Socal.
So, crazy busy with activities, having lots of fun, super tired. Heh. I need a vacation to recuperate from all of this.
Oh yeah work is going great, we had some very successful work done on the first two days last week before I went off to GDC, which was nice, and coming back from it all, Monday felt quite productive.
I had a fantastic time seeing old friends, catching up on their lives, both in and out of work. Lots of good meals and interesting discussions. I got to hang out with folks I respect that I've developed professional friendships with through years of attending GDC and actively participating in discussions. Definitely one of the benefits of the roundtable format.
Wednesday night was a dinner outing that Seth organized with a bunch of old buddies from the GT days. It was really nice hanging out with so many old friends who I don't see enough (especially the ones who are local, Marin is disturbingly far from the south bay). Thursday I had dinner with Sulka and Eyjolfur and we had a fascinating conversation of many aspects of managing the economies of MMOs, from technology to process, then I met up with Ming and hung out at The View (awesome view bar on top of the Marriot) for the evening chatting about life, games and girls. Friday Jason and I hung out with Alice after GDC had wrapped, then the two of us had a really tasty sushi dinner outing to Ozumo in SF, before I dropped him at the airport, it is nice getting to spend time with friends you've had for many years. Lunches gave me lots of chances to see friends from Wizards like Paul and Greg.
I had some great conversations with people I worked with at various companies on the Expo floor, got to hang out with lching333, and the whole experience was totally worth the money and time spent. I'm looking forward to GDC2012. I am sad that I didn't manage to see Damion.
The weekend was spent in Tahoe with some old Cryptic coworkers and their friends. We stuffed 5 people into a motel room saturday night, which was nice from a keeping it inexpensive standpoint. More delicious sushi was had, it was fun meeting some new folks, and the boarding was fun. I like my new boots, and now I am worrying that the discomfort I am having is from my bindings rather than my boots. ARGH. I had a lot more control, which was nice, but I am definitely only at a working my way through blues level at the moment. No black diamonds for me this trip.
Climbing last night at the gym was great, I did some more challenging stuff, sent the 10d that I've been working on, and added my friend Ylia to our climbing group. Good times. This morning I was up at the crack of dawn for another workout with Leyla. I'm enjoying the exercise, but oy, I need to improve faster for the rapidly approaching Tough Mudder Socal.
So, crazy busy with activities, having lots of fun, super tired. Heh. I need a vacation to recuperate from all of this.
Oh yeah work is going great, we had some very successful work done on the first two days last week before I went off to GDC, which was nice, and coming back from it all, Monday felt quite productive.