San Francisco: Day 1
Hello from San Francisco!
Adrian and I flew out this morning, as we'll be attending the Game Developers Conference later this week. Unfortunately, we were only able to afford the Expo Pass ($195 each), which doesn't get us into most of the cool stuff, but the good passes are in the $1000-$2000 range, so once again we have to sit that stuff out. It should be pretty fun anyway, though. We're primarily out here looking for networking opportunities, and we'll be hitting up the IGDA party tomorrow night before attending the expo Wednesday through Friday.
Anyway, nothing too big is going on today. We woke up around 4am eastern time to catch a plane by 7:40. It was a direct flight from Philly to San Francisco, and I spent most of it trying to sleep since I barely slept the night before. Only problem is that I'm still trying to get over this damn cold that I've had for going on a month now. I'd never flown with a cold before, and now I'm seeing why it's not really a good idea. While I'm over the worst of it (no more coughing and sneezing and whatnot), I'm still feeling rather congested. Towards the end of the flight I noticed that I couldn't get my ears to pop no matter what I did. Usually this is no problem for me, and a quick yawn will do the trick. But not this time. Yawning, chewing gum, eating, drinking, putting steam in my ear... so far, nothing's been able to get my left ear to pop, and right now I'm practically deaf on that side. It's really annoying and disorienting. I just hope it clears up before I need to start interacting with people tomorrow.
Anyway, aside from that annoyance, it's been a pretty good day. We haven't really done too much other than find our hotel and get situated. The hotel is nice... not quite as artsy as the one we stayed in last year, but still rather charming in its own little way. The room we're in is pretty tiny (the bed takes up about 80% of it), but it suits us just fine. There are clouds and seagulls painted on the ceiling and fish painted on the bathroom wall. Luckily we read reviews of this place before deciding to stay here and found out we'd need to bring our own ethernet cable if we wanted internet access in our room, so Adge and I are kind of trading it back and forth so we can check stuff online.
After checking in, we went over to pick up our conference badges so we wouldn't have to worry about it Wednesday. We also got wristbands for the IGDA party tomorrow so we won't have to wait in line (the line to get in went around the block last year). After that, we checked out the Playstation store across the street, but it was kind of disappointing. The only cool thing they had (other than the standard games and accessories) was a Parappa hat, but I already bought one of those last year. They didn't even have any t-shirts or wristbands or anything like that. Made me kinda sad.
After that, we looked around for a place to eat and decided to splurge on this nice little Italian place where we got some fantastic lasagna. I dunno if we'll be going out again tonight or just chilling in the room for now. I think my brain is still on eastern time, so I'm thinking it's like 10:00 now, but it's really only 7:00.
I'm looking forward to tomorrow's adventures already. ^_^
Adrian and I flew out this morning, as we'll be attending the Game Developers Conference later this week. Unfortunately, we were only able to afford the Expo Pass ($195 each), which doesn't get us into most of the cool stuff, but the good passes are in the $1000-$2000 range, so once again we have to sit that stuff out. It should be pretty fun anyway, though. We're primarily out here looking for networking opportunities, and we'll be hitting up the IGDA party tomorrow night before attending the expo Wednesday through Friday.
Anyway, nothing too big is going on today. We woke up around 4am eastern time to catch a plane by 7:40. It was a direct flight from Philly to San Francisco, and I spent most of it trying to sleep since I barely slept the night before. Only problem is that I'm still trying to get over this damn cold that I've had for going on a month now. I'd never flown with a cold before, and now I'm seeing why it's not really a good idea. While I'm over the worst of it (no more coughing and sneezing and whatnot), I'm still feeling rather congested. Towards the end of the flight I noticed that I couldn't get my ears to pop no matter what I did. Usually this is no problem for me, and a quick yawn will do the trick. But not this time. Yawning, chewing gum, eating, drinking, putting steam in my ear... so far, nothing's been able to get my left ear to pop, and right now I'm practically deaf on that side. It's really annoying and disorienting. I just hope it clears up before I need to start interacting with people tomorrow.
Anyway, aside from that annoyance, it's been a pretty good day. We haven't really done too much other than find our hotel and get situated. The hotel is nice... not quite as artsy as the one we stayed in last year, but still rather charming in its own little way. The room we're in is pretty tiny (the bed takes up about 80% of it), but it suits us just fine. There are clouds and seagulls painted on the ceiling and fish painted on the bathroom wall. Luckily we read reviews of this place before deciding to stay here and found out we'd need to bring our own ethernet cable if we wanted internet access in our room, so Adge and I are kind of trading it back and forth so we can check stuff online.
After checking in, we went over to pick up our conference badges so we wouldn't have to worry about it Wednesday. We also got wristbands for the IGDA party tomorrow so we won't have to wait in line (the line to get in went around the block last year). After that, we checked out the Playstation store across the street, but it was kind of disappointing. The only cool thing they had (other than the standard games and accessories) was a Parappa hat, but I already bought one of those last year. They didn't even have any t-shirts or wristbands or anything like that. Made me kinda sad.
After that, we looked around for a place to eat and decided to splurge on this nice little Italian place where we got some fantastic lasagna. I dunno if we'll be going out again tonight or just chilling in the room for now. I think my brain is still on eastern time, so I'm thinking it's like 10:00 now, but it's really only 7:00.
I'm looking forward to tomorrow's adventures already. ^_^