Categories: Miscellaneous Kvetching

• Who CARES What Jesus Would Do?

  Yeah…so after moping an extended period after receiving a “don’t call us, we’ll call you” email today from another prospective employer, I sat for a while, taking stock of my life and it came to me – I make shitty decisions. For the last two years (well all my life really, but the last two years in particular) I’ve been making choices that undermine my career, my health, my relationships and my happiness and today I resolved to employ a [...]

• Day 1, E3 2011: short beds, sweaty crowds and Star Wars: The Old Republic

  In past posts I’d forgotten to mention one of the most unique features of my shabby hotel room–the unusually short bed. I’m only 5 foot 6 but in order not to have my feet hang off the bottom, I have to angle myself diagonally. Who are these beds made for exactly? Dwarven tourists? Anyway, I woke up this morning early and was immediately barraged with assignments. I worked for hours without eating or taking a shower, sorely tempted to make [...]

• Cupcakes, Catering and Mr. Caffeine

  After a large cup of coffee, the grainy tuna taste is finally gone. Aside from the short break for ptomaine poisoning, this whole day was one endless press conference. After giving the morning to Microsoft, the afternoon was devoted to Ubisoft and Sony. The former proved a combination of speakers I couldn’t understand and the most annoying MC in history, and the latter was a mix of corporate apologies and lousy catered food. Ubisoft was held as usual, in the [...]

• Press conferences and bad sushi

  Well, I was up till 2 am writing last night and when I finally got ready to collapse on my wrinkly bed, I realized I hadn’t brought any pajamas with me. There was no way in hell I was going to sleep in my underwear in that grungy bed so I got stuck sleeping in my clothes, something that always makes me feel like a vagrant. Bad enough having to sleep in cargo pants but then I went to pull [...]

• Raymond Chandler Stayed Here…

  Yeah so, as I was saying, I’m staying in the ahem…”Historic” Mayfair Hotel, a hundred year old place that noir author Raymond Chandler once stayed in while he was writing “I’ll Be There Waiting”. That’s inspiring I guess, even if the decor isn’t. Once I’d checked in to the sound of a chorus of hysterical “fuck yous”, I rode the rickety elevator up to my room on the 12th floor. The ride was kinda spooky, especially because when the elevator [...]

• Shuttles, shuttles, shuttles

  The more I say that word, the stranger it sounds. Shuttle. Shuttleshuttleshuttleshuttleshuttle! It’s starting to lose all meaning now which is good because it might help me forget today’s shuttle ride from the airport. Before heading out to ground transportation I stopped in an airport restroom, relieving myself and reflecting on my rising anxiety. E3′s always a killer and somehow after nine hours a day of walking to appointments, shaking hands and playing games, I have to come back to [...]

• E3 2011 Pre-show Day 1

  Well, today marks yet another early summer day when I pack my things and head to Los Angeles (I always hear that in my head the way Bugs Bunny pronounces it – “Loss Angle-eeze”) for the perennial circus we call E3. Surprisingly, there were no unexpected airline delays and by some miracle I had a direct flight to L.A. so I got on the plane feeling fairly mellow. Then a highly rotund older couple got on and sat–well, sat isn’t [...]

• OK, that tears it

  After years of having my opinions squelched, I’m going to revamp my writing website and create a games-only blog portion where I can spout off about anything my black little heart desires. Every ambitious woman hits that glass ceiling sooner or later so I’m not sure why I was surprised when I felt and heard the inevitable “clonk” this last week. It’s especially ridiculous considering I walked into this “boys only – no girls allowed” industry nine years ago with [...]

• GDC 2011 Day 4 – United Airlines is the Devil

  So the last day of GDC. I met with one of the co-founders of Silicon Sisters, a Vancouver company focused on making games for girls. Normally, when I hear “games for girls”, I shut down because that usually means something involving shopping, makeup or having crushes on cute boys. Fortunately, Silicon Sisters has some interesting ideas about how to make games for women and girls and none of them appear to involve such things. Aside from my meeting, the two [...]

• 43 More hours in Montreal

  Yes, hard to believe I was just here 2 weeks ago but here I am again in beautiful downtown Montreal. I flew through Atlanta this time and was extremely foolish not to eat between flights. Since 8 am all I’ve had to eat is a handful of airline peanuts and a soy latte. The trip was mostly uneventful. The highlight of my hour in Atlanta were these trash-eating garbage cans. They plug into the wall and when you toss something [...]