March 29, 2006

• OMG

  So I’m guaranteed to miss something. But the longer I wait, the more I’ll forget. So here’s a brief synopsis of my week at GDC.
  Got in on Saturday and was picked up by Jared. Proceed to play Full
  Auto at his place and then eat lunch at Cluck-U. Met his g/f Jules,
  who’s really cool. Worked on his solar system project. You really don’t
  know how much you’ve really learned when you look at the stuff you used
  to struggle with and understand it so easily. Went to his sister
  Katie’s birthday party at their mother’s house. That was fun. It’s
  interesting to meet a bunch of Jared’s family (he has a ton of
  uncles/aunts). Afterwards, we did a bunch of drunken video gaming that
  night and then passed out on the couch.
  Sunday, woke up and took a shower. God damn! Every time I spend the
  night at Jared’s, it’s like I’m at a day spa! He’s got the best product
  of any guy I know. Met up with Gagan for lunch over at Pasta Pomodoro.
  Man has their menu changed since I went there. But there are still some
  things that never change (their wine glasses). We walked around Santana
  Row for a while and caught up. It’s great to see old friends! Sunday
  was spent at the CA volunteer dinner. So-so food, and meeting all the
  people I’d be working with for the next week. 270 volunteers, all
  masterfully coordinated by Tim and Ian.
  Monday through Friday was spent working the convention. Attending
  sessions during the day, and then drinking during the evening at the
  fairmont hotel and various other locations. It was fun. But I didn’t
  get more than 4 hours of sleep on any night. I’m surprised how
  productive I was during the day on so little rest. Here’s a quick
  rundown of all the sessions I worked/attended:
  Physics for Game Programmers
  Game Design Workshop
  C++ on Next-Gen Consoles: Effective Code for New Architectures
  Playstation 3: Beyond the Box (Sony Keynote)
  Cracking the XX Factor: How Devs can turn Women Players into Buyers
  All About Ninety-Nine Nights: Next-Gen Character Design
  Advanced Prototyping
  Disrupting Development (Nintendo Keynote. My favorite session)
  Taking Emotional Gameplay t the Next Level
  Threading Full Auto Physics
  Easy Come Easy Go: True in Poker, Not True in the Costly World of Hiring & Firing
  God of War: How the Left and Right Brain Learned to Love One Another
  Famous Last Words Live – An Open Mike to Discuss Game Dev Contracts

  The evenings were filled with drinking at the Fairmont lobby, Mission
  Ale House, the Microsft Party, and capped of with a pizza party for the
  CA’s where I consumed much beer and a shot of Jaeger.
  Stayed up way too late on Friday night (Sat Morning) playing video
  games and drinking. After I finally got up on Saturday (after 4 hours
  of sleep again!), I went back to my hotel to pack up my stuff while
  Elliott and his buddy slept in until 1 PM.
  Went over to Victor’s place to see that his house had changed with all
  this new technology (tv, reciever, speakers, track lighting, ice cream
  maker). We went to the World Whiskey Expo and proceeded to eat prime
  rib and then start drinking Whiskey. Here’s a brief list of all the
  whiskies I had:
  Ardbeg Uigeadail
  Auchentoshan 17 yr
  Auchentoshan 1973 ($639.99!!!)
  Bowmore 16 yr Cask Strength
  Bowmore 17 yr
  Glenfarclas 21 yr
  Glenlivit 12 yr
  Glenlivit 18 yr
  Highland Park 18 yr
  Laphroaig 15 yr
  Laphroaig Quarter Cask
  Macallan 17 yr
  Macallan 18 yr
  Yamazaki 12 yr
  Yamazaki 1982
  Got on the plane Sunday at lunch and had a great conversation on the
  way home with a guy who’s an accountant but would rather be
  skating/surfing/snowboarding. Recommended some really good music to me.
  I convinced him to get a Nintendo DS.

  Pictures!
  GDC
  World Whiskey Expo

  • 2:14 pm
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