This past weekend I went up to see my buddy Josh and his wife Nikki for their baby shower. It was a great event. The Volz parents are interior designers and contractors. Which means the house is always "under construction" while also looking amazing. The backyard had a professional layout with nice linens. Karin the event planning guru had plenty of good complements for the shower.

The adventure arrives when we get back in the car. We had tossed around the idea of going to Vegas since we were in Upland. We asked Maggie (our GPS) how far it was, and the 3 hour trip seemed doable. Baby Jesus (Karin's Corolla) jumped on the freeway and Karin started pulling in her connections to get us a nice room. Apparantly the WSOP was going last weekend along with a big fight. We ended up staying at the Ritz Carlton off the strip. We got upgraded to the lakeside suite and everyone was extremely cordial when we arrived. Excellent customer service.

Brief of the rest of the evening: Ride to the Hard Rock Hotel via Ritz Carlton shuttle service (aka Escalade) for free. Good dancing. Gambling at 4 am. Opera in the morning on HD PBS. Buffet at Bellagio. But why talk, when I can show you with some pictures. Queue photo roll!

BTW. These photos were uploaded by Windows Live Photo Gallery. A direct competitor to Picasa. They have many of the same features, but the added benefit of posting directly to flickr. Yah! I'll give more feedback on it if it sucks, otherwise, assume I'm content with it.

Spoiler Alert!

I'm so happy that Stephanie won. She's so hard working and brings great ideas to the table. The pistachio and steak looked amazing. I want to try it. Though I felt Antonia should have been in the finals instead of Lisa, I have to commend Lisa for bringing some great dishes to the table. But in the end, her dishes were here personality: abbrasive and hard for everyone to appreciate.

New Coldplay album rocks. Sounds like U2 because they worked with a producer that also works with U2. Favorite Song: Violet Hill.

This post is done without any research and should be considered purely philosophical and written to stimulate conversation. Other people may also have this idea, but it was the first time I thought of it.

There's a preconception that extinction is a bad thing. The thought that as one species dies, we devolve as a planet into a lesser form. But I disagree to that and say that it is only the evolution of the Earth, and it's inhabitants as a society. In the term "society," I don't mean "human society;" rather I mean that all the species and animals (no matter the size or scope) should be considered as a society. If a species is to die, that is the same as a member in society dying. Other people have their relationships with this deceased person, and so a void is created in the neighbors lives for they have lost something. If a species becomes extinct, there is a break in the ecology. But nature has a way of resolving things, though it may not always seem the most elegant or ideal.

Additionally, there is the birth of the species synonymous with the birth of a child into the society. Initially it has weak ties to everyone around them, but as they grow into maturity, they fit in with society, and have their own role. They have their responsibilities in the society the same as species have in an ecology.

I'm tired of writing about this. You get the idea, and I could write one for paragraphs about it. But I think Ennekube would be much better at this since she's a more seasoned writer than me. I'm just the idea guy.

Something I always found bizarre was women's obsession with shopping. They just want to go out and shop; preferably with the girls so they can boy bash, or so I hear. And when I got dragged out shopping, I couldn't find the enthusiasm and joy in the activity. I guess that's why they say Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.

Then I was out walking Marley and I realized that there are things about shopping that I love that Karin finds no joy in. Internet Shopping. Exactly that. The ability to compare all models, prices, and get reviews instantly, and then make your purchase knowing you made it at the best price and with the best possible value (review). Amazon is one of my sites of choice, for their great user feedback. Sometimes I'll go to CNET and check out what they have as their "top 5" in any category (cellphones, mp3 players, laptops). Then after spending several hours shopping, I will make the purchase at the best price, from the best retailer, as soon as possible. And without leaving the comfort of my bed.

The interesting thing is that both sexes have cravings for shopping, we just deal with it in different fashions. As a woman, Karin will go to the mall and shop for a couple of hours and get it out of her system. Often returning in the coming weeks to return stuff that just didn't quite work out. I, on the other hand will periodically go to the review sites and see if the "top 5" are updated with a hot new product, or read about release details at websites like engadget or BGR. This to me is "window shopping." Checking what I'm going to get myself for Christmas, r the next time I loose self-control of my techlust. I'm a big, huge, technologist.

Now that Marley's been staying at my house, I've gotten to know him a lot better. So much personality! But this was an example of bad parenting and how I didn't take the easy way out. I often work near the back door, and when Marley wants to go out there he either wants to lay in the sun, or go potty. In reality, I should take him on a walk, but I let him go in the backyard to pee and poo. This makes a mess for me to clean up later, but I allow it because of my business.

Today, Marley came to the door wanting to go to the bathroom. I'm busy cleaning my room for my father's return (on Father's Day!) Instead of letting him out in the backyard, I decided that I should take the break and go on a walk with him. We leashed up and headed out. I was drinking a New Castle. I'm in my own neighborhood, what can I say? So we do the round and I recognize that he has a problem we should see the vet about. Nothing bad, more embarassing.

So I go home and start to tell Karin, and the entire time, Marley "talks" over me. It was amazing how much he understood of what I was saying and I of he. It was pretty amazing. I tried to calm him down, but he barked louder. I had to apologize before he lowered his tone. I guess it was embarassing for him for me to talk about the "V-E-T." Is this parenting? If so, I don't mind it at all. I actually quite enjoy it.

With only a week left in my quarter, my summer internship is quickly approaching. Since my last post, EA has turned me down twice, and I turned down THQ and MochiMedia, a great start-up in the Bay Area. I decided to go with Qualcomm because of the opportunity provided by the company. I will be working in the 3D graphics division working with developers, publishers, and OEM manufacturers. All crucial for game development. It's great!

I also spent some time with Karin's extended family during memorial day this year. Haven't been to Palm Springs in a long time and didn't realized how much it's been developed and how affluent the community is nowadays. After visiting it recently, there's 3 things you can do there: shop, golf, spa. These are all just relaxations for different people though. It seems like a great place to enjoy a weekend, though I don't know how long I would want to stay there.

Additionally, my birthday came and went, with a dinner with Karin and Cecilia. We went to Cafe Luna. It didn't impress me when I went several years ago, and today, still isn't top notch. I'm not knocking it as a restaurant completely. It blows the Olive Garden out of the water (which is in the same shopping center). But as a first choice for a delicious Italian meal, it would not be the first to come to mind. I need to try Cin Cin soon, another local Italian restaurant.

Kanye West - Big Brother

If you admire somebody you should go on 'head tell 'em

People never get the flowers while they can still smell 'em

Hooray for Mystery Dates. Karin and I have this running event going on where we take each other out on a "mystery date." This involves telling the person a location and time, but not much else. The amount you want them to squirm is related to the amount of information you provide them with.

With that in mind, Karin took me on a Mystery Date this Sunday. The event... was biking and kayaking. Very fun, scenic and educational. Even for two people who have spent a long time in San Diego. It makes me appreciate the city even more. And makes me want to get out more. A rarity for me on my posts, pictures! I really need to get back into the habit of this. I've been using my iPhone to photograph a lot more than I did in the past, but I still need to get in the habit of Flickr'ing the images I take.

Every day, I get the daily Xanga Digest. And when I get that, I think of all the things I could post about. My A+ in Marketing, my trip to Vegas with Karin. My everlasting rollercoster of an internship hunt. The great business contacts I'm meeting. The joys of the game industry. Decisions on whether to go corporate or entrepreneur. Then I look at my mental task list and decide I should work on homework/projects/networking instead of blogging. But alas, the guilt has gotten to me. So next time I see a nag by Pauline, a rant by Ennekube, or a statistical dissertation by Ashwind, I will be sure to take 5 minutes to post what's going on in my busy business world.

It's bee more than a week since GDC (Game Developer's Conference), but catching up on schoolwork has taken the majority of my time. The conference was a fun event as usual. It's amazing how broad it's become in the 4 years that I've been volunteering for the conference. When I first started, the focus was on traditional console development, with the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Wii not even launched yet. This year, I went to topics on open world and social networking games, something I would have never imagined 4 years ago.

My brief schedule went as follows:

Monday: Worlds in Motion Summit. This was a summit that didn't exist when I first started attending. But looking at the program, it's understandable. Virtual worlds and economies, free to play, funware, social gaming? These things weren't around 4 years ago, or weren't considered viable. Now their at the frontier for casual game with huge potentials for monetization. The only question is how to get there.

Tuesday: Game Development Deals 2008: This was a bit of a wash. I love the moderator, Jim Charne, but the topics covered were very mundane and easily retrievable from the web. The best portion of this summit was the wrap-up at the end where they went through a real world situation and played it out so that people understood what could actually happen if you were involved in a business deal. Starting from a group of developers who's studio was recently shut down. Then it all came together.

Wednesday and Thursday was a mix of trolling the career pavilion and working as a volunteer. I was surprised by the number of positions available for MBA's and the lack of business student representation seeking these positions. I guess I'm crazy for trying to stay in this field. But I love it!

Friday: Startup Launchpad! This was another great session. You got the chance to listen and talk with VC's and VP's of corporate development as well as new and seasoned CEO's. They let it all out to talk about what the pitfalls of starting up are as well as where they think it's heading (online social games with advertising and lead retrieval as your source of income). Overall, I used it as a place to network and meet more people that I was interested in working with in the future. It's always a hard decision between starting something of your own or working for the man. The man does take care of you pretty well.

The next couple of weeks will be a mess with finals coming up. I'm having a harder time in my classes this quarter compared to the last, and its definitely showing in my coursework. What's worse, I like the courses this quarter more than last quarter, but I just don't have the time I need to dedicate to them. I guess I can learn the material better over spring break. That or meet up with old friends.