Sadly, the exclamation mark at the end of the heading there might have oversold the post. Nothing really Earth-shattering here. But, it was a crazy-ass weekend, so I fiugre I might as well write about it.

I guess I’ll start a little before the weekend. Work’s been pretty good. We’ve been chugging toward a deadline, and the work, as of early last week, looked pretty daunting. I’d have to almost double the content I was generating, and as a result, it looked like it’d be a week of long nights. I thought, the only way I’m going to get all this done is if I’m on fire, nonstop, from now ’till I leave Thursday night.

Well, I *was*. It was crazy. I had been averaging about 1.2 “conversations” a day for the preceding week, and to finish, I’d have to average about 2. On a really, really inspired day, I might get three done, but on an average day, ekeing out 1.5 of these things was challenging, since I’m writing them all from scratch – there’s really no slack for say, writer’s block. So, if you’re stuck, you’re stuck.

Fortunately, my ficticious character was talking to me last week, and I churned through the rest of her dialog at a rate of about 2.1 convos per day, which was pretty damn good.I wrapped her up on Thursday, and save for some minor edits, she’s done. It’s actually quite strange – it’s like I’ve spent a lot of time with this aspect of myself (she is like a female version of me in many ways), trying to find her “voice,” and figure out interesting things for her to talk about with the player. So, being done with her, I sort of put her into a little box, and shuffled her off into the recesses of my mind. Maybe I’ll see her again someday, but I doubt it.

I think she turned out ok – she’s quite different than the other characters in the game – her whole conversation *structure* is different, and it’ll be interesting to see how that plays out in practice. It’s a little less intensive on the “gameplay” front, but I think a lot more compelling as a character, with a more interesting story to tell. Hopefully, that’ll come across. We’ll see. We’ve got another few days of churning through content, then the review and revision process starts, where we all read as much of the game as possible (up ’till now, it’s been pretty segmented between the various designers) and try to identify the weak aspects and what’s necessary to make them better.

So, that’ll be fun, I hope. We’re done with the contractors, which is great – honestly, I hope I never have to ever work with most of them again. One wasn’t horrible, but that’s about the best I can manage.

Right – so, the point being, I actually didn’t have long nights last week, got everything done in a timely manner, and wasn’t all that stressed out. Who’d have thunk? Ei-Nyung & I took off Friday, and headed out to NYC on a redeye Thursday night. Perlick was nice enough to loan us his place on Friday to crash, which was just about the best thing ever. The weekend was absurd. We were (with the exception of the wedding, sleeping, and dinner Friday night) NEVER in a place for more than two hours. We drove from NYC to Philly, were up ’till 3 one night, and saw a *ridiculous* number of people.

Sorry to those we missed – the timing just didn’t work, and we barely made it to everywhere we needed to be.

I was really glad to see Pete, even if it was only for about 25 minutes at Penn Station.

We ate at WD-50 with Perlick, which was a really entertaining meal full of interesting (and even sometimes delicious) food and lively conversation. A great time.

The wedding was fun, mostly because I actually got to meet Ei-Nyung’s friends in a more … um… not unusual setting. I’m used to seeing them at weddings and such, but the actual wedding this time was relatively short, and was followed by like, 4 hours of karaoke, where we all just hung out. I sort of “got” the vibe, and was able to get everyone’s names and stories straightened out for the first time. I’ve met them all before at various places, but it was just one of those things where you meet a LOT of people at once, and things just got jumbled up. This time, I talked with, and spent enough time with them all that I think I’ve got it all figured out. It’s a good bunch, and I see what she sees in them, at least to the degree that an outsider can.

So, that was really good, and a lot of fun. I sang a song (Exit Music (for a film), by Radiohead) in front of ’em, so I guess I must have been at least sort of comfortable making an ass of myself…

Strangely, that was really fun, and I even think I “got” the appeal of karaoke this time, too, which is something that’s largely evaded me before – mostly because prior to this time, I’ve never actually really tried to *SING*. You know? I’ve been a few times, and mumbled tunelessly into the mike, never really “buying into it.” This time, I pretty well gave it my all. I totally blew the high note in the middle (if you know the song, you probably know the note. (the “Now” in “Now we are one, in everlasting peace…”) Totally flat. But I *went for it*, which is something I’ve never done before, and I was surprised by how …erm… exhilerating it was.

Which is strange, ’cause I’ve performed in front of people before – clarinet stuff, piano stuff, saxophone, whatever – and I got that same nervous twitchiness, but singing is definitely a completely different feel than channelling that same emotion through an instrument. I’d like to give it another go, but the thing was that this karaoke place had a phenomenal selection of English songs. I don’t know of a comparable place in the Bay Area. Ah, well. And, of course, having said all this, I’m sure if I go again with friends from around here, I’ll just mumble tunelessly into the mic again. Alas.

Met another person we’d only previously met over the ‘net, and it was really good to associate a person with the “presence,” I guess might be how one would call it. One thing that I’ve found with everyone I’ve met through TGF is that there’s almost no adjustment time – the online friendship transfers instantly, and effortlessly into real life. I’ve met what, now, at least six people from TGF in real life, and they’ve all been really good people.

We saw my parents’ new place in Long Island, which was good – it’s a nice place that suits them, I think. Or will, at least, when they “tune it up” a bit. It’s a good size for them, I think – big enough that they can get distance when they need it, but small enough that it feels like a home. There are a lot of McMansions around them, but their place is surrounded by trees, and actually feels “homey.” It’s pretty cool. I’m looking forward to seeing what they do with it over the years, and hell, even just having an excuse to go visit every once in a while, and hang out with the East Coast folks more often.

It’ll be sad that they’ll undoubtedly finish their renovations well before us, but ah, well – they’ve got the space, money, and time. Good for them – they deserve it.

We went to the Met, which was really impressive. They had an exhibit that had a lot of Van Gogh, Picasso, Cezanne, and… um… dammit, Tahiti guy… forget his name. Rats. It was a lot of fun. There were a couple really interesting paintings, and it definitely reinforced, for me, that I enjoy Van Gogh’s paintings a lot. And that audio tours of museums are almost always a good bet.

Anyway – crazy-assed weekend. To everyone we saw, thanks for making the time, or helping us out. To the people we missed, or saw on really crunched schedules, sorry – we really wanted to spend (more) time with you, but couldn’t. Three days just wasn’t enough time for all the things we’d hoped to squeeze in. We’ll be back, and hopefully, we’ll catch up then.

Fun, exhausting, and damn, it’s good to be home.

On an unrelated note – if you love video games, you owe it to yourself to pick up Okami.