Whoo. So, as of yesterday, NaNoWriMo is over, for me. That, and the writing load at work’s getting quite a bit lighter – it’s hectic, sure, but there’s not nearly as much of it to do, so that’s a good thing.

Been playing a lot of the 360 lately – mostly Gears of War, but I’ve tried to go back and play some games that I’d put down, like Tomb Raider: Legend, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, and Splinter Cell: Double Agent.

TR:L is a good game. It’s one of those games that’s not made for next gen from the ground up, and it shows in some places. The main character’s model, for instance, is much higher poly than the supporting characters, which though sensible, is really quite odd looking in practice. Still, Crystal Dynamics really kicked some butt with this, and turned around a dead franchise. Kudos to Eidos for finally realizing that Core wasn’t up to the job. Some of the puzzles in the game can be kind of convoluted, but still, the exploration’s fun, and the story feels properly epic. I’ve heard it ends rather abruptly, but we’ll see – I’m currently about 70$ through the game and enjoying it quite a bit. My only real complaint so far? It’s very dark. I know that’s to make the light on Lara’s belt more important, but dag, yo, it’d be nice to see something every once in a while.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is fun stuff – basic beat-em-up nonsense, but with a good use of the Marvel license. They really scoured the map to get as many ties to the Marvel Universe as they could. The game’s fun – mindless fun, but well-executed. I was hoping there’d be more folks from TGF online with it, but Gears of War really dominated people’s Live time in the last month or so. The one thing that Marvel: Ultimate Alliance does show, though, is that for me, I’ve definitely outgrown 99% of comic books. Not that the *medium* has anything wrong with it – I still love me some Sandman, and Sin City – but there’s no denying, for me, that a lot of the stuff in the Marvel Universe just feels … dumb. And man, the spelling mistakes – in two spots, HYDRA was spelled HYRDA, and that’s not the first bunch of errors I’ve seen.

Splinter Cell: Double Agent has an even more egregious spelling error, which I’m just astonished made it through all their rounds of QA. One of the main, repeated text balloons, which talks about gaining and losing trust tells you you have to be somewhere by a certain time or you will “loose” trust. Augh! I wanted to pull my hair out. The rest of the game is beautiful, tense, and quite interesting. The more “open-world” design of the HQ missions, where you have a variety of tasks to accomplish and a preset amount of time to do them in, but the methods are entirely up to the player, are really fun. The problem for me, though, is that Splinter Cell has always been about trial and error. The HQ missions avoid this in large part, because they’re not totally linear. But the “standard” missions are chock-full of trial and error. I want to play it like a spy, where I don’t kill anyone, and I just sneak around, but to do so requires either moving *so* slowly, or basically knowing where everything is already. Which means massive amounts of trial and error. The set pieces are beautiful, the graphics are excellent, blah blah blah, but the single player’s difficulty is brutal.

Splinter Cell, to me, ever since Pandora Tomorrow, has been about the multiplayer. In DA, the multiplayer is quite different, and unfortunately, with Gears of War, there haven’t been enough people who have picked up DA to get serious multiplayer games going. But one of these days, I really want to give the new, pared-down multiplayer a shot. We’ll see.

Anyway. Other than that, not really a lot going on. I’ve gotta start getting to the pool again. We’d been really good in the first few months of the year, but the last few months, I’ve been lucky if I get my ass to the gym once every two weeks. NaNoWriMo has obviously been a huge part of that, in terms of never feeling like I had free time, and the other part has been the time change and the shorter days, but I’ve just gotta fight through the dark, and get up earlier, and get to the gym before work. Else, I’m just wasting money, getting fatter, and being a lazy buffoon.

When I was swimming three times a week, I was getting in noticably better shape. It wasn’t hard, I just had to do it. Now, it’s the same. I just have to get off my ass and do it.

Saw the new Bond movie tonight. I’d been excited about it ever since I saw Layer Cake, which also starred Daniel Craig. I’d figured so had the Bond folks, and that was one of the big reasons he’d been chosen. He’s not necessarily a good looking guy, but he has incredible presence, and can carry an air of menace that none of the previous Bonds have had, IMO.

The movie itself (spoiler-free) was incredible. Right from the outset, you know this is a different beast than the last Bonds. This was directed by the guy who did Goldeneye, which was the last half-decent Bond film. One of the biggest problems with Bond in recent years is that he’s invincible. Regardless of what situation he’s put in, you never really felt that he was in any danger. I can only fault Pierce Brosnan and the writers for this, as the *character* just never felt authentic, and the danger never felt real.

In this, the danger is real. The level of intensity has been cranked up a notch. This Bond is *serious*, and he’s *raw*. Finally, they’ve taken him from someone who was too cool to get dirty to someone who has a job to do, knows how to do it, and isn’t going to waste any time with glib nonsense.

When it’s supposed to be funny, it’s genuinely funny. When it’s supposed to be tense, it’s genuinely tense. You never get the sense that this Bond is a comic book character, or that he’s anything other than both real, and desperate.

It’s *perfect*.

I haven’t seen all the Bond movies, but to me, this is hands-down, without a doubt the best one I’ve seen by leaps and bounds.

So. The PS3 and Wii are coming out this week. I guess the PS3, technically, *is* out. Let’s see… they’re currently going for about $6K on eBay. WHoop-de-doo. You know, for the 360, I almost understood the mania. You had something like Project Gotham 3, which was staggeringly good looking compared to anything else on the market. It was, in many respects, something completely new – something you’d never seen on a console before.

And so while I think that it’s completely, totally inane, I get what drives someone to do something nutty like that. I also presume that these people are *bazillionaires*. But whatever. The PS3, on the other hand, is a completely lateral move from the 360 – the graphic *potential* of the system is maybe on par, if not slightly more powerful than the 360, but right now, it all looks quite a bit worse than anything on the MS box.

I *love* Insomniac’s games. I think they’re one of the best developers on the planet, without question. But Resistance is no Gears of War, and it’s the PS3’s standout hit by a wide margin. What else on the PS3 is worth getting? Genji? A low-framerate version of Call of Duty 3? No thanks. NBA07? Ick. How 989 could be such a shitty developer, and have such strong ties and access to Sony is totally beyond me. They’re just perenially inept, and it’s sad.

But so what do you get for your six thousand dollars? What is even on the *horizon* for the PS3 that you can’t get on the 360? Motorstorm? Metal Gear Solid 4, I suppose – but frankly, after MGS3, and convoluted *idiocy* of the plot of MGS2, that franchise means jack squat to me.

I know, I know – I’m not the mainstream.

But for the mainstream, what? What is there? Madden? Does the SIXAXIS functionality of Madden justify an extra two hundred dollars?

I just wonder. What are those people standing in line waiting for? And the only thing I can think of is eBay.

I, on the other hand, am finally thinking it’s time I got a 360. I’ve got plenty of games for it, I’m really excited about MS’s push towards downloadable HD content for it, and frankly, it’s proven its worth as an incredible piece of hardware, and as a well-designed gaming platform. Live is pure gold, whoever came up with the Achievements system at MS deserves a big-assed bonus. It’s incredibly compelling for no good reason, but there’s no two ways about it – I loves me some acheivements.

Oh! As a super-early Christmas present, Ei-Nyung got me Guitar Hero 2! It’s AWESOME. Sweet Child o’ Mine? Search and Destroy? Great stuff. Awesome song list. The only thing that sucks is that I really want to play it with my cousin, who really got into the first one when he was here for our wedding. Maybe we’ll have to fly him out for a week or something. 😀

Good stuff.

Work’s going pretty well – I’ve finished up the ridiculously strenuous segment of this game, which was writing certain characters from scratch. Now, I’m just editing text, and it’s both MUCH faster, and MUCH easier. Good times.

A great night, capped off by a great morning. Rumsfeld to quit. About time, you monkey-brained jackasses.

Also: Democrats won the house AND the senate. So long as the initial vote count puts D’s ahead, if we want to have any hope of “playing on a level field” when it comes to how this gets handled, it’s important, IMO, to *presume* that the vote count is correct, talk about it like it’s correct, act like it’s correct, and make it the mental default in the minds of Americans that Democrats won the Senate. No handwringing. No doubt about the outcome. No Republicans these days would EVER cast doubt on their own victory. If we want to have any hope of competing, in this case, we have to do the same.

So, yay for victory!

Not in any real sort of way, but November’s going to be inSANE. Work is incredibly intense right now, and with NaNoWriMo starting in 20 minutes, almost the entire month is going to be consumed by writing, or thinking about writing. Worse, I’ll be writing about someone who makes games, which means I’ll be writing about my job where I’m writing. Bleah!

I’m excited about it – It’s a little weird because I know that 50K words is definitely possible, and I don’t need to really keep the blistering pace I had last year. But I’m worried also that because I’ll be so busy, I’ll end up slacking and not finishing. I’m hoping that maybe I can do it, even if the only time I write is on the weekends. We’ll see, I suppose.

I have what I think might work as an introduction in my head, and a fistful of other “scenes,” but I don’t really know how it all ties together, which may be a problem in the long run. Last year, I started with a general plot outline, and some general character outlines. Most of those changed in the course of writing, but they were there to fall back on if necessary. This year, I’m flying almost totally blind. I do have the consolation that the main character is basically me, so, at least that’s taken care of. We’ll see.

Anyway – if I don’t see you this month, that’s why.

–AZ-Sen: Jon Kyl

–AZ-01: Rick Renzi

–AZ-05: J.D. Hayworth

–CA-04: John Doolittle

–CA-11: Richard Pombo

–CA-50: Brian Bilbray

–CO-04: Marilyn Musgrave

–CO-05: Doug Lamborn

–CO-07: Rick O’Donnell

–CT-04: Christopher Shays

–FL-13: Vernon Buchanan

–FL-16: Joe Negron

–FL-22: Clay Shaw

–ID-01: Bill Sali

–IL-06: Peter Roskam

–IL-10: Mark Kirk

–IL-14: Dennis Hastert

–IN-02: Chris Chocola

–IN-08: John Hostettler

–IA-01: Mike Whalen

–KS-02: Jim Ryun

–KY-03: Anne Northup

–KY-04: Geoff Davis

–MD-Sen: Michael Steele

–MN-01: Gil Gutknecht

–MN-06: Michele Bachmann

–MO-Sen: Jim Talent

–MT-Sen: Conrad Burns

–NV-03: Jon Porter

–NH-02: Charlie Bass

–NJ-07: Mike Ferguson

–NM-01: Heather Wilson

–NY-03: Peter King

–NY-20: John Sweeney

–NY-26: Tom Reynolds

–NY-29: Randy Kuhl

–NC-08: Robin Hayes

–NC-11: Charles Taylor

–OH-01: Steve Chabot

–OH-02: Jean Schmidt

–OH-15: Deborah Pryce

–OH-18: Joy Padgett

–PA-04: Melissa Hart

–PA-07: Curt Weldon

–PA-08: Mike Fitzpatrick

–PA-10: Don Sherwood

–RI-Sen: Lincoln Chafee

–TN-Sen: Bob Corker

–VA-Sen: George Allen

–VA-10: Frank Wolf

–WA-Sen: Mike McGavick

–WA-08: Dave Reichert

http://www.gop.com/ currently has an advertisement running, in which Osama bin Laden features prominently. Quotes from him that talk about attacking the US are featured in the advertisement, whose central message is, “These are the stakes. Vote.” The objective is to scare Republican voters into actually making sure they vote Republican, but I ask you this:

Why is Osama bin Laden still free?

Democrats should be responding with an ad embracing this GOP buffoonery. Sure! Vote! I’m sure you’re not stupid enough to reelect the morons who’ve let OBL run free for the last five years, right? There’s no way you’d vote for a guy who said he “really isn’t all that concerned” about OBL, right? Right?

Ah, but I’m sure I’m going to be disappointed in the intelligence of the American public yet again. Still, naive as it is, I hold out some hope that at least some people will be able to connect the dots.

So, one of the things that I’ve been thinking about recently is the relationship between getting the best work out of people in a work environment, and being an asshole.

The thing is, I can’t say that I have a particular relationship between those two factors in my experience – by and large, when I find someone I like, I work hard for them. When I think someone’s an asshole, I do my best to undermine them. Not intentionally, but it’s defintely some mental switch that flips, and the attitude changes to, “Oh, fuck this guy.” (I’ve never worked directly for a woman… wacky.)

But, that’s me. The thing is, on at least two of the things I’ve worked on, my boss has been incredibly nice, and the team has been almost unable to maximize its potential. To me, it was in both situations because the person in charge was somewhat conflict-averse, and unwilling to really put their foot down and say, “We *need* better than this.”

And so, it gets me to wondering – in the *real* world, how do you maximize the potential of a team? Obviously, in an ideal world, your team would consist of incredibly well-motivated individuals, driven to produce the best thing possible *just because they love it so much*. But really, that’s just not sustainable. So, what, then?

Of course I like working for nice bosses – but mostly becuase I’m internally motivated to do my best, make a name for myself, and move up in the world. That’s not a motivation *any* manager could give me. And it seems, in my experience, there’s a wide variety of motivation. Some people like a steady paycheck, come in on time, leave on time, and only ever give what is absolutely required of them. There are other people who appear to be singularly motivated to do as little as possible, as much of the time as they can.

So, there’s a variety of motivations. But I think one thing that’s become increasingly obvious is that inadvertently or not (advertently?) people tend towards the path of least resistance. That becomes clear watching people play games, it often becomes clear watching people work. The path of least resistance is *not* always the path of least work. Instead, it’s the path of least resistance relative to their internal expectations.

And you know what, with that, I totally lost my train of thought.

Basically, though, the question ends up as more or less something like this; Can you push someone to do more than they want to, and not come off as an asshole? For me, I get so frustrated that people’s standards don’t meet my own that I’m *unable* given my current social skill set, to express a desire for people to do more without actually getting angry at them. I get incredibly upset when I think a co-worker/teammate is slacking, particularly when I’m busting ass to do the best I can.

For me, in some sense, I don’t know how to push a person beyond what their internal motivation is willing to give without being a dick. Some people can, I suppose. But of those people, is the perception from the people that they’ve pushed that they’re assholes?

Dear Sir or Madam:

This evening, October 12, 2006, I went to the Best Buy in Emeryville to purchase God Hand, for the Playstation 2, and Test Drive Unlimited, for the Xbox 360. I have been shopping at this store since it opened several years ago. I mention this to let you know that 1.) I am a regular customer, who purchases the bulk of his games at your store, and 2.) I have never had a problem with your representatives in the past.

I’ve noticed the change toward putting new release games in locked cabinets. While I presume that this is a measure taken to curb shoplifting, as a customer, it has created a problematic environment for several reasons:

1.) A customer cannot browse your games. Often, only the spines of the game, or the front covers are visible through the glass doors.
2.) It creates an unwelcoming environment. Obviously, this is somewhat subjective, but there is a stark difference in my perception, as a customer, of an environment where I can casually peruse the merchandise, and one where a representative is standing over my shoulder as I try to figure out what I would like to purchase.
3.) Because the cases are locked, the only way to gain access to them is to find a representative with a key.

Item 3 is by far the most problematic of the bunch for me, and it led to the most unprofessional retail experience I have ever encountered at a store this evening. In the last few months, since your stores have begun locking games in display cases, I have found it incredibly difficult to find a representative to unlock the case. Often, this takes upwards of ten minutes, and requires me to run around the store and literally chase a blue-shirted representative down. They are often running from place to place themselves, which forces me to feel like I am both interrupting something they are doing, and look like an idiot running after someone who’s running away. It certainly doesn’t make them appear helpful, or available, and because now this is a *required step* in purchasing a new game, I have to engage in this ludicrous behaviour every time I wish to purchase a game from your store.

The apex of this occurred tonight. I wanted to get a game that is listed “in stock” on the Best Buy website (God Hand), but was not on the shelves, or in the display case. I also wanted to get a game that was in the display case, behind the locked doors (Test Drive Unlimited). After the usual five to ten minutes of waiting, I finally managed to find someone I could at least interrupt, to get their attention. they guided me towards another representative. I waited for this new representative to finish chatting casually with his friend, at which point I asked him about opening the case, and seeing if they had God Hand in stock.

He said he would check to see whether they had the game in stock, and to wait near the game case. I did so. Ten minutes later, I saw him chatting up a customer in the camera department. I walked over, and waited for him to finish with this customer, at which point, he said, “Uh… I should be helping you with something, right?” I repeated my request. This time, his response was that he “didn’t work in [that] department, and didn’t know where the guy that did was.”

So, apparently, I stood in front of the game case (with several other annoyed customers) for fifteen minutes so that your representative could tell me he had no idea what he was doing, and basically never intended to even look for the game that I had requested.

At this point, I was definitely getting annoyed.

I chased down and spoke with another representative, who then finally showed me the person who was *supposed* to be working in the game department. He pointed to “that guy,” who I then had to literally *run* after, to get his attention. I could not catch him before he disappeared into “the back,” from which he did not emerge for several minutes.

Finally, increasingly frustrated, I caught up with a woman, Christine, who of all the people I had talked to thus far, was the *only* person who was both attentive, understood my request, and actually got results. I mentioned the specific games I was looking for, and she went off to find “Andrew” (I believe – I may be mistaken as to the name). She told me that she would look for the game in the back, repeated the name to make sure she understood it, said she would get help, and told me to wait at the game case. She returned moments later with “Andrew,” told me he was manning the game section, and that he could help me. I thanked her, and proceeded to ask “Andrew” about God Hand, and Test Drive Unlimited.

He said he’d look in the back, and wandered off. I waited another fifteen minutes. At this point, I had been in the store nearly an hour, had talked to four people (three of which were a combination of entirely unhelpful, and in the case of two of the reps (Andrew, and the guy who ended up at the camera section) completely rude and unprofessional), and had nothing to show for it, except one girl (Christine) who had actually managed to get something done.

At this point, I was basically livid.

I work in the game industry. I make games for a living, yet I find myself completely unable to purchase a game that I can *SEE* a foot in front of me, behind a glass wall. I have been trying to buy this game, and one other, for an HOUR. I’ve been blown off by reps, I’ve had countless walk away from me as I’ve tried to ask for information.

Hands down, this is the worst retail experience I have *ever had*.

Disgusted, I walk to the exit. I’ve asked one of the reps for the store manager, but am told he’s interviewing staff, and is unavailable. So, I turn to the greeter, and tell him of the horrible time I’ve had trying to find this game, and that after several years of being a regular customer, I’m pretty sure I’m never shopping here again.

He is polite, and composed. By this time, I’m frustrated, but still trying to be polite. He offers to help, and I accept. He uses the intercom to ask about God Hand, and whether anyone has it. In fifteen seconds, he finds someone on the other end who can tell him that they don’t have it. I thank him and leave. I don’t even bother asking if he can open the game case, because at this point, I’m not giving Best Buy another cent of my money, and another moment of my time.

I buy a lot of games. I buy a lot of DVD’s. My money, from this moment on, will be going to stores that are not completely idiotically organized, designed to prevent their customers from actually purchasing the goods they’re selling. For Brick & Mortar stores, my future purchases will be going to the Circuit City in Emeryville, or I’ll wait for Amazon to ship stuff to me. It’s not like it would take any longer than the reps on the floor at your store tonight.

Yours,
A former customer

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.