Wednesday, August 31, 2005

What I learned at the Xbox 360 Marketing Summit yesterday:

1. The coolest kids refer to PowerPoint presentations as "decks," and
2. standard-issue uniform for marketing guys in the videogame industry is striped cotton shirts, preferably with short sleeeves. In a room full of about 100 people, only about 12 men were not wearing shirts of this kind.

They held the Summit at the oh-so-hip Clift Hotel which doesn't even have a sign out front. You just have to know where it is, like a speakeasy. When I first got there I didn't recognize anyone, and as I am utterly terrified of walking into rooms full of strangers (not the best quality in a PR person, by the way) I hung out in the lobby and sat in the chair covered in pelts waiting for someone I knew to get there. The Pelt Chair is near the Big Chair, which is pictured on the hotel's website. Nobody sat in the Big Chair.

The Microsoft people are actually much nicer than one might expect. (Sony people, with a few notable exceptions, always give off an aura of cranky arrogance. Nintendo people are also usually nice. Maybe it has something to do with Seattle.) The morning session was interesting, but the hotel catering took away the coffee and water as soon as breakfast was done so by 10.30 we were all dying. I left after lunch, as did about 50 other people. For dinner they had this insane plan to load us all onto buses and drive up to Rutherford Hill winery near Napa. People who went didn't even make it back to the Clift until 11 pm, and then many still had to get home from there. With all the great restaurants in SF, that is just nutty. Certainly not worth the t-shirt and bag they gave out.

Friday, August 26, 2005


Isis caught a bird today! Yes, the hefty girl pictured here caught her first bird. I'm so proud! Since this photo was taken about a year ago (right before she tore her ACL) she's lost about 2 lbs. Every morning before leaving for work I tear off yesterday's page from the Get Fuzzy calendar, crumple it into a ball, and toss it for her, so she's been getting in a lot of workouts and I guess it's paying off. Unfortunately she's unclear on what to do with the prey once it's dead so there was some clean up involved.

In other news, it has been a sucky week. Today I indulged in magazine therapy by buying the new Vogue Knitting even though I swore up and down that I'd never buy it again because they never have anything I want to make. This time there is ONE thing I want to make, the seed stitch coat on page 88. It even uses Lion Brand yarn so I won't have to take out a loan in order to purchase the 16 balls it calls for.

Wednesday, August 24, 2005


Finally finished my dad's father's day present. I know I'm an awful daughter, but it's hard to knit when you're on the computer all day at work and all night for school. It's a knitted toilet roll cover with a bear on top. I had to drive all over creation this weekend looking for the perfect bear (your old Richards store, Chris) and the perfect tree (model train store). The bass was a backup in case I couldn't find a bear, but now he's just dinner. The story here is that my grandmother used to crochet these weird doll dress toilet roll covers, and when I showed my dad something I knit at Thanksgiving he wanted to know if I could take over as the official family toilet roll cover maker now. See, Dad, be careful what you ask for.

And before anyone asks, that is my Tintin clock in the background. The hands are hanging up on each other again so I have to find a better washer and try to fix it.

I might just use the bottle of Cat Pee--sorry, Cat Phee--to club my cat over the head. The other day that she marked the front of the tv and dvd player in the spare room which are sitting on a cheap tv stand from Target, and it got in between the laminate and the particle board. Yoga is not relaxing when you deeply inhale the odor of cat urine. On second thought, maybe it's more productive to just drink the Cat Phee and deal with the damn cat later.

Tuesday, August 23, 2005


Marté sent me photos from Jonathan's 4th birthday party last month. Here I am helping my perfect, brilliant godson paint little wood stars.

Continuing my cheese tasting adventure (as much as I can while watching the sodium intake), I finally ran into a couple that didn't go over so well. Sage Derby is pretty awful stuff. The Harlech with horseradish and parsley is not too bad on hearty crackers, but you have to get past the vinegary smell first. At Cost Plus they had a lot of wine on clearance so I picked up a bottle of Cat's Phee from New Zealand for about $3 (a beverage named "cat pee" on clearance... go figure). Have not had a chance to try it yet, but can't wait.

Monday, August 22, 2005

I guess it was a good thing that I didn't go to New Orleans. I got a lot done around the house, completed two knitting UFOs, and finished off my summer reading project of getting through all of the major Star Wars prequel novels up through Revenge of the Sith. The weather was really conducive to lounging around on the deck, and it was nice to not have to worry about deadlines or being anywhere for a few days. What? That's called a "vacation?" I'd forgotten all about those.

Today we return to Real Life. As I was pondering my lunch options, my boss yelled (our preferred method of communicating), "Hey, know anything about PowerPoint?" I mumbled something non-committal and he said, "Well, can you fix the PR section on this sales presentation for [client]? They need it by 2. Thanks!"

Sigh.

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Some belated ranting about Star Wars:

Attack of the Clones is a far more interesting book than movie. The movie was boring and hard to follow, but the novel reveals all the layers of story and character that went missing from the film. At 142 minutes, the AOTC film just skims the major plot points; why any of this is happening was left out and we have to go read the books to figure it out.

For one thing, it explains a lot about Padmé. We learn in the novelization of The Phantom Menace (pretty much word-for-word the film in book form and not really worth reading) that she isn't a cradle-robbing deviant and is in fact only five years older than Anakin, not ten years older as she appears to be on screen. The AOTC novel goes on to reveal a great deal of background about her family and the Naboo political system that in turn explains a lot about her relationship with Anakin. First of all, that Padmé was a 14 year old queen is just odd. It would be one thing if she had inherited the title, but she is an elected queen. (Most casual SW fans miss this fact entirely, making her activities in Eps II and III kind of confusing, but just one of those many details that people don't really get but just sort of accept to keep the peace.) So Naboo is a planet that selects its supreme leader from a roster of hormonal teenagers. I know plenty of 14 year old girls with whom I'd be hesitant to leave a goldfish for a week, but these people turn over their planet to 'em. Granted, the queens have all taken part in some kind of special schooling, but still. No wonder the Gundams prefer to stay underwater.

And it's nice to know that in a galaxy far, far away, some things are exactly like they are here on Earth. Despite Padmé's great achievements in saving Naboo, reuniting the races, and rising to preeminance in the Senate (at age 14, no less), all her family can focus on is why she hasn't settled down and started popping out babies. "So, Mom, did you see me on HoloNet News making my speech in the Senate backed by hundreds of supporters?" "Yes, dear, that's nice. When are you going to make me a grandmother?" Because Naboo has a screwed up way of picking its leaders, Padmé spent her adolescent years hanging out with creepy alien politicians instead of boys her own age, and now that she's a adult things aren't much better. Like other successful women across the universe, Padmé has a hard time meeting nice men, so it's perhaps not at all suprising that she falls for the first hot Jedi to come along and throw himself at her feet. It's lust, not love. Add in the fact that they don't really get to spend much time together, plus all the excitement of having to sneak around, and you have a situation in which they can happily maintain their hot-blooded fairy tale romance. She never gets the opportunity to figure out what a dope Anakin really is.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

I had to cancel my trip to SAA in New Orleans. Yesterday afternoon I was hit by a sudden and nasty vertigo attack, and having no idea how long it would last and not wanting to chance the flight, I decided to cut my losses. Plus, the washing machine is broken and all the clothes I planned to take are all soapy and soggy until the repairman gets here. I'm annoyed because this was also supposed to be a kind of mini-vacation--the only one I'm getting before Christmas--but as Cathy pointed out, it's apparently just not meant to be. If SAA hadn't been going on I'd probably be at GenCon, but now both are dead issues.

Slept a little bit last night and today the vertigo is gone, but I still feel pretty groggy and lightheaded. Spent most of today lounging aroung the deck reading Labyrinth of Evil, dozing, and drinking gallons of weak iced tea. The cats are thrilled I'm home and are fighting over my lap. Glad someone's getting something out of it.

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Well, my summer class is over, the vertigo has passed, the daytime temperatures are no longer hovering in the "blast furnace" range, and my reserve copy of Labyrinth of Evil came in to the library so all is right with the world...

...except that the toilet I fixed several days ago has stopped working again. It won't fill back up after flushing unless you physically shove the float cup down, and I'm stumped because it will work fine 2 or 3 times and then stop. Fluidmaster's web site is down so I'm not getting any help from there. Oh well. More time to read Labyrinth of Evil.

Right before I picked it up, I read Vol. 4 of the Spiderwick Chronicles (meh) and a young adult novel called Downriver about a bunch of teens who run away from an Outward Bound type program and go rafting through the Grand Canyon. Pretty good. Made me wish I could afford to go rafting again soon.

Friday, August 12, 2005



Things I did instead of finishing my paper last night included taking pictures of Sparkle playing with a newspaper, and writing geeky online searching haiku:



O great Dialog
Your hidden riches are shown
By using Expand

The rest of the class got a kick out of my poem, which just goes to show how far gone we all are.

I did finally get the paper done tonight, so the class is DONE. Next week is SAA in New Orleans and then Fall classes start week after next. No rest for the wicked.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Very cranky today. Tilting started up again yesterday so I'm back on the roundabout of decongestants and diuretics. My paper on recommender systems is due tomorrow and I'm only about one-third done with it (and it pretty much sucks so far).

At work, all of our clients have gone nuts. One keeps wanting to know why we can't generate more buzz on their game with absolutely no materials. Another one has been stalled in contract negotiations for months, and today they're flipping out because they've run out of time to do much PR (which we've been warning them about all along). Still another one actually got on the Today Show last week but wants more more more now now now. The restroom is infested with ants, and I dumped water all over myself putting the new bottle on the cooler.

Cranky, cranky day. At least the weather's a lot more tolerable than it has been.

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

I picked up a copy of the Hasbro card game collection that Atari put out, and am completely addicted to Rook. In a way it's good that you need the CD to play it (normally a stupid restriction in games of this type, especially baragin software) because I can leave it in the office this week and it won't affect my paper writing. This collection is pretty much the only way you can play Rook on you computer these days since it mysteriously disappeared from games.com.

I was so bored at work today I even played a couple of rounds of Rack-o which has to be one of the most tedious games ever invented.

ETA: You can play a variation of Rook at Gameland.com, but it annoys me that they want you to sign up before you even see what you're getting. (I'm annoyed pretty easily lately.)

Read books 2 & 3 of the Spiderwick Chronicles last night while avoiding working on my paper. This series should have been one book priced at $20 instead of five separate short books priced at $10 a piece. Even the blurb on the back cover calls it a "serial." I'd probably be enjoying it more if the whole thing didn't feel so high concept.

Monday, August 08, 2005

I watched my friends' dogs over the weekend while laboring to get the final exercise done for class so I can give my full attention to the paper that I've barely started. She pushed the due date back to Friday, thankfully.

A few nights ago I read the first book in the Spiderwick Chronicles series. It was pretty good, even though the books are apparently the victims of some overzealous marketing director at Simon & Schuster. The author, Holly Black, has a blog, where she calls Firefly "painfully dull." I am trying to remember that everyone is entitled to their own opinions, no matter how wrong they might be.

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

I'm really enjoying Yoda: Dark Rendezvous, especially after the last two books were something of a chore to read. I was a little wary of it, not knowing how 300+ pages of Yodaspeak would go over because it can be annoying from the authors who don't get it quite right (Jude Watson). Sean Stewart, however, has a marvelous ear for dialogue. This is the Yoda we met in The Empire Strikes Back, sharp and witty with a mischevious streak, not the dour muppet from the prequel films. Scout is an interesting character, too. It's nice to get some insight into what it's like to not be a gifted Padawan.

Still not feeling great and running a slight fever so I stayed home from work today. Last night when it was uncomfortable to read I listened to several episodes of Patrick McLean's How to Succeed in Evil and Death of a Dishwasher, which are extremely funny and well done.

Monday, August 01, 2005

I was having a hard time with the vertigo last night and didn't get much quality sleep as a result. Something else may have been going on that aggravated the symptoms, but either way it wasn't a comfortable night. I finally gave up trying to remain horizontal at about 12.45 (well, diagonal really since I was using my usual three pillows plus a neckroll), and wandered out to the couch where I watched an odd show on jousting, a Monty Python episode, and a rerun of the 11.00 news. Reading was impossible since I couldn't concentrate and my eyes hurt. When I finally did get to sleep, I had bizarro dreams. Today I am still very tilty and pretty useless.