Bay Area Storms

So, do you think the storms in the Bay Area have affected the roads yet? I’m certainly glad that I don’t have to drive to work today

A lot of people assume that because we live in sunny California, the weather never gets bad around here. And relatively speaking, we do have it pretty damn good here in the Bay Area. No snow, no hurricanes, no tornados… But yes, it does rain in the winter Sometimes so much that the area kind of breaks down. But it also turns the hills green and fills up the water reservoirs. I like it, at least there’s a semblance of seasons. And come May, we get 8 months of uninterrupted sunshine again.

Happy New Year!

I would like to wish everybody good luck, good health and good…other stuff. We celebrated in semi-German style in Tahoe For the uninitiated, that’s Feuerzangenbowle. Basically, you heat up red wine with mulling spices, put a sugarloaf that’s been soaked in rum on top of the bowl, then set it on fire. The sugar drips into the wine, semi-sweet drunken happyness ensues.

Juno

Would you rush to the theater if I recommended a sort of art-house (Fox Searchlight) movie that deals with teen pregnancy? Not really? Yeah, I don’t blame you.

What if I told you that said movie was written by an ex-stripper who adapted the name “Diablo Cody“, detailed her work experiences on a blog called “The Pussy Ranch” and later wrote a book about it? That this is her first screenplay and that it’s probably the best movie that Victoria and I have seen this year (which means something considering, you know, that it’s December 29)?

Not that her past job experience defines Diablo Cody in any shape or form, of course. It just demonstrates a relaxed and groovy outlook on life. And that shows in the movie, which is funny most of the time and emotionally moving when it needs to be. Slang and teen speak run rampant and could have badly derailed the movie, but somehow they didn’t.

Jason Reitman (Ivan Reitman’s son) directs, Ellen Page puts on a great performance as Juno, and Michael Cera will no longer be stuck in my head as “the guy from that Superbad movie”. Which is good, because I really didn’t like Superbad too much.

We watched the movie at the Lark Theater, a setting that certainly didn’t hurt the reception. But no matter where you watch it, Juno is a cool movie, and I urge you to see it. Films like these often rely on brilliantly orchestrated grassroot campaigns in which unsuspecting bloggers tout the virtues of the movie until everybody who wouldn’t have gone to the theater otherwise goes to see it after all. You know, people like me. Who have no idea how they’re doing what the marketing department was hoping they would do right now. Good thing that ignorance is bliss…

Page Changes?

Update June 2008: hah! it DID happen

My recent activity makes me think that maybe I should update and reorganize the page. The separation between News and Blog posts, which was quite useful at first, has become muddled and somewhat arbitrary. My archives are way too big. And just in general, right now feels like a good time for blind activism on my part!
When I set up Victoria’s and Missy’s blog a while ago I found WordPress to be really nice and easy to use. I still use it semi-regularly when helping Vicky with Stuff That Behaves Wonky(tm). Customizing WordPress for my own purposes would take a bit longer, especially in the looks department, but should be possible. So maybe I’ll finally invest some time after the New Year’s break. Assign tags for private blog posts and for “official” announcements, and add some missing structure to the page in general. Maybe. I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions, so this won’t be one. But you never know what might happen

Tanjas Blog

Alldenjenigenwelchen, die der deutschen Sprache maechtig sind (und die evt. auf unserer Hochzeit waren), empfehle ich spontan einen Abstecher zu Tanjas neuem Blog.

Allen, die denken, dass es jetzt eh zu spaet ist, wuensche ich ein frohes Fest und einen guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr!

IndyCar Test at Infineon Raceway

My latest video is now available for public view on the official Infineon Raceway website. IndyCar drivers Scott Dixon and Ryan Hunter-Reay visited the racetrack on December 6 and 7 to test for the new season, and I was there to document those two days.

Expect more of these kind of videos in the 2008 season. The Infineon Raceway staff are giving me great behind-the-scenes access, so the videos should turn out even nicer than the ones I already made this year. Go to my Youtube page to get your additional fix of IndyCar, NASCAR, Karting etc. at Sears Point

One of the necessary but unfortunate side effects of creating video for the web is the resolution. The movie is usually tiny and heavily compressed to account for bandwidth and dial-up users. So I thought it would be fun to post a few fullsize frames from the IRL Testing video posted recently.

As a sidenote, I’m still working fulltime on new game projects for our company. But you shouldn’t expect any announcements for quite a while, it’s still too early.