NCK Road Racing at Infineon Raceway

This is a music video that I created for Victoria’s dad and the Northern California Karters. Gokart racing around the big track at Infineon Raceway!

Kaua’i

Xmas in November

Dear Corporate America,

Please look outside your window. Is the ground covered in snow? Do you see half eaten turkey bones strewn about? No? Good, that makes a lot of sense. Because it’s the middle of November.  So would you please SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT CHRISTMAS ALREADY?

It’s November. It’s November. It’s November. On the list of things on my radar, Xmas currently tracks somewhere around position #26, right between the question which girl is getting voted off America’s Next Top Model this week and whether we’re eating too much salt as a people.

Whatever happened to the notion that Christmas time starts in December with the time of Advent? Or, for you marketing people who only see the world through dollar signs, with Black Friday – that delightful American demi-holiday that follows the Thanksgiving celebrations?

I just don’t get it. Are there really that many people running around thinking “OMG! Xmas will be here before you know it! Better start thinking about buying all those presents now, in the first week of November!” Have we really gotten that conceited? I remember walking into the mall last November and seeing one of those mall Santas all ready for action. I couldn’t help but rolling my eyes and making a face, he just looked way out of place. And I think the guy saw me do it, too, because the reaction in his face was one of embarrasment. Honestly, he was probably thinking the same thing I was: “Sorry dude. I know how ridiculous it is for me to be sitting here in my bright red Santa costume in the middle of November; and I’m feeling damn stupid. But what can I say? I need the money…”

Anyway, enough of that. Of course it’s up to everybody how he reacts to this commercial holiday barrage. Maybe it’s working and people are really buying tons of Xmas gifts already. Maybe. Personally, I’ll be ignoring every outlet that is spewing Xmas commercials on me right now. It’s my own little island of (totally ineffective) Holiday activism.

Dumbledore is gay

I’m loving it. Not because of any publicity that this might generating right now, but because of how matter-of-factly Rowling is treating Dumbledore’s sexual orientation. Dumbledore is gay. It’s part of his character; and now that we know it kinda makes sense. But so what, it’s no big deal! This fact was never essential to the story, the books work 100% without this knowledge. It just shows two things:

1. Dumbledore’s potentially controversial sexual orientation (at least in some backward circles) is 100% natural to Rowling, as it should be. And she’s promoting that “it’s no big deal!” attitude towards children, which is great.
2. Rowling really does have a deep understanding of her characters and there’s tons of backstory that we, as the readers, have (and never will) know(n) about. It turns each person into a fully realized, three-dimensional character. A memorable one, no less – and one that we automatically treat with respect when reading/watching/playing his story.

It speaks for the strength of the Harry Potter series that news like these make it onto the front pages of all major news sources, even after the last book has been released. But really, if we all follow JK Rowling’s lead this should be a “So what?” moment and not even be news-worthy. Maybe in a few years…

I wanna be inverted!

I’ve finally had some time to try out the Ratched & Clank: Tools of Destruction demo on the Playstation 3, and it’s exactly what I expected. And hoped for: a great-looking iteration of the established franchise for the PS3. Not much more I can say about it that hasn’t already been said – Ratchet & Clank has always been great, and the new game is no exception. It’s fun. It’s addictive. It works. Well done, Insomniac!

Except…

Where in Quark’s name is the option to invert the camera’s Y axis? I can’t believe that this isn’t included in the demo! If you’ve worked on a 3rd person control schemes (and who in this industry hasn’t?) you know that this issue splits games right down the middle: 50% of the development staff wants to push the stick forward to look up, 50% wants to pull the stick backward. So where in this demo is the option? Unfortunately Ratchet does exactly the opposite of my preference (I’m a “stick-puller”), and it’s screwing with my head big time. I keep looking down instead of up.

This isn’t the first high-profile title that does this kind of stuff. I remember almost quitting KOTOR because the camera controls were backwards for me. My brain/hands just couldn’t grok the controls, and the fact that the inversion option seemed like such an easy thing to do only made matters worse. I’m hoping this this was just an oversight for the Ratched Demo – and that the final game will fix the problem. It would be a shame if it didn’t.

I’m married!

Victoria and I got married last night! And it was the happiest day in my life – I don’t think I’ve ever smiled that much before Word can’t describe how much I love Vicky.

But it’s a lot.

An awful lot.

She’s awesome like a hot dog. Consequently, Victoria put on an awesome wedding (I helped here and there, but she did most of it), and I think everybody had a great time.

One more week of vacation, which I’ll try to spend without thinking too much about work and other “stuff”. My family and friends are still in town, so we’ll try to use the time to relax and show them around.

BTW, the first Friday the 13th that our anniversary falls on will be in 10 years. I take that as a good omen, I’ve never been superstitious about numbers