slapdummy

Home again

After a very long week at GDC, I finally made it home late Friday night. However, I must confess to acting like a rube on the last day.  I helped close the booth, rushed back to the hotel, packed my bags and rushed to the airport.  A side note is worth mentioning here that the security line at the San Jose airport was ridiculously long. It stretched from inside the airport, across a skyway, up a level and outside to the parking lot where they had helpfully setup the back-and-forth guides in the middle of the parking lot apparently for when the line got really long.  After the painful wait in the line, I got tagged by security and here is where I was a rube. 

In my rush to close out the booth and pack, I had forgotten to pack my beloved pocket knife and instead had it inside my bag. Even the security guy seemed bummed when he saw the blade and recognized the brand.  I didn't want to just leave it in San Jose so I asked about my options. The TSA guy was cool, gave me a security pass and pointed me to this box that wasn't far away where I could ship my knife back to myself. At the top of the box was a slot filled with forms inside ziplock bags.  I filled out the form with my name, address, item description and credit card information (it was $9 to have it mailed back to myself),  put the completed form back in the bag along with the knife and placed it in the box through a one-way drawer. The security pass allowed me to bypass the line as though I were in first class which meant three people ahead of me.  I'm not sure if I will actually get the knife back, but it was worth a try.

Before all of this, I had to go through another hassle to check in.  After the initial chunk of time to get setup the first time I thought all my seating arrangements were taken care of, but once again it took about 20 minutes to check me in again, make some phone calls and do some creative computer entries.  I didn't complain to the lady doing the work, but what the fuck.  Look, if you are going to have a policy to charge someone two seats due to their size then fine, do it.  But get your shit together, this is a simple transaction and shouldn't take an act of congress to book the flight.

Although GDC was interesting, it was exhausting. Most people think conferences and shows are nice times to have fun and relax, but damn if it isn't more work than if I had stayed home.

GDC 2006

I'm down here in lovely San Jose for the Game Developers Conference 2006 and like most conferences there are snafus.  I'm responsible for setting up the mobile portion of our booth, which isn't a big deal but something always gets left out.  In this case, I spent Monday and all day Tuesday searching for security tethers and displays for mobile phones.  This is not something that is carried by Office Depot, Staples or Comp USA, however they do use them for their own displays.  I finally found a place in the midwest called "Palay Display Industries, Inc.". The salesman was very helpful and even did the preliminary setup for the tethers and displays and shipped them out with next day delivery. God bless the Internets. Of course, once that was taken care of I'm still behind on getting the latest game builds on the phones, making sure they are powered up and other such tidbits.

Surprises are always present when setting up conference booths, but I dodged the actual setup bullet since most of my issues were known and address pre-setup.  Of course, this doesn't mean it's been all smooth sailing.  On the first day of the expo (yesterday), I ended up being on my feet for more than eight hours straight. No sitting down, no breaks...nothing.  Now, as you may have read, I'm not exactly in what you would call "peak physical condition", so by the end of the day I was a hurtin' unit. I took a cue from a friend who told me that one of the keys to standing in place was to not lock your knees.  I ended up being the only person who was there the entire day and I wasn't even scheduled for booth duty that day, but there were too many visitors and not enough people to answer their questions.

When I finally made it back to the hotel and my room, I took off my shoes and fell on the bed for three hours in a fitful sleep...well, coma really. When I woke up I found that I was very sore, hungry and still had a bunch of work to do from back home.  Basically, a suck ass type of day.

Uneventful, but interesting flight to GDC

In a more obsessive than usual manner I arrived at the airport 3 hours before my scheduled flight.  The extra time was to talk to a Southwest Airlines rep and figure out whether they wanted me to purchase an extra seat in accordance with their COS policy.  Again, I didn't complain and absolutely understood their policy, I just wanted to get it sorted out before I got to the gate. 

It took two customer service reps, several calls to their customer service line and finally 15 minutes from a supervisor to sort it all out (45 mins total). There was surprise on both sides of the counter.  First, they were caught off guard by my voluntarily asking about the policy and not complaining (which apparently happens quite a bit) and I was surprised that it took that long to implement a policy they have so clearly documented.

It was a good thing they did, I ended up on one of the smaller planes I've ever been on and it would only have been possible to not intrude upon another person's space by ripping of my leg and storing it in the overhead compartment. To follow procedure, I have to place a white ticket on the seat next to me indicating the seat was reserved (a sort of scarlet "A" for airline travel). I didn't mind and the guy who finally did sit next to me was interested in the procedure and how it worked. Heck, he was just happy that he didn't have anyone next to him as the extra seat occupied the space between us.

I think the only time I felt a twinge of real embarrassment was when a co-worker who was on the same flight asked about it. I told her about it and she had the look. A mixture of pity and concern while she asked whether the company would reimburse the expense (which they will). I'm not sure which bothered me more, the fact that it was a co-worker (who I respect a great deal) or that it was a woman (that I respect a great deal).

One of these days I need to figure out why I'm not making the effort to lose weight when I know it's literally killing me.

Child Porn vs. Computer Repair

Here's the gist: Man hands computer over to computer repair shop to assist in opening JPEG image files.  The technician was investigating the problem of those specific files and discovered what he believed to clearly be child pornography and reports the machine owner to the police and hands it over to them (unclear if they got a warrant first). When the case is reported publicly, the store receives mail decrying their complicity in the fall of western civilization and urges a boycott of the store.

Now, I realize that there have been some debates about the overzealous investigation into parents for artsy nudes of kids taken by their adoring parents, but this was full-on, high hard one sex with a child. The file was even named, cleverly enough "5-year-old Girl" (which isn't exactly evidence, but alone makes baby jesus weep).

It's should be understood that by not reporting the guy the technician would have been violating the law. This is a private company, not a government agency. By the way, there is no way a chain store wants to be known as the haven for pedophile computer repair. It's also worth asking what type of idiot hands over a machine to some computer store techie and assumes they've just entered into a binding confidentiality agreement on the level of a doctor or lawyer? Do people really believe that when they take their machines in that those guys aren't copying off their porn, music, games and whatever else they may find?

Hey, I enjoy my privacy and civil rights and debate the infringement by overzealous government agencies as much as the next person. However, there should also be a modicum of common sense in pulling out the privacy card.

The Stranger | J-Pegged

isolatr

Ah, here are my kind of people. It's like they read my mind...

Street Wars vs KAOS

I came across a news report from the L.A. Times about an oddly familiar game. It's an activity called "Street Wars" and it's basically a hyped-up version of hide-and-seek with a touch of tag. Apparently it's been going on for a couple of years and had 150 people play in last year's event.  You act as an assassin hunting the person on your list with a water pistol or water ballon and try to survive attempts on your own life.

However, I'm a bit suprised at the coverage since it's a clone of a game I played in high school (1985-86) called KAOS - Killing as an Organized Sport. KAOS has been around in different variations for a while and is a well-known college game. It has the same rule set as Street Wars and is basically a screw-your-buddy type of game. Think of it as a similar, but different real-world example of the role-playing game "Paranoia" (one of the best RPG's ever invented).

When I played KAOS it was a blast (literally) and I enjoyed it quite a bit.  However, I was also a bit naive and was setup to be eliminated by one of my best friends. Actually setup doesn't quite describe it. I was led to the slaughter, betrayed, deceived and generally screwed. Although I was eliminated, I will say in my defense that even being led into an ambush I still almost made it out. But I guess that and a $5 bill will get me a grande caramel frappuccino at Starbucks.

However in this climate of terrorism and violent crime (whether real acts or fear of such acts), I would be concerned that playing Street Wars in public may be a good way to get your ass handed to you by either a police officer or an overzealous person carrying a CWP and a .45. Regardless, it would be interesting to play this game again with the wisdom of a couple of decades (along with the lovely deceit practiced in adulthood that makes the childhood/teenage variety pale in comparison).

One seat or two for conference season?

I found out from my boss recently that I'm going to be attending the Game Developers Conference in San Jose, CA. It's an interesting conference that provides some interesting opportunities depending on your particular interests.  I usually stick to the game design track because it's usually fascinating and I already have a good background in the production and business side of the games industry.  This year one of my colleagues and my boss are giving presentations during the conference.  They needed a synopsis of their talk for the GDC which I ended up writing for both of them in about forty-minutes (and they weren't half bad at all).

The last time I went to GDC was in 2001. I was with a developer from my team and we had a great time during the conference.  There were also plenty of opportunities to check out the booth babes (which are sadly falling to the wayside this year). Speaking of which, I absolutely swear that I saw the porn star Raylene (along with a group of other insanely sexy women) in a restaurant next to the convention center. I was a little too intimidated to approach her to find out for sure, but there is also a question of how to broach the subject: "Hi there. Are you the porn star I've seen naked more times than I can count?". Seriously, how does one break the ice on that topic?

The part I'm not looking forward to is the plane ride on Southwest Airlines. I'm usually on the edge about flying in general.  I understand the basic concepts of aerodynamics and lift associated with commercial flight, but I also realize that this is a very large metal object moving very fast in the air and if I think about it too long, it's just a bit disturbing. I sometimes envision the agonizing seconds of a dive before hitting the ground in an all too vivid daydream (well, nightmare).  The foundation of the fear is the sense of helplessness and fatality to a plane wreck. There is at least a chance of living in a car wreck and you may have at least the illusion of some control to lessen the impact if you see it coming.

Anyway, the real reason I'm anxious is because after I had already booked my non-refundable tickets I learned that Southwest has been fairly strict about enforcing their size policy for seating, meaning fat folk (for instance) need to buy two tickets. Yes, I'm fat. As a matter of fact I'm morbidly obese, although I sometimes forget what I look like (but that's for another day).  I've flown on many airlines and I do use a seat belt extension but I don't need to raise the armrest on a regular basis depending on the model plane, but I will if there is nobody next to me. Mostly I just need to move it up a half-inch so my leg isn't pushing against the seat back button. When I'm on a plane I'm very aware of my size and make every effort to not intrude on the person next to me. I'm not in the camp of people who bitch about Southwest's policies or am I one of those that want the world to cater to my size. However, I just wish I knew whether I meet their criteria ahead of time so I could have purchased an extra ticket and avoid the discussion at the counter.

In the end, I'll just show up early to the ticket counter and see if I set off the fat flag for their size policy.  If so, I'll buy another seat and won't complain a bit.  But now I know and I'll have to keep it in mind for my future flights to E3 and possibly CTIA.