destroy! er.

and, another fun project we just wrapped up at work -- a multiplayer, real-time, 3D "battleship"-eque game!

(you need a shockwave account to sign in to this, though...)

Destroyer

wee!

a student again

apparently by signing up for one "flash 2" class at the college of extended learning, i am elligible to defer my student loans again. isn't that interesting? and here i thought you had to be enrolled part-time or something.

anyways, i decided to integrate the movie of the stone sculpture guy into my first homework assignment. so here you are! you have to click on non-obvious buttons (background on first page, images on 2 & 3) to advance, but the movie is at the end.

for boys who like boys who like joysticks

it's monday. i'm back at work, my carpel tunnel is already hurting in my arm, conor can't get off for our closing party on thursday, i have class tonight and need to go do my homework, tomorrow is halloween and i have no costume, and yes.

i'm cranky.

the only good thing today so far has been my breakfast.

oh and seeing that we got press with gaygamer for our minis. i love that there is a site for everyone these days!

>> shockwave minis invade verizon cell phones

at least we get fall

well, we never had a summer... but at least we get fall this year! this weekend has been gorgeous - cool, clear days, leaves are changing, harvest season is in the air!

conor and I went over to sausilito yesterday via ferry, just to laze around. we saw a balancing rock artist (sculpturist? not sure what to call him - he balances rocks.) in action... i'll post the cool movie I took later.

down at the ferry building this morning, it was their harvest festival's "barnyard by the bay" ... which meant lots of hilarious folk bands (like grandma and her tap dancing cat), free samples, less crowds, and more glorious weather.

but now conor is off to work and i'm on the train home... trying to avoid some sketchy dude who keeps staring at me and tapped me knee (accident? on purpose? who cares - creepy.) sigh.

ain't nothin' like the crazies to erase your cozy fall feeling.

shoe no no's

two shoe faux pas that drive me crazy!

1. wearing sandals where your toes hang over the front edge

2. wearing shoes 2+ sizes too big so that there are several INCHES between your heel and the back of your shoe. this includes flip flops that don't fit.

why oh why do I see such attrocities so often!?

minis!

the second project i've been busting my ass on at work also launched this week, and i'm pretty excited about it. i spent the last 2 months overseeing the development of a rather aggressive catalog of over 30 "mini" games built in flash lite for a mobile application we were launching with adobe & verizon.

the games had to be built, tested and ready to go live this week, which is when the "shockwave minis" (our BREW mobile games catalog application) was being released on 3 verizon handsets:

>> shockwave minis

my favorite game that we worked on, hands down, is "pimp my ride: hitchhike"... but that's because secretly i want a pimped out ride. i also love the midi track we got to use. its awwwwwesome. damn i love that show.

Paper Tiger

>> Paper Tiger
uploaded on
26th October, 2006

last night was conor's new band's first show! check out pictures on my flickr page.

superficial no more!?

update: ok apparently the blog is still up - it just takes 4-evah to load, now. i also think it's just a sponsorship, and not an actual buy out... but i need to go read the fine print which i'm too lazy to do.

phew. i'm not quite as belligerently angry anymore.

.....

oh no!

i think the superficial got bought out!

what a cruel joke... at LEAST leave the blog up, even if you DO report to The Man now... don't put static E! online graphics up with no content on the page anymore, in a cruel, cruel, joke to your loyal fans.

Evil!

>> no more superficial?

carrie the caregiver

one of the two fun projects i've been working on at work launched this morning - its a new downloadable game from the developer who makes our jigsaws (he is also my friend who lives in montreal and ran the marathon with me)...

you get to be a nurse who takes care of babies in the maternity ward. you get to feed them and burp them and change their diapers and give them pacifiers and travel the world while you do it. oh yeah, and she blogs.

how can you not love this game? heh. :)

Carrie the Caregiver

(you can play a demo online before downloading it if you want)

also, this is the first downloadable game that i've ever had my name appear in the credits for! yay me!

good day for racing

this weekend was a great weekend for racing!

first off, another one of my impala teammates qualified for the olympic trials at the chicago marathon on sunday, by 7 seconds! very cool.

i ran the nike women's half marathon here in the city, for kicks, and it went well (considering i hadn't trained for it). i beat my time from last year by 4 minutes and felt KAZILLION times more relaxed, less tired, etc. -- AND, i ran up the hills without walking! that in itself is the biggest feat...

last - the head of the charles regatta took place in boston over the weekend. i LOVE boston in the fall and i particularly LOVE it on head of the charles weekend...

one of my aweseme rowing friends from my boat (a "bitchybitch" as we used to call ourselves) sent us these links - check out the great footage of a boat sinking right near the end of the race, under the elliot bridge. it gets hairy when notre dame almost bowls over the rescue boats!

>> boat sinking footage on utube

>>article on row2k about the sink

and, apparently the MIT men actually placed decently this year! granted, it was in the collegiate 8's and not championship 8's, but they got 6th out of 58 crews. i don't think they've done that well in years. woo-hoo! good job, boys.

commercialized

it's 5:30 in the morning.

i'm gettting ready for a race (well, its more of a training run for me than a race, but who's splitting hairs?)... today is the nike women's 1/2 and full marathon.

this race starts early (by my standards) and last year i remember being half asleep at the starting line, standing in the dark among throngs of women. not an ideal way to start a day.

so this year, i got up early so i could eat, drink some coffee, do some work and jam out with some music...

i was having a jolly time dancing around my bathroom with my ipod, until i realized, being decked in all black today, that i looked like one of their posters -- a black sillhouttes dancing, clad in white ear buds.

ugh.
damn.
sigh.

nothing is sacred these days, is it?
such a simple act, ruined by its commonplace in mass culture.

oh well - it was time to eat breakfast anyways...

ooo i think i found something that works

pocket PC blogging tool that i can actually use (sorry pocketblogger, i tried to love you but you wouldn't connect)...

>> diarist

babysitting

the last 2 sundays, i've spent my entire day babysitting for a little kiddo that belongs to conor's friends -- oliver (or OJ or "the juice").

he's 8 or 9 months and just trying to walk and/or crawl. i find it fascinating to sit and play and help him figure his body out -- we could sit on the floor in his room for hours laughing and playing while he stumbles around exploring how legs work. its awesome. he gets so frustrated by himself when he can't stand up. but man... when he gets it, you'll never see a bigger smile on a person's face as you see on his!

i've also decided that i'm a big fan of using a baby bjorn. i tried his out today so we could go get coffee without me needing to deal with the hassle of the baby stroller. it's great. it's like you get to hold the kid without actually holding them! everyone's arms are free - everyone is happy!

on our way to the coffee shop we witnessed a batch of poor tourists getting kicked off their cable car at the base of a big hill, because the car they were on had some technical issues and couldn't get up the hill with all of them on it... two more cars went by and never picked them up. heh. hopefully they aren't still out there wondering what to do... getting stuck in the middle of nob (russian?) hill doesn't sound like fun to me, but at least i know how to get out of it. they looked like confused lost little animals too shocked at their situation to be able to do anything about it. i had a weird moment of smugness that i could just walk up the block and be in a cozy apartment. today is too cold and dreary to be lost outside, abandoned by public transporation.

man. i'm really tired. two nights in a row going out for drinks and dinner with friends is apparently too much for this old dame. i feel like i need to take a nap now too, while he is... hmm. maybe thats not such a bad idea... what else do i have to do?

my little cream puff

conor wanted a ding dong wedding cake. or maybe it was ho ho's? i can't remember. anyways, i'm glad he didn't ask me to wear this:

"Ukrainian cooking star’s bride wears dress made of 1,500 pretty pastries"
>> Chef fashions wedding gown out of cream puffs

my gimpy mini me

i really want/need to find a program that lets me blog from my new phone, little ol' "megan2go" (that's its temporary name)...

i used to name all my phones some derivative of the name olive... like, well, olive. or olivia. ok, i've only had 2 cellphones so far. i need to come up with a new name for this new "mini me" and i haven't been able to yet.

maybe oliviette?

oliver? (that's the kid i babysit for these days... how apt! my phone and my charge can grow up together... i doubt his parents would appreciate the name, though).

maybe just ol'?

ollie?

at any rate, i want to be able to blog from this phone and you wouldn't think it would be so hard to set up the ability to do so since it runs windows mobile 5.0... but it is! damn them! pocketblogger tech support, why won't you answer me back!? i've installed .NET compact framework 2.0! i've done everything you said! you and your dumb WebException error! grummmmmble!

busy bee

hey ho! long time no blog. been busy working on some cool things at work - but sadly which keep me here until late at night. like right now. and last friday. and the friday before that.

once the cool things are public i will share them with you here.

but until then... not much to report. conor and i set a date for our wedding (yay!) and we can now officially say it's in less than a year, which is exciting and scary... i need to get back on my ball of planning so that the year doesn't slip away from me before i know it!

i also have a 1/2 marathon in 2 weeks and i haven't hardly run since my marathon, so that will be, uh, Interesting. i hope to survive.

the weather is being weird, too. rainy one day, hot the next day, cold today and the day before... it can't make up its mind and it's just a matter of time before i get sick from all the indecisiveness. i get more colds here in SF than i do in any other city... averaging 1 every 2 months these days. despicable!

i'm loving that gray's anatomy is back on though. and project runway is getting exciting. thats about it for my TV fixes of late...

and, thats also about it for me to report. sorry to be boring. its just how it is sometimes.

a new blog to read!

this makes me happy. out of the blue, mi amore decided he wanted to start a blog. check it out.

>> conor writes about things like baking

don't drink it

normally i'm all about trying and consuming the new starbucks seasonal lattes when they come out...

but the latest one, the "maple macchiato"... don't bother. in fact, don't even CONSIDER it.

well, don't -- unless you're a weirdo who typically takes his plate of pancakes, spills coffee into the warm buttery syrup that has collected on the edges of your plate... and then pours the mixture in a glass and drinks it... with foam... because THAT is what it tastes like.

gross.
gross.
and oh so gross.



thank goodness for samples, to spare me from spending money on such a disgusting conconction.

super star

it was announced yesterday which bay area restaurants got stars in the american version of the michelin guide... an announcement that seems to have come with a little shock and scandal - ah, but who cares? because guess who was on the list? little old unassuming range.

>> bay area stars fail to make michelin cut, french laundry is lone restaurant to win top rating in guide's SF edition

3 stars - French Laundry

2 stars - Aqua, Michael Mina, Manresa, Cyrus

1 star - Chez Panisse, Fleur de Lys, La Folie, the Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton, Rubicon, Bushi-Tei, Quince, Range, Acquerello, Masa's, Gary Danko, Boulevard, Fifth Floor, Sushi Ran, Chez TJ, Auberge du Soleil, La Toque, Bouchon, Bistro Jeanty, Terra, Dry Creek Kitchen, Farmhouse Inn & Restaurant, K&L Bistro