Eat eat eat

I have had a good couple of days...

Wednesday after the RMV stupidness I went to work and worked from 10 until 4:30 and it was great. I really must make an effort to dig in by 10, when I want to have a work-day like that. Which, um, should really be all of them. Split work early to eat n drink n scheme with J, always delightful.

Thursday I went to eat at dictator555's aunt's house with that whole crowd, which was kind of random but quite welcome. I actually didn't think about what I'd do for T-day until Wednesday afternoon. I IMed classicaljunkie to ask if it'd be tacky to post my Thanksgiving Orphan status on LJ, and then she was like EAT WITH US OM NOM NOM and I was like ok ok.

Hanging out with a friend's extended family that you don't know at all is always a little strange, and as a shy nerd at heart I found it a little rough at times, but I still made it out with not only an overful l belly but experience at playing four-handed Cribbage (for this family, like mine, are native New Englanders). This is actually pretty nifty and I look forward to teaching the variant to my own family up north!

On the train ride home I sat near a woman who was flirting really really loudly and I dare say tactlessly with the guys sitting behind her for the whole 1.5-hour ride and it was horrible and I was glad I put more than just talky podcasts on my Shuffle before leaving. Really that was the only negative experience.

Now it's not yet 1 and I'm actually a little sleepy. WOW. Off to go try and take advantage of this.

ALSO

Mega congrats to the lovely n talented jordanwillow for landing a YA book contract. (And for writing the book that won the contract!)

(That's YA as in young adult, not yet another. Though maybe if she makes a habit of it...)

Conferences?

I thought I'd work on ITA matters today even though the office is closed (or, if not officially closed, will be empty enough to count as such), but then I ran into taskboy3000 at the Diesel and got fired up enough about Volity in the ensuing conversation that I wanna work on finishing the damn Google thing instead, and so that's what I'm doing. (I hope. It's after 1pm as I write this, three hours after my suspected get-started deadline. We'll see what happens.)

So while I'm in this frame, I'd like to pose a question to y'all: do any of you know of any conferences that I should give a talk about Volity at? The topics of the overall conference could be one of: XML, Perl, Python, Games, SVG, Micropayments, Jabber... we actually lay across many areas. (I conspicuously leave Java out of the list because I don't wanna go to a Java conference.)

I am going to see about doing one at Boston.pm soon, even though I haven't been to a Boston.pm meeting in years.

Wii n C&C

From dougo, a boardgamenews.com comparison of the Wii's philosophy with that of Richard Borg's Command & Colors board games. C&C is Borg's suite of light, approachable wargame mechanics that Memoir '44 uses, as well as the new (and terribly expensive) BattleLore. Basic argument: just as the Wii aims to win the hearts of "normal people" who want to play a fun video game but are turned off by 12-button, 3-stick controllers, so C&C brings the fun of tactical wargaming to people who aren't interested in the grognard lifestyle.

I'd love to see BattleLore sometime, but I don't think that I will until I buy my own copy. Like Memoir '44, it seems to be the sort of game that a lot of my local friends would love to play with me, so long as I'm the one willing to cough up the cash for it.

I do plan on picking up a Wii soon. I've actually got some agents looking for one for me today, but won't be sad if they don't find one. It'll come around in due time and I've got enough to do anyway.

FPS

Speaking of game systems that aren't the Wii: it's time for another installment of Jmac is totally calling this.

I am totally calling this:

Before 2010 there will be a megahit $60-or-more FPS game where players, after pulling off a particularly stunning takedown, can have their onscreen dudes literally and explicitly rape their fallen opponents. Boys everywhere will delight in proxy-assfucking their friends in humiliating HD, before topping it off with a curbstomp or chainsaw-to-the-head or whatever. It will be all over the news and O the outrage and it will sell a nillion copies.