My Trip to EA Sports for the IGDA meeting

I orignally shared this with my good friend Jody (check out Ms. May's site!), but I thought it was cool enough to present here..I returned from EA Sports Headquarters in Redwood City. Who are they? EA Sports makes Madden NFL 2006, Tiger Woods Golf, The Sims Online, and other games. I was invited to a meeting of The Silcon Valley Chapter of the International Game Developers Association.

Who?

IGDA www.igda.org is a large worldwide group of people who make, market, finance, run corporations that make, or just are interested in computer and video games --- I'm in it now. I collected about 23 business cards! I also met people who can totally help me inprove my simulation games. The groups is about what you'd expect: mostly men, and mostly nerdy, and mostly Stanford grads. (We were only 5 miles from what we locally call "The Farm")

But what I didn't expect was the racial diversity. That was so cool! It's also a GREAT window into "what's coming next" in other words, the folks at this party are working on a lot of games and devices you will see in the very near future, and mostly on cell phones and PDA's (Personal Data Assistants, like Blackberry). A very cutting edge group. I was really jazzed to be a part of it.

I even met a person who's with a firm that does "motion capture." That's where they record your movements to create an animated character, like in Jurrasic Park or Lord of The Rings. She said I could sign up for free time!

3 Years Old Girl / 33 Year Old Woman - It's Still The Shoes

Saturday, Mom and I went to visit my step-cousin Michelle and her adorable daughters six-year-old Kiyana and three-year-old Alana. Mom went shopping for clothes for the little ones and Alana could not have been happier. She put on one of the dresses and immediately went to pick out matching shoes and a purse from her closet. Then she came over, sat next to me, and said "Like my shoes?"

I had an immediate flashback to the previous night, when I was at Bix and met Rachel and Alex
(See "Good People / Bad People, below). One of the comments Alex made before we started talking happened when I turned to look in her direction. She kicked up her leg and said "Like my shoes?" When I realized this, I almost fainted.

-- I'm not a geneticist, but there's got to be something to this. Regardless, if a girl or woman asks you to comment about her shoes, do so in kind and tell her they're wonderful!

I think I realized that no matter how old we get, the innocent child in us never goes away.