Keeping In Touch

So if you are eagerly anticipating the game I'm working on (and you should, it's gonna be good*), you should go here, scroll down and look at the "We Want to Know" section at the bottom right, and vote. I'd prefer you vote for Star Trek Online, of course, but do what you want. I won't mind. At all.

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* Seriously, very good game. Pretty too. That trailer? That's all in game footage, and I don't think it even shows the ground combat.

(We didn't really change our names to Chrysler. That's just a song.)

But over U.S. Thanksgiving we went to the East Coast to see my folks and introduce R:tAG to the Smithsonian, or at least parts of the Smithsonian and other museums*, which count among my favourite places in the world. We stayed in a rental condo** in Alexandria and took the Metro into D.C. which was very convenient.

It turns out R:tAG is pretty proficient at finding his way around Washington, thanks to Fallout 3. Here he is looking for mirelurks in the Metro:


The weather was rainy but we were mostly inside anyway.


This was lava. Some geologist scooped some up with a hammer and let it harden. Note the scorched handle. Geologists are crazy.


This is the Hall of Ocean Life. There's a right whale hanging from the ceiling towards the back; I thought I also remembered a blue whale when I was a sprog but maybe it's having a rest. The Natural History museum attendance seems to be benefiting from that movie; anything that gets people into the museum, I suppose (I took this picture just at closing time; the place was actually packed all day)


No pictures from the National Gallery because they were twitchy about that. But we saw a really interesting exhibit about Spanish parade armour, as well as a lot of famous paintings and sculptures, of course. It really is better to see them in the flesh, so to speak.

And then we went back to my parents' place for a Thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat, and a bit of a rest from walking.

So it was a good trip, though about an hour after we got back to work I was thinking "Man, I need a vacation." Back to the long days and long work weeks. Le sigh.

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* The Natural History Museum, the Air and Space Museum, the National Gallery and very briefly the Freer Gallery just to see the Peacock Room.

** One of those old row houses with the floor space of a two bedroom apartment. But it was quite historic and comfortable and the kitchen was nice.

I like working with artists. I like going to lunch with artists. They draw all the time, and sometimes what they draw is extra awesome.*


I have a bigger post about going to the East Coast for (American) Thanksgiving, which was very fun, but I do not have the time right now to write it. Soon!

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* Yes,I got a lot of hair cut off. I think I look like Severus Snape now but people have kindly told me that I don't. Much.

Wow. If somebody proposed the events of the 97th Grey Cup as a movie plot, I suspect it would be rejected for implausability.

I have never before seen defeat so comprehensively snatched from the jaws of victory. See you in 25 years, I guess.

A picture-heavy post. It was a pretty good workplace Hallowe'en.

My office-mate* does not like creepy contact lenses. At all. He didn't know this picture was being taken; I wish actually we had a picture of a few seconds later, when he turned around. That was funny. I was Zombie Jane Austen, by the way, and I owe Cenobyte bigtime for showing me how damn awesome creepy contact lenses can be. Totally worth it.

And there were punkins:



My favourites were the Borg punkin (Cucurbita of Borg!), the skelly-punkin, and the Rorschach punkin. The Borg punkin actually had a little light-and-fog show that was pretty awesome.

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* He is a Talented UI Artist, so he is sensitive. This is him, drawring.