...as many times as I've been to this city, I always forget how beautiful it is, both inside and out.  I wouldn't want to live there, with the cost of living, earthquakes, and Californians running around all over the place, ......but it's a great place to visit and enjoy life for a while.

The weather is great, the food is fantastic, ...especially the seafood!  ...and even though I don't quite understand them, the people and culture are really cool, too.

This was only my second time at GDC.  I've been to almost every E3 except the first one, but not often to GDC.

Last year's was in San Jose, which is also a very nice place, but I definitely prefer San Francisco.  The show itself seemed better, too.  Most shows are grueling, but this one I enjoyed thoroughly!

What I thought was weird, ...we had Dum-Dums and Smarties in the very same dish ;)

I was standing the booth and Jay Wilbur walked up to me, stood for at least a minute or two as I stared back at him with a blank face (wondering what this person wanted), ...until he said "Richard, ...RICHARD!  It's me, Jay!".

I've known Jay for what, 10 years now?

I have a new solution that I'm trying.  Rather than blindly searching for an entry in my brain's Rolodex to see if this is a person I know as they walk by amongst the passing throngs, ...I just wave at everyone I think I might know.

I figure it's better to wave at a stranger than seemingly ignore a friend.  Plus, if it is a stranger, I'm sure they're suffering (or starting to, if they're young) from the same dilemma and are left wondering why they didn't recognize that guy as they walked past him.

Related, sometimes I think I could pigeonhole each and every face I've ever seen in less than a thousand separate slots.  This must be an indication as to why I don't understand how I can have 2 parents, and each of my parents have 2 parents themselves, and each of these another 2-fold, ...until simple extrapolation shows that there were more "parents" alive 20 generations ago than have ever lived on the Earth.  The indication?  ...incest by proxy within a relatively short time span ;)

The Russians, ...what I love most about the Russians, ...well, second-most to their women, ...no!  ...third-most to their language, ...what I love third-most is their care for gift-giving.

They're the most generous people I know.  Toly came to GDC with his beautiful girlfriend Lyuba (means "love" in Russian;).

Toly brought gifts.  Russians always bring gifts

His family bought a great Gzhel tea pot, filled it with candy, and added a huge box of chai (tea).  Of course, they also provided three bottles of vodka ;)

Somehow, Toly (and Yury and Tolstiy, et al Russkii) always brings new brands and styles of vodochka that I don't have yet.  Not sure how he remembers which he has already brought after so many years of the bringing.  I have a collection now of almost 20 different vodkas.

I'm going to buy a nice glass cabinet to display them.

Anyways, the thing to remember is that Toly and Lyuba first went to New York City for a few days.  They toted this ceramic tea pot, a supply of tea, and three bottles of vodka through all the airports and connections and hotel changes, ...from Moscow to New York to San Francisco,  ...just to bring me a gift.

I wouldn't do this even for my own mother!   ...za Russkii!

Got to see Theo from Croatia again.  I must go visit

Zagreb sometime this year!

Partied with Alexey and Andriy, too!  Kiev, too!

I'm definitely becoming a strong believer in mind over matter.  Everyday at these shows, I anticipate finishing at 6pm.  Everyday, right about 5pm, my feet start to complain like there's no tomorrow.  It's like clockwork.

The last day at these shows, though, is always shorter.  GDC ended at 3pm on Friday afternoon, and sure enough, my feet started aching at around 2pm, ...not 5pm.  It was always the same at E3.

It's also the same with anticipating that I'm going home for the day from work.  With my job, I'm not on any dedicated schedule.  Some days I go home at 4pm, some days at 8pm, and other days anytime in between.  Even though I'll tell you it's not on my thoughts directly, I always start getting the urge for my after-work constitutional during the last 15 minutes of the drive.

Controlling game developers, even if only to go to lunch at the same place and time, is harder than herding cats,  ...wet cats!

Thanks again, Michelle!

To the very end, she kept everyone in line (we had our DS Lites out while we waited to board;).

Ya!  ...an Ultimate Fighting Championship marathon on Spike TV!  ...`tis a Happy Saint Patrick's Day, indeed!

I'm amazed how much I love watching this stuff!  I watch boxing, too, but I only like the lighter weights.  The lighter weights have good fighting, while the heavy weights tend to clinch and hug each other too much.

Far better than boxing, though, is this octagon-encaged, mixed martial arts, few-holds-barred fighting!  ...it really is the ultimate!  ...and I'm completely captivated!

Even though my intellect tells me I shouldn't enjoy watching two guys beat the shit out of each other, there's another part of me (obviously, the part wielding the remote most of the time) that absolutely loves it!

All the jabber about violence in video games and movies,  ...the cause and effect, ...such bullshit!  It's not the entertainment, it's us.  Humans are an intrinsically aggressive creature.  Aggression was likely as important as intelligence, bipedalism, fire-mastering, and opposable thumbs in putting us on the top of the food chain, me thinks. 

One thing I find strange about UFC, ...mixed martial arts?  Although the fighters are cross-trained in multiple disciplines of martial arts, mostly Eastern, they rarely use anything other than Western boxing and wrestling.  There's an occasional judo or jujitsu throw, and some kicking, but the fight always boils down to almost total Greco-Roman fighting.  It's like street fighting, I guess, but it seems very strange for someone who grew up believing in Kung Fu movies and Bruce Lee.  Where're the fancy-pants preying mantis and crouching tiger moves when it gets down to the nitty gritty ;)

Finally made it to Jackson Hole after that dust storm shut down the airport for a few days.

If you're a skier, I highly recommend this place!  Really nice,  ...great people and skiing, fantastic scenery, everything is ultra-convenient, and not too crowded.

We rented three fully-equipped condos, complete with private bedrooms and bath, full kitchens, laundry, ...and you could ski directly to the lifts from the front door!

Thanks for letting me steal some of these great photographs, Christina!

It is great exercise, though, and you're having so much fun, you barely notice the exertion, ...until the next day!  Then I felt like I'd been through a hay baler.

I was amazed by the complete lack of security.  It felt like I had gone back in time 50 years.  There seemed no worries about theft, ...expensive skis and gear were left laying about unattended (not just at the lifts), keys were left in vehicles, doors left unlocked.

The locals at the resort said they were having a bad year up until now, snow-wise, but we were blanketed by a nice covering of powder on more than one day during the week we were there. 

Snegurochka and I are great friends!

I only fell once!  It was while I was exiting the very first lift ride, but I could easily say that I was tripped by someone else.  I also lost one of my skis at the bottom of the lift while trying to get on the seat, ...okay, maybe that one was my fault.  It wasn't pretty seeing me try to exit the lift with only one ski ;)

The trails and scenery were incredible.  I finally got to see Old Faithful.  I must admit I wasn't as impressed as I had expected, but it's one of those sights imperative for seeing at least once.

Fortunately a van came by and four gents got out to help pull the sled back on the road.

Keep in mind that the entire group is up ahead on the trail and has to wait idly while Rob's sled is retrieved from the snow.

Again, the group had to wait up ahead during my detention.

...well, not ALL the trouble ;)

There was a tourists' spot on the trail where you could go see a waterfall and river cutting through the wilderness.  To get to the waterfall, we had to slide down a slush cut into the snow by previous passerbies.  Everyone slid down,  ...then came Christina, ...then went Christina!

She almost slid all the way to the river, and nearly took the Guide for an icy swim.

It took three of us to pull her back on the trail ;)

The Land of Snow and Saunas!

We went to the grocery store and filled every crevasse of the three kitchens with food.  We ended up leaving much of it behind, though.  My guess is that this is not unusual for tenants and that the housekeeping crew saves mucho moola on their food bill.

I had even brought a bottle of real Russian vodka...

...and each morning Mark made a variety of breakfasts to include eggs, bacon, French Toast, pancakes, and mimosas.

Great time, great food, great friends,   ...thanks to everyone there for coming!

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