Leaving the laptop behind. I know, off line for a whole weekend. Crazy talk. Our flight leaves at 8:30 in the AM. I'll take lots of pics.
Off to Vermont
Want to work with me?
My work has lots of recruiting going on. Read my previous post on how to break in first. I still get an email and/or PMs from the forums now and then about internships and getting a job working with us.
We're having a job fair in Hunt Valley next month for the new MMO team that is forming. It’s going to be held from 11am - 8pm on Wednesday, Sept. 19 at the Baltimore Marriott in Hunt Valley. Lots of positions up for grabs, so to speak.
We'll also have a recruiting booth at AGDC. It's booth MR-3. Its under the name ZeniMax Online Studios, not Bethesda Softworks. But we're looking for both Zenimax Online and Bethesda Softworks jobs. I'll be around the show and the booth so stop by to say hi - especially if you are a kick ass shader programmer who wants to work on Elder Scrolls and Fallout RPGs!
To clarify, ZeniMax Online Studios is the name of the MMO development team - separate entity from Bethesda Softworks (our publishing arm) and Bethesda Game Studios (the development team I work on). And we're all separate divisions under ZeniMax Media, our parent company - who, incidentally, has Cal Ripken and Jerry Bruckheimer on our board of directors. How cool is that?
Now playing
The what we're playing this week posts on the Bethesda Blog is turning into my favorite part of the blog. I did the first one as an excuse to find out who managed to snag an early copy of Bioshock. This led to this awesome news post, Bethesda is Playing Bioshock (and You're Not!). Now, its just interesting to see what everyone is playing, what they are into.
Fantasy Football: Taipei Debutantes
The Debs are ready for their 5th straight year of Fantasy Football. The keeper league I'm in, Losers, Geeks and Dorks, is one of the highlights of my year. My keepers this year were Chris Cooley (cost me an 8th round pick) and Jason Campbell (cost me a 12th round pick). Its my 3rd (and last) year of Cooley as a keeper.
I had the 3rd pick of the draft, since I sucked last year. Not my favorite spot. I prefer to be closer to 5, as we use the snaking system of picks so the order reverses each round. So my high 1st round pick becomes a low 2nd round - slim picking there, especially with the keepers. Fortunately, the commissioner (Mark Nelson, former coworker who is now at Big Huge Games) has a great set of keeper rules - 1st and 2nd round picks from previous year can't be keepers. Keeps it fun and balanced.
Here are my picks from last night:
1st: Peyton Manning , QB. It was between Rudi Johnson, Shaun Alexander or Manning. I gotta go with him. He is a scoring machine. Amazingly, Mark has Stephen Jackson as a keeper. Tomlinson was first pick; Westbrook (whaaa????) was second pick.
2nd: Marion Barber, RB. This was tough. I already have 2 QBs and a TE, so my priority is to get RBs. I wanted Travis Henry or Willis Macgahee, but they were gone - at the bottom of the round, slim pickings. Barber is their goal line RB so should get me lots of TD points.
3rd: Cadillac Williams, RB. Ok. Lots to pick from now. Thought about going for WR - TJ Housh, who I love, or Javon Walker (who gets hurt all the time). Andre Johnson is still around, but he disappointed me last year. Decide to go for RB. I'm big fan of running backs.
4th: Vincent Jackson, WR. Reggie Brown is who I'm shooting for. But he's gone. Jackson is an unknown for me, but I've read some good things and he's got Phillip Rivers throwing to him, so what the hell. I often like to pick players who are on teams I know I'll watch. I'm a fan of Rivers so I'll be watching the Chargers when they play.
5th: LenDale White, RB. I really like this guy, and I'm hoping he has a break out season this year. I plan on this guy being a keeper next year if he does break through. (keep in mind, I thought this about Lamont Jordon for a couple of years...um. Never happened...)
6th: Deion Branch, WR. Desparate for a #1 WR now. Not a big fan of Branch, but he's the top dog at Seattle so he'll have to do.
7th: Antwaan Randle El, WR. This is a total homer pick. Not the best pick at this time, but I wanted to get him as I wasn't sure if he would be around later. Still, I think he's a good 3rd WR, even if I did take him too soon.
8th: Chris Cooley, TE. My favorite Redskin. Captain Chaos. Well worth 8th round pick. This is my last year to mark him as a keeper.
9th: Anthony Gonzalez, WR. At this point, need to take a WR. I read somewhere that this guy is the new Brandon Stokely.
10th: Jaguars Def. So I go to grab a def, thinking its still early and all the top ones are gone. Whoa. The Jags are good, glad I didn't wait. I almost went for my 2nd TE here.
11th: Heath Miller, TE. He was ok last year for me. I haven't researched TEs that much, may end up trading or finding another one later in the year.
12th: Jason Campbell, QB. My other keeper pick. Worth a 12th round pick, I think. He has a good arm and fast receivers with a top tier running back and tight end. If only the o-line can hold up...
13th: Cowboys def. Another good - if not top - defense. I decide to save my last picks for Kickers, and grab decent defenses while I still can.
14th: Adrian Peterson, RB. This is the Bears Adrian Peterson. This is a pure shot in the dark, sleeper pick. I might get totally lucky here. Or I may have confused him with the other Adrian Peterson on the Vikings.
15th: Martin Gramatica, K. No idea why I did this. This guy isn't even playing. Horrible pick. But its just a kicker, so I'll pick one up off waivers.
16th: Shaun Suisham, K. Another homer pick. I usually pick up the Redskins kicker as my #2 K.
Game of the Year, Vermont , Austin and Tivo
Work has been crazy busy the past couple of weeks. I've got lots of deadlines and projects trying to wrap up in September. And then there's that other project that is our studio's main focus right now - we got a ways to go yet but time has a way of flying by:)
Lots going on for the next couple of weeks, as well. Megen and I are headed up to Vermont this weekend for Sarah and Jon's wedding. Should be a fun holiday weekend, I've never been to Burlington -- looking forward to checking out all their coats up there...
We get back, and I'm home for a day before heading to Austin next week. I love Austin. Megen is flying down the following Friday so we can both enjoy Austin. I wonder if Friday Night Lights has started filming yet? I can stalk the cast members since they film in Austin.
Katie is having her baby, um, like, right now. So when we drive to Dallas to see her the following weekend, we'll get to meet the little nugget.
The DVR has been acting funky lately. Despite rebooting it, it still drops sound and acts all crazy. I broke down and ordered a TivoHD. Looking forward to playing with my new toy.
Megen's CRV, which was a lease, will soon by ours. I looked up its blue book and it happens to be $1K more than the lease buyout, so I figured let's just take out a loan and buy it out. Leases are bad, bad, bad.
I also noticed my own car, the Hybrid, has a payout that is around $5K less than its blue book. That's b/c I've been paying extra every month, to pay it off early. Can't wait until we have no car payment, so sweet to be without it.
Feasting on Asphalt
Feasting on Asphalt is Alton Brown's poetic love letter to Americana disguised as a food, travel, history, and documentary show. The 2nd season is on right now. I love the visuals, the food and the writing. Even the commercial transitions have gorgeous pictures and great quotes. This show is so good, its shocking that its on the Food Network - you'd expect to see it on HBO. I always have several episodes of Alton's other show, Good Eats, on the TIVO at all times to watch.
This is a fantastic show. If you've never seen it, you are missing out. The first season is available on DVD, and the second season, currently on this month, is played all week long on Food Network.
I <3 Feasting on Asphalt.
Bioshock copy protection
Bioshock's copy protect woes -- reading stuff like this makes me sad for the folks who worked on Bioshock. You devote your life and bleed for your work, and to have drama like this happen to your baby after you've shipped it.
Ars Technica breaks it down, does good job explaining how the copy protection actually works.
Free sandwich, yum
Found this on Slickdeals -- Register to get a free chick fil a sandwich and coke.
Vick's love of the game
I have to say the most disturbing thing about the Vick dog fighting scandal besides the horrific and disturbing details of how dog fighting actually works, is that Vick never placed bets. He was doing it for the love of the sport -- he was actually just a fan.
And I've read columns and commentaries occasionally by pro athletes excusing Vick. Most say Vick was such a competitor that he needed some other way to compete. I'll have to try and find them to link to. (I'm looking at you Michael Irvin.)
Even more disturbing to me, the NFL seemed to care more that you bankrolled the betting than the actual dog fighting. Though I think it was the gambling part that violated his contracts with NFL.
Oblivion's PS3 crown spared
No PS3 for Bioshock. This means Oblivion's top rated PS3 game (according to gamerankings and metacritic) crown is safe for now. Whew.
I still haven't finished it yet, enjoying it very much. Fantastic game. I hope it sells lots, and Irrational continue to make more. Looking forward to their take on X-Com.
Nate X gets a haircut
Courtesy his roommate, Dane. And yes, those are thunderbolts. And yes, he has one of each side of his head. And yes, Dane's hair is even more strange than Nate's new haircut.
Redskins get new left tackle - whew
Great news -- Redskins Bolster Left Guard By Getting Kendall From Jets - washingtonpost.com
I missed the game last week, but saw the highlights. Based on first pre-season game, Campbell has some ball handling issues and dropped the ball a few times. Mostly from the horrible protection on his left side o-line.
Shogo
I was in Todd Vaughn's office and noticed a box of old games he was getting rid of. On top, was a copy of Shogo: Mobile Armor Division by Monolith. (ahh, good ol' Lith Tech engine...) I LOVE this game. Anime soap opera characters and dialogue, big giant gundam robots battling each other -- its my own personal chocolate and peanut butter combo.
Gravel pits
The drive up to Geneseo was uneventful. We listened to music and podcasts on the ipod. Hit some traffic here and there along Route 15. Weird detouring in Williamsport, where the little league world series is currently going on. We saw people selling parking at their homes for $5. My cell phone coverage was pretty hit or miss for much of the drive. Got free wifi at the hotel so I was able to catch up on work since I left early.
We drove over to Cohocton with Megen's parents this morning to look at some property that belongs to their family. This guy had purchased a portion of the land saying he would turn it into a trailer park. Instead, he turned in into a gravel pit. And now he is asking Megen's dad if he can buy more land. So he wanted to scope out just what the heck this guy is doing and why he wanted to buy more land all of the sudden.
I've always though trailer parks were ugly but gravel pits are even worse.
The end of our reign
Much like authors like checking their Amazon.com sales rankings, I like checking out gamerankings.com If you were to check gamerankings.com for the highest rated Xbox 360 game, you would find Oblivion at the top of that list. I think our reign is over. Bioshock is tearing its way through reviews and getting fantastic scores. I'm only a few hours in, but I'm enjoying it very much. In fact, I think it may be one of the best games I've played in the past couple of years - though still early. For now, we'll have to settle for being the top PS3 gameranking game.
Stuffs going on
Lots going on.
Picked up Bioshock yesterday at lunch, the Toys R Us in Rockville had copies and was selling them early. Fantastic game. One of the best I've played in a while. Very impressive.
I'm trying to wrap up stuff at work today so that I can leave early tomorrow afternoon for a wedding in Genoseo, NY. Megen's cousin is getting married.
Then we have Sarah and Jon's wedding coming over labor day weekend, we'll be in Vermont for that. Should be fun. Once we get back, a day later, I'm flying down to Austin, TX for the Austin Games Conference. Megen is flying down that Friday so we can hang in Austin for a day, then drive up to Dallas where Katie will most likely be giving birth, but I'm only there to see Kelsey anyway, so it works out :)
Young Ashley
Here is a picture of Ashley I found while cleaning. I figured everyone would enjoy this, especially those people he has posted pictures of (i.e Nate, Adela).
Decisions
Lots of decisions to make about the wedding. Colors, arrangements, guest list, food, etc... Most important, of course -- what should the URL for the wedding site be? Hmmm. I have pondered this decision. Several ideas. Lots of sites like The Knot let you make your own wedding page, but their options are limited and you can't do a custom URL. I could use a blog like Blogger or Wordpress. In the end, I settled on using google webpages - very quick and easy. And I get embed pictures anywhere on the page, also very little fuss with HTML required, widgets are the future, I say.
Anyhoo, here's our wedding page as it stands today. Before we send out save the dates, need to decide what the final URL will be. I really like www.megswedding.com - simple and easy to remember, and it makes me laugh every time I read it.
Blogger lets you make Polls now. I thought I'd try it out. Vote on what our wedding URL should be. Once we see which is most popular, we'll promptly ignore the result and Megen will pick the one she likes best. (See? I'm getting figuring out this marriage thing!)
Football is coming
August is great. It marks the coming of football season. I love reading about the Redskins every day in the Washington Post. Pretty excited about this coming season now that Campbell is the starting quarterback, ie someone who can actually throw the ball farther than 10 yards down the field.
New post at bethesda blog
My latest Bethesda Blog post about Oblivion's popularity -- complete with reference to viagra and a phallic picture. Classy.
Greece pics
I uploaded more of our pictures from the Greece vacation. Now if I just need to finish going through the Italy pictures....
Official Fallout 3 website is up
I can't express how much I love the Fallout 3 website. I love that it is clean with no annoying flash files to load. I love the color scheme and the design, the kitschy tone. I LOVE the vault boys for each section of the site, its a nice web counterpoint to the Fallout games which has always featured them. It inspired me to look up all the website layouts and designs we've had for my games. I spent some time flipping through them yesterday, a visual history of our games online. I'll write about it for the Bethesda Blog next week.
My work's blog has been great. Everyone appears to enjoy it. I feel less inclined to write as casually there as I do here. But I enjoy reading and writing the Bethesda blog very much. There is so much that I could be writing for it, unfortunately, most of it has to wait until next year.
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