Summer, Oops.

Wow, where did July and August go? I definitely put my blog on the back burner this summer… I think part of the problem was that the template I was using required a certain sized photo for every post. That didn’t work for posting remotely or from a computer that didn’t have photo editing software. So, I changed it up yesterday and have a new template. The setup of the new template isn’t complete yet though, so suspend judgment. There’s supposed to be a really great gallery of photos down the side that I’m struggling with right now.

At any rate, I wanted to recap my summer. (Which is kind of appropriate because it’s been pouring rain the last two days, and it’s decidedly not summer anymore here in Seattle.) Here are some highlights:

• PopCap Internship: My 10-week internship with PopCap was great. I learned a lot and I left really excited about the coming together of my skills in consumer behavior research with social games. It’s an exciting time in the industry where everyone is trying to figure out how to do social games right. I appreciate PopCap’s approach, which is to create amazing content and then fill in some of the blanks through data analysis of, and, honestly, straight up intuition about, virality and monetization. I’m very much hoping to stay in video games after I graduate in March!

•  MCDM Classes: I took two classes this summer in the Masters of Communication in Digital Media program. I really love the MCDM and its contrast to the MBA program. The classes are at once practical and theoretical. I took two classes that parlayed beautifully with my internship and interest in gaming. They were (1) Psychology of Digital Media and (2) Evolutions and Trends in Digital Media. I’m hoping to post some of the reports and projects I did in these classes on here in the next month. Oh, and by the way, did I tell you that taking these two summer classes and a super heavy load last Spring is going to allow me to graduate early? Oh yes.

• Stephanie & Slade’s Wedding: I went to Utah back in late July for a wedding of a close friend, Stephanie. My history with Stephanie is a complicated one… she dated my little brother, so those of you who know that story can imagine that this trip was an emotional one. Stephanie is an incredible lady though, and I feel really lucky to be in her life. And, oh my god, the wedding was beautiful. It was held at the Alta Ski Resort. They were married on the porch of a lodge, with a huge mountain of green and granite behind them. Stunning.

• Wine Tasting in Yakima: Scott and I headed East with a group of MBA ladies to go wine tasting in Yakima. I really should do this more often… it was such a relaxed, fun time hopping from winery to winery. Lacey picked our route based on whether or not the wineries advertised they had dogs, so we got to meet some awesome ones. (In my next life I want to be a dog at a winery.)

• Bike Rides: I was pretty prolific on my bike this summer… in comparison to previous summer where I might have taken my bike out once or twice. I went on two long bike rides with Scott including the Burke Gilman Trail and Lake Washington Boulevard, which is shut down to cars on Sundays in the summer. Autumn and Jeremy also joined us  on our Lake Washington Boulevard ride. I have also been taking my bike to work, which is a quick 2-mile downhill ride on the way to work and a tough 2-mile climb back up the hill on my way home. I wish I were the type to continue riding my bike in the rain, but I’m just not tough enough for that!

• Seattle Tattoo Expo: I’m ready to get a tattoo. It’s been a long time coming, but I was inspired to get something in particular during my trip to Peru. So, I’ve been on the lookout for the right tattoo artist to design it. Tina Bufaro, where are you?! Tina did Scott’s work on his arm, and I’d love for her to do mine, but she’s seemingly out of town, or at least not answering phone calls, ever. I was hopeful that I would find someone at the Seattle Tattoo Expo, and I did. But he’s booked through October and then out of town until March/April. OYE! Someday the right combination will come together. Someday.

• Casual Connect Conference: I was really fortunate to be able to attend the Casual Connect Conference back in July. The conference brings together industry experts in everything outside of hard core gaming – so casual, social, and mobile games. The line-up was great… I learned a lot and was able to meet a lot of people in the industry.

• Scott’s Birthday: We celebrated Scott’s birthday by spending a really relaxed day around Capitol Hill. We went to the 12th Avenue street festival, bought some bike accessories at Velo, had a picnic and then laid in the park for hours and then went to the butcher for steak.

• Anniversary @ the Space Needle: We turned 3 this year and celebrated by having dinner at the top of the Space Needle. Neither Scott nor I had been to the restaurant part of the Space Needle in a long time, so we thought it’d be something very local and fun. And it was! (Scott read my vows to me afterward on the lookout deck… I need to keep track of everywhere he does this.)

Skee ball fun times!

I’ve been pretty obsessed with the Skee Ball iPhone game recently… SKEE BALL!

I think Skee Ball is the best arcade game ever made. And the iPhone game is very true to form… You flick the ball up the ramp into the slots for points, and the points get you tickets. There’s also a prize counter where you can redeem points for random things like Peruvian Pan Flute CDs, Magic 8 Balls and Lava Lamps.

Scott’s work also had a (real) Skee Ball competition as part of an overall “Office Olympics”. (I know, how great would that be?)

In preparation for that, and because I’ve been so fascinated with the iPhone game, we decided to hit up the Skee Ball lanes at Lucky Strike in Bellevue a few weeks ago. Obviously we had the place to ourselves. It was a weeknight.

I can attest that the real life game is more difficult than the iPhone app game! In part because you’re paying to play each game with real money, and you want to maximize your points. So the strategy is to go up the middle, whereas in the iPhone game my strategy is to go for the corner slots (worth more points) only.

Side note. The Skee Ball lanes at Gameworks downtown are a lot less expensive than the ones at Lucky Strike. We stumbled on them on Friday at a friend’s birthday party. I have also heard that there’s a bar in Ballard with a Skee Ball tournament on Thursdays! I don’t think I’m quite competition ready. I’m going to need a few more practice nights.

More Classic Seattle: Bumbershoot!

Scott and I went to Bumbershoot, an outdoor music festival here in Seattle, all three days of Labor Day weekend. It has come to be a tradition for us.

This year I had been a little disappointed that nobody I knew was going. And I was initially disappointed that the weather forecast called for rain. We made the most of it though, decked out in rain gear, with our umbrellas, camping chairs, juice packs and snacks in tow.

The weather (and economy) turned out to be in our favor, as the attendance this year was very low. This meant we could roam around without having to jostle through crowds of people. It was also really easy to get tickets to the main stage events.

Here’s who we ended up seeing. Brett Dennen and Franz Ferdinand were my favorites. Janelle Monae was also great… she crowd surfed at her own show.

Saturday, September 5th

• Low vs Diamond
• Eleni Mandell
• There were some other ones in here. I can’t remember. We spent most of our time on Saturday roaming around the grounds.

Sunday, September 6th

• Brett Dennen
• The Helio Sequence

Monday, September 7th

• Say Hi
• Oren Lavie
• Janelle Monae
• The Cave Singers
• Vieux Farka Toure
• Franz Ferdinand

p.s. I’m writing this on Tuesday, but setting it post tomorrow, 9/9/09 at 09:09am. Consequently it is also my 29th birthday.

Changes to my walk home.

I walked back to my condo from downtown this afternoon, and noticed a few changes to my old route.

A new sidewalk! I used to have to cross the street at this section. Somewhere in the last 6mo a sidewalk and crosswalk at the light were installed! Nice.

A payday loan shop on Denny & Bellevue. Aw, sad. Sign of the times. It’s across the street from Amante. Officially my least favorite intersection on the hill.

A nice garden in a neighbor’s front yard. Lovely.

Clear and sunny.

Yesterday was gorgeous. And also dangerous. I ventured out with Carina for a few hours. It was hard to leave this amazing view. But necessary for my sanity.

To see the pano in more detail, follow this link. (It should allow you to click on the image and zoom in.) 

Snowy Seattle.

I’d say that snow in Seattle is rare, but we’ve been having at least one ‘shut down the city’ storm each Winter now for the past couple of years. (Note to Utah friends: a ‘shut down the city’ storm is usually an inch or two. And actually Seattle schools were closed yesterday at just the thought of a snowstorm coming through. It didn’t actually snow until last night. Needless to say they are closed again today, and probably will be again tomorrow.)

Scott is working from home, so we ventured out to Broadway for some lunch. On the way back, there was a group of people sledding down Republican Street next to our building.

Frolicking in the snow is so not for me. I’m inside now with some wassail and grand plans to make some refrigerator rolls.

Jen Time.

I got to spend a bunch of time with Jen this week, including going to the Alanis Morissette concert on Wednesday! The guy taking these photos was sitting in front of us.