...must come to an end. We should have more holidays in this country that entail taking several days off of work, and eating a lot.

As I said before, Thanksgiving dinner went really well this year. Friday we went to the Berkley Marina to go on a walk with Joe, which was really nice, and I got some nice shots, too. That evening, we met Peter and Crystal for the So You Think You Can Dance tour performance in Oakland. It was fun and we had good seats, but seeing all those dances back to back made me realize just how short they were; the longest was probably around 2 minutes.

On Saturday, I went to the SF zoo with Jan, Yar, and John, which was fun, and I took some more photos. That evening, we had dinner at Le Charm, which was pretty tasty. I had French onion soup and lamb shank, and the meal somehow ended up being really expensive. After dinner, we all went to Yar and Jan's place to play Rock Band, which is basically awesome. Our band name is Likkbällz, which should give you an idea of the maturity level of all the players. Despite some really stupid UI decisions, it's probably the most fun I've had with a game in a long time.

Throughout the weekend, I also played some other games, and watched a few movies: The Queen, which I thought was excellent, despite seeming on first glance to be the Boringest Movie Evar, Battlestar Galactica: Razor, which I also thought was really good, and got me really excited for the final season, and Babel, which I could appreciate as a piece of art and storytelling, but made me feel like puking, given the hopelessness of all of the stories. Plus, wtf was up with the Japanese girl? Her story really seemed tacked on to the movie.

And now it's back to the work week, counting down the days until Christmas vacation.

26...

Uploaded to Flickr on 25th November, 2007.

Not the most technically impressive photo, but it sure is purty.

Uploaded to Flickr on 24th November, 2007.

More shots from the evening here.

Happy Thanksgiving, cyberland! Amanda and I hosted a really nice Thanksgiving at her Dad's place in Oakland (sans her Dad...it's a long story). We had a bunch of friends over, and way too much food: three kinds of stuffing, two huge bowls of mashed potatoes, gravy, two kinds of cranberry sauce (including the log kind), spinach casserole, green bean casserole, three pies, and salad. I was in charge of the turkey, which turned out great, if I do say so myself. But just a little FYI for myself and anyone else thinking of roasting a turkey: there are giblet bags in both ends of the turkey. Also, the little bags they come in don't melt despite being in the oven for 3 hours.

...Or so I've heard.

Uploaded to Flickr on 20th November, 2007.

We're not exactly sure how it happened, but Amanda found Enzo's tooth on the floor. He doesn't seem too bothered, but I'm taking him to the vet tomorrow to be sure.

It's been quite a while since I've posted here. Let's see what's been happening. A slew of birthdays, so here's a belated birthday shout-out to: Jon, Sarah, Matt, Walter, Jan, Manish, and Joanne! Woo! Why so many November birthdays? Well, November minus 9 months is suspiciously close to a certain amorous holiday. I'm just saying...

Work-wise, things are going well, but I occasionally panic about how much is left for us to do before we ship. I'm sure it'll turn out great in the end, but seeing all of our remaining tasks laid out in a single, very long spreadsheet is enough to send even the most confident programmer into a tizzy.

As all of you know, it's Thanksgiving week. Due to unforeseen circumstances, I'm in charge of the turkey this year. I've helped with turkeys in the past, but never been solely in charge of one, so that's a good bit of responsibility on this Turkey-themed holiday. But I got a good recipe from Jan's sister, and honestly, turkeys are pretty hard to mess up, so it'll be okay. Or, as Buddy says, I'll just keep telling myself that.

Uploaded to Flickr on 4th November, 2007.

Tried something a little different with the post-processing.

As many of you don't know, today there are local elections for many counties in the area here. If you'd like to see what's up for vote in your county, check here. I know that it's not a big election day, but remember that today's local school board member can be tomorrow's President. (Okay, not literally tomorrow, but work with me, people.)

In a related note, I've never felt so ostracized for exercising my civic duty. The most common reaction I've gotten today from people seeing my "I Voted" sticker has been, "What the hell did you vote for?" The other reaction has been, "Yeah, I knew it was an election, but I don't really care." Sweet Jeebus.

Amanda was out of town this weekend for a conference, so I had the house to myself. And what did I do all weekend long? Why, the same thing every other self-respecting game programmer does: I played video games and ate Cheetos. A lot of Cheetos. I finally decided to give Grim Fandango another try, as last time it crashed so often that I got frustrated and gave up. This time, it still crashed a lot, but I stuck with it. I think I'm pretty near the end now, and I've really been enjoying it. I've also been cheating the hell out of it, which makes me feel a little bad, but honestly, I don't have as much gaming time as I used to, so I just want to get through the game, and spend less time figuring out obtuse puzzles.

However, playing Grim Fandango has rekindled my excitement for adventure games (they are pretty much the reason I'm in the games industry), and while going through my games, I realized that I have several adventure games that I never played, such as Quest For Glory 3 and 5, and Escape from Monkey Island. So maybe once I finish Grim Fandango and clean the Cheeto dust from the couch, I'll give those a go.

Besides Fandango-ing, we took Walter out Friday for his early birthday to Jump Sky High in Santa Clara, which was quite fun. I only played one game of trampoline dodge ball, but I spent the rest of the time bouncing around the big arena. Saturday night I peeled myself off the couch and made it over to Jan and Yar's to play some Zack and Wiki, which is being billed as an adventure game, but I would call more of a puzzle game. It was fun, nonetheless, but has the most half-assed multiplayer mode ever made: basically the other players can point to the screen with their Wii-motes and click to make a noise and an effect, but can't actually do anything. It probably took them about 10 minutes to implement.

Uploaded to Flickr on 4th November, 2007.

I saw Kezar nearly every day since I moved to San Francisco in July, laying on his doggy bed outside his house, never running away or bothering anyone, and enjoying the occasional head scratch from passers-by. He always seemed old, but he would still greet me with a tail wag when I walked by. In the past few weeks, though, his condition worsened, and there were some days he couldn't muster the strength to raise his head when I pet him. As I watched him grow thinner and weaker, I was amazed that he was still holding on, day after day. Amanda and I theorized that maybe his owners weren't quite ready to let go.

Saturday night, while I was out walking Enzo, I saw this memorial in the place where he usually lay on his bed. I went home and printed out my photo of him and left it. Kezar was a 6th Ave. fixture, and it's obvious that he'll be missed.

Uploaded to Flickr on 30th October, 2007.

Most of you have noticed already, but I uploaded my pictures from Hawaii. Check 'em out!