Month: March 2014

Lots of Changes

So, bunch of stuff has happened recently. The biggest weird thing is that I’m no longer part of Self Aware Games or Big Fish. Reflective Games, which was what we were calling ourselves with the new studio, is no more, and that whole experience is behind me. There’s really not much else I can say about that. I loved the teams, and I loved the people I worked with over the last five years.

One thing that I’m really looking forward to, though, is spending more time with J & K. K’s starting to almost talk – he says “Banoon!” for balloon. Also for moon. “Ba!” for Ball. He’s got Mama & Dada most of the time. He *loves* to play with balls. To throw them, to catch them, to bounce them. He’s got this great thing, too, when he’s really excited, where his legs just pogo – you know if he’s really happy when you pick him up, because his legs do this: || <> || <> it’s adorable.

J’s really becoming his own person. He’s going through so much as he grows up – he used to love dinosaurs – would obsess over them, read about them, wanted to do almost nothing else but learn about dinosaurs – and one day, it all stopped. It’s taken a while, but I think that the root of the change was that no one else at his daycare liked dinosaurs, and either he got made fun of, or he didn’t want to be different. Which is really sad. I’ve been trying to convince him that it doesn’t matter what the other kids like, and that if he wants to learn about dinosaurs, we can do that at home as much as he wants. But I think there’s just that peer pressure that’s hard to avoid. We’re also building some pretty complicated Lego sets together. It’s really interesting to me, because when he’s in a good mood, and can focus on it, he’s quite adept at matching up the pieces, finding them, putting the thing together. But you can *see* him get tired doing it, and how he stops paying attention or stops caring. Which is fine – I’m not trying to pressure him into anything (at least not consciously, though I’m sure I am to some degree) – but it’s fascinating to watch him go from excited to having his mind wander off, and then come back to it.

Been going to a bunch of trackdays at Sonoma Raceway, Thunderhill, and Laguna Seca. It’s been a blast. It’s sort of like bouldering in many ways – the track is a problem, and you’ve got to figure out the best way around it. Each corner is a challenge, and there are many different circumstances that dictate the best way to tackle it. You get a lot of visceral physical feedback when you’re doing it right (and wrong). I feel like I’ve learned a LOT, and that every time I go to the track, I get a noticeable step better/faster. It’s also a really fun way to hang out with people – gives you a lot to talk about in between sessions. There are a bunch of folks I know who want to do this sort of thing, and are held back by their car, or the thought that you need previous experience or whatever. You don’t need a crazy car. You don’t need previous experience. There are SO many people who go to these things where it’s clearly a “bucket list” item that they’ve dreamt of for ages. Why wait? Just do it now. That way if you really love it, you get to do it even more!

Anyway. Yeah – kids. Work. Or no work, rather. That’s about all that’s up so far.