Travel in Hope and Pain

I've managed to wangle a trip to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco California. Not quite sure how I did it, but very pleased to be going. Anyhoo, we made trip today. We started in Humberside airport at 5:00 am and thence (posh prose) we moved  on to Amsterdam.

Starting from Schipol

"The Dammed" assemble

The plane was full. And I mean full.  And since it was the "nerd express" to the conference everybody had used their internet skills to bag all the best seats by booking online. This meant that there was not a tall seat for Rob. The cabin staff were very sorry. I was even sorrier.

Legoom, KLM style

There should be a rule requiring airlines to hold the legroom seats for tall blokes like me who really need it. Perhaps I should start an e-petition... Mind you, winging about slightly uncomfortable seats on a free trip to California sounds a bit rich to me, so perhaps I'll keep quiet.

The girl in the window seat took a picture for me

Anyhoo, we got there OK and on time, and had a smooth taxi ride to the hotel.

First view of SF

We are going to freshen up (whatever that means) and then go for a wander round town. For the first time ever, I'm staying in a city with a proper middle (as opposed to a bunch of malls) and so it should be fun.

Kitchen Orchids

The Orchids in the kitchen are doing well

Durham Roses

I just liked the colours.

Pirates Ahoy

Went to see number one daughter play tonight. Actually,didn't see her play at all, since she was in the orchestra pit at the York University Gilbert and Sullivan Society production of Pirates of Penzance.

The PR machine

Now, as you all probably know, I'm not really one for culture. I remarked, as we were listening to what I now know to be the overture, "Aren't there supposed to be singers in this..."

Anyhoo, the production was excellent. It is surprising how many of the songs have found their way into my head over the years. It was great to see the performers enjoying themselves as much as the audience. Actually there is not much of a story to the show, it is more a collection of sketches and songs and a bit of shameless pandering to Queen Victoria at the end. But that didn't get in the way of the fun. I took the tiny camera and grabbed a few snaps.

Pirates!

Ladies!

The model of a modern Major General....

The Police

The happy ending....

Repeat Offenders

We had another open day today. Some of the candidates that turned up had been at our earlier one in November. I fretted a bit about using the same appalling jokes as on their earlier visit, so I took special care to add some new and untried material to my bit. Oh well. Although the ET joke seemed to go down OK. Thank you for coming folks, and I hope you all enjoyed the day.

I also went up town first thing, and took the little camera. The light was very good.

Right in the middle of Queen Victoria Square. What are the chances eh?

View from the car park

Game On with Bing

Yesterday we went off to London courtesy of Electronic Arts, who had arranged an all expenses paid (perhaps my favourite three words) trip to the Game On exhibition at the Science Museum with free beer (perhaps my favourite two words) and a talk from Bing Gordon, EA's Chief Creative Officer.

Just before we boarded the magic bus

We set off at 10:30 prompt, bound for London. The M1 was kind to us, so we got to the big city in good time. I'd taken the big camera, so it was time to go off and take some snaps.

The Natural History Museum looking good

We piled into the tube and took a ride up to Oxford Street.

Oxford Circus

Fruit and Veg

Then, at 6:30 the doors opened and it was, quite literally, Game on.

EA had set up some gamer pods around the museum. That big shiny thing at the back is the wing of a Spitfire plane.

Bigging Up Bing

First up was the talk from Bing Gordon. Very interesting. Some good comments about life, followed by some more specific discussion of video games.

Health note: these are pulled from my recollections, if anyone who was there remembers differently then I apologise in advance.

From the life point of view:

• Find out what you really enjoy doing and then try to get to do that as your day job.
• Don't be afraid to fail.
• Set yourself big goals (but make them testable so that you can decide when/whether you reach them)
• Maximise your learning opportunities
• Set very high standards and give everyone who fails to meet them a really hard time. There is nothing more demoralising than a boss who accepts poor quality work.

This is all good stuff. For me what was also interesting was that one of Bing's heroes is a chap called David Ogilvy. He was an advertising executive who ran some of the most successful campaigns of all time and went on to set up one of the largest Ad agencies in the world. I remember reading one of his books a long time ago (I've always found the advertising field fascinating) and I would advise you to take a look as well. Then the talk turned to games. More from Bing:

• Games are becoming hobbies (people play them in the same way that they would build model railways, or go fishing)
• Games are including things like searching, trading and community..
• .. and search engines and other tools are starting to behave like games
• By around 2012 we can look forward to movie level realism in games

There was a very good question and answer session at the end, and then the doors to the Game On exhibition were thrown open and it was time to get in there and start playing.

..but first a drink

Game On indeed

Not the kind of high score I'd take a picture of, but there you are

Jon Purdy gets back to basics

One of my all time favourites, Ridge Racer

Not sure quite what this is, but it looks fun.

I used to own quite a few of these....

Then, at 10:00 we all clambered onto the magic bus and headed back to Hull (I had a kind of bet with David Byrne from EA that all our students would turn up on time - and they did. Kudos guys).

Many thanks to the highway engineers who added around an hour to our journey back just because they wanted to play with their big Meccano near one of the bridges. I finally managed to hit the sack around 4:30 am, just as the birds were starting to sing. But it was a good trip.

Thanks to EA for setting it up and making us so welcome.

Snow on the Road

..and so there is

New Year at Hornsea

First, a happy new year to both my readers. At Chateau Miles, we have been know to celebrate the arrival of a new calendar by heading off to the seaside at Hornsea. Today the weather looked reasonable, and so we set out. On the way there it seemed like a bad idea, in that we drove along underneath some very nasty looking clouds and the odd smattering of rain.

But when we got to the coast it was wonderful. It was very blustery, but this really seemed to blow out the cobwebs at the start of the year. It was also pretty busy, and one or two valiant souls had actually gone for a paddle. I'd taken the big camera, and so I took a bunch of snaps.

New Year seaside

Arcadia

Lights

Early Riser

A nice way to start the day

York Under Water

We went to York today, the weather was nice, but bits of the city were under water.

York city wall

The top of Micklegate (I think)

We used to park the car near here

The river is a lot wider at the moment....

Early but not bright

Went into Hull at 7:00 am this morning. Not because of some confusion updating the clocks (that was weeks ago) but to review the papers for BBC Radio Humberside. I've been doing this for a while, and I usually take the camera in case any nice photo opportunities arise.

Early Hull looking good

I managed to muddle my way through the reviews OK (note to self, you seem to run a bit slow on Mondays - go for other days of the week in future) and with a bit of luck they'll ask me back so I can get up early all over again.

Make your own jigsaws

My first ever test..

Moosaic lives! I'm about to embark on a new project and so I'm going round finishing off some old ones. And the first result of this is that you can now download my Moosaic program. This lets you create image jigsaws out of your Flickr pictures and then get them printed onto little bits of card. Fun for all the family and just in time for Christmas..

Find out more here.

Barcelona by bus and foot

Done a lot of walking today. And a lot of top deck bus riding. After we had signed in at the conference centre we went on a tour of the city by open top bus. We took in the cathedral, which is the most impressive building site that I've ever seen, and Guadi park, which was very nice. Also a whole bunch of other, highly interesting, places which are all shut on a Monday. I've put a bunch of pictures up on Flickr. No doubt I'll take more.

Cathedral spires

Tomorrow the work starts for real.

Pictures of Hull

I like the roof of this arcade

Fancy a burger?

Sunset and Steak Pies

We went out for tea tonight. On the way to the Ferguson Fawcett in Walkington (they do really good food) we went past a rather nice sunset.

Worth going out for

Hull Fair

We went to Hull Fair tonight. We tried to go last year but it was pretty much full. So this time we set out early. We took the camera along, but minimal funds - just to be on the safe side.

The Freak Out ride. Scary, and one of the smaller ones

I just love the classy artwork on this one.

More "Hook a Pooh" than "Hook a Duck"

What you win if you aren't careful

I think this is my favourite fair picture

The one ride I actually went on. Note the attractive price and the fact that it does not seem capable of leaving the ground.

Or not

Look carefully. I'm third from the left. Yeah. Right.

We managed to escape only nine pounds down on the trip. But a cuddly monkey, four donuts, some nougat and some peanut brittle up. And it was a great night.

Foggy Morning

A bit foggy this morning. But sunny. Fortunately I had the camera with me....

A view across the sports field

A walk through the woods....

The back of our large lecture theatre

Just some trees

The back of our building

I love autumn.

Pinball Wizardry

I'm going to have to have a go at taking some pictures as good as these.

Hi for Collectormania

And so it was another Sunday of rising at 4:30 am and the zooming off down the motorway to mingle with the stars and buy silly bits of overpriced plastic at the Collectormania in Milton Keynes. We've been going to these for a while, initially to meet up with hobbits and the like, but now more likely to have a drift around the many stands selling all sorts of stuff. Of course I took a camera (or two)

..of course it is cool - I'm there

Maggie Grace signs her name

Amber Benson tries to get us to sign it for her

They have Krispy Kreme donuts at Milton Keynes now. "A heart attack with a hole in it". And free samples. Yay!

It was very tempting, but it wouldn't fit in our toilet and 60 quid is a bit expensive. I've no idea what the thing on the right is.

Then it was back into the car to trundle back to Hull.

Shiny Doncaster

Went to Doncaster today for a presentation. The university has a relationship with Doncaster College, where we accredit two of their degree courses. The students are based and taught at Doncaster but we award the degree.

Anyhoo, I went down to say hello to the Business Computing crew and give a presentation about final year projects. They are a nice bunch and the talk seemed to go OK, although I may have spoiled the atmosphere a little by telling the undertaker joke right at the end.

The brand new Doncaster campus is very shiny - and this is just the back of the college