Adventures

NYC, 2024

I went to NYC for work as part of a three week trip to the US. This was the first week for a summit about prototyping. I really enjoy chatting with the other prototypers and listening to the talks. True to form for me I didn’t go to most of the talks live, instead listening to them at 2x later.

The first night I got in I just relaxed around the hotel. Monday I went to work, but most of the people I was hoping to meet with didn’t end up coming into the office. I had a great time that evening meeting Rotem and Evelyn for dinner at the same little taqueria that David took me too the last time I was in NYC.

Tuesday evening was a fun party at a indie arcade game bar. They also had karaoke, and I got to sing two of my go to songs. It was great fun watching everyone else do karaoke, and I was surprised at how good everyone was.

I took some time away from the proto summit to go to the accessibility summit, and presented some there as well.

Wednesday evening was great with a simple group dinner, with great conversations about the future of our work and how we were thinking about it.

I did a two hour game jam on Thursday with a partner, Xenia. We didn’t finish, and I chose the format poorly as the partially completed project wasn’t set up to run well. It was still amazing to get as far as we did, and I am pretty sure with three hours we could have completed our ambitious project.

Thursday we went to a show called the 20 Sided Tavern where they did D&D based improv. They had a great crew doing the improv and had good audience participation points. I had a great time with it and enjoyed getting to chat with the people who were there.

What would have been Week 98 in London.

November 5, 2024 0

Edinburgh Fringe 2024

The week started off with some Camden Fringe, in Islington. We went to a fun act of improv. They took Steph’s suggestion for a Greek Myth of “Why do platypuses exist?” It was decently well done, but the venue was amazingly hot the whole time, so it was harder to enjoy. I can’t imagine what it was like for the actors under the spotlights.

We got on a train Early Wednesday for Edinburgh. We had a nice lunch near the train station, and hung out in the park for a bit before heading to the Airbnb to check in. We saw the AI Improv again, and it hadn’t changed much, which disappointed me. I still enjoyed it. We saw two cabaret acts that evening The first was more lighthearted, and the second was more impressive.

Thursday we saw the show that Steph’s friend Michelle was in. It was a really touching and lovely show, and we went out to lunch afterwards with them, and it was great. We then saw an a capella group that was good, but not as good as last year. To be fair last year we saw one of the best in the world. I then saw Avenue Q, and it was amazingly well done.

Friday we had a lovely lunch, and then Steph and Michelle did some martial arts training in the Meadows. After training Steph and I went to YUCK circus which did a great job and had some good social commentary and meta commentary to go along with the show. We then met up with Michelle again to see La Clique, which was just as amazing as last year, if not more. They were checking ID at George Square before the Disney Villains Drag show, and Steph had forgotten her ID so we couldn’t get in.

Saturday Steph hung out with her sparring partner and I went to the sing-a-long show, which was a lot of fun. We had done two of the songs in choir, so I knew them really well. I was a little surprised by the song selection, as the show seemed targeted at kids, but the song selection was not. After that I did a short hike up Arthur’s Seat. The show 44 Sex Acts In One Week was much better than we were expecting. They had a large set of objects for doing the foley sound effects. It was really fun to see what they used for each sound effect. The show was hilarious with great character development, and story.

In the evening we went to a show called Ask a Stripper where two strippers did a quick strip then sat in the nude while taking questions about their careers. One of them had the strongest Scottish accent I’ve ever heard in person, and she went by the mononym Morag. It was an entertaining show for sure.

Sunday we had afternoon tea, then went to see a standup routine by Anna Akana called It Gets Darker. The comedy was dark, but well done. It was hard to laugh at points, despite the punchlines being delivered well. She did a little crowd work, and hyped Asian women, having them raise their hands. Then asked which ones were here with their white boyfriends, and that left just me and Steph. She then saw that I was in my Captain America shirt.

That evening I went on my own to a VR Musical. I was really impressed with the tech, and the MC did a really good job. The players were all over the place and didn’t really know how to use VR that well it seemed.

August 18, 2024 0

WSG Caving Weekend – Abby Music Room

Steph and I did a weekend at Caerllwyn with the younger members of the Westminster Speleological Group. We decided to do the cave Agen Allwedd (Aggy). Steph and I got in on Friday morning, and then she went off for a cave dive while I spent the day at the hut working on trip planning. I got a lot done, and was able to hang out with people as they got in.

Saturday we went to White Hall and hiked out to the entrance of Aggy. We had a group of 6 going to the Music Room (Nas, Jack, Roshan, Will, Steph, and I). It was a gorgeous hike, taking about 45 minutes. I started to overheat from it, as we were in our full cave gear. The entrance was pretty tight, but once we got to the main passage it opened up a lot and was a massive tunnel. We got back to the music room and saw the clay sculptures and music left out in it. On the way back we stopped by a gorgeous chamber called the Earth Chamber. It was a domed room with brightly colored striations in the rock. At the end of the main chamber we took a while to find the exit, but then we made our way out through the tight bits once more. I had a great time and got some great pictures of everyone.

After caving we had a cookout, with Nas grilling a bunch for everyone. The other group didn’t get back until around midnight, when I was already asleep.

July 14, 2024 0

Amsterdam with Tina

Steph and I took a long weekend in Amsterdam where we met up with Tina. We started early Friday morning with a train ride on the Eurostar. The train went through Brussels, to Antwerp, Rotterdam, then to Amsterdam. We had to get to the station about 45 minutes early to go through customs, but it wasn’t bad at all. We got to Amsterdam around noon.

We started out with the Canal Museum, which talked about the expansion of Amsterdam and the construction of the city how it is today. It was really interesting to hear and read about. The garden behind the house was also gorgeous. We then checked into the hotel and waited for Tina to arrive.

We went to dinner the first night once Tina got in and walked around the flower market before getting to a nice Indonesian place. It was really tasty and I enjoyed the variety of food. They had a plate with all sorts of dishes. We walked into the main park near where we were staying, but didn’t get very far.

The next day we grabbed breakfast at a cute little coffee shop before heading into the city a bit. We made our way to the Centraal Station and hopped a bus to a small town with lots of windmills, Zaanse Schans. It was an adorable area, and some of the windmills are setup to still run. We saw the sawmill moving, and got a demonstration of the mechanisms. We also go to tour the dye mill, and oil mill.

The town was adorable, and we toured through the cheese maker, the clog maker, the carpenter, and the weaver house. The whole town was adorable, and the weather was perfect.

We got a crowded bus back to Amsterdam, which took a long time due to traffic. We headed back and grabbed some frites. Steph and I had an amusing evening making AI music about Archer and Lana.

The next day we went to the Rijksmuseum. We grabbed breakfast at the cafe there, then wandered the museum. It is pretty big, but something that only takes one day. We made it through all the exhibits we cared about by the mid afternoon, and then headed back to the hotel for a rest. Tina wandered separately from Steph and I, but her interest was still captured by the same pieces. The monk meditating with an engine, the teapot split in two, the library, the angry swan, and the model ships.

We had a late lunch at the Carousel, a themed restaurant that had pancakes and waffles, which were delicious. We all had a bit of a food coma after that and relaxed at the hotel for a bit. Dinner was at an Algerian spot Stpeh noticed while we were walking around and it was interesting and tasty food.

Monday morning we had coffee with Tina and then said our goodbyes. Steph and I headed to the royal palace, which originally was the Amsterdam town hall. It is a gorgeous building, and it is a shame it isn’t a public building anymore.

Our train was delayed so the trip back to London didn’t go as smoothly as we’d hoped. We caught the later train back to London.

July 3, 2024 0

California Craziness

What would have been London weeks 79, 80, 81

I had an almost three week work trip to the SF Bay Area in CA, and it was interesting to say the least. I had four major things for work over those three weeks, and they thankfully went smoothly enough that I could handle it. However, it barely went smoothly enough.

I still had some time to have fun with people in California.

I got in Monday, and got to the hotel, taking it easy the first night. Tuesday we met at Shoreline Lake. I took the shuttle to a Safeway in Mountain View, then walked along one of the trains that led to the lake. I didn’t even realize that there was a concert until Michelle showed up on her bike and told me Michael was stuck in the traffic. Michael and Adam got in a little after that and we had a nice picnic by the lake.

Wednesday was games. I was giving demos late, so I grabbed to-go at Speedy’s and headed to George’s. We played some Mars, and remembered that I no longer want to play mutual solitaire games. Mars is great, but I’d like more interaction with the other people.

Thursday I went to dinner with Paul and Yutong at Crouching Tiger. We got so much magic chili, both tofu and prawn. It was delicious. Yutong also loved the London mug, and she passed over the gifts for Steph.

Friday I joined for Frosthaven, watching as they had one of the boss fights that was especially tough. They did a good job of exploiting the rules, but in a different way from how Steph and I did it. I worked on an AI song, getting the lyrics just right. It is another prototyper sea shanty, but Suno.ai has seriously improved their model.

Saturday I did laundry and walked around the Burlingame neighborhood near the airport hotels. It was nice, and I was able to get things from the pharmacy. I also picked up Steph’s computer from her parents.

On Sunday Michael and Michelle were hosting book club then a sushi making day. They had so much delicious sushi prepared. I epically failed on the first one and had my first sushi taco of the trip. After that we went to Palo Alto to see Tina perform. Lee was also there and it was good to see their dancing. It was fun to watch. I then walked into Palo Alto to try to buy a Vision Pro, which didn’t work out, then had dinner with Xiaomeng. We went way over the top in ordering, and I had my first overage of the trip on food expenses.

Monday was one of my chill days at work. But by chill I mean I didn’t have lots of meetings and demos to give. I still got a lot done. I also decided to make a game that evening, one that I’ve been thinking of for a while. It was a simple game where you start with four simple elements: Fire, Water, Air, and Rock. You then have to combine them to get to some crazy final goal. I started with the goal being a spaceship. I set it up to have AI give the results and give images for the results. It worked really well and took me a little less than 2 hours to make and beat.

Tuesday was more demos, then Pickleball. I really enjoyed playing with Paul, Michael, and Michelle. We played in a little park near the office that I hadn’t been to before. After that we went to dinner in Redwood City at Broadway Masala. It was just as good as I remember.

Wednesday was the big demo summit and I showed some of my work there. Then I met up with some of the team from Zurich for dinner before joining people at George’s for games. We played a more party game, but it involved no talking. I still enjoyed it a lot more as it was lots of interaction. We did really well, only losing once.

Thursday was the team meeting for design, then dinners. We went to downtown Palo Alto to drink afterwards.

Friday I took Mate and David S from work to Devil’s Canyon for beer and food trucks. We then walked my old neighborhood.

Saturday was more laundry, then heading to Paul and Yutong’s place in Sunnyvale to make Zhong Zhi, a sticky rice dumpling wrapped in leaves and boiled. It was so messy, but a lot of fun to make and eat. We were all sooo full by the end of it. I took some back to the hotel and ate it, but without a plate or utensils it looked like a murder scene afterwards.

Sunday I played FrostHaven with the group. It was fun. I got caught in a really bad situation when an unlikely event of the laser turrets firing really early happened. I then got slaughtered in a corner. The rest of them made it to the end and won. My sacrifice was not in vain.

Tuesday I met up with Steph’s parents and Jeff, Patty, and Elizabeth. They were great to see, and seemed to be doing really well. It was interesting to hear what Jeff and Patty have been doing since they’ve decided to not work for a while. We went to Pacific Catch and I had my second round of sushi tacos, but this time they were meant to be sushi tacos.

Wednesday was more dinner and games. We went to the vegan place, Merit, and then played Codenames. Nicole came by, and played for the first time. I really enjoyed the evening, and it solidified that I’m probably done with the mutual solitaire style games.

Thursday was just the flight back. It was mostly uneventful. Someone else from the London office sat next to me, and we chatted a bit.

June 21, 2024 0

Quick Trip to California

What would be London Week 76

Tuesday morning I jumped on the Piccadilly to the airport and took the 10 hour flight to California. I got in a little later than planned and decided to take public transit. The difference between public transit in the US and UK was stark as it took me 1.5 hours to make it to the hotel, with most of that time waiting between BART and CalTrain.

I got cleaned up and headed out to Mountain View to meet up with Michael, Michelle, George, Yutong, and Paul. We ate at Oren’s Hummus and had a great conversation. I was feeling the jetlag pretty badly by that point, and hopped the train back to the hotel. I specifically got a hotel close to CalTrain for that purpose, but it is probably not worth it. I’ll stay close to work next time and take the shuttles to wherever I want to be after work.

Wednesday I was able to get all the work done that I needed to, and then I took the shuttle to Sunnyvale. The shuttle system is amazingly fast and nice. Because it uses the carpool lane it was way faster than if I had driven on my own.

I met everyone at Speedy’s and had some of the nice bay area Mexican food, which is one of the only cuisines that London really doesn’t have. Then we headed back to George’s and just talked for the evening. Yutong showed off her new skills at making tshirts, and they were really nice shirts. She also baked some banana and peanut butter muffins, which were delicious. I was fading hard, and I got a ride back from Michael and Michelle.

Thursday was productive, but I didn’t meet up with many other coworkers before heading to the airport. I was able to sleep better on that flight than I ever had before on a flight. I got a solid 8 hours of sleep, and got back to some cuddly kitties!

May 17, 2024 0

NYC

What would be week 74.

I left early Monday for a work trip to NYC to meet up with my new team. I got in Monday afternoon and met up with David for some tacos and drinks. Then we met up with Hannah and got some amazing banana pudding. The three of us went for a lovely walk along the highline, but it was strange how close people’s places are to the walkway. I suppose it is better than if it had remained a train line.

Tuesday the London crew was up early, and I went for a run in Central Park with a few. It was amazing, and so much was blooming. That evening we had dinner with our new teams, but I crashed really early.

Wednesday was pretty relaxed, and we took the afternoon to play a game of 1000 boxes. It was a team building series of minigames. Our team ended up winning the mystery prize of a pineapple. It was fun. Eugenia was the MVP. We went for drinks at a crazy maximalist bar called Oscar Wilde. Getting to chat with everyone was amazing, and I really enjoyed the time there. Ata, his wife, and I went to see Jenna perform some Improv in Brooklyn. I got a suggestion from Jeimy to give and they accepted it: Antarctica. Jenna had the best skit of the night, and it was amazing.

Thursday was more intense, and I was able to sneak my way into the role I wanted. We had a prototypers dinner and then we split up to get some sleep before flying out the next day.

I met Hannah at her hotel at 5am, and we made it back, eventually.

April 27, 2024 0

Tromsø

Steph and I hopped the train to the airport where we were able to get in the lounge after waiting in line for a bit. The flight was mostly uninteresting, but we did see some aurora from the plane. It was hard to see out the window, and we didn’t have window seats. The woman in the window seat was nice enough to take a picture with my camera.

We got to the hotel, and it had an uneventful Friday. We went to the sauna in the marina, and that was really nice. The sauna has a huge window that looks out across the fjord at one of the mountains. I took a dip in the fjord, as did Steph. It was amazingly cold, but bearable with a pop back into the sauna.

Saturday we took the morning going dog sledding, which was amazing. The dogs were friendly and hilarious. There was a French couple who were guiding for the winter who showed us how to drive the sled. They let us drive the rear sled where the dogs followed the sled in front. It was still amazing to get to control the sled. The dogs loved rolling in the snow whenever we stopped.

That evening we took a bus to see the northern lights. It was cloudy in Norway so we had to drive through Finland and then cross a frozen river on foot into Sweden to get a good viewing spot. When we arrived we got a brief glimpse of strong activity that calmed down after about 30 minutes. Then we sat around a campfire and had some stew before heading back.

Sunday we went to the Polar Museum. It was mostly about hunting, and very rough living. They had lots of sexist views of women portrayed there, without disclaimers. They also had a full life sized diorama of baby seal clubbing, but that one had the disclaimer that they don’t do it anymore. It was a really morbid place.

Sunday evening we went to the Reindeer ranch kept by a group of Sami people. The Sami are the indigenous people of the far north of Scandinavia. The reindeer were cute, but some were pushy, and used their antlers to push you if you didn’t give them food quick enough.

We mainly stayed in for Monday and Tuesday, as it was still cloudy and we’d done everything we came to do. Wednesday we had a very early morning flight back.

March 14, 2024 0

Single Rope Technique (SRT) Caving Course

I took off Monday and Tuesday to train in SRT with the Wessex caving group. Their caving hut was pretty nice, and much larger than the WSG hut. They also had a tower set up for training purposes.

Sunday we met with Aga and she drove us to the Wessex Hut near Bristol. The trip was a harrowing experience, as it was amazingly windy, crazy rain, and very dark. Along the route there were 4 instances where a small tree or large branch was in the middle of the road, but in every case we could swerve around it. The hut was nice and warm as Michael had gotten there before us. We were the only people sleeping in the hut, which could hold probably 40 people.

Monday was mostly about learning the techniques on the tower. It was a pretty crazy day for weather. Some blue sky, some downpours, and two instances of hail. At the top of the tower the wind was blowing hard, and during the hail, one went into my ear. It was a lot of learning, but we got comfortable with it.

At the end of the day we headed to one of the small, nearby caves to do a small test in the actual cave environment. It went really well, and it was nice to be out of the wind. We saw a small bat in the cave, and it was pretty cute.

Tuesday morning we went to Hunter’s hole, after it stopped pouring rain. We had multiple pitches and there were a few larger chambers with some nice formations. Steph helped to derig on the way out, and everything went smoothly.

We cleaned up and then drove back to London, getting back pretty late.