CIMIT, Second Life, and Snow

My trip to Boston for the CIMIT Innovation Congress was AWESOME! I had a really great time. We arrived at our hotel, right near Copley Square, rather late at night, only to discover how early our next morning was going to be. Alison and I shared a beautiful hotel room with an amazing view of the nighttime Boston glow. We woke up a few short hours later and the city looked just as it did when we arrived. 5am is so damn early, but we were all energetic and ready to start the day.

For all of my time spent in Boston, I have never been to or even noticed the Back Bay Events Center. What a gorgeous place! Far within the deep corners of the Events Center was our section called Power of Virtual Experience. There were other representatives demoing video games for health, and the congress as a whole put video games in a new light for me. I was demoing Maxis' Spore at the congress, and had a hard time finding a direct link to health and medicine like the other demos of Brain Voyage and Trauma Center had until I had one conference-goer bring some really interesting ideas to light. There was one woman in particular named Deborah D. Navedo who asked me questions about what sorts of physiological responses would come from a game like Spore. I had never thought of how our bodies react to more casual games; I always focused on how high stress games affect our physical responses. This got my mind walking down so many new paths that I look forward to exploring. I'm hoping to further experiment with sensory experiences in video games later on. I had a great time meeting new people and explaining the value of video games to their professional fields. I hope they learned as much from me as I did from them.

After the conclusion of the CIMIT congress, Kent Quirk from Linden Labs invited us to his Boston office for a tour and an interesting discussion about the game industry and Linden Labs' very own Second Life. Kent has a lot of faith in students, and his belief in us, like Ann's, brings up my morale and encourages me to continue forward in this field. Looking at his company space in Boston and talking about the industry in this particular city revamped by ideas about working in the Boston area upon graduation. I truly cannot wait.

The ride home was a fun time. Giggly from lack of sleep, we chatted all the way home, coming up with grand ideas of gypsie life and laughing at our own creativity. It started to snow somewhat heavily while reaching the middle of Vermont. There was a slight dusting on the ground, too, but Burlington shows no sign of snow. If the weather continues like this I do believe we will have a white Halloween this year.

Oh, wow. I don't even have my costume ready.

A Recap

I haven't posted in a while, mostly due to the fact that Serge was here for the past week and any ounce of free time I had was mostly spent with him.

The EMC Open House was wonderful. There were a lot of uplifting conversations and speeches, and I had a great time mingling and meeting new people. It amazes me how the EMC started just two years ago with a single work study. It has grown immensely since then.

I have almost completed my first texture endeavor with my most recent Maya project that is due tomorrow, and I just might post a few renders soon.

I've got a UN project deliverable on Wednesday, and I'm leaving Tuesday night for the CIMIT conference!

More and more craziness.

Craziness!

There are so many exciting things happening that it is difficult to keep track of them all.

The UN project concept is really becoming fleshed out. Lauren and I, after much consultation with faculty and friends, have figured out a way that these pieces finally fit together nicely. There was recently a Game Politics article about the project, and of course its comments included only criticisms. I had to fight the urge to not post my own reply. It can be frustrating to read sometimes, but it is completely understandable.

I recently got business cards for the EMC Open House this coming Tuesday. A lot of the excitement for this wonderful event comes from the fact that Serge will be there with me, and I can show him what I'm doing. The EMC does such amazing things for us students, and they work so hard for us. I'm incredibly thankful to be a part of what is going on there. Big game companies are going to be at this open house, and I have no words to express how excited I am. EA,

School work and projects and such seem to have taken a slight hiatus this past week, but I can feel it all coming back for next. The CIMIT conference is coming up, and we had our first meeting for that. I am so excited to be a part of that trip. We get to present games for health to medical professionals (and I mean BIG medical pros) in Boston. I'm really happy to be picked for that.

Women in Technology Club has its first speaker on Monday! We welcome Sam Hyde to talk to us about her doctorate in Cellular Crystallography. I look forward to that, and to hearing whether or not our proposal to become an official club went through.

MIGS IS SOON! And I'm going. And one of my professors is penalizing me for missing her class -_-. I think it will be well worth it.

I got Dead Space yesterday. Oh. My.

Harry Potter is coming to life. Thanks to Cory Livingston for showing me this article and making my heart leap. 5 years is nothing!

The day after tomorrow brings the start of absolute bliss.

It's In The Air

Just a few moments ago I walked through my door after a wonderfully quick walk home from Spinner Place. There is something about the late night/early hours of the night that make the stars shine just a bit brighter and the cool air become that much more bearable. I walked back with friends, and the conversation and excitement of adventure shook away my sleepiness. In my opinion, Loose Fit Friday (aka Fancy Friday but with pajamas and breakfast food for dinner) was a great success, and I look forward to the future Fridays to come. More and more I feel as though this is a place I want to be in.

Things with the UN project are up in the air. Amanda Crispel graciously offered to meet with Lauren and me about our concept, and she was an excellent critic. She pointed out some incredible and overbearing flaws with our design, and I am thankful to have our concept torn apart early on in the process. Lauren and I are back at the drawing board now, and our most recent meeting with Heather Kelley tells us we're running out of time. In just TWO WEEKS we have a conceptual deliverable, so we've got to get going on the conceptualizing once again. Lauren went away for the weekend, so we're brainstorming in the "divide and conquer" method. Amanda offered some excellent ideas and directions, and I'm trying not to get too locked into them. There are so many restrictions on this design, so it is difficult to find a way to fit all of the pieces together. Right when I thought we had the puzzle pieces together nicely, I've only come to be shown that we crammed the wrong ones together, and the picture on the pieces isn't quite what we need.

I'll be finalizing the Women in Technology Club proposal and budget plan for the year, as well as writing my Player Driven Game Design environment document and presentation for next week.
With all the work piling up, counting down the days until Serge arrives is the light at the end of the tunnel. 9 days left!

Musical Late Nights

I've found the ultimate trick to rejuvenating my mind and my morale: listen to crazy epic classical movie soundtrack/game music and then Can't Take It In by Imogen Heap. She reminds me of how beautiful everything in this world is. "It couldn't be anymore beautiful," as she would say. Harry Gregson-Williams and Winifred Phillips are two of my favorites as far as crazy epic music goes.

Our concept for UN is really moving forward now. There are a few bumps in the road, but we're working it all out. There's been some word of a wonderful new artist on the team, and my excitement grows tenfold with every meeting we have.

In a previous post I talked about how rare it is that I get the chills. On Monday I realized a potential reason for why that is. In class we watched Eroica, the BBC film about Beethoven's creation of his third symphony, and by the end of it I was convinced that I either a) had a cold or b) love this symphony because on at least 12 occasions I got goosebumps. It made me fall back in love with classical music again. When I was about 7 my uncle Randy got me a kids cd that was a bunch of great classical composers. I wish I remembered the name of it.

I'm hopped up on caffeine and it's almost 1am. I had to make some sacrifices in order to survive a three hour lecture on UV mapping and texturing. Probably one of the only doozies in my life that I am more than willing to endure.

Somehow 1am turned into 3am. Staying up was worth it, though.

Imagine There's No Country

I've never really understood how apathy works -- how a person can look into the eyes of another, see their emotions and their troubled thoughts, and feel nothing. My awareness of the world recently has brought me to a point where I can no longer forget about those emotions and troubled thoughts. I haven't been at the point where I can no longer care about others' feelings, and I think the awareness of it is tearing me apart at times. I take too many risks now, try to open others up, because I am an open book and I sometimes expect others to be too. It's unfair of me.

Sigur Ros is playing and taking me through the motions, and tonight it brings only detriment. This band reminds me of spending time with Serge, and with so many things on my plate, I cannot think about what is to come. He's a Night Stalker now with a red beret, and that means serious business. We thought he'd be here in a week, but the Army always has other plans. Fear has slowly been replacing pride, and I am so very proud of him. But I just can't think of what is to come.

Aminata Toure was here a few days ago, and everything Ann told us about her was right. Her prescence is powerful, and her intelligence radiates throughout the room. I'll never forget when she told us that she was from Senegal, but corrected herself saying, "But in the UN we have no nationality." To me, right now, that sounds like heaven.