Monday meanderings

I haven’t updated the old blog for awhile, apologies for that! This GTA “Hot Coffee” bullshit that is going on has really gotten sand in my trousers, let me tell you. What makes me upset is the assertion that the ESRB rating was not proper – however, it is somewhat common to patch out portions of a game at the last minute which don’t pass muster for a particular ESRB rating. In that sense, it’s exactly like movie studios leaving scenes on the cutting room floor in order to achieve a PG-13 rating. The fact that someone discovered a way to hack the code and flip the bit that blocked the Hot Coffee scene shouldn’t be Rockstar’s responsibility.
Last week Robin Hunicke and Doug Church suggested throwing a sushi/sake party at my loft – of course! by all means! So we did that on Saturday, and it was really fun. We purchased a crazy amount of japanese food from the supermarket in Japantown, then attempted to prep and cook (or not cook) and eat as much of it as possible, along with about 8 other game industry friends. It was a lot of fun thinking about the party setup, and observing what needs arose that I wasn’t prepared for (I *really* need to buy some good knives). The evening ended with not enough sake drunk, so my fridge still looks like I’m a total arukohoriku. At the end there were four of us left playing DDR until the wee hours. My arches are still sore. 🙂 Thanks Robin and Doug, that was a great idea!! Now we have to do it again so we can finish up all that food we have left. 😉
I’m still feeling sick, from the virus I got three weeks ago or so. Last night I remembered how the illness I got just after moving to the San Francisco Bay area seemed to hang on forever as well. I visited three different doctors plus a Chinese medical doctor at that time, trying to sort out what was going on. Eventually I realized it was my allergies going crazy, just not a virus. But I haven’t had significant allergy problems since my cat passed away, so I’m a bit puzzled as to why they’re acting up now. So I’m back on the Claritin as of this morning. Hopefully it’ll help. 🙂