March 2005 Archives

San Francisco

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Some random SF photos...

Brian and I went to a number of "cultist" vegetarian restaurants while we were in Oakland and SF. Most are run by people who revere some Grand Elightened Master (or somesuch), and it's all pretty creepy. Despite that, they have huge menus that are totally vegetarian, even though they don't seem like it. I had a "turkey club" that was disturbingly accurate. We also rode on a streetcar for the full SF experience.

I took a few pictures Thursday night that turned out kind of cool, even though they're a bit blurry.

I generally hung out near the convention center. They, strangely, had an enclosed carousel nearby.

The W hotel (and its cheezily-named "XYZ" bar) were nearby, as was the Empire Strikes Back-looking Mariott hotel.

The Museum of Modern Art is right next to the W hotel, and it had a huge wire sculpture of a sleeping human on its roof.

While we were walking around this crazy car drove by with all sorts of skulls attached to it drove by, but no one managed to get a photo of it. Five minutes later, we walked by it in a parking spot!

Near the hotel there was a strange building with blacked out, boarded up windows...but it had all sorts of strane, warped, Dali-esque couches and clocks sticking out of the windows.

Friday night, after the conference, Kent, Kristine, and I went over to the Golden Gate Bridge since I'd never seen it, and then went out to dinner at the Firecracker Cafe (which was delicious). And it only took us 1 cab, 3 busses, 1 trip on BART, and about a mile's walk!

And finally, the men of GDC, featuring Dave, Kent, and Ricardo...

GDC 2005

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The Game Developers Conference was last week out in San Francisco. I had a great time, even though most of the talks I went to weren't particularly inspiring.

We stayed at the Best Western Americania, which was a little oasis of gaudiness admit the destitution and construction of 7th street.

The highlight of the show was Will Wright's talk and his demoing of Spore, his new game. Sadly they booked a far-too-small room for his keynote, and it was packed. More info and screenshot on Spore can be found here.

I took some photos around the Moscone convention center. Here's a fun game: try to find a girl!