Tag Archives: college

Mar 16 2009
Games

Full Disclosure: My link to Dead Space in two circular degrees

So I’m twittering about my experiences playing the game Dead Space.  Awesome game, highly recommended.  I’m on my second play through.

But, back to the I get a follow (on twitter) from someone I don’t recognize, but don’t really think anything of it until I check out who it is.  Turns out it’s the Environmental Art Lead for Dead Space.  So he shows me a couple of things I missed and then I notice a name I think I recognize.  It’s the guy that lived in our group house for a couple of weeks, a friend of one of my roommates.

I do some additional research and well, he is the same artist that painted the triptych sitting in my bedroom, awaiting framing.  He painted them 13 years ago as a thank you for letting him stay.

And he did UI design for Dead Space.

Small world, indeed.

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Jan 29 2009
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There is only one

I can recall it, not clearly, but I can recall it.  It comes, through the haze of a decade, through the rose tinted lens of nostalgia.

The memory comes not easily, but in tiny parcels, piecemeal, like the slow striptease of a lover.

I recall the November chill in the air, the warmth of the coat on my shoulders, and the reassuring weight of the the sword at my belt.

I remember thinking it was going to be an interesting night.

The night in question is one of those ideas from another era.  Let’s blindfold my roommate for his 21st birthday, take him to a public place, then draw live steel swords and then have a man dressed up as the pope stop the fight.

I’m really glad that we had the foresight to videotape it.

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Dec 19 2008
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Birth of a Washingtonian, part II

In all the rush, I never even said goodbye to my parents.  I arrived at National alone.  It was the old National then–an unused practically abandoned airport with an outdated terminal, even though it’s an entirely different airport, I still call it national.

The humidity was a shock, having lived in California for my entire life.  I shed my jacket as soon as I got outside.

I took a cab in to the city, marveled at the Potomac at night and the Kennedy center reflected on the black river.  I still hold that the District is the most majestic in the evening, either lit up by fireworks or by conventional means.  DC, when I picture it, and describe it to others, is always in the evening.

I saw the the washington monument and the white house and a few executive buildings.  Later, I would find out that the cab driver took the long way around so that he could charge me more zones.

And thus began my college education. Continue reading →

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Dec 12 2008
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Birth of a Washingtonian

College really wasn’t an option for me.

Not that it was an impossible thing.  My parents were going to make sure that I went to college.  It was not an option in the fact that it was always assumed that I was going to go.  It was only a matter of where.

Even though we didn’t have enough money to repair a water heater, my parents were going to send me to a private college, not a state school.

That could have saved us some money, but I ended up applying to ridiculous colleges, like Georgetown.  I never really had my heart set on anywhere, so I employed the “shotgun” approach to my application process.  My SAT scores and high school transcript were enough to get me accepted everywhere.

I never had my heart set on anywhere.  Privately, what I was looking for was a way to make the financial burden easier on my parents.  My ultimate decision was American University, primarily because they offered me a good scholarship.

I joked that American was the furthest away from my parents I could get without leaving the country.

My parents said that they could take care of the rest and I had to believe them.

The next thing I know, I’m hopping a plane to Washington DC.

Well, more accurately, I’m late running through a San Diego airport terminal, to board a plane to Washington DC.  This occurred in 1993.  This is an alternate history America where they could open a door after it’s already been shut to let a last minute passenger in.

Even a brown one.

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