Monday, June 16, 2003

I went to a birthday party for one of Beej's co-workers this weekend in Half Moon Bay. According to Beej, this guy's family comes over to their office and cooks for the entire office for three straight days. Gourmet stuff, like wild salmon for lunch and scones for breakfast, that type of thing. He's got about an acre of land and a rustic cabin-type house on it. The house contains a THX-rated home theater with full-size theatrical projection screen. In the garage is a late-model corvette and several high-end racing bikes. He manned the grill and made some of the tastiest tequila-lime-marinated chicken I've ever tasted. All these people are video game programmers, artists, and designers, and they are the creme-de-la-creme of the computer geek world. They tend to be more accomplished with a bit more savoir-faire than the people I work with. Most of them are pretty good-looking and they tend to travel a lot, speak multiple languages, and have really cute Japanese girlfriends. Indeed, there were a great many Japanese women there, dressed in outfits that probably cost more than most of my wardrobe and sometimes accompanied by adorable dogs. They're incredibly gutsy: a lot of them tried dirtbike-riding for the first time without a second thought. Many of them found out that it's nowhere near as straightforward as it looks, but nevertheless, they all did amazingly well for people who've never ridden a bike before. So, if you've ever suspected that people who make video games for a living have more fun than you do, you're right. Not only that, but they probably make a lot more money and are smarter than you are, too. :) 7:20:29 AM