I know this sounds highly, highly improbable, but it turns out that I’m a lot more efficient and effective when I’m a couple hundred miles away from my home office. I’m only checking my email and the web occasionally, when I’m glomming onto some terminal or the free WiFi at the Soho Apple Store (where I am right now, actually), so instead of surfing and then looking up to curse as I discover a couple of hours have disappeared, I’m actually working. Which means that, gods willing, I’ll be able to roll out a couple of projects this week.
And, YES, I successfully tracked down my very own Canon Digital Rebel. This camera rocks. I finally picked it up late last night at a Circuit City here in New York (the Apple Store was woefully out of stock), and I intend to give this baby a workout this week. Snapshots at the Met, coming right up.
My birthday was pretty cool, actually. I wound up working in a coffeeshop for a good chunk of the day, which makes me feel great because, as I noted above, my productivity is skyrocketing, and I’m getting a lot done. Longtime to-do list projects getting crossed off left and right. This is great. I goofed off in a neat comic shop downtown (Forbidden Planet, which I think is another instance of the same chain of geekery shops I used to hang out in over in London), chilled in a Barnes and Noble to review the latest Print Regional Design Annual (checking out the competition, you know), went to dinner with Kate and then – and this was one of the coolest things I’ve done here – went to a party at Kate’s friends’ house. Not a birthday party, mind you, but a “It’s a Rocky Horror Christmas, Charlie Brown!” party. Kate’s friend Kevin took a script of A Charlie Brown Christmas and inserted all kinds of audience participation moments, complete with throwing styrofoam peanuts in the air for snow and alluding loudly to Linus’ penchant for prom dresses. It was a hoot – and I even have a copy of the script to run copies for anyone else that wants to try it. (Shannon, I know you’d love this!)
So, yes. Good birthday. The new Dreamsbay site is an enormous step closer to being done. And I have a kickass new camera. So far it’s been a great weekend in New York City. Onward!
Storyteller, scholar, consultant. Loving son, husband and father. Kindhearted mischief-maker.
I'm the Director of the Games and Simulation program at Miami University in Ohio, where I am also an Assistant Professor in the College of Creative Arts' Emerging Technology in Business and Design department. I'm also the director of Miami's Worldbuilding and Narrative Design Research Laboratory (WNDRLab). I have a Master's in Comparative Media Studies from MIT and a PhD in Media Arts and Practices from the University of Southern California.
In past lives I've been the lead Narrative Producer for Microsoft Studios and cofounder of its Narrative Design team, working on projects like Hololens, Quantum Break and new IP incubation; in a "future of media" think tank for Microsoft's CXO/CTO and its Chief Software Architect; the Creative Director for the University of Southern California's World Building Media Lab and the Technical Director, Creative Director and a Research Fellow for USC's Annenberg Innovation Lab; a Visiting Assistant Professor at Whittier College and director of its Whittier Other Worlds Laboratory (WOWLab); the Communications Director and a researcher for the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab; a founding member of the Convergence Culture Consortium at MIT (now The Futures of Entertainment); a magazine editor; and a award-winning short film producer. more »
The opinions put forward in this blog are mine alone, and do not reflect the opinions of my employers.
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