Moon walks and moon talks...

I think that my previous post was pretty lame, since, to be honest, it does nothing but to describe a bunch of "blah" events... they do seem blah because I wrote in a hurry and there is no emotion to them... yet for me it's a good compilation of what went on, and thus I can remember the cool part of those events...

Yet it's nice to say that the camp was pretty cool because I got to meet this guys, and had pretty interesting talks with a couple of them. Like most international students I have know they are pretty nice people, you learn to be open like that when you are on a new country... you need allies after all.

Right now I am waiting for Sandra and Daniel to come back to the apartment, and so we can go out to a "nice jazz night"... it will be fun, I am worried because I have some work to do for the tec, but I am aswell sure that it will be done either way, so I might aswell enjoy my time... I won't sleep probably, but it won't be the last time I do that. Actually, last night I couldn't fall asleep... I have all this ideas on my mind... It's nice... I like it... but it's hard... I wasn't anxiety what I felt, yet there was enough information running through my brain that it just couldn't get into "sleep mode"...

(by the way, I went to yet another comic books store, and I found yet again a bunch of comics that you don't easily get in mexico, including a couple of sandman figures - of dream himself- and things of the sort... I wonder if I'll have any money by the end of my stay to be able to buy all that nonsense).

So monday... wow... the dawn of an old era I must say for real...

On monday morning I woke up at about 8, and took off the house with Daniel rather early, we had a very good cup of coffee in a nice coffee shoppe, and then took the bus. That bus drove me to BioWare, my 1st time in a real video game company... and not just "any" company, there is a reason why this guys get this amount of awards after all.

I was nervous and terribly excited... when I walked in there... man... that was something... as you walk in you see a stand with tons of prizes and awards, the nice lady registered me, and then daniel walked me down a corridor. To my left was a huge stand that had all sorts of books related to art, human body, architecture, writting and all those things... -those are the books we no longer use- daniel told me.

Then the 1st "office" I saw was this HUGE lounge that has a ping pong table, a pool table, 3 futbolitos, and several couches and sofas in front of a TV that has all the imaginable consoles, controles, and game cases... right next to it was the kitchen, filled with oranges, bananas, apples, muffins, an fridge filled with ice cream, and every thing was "laying there to be taken"... That, I was told, is the place they go to chill and relax from work... (at this moment I started going crazy).

At a point it all begun and so I meet the guys that are working on Jade, a game yet to be released, and some of the folks from "dragon age", which is a game that is "highly classified" and from which I wasn't allowed to see a lot... yet everything would resemble Jade's stuff sort of... I meet the "technical artists" which are a bunch of guys that make it possible for the programmers and the artists to work together, and talk to the head guy for quite a while, then I meet the game designers, the testers, the graphic programers, the senior programers, the division that programs the fights... man... TOO MUCH!!!... I was right in the guts of a video game, and not only did I get a cool "BioWare" mug, I got all this insight to what goes on right when they are building a game... man... I don't think I will be ever able to see a game the same way... probably what happens when you see a naked woman for the 1st time... he he he... no woman is ever the same again!.

I had lunch with some of the game designers and it was cool, all this guys have the terribly different backgrounds, the only thing they have in common is that they can tell a good story... (that's what a game designer does, they decide what happens when, who meets who, the quests and all that... they are the ones who make the game interesting after all). Emmanuel is a friend of Daniel, one of the designers, and a pretty interesting guy... today he gave me some time to just shoot all sorts of questions at him and ask him for professional advice, and for help... he was more than nice answering all my questions... he he he... Although he is sarcastic and you can tell he is always thinking something funny or strange, he is a french guy with a great black humor. He used to work in marketing and earn a bunch of money, but at a point decided that it was boring and so he started to do what he always wanted... video games... (AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!... GETTING CRAZY HERE!!!!).

Anyway, yesterday's visit at BioWare was a great experience... probably a life changing one. At a moment it was time for me to go home and leave Daniel to do some work... so I did and when I arrived home, Sandra invited me to the University and she gave me a tour around it. I loved it... the buildings are awesome, they have all sorts of cultural classes, the sports building rocks, libraries, labs... it's huge, yet "packed" so you don't have to walk that much between buldings... (not those 15 minutes walks like in macomb... mostly because of the cold... I am told that there are days here in which, if you throw a bunch of hot water to the air, it will fall as ice to the ground... your hot coffee just bought from star bucks will freeze in secods if you are out in the street... sheeesh... that's a little too much).

Later I went back to BioWare, just to meet Daniel there, and then we went to his Taiko class... It was sooo interesting, I love percussions my self, but this was more like a martial art. Hey had all this moves as they played... Daniel was rehearsing in a room with the "new guys", but then I went to see the more experienced ones and I was perplexed by their skill and the sound of it...

Something that sucked though is that I lost my backpack there... he he he... or at least I left it... forgot it... oh well...

After the class Daniel and I felt like watching a movie, but since we couldn't find anything nice, we went out for a beer. It was nice because there were no bars open, so we walked A LOT looking for one, which was just an excuse because the better part of the talk happened while walking. He told me some things of his travel to japan, and then we talked a lot about philosophy... man I had missed those talks with him. At some point we did find a bar and stayed there for a while, there we both came up with pretty good ideas... ahhhh... I wish I could tape those talks sometimes.

At some point we came back, talked a little more with Sandra... and tried to fall asleep... I couldn't though, yet I rested... but visiting BioWare is messing up my mind... he he he... I need to decide on several things, and it would be nice if I can do it while I am here.

Today I woke up, took a bath, and started working in the computer, at a point Daniel called and told me that Emanuel was willing to give me an hour to talk about game designing and all my questions, so of course I took the chance and went to BioWare... that's the talked that I already described in some previous paragraph)... Later we played ping pong for a while in the lounge, and I meet Jason, the senior graphics guy, who gave me a spot for tomorrow... with him I shall have a talk like the one I had with Emanuel, but about his field of specialty.

Right now I am just waiting in a computer lab close to sandra's and dan's place... thinking a lot... but mostly, deciding and getting somewhere...

**Anyway, cheers...