Ok, they don’t really. But they do fascinate me. There is a flock of black birds that hang out in the skies of Vancouver that are often (almost daily) seen around the place I work. It’s positively eerie how many there are… thousands. And when they fly together, you’d think it was the day of the apocalypse.

But nothing compares to this…

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

No tags

To let you know that I’ve been noted on Gamasutra!!!!

It’s rare that I see my name anywhere that doesn’t involve a cease and desist order. But here it is… in GAMASUTRA!

I’m a little excited.

Full article is here…

FYI… My colleague and I submitted a proposal to host a full day workshop on a ‘Usability Bootcamp’ at this year’s GDC. What is GDC?

The Game Developers Conference® (GDC) is the world’s largest professionals-only game industry event. The conference commemorated its 25th edition in 2011, making it also the longest-running event of its kind.

It’s kind of a big deal…

If you would like me to sign your computer screen, please let me know.

Carry on.

No tags

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.
Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation’s OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.
Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.
Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
Pronunciation (think of Psyche!)
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won’t it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It’s a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.
Finally, which rhymes with enough,
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!

English Pronunciation by G. Nolst Trenité

This very cool poem found here…

No tags

So here we are once again. One year in the rear view mirror and the other straight ahead. Shall we play this broken record one more time? Sure, why not…

I’ve done what a billion other people have been doing these past couple of weeks… trying to decide if 2011 was a good year and what 2012 will/should be like. To be honest, I’m not sure what to think about 2011. From a global perspective, it’s been a year of huge highs to huge lows. And both of those depends on what side of the fence you’re sitting on. But that could be written about any year. Revolutions to riots… and all the drama that comes in between. I’ll let others far more informed and educated than me pontificate about what 2011 will be to the history books. Or at least to the people who write the history books.

From a personal perspective, 2011 was… meh. As far as my professional life goes, it’s actually been quite eventful. Though I’m still with the same company, I found myself in a role significantly different than in 2010. 2011 started me on a journey that was built on the foundation of the work I did in 2010 and saw EA give me a ‘fringe’ department where it’s success or a failure is what I can do with it. Which is going to lead me to my 2012 new year’s resolution.

From a non-professional perspective, 2011 was… same old, same old. Which is a bit disappointing when I think about it. We’re still living in our loft. Still have our dog. Still got up every morning, went to work, came home, had dinner in front of the TV and eventually went to bed. Rinse and repeat. There was no shake up. No life altering experiences. No significant travel. No growth that I can think of. Rachel has reinvented her career which is exciting to see for her. I played a minor supporting role in that movie but she was really the star of that show. Which now brings me to 2012…

I feel more aggressive with this new year than the last. As we entered 2011, it was more of a ‘wait and see’ what happens. Not a completely passive role on my part but it was more about seeing Rachel complete her schooling and for me seeing how things were going to go down at work. Now I feel like I’m the second runner in a relay race and I’ve just been handed the baton. I want to hit 2012 full on, like a tonne of bricks. I don’t want to just slam into it, I want to knock it down, kick it in the junk, get in my car and back up over it. I want to OWN 2012. I don’t want to sit idly by and let this year tell me how it’s going to play out. I want to be the master of this domain. 100% responsible for it’s outcome. No more Mr. Nice Guy. Do as I say or I’ll fire your ass.

Ok, this might be the double Americano I’ve been drinking.

No more asking what 2012 has in store for me.
I’m going to tell 2012 what I have in store for it.

No tags