How I Roll

The Game Developer's Conference 2010

I had the wonderful opportunity to head to the Game Developer's Conference this year to hit the show floor and talk about our 2D iPhone engine. The first day there I happened to pull a muscle in my foot badly enough to tear the cartilage...not the best thing to have happen in San Fransisco! I met a lot of great developers and had a great time getting to sit down and talk to my fellow Torque and InstantAction teammates at InstantAction! Now I need to figure out how to afford going to it next year!

One thing that it cemented in my mind, though, was that the engine middleware market is extremely saturated. It's good to know that we have some strong strategies moving forward in the market at IA in the Torque group.

Kitties!

We now have two beautiful kitties! Sam is a 2/3 year old Shadow Tabby with the most beautiful coloring and a very calm and loving disposition. We did not realize until we read her adoption papers that she was classified as a "feral" cat that was trapped in Shelley. For being a feral cat, she sure is sweet!

Samantha Kate wondering when I'm going to brush her.

Here's another one of her, showing off her mad camouflage skills.

Ready for some petting.

We also have a new kitten, Beckett, who is not only extremely sweet, but an amazing bundle of energy.

Beckett in his bed

And yet another!

Tired Beckett

Kittens can sleep anywhere

They're a ton of fun! And, of course, we have our ferrets as well. Beckett wants to play with them and has fun, but they're still not sure what to make of him. Sam just runs from them.

Ferrets

Richard III

When I was first approached about Richard, it was a dream come true in many ways. It is one of those definitive roles that makes actors chomp at the bit to play. Of course with it came the horrendous fear that such huge roles come with--at least for me. Memorizing lines is a grueling process, and even more grueling for me than many people I know since I do not act as much as my compatriots and keep my memorization skills up between shows. Plus, would I be able to "bring it" to Richard? I mean, there's been a ton of really amazing actor's playing the role.

The read through culled many of those fears, however. There are some great people in the cast and I cannot wait to work with them! It's been way too long since I got to work with Joe B. Haney and Kimberly Mumford, and I've been a fan of Ted's work so I am extremely jacked to get to work with him. He will make an amazing Buckingham! Plus, since my wife is playing Margaret, Marni and I get to scream obscenities at each other.

Where there are ferrets, there is trouble.

For a long while now, we have been under the impression that Zoe is not nearly the climber and jumper that Broots is. It made sense since he can jump up on the tub in a single leap and it often takes her a couple of leaps. He climbs anything he can get his claws into while she half-heartedly climbs only when there's not an easier way to get to where she wants to go. So, when we got back from Salt Lake and The Wedding Singer Saturday and noticed that one of them had gotten out, we assumed it was Broots. After all, he had done it before, but this time there was a difference: he had climbed back in the cage! This morning, our perception of our little girl changed somewhat.

It is fun to personify your pets; to add a little human thinking to them. Since she's never expressed much interest (or talent) in climbing, we didn't think that she would be the one who got out and made a mess in the book/piano room. We imagined her watching Broots from the cage, wishing she could go on a grand adventure. And just before we came in the door, he climbed back into the cage so that we would be none-the-wiser--except for the mess in the room, of course!

This morning, I slunk out of bed in my usual early-morning Gawd-I-HATE-mornings stupor. I heard something sliding around in the other room so I went to investigate, expecting them to be moving their food dishes around the cage. I also thought Broots may just have gotten out again, even though Marni secured the blanket on our makeshift door (the real door still in shipping limbo from Marshall's). Broots was in the cage, excitedly running back and forth. I saw something fall down from the side of the cage and thought that she must be down on the bottom. She was, but she was trying to crawl back up the outside of the cage to get back in. I like to think it was to put on the ruse that she never really escaped.

So now I know that if she really wants to, she can not only jump and climb like crazy, but she can get out of the cage and back in without us knowing. I hope Marshall's gets the new cage door here quickly! I think I'll have to move it back down to the bottom so that they don't have as far to climb. It just makes it a pain to clean. The current arrival date for the cage door is Thursday, but now that they know they can get out, they just keep doing it!

The Wedding Singer: The Musical Comedy (Pvg)

Marshall Ferret Penthouse 41L x 25.5W x 57H

The Pursuit of Excellence: Ferrets

Well, today Broots escaped from his cage and was running amuck in the piano room--well, only amuck if you count his murderous frenzy on some papers and low-lying books that he knocked off the shelves and made a mess with. I wish I had taken pictures, but we were more concerned with cleaning up and trying to ensure that he could not get out of the cage again. See, we had lost a cage door and have a call in to Marshall to expedite a replacement. So we jury-rigged a new "door" on from one of our oven racks. The bars were barely wider apart than the cage. Barely in this case translates to "just far enough to slip through" in ferret. So for now we have threaded a blanket in-between the bars to avoid him slipping through.

I hope Marshall's call us back soon for the replacement door! Our books cannot withstand another Broots attack! Strangely enough, our much skinnier little girl, Zoe, did not escape. In fact, she was looking out of the top of the cage sadly as Broots had all the fun.

That's right. Ferret Powered. You gotta keep your eyes on the little buggers. They might invade California.

Torque 3D is ferret powered.

It is always sad when kids go bad; and our babies have to go into lockdown in the clink every night.

We bought an octopus toy from Amazon for the babies. And they love it. Anything that lets them crawl inside is, of course, a ton of fun. But this has five arms for them to climb in and out of as well as the mouse. They play "Queen of the Octopus" (and yes, Broots is our drag ferret, we've decided).

Octopus eating Broots! omNomNom

Only his little tail is left! omNomNom!

Maybe Zoe can save him...Oh noes! omNomNom!

Marshall Ferret Octo-Play

Price: $16.23

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While this isn't the most exciting video of Zoe, it is one that I could get while she was relatively motionless. Otherwise she was quite a blur.

And here's Broots again, this time getting the camera strap. He's pretty damn viscious with those paws. He grabs on and refuses to let go!

Yes, I know I sound like an idiot.

He is definitely one funny ferret! Zoe just explores.