I think I’m over the hump with the third major draft of my new novel, Untimed (for a quick blurb see here). Story structure is hard. And while this book is much better structured than early drafts of my previous…
Restaurant: El Rincon Criollo Location: 4361 Sepulveda Blvd. Culver City, Ca 90230. 210-397-9295 Date: September 3, 2011 Cuisine: Cuban / Spanish Rating: Garlic! _ We took our son to the “train store” in Culver City (he loves trains) and this…
On Friday, September 2, we hosted a small Shabbat dinner party. This was a non-dairy (meat) kosher meal, which can be well done if you care (and most kosher restaurants don’t). As usual with our events everything was homemade. Almost all produce…
Restaurant: Hostaria del Piccolo Location: 606 Broadway, Santa Monica, CA 90401. P: 310-393-6633 Date: August 27, 2011 & May 6, 2012 Cuisine: Italian Rating: Good new casual Italian ANY CHARACTER HERE Hostaria del Piccolo is a casual new Italian with a rustic Pasta/Pizza emphasis…
Restaurant: Joan’s on Third Location: 8350 West Third Street. 323.655.2285 Date: August 20, 2011 Cuisine: American Rating: Fantastic gourmet shop & cafe _ Another father/son morning rolled around and after a most enjoyable trip to the Peterson Automotive Museum (excellent boy…
Restaurant: Osteria Latini [1, 2, 3] Location: 11712 San Vicente Blvd.Brentwood, CA 90049 310.826.9222 Date: August 20, 2010 Cuisine: Italian Rating: Excellent neighborhood Italian _ We have a regular rotation of neighborhood Italians. There are so many of them, but only a few…
Restaurant: Ludobites 7.0 [1, 2] Location: 227 East 9th St, Los Angeles, 90015 Date: August 31, 2011 Cuisine: Eclectic Modern Rating: Very interesting (& tasty) array of flavors. _ Last year my friends and I very much enjoyed Ludobites 6.0 (review here),…
There are two basic approaches: home training and school. Personally I’d recommend both.
Let’s talk school. In my day (1980s) pre-collegiate computer classes barely existed, and if they did they were mostly about Pascal programming and data-structures. They often used p-System pascal, an old-school predecessor to Java!
City of Bones is the first in a series of fairly typical urban paranormal. We have a girl who thinks she’s nothing special, but she discovers she’s part of this whole world of demon hunters, fairies, vampires, werewolves, etc. And right under our noses in New York City! But for the most part, it’s a pretty fun romp.
I’m going to hold off publishing the next installment in my So you want to be a video game programmer series until Thursday September 1. The next chunk is on “School” and I’m doing some additional research. So instead today…
Some kid is always asking me, “I love video games, how do I learn to program them?”
First of all, a warning. Reaching the skill level to be a professional video games programmer takes years. There are no shortcuts. You can not possibly go from nothing to professional grade skills in less than perhaps 2-3 years — and for that you’d have to be an uber-genius — usually it takes 5-10.
This post is a sequel of sorts to my How do I get a job designing video games. The good new is — if you’re a programmer — that nearly all video game companies are hiring programmers at all times. Demand is never…
There are a couple of broad categories of programmers working on video game teams. If programmer is your player class, then the following types are your spec. Programmers are all warlocks and mages so instead of “demonology” or “frost” you can choose from below. This is the real world however, and many programmers dual (or even triple) spec — i.e. they handle multiple specialties.
As my friends who’ve known me since the 80s will recount, I’ve always been an enthusiastic advocate of upgrading the human race. In fact, before going to M.I.T. to start my PhD (aborted after two years to make Crash Bandicoot),…
The new Conan is surely a guilty pleasure for the fantasy hound like myself. Yeah, the plot and characterization is a little weak, but it is gorgeous, and the action is comprehensible. I have to admit, I enjoyed it. It’s certainly faster paced than the awesome although slightly dated and admittedly cheesy original.
Restaurant: Wilshire Location: 2454 Wilshire Boulevard Santa Monica, CA 90403-5823. (310) 586-1707 Date: July 23, 2011 Cuisine: New Californian Rating: Solid _ Wilshire is a New American in the heart of inland Santa Monica. They belong to the approachable ingredient driven California style…
Restaurant: Picca [1, 2] Location: 9575 West Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90035. Tel: 310 277 0133 Date: August 15, 2011 Cuisine: Modern Peruvian Rating: Really interesting flavors _ I was really excited to try this new Modern Peruvian. As best I can…
I saw and loved the original Fright Night when it opened in 1985. Truth be told it was always one of my favorite vampire movies. The 2011 is loosely faithful to the original film. I was pleasantly surprised…
