SF Sightseeing

Authors Note: this is another graphics heavy post. Sorry about that.  But there are some nice pictures (and I've put even more on Flickr)

Some things you just have to do. If you go to San Francisco you have to go see the bridge. So we did. Boarded a boat trip at 10:00 in the morning (which was very quiet, we had the run of the top deck) and away we went.

Tour Boats

Setting Sail

Bridge and Boat

Flying without flapping

Bridge and Bigger Boat

Where's Purdy?

Not as big as ours, but quite impressive non the less

Contre Jour

Heading Back

I bought a sensible hat. Or did I?

Look at those two gulls taking aim.....

Gulls and Bridge and Flag

Sailing

"The Rock"

Jon "I'd have cracked out of there in week" Purdy

So there...

Jolly boating weather

Pier 39

Fancy a pedal? We got the boat in the end

Tulips

Boats

Basking case

Yep. It's a real one

Lumpy lanscape

At this point the memory card in the camera was full, and so you are all spared the bucket of frogs that Jon wanted me to take a picture of. However, there is always tomorrow....

Chinese New Year in San Francisco

So we were walking down the street, and wondering if it was normal in San Francisco for people to stand at the side of the road and watch the traffic go past. I mean, they've had cars in America for quite a while, right? And the novelty must have worn off by now you would have thought. We asked someone what was going on and they told us that New Year Parade was just about to go past. I'm pretty sure it wasn't laid on just for us, but it felt like it.

Waiting for the parade

Here they come...

All together now: "Y M C A".....

Horse Power

"Did you vote for me? Did you?"

Cool Outfits

Coolest Car

Flying the flag

Insert "tender behind" joke here

Of course, we were all really waiting for some dragons

We were not disappointed

Does he have a dentist?

I hope these say nice things.

And so into the sunset

Colourfull news

Back to the hotel

A nice shot to end on

Chinatown, where it all goes down

Author's note 1: I'm fiddling with the time and dates of posts to make things seem in sequence. And this post is very graphics heavy.

I think I may have used up all my luck for the rest of the year. We arrived and found that the hotel is right on the edge of Chinatown. So there are loads of wonderful shops and stalls to look at, just around the corner. And then we got to see the Chinese New Year parade. And I had my new camera to play with....

Wonderful.

Author's note 2: Most of my pictures also feature some part of Jon Purdy, perhaps a bit of a shiny head or patch of tasteful shirt. See if you can spot him in these shots. There are even more on Flickr for you to refine your Purdy spotting skills.

Calibration shot for "Where's Purdy" competition. I didn't ask him to smile, which is probably just as well...

On the way to the hotel (that is not Jon in the foreground)

Hotel Lobby roof

Down California Road

Chinatown

My kinda store. I'm taking orders......

Balcony

Nice brickwork

Soul Men Sounding Good

"Win one for me daddy..."

More stalls

All set for the Crazy Taxi racing

Just make sure you use it for the forces of good...

Open Wide

For some time I've been after a wide angle view for my photographs. I found a shop which had a whole bunch of these. Having negotiated a really good price (no - really) I bought this thing to whack on the front of the camera which gives it an almost-fisheye effect (hence the round edges). This was the test shot in the shop. You might see this used to some effect in later snaps.

If you are going to make a bronze statue, why would  you make it doing that?

More later.

Travel in Hope and Pain

I've managed to wangle a trip to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco California. Not quite sure how I did it, but very pleased to be going. Anyhoo, we made trip today. We started in Humberside airport at 5:00 am and thence (posh prose) we moved  on to Amsterdam.

Starting from Schipol

"The Dammed" assemble

The plane was full. And I mean full.  And since it was the "nerd express" to the conference everybody had used their internet skills to bag all the best seats by booking online. This meant that there was not a tall seat for Rob. The cabin staff were very sorry. I was even sorrier.

Legoom, KLM style

There should be a rule requiring airlines to hold the legroom seats for tall blokes like me who really need it. Perhaps I should start an e-petition... Mind you, winging about slightly uncomfortable seats on a free trip to California sounds a bit rich to me, so perhaps I'll keep quiet.

The girl in the window seat took a picture for me

Anyhoo, we got there OK and on time, and had a smooth taxi ride to the hotel.

First view of SF

We are going to freshen up (whatever that means) and then go for a wander round town. For the first time ever, I'm staying in a city with a proper middle (as opposed to a bunch of malls) and so it should be fun.

Kitchen Orchids

The Orchids in the kitchen are doing well

Durham Roses

I just liked the colours.

Pirates Ahoy

Went to see number one daughter play tonight. Actually,didn't see her play at all, since she was in the orchestra pit at the York University Gilbert and Sullivan Society production of Pirates of Penzance.

The PR machine

Now, as you all probably know, I'm not really one for culture. I remarked, as we were listening to what I now know to be the overture, "Aren't there supposed to be singers in this..."

Anyhoo, the production was excellent. It is surprising how many of the songs have found their way into my head over the years. It was great to see the performers enjoying themselves as much as the audience. Actually there is not much of a story to the show, it is more a collection of sketches and songs and a bit of shameless pandering to Queen Victoria at the end. But that didn't get in the way of the fun. I took the tiny camera and grabbed a few snaps.

Pirates!

Ladies!

The model of a modern Major General....

The Police

The happy ending....

Repeat Offenders

We had another open day today. Some of the candidates that turned up had been at our earlier one in November. I fretted a bit about using the same appalling jokes as on their earlier visit, so I took special care to add some new and untried material to my bit. Oh well. Although the ET joke seemed to go down OK. Thank you for coming folks, and I hope you all enjoyed the day.

I also went up town first thing, and took the little camera. The light was very good.

Right in the middle of Queen Victoria Square. What are the chances eh?

View from the car park

Game On with Bing

Yesterday we went off to London courtesy of Electronic Arts, who had arranged an all expenses paid (perhaps my favourite three words) trip to the Game On exhibition at the Science Museum with free beer (perhaps my favourite two words) and a talk from Bing Gordon, EA's Chief Creative Officer.

Just before we boarded the magic bus

We set off at 10:30 prompt, bound for London. The M1 was kind to us, so we got to the big city in good time. I'd taken the big camera, so it was time to go off and take some snaps.

The Natural History Museum looking good

We piled into the tube and took a ride up to Oxford Street.

Oxford Circus

Fruit and Veg

Then, at 6:30 the doors opened and it was, quite literally, Game on.

EA had set up some gamer pods around the museum. That big shiny thing at the back is the wing of a Spitfire plane.

Bigging Up Bing

First up was the talk from Bing Gordon. Very interesting. Some good comments about life, followed by some more specific discussion of video games.

Health note: these are pulled from my recollections, if anyone who was there remembers differently then I apologise in advance.

From the life point of view:

• Find out what you really enjoy doing and then try to get to do that as your day job.
• Don't be afraid to fail.
• Set yourself big goals (but make them testable so that you can decide when/whether you reach them)
• Maximise your learning opportunities
• Set very high standards and give everyone who fails to meet them a really hard time. There is nothing more demoralising than a boss who accepts poor quality work.

This is all good stuff. For me what was also interesting was that one of Bing's heroes is a chap called David Ogilvy. He was an advertising executive who ran some of the most successful campaigns of all time and went on to set up one of the largest Ad agencies in the world. I remember reading one of his books a long time ago (I've always found the advertising field fascinating) and I would advise you to take a look as well. Then the talk turned to games. More from Bing:

• Games are becoming hobbies (people play them in the same way that they would build model railways, or go fishing)
• Games are including things like searching, trading and community..
• .. and search engines and other tools are starting to behave like games
• By around 2012 we can look forward to movie level realism in games

There was a very good question and answer session at the end, and then the doors to the Game On exhibition were thrown open and it was time to get in there and start playing.

..but first a drink

Game On indeed

Not the kind of high score I'd take a picture of, but there you are

Jon Purdy gets back to basics

One of my all time favourites, Ridge Racer

Not sure quite what this is, but it looks fun.

I used to own quite a few of these....

Then, at 10:00 we all clambered onto the magic bus and headed back to Hull (I had a kind of bet with David Byrne from EA that all our students would turn up on time - and they did. Kudos guys).

Many thanks to the highway engineers who added around an hour to our journey back just because they wanted to play with their big Meccano near one of the bridges. I finally managed to hit the sack around 4:30 am, just as the birds were starting to sing. But it was a good trip.

Thanks to EA for setting it up and making us so welcome.

Snow on the Road

..and so there is

New Year at Hornsea

First, a happy new year to both my readers. At Chateau Miles, we have been know to celebrate the arrival of a new calendar by heading off to the seaside at Hornsea. Today the weather looked reasonable, and so we set out. On the way there it seemed like a bad idea, in that we drove along underneath some very nasty looking clouds and the odd smattering of rain.

But when we got to the coast it was wonderful. It was very blustery, but this really seemed to blow out the cobwebs at the start of the year. It was also pretty busy, and one or two valiant souls had actually gone for a paddle. I'd taken the big camera, and so I took a bunch of snaps.

New Year seaside

Arcadia

Lights

Early Riser

A nice way to start the day

York Under Water

We went to York today, the weather was nice, but bits of the city were under water.

York city wall

The top of Micklegate (I think)

We used to park the car near here

The river is a lot wider at the moment....

Early but not bright

Went into Hull at 7:00 am this morning. Not because of some confusion updating the clocks (that was weeks ago) but to review the papers for BBC Radio Humberside. I've been doing this for a while, and I usually take the camera in case any nice photo opportunities arise.

Early Hull looking good

I managed to muddle my way through the reviews OK (note to self, you seem to run a bit slow on Mondays - go for other days of the week in future) and with a bit of luck they'll ask me back so I can get up early all over again.

Make your own jigsaws

My first ever test..

Moosaic lives! I'm about to embark on a new project and so I'm going round finishing off some old ones. And the first result of this is that you can now download my Moosaic program. This lets you create image jigsaws out of your Flickr pictures and then get them printed onto little bits of card. Fun for all the family and just in time for Christmas..

Find out more here.

Barcelona by bus and foot

Done a lot of walking today. And a lot of top deck bus riding. After we had signed in at the conference centre we went on a tour of the city by open top bus. We took in the cathedral, which is the most impressive building site that I've ever seen, and Guadi park, which was very nice. Also a whole bunch of other, highly interesting, places which are all shut on a Monday. I've put a bunch of pictures up on Flickr. No doubt I'll take more.

Cathedral spires

Tomorrow the work starts for real.

Pictures of Hull

I like the roof of this arcade

Fancy a burger?

Sunset and Steak Pies

We went out for tea tonight. On the way to the Ferguson Fawcett in Walkington (they do really good food) we went past a rather nice sunset.

Worth going out for

Hull Fair

We went to Hull Fair tonight. We tried to go last year but it was pretty much full. So this time we set out early. We took the camera along, but minimal funds - just to be on the safe side.

The Freak Out ride. Scary, and one of the smaller ones

I just love the classy artwork on this one.

More "Hook a Pooh" than "Hook a Duck"

What you win if you aren't careful

I think this is my favourite fair picture

The one ride I actually went on. Note the attractive price and the fact that it does not seem capable of leaving the ground.

Or not

Look carefully. I'm third from the left. Yeah. Right.

We managed to escape only nine pounds down on the trip. But a cuddly monkey, four donuts, some nougat and some peanut brittle up. And it was a great night.

Foggy Morning

A bit foggy this morning. But sunny. Fortunately I had the camera with me....

A view across the sports field

A walk through the woods....

The back of our large lecture theatre

Just some trees

The back of our building

I love autumn.