Return to The OC This weekend I decided to run away to Orange County. While it's always good to have some fun in the sun (and pools and hot tubs), there was something else calling me here. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I finally figured it out. More on that on Tuesday. So I'm still shaking off this cold. It's still here, but I feel much better than I did on Friday. Relaxing, tanning, hot tubbing, and two workouts a day are helping me get it out of my system. There aren't many things I miss in The OC, but the amenities at Villa Siena are quite lovely. If only our large terrace was sturdy enough to hold a hot tub.... I've really enjoyed watching The Pistons in the playoffs. I've been a fan since the early '80s (think Kelly Tripucka) and The Bad Boys days were awesome. It was tough watching them from the mid '90s on, but the last few years have been great. And now it looks like they'll make it back to the NBA finals. The new Pistons play killer defense, but in a much different way than The Bad Boys. It's cool to watch their low-scoring, tenacious-defense games. Oh, in my video-game life I joined the 1up beta. I even started my own fan club (as egotist Raymond, of course). It's a really slick site. As Peter B noticed, I love social networking sites like Friendster and Orkut, plus I love blogging. Combining these things with gaming content rules.

Give Me Strength This cold sucks. There's a 36-inch television downstairs and the thought of bringing it to the apartment (with help, natch) drains me. I didn't go to the office today. Rather, I spent four hours on various conference calls. I'm sure the radiation will do lovely things to my brain. At least I'm not drinking tonight. I learned last week not to go out past 2:00AM if your flight is around 8:00AM. I swear, it would have been cake in my salad days. Speaking of salad days. Kelly used that phrase recently. I always found it funny. I think I'd want to be a Chef's Salad or a Cobb Salad--nothing too fancy, but with enough ingredients so that it's still a bit complex. A Caesar Salad is way too easy to be. So the conference calls actually have me excited about work. Change is always exciting. Hopefully this will lead to some major ones. Maybe it will give me the "creative envelope" Kitten says I need. I'm not really sure what she meant. I don't really use envelopes.

Before I Forget Watch me on streaming video -- I rule. I'm also achy and on the verge of a cold. Ech. Thankfully, there is still hope in the world. It started with the un-Stamos-ing of Rebecca and continues with this.

Two Guys Rannie and I had a lovely dinner at Baraka. It's this posh Morrocan restaurant in Potrero Hill. The food was yummy and I was mostly good (salmon and vegetables). After dinner we went to Farley's where I acted as her safety for her blind Internet encounter. He was a nice, harmless guy. He's some geek that works at Sun, makes tables, and has two cats. He has a lovely apartment a block from Farley's--so jealous! Oh yeah, in between Baraka and Farley's we stopped by Collage and I found a really adorable gift. It's so cute! So in addition to feeling like Charlotte, I'm now feeling like Britney. "Sometimes I run. Sometimes I hide." So this guy's lifestyle has me thinking. Do I want to be the guy that runs away to Costa Rica on a whim? Or do I want to be the guy that settles down in Potrero Hill and lives a stable life (and is on the path to settling down)? Both are appealing. I'm so not ready for the latter. I'd probably miss the former. I guess I'm still in my, "I'm not sure who I'm supposed to be," mood. And I guess I stll have things I'm running and hiding from. Work. Life. Love. Pancakes. It's all so confusing.

Randomosity - After eight months of abandonment, Raina is back in my life. It was lovely seeing her and catching up. It will probably be four months before I see her again. - I feel like Charlotte. "I don't know who I'm supposed to be." - I'm really enjoying my new iRiver. It's super functional and has a lithium-polymer battery. Lithium-ion is for suckers--much like shoelaces. - My home office will have a new centerpiece. I've ordered a Mirra (in green, naturally). - I'm still trying to figure out how to reward myself for E3. Originally I thought I'd go crazy at the Campers store, but I really want to run away to somewhere. Hawaii is always a good idea. Costa Rica might be more interesting. - Joss Stone has captured my heart. I can't believe that voice comes out of a 16-year old girl. - Biba Golic is the hottest table tennis player ever. - I finally got around to posting the pictures to Ray-B-Q Final. *sniff* Memories...from the corners of my mind.... - And here are some random E3 2004 pics.

Aftermath It's the bride of the binary blog (special E3 2004 edition)!!! Good: I didn't work as hard as last year. Bad: It was still too much and not really worth it. Good: I had a personal support system this year and it really helped. Bad: The whole team worked hard and it was still only good enough for third. Good: I've convinced myself that I can't do it next year--not like this. Bad: I've admitted that I'm getting older. Bad: I only got to go to one party. Bad: I really didn't get to see much. Good: Thousands of people heard the soothing sounds of my voice, while marvelling at my wit, charm, and analytical prowess. Bad: Thousands of people fled from a handful of televisions displaying my grotesque visage. Good: I'm still pretty damn cool. Good: The whole experience is really making me examine my life. Steps have already been taken to change. Bad: I'm really not sure what the hell I'm doing. Bad: There are a few major complications that need to be sorted out. Bad: They all lead somewhere potentially amazing, but not without great risk and/or sacrifice. Good: Okay, I'm really cool.

The Return of the Ray I'm back and I'm alive. I am in a rather odd mood though. I think I'll do a binary blog tomorrow after I organize my thoughts and get drunk tonight. To used the most clich�d game review phrase ever, E3 2004 was a mixed bag.

Blogging for Dollars I'll be on double blog detail this week. My real stuff will go here of course, but for one week only the gaming world will be treated to Raymond's Super Terrific Happy E3 2004 Blog. It'll be fun since I'll get to play around a bit. It'll all be real and honest, but it'll only come from a certain aspect of my personality...that's cranked to 11. Think of it as blogging in character. I'm not sure how arrogant I want to make it yet. That's always fun...even if people don't get the joke. Actually it's more fun when they don't get it. I saw my daughter over the weekend! She's as cool as ever and oh-so grown up. She displayed poor drinking abilities though and I'm not sure what's up with that. She'll have to prove herself next week. So the big show starts tomorrow. I wasn't sure how much I could give this year. For a while, I was actually determined to give a good, but not great effort. But Jiminy Cricket (Ben) kept me in check and I'll give it a strong one. I can't do it like I did last year -- which was the least fun I've ever had at E3 -- but I'll try hard. I will get hammered on Thursday at the Sony shindig. Oh well, back to writing.

Making Up Okay, it turns out I was just floopy from that lack of sleep. I woke up around 4:00AM again to get a preview done before I left to L.A. I hitched a ride down to the airport with Tal around 7:00. The flight was quick and pleasant. We got the studio, dropped off our stuff, and got something to eat. Prepping for the shoot was fun. Vic, Mark, and Tal are all super rad. Julie, the makeup artist, was really sweet too. I decided that I want a personal makeup artist to touch me up every 15 minutes or so. It was cool to see a bunch of G4 pals too. It was cooler to discover how much makeup rules. As for the shoot, I did okay. Thankfully, they let me wear my shades! Vic was his usual dapper self and did a silky smooth job at hosting the crew. Mark and Tal did better than me uncut, but I think the stuff I said will be easier to work with in post. In general, they were just more dynamic than I was. We'll see. Vic did a nice job of helping me out when I needed a push. I think the show will be cool, but I'm sure I could have done better. It was an excellent experience and I learned a lot from observing many things. After the shoot I caught up with Kimmie, Kate, and Justin. I'm really excited for Kate and her new job. She'll do really well and I hope it's the place she's looking for. It's a fantastic company, but it's also dramatically different from her last gaming gig. After dinner, Kimmie and I hung out in my room and caught up. I showed her all sorts of pictures and videos from the last year. She showed me really interesting pictures of her current beau. I could have done without seeing some of them, but at least I have a very good idea of what his bear (not a typo) chest looks like. It was really fun spending time with someone I haven't seen in ages yet still feel extremely comfortable with. She's just cool like that. Plus my mother really, really loves her. Hopefully I'll get to catch up with her and Raina before E3 fully kicks off.

Blahtastic So I made my almost-but-not-quite final list of games that my team is supposed to cover next week at E3. It's mildly terrifying. There's no way we can do all of it with the staff we have...and it'll take a tremendous effort to cover most of it. I knew this all before, but seeing it on paper really made it hit home. Lately I've been ending words with "tastic" or "licious" or "rama" and I have no idea why. Perhaps I've killed enough brain cells to the point where I can no longer remember nifty words that I once knew. My room is nearly complete. It only needs two more pieces of furniture -- a desk and a TV stand -- to be finished. Hopefully it's all settled by mid-June. I'm supposed to write six previews this week, but think I can only manage five. There's one I'm really not excited to write and another that's been done to death already. Then there's all the pre-E3 stories I'm supposed to write by next week. I think there's 20-something on my list, which isn't too bad considering Ben has much more. I'm flying to L.A. tomorrow for a shoot. It should be lots of fun. Hopefully they let me wear shades because I'll have two carry-ons under my eyes, which should be a lovely shade of red tomorrow morning. One of our competitor's unveiled bits of its redesign, which contains many elements some friends of mine have been talking about for a long time. We could have been first if we knew some rich white man that would give us lots of money. It's cool to see because it validates many of the ideas we threw around, but it sucks that we couldn't do it. I've reneged on my negative stance against three-way transformable faeries. I actually think they're rather cool now and can totally envision them in a cartoon or as a toy. I have writer's block and feel listless. Hopefully I'm just tired from being up at 4:00AM.

Perfectly Potrero Breakfast at Sally's. Coffee and Scrabble at Farley's. Sandwiches at Hazel's. And the ultimate companion. It was the Perfect Potrero Hill day...even if I got totally waxed at Scrabble. I'll get my revenge though.