Ka Lee For Nee Yah!

T headed out last night for California and the Game Developer's Conference. But I'm not at all bitter. Not at all. I swear. I mean, sure, he'll get to meet Will Wright - creator of Sim City and, more importantly, the brains behind The Sims, which is possibly the most addictive game in history (Or at least a close second to World of Warcraft) and he'll get to drive around in the California sunshine and eat subs on REAL sourdough bread and... but I'm not at all bitter. Really.

I'm really not a "gamer". I didn't grow up with computers - I wasn't allowed to touch our family IBM 386 until I was in high school, and even then it was only for word processing purposes. While my brothers were getting nintendos and segas and playstations I usually got books or clothes. I can only assume it was because I am a girl, and therefore would have no use for the possible career opportunities involved with computers because I was *supposed* to be married by 19 and making babies. SO, I got a late start in the computer arena and had to teach myself html from books and website tutorials at age 21 (because, to the great disappointment of my 432785743826 relatives, I remained unmarried until the ripe old age of 23.)

But I digress. I got into gaming after meeting T, starting really with Diablo 2 (which was totally a gateway drug to WoW.) And now I don't have much time for it, but I still the over-the-top culture of it all. And sure, GDC is more about hard-core game building than about Lara Croft lookalikes in tight leather (see E3 ) but just to sit in a room with some of those creative brains would be like catnip for me. I find a lot of similarities between the creation of some of the game storylines and the creation of a good book. Many of them create totally inclusive worlds with histories and storylines that rival many epic book series currently in print.

Besides the fact that T will be hanging in San Jose, near my old Walnut Creek stomping grounds in the SF Bay area. I've been trying to get back to Cali for about 8 years now. I'm still working on it. Unfortunately, he found me when I tried to hide in his suitcase and informed me I would never make it through security that way and didn't I realize the children might get hungry before Friday. To which I replied "Children? We have Children? I'm sorry, I was distracted by that shiny thing over *there* - on the west coast. Yes, that - see? It's called Sunshine."