It's Steve (now in blog form)

I don’t dislike Palm Springs, it’s just kind of a weird place.  Some quick observations from the 12 hours I’ve been here:

- Stucco is lame.  It is even more lame in great quantities.
- Golf courses are normally a wasteful use of space and water resources.  They make even less sense in the desert.
- These people live in the desert and play golf all day. How is it none of them have a tan?
- They do have an innate sense of neon here that I appreciate.

- The sunsets in the desert are amazing.

I want to take a moment to discuss hotel rooms with 2 twin beds and the fact that they keep giving them to me.  It sort of freaks me out when I wake up and there is another empty bed in the room.  Something terribly unnatural about that.  What do they think I’m going to do with the extra bed?  Do I look like “that guy”?  I’ve started having them move me.  Bah.

We had a little shindig in San Francisco on Thursday during Web 2.0 to celebrate the launch of MySpace Music.  The event was really awesome  The old San Francisco Mint has been turned into a venue.  Check it out.

I love facilities like this.  The interior was even cooler than the facade.

Lionel Richie turned up and did a set of his hits (Why yes, Lionel, it is you that we were looking for. Time to go on stage).

The whole thing got me thinking about my situation these days.  There are moments when I still can’t believe the people I get to meet and the places I get to go.  I mean, I still feel like that dorky kid from Fresno and I’m getting to work with some of the smartest folks in the world.  I’m a pretty luck guy to do what I do.

Ok, enough of that.  Check out my sister’s triplets dressed like chickens.

I have the morning to myself oddly enough.  I’m in between a seemingly never ending series of field trips and Kim decided to give me the morning off.  She and a friend took Ben to Disneyland, and I have a few hours to chill out and drink coffee.  Here’s a bit of random drivel to keep us both amused.

Light roast coffee is infinitely superior- I don’t understand the common wisdom that dark roast coffee is better.  Dark roast is a fancy term for “burned to the point where you can’t tell that the beans are low quality”.  Dark roasting degrades flavor and caffeine levels.  So sad.  Give light roast a try.  I’d recommend the breakfast blend from Trader Joe’s.

MySpace needs to buy this building- I know we have the new facility going up, but how cool is this joint?  This is the Masonic Temple in Hancock Park.  It’s about 4 stories, decorated entirely in hokey Masonic symbols, and has no windows at all.  And it’s for sale.  Come on, Chris and Tom.  MySpace Product Annex??

The House of Davids (aka Youngwood Court)- This house makes me really happy.  I passed it on the way to Jeff’s the other day.  Some might consider it unsightly, but I appreciate it when folks follow their dreams no matter how stupid or misguided they might be.  Here’s a bit more on the joint.  Sooooo beautiful.

I have never hated a game as much as I hate Spore.  This is a pretty bold statement given the number of crappy games I have played in my life time (I still don’t understand what the hell the objective was with this one).  And I say this without ever having played it.  The problem is that I CAN’T FREAKIN PLAY THE GAME!

I’ve been pretty excited about Spore for a while.  It is one of the more hyped games of the last couple of years. You basically get to play god, and you can imagine how that might appeal to me.

I have a MacBook.  It’s less than a year old.  The game’s box clearly says MAC compatible on the front.  This is a blatant lie.  First it wouldn’t install because my OS was not the super-duper most current.  Ok, EA, I’ll play your little game.  I snagged a copy of Snow Leopard and upgraded my operating system.  Consider that box checked.

Does it work now? Judging from my desire to strangle some EA monkeys, there seems to still be a problem.  My graphics card is not high end enough so the game just won’t run.  End of story.

Here’s what I don’t get.  The release was delayed for over a year.  The hardware required to play it didn’t exist at the time that this thing was coded. WTF?  Seriously, I’m pissed off that I have a $50 game that is unplayable on a 1 year old machine.

So screw you, EA. And screw you, Spore.  I’m done with this.  You have officially crapped on my parade.

Now I’m just torn on whether the correct course of action at this stage is to put the disk up for grabs to you guys, or send EA a package filled with burnt hair (yeah, that is a terrible smell).  Thoughts?

Yesterday, Kim and I went to check out a new house to rent. Today we got it. Woo hoo! No more duplex for us.  It sits directly on Rancho Park (that’s where my archery range is), and has a real backyard for Ben to be crazy in.  Very exciting.  I think we’re going to actually do the move around Thanksgiving. I probably need to pack up my junk.

On an unrelated note, I’m in SF this week for Web 2.0.  Nothing major to report at this point.  I did manage to Reverse Paparazzi Michael Arrington.  My techie friends will know who that is.  For the rest of you, he is one of the big tech bloggers.  To put it in an analogy format:
bloggers are to journalists as I am to a responsible adult.

Here’s the pic.

I feel like such a failure.  Yesterday morning I had at breakfast at Kings Road Cafe on Beverly.  As I was enjoying my pancake, I looked up and saw Jane Lynch (the lanky blonde from all of the Christopher Guest movies).  Here’s the sad part.  I had my camera and didn’t ask her to take my picture.

It turns out that Reverse Paparazzi (learn all about my new game here) is easier to execute when:
A. The celebrity is not really occupied with something/someone
B. You can run away after you get the photo
C. You’ve had a cocktail or two

This met none of the above criteria.  So sad.  On a positive note, the waiter said she’s there for breakfast pretty regularly.  I wonder if that joint serves mimosas…..