Once upon a time, well over 30 years ago, I was a primary school student at Holy Cross, a Catholic parish and grade school in Western Massachusetts. On one random day, I got into a schoolyard brawl with some goofy smart-mouth kid named Tommy. To this day, I don't recall what that particular fight was about, just that it was the first of several knock-down, drag-out, schoolyard scuffles that would repeatedly land both of our asses in the principal's office. Whenever Tommy and I were sent to the principal, we would sit side-by-side outside the office, on a tacky green office couch, waiting to be scolded by the top nun in the joint. Thankfully, this was in the years shortly after nuns had permanently holstered their rulers. Each time Tommy and I were sent to the principal's office, we would just sit petulantly, semi-supervised with no choice but to be civil towards each other while we waited for our scolding and were forced to make up. Over the course of
Laptops and gawky long lines at Starbucks by day, loud drunken antics and scantily clad women by night... This is the dichotomy that is the SIGGRAPH graphics and interactive media convention hosted in New Orleans. New Orleans in and of itself is an enigmatic town, in some ways reminiscent to me of Boston, but with it’s own distinct southern flare and funk. From the airport to the infamous Bourbon Street, the town is an abrasively rebounding historical city with a cool jazz and blues backbone and a late night stench that gives New York a run for it’s money. It proved an interestingly bizarre backdrop for a nerd-fest such as SIGGRAPH, complete with hordes of technology pros and job-hungry creative geeks like myself, all swarming to attend. In addition to trying to network while pimping our demo reels, my buddies and I had a very interesting time both in and out of the conference. From playing with crazy new technology by day to exploring the Bourbon street area at night, some of the wee
There are only certain things I miss about New England since moving to the Pacific. Near the top of that list is Thanksgiving Day with my brothers, parents and cousins. Even on the outskirts of Lahaina, no picnic on the beach could ever compete with Mom’s cooking surrounded by the dramatic comedy that is my family. However, today in the Maui sunshine, I chose to be content with a simple meal, a boogie board and some new friends. Despite certain hardships, I am very grateful for a lot of things and people in my life right now. To all the folks who have continued to stand by me near and far, as well as those with whom I’ve shared simpler kindness and have since parted ways: Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.
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