Oded Sharon's Blog

well, i’m back, and jet lagged. (a few MMO jokes about lag comes to mind).

In overall GDC and the trip was a great success. First, i had TONS of fun. It was a vacation I much needed.
Zbang amounted a bunch of great reviews when I demoed it, and I have made hundreds of new contacts (read: I got more than 400 business cards to go through)

I have too many GDC stories to tell, but no time to do so, becaue now starts the “follow up” period where i have to send all those 400 people emails, and follow up on them and the leads I got during the conference. There’s a lot on the stake.
I hope I’ll get to post those stories and pictures soon.

For now, you can read Dave’s blog with some GDC posts, which I appear in:GDC Monday
GDC Tuesday
GDC Wednesday

I’ll just give you a nice Car 4 Ron picture to end this post with:

Oded meeting the creator.
(of Monkey Island – Ron Gilbert)

Hitchcock new it best : The thing that makes amplifies the murder, is the suspense you get from anticipating for it to happen. It’s climatic build up.
I had planned to go to Spamalot, the Monty Python musical, but didn’t haven’t any solid plans. I planned to just go to the theater and see what tickets are available and go to the show. So I went to ask about tickets today at around 13:20. I found out that there are sits for 50% off at the balcony for only 39 bucks, which is pretty cheap for a Broadway show that costs up to 120$.
The show itself was great ! I knew half of it by heart, even before I’ve seen it, just because it’s just like the movie… Your mother was a hamster and your mother smelled of elderberries ! You sons of a silly person ! I fart in your general direction, you english kaaaanigets !

The thing is, everything went down so fast, I got to the ticket box, bought the ticket, ran to the nearby KFC to eat some chicken breast strips with honey mustard, went to a convenient store to buy a soda, and got into the theater in time to go to the bathroom just a minute before the show began. All that in 40 minutes. I didn’t really have time to prepare, I didn’t have time to anticipate, or impatiantly wait for the show to begin, building suspense.
I guess I could have had a better climatic experience. I still have Avenue Q to see, but today there was only a 35% discount at the place i bought the tickets at. I’ll check it again throughout the week.

I later went to Toys are us, and bought a Wonka bar , and took some nice pictures. I call this one :

I’m sitting in Starbucks. Drinking tall Caramel Mocha with whipped cream, and eating a Boston Kreme dunkin donut. Ahhh… being able to do this brings me memories. Too bad those two companies closed their businesses in Israel.
While starbucks have T-mobile wifi , which you can use if you pay 9.99 a day, one of the other avaiable connections (something called Tainted blue) gives me free internet, but at first it had a weak signal and i couldn’t actually do anything useful, but later it cleared up and I managed to email and work a bit. I want to be able to sit down at a coffee shop and use the internet. I rather not do it from m. hotel room again, but I guess tonight I might have to.

Mmm…. Eggs Benedict. On my first morning in NYC, Woke up at around 11AM, and decided a Saturday is a good day for brunch. And what’s better than having some eggs Benedict.
For you laymen, Eggs Benedict is a poached egg, served on a toasted English muffin, with bacon and a sauce called Hollandaise sauce and served with hash brown (which is like a potato latkes).

I Googled up Brunch in NYC, and Eggs benedict. A Resteraunt that drew my attention was Balthazar.
First, there’s a guy in World of Warcraft called Balthazar. Next, there were good reviewed about it.
The Eggs Benedict were nice. The place was packed full. People had a 40min to an hour waiting list. I was lucky enough to be by myself, I was sat at the bar, and besides for eating a lovely brunch, I’ve had a nice conversation with a real estate business man called Jim Kelly who sat next to me.
I also ordered Bloody Mary which tasted like american pickled. Odd. I think they add something to the mix that makes it taste like this.
In overall I’m satisfied and going to go out now and hang around in the city.

Ok. No cliches. No Frank Sinatra,

I arrived at the Penn station, and only when I had to walk 3 blocks, I realized how heavy my luggage is! It was very straining. And cold.
Really freaking cold.
The hotel I stayed in, Herald Square hotel (I know this will get me some googlers to my blog) is nice, not that expensive in comparison, and offers the variety of services i required, like free WiFi in rooms, and a safe.
I started making phone calls to people I know in New York: Dave Gilbert, Adi Noyman, Miki, and old co-wroker who lives in Boston but was supposed to be in NY for the weekend.
The main reason I was excited about being in New York, isn’t for seeing places and buying stuff, it’s about meeting people. I thought: Oh nice, It’s Friday evening, I arrived early, I’ll meet with em.
Dave was leaving for Boston for the weekend. Miki didn’t come in from Boston to NYC after all, and Adi went off to shooting sessions in Miami. It’s a shame that as soon as I arrive, everyone’s leaving !
I guess I’ll meet Dave on Wednesday and And Dave on Thursday.
Since now, I didn’t have any plans, I decided to leave all my stuff locked in the safe of my hotel room, and head out. Backpackless. Weightless. Free.
I bought a pineapple Fanta to overcome the dehydration (NYC is cold, but DRY), and I walked from my hotel (31st & BDWY) to Times Sq (42nd & BDWY). I stood there and yelled YATTA! just like Hiro, I can bend space and time.
I went into the big Toys’r’us store and was hypnotized for a few minutes.
I spent, i think, two hours around there, just looking at stuff. I didn’t even have my camera with me that night, so I really could soak in NY.
After getting back to the hotel, I did some research about what to do here, Emailed, Talked to people like Lee and my parents, and went to sleep.
End of day 1.