Tales from Las Vegas

So we went to "the city of phony" and saw more real than we ever expected.

After settling into our hotel -- that's Elisabeth and me in front of the hotel, the Monte Carlo -- we decided to check out the Bodies exhibit at the Tropicana across the street. Yes, these are dead human bodies, but the exhibit is anything but morbid or gross. In fact, it is absolutely dignified and respectful -- and probably the single most educational experience in biology, anatomy and the human body I have ever had! It was especially interesting to have experienced it with Elisabeth who, being a bio major at Cal and newly working in the medical field, could name just about every body part and its function. There are just no words to describe the impact, so I won't even try. Suffice it to say that it is well worth any money you'd spend on it, it is unforgettable, and you will learn more from the exhibit than any one biology class -- or at least have a more real understanding of the human body instead of just memorizing names of body parts from a text book!

After hours in that exhibit, we went to the Titanic exhibit which was also fabulous... though both in the same day was actually a bit of sensory overload -- and not the kind that Vegas is usually associated with!

Of course we had to do the buffet thing, so we went to the one we'd heard was the best -- Spice Market at the Aladdin. WOW! I had planned to suspend my Weight Watchers plan for the day... and good thing I had, though by the time we ate it was well after 6 and we hadn't eaten since before boarding the plane at 7:00 that morning, so we were hungry! Actually, I was pretty good, considering the opportunity for me to have been SO bad! I love this picture of Elisabeth with her dessert choices (I had a chocolate dipped strawberry)!

After dinner, we walked off the calories -- or a tiny fraction of them -- by walking the Strip. The original plan was to see Blue Man Group, but dammit, there was no show at 10:00 as I'd heard, so we missed that one. Then we walked across the street to see the pirate show at Treasure Island (now called "TI," since the "family fun" theme in Vegas is a thing of the past). Unfortunately (Elisabeth has so built up those gorgeous studly pirates!), it was cancelled due to wind. (Huh? All we felt was a slight breeze!)

So instead of seeing a show, we watched people gamble away zillions of dollars. Don't ever let anyone tell you that gambling is fun; it is not. WINNING is fun. I had $19 worth of not fun and $1 worth of fun. After I cashed out my "winnings," we decided to get our enjoyment vicariously. I definitely recommend that method!

Last night we drove about 785 miles, from Las Vegas to Ashland, Oregon. Actually, Elisabeth drove. I can't sleep in the car at night unless I'm at the wheel, in which case sleep comes easily -- which can be a problem. Tomorrow we'll drive from Ashland to Seattle, with me at the wheel since we'll leave very early in the morning, when I'm most awake.

Tonight, though,we'll go to closing night of the Ashland Shakespeare Festival, which should be fun! We'll see "Two Gentlemen of Verona." I've heard two things about this production: 1.) It features a live dog, who steals the show and 2.) we should plan to freeze our buns off, since it's in the outdoor theater. No matter, though -- we'll be with my dad and Lou, and that, in itself, will make the evening wonderful! Will post again when we get back to Seattle!

Creative Thinking is Untidy

In a few hours, I'll lead a brainstorming session for our team. In attendance will be about thirty Microsoftie left-brainers and one right-brainer (me). It should be interesting.

Asking people who code all day in a linear, logical manner to think abstractly and creatively is no small request. It is huge, a temporary re-mapping of their brains, and I presume that it is as thoroughly exhausting for them as it would be for me to attempt math or logic puzzles all day.

So I will go about it gently, introducing them slowly to this unfamiliar way of thinking, even coaxing and encouraging them with candy. The goal is to ultimately come up with a name for this new platform we're working on -- a creative name, not something like Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager Server. (And not something weird like Zune, either...)

Viva Las Vegas!

OK, it's not my first choice for a destination. Hell, I can think of a hundred American cities I'd rather visit.

But I can hardly wait till very early on Friday morning when Elisabeth and I will take an all expenses paid mother and daughter trip to Las Vegas. Yup -- just the two of us, both over 21 and both ready for a vacation... even if it is just for a day and has to be "paid for" by a three day drive back to Seattle!

Elisabeth gets a company car and can upgrade nicely (because someone in Vegas left the company) if she picks up the car. The company will fly us both there and put us up at the Monte Carlo. We "simply" have to drive back home. So we're planning to make the most of the 24 hours we have in Vegas! A show or two, a buffet or two, a drink or two by the pool, served by a Chippendale's waiter or two... Who knows?!

We'll go from seedy to classy in a day as we leave Sin City and drive about 800 miles (I dread that!) to the location of the best Shakespeare festival in the US and my dad's home, Ashland, Oregon, where Elisabeth will meet my father's lady love and the four of us will see the season's final performance of Two Gentlemen of Verona. Then we'll drive all day again, all the way to Seattle.

From the time Elisabeth was tiny, Tom (who for some reason loves Vegas) had promised her that he'd take her there for her 21st birthday. That never happened because life got in the way, so he took her for her 22nd birthday and they had a wonderful time, walking (fast) all over town, observing (because Tom's not a joiner), and staying up all night. This trip with me will be a whole different experience. We'll lounge instead of walk, we'll engage and chat with strangers (because we're both the social type), and we'll be back in the room by 2 AM at the latest (because unlike her dad, I'm no night owl!). And dammit, we'll have at least as much fun as they had!

We'll take lots of pictures and blog away with the "best of the weekend"! Stand by...

I Lost This...

...and I do not want to ever find it again!

Call the Fire Department!

The Big M has hit -- suddenly and without mercy.

At first (as in, last week), I figured that stores had turned up their thermostats for some inexplicable reason, that maybe I was coming down with a fever (once every few hours), and that maybe I was dressing for the weather changing in the wrong direction. Surely there had to be some explanation other than the fact that I'll turn 50 in less than two months and nature was... well, taking its appropriate course.

Some of my friends had described their "personal summers" to me over the past year and I listened compassionately, actually gloating a bit inside that I was having an easy time of it all, sliding with dignity into a graceful middle age. Well, I have been humbled, much like I was humbled by a torturous second labor after boasting about how easy birth was for me, how my body was made for giving birth...

Nature has a cruel sense of humor, it turns out, and I am the butt of the joke this month. I am not laughing. In fact, in the past week, in addition to wanting to suddenly strip naked for all the wrong reasons, I have also found myself erupting into tears for just about no discernable reason -- something quite unlike me.

Couldn't I just have reached 50 first? Could not just that much mercy be shown?

A Lesson in Persistence from Mother Nature

We have friends who have lived within a 20-minute drive of Neuschwanstein castle in Germany for over 14 years . Until we visited them and begged to play tourist at the castle, they had never taken a half-day trip to see what others travel the world to see.

Similarly, we live within a half mile stroll of some of the most fascinating salmon spawning in the world. Every September we see these signs as we drive to and from our busy lives at Microsoft and in the city of Seattle, but in 12 years here have we ever taken a few minutes to pay a visit to the spawning salmon?

Not until today.

Kat and I had spent our Sunday afternoon at the craft store (gotta feed my scrapbooking habit!) and sipping coffee at Starbuck's and were on our way home to do normal-life things like making a lasagne dinner and doing homework when, at the last second we decided to finally see the spawing salmon. We parked almost a stone's throw from our house, walked a short trail to Bear Creek, and there they were -- hundreds of bright red salmon, some with patches of white decaying scales, the gruesome hint of the fate that would soon greet them.

For almost two hours, Kat and I watched the salmon, each one immersed in a valiant struggle to fight against the stream's current with a determination that is truly awe-inspiring. We live a good 30 miles from the Puget Sound, the salt water where these fish began their long journey upstream to spawn -- and then to die. Many of them looked half-dead already, and we could sense their sheer exhaustion as they mustered the strength to fight one small up-hill piffle after another.

As we sat peacefully on a log watching their struggle and their instinctive strength and determination, I began to think about all the times I've complained about my own circumstances recently, wondering how long I can keep looking for the perfect job and how long I can "do it all." I was humbled as I watched the sockeye salmon today, so absolutely determined to spawn, and I promise not to complain anymore... for at least a few days.

My Niche at Microsoft?

I am an educational media producer -- with the emphasis on education when I'm talking to producers, and on production when I'm talking to educators.

I haven't taught in a classroom for years, but throughout my 20-plus year career, I've collaborated in-depth with educators during the design and development of the toys, films and software I've produced. The niche I've carved for myself is very specialized and very deliberate. In the 80's, when I worked at places like Disney and Educational Insights, there were designers and there were developers. The designers, like me, established the creative vision and the educational curriculum behind the game, and the developers, along with the artists, carried out that vision. The benefit of having separate roles was that each would prompt the other to push their limits, to think outside the box and to expand their comfort zones. I'd design stuff that I knew would be a stretch technically, but the engineers would ultimately find a way to pull it off. (Well, except in '83 at Disney, when we were working with about 16 pixels and about as many colors per square inch... in those days, even begging and pleading couldn't help the artists to make Mickey's ears round!) At the same time, developers would sometimes beg us designers to find a way to put some cool technical capability to creative use. It was a simbiotic and oddly functional relationship.

A decade later, in the mid-90's, when I was a producer at Edmark, advances in technology had made it possible for developers to also be designers. They could think up an idea and -- boom -- it could be programmed. Developers no longer had to rely on designers; instead, they became designers themselves. And, in many cases, designers also became developers. Thing is, I had (and have) absolutely NO interest in coding. I have zippo interest in long complicated logic puzzles for the sake of logic. And oh -- I even hate math! So becoming an engineer/developer simply wasn't gonna happen for me. I continued down the design and product development road, eventually adding film to my software repertoire -- and absolutely loving it! And I expanded my horizons to include product management (budgets, timelines, staff mentoring, etc.) in addition to design. But I did NOT add engineering -- and that was by choice.

It has come back to bite me a few times, in terms of job opportunities, but I have never really regretted my decision. I'd be a terrible developer/engineer! And I'm a pretty darn good designer, producer, and product manager... so I'll stick with what I love.

Over the past 5 months at Microsoft, I have explained all this more than a few times. I'm pretty much the sole non-techie on an otherwise highly technical team. I'm a dismal failure at writing technical specs -- though I rock at writing non-technical design specs. And, to get to the original point of this post, the reason why I think I might have found my niche is because the big wigs there have, I think, seen that even a non-techie can prove to be valuable at Microsoft. I get education, I get kids, I get teachers. The developers get code, get features, and get platform -- but I think it's safe to say that they don't necessarily get their audience... nor is it their job to. And that's where I come in. Having my foot in both worlds for 20-plus years, I can serve as a necessary liasion between the two worlds -- and that is what I've been asked to do, at least on a trial basis.

Now THIS, I could love!! I'll work with educators in really cool ways (which will include blogging!), I'll work with Microsoft in really cool ways, and everyone will be happy. At least that's the hope. I'll let you know how things go!

In the meantime -- no, I didn't hear from the company who said, at Startupalooza that they "absolutely need" me. In fact, their site has been down all day, and according to a few interesting blogs, I shouldn't be surprised if they died a sudden death (the day after the job fair?!). Nor did I hear further from the Handheld Games company who called a few nights ago (though a former co-worker advised me to steer clear of them anyway... a micromanagement problem, apparently). But I did hear from my former boss, now at a local casual gaming company who said they have a senior producer opening and will definitely call me. And I do have a solid relationship with the company for whom I'm producing the training videos. They're still awaiting VC funding and can't hire anyone permanently until and unless that comes through. But I remain hopeful. It's a great staff and I've come to feel quite at home there!

And ya know... I might just consider staying at Microsoft if they'll have me and if I can just do what I do well there (design and educational media) and not feel that I'm a complete idiot because I don't do what the other 99% of them do (coding)!

Startup-a-what?!

Sometimes, in order to work somewhere like this...
















One has to endure something like this:


I went to a job fair called "Startupalooza" last night that took place in Pioneer Square, one of my favorite Seattle neighborhoods. After working at Microsoft in the morning and solidifying a freelance film production job (12 short training videos) in the afternoon, I pushed an already-harried day further and made my way downtown. Needless to say, by the time I got to the job fair, I had a massive headache and was pretty frazzled -- partly, I'm sure, due to the fact that I'd eaten a total of one apple all day.

I was fine with my crazy schedule and had even planned in advance for it. ("Breathe deep...") It was the call from Kat at 5:15 that did me in: "Don't forget about Open House at the school tonight at 7:00..." Dammit! It's not that I'd forgotten, it's that I'd planned the day from two sides of my brain -- I knew I had the job fair and I knew I had the open house; I just somehow didn't synthesize them to the exact same time on the exact same evening! We live a good 45 minutes from Seattle -- more during rush hour -- and when Kat called I was at Elisabeth's, having just spent a few "spare moments" (ha!) shopping for some groceries for a primary stocking of her new kitchen. She lives 30 minutes north of Seattle -- and the plan was for us to head to Pioneer Square together, then she'd wait for me while I schmoozed and begged for a job, and then we'd go out for dinner. (An evening at Pioneer Square is considered a definite event around here!) That plan never materialized, of course. Instead, I hastily apologized and got in the car, heading (no -- inching) for Pioneer Square. I finally arrived, slapped on a trendy green suede blazer and an admittedly forced smile and boldly entered the lobby, where it was wall-to-wall sweaty people, all vying to speak with the high and mighty hiring officers.

Is this what speed dating feels like?

I found the company I really wanted to talk to -- they make devices that read and digitize printed documents and are looking to go into the school market -- and waited patiently to talk to the head of HR who insisted that I'm "perfect for what they're looking for and definitely want me to come in." (I'll believe it when it actually happens.) And then, as hastily as I arrived, I left, tossing resumes in other companies' in-boxes on my way out.

It was 6:14 and the Open House was a good 45 minutes away. 'If the Seattle traffic cooperates,' I thought, 'I can make it...' which I did, slipping into "class" an acceptable 35 seconds late. Because we have twins in the school, Tom covers one schedule and I cover the other (otherwise, he could have gone to the open house while I went to the job fair). By 9:00, as I walked to the car, having still eaten only an apple all day, my headache was raging. Just to add some excitement to my day (pfffffft!), I didn't see a curb and ended up falling like a complete buffoon, scattering papers all over the street. I got in my car, surprised myself by bursing into tears and then uncontrollable sobs, which I managed to get under control by the time I met Tom for a bite to eat -- which could have been a very enjoyable experience if we hadn't been in the midst of a stupid, dismal fight.

Today promises to be better... but only because I'm locking myself in my office, so there aren't as many opportunities for disaster.