http://www.lejade.org Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think. Mon, 29 Dec 2008 18:55:22 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Spent a few days in Kyoto. Had never seen it in autumn. Felt like sharing the beauty. http://www.lejade.org/2008/11/kyotos-red-and-gold-kimono/ 1:00 am sunday morning. Project Horseshoe 2008 is coming to an end. I can't talk about the specifics of what happened because of the local "code of secrecy" but I will say this: where else could I get to act as a snooty french sooth in a play by Steve Meretzky ... http://www.lejade.org/2008/11/project-horseshoe-2008/ I am just back from four days in Essen, Germany, where I stayed for the annual game fair. Essen is all about analog gaming: from LARP and RPG to board and card games. As usual, I was stricken by the diversity and vitality I felt in contrast to the current ... http://www.lejade.org/2008/10/essen-2008/ What a weekend! Last Friday evening in Paris we had the ceremony of the Milthons - which is positioned as the equivalent of the Césars (the french Oscars) for video games. Mekensleep's latest title, Soul Bubbles, was competing in the best portable console game category. Here's a shaky cam taken by ... http://www.lejade.org/2008/09/soul-bubbles-at-milthon-2008/ I've spent the last week eating, reading, swimming and sleeping on Zanzibar's most beautiful beaches. Pongwe, Matemwe and the magical Mnemba island for a spectacular finale with Suni antelopes, chocolate and pepper cookies and a crazy night dive. This is probably as good as it gets... http://www.lejade.org/2008/08/zanzibar-beaches/ Chumbe - a tiny corallian island on the west coast of Zanzibar - is an ecological reserve and a fascinating experiment in sustainable living. With the blessing of the government, a non-profit organization runs it in a way that strives to have the smallest possible impact on the surrounding nature. Researchers ... http://www.lejade.org/2008/08/chumbe-island/ Jozani Forest: its red mahogany trees, its mangrove but mostly its endemic red colobus monkeys. http://www.lejade.org/2008/08/jozani-forest/ In truth, Stone Town should be called Fusion City. It's a fascinating mix of cultures: African, Arab, Indian and European influences intertwined everywhere. From the rooftops you'll realize that the mosque, the indian temple and the christian cathedral are no further than 200 meters apart. One day you could eat ... http://www.lejade.org/2008/08/zanzibar-stone-town/ A couple of weeks ago, Daniel Cook over at Lost Garden was kind enough to write an article about game critics and Soul Bubbles. He is, as always, a lot more articulate than I could ever hope to be and I am very thankful for his kind words, thought I ... http://www.lejade.org/2008/08/length-and-difficulty-in-soul-bubbles/ For those who have not heard of him, Randy Pausch was a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University working on subjects closely related to video games. He was one of the creators of Alice, a software that tries to teach children programming while having fun. He was a ... http://www.lejade.org/2008/07/goodbye-randy-pausch/