Takin’ Care of Business

So I guess I should post something about my job, since I haven’t discussed at all up to this point what I do. I am a Principal Engineer at a mobile games/applications startup company called Digital Chocolate. I don’t particularly like our name, but it is what it is. The company was founded by Trip Hawkins, founder of EA and the less successful venture, 3DO (a.k.a., SMSG). I work on the server-side framework for developing our apps. I was the first full-time server engineer hired here. There was a contractor that left shortly after I started that laid the initial foundation. Of course, we have a bigger team now, but for a long time, I was still the only woman on the team. I don’t mind though; I enjoy feeling somewhat like the matriarch. I think being the only woman on a team always leaves you feeling a bit like the mommy. It’s not really that bad here, but at my first job, I was the only woman in the company with 10 other guys and most of them were fairly disorganized, so I definitely had the role of keeping the place clean and running smoothly in some ways. Given that I don’t like or want kids, it’s interesting that I don’t mind that role. Probably just the fact that I’m a neat freak and putting things where they belong and general supervising relieves my anxiety about the unpredicatable nature of the world. : P A few months ago now, we hired a recent female graduate, so now that barrier has been broken. However, the place of seniority I have on the team just from having been here the longest still leaves me with that matriarchal feeling. I don’t think that I’m overbearing about it ever, at least, I certainly hope not. We have some pretty strong personalities on the team, so I think I would have heard about it if I was. We definitely keep each other in check, but are a close and fun loving group. Certainly one of the most fun and relaxed environments I’ve worked in. There has to be a balance between serious discussion about mistakes and flaws and light hearted jabs about people’s quirks (and their mothers). ; ) The other nice thing about this team is the most genuine feeling of code sharing I’ve ever seen on a team. Generally, no one considers any part of the code *their* code or gets upset if someone else goes back later and changes or fixes something. It’s a nice atmosphere to work in.

To Upgrade or Not…

Lately, I have been mulling over what to do about my computer. I currently have a two year old Alienware laptop. It has seen me faithfully through hours of playing BF1942, various mods of BF1942, WoW, DAoC, Guild Wars, NeverWinter Nights, Tribes 2, and most recently BF2, as well as various other non-graphics intensive games. However, after the last few patches of BF2, its performance has degraded terribly, presumably due to the graphics card being more and more out of date. I have steadily gone from being almost always in the top 10 and frequently in the top 5 on the server in every game (handle [VSF] Schmick if you’re curious) to having a hard time getting any kills at all. It’s incredibly frustrating and upsetting, of course, to the point that the game isn’t fun anymore. I definitely miss being able to come home at the end of a long day and kick a little ass. So, the question is, do I buy a new laptop, give up on playing BF2, or, pursue the possibility that my graphics card can be swapped out for the latest? Apparently, Alienware began supporting that around the time that I bought my laptop. If I just say screw it for now, then I will have more and more problems with any games I want to play, so that’s not a real option. Given that I could probably sell my current laptop for half of what I paid for it, there’s a real incentive to use those proceeds as a down payment on the latest model. I mean, two years is definitely over the hill in computer terms these days. I’ll probably head over to Alienware’s sight and check out what new models are going for these days. Oh, and if you didn’t know about it, this site is pretty awesome: http://bf2s.com/player/44688255/

Apache Updates

There is a big exposition coming up in June called the Western States Horse Expo. Brenda Imus, a rather famous name in gaited natural horsemanship (http://www.gaitsofgold.com), has put a call out for participants in a demonstration that she is going to do at the Expo of one of her clinics. She will be taking 5 horse and rider pairs. If you want to participate, you have to submit a video to her. So, I had my trainer record me during our lesson this Saturday so I could put the video together and submit it. I could not believe how good he looked. His gaits are looking so nice and he’s holding his head in such a nice position. He still pokes his nose out too much from time to time, but doesn’t require too much correction to keep it in place. I was floored by how good he looks and I can’t wait to get him in front of a judge this season. If you are interested in seeing the videos, they are the ones dated 3/18 on this page: http://www.schmick.org/horse/videos.htm. Depending on your connection speed, it might be a fairly slow download.

Sigh …

Ugh. Gov. Mike Rounds signed into law today a bill making abortions illegal in S. Dakota, except to save a mother’s life. Not even cases of rape or incest are excepted. I can’t even imagine having to carry to term a baby conceived within me under such circumstances – talk about saving a person’s life… Anyway, let’s just say I’m a little annoyed. It seems to me like a clear play of passing something into law that is currently illegal under federal statutes just to entice someone into suing so that the case will ultimately be presented to the Supreme Court – the hope being, of course, that the new justices would turn the tide and this time Roe v. Wade would be overturned. This seems like a backwards approach to me. Our system is supposed to be changed and improved by people challenging the laws through actions and suits, not through legislators passing illegal laws. The move is not only disappointing, but completely transparent.

My First Post

If you want some background information about me before you start reading about my life, visit my website: http://www.schmick.org/

I had such a good weekend that I decided to finally start a blog and write about it. I met a woman through the local FOSH group named Libby. She also has a Spotted Saddle Horse, whose name is Natural Ice. She wanted to meet me and Apache because apparently there aren't very many people around here with Spotted Saddle Horses. So, we agreed that she would come by my barn this weekend to watch my Saturday lesson on Apache. She sat on the bleachers with my trainer and some of the other folks from my barn to chat it up while I rode. Apache was pretty darn good, not surprisingly – he knew he had an audience and he is a big ham. Libby later told me that she could see him eyeing them every time we came around that side of the arena. His gaits were right on and his canter was nice – he was being good about his headset, after all the work we've done on that lately. After the lesson, Libby was really excited. She said his gaits were awesome and he had one of the nicest canters she'd seen on an SSH. She chatted with me for quite a while after my lesson. She couldn't get over Apache. She said he had incredibly good feet, she loved the angles. She said his confirmation was perfect – short back, nice croup and haunch, perfect neck size and arch, beautiful face, great legs. She said, "I'm standing here looking at him thinking about what I would change and I can't come up with a thing. He's perfect." She said over and over how sweet and how beautiful he was. I was having a major proud mom moment. It was such a thrill to have someone else who's into gaited horses and knows the confirmation and the bloodlines and has been to the shows come over and say all these wonderful things about Apache. I certainly think he's beautiful, but it's nice to hear someone else say so. : ) I can't wait to get to some shows out here now and see how we do. It will be very different, I hope, than trying to show in Texas where the performance horses are what's popular.