Too cool for my shopping bags!

After a lecture in Copenhagen, a long and exhausting trip to NY, an online conference in the US WoW, several slightly delayed reviews which are now done only a little late and a long student paper by a luckily very thorough student (luckily because thorough means lots of reading, but it is worth it) I came to a grinding halt yesterday. So time to go do something wonderfully decadent, and I did it in one of my favourite places for decadence, a tex-mex restaurant right at the Hudson River.

It's a unique location for a New York restaurant, it has large and comfortable outdoor seating, very little traffic noise, a view of the water and a large part of the outdoor tables set under a little grove of trees, offering shade in the summer, the water supplying a cooling breeze. Right in front is the Hudson River Sailing School harbour, so sitting there, nursing your tequila of choice, you get to watch the boats and oogle the beautiful people walking, running and scating by on their way down Battery Park - one of the prettiest and best maintained parks in New York.

So, that's me up there, enjoying all these things and a drink, too. Life can be pretty good!

Oh yeah, the shopping bags! Well, new shower curtains and a cheap coup at J&R don't go with all the über coolness, so they had to be hidden well away for the picture!

The King's City

For four hundred years "The King's City" for Norwegians wasn't Oslo, but Copenhagen. This is where Norwegians went for education, for a chance to gain a public service position, to practice the arts and develop as craftsmen and artists, this is where licences were written out - for Norwegian newspapers and just about everything else. This is also where the decision was made to sell off significant pieces of Norwegian land, to persecute Norwegian witches (the last one was burned in 1695, and most of the Norwegian witches were among the sami - here a lot of men were burned as witches as well), and to drag Norway into the war that got us handed over to the Swedes.

Still, with all it's conflicting history in the interwoven past of the Scandinavian countries, Copenhagen is my favourite Scandinavian city. I love the busy streets, a mixture of new, old and in-between, the bicycle lanes with their little special lights for bicyclists and the many, many different bikes. The Copenhagen idea of a family car seems to be a transport bike - a bike with a solid load space in front, frequently loaded with a woman and/or a kid, propelled by a grinning man taking his family to scool and work and getting a good workout too. I love the stores, as big and fancy as in much larger cities, and stuffed with Danish designer goodies: Clothing made for Scandinavian sized women and northern climate and northern tastes.

And now I am stuck in the hotel room, telling myself I have to finish preparing for tomorrow, when what I want to do is to go out into the warm sunny day, find a cool soda and a spot in a park and watch Copenhagen bike past me. This had better get good!

Italy!

Tomorrow I am out of here! Not that Umeå is bad, I am just so delighted to be able to go south towards spring when the thaw just ended and it started snowing again here. Snow, pines and rural charms are fine, but it's about time to have a cappucino and wear something other than hiking boots.

I am off to Urbino, where I'll be giving a lecture Tuesday. My friend and fellow Truant Luca Rossi has invited me to give a lecture to his students. The topic is "The story and research of digital games", and I'll give a quick little game history, talk about the development of games, give a little analysis example (nintendo DS anyone? If you have it or can borrow it, check out the old, but nice game "Project Rub".) and discuss the social and cultural uses of games. Bit topic I can talk for a few days about, I'll try to do the highlights tour.

Afterwards I'll be touring Umbria, and expect to eat myself sick sometime during easter, before I return to Umeå. The return will be packed with anticipation though, as I am returning to the game symposium in Umeå!

Games research in Umeå, March 2008

So it's public, the thing I have been working on the last couple of months. I have been fretting myself into exhaustion many a day over a game research symposium to be held in Umeå 26th - 28th of March. Who would have thought that something which needed so little work on the content side would need so much work on the logistics side? The contributors to the symposium have been working with me all the way, and in March we'll all hang out down in HUMlab for three days. I can't wait, I want it to happen NOW.

And if you are in Umeå or anywhere close in that period: there are lectures open to the public, seminars/discussion groups open to researchers with an interest in games research, and workshops open to the first 18 who sign up (staff at UmU get a head start).

See you all here!

Alive!

Winters have always made me feel like a bear. I become sleepy, lazy, and really grumpy when disturbed. Why am I surprised that I feel even more so when the winter is darker, colder and longer than I am used to?

Umeå had some almost familiar weather for a while, with snow, ice, sleet, rain, snow in what seemed like an endless circle. The last month has however been stable, and the layer of ice on the pavement is a dark grey from dirt and rubble. In the forest the snow is still white, but it's frozen hard from being slightly warmed during the day, then frozen solid in the night.

But now I am waking up, starting to get work done, and feeling happy about all my little plans.

First: March 4th, I am giving a lecture in Hamar, Norway, where they have a little game education. I got to put together 4 hours doing favourite stuff with a small handful of gamers. I have to admit Hamar isn't my idea of a glamorous place to go, but hey, I am spending the winter in Umeå! And I get to do nice things together with interested people, that's enough to go anywhere.

Second: March 18th, I am giving a lecture in Urbino, Italy! And I managed for once to convince my husband he should come with me! So I get to travel, talk about some of my favourite things in the world, meet Luca Rossi, who is a really wonderful person to hang out with, and I will do this in the company of the man who has had the patience to deal with me for 26 years.

Third (big deal coming up): March 26th - 28th, at Umeå University: Humans, culture and computer games; Exploring how people use and live with their chosen online activities, a symposium organised by me and a wonderful group of games researchers, financed by Umeå University and the enthusiasm of the participants. Program is very, very close to being done and ready for publishing, link will come as soon as possible.

Fourth: I'll be in Copenhagen 8th of May, giving a lecture. Just the thought of that makes me smile, Copenhagen is my favourite Scandinavian city (and it beats quite a few other cities too), and I get to visit ITU, where I have so many wonderful colleagues and friends.

And after that I just have to cross my fingers and hope I get to present papers at the Player conference in Copenhagen, and then the AOIR conference also in Copenhagen. What can I say? It's a great city.