The other day I had the opportunity to take a bike ride from Fremont to Mountain View and back. It was the first time I'd taken that particular trip, and was the farthest I'd ever gone riding within one 24-hour period, though the "there" and "back again" sections were separated by several hours.
On the way back I went around the southern tip of the Bay, through Sunnyvale. I grew up in Sunnyvale, but the experience of being there again was very strange.
The big event of this last weekend was the Maker Faire, but I went to that just on Sunday. On Saturday I went to the Fremont Burger and Brew Fest and...frankly, it was a little strange.
My recent obsession with Recettear led me to watch a few Let's Play videos of it. It's fun to watch people's reactions to the quirky characters, but some observations, both good and bad, soon become apparent.
Warning: some spoilers about the game mechanics follow.
Recettear gets (or got, when it was new) a lot of press for its innovative concept: you're not the adventurer; you run the item shop. Many other reviews will happily note the joys and shortcomings of this system; I'll leave you to peruse those. What no one points out is that Recettear passes the Bechdel test in its very first cutscene, and constantly throughout play, even with a cast that includes a lot of men.
My dad recently got his first smartphone, and the other day he asked me for my thoughts on cycling apps. I found myself advising him not only on cycling apps, but also the process of evaluating apps in general, because it's a little tricky compared to more "traditional" software.
They're tricky.