T-minus...

Just had a good brainstorming sesh on the whole creative games thing. It's actually going pretty well. We've now got a distinctly amateurish prototype to show what we're up to, complete with activity cards, a sample website, an explorer's log, and stick-in challenges.

We got a few local kids to play with it today, and it seemed to work well. The main kid, Weston, was particularly taken with the whole dragon-slaying, sword-wielding element (which is my favourite bit too). He also tried explaining Bakugan to me, but it was a bit of a lost cause. Cool figures, though; spring-loaded.

Man alive I'm tired. It's pretty much the final week of term, so all the projects are due in the next few days. Basically it means I'm going to be sitting in front of a computer until I can get out of here, with the occasional mad dash up to Menlo Park to do some filming. But I'm very happy to be flying up to Vancouver this time next week. Everything I've heard about the city is fantastic, and I'm really looking forward to discovering Seattle and Portland on my way back to SF.

Portland's been on my radar for a good few years now - it sounds farking brilliant: lots of creative types, scaffy bars and greenery, with loads of zines and local microbreweries fueling the creative sparks.

There's also a slightly deranged, twisted humour about the place, best exemplified by Portland natives Matt Groening, Chuck Palahnuik and Katherine Dunn. It sounds amazing.

Yup simply cannot wait. And then a week or so of bronzing in Hawaii before hopping back here for the final stretch. Come on break; just one week away.

Oh, and I'm loving Rex the Dog's Bubblicious, which is playing in my headphones as I type.