Michelle Obama in SF

After another day scouring the internet for jobs and coming up with freelance pitches, I was ready to head back to my uncle's place in SF for an evening restorative and maybe a gentle stroll round Noe Valley.

But on crossing Market St, I was held up while a cavalcade of police cars and motorbikes whizzed past, including one car featuring the smiling an waving First Lady. Yep, Michelle Obama was in town, and I'd inadvertently wandered into her armoured procession.

Apparently she was opening a play centre in the city and speaking at a San Francisco school about the importance of volunteering and community leaders.

According to the Associated Press article:

Obama talked about the importance of children getting exercise, adding that at the White House they've instituted "Camp Obama," which means the TV and computers are off until after dinner and right before bedtime — "Bedtime is early."

She also said the Obama girls play on a swing set that has been installed.

"They don't even know that they're getting exercise," Obama said. "That's the value of play and that's what we need to get our kids to do in this community — but we have to provide them with resources to make that happen."

So Michelle Obama in town to celebrate the very thing that's been scurrying around my mind for the last few months: the value of play, and how we can incorporate it into our daily routine. 

I'm glad that this is being taken seriously; encouraging children to play and getting members of the community involved can make a difference. It's a positive message to be sending out in an otherwise bleak era.

Sunshine in the City

I'm now up in SF. The sun is absolutely nailing us to the floor, so we've slowed life down appropriately. 

The last week was a good 'un: some interesting chats with NPR bods (Deborah Amos and Ellen Weiss - NPR's vice-head of news) and Neil Chase from Federated Media - and ex-New York Times editor. Usual stuff from both camps: news-production as we know it is dead, but there will always be a place for news-gathering. I'm not so sure, particularly when hearing it from people who've now left the journalism game. Isn't it a bit questionable to say you have faith, while at the same time clambering into a life-raft? Not sure.

I also managed to get quite a lot of work done this last week, which was pretty amazing, considering how much I'm focussed on the job-hunt and visa thingamy. The latest on that, by the way, is that despite getting the finances sorted, Stanford's health centre have now decided to make my life a misery. So I've got to so even more tests to prove I'm not a threat to the US (this is after the half-million forms and tests this time last year). Bureaucratic tossers.

On the good news front, I hit the town with my old mate, Jim Peck, last night. He joined me from Sydney, where it sounds like he's got a pretty sweet life. Maybe that should be the next destination for DWS.

It's also 'Bay to Breakers' tomorrow; SF's annual festival of dressing up like an idiot and running across the city. As it combines two of my favourite things, I'd be a fool not to get involved. So if I can muster the energy, I might head to a thrift store or two later to check out costumes. It is darn hot though; maybe I'll just sit in the park.  

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.