seattle, part 2

let's time travel, shall we? not too far back--don't want a "back to the future" just-call-me-calvin fiasco on our hands! and calvins totally clash with my hanky pankys. rewinding a few days to last friday, 100+ women (and a few good men) including me spent the day at nintendo hq learning about the newly released nintendo 3ds! at the onset, there were a few ground rules set into play:

• no photos inside the building except for the main conference room we were in.


• escorts! not the late-night, hush-hush variety, but nintendo staffers who kept a close eye on us as we went to the restroom. or stepped out for a phone call. or turned the wrong way down a very long hallway. guess they didn't want us to run off for an afternoon nap in the moo meadows conference room. or to break into the "kid icarus" testing area.


• no photos of the games in 3d mode.

apo. but not sydney bristow apo. nintendo apo

there's a soccer field out front. also, i heard there's a basketball court. no word on the indoor bobsled course.

reggie fils-aime, nintendo of america's president and coo, welcomed us. several women tweeted as he spoke and then asked him specific questions from their readers. i just sat there awestruck while trying to figure out the settings to my new camera. for some reason, reggie kept coming out all fuzzy in my pictures. he looks more in-focus in person, i promise.

we were separated into nintendo character-labeled groups and then rotating through each gaming station. my fellow toads rocked! (photo by shari at crazedmommy)

as we rotated, we tried out the nintendo 3ds--look, mom, no funny looking glasses necessary! over the day, we played tons of games (by the end, my eyes felt slightly cross-eyed--when playing in 3d mode, definitely take a break every 20 min. or so!) and toured the building.

when we stopped at the store (no photos there!), i was overwhelmed by all things mario-related. mario mugs, luigi pajama pants, peach t-shirts--you name it, they had it. with anything more than a few minutes to shop, i would have needed a zelda luggage set! instead, i returned home with two beanies and a wii internet converter... but i'm still secretly coveting the bowser backpack with fuzzy felt spikes. it's not practical, but it is unique!

the trip to nintendo peaked my interest; before, i knew virtually nothing about the nintendo 3ds. but now i'm really wishing i had bought street fighter at the nintendo world store when i had the chance. it quite possibly would have made the plane-ride home a peanut butter-dream free zone.

* as a nintendo brand ambassador through brand about town, i receive free products to play with and enjoy. as part of the summit, i was given a nintendo 3DS and a gift certificate to the nintendo world store. the trip was paid for by nintendo/brand about town. the opinions expressed in this blog are entirely mine and the facts true.

to make a quick buckeye

at the nintendo summit, i met nora, and we hit it off over (other peoples') tales of the rock and an amazing chocolatey mint dessert. somewhere in the middle of the conversation, we discussed oreo truffles, which got me thinking about buckeyes--mainly, both are messy attempts at rolling things into balls.

two hours of flight time home allowed me to deeply ponder the inner workings of cocoa and peanut combinations AND watch two episodes of the real housewives of orange county. during that time, i figured i might as well take my own whack at buckeye bars (aka butch bars to anyone who frequents hot cookie). becca's buckeye bars

ingredients

• 1 bag (16 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips


• 1 tablespoon shortening


• 1 (18 oz) jar creamy peanut butter


• 1/2 cup butter or earth balance, softened


• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract


• 4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

directions

• line an 8x8 pan with parchment paper.


• clear out a flat space in your freezer.


• melt half of the chips and 1/2 tablespoon shortening over medium heat (use a double broiler or your own microwave method. stir every few seconds, and don't burn the chocolate!).


• poor the melted chocolate into the bottom of the lined pan. spread evenly, and place in the freezer for 30 min.


• place the peanut butter, butter, vanilla extract, and 3 cups of powdered sugar in a large bowl. mix until smooth (use fingers, fork, a hand mixer, whatever). depending on taste and consistency, perhaps add the last cup and mix until smooth (i used 4 cups, and feel that my final product was a little too sweet).


• remove pan from freezer.


• line the chocolate mixture with the peanut butter mixture. flatten/smoothen the top of it and return to the freezer for another 10-15 min.


• meanwhile, melt remainder of chips and shortening.


• remove pan from freezer, and layer with melted chocolate mixture. smoothen, and return to freezer for another 45 min.


• remove from freezer, slice, and keep in fridge!

seattle, part 1

i'm just outside of seattle at a nintendo branding event*. the whirlwind 42 hours of crazy fun kicked off last night with a cocktail reception. at it, women kept asking me what i twittered about, and i had to keep explaining that, no, i don't twitter. i just wait in line with twitterers (what do you call those who work at twitter?) at whole foods. pretty much everyone here originated as bloggers, and most still write (more than 140 characters) on a regular basis, which made me feel relieved bordering on utterly thankful that i've kept this up (even with my recent writing droughts).

as i made my rounds of the room, though, i felt somewhat nationless. to the mommy bloggers, i had to admit that no, i don't have kids yet. to the 20-something single bloggers (yes, that's how they introduced themselves), i have a signifiant other and my wedding dress is (still) at the dry cleaners, waiting patiently in line to get refreshed and fluffed and placed into a special archival box. finally, somewhere in the last half hour of the mixer, i found a few 30-something coupled women who were not yet head-to-toe in playdates and soccer games nor were they reminiscing with their five blogger best buddies over late afternoon champagne-induced posts of failed craftdom.

all the women seem incredibly nice, though, and i'm curious to see what today has in store. rumor has it, we'll get to see the nintendo 3ds up close and personal. whee!

*all travel and accomodations paid for by brand about town.

my very legal baggie full of pot

since i live in the city and can't get packages reliably delivered at home (this includes pretty much anything larger than an envelope!), i have most things sent to me at work, including bras, cat food, and everything nintendo.

awhile back, the branding chicks down in LA sent me a cooking game for my dsi along with a really cool cuisinart cooking pot. i took the cooking assistant game home with me, as it was small and could fit in my purse, but i kept the stew pot at work for odd reasons that now don't make too much sense, like we were running out of room with the wedding gifts piling up, and i couldn't figure out how to get the pot home easily on the bus.

it's quite possibly been six months since receipt, but last friday, i decided to start this new year off right--getting back to blogging, straightening up my office were amongst my non-resolutiony goals. that evening, i carted my pot home in an old navy bag (which amazingly, never even got so much as a hole in it. how do old navy bags hold up better than their clothes?) via the bus. but how is it i didn't get one pot joke (besides from todd and me) the whole way home?


* as a nintendo wii and dsi brand ambassador through brand about town, i receive free games and other products, like a nintendo dsi and a dsi xl. the wii, though, was a wedding gift from a good friend. the opinions expressed in this blog are mine and the facts true.

A is to jump, B is to fire.

for the past two years or so, i've received nintendo games via a branding company, and it's a pretty cool deal. every few months, a white box arrives with a game and presto, i'm off in a magical land, solving clues or searching for the princess. there have been a few times, though, when the games weren't my style.

one such was the personal trainer: cooking. you entered in some form of what you wanted to make (like "sushi") or the ingredients you had, specified things to omit and kazaam, you had not only a recipe but an illustrated how-to guide. sounds cool and for most people, i think it'd be awesome. but yes, there's a big but here. the program didn't jive with my lactose-minimal, vegetarian diet. i think i ended up with a total of five potential entrees that i could make. the set-up was really awkward, and when i cook or bake, i make a mess. flour makes it into the most unlikeliest of places, and i'm a firm supporter of dirtying whatever need be for culinary greatness. placing my (albeit complimentary) nintendo ds lite precariously in the line of (zesty tomato) fire worried me. after trying to get past the first few recipe instructions a few times, i gave up and passed it along to a nintendo-playing girlfriend and her foodie husband, both of whom eat meat. but i kept the apron that came along with it, mainly because it had "becca" sewn across the breast, and i had some inkling that a bearded dude named "lee" wouldn't have a strong urge to wear it.

a little time after this, i was emailing with one of the branding women and commented that personal trainer: cooking just didn't work for me, so she sent me a game about rhythm. apparently a lot of women were going crazy for it. me, i have rhythm, but i was getting headaches with this game. soon after, the branding ladies sent out an email asking for feedback and info on our likes and dislikes, so i offered some insights and as much information as i could, hoping to improve the process.

and then dumdumdahdaaaaaaaah! professor layton and the diabolical box arrived. this one made me use my brain, and there were twists and turns! i liked the one before it, with the curious village more, maybe because the concept seemed newer and not so repetitive... but still, the professor and i solved puzzles with astounding speed, and i felt like we were buds! hooray!

right before the holidays, style savvy arrived along with a cute little bag of very sparkly makeup. this one's a game where i could create my own clothing boutique and become a savvy, fashionable entrepreneur. keep budgets! maintain an inventory! dress your clients! i already project manage at work, so doing this for fun just wasn't doing it for me. and i'm really, really not into fashion like that. or fashion-focused games. the solution: send it to my tweenish half sister (with only some of the makeup. living in florida, i didn't think she really needed the bronzer and she's way too young for 3-day long mascara). rumor has it the game made her day, and i scored a few bonus points.

so down, up, down. the next arrival should be a plus, right? but. well. erm. today i received a large box that the facilities guy had to cart into my office with... a cart. inside the box was a cuisinart stockpot, a bamboo cutting board, onion goggles (no, really, don't cry!), and the america's test kitchen: let's get cooking program.

now, i haven't actually used the recipe program yet, but from the reviews only, it's another cooking demo trainer. or more so, it's an electronic cookbook featuring the top 300 recipes from america's test kitchen. i'm a little wary again. i love atk, but more so for its baking recipes and cookware recommendations; i've just found its recommended cooking recipes to be more highly geared towards meat and buttery fats (to get the best of the best of the best?) as opposed to what i tend to have in my kitchen. as i found before, 1) cooking tutorials aren't for everyone and 2) i don't want my nintendo device in the kitchen, period. what's next, a "how to remove that ring around the tub" trainer? or a "how to take care of a baby" program (which follow the first and second in the series: "how to make a baby: trainer" and "how to give birth: trainer")?

so

dear totally rad branding women,

please don't think i'm ungrateful because i'm not. really. the brand enthusiast program is a great outreach and word-of-mouth tool, and i'm very lucky to be a part of it. but i feel pigeonholed into a corner regarding what someone else thinks a woman gamer should like: fashion, cooking, puppies, and fitness. i can guarantee that women also enjoy puzzles, role playing (no doctor/nurse role playing, mind you), wielding a laser gun, and trivia games.

game on,
becca

i'm a game-her.

a few weeks ago, the wonderful women at brand about town hosted my nintendo party, officially titled "a girlfriends' guide to gaming." as you may know, i rounded up almost 30 women and we made our way down to dogpatch studios on the east side of portrero hill. i've never been down to the dogpatch (i've driven past it, but that's about it), and i didn't quite know what to expect, but i knew there'd be no dogs. ruff.

everyone seemed to have a lovely time, and how could we not? we were greeted at the entrance with a sandwich board dedicated to me (which is very hard for an introvert to digest...) and sped up in the elevator to the 2nd floor where we were immediately impressed with the whole shebang, which included an amazing light-filled loft space decorated with furniture, rugs, tables brimming to the edges with game-related gear (like brain books for brain age!), simple yet elegant flower arrangements, and a corner "bar" area featuring champagne, wine, sodas, appetizers, and amazing desserts.


the staff set the room up with very comfy L-shaped couches (note to self: a-line skirts and low-to-the-ground couches don't mix! nor does anything with those "men in black"-inspired mini rump stumps-- see the white things in the background!), and each couch served as a different game station. as each woman completed or played at each station, she received an adorable little charm for our charm bracelets (it's like elementary school, only WAY better). and gimmicky, yes, but still incredibly fun:) at the end of the night, everyone was gifted with their own personal nintendo ds lite.


there wasn't much more i could ask for. not only did i thoroughly enjoy myself, but i also met lots of friends of friends (and some friends of friends of friends). normally, i'm totally skeptical of free stuff, viral marketing, and such, but as a brand enthusiast, i feel like there's no catch. well, except for those short couches. and for nintendo's sake, i'm willing to ignore that.

if i freed it, would it be tree-son?

knee recovery is going well. today i left the house without a crutch (yesterday i mainly used it as a defense mechanism on MUNI anyway. take that, old man with three canes and a fake leg!), although i wore bermudas today (hello, heat wave!!!), which reveals about 1/2 of my lovely leg wrap to the world.

i've been able to lightly shower, and the main benefits are smelling less like crutches and this purple marker slowly rinsing away. nail polish remover got about half of it removed; i now just have a purple initial tattoo of my surgeon's second-in-command on my upper left thigh. sexy.


last friday was my first day out of the house, and to celebrate, todd and i walked over to one of my favorite sandwich (don't call 'em sammies) shops, jay's cheesesteak. it's no laspadas (they don't offer many veggie options... but they're absolutely AWESOME with a capital a), but jay's has killer seitan cheesesteaks (in addition to meat ones). as i was hobbling along grove, we came across this poor incarcerated tree. i'm not sure which one of us had it worse. me: stuck in an apartment with a bum knee, but with ample shade, food, cat, and nintendo. tree: lots of sun and fresh air, active composting, but with no means of escape. i think i'll give this one to the tree.

real gaming for real girls

a little while back, i got a huge surprise in my inbox. brand about town had stumbled upon my blogs and wondered if i might consider being a brand enthusiast for a girl-oriented campaign centering around the nintendo ds lite. my obligations would be minimal: i'd receive some nintendo products over the next year, and i'd also host a "girls' guide to gaming" party for me and 30 or so bay area women. the marketing company would coordinate the event and pay for all the party's expenses, and my responsibility would be the guest list.

i read through the email, did some google searching, and thought back to my nintendo-playing days as a child. we had the original nes, and after school, my mom, sister, and i would play super mario (1, 2, and 3) and the legend of zelda. after about 48 hours of buddhist-like contemplation, i responded and said, "i'm in!" (only in longer, more structured paragraph form).

fast-forward to this past friday: i was organizing everything to work from home for the next week (knee surgery, legal drugs, and buttered toast, oh my!) when the receptionist informed me i had a package. lo and behold, i opened this white box to find a cute onyx-colored nintendo ds lite with pink rhinestones in a chic pink case! colleagues came by and salivated, and one even borrowed it later in the day and played brain age 2 (i think she simply wanted to make sure it was safe for me to play... thanks, l.!). todd has also borrowed it once or twice over the weekend, but i think the pink heart will safely deter him from slipping it in his pocket on the way out the door. phew. thank goodness for sparkles.