Looks like the last one of these update posts was a year and a half ago, so thought it might be nice to give a little mini-update on what I’m up to, for those who don’t follow me a whole bunch on social media.
Let’s see, some states of Simon:
– Though I’m still working in San Francisco’s SoMa at UBM Tech, am really enjoying living in the East Bay (having settled down and bought a place in Alameda last year). How is it possible to say bad things about a place that has High Scores Arcade, the Pacific Pinball Museum, _and_ hosts the runway (over on the formal naval base) that Mythbusters uses to crash trucks?
– As I write, it’s just a couple of weeks until GDC Europe 2013 kicks off in Cologne, Germany, and – if you follow me on Twitter – you’ll know that video games are still my first love. And with that show going swimmingly, it’s time to concentrate on GDC Next – a ‘future of games’ event we’re putting on in L.A. this November, and even, Kali forbid, Game Developers Conference 2014, for which submissions are open right now. Not. Even. Joking.
– Having been asked to diversify beyond the ‘A B A B up down’ thing a couple of years back, I am obliging with gusto – and just got back from the second Black Hat USA show I help to oversee. (Luckily, folks like Trey Ford provide the market smarts on information security, and Nicole Garbolino the organizational goodness, and I just turn up to Tweet about dogs wearing hats).
Although prep for the NSA keynote at BH USA gave me about thirteen ulcers (by proxy) this year, we’re expanding with a dedicated Black Hat Trainings event and other just-about-to-be-announced shows in 2014. (Oh, and outside of games, then there’s App Developers Conference, and some new events coming down the pike that I will talk about soon as well. Such a tease).
– Still super interested in media curation/bundles – and am on Mk.3 of my attempts to have fun while distributing neat media! So I’m not involved at all in Indie Royale any more, which is a bit sad, but glad to see Tenshi and new half-owner Linden Lab (via Desura!) continuing to work on neat indie game distribution.
And although Triselector (a music bundle thing I was working on) is not happening any more, I’m having a lot of fun working on a non work side-project with Jason Chen on curating select bundles for his DRM-free eBook site Storybundle – with the next bundle I curated out on Tuesday, and a second video game book bundle due later this year, after the first was a biggish hit. And who knows, Bundle Idea Mk.4 might happen eventually, too?
– Also trying to do NOT WORK STUFF some more, since that’s been a slight failing of mine in the past – for example, had a really nice time with my parents at Zion/Bryce National Parks in Utah in June (dreamy canyon pic above!).
Am further attempting to travel everywhere all the time by attending two (less worklike) things I’m quite excited about, XOXO in Portland (September) and Festival Supreme in Santa Monica (October). But I’m not the new Doctor Who. So there’s that…