My Incredible Sisters

Tania is, and always has been a force of nature, forging her own trail from the time she could walk. She set out early in her career as one of only a handful of women divers in the Canadian Navy and went on to train new divers. She is an inspiration to anyone that meets her with that contagious smile. Always ready to take on any task no matter how daunting, her love of life is boundless. I am so proud to have the two most amazing women in the world as sisters – Tania and Adriana, who is getting ready to welcome her third baby this Friday while wrangling legal life as a partner of a law firm in Eastern Canada. Love you both so much!!!

First BlogHer Experience

Today I was fortunate enough to attend the breakfast event put on by Blogging Angels and Zebra Partners. I had no idea what to expect, having never been to BlogHer before, or for that matter never been around many bloggers. What I found was an extremely warm, inviting event that was low on pretense and high in character. It was engaging and accepting and the women were all fantastic.

So what was I thinking and why was I apprehensive before getting there? I think it had more to do with being slightly out of my comfort zone. It was such a refreshing change of pace and affirmed that writing is something I need to be doing on a more frequent basis.

Thanks for the invite!

Wanda

Will a Tiger Mother Eat Everything In Her Path?

I read in initial horror last week’s WSJ article from Amy Chua, “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior“. The article was part of an excerpt from the Yale Law Professor’s book “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother”.

Random Thoughts

I learned 2 very interesting things recently worth sharing:

1. Having one’s eyebrows threaded hurts like a MOTHER!

2. Today is the anniversary of the isolation of radium.The interesting part is that Marie Currie was of course the person that did that.

What I learned is that Madame Currie won the Nobel Prize in science TWICE and is the ONLY PERSON to have ever won it in two different sciences – physics and chemistry. What an incredible accomplishment! (oh yeah, I learned this from my 11 year old son!)

My random thoughts for the day.

Did the Games Industry Just Take 5 Steps Backwards?!?

What kind of brain fart was the inspiration for GameCrush? Really? Just when I thought the industry was moving in the right direction toward mass market. Clearly this is an indication that things are still completely out of whack.

Global Gaming News

Global Gaming News: Nov 1 – Nov 6

North America

Activision Blizzard

Activision posted revenue of $703 million for the third quarter, compared to $711 million last year. While revenue was down from 2008 quarter figures, the company had net earnings of $15 million compared to a loss of $108 million for the same quarter.

In separate news, Activision announced that World of Warcraft has started support of microtransactions, selling pets for $10 each. Initial reaction has had customers up in arms about the additional costs.

Middleware Update

Epic just announced it is making its development kit available for free for noncommercial and educational use.  This comes just a few weeks after Unity landed $5.5 million in VC funding. I’m not inferring that Epic’s move is a reaction to Unity’s news, rather I think it highlights that tool and middleware vendors are still jockeying to meet a growing range of game development needs.