Indeed, these are emotional times; I find myself Crying CONSTANTLY while working these days! I just can't help it!!! After all... I do work for Crytek now. :-) And in fact, these ARE emotional times, but in a good way. I am very happy with my new job, my new associates, my new company, my new products... it's all good. Crytek is the European developer behind the successful and stunningly beautiful game franchises Far Cry and Crysis. They are headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany and have studios in Budapest, Kiev, and Seoul. They have approximately 300 employees from close to 30 countries, and ironically, the primary language in their Frankfurt headquarters is English.
Their award-winning CryENGINE game engine is, in my opinion as well as that of most developers I've spoken to, the best game development technology in the industry. To date Crytek has not had a real aggressive engine licensing business; however, in spite of that they have been fairly prominent in that space. We are becoming quite aggressive in the business, though, for reasons that I cannot yet announce because an official announcement will be made just before the Game Developers Conference in March.
I am joining the company as Director of Asia Pacific Licensing, and will be responsible for the engine licensing business in North America and Asia. I will be working closely with their Seoul studio, and I will be establishing operations for them in Shanghai, Tokyo, and in North America. I am crazily putting together business plans for each region and preparing to hire more than a dozen staff members in three countries for my team. All the sort of stuff I just love! The tougher part of the gig will be all of my travel. Last year I spent a total of more than four months overseas during six different trips (plus domestic travel); this year looks to be no different
I had some memorable experiences as General Manager of Asia Operations for Emergent Game Technologies and they had some compelling products. Since parting ways with them in October, I've really been enjoying spending so much time with my family; on my fifth day of this current business trip to Frankfurt, I'm feeling quite homesick already! But to have a job in today's tough environment is a blessing; to have such an awesome job is just amazing! :-)
Pack meeting this month was "game night" where each cub scout den introduced a game to all the other cub scouts. One den introduced "monkey in the middle," another group introduced a fun game throwing tennis balls at ice cream sticks on the floor and trying to hit/flip them, and another den introduced charades. Good times!
Enjoy the photos here, and you can see all 24 from the evening, posted here.
Dawn Cannariato's Wolf den also did a cute little skit of "Flea Olympics." There are still some missing fleas that were not found following one particular flea jump, so look out on Sunday at church. :-)
We were fortunate enough to have several members of the Boy Scout troop visit us, to sing us one of their favorite songs. So embedded below are the Boy Scouts singing through the song once, then it's repeated with the audience singing along. This is sung to the tune of "Do-Re-Mi" from The Sound of Music. Enjoy...
Our good friends the Beauforts own a cabin up in the mountains near Donnelley, Idaho (about 90 miles north of where we live), and their cabin sits right on the shore of Cascade Lake. The photo above is a panoramic view (stitched together from four photos I shot) from their deck overlooking Cascake Lake and Tamarack Ski Resort. Since Monday (yesterday) was a holiday, we drove up to their cabin after church on Sunday for some fun in the snow!
We arrived there in the evening and after a delicious dinner (Mark making a lovely face at the dining room table, at the right), we sat around and watched "Iron Man" by the nice warm fire (the Beauforts hadn't ever seen that flick). When we arrived, the outside temperature at their place (about 6,000 feet elevation) was a cozy 14 degrees, so hot chocolate and a nice fire in the fireplace were the order of the day!
Their cabin has this great (heated) bunkhouse right next to it, and all the kids slept in there while the adults were in the cabin. When we awoke in the morning, the lake just out their front (back?) door was completely flat - not a wake nor ripple in the water. Of course, that was because the lake was completely frozen and covered in snow (this third picture is of a bunch of us standing in the lake), but otherwise it would have been great water skiing conditions! :-)
We had a great time going down the hill from their cabin down to the lake (about a 30-foot vertical drop), and sliding right out on to the ice on inner tubes. We had some pretty spectacular crashes, but nobody got (seriously) hurt.
After tubing in the snow, we went out riding their ATV. Christopher has ridden ATVs quite a bit, and he had fun teaching his younger siblings how to ride/drive the ATV. I love this picture here of he and Steven; are they having fun, or what?! Brianna, whom just got her driver's permit this past Saturday, was a bit crazy at first, but eventually got the hang of it. Her throttle thumb was at first in digital mode, meaning it was either all the way on, or all the way off. Eventually, though, she found her analog thumb, and her driving became much smoother. Everybody enjoyed doing power slides on the packed-snow-and-ice on the street out in front of their cabin!
Does the look here on Andrew's face say it all, or what?! We had a really great time, and I have posted 100 photos from the weekend online. Click here for the photos on Flickr, or for Facebook, here or here (albums 1 and 2, respectively).
Whomever would have thought that after moving to Idaho we'd accumulate such an arsenal? Notice the firepower in front of three of my airsoft-war-loving charming boys, though; each of the weapons have orange tips. Despite all of the stereotypes about Idaho, we don't actually own a "real" gun.
Check out this song and video, "An American Soldier," by Toby Keith. What great men and women we have serving in our United States Military! And what a great son we have, serving in those forces! Here are the military-related posts we have on our blog, regarding Christopher in the Army National Guard:
Michelle has an aunt and uncle (Uncle Steve and Aunt Ruth Dillon) whom have nine children. And people tell Michelle and I that we're crazy with six! Five of these cousins of Michelle live in the Boise area, and it's GREAT to live so close to have so much family nearby!!! We always have so much fun when we get together with the Dillons.
One of these cousins, Sarah, got married this weekend, and the whole Dillon family descended upon Boise for the wedding. We all had a wonderful time!!! For Joel's bachelor party, a bunch of us men got together and went shotgun shooting. We went to this great shooting range out in Homedale, Idaho, about 40 miles west of Boise. They had 12 shooting stands, most of them had two traps, so on each stand you got two different clay pigeons to shoot at, each coming from a different direction. You did two repetitions for four total shots at each stand, and you never saw the same trap clay more than twice - it made for quite a variety of clay trajectories and shooting situations. On one stand we did three repetitions, and it was a unique stand where you climbed up quite a few stairs and shot down from a platform, at clays actually coming from beneath you.
So if you did the math there, we each got 50 shots. I know that the "winner" of this wild and crazy bachelor party hit 32 clays. Somebody help me out here and post a comment to this posting... who won (I don't remember since I had to leave a little bit early)? I won't report my score here, because it was embarrassingly low. Even though I've shot rifles and handguns, this was my first time shotgun shooting. But the important part is that we all had a GREAT time!!! :-)
Posted here are three shots. The first is of me, getting instruction from the range master. The second is of Michelle's cousin, Steve. Check out that smile; were we having fun??? The third is a shot of the entire clan walking from one stand to the next. I've posted these and 40 more on Flickr (click here) and on Facebook (click here).
Alrighty then, the pictures to the left are obviously me in uniform, I swear it looks a whole lot less dorky when we're in formation with all 100 of us. Normally there would be a rank patch in the center of my chest but they ran out of patches for my rank and I will not receive one until next drill.
For January's drill we did what was called weapons immersion which consisted of weaponry mechanics and BRM (by the way, if you haven't read my other post yet do that first). When I arrived at 0845 I was directed to get a Gortex (ACU jacket) and an MRE from Private Biggins (the girl I accidentally hurt at last drill). When I reached her she informed me in a very polite and friendly manner that no matter how much crap I got at drill there were no hard feelings between us and that we were all squared away. She then warned me that I would be getting a lot of crap that drill.
We then moved in to the PT phase of drill at 0900 and I did 43 push ups in my minute which is still not amazing but is 6 more than last month and I didn't run out of steam even at the very end. When I moved to the back of the line after my push ups my MSG (Master Sergeant) MSG Gordeley (also an awesome guy, he's the highest rank we see at drill) and he informed me that the "other" PVT Goodale had come to drill. This other PVT Goodale is someone who I have heard about every time I do something new on post and who I receive calls about on a fairly regular basis. His father is a West Point grad and a colonel in the IDARNG. He is also named Christopher and Colonel Goodale's first name is ironically John as well. I've never met him but I've heard about him all the time. MSG Gordeley than told me that he was going to have the two of us fight and then the winner would fight PVT Biggins. He then said, "You hurt her last month by the way. Even if they don't tap out, when the tears start, you usually stop. You underestimate your own strength PVT Goodale." There are few things that are better than having your MSG tell you that you underestimate your own strength, even if it's preceded by a tongue-in-cheek chastisement.
During the sit up portion of the PT test I did 36 sit ups, down two from last month. Not because I was tired, I had energy to go at the same pace for another 30 seconds without slowing but I could not figure out how to do full sit ups faster than I was already doing them. It was frustrating. When we went out to do our run I met PVT Goodale for the first time. He graduated from Bishop Kelly High School (a local Catholic school) last year and is now attending ISU and is in the ROTC. He was accepted to West Point but decided he didn't want to be in that atmosphere. He is a couple of inches taller than me and outweighs me by 34 pounds but we have a very similar build, a similar facial structure and about the same haircut. We even have the same model of cell phone. Kinda weird. We got along very well though. However, he had gotten 51 push ups and 57 sit ups so I wanted to stay as close to him as possible in the run which resulted in my dropping 12 seconds to 6:26 which put me 10 seconds behind him which isn't bad. Cool guy though.
We then were sent to our barracks to eat and change into ACUs and we had 43 minutes to do that and be back in formation. We had to change barracks once and had trouble getting our linens squared away so by the time I was dressed I only had time to crack open my MRE and eat a small amount of each part of the MRE. I then rushed back outside to get back in formation since we were all supposed to be formed up, accounted for and ready to move out at either 1110 or 1210. I arrived outside at about whatever:00 and was accounted for and ready to move about 5 minutes later. However, some of the people in our battalion treat RSP as they do school and not as a military unit. Therefore, we had people running out at 12:12 improperly dressed (no caps, unzipped Gortexs, etc.). MSG Gordeley and SFC (Sergeant First Class) Stace (my recruiter and drill sergeant) were both VERY unhappy. Especially since they had informed us on the way to the barracks that this month's drill would focus on getting our discipline back. Because of this we received a half-decent amount of yelling since the first time since I joined and we were smoked since the first time since I joined. (Being smoked by the way is when you are punished with PT). We were required to stay in the push-up position until we were all accounted for by our squad leaders but he had us flip over and do flutter kicks after a while because some people could not hold themselves anymore. It was difficult but I've had worse at water polo and football practices and we desperately needed to be smoked. You should not ever be running out half-dressed to formation after the departure time. But we eventually moved out and went to our first stations.
Our first station was going over the M249. It is the fully automatic rifle to the left. It was created in the 1980s as a replacement to the M16A1 (the automatic version of the M16)which was found to be a poor replacement for the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR). It fires a 5.56mm round 850 rounds per minute with a maximum effective range of 1000 meters with open sights which means that at 1000 meters the M249 is accurate with only the sights you see in the picture to the left. The M249 has a maximum range of 3600 meters (that range is essentially pure flight distance). We learned how to clear, disassemble, reassemble, load and fire this weapon along with all the other weapons we worked with. These weapons are surprisingly easy to take apart and I was shocked that the M249 only weighs 17.5 pounds.
We then moved to a class where we essentially just updated our info with the Guard and made sure our military emails and other sites were squared away. We were with MSG Gordeley and PVT Biggins again at this point and when MSG Godeley found out that the other Goodale outweighed me and outperformed me in PT he informed me that I still had the upper hand because I had the ability to say that I had kicked Biggins' butt and he didn't. He also told me I was still PVT Goodale 1 to him and would always be the original PVT Goodale despite his fathers' rank. He also told me that Col. Goodale had told the guys at Gowen that if they were to mess with a PVT Goodale to make sure it was PVT Christopher D. Goodale (him) and not PVT Christopher J. Goodale (me) which everyone found funny especially since his son belongs to A Company and B Company has a nice rivalry with A Company. I'm glad I was first though because it allowed me to get the right email and he got screwed up. I am christopher.goodale and he had to be c.d.goodale.
We then moved to an M4 carbine class. The M4 is the same as the M16A2 (the Army staple) and shares about 80% of its parts with the M16A2 but has a shorter barrel and a telescoping butt stock for short-range combat. Both guns weigh 7.5 pounds. We did the same clearing, disassembling, reassembling and firing procedures as on the M249 and went into the proper way to clean a weapon. We then listened to some awesome war stories from SGT Waters (SFC Stace's brother-in-law and my second favorite soldier in our platoon).
We then moved on to the M16A2 class where we briefly covered the same procedures as with the other weapon and then moved on to marksmanship fundamentals (Position, Aiming, Breathing, Trigger Squeeze). We then learned how to aim properly and were required to squeeze the trigger to fire an unloaded M16A2 with a dime balancing on the front sight to make sure our trigger pull was good. We proceeded from there to do a training exercise where we shot targets in the building with a laser mounted in the barrel which was recorded by the targets we were shooting. My sight picture was not the greatest at first but by the end I was finishing withing the top three soldiers in my 12 man squad and hitting nearly dead-center mass at 250 yards very consistently.
We finished up there and were back in our barracks around 2130 with lights out at 2200. I was smart enough to volunteer early for fireguard and got the first shift so I was in bed about 2300 with lights on at 0400 so that we could be in formation and ready to go by 0530 to make chow at 0600. I slept in my boots, pants and shirt on top of the covers in case one of the morons outside got caught smoking and we had to go out and get smoked in the middle of the night and to save myself some time for sleeping. I would have slept very well except for the antics of PVT Grzadzieleski (no I'm not kidding) who woke up the whole barracks at 0215 running around the bay pretending to be MSG Gordeley. Despite this however, I slept well enough to be wide awake the next morning and still going right now at 2148. Luckily, our battalion learned its lesson and we were all present and accounted for before the drill sergeants even showed up.
We then traveled down to the FATS (Fire Arms Training System), where they had modified M16A2s to fit air hoses into them that made them kick like a real M16A2 while we fired them down a digital BRM qualifying range. At this range we had targets pop up from 50-300 meters away (simulated) and we had a certain amount of time to hit them depending on how far out they were. We had 20 shots in the prone supported position, 10 in the prone unsupported position and 10 in the kneeling position. We had to hit 23 out of 40 to qualify and I had 21 after the first 30 but only was able to hit one while kneeling. Unfortunately, we had some technical difficulties and I did not get a chance to try again but I am nonetheless fairly confident with the M16A2 now.
Our next class was the M240B class. The M240B is the largest rifle we have that is carried by a single soldier as far as I know. It is different from the other three in that it is the only one that does not use 5.56mm ammo. Instead it uses 7.62mm ammo which is NATO ammo and can be interchanged with most NATO weapons and AK-47s. It is the heaviest gun we worked with at 27.6 pounds and unless you are carrying it with the carrying handle in the center it feels like a heck of a lot more than that. This gun fires as much as 950 rounds per minute but the heat is so much that if more than 200 are fired in one minute the weapon must be allowed to cool for 15 minutes to prevent a "cook off" which causes rounds to go off prematurely due to the heat of firing the previous shells. We also timed ourselves in the clearing, disassembly, reassembly, functions check and loading and I was the fastest in our squad with a time of 3 minutes 51 seconds when starting with a loaded weapon. Not bad for a newbie I think.
When we finished our final station we returned to building 521 which is themain building for the RSP. While we were waiting for the other guys to finish up we sat around and talked and the sergeants told stories and argued about things like the necessity of an NCAA championship. Once the other squads arrived we started our major cleanup of the base, our barracks, and our weapons. However, the 15 series guys (people with my MOS and other MOSs in my area) were pulled out because the 183rd commander had come to talk to us and meet the troops who would be joining his unit after training was complete. There were six of us who went to talk to him. I am one of four 15Xs in our battalion. We will all have the job of fixing the electrical systems on the AH-64 Apache. We are also responsible for loading the weapons systems on the Apaches. The other two soldiers were both MOS 15R and will be responsible for the mechanical systems on the Apaches. All six of us wish to eventually become pilots. According to the Captain, 15X is the busiest MOS because the electrical systems are constantly failing on the Apaches. He says we also get a lot of respect from, and correspondence with, the pilots. One of the reasons for this is that we load and ready their weapons systems which is cool. He said we have a lot more to do than the 15Rs and we'll feel like we are drinking out of a fire hose for the first couple years but that we'll have a blast doing it. He also told us that we have a tendency to gain the first few ranks after basic more quickly than he'd like and that sometimes hurts us since we haven't learned enough yet. I can see where he's coming from but I'm not going to complain about gaining rank. We also talked about the path to being a pilot and he said there's generally about 10 spots per year and all six of us that were new are interested in being a pilot eventually. So it'll be competitive but not too terrible I hope. I'm glad to be a part of the 183rd though because we have the best flight record in the nation and we've received tons of accolades from other commanders including Iraqi generals. So I'm lucky to be where I'm at. After this we did a quick AAR (which my dad's half-brother informed me means After Action Report) and I was able to come home.
I thought I should give an update on my joining the Idaho Army National Guard since I have yet to do this. First off, I have to say that I believe it is one of the best things that I have done in my life thus far. There is no decision that I am more proud of. I am part of one of the greatest organizations in the world and I spend my weekends having the time of my life with the some of the noblest and coolest people on Earth. Some have called me stupid for my decision to join (which surprises me in Idaho, one of the reddest states in existence) but if they understood the National Guard and its mission they would never assume that my decision was wrong.
I am currently an E2 (PV2-Private) in the Battalion B which is the Idaho National Guard's Recruiting and Retention battalion. I was promoted from E1 to E2 due to the fact that I am an Eagle Scout. My battalion is part of what is called the RSP (Recruitment Sustainment Program). The RSP was created during a time when the BCT (Basic Combat Training) failure rates were hovering around 20% for all parts of the military. This was due to physical ineptitude, failing the BRM (Basic Rifle Marksmanship) qualifying test, or various misconduct or aptitude issues which caused the soldiers to wash out. After the RSP was instituted, soldier readiness vastly improved and the National Guard failure rate has fallen to 4% nationally and under 2% for some units (I don't remember our exact failure rate but I've never heard of anyone washing out and we have 156 men currently in my battalion with more coming every month).
So, enough history, I should probably say what it is exactly that I do. I go out to Gowen Field for one weekend each month to drill with my battalion and do the things which a typical National Guard soldier would do. My first drill was in November; we flew on UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters to a place called Big Willow which is past Payette. The rest of the battalion had hours of classes on Saturday (the day before the Blackhawk flight) but I had the district swim meet and the Sadie Hawkins Dance that day so my friendly NCOs (Non-Commissioned Officers) let me skip Saturday's portion. Once we reached Big Willow we did a Land-Navigation course which consisted of finding your way from place to place with a map and a compass and coordinates which were specific enough to be accurate within 10 meters. We then hopped back on the Blackhawks and flew back to base. If you've never been on a helicopter, do your best to try to get on one, even if you have to build it yourself out of parts from your neighbors cars. It is the coolest thing ever (especially when the helicopter is a military transport and the pilots aren't afraid to play around a bit:) . We then did what is called AAR (not sure what that stands for), where we essentially discuss the various goods and bads at drill that day with the NCOs. We returned home at about 1600 (have to use proper military time when talking about drill, sorry).
My second drill was my first full drill. I arrived at 0545 and started a class at 0630 after some time with my SSG (staff sergeant) SSG Walls (funniest lady ever). The class was what is called Red Phase where we learn the various basics of being a soldier (creed, values, general orders, time, rank structure, saluting, etc.). At 0900 I then had my first PT (Physical Training Test). Because I have not been to BCT yet I had to do as many push ups as possible in one minute, as many sit ups as possible in one minute and a one mile run in as little time as possible. My scores were 37, 38 and 6:38. Not terrible, but not amazing although I'm happy with them since it was my first drill. We then ate MREs for lunch (which are actually dang good) and started the bulk of our training. We were learning the basics of Modern Army Combatives. I will not give you the history of Combatives since this is already really long but it essentially is just fighting. If you watch UFC, much of our technique is shared with UFC as both use large amounts of Brazilian Jujitsu. We learned holds, escapes, arm bars, arm breaks, chokes and how to stand up without letting your guard down after a fall or take down. We also had about 10-15 2 minute sparring sessions where we were trying to pin each other but had to make sure no one got hurt. My first partner kicked my butt (I didn't know until later that he scores higher in PT than anyone else in our battalion, he's done as many as 107 push ups in one minute). I jammed all the fingers on my second partner's right hand about 30 seconds into our round when he tried to charge me and I flipped him which should have made me feel bad but actually was pretty sweet since I had just been pinned 4 times in 2 minutes. My third partner was PVC Biggins, who is SSG Walls' assistant. I didn't want to go against her since she's pretty tough, about my size and has been in the RSP far longer than me and I really didn't want a girl to beat me. However, I ended up making her cry on accident when she wouldn't release me from a headlock and I slammed her into the ground to try to throw her off. I didn't think it would be too bad since we were on mats but I ended up hurting her head. She didn't let go though and I didn't notice her crying until she screamed after I did it a few times. I really did feel bad and changed tactics after that and would have stopped if she had let go.
I'll let that be it for combatives and put this month's drill in a separate posting. Sorry that was so long.
It snowed pretty much all day today. However, as it actually warms up tonight it's supposed to turn to rain, making tomorrow a very slushy, yucky day. We think that the snow, though, is actually quite pretty. Check out the picture of our house tonight, with all of the snow. Can you tell which car didn't get driven today? :-)
They are saying that this month is the second-snowiest December in Boise on record. Driving in it is somewhat of a pain, and the truck even got stuck in the snow tonight and had to be dug out. My MDX is the only car in the family with four-wheel drive (as part of its automatic traction control system, or manually locked on 4WD), and it sure comes in handy!
As you can see from the pictures (especially the one at the right, driving south on Five Mile just below Chinden), sometimes it's just plain hard to see where the roads are. However, the city usually does a good job of clearing the biggest streets. Fellow Boise residents whom have been here for a long time tell us this is the worst they can remember. So it's usually not this bad. Even if it is, we're finding it completely tolerable, and the kids have A LOT of fun playing in it!!! But... so much for the "mild" winters we were promised! :-)
Merry Christmas, everyone. Santa was super nice and brought us a very white Christmas!!! We got quite a bit of snow overnight. Oh... and he also brought our family a ping pong table. How did he ever fit that in his sleigh?! To the left here are the five Goodale kids (still at home) checking out their Santa stockings, which he left on the ping pong table. Brianna has a really confused look on her face; I'm not sure what's stumping her puzzler.
To the right here is a picture of Shadow out by our pool. Check out all the snow there on the diving board! There are 18 more present-opening and white Christmas shots posted here on Flickr, or here on Facebook.
Merry Christmas!!! According to the weather map below, we're certainly not alone in having a white Christmas!!!
So... the other day Michelle was out driving in our snow-laden Boise (it has been snowing A LOT!!!), and I asked her how her drive was. When she replied that her van fishtailed only once, my initial thought was, "Oh... I'm sorry it wasn't more!" :-)
Horrible example to my children that I am, I've found it quite fun to drive around in the snow and slide all around. Admittedly, though, the traction control system and the ABS on my MDX actually make if difficult to go too crazy.
But all of this has gotten me thinking about the harsh winter the entire country is experiencing. I love the icicles that appeared just out our back door (see pics herein; click to see larger versions), as snow melting from our room ran down the branches of this bush. While my friends in California who say that 50 degrees is "freezing," I'm sure that my friends in Minneapolis are thinking that 25 here in Boise is tee-shirt weather! So I guess all things are relative.
Our third winter in Boise, though, and I'm still loving it. I find the snow to be peaceful and beautiful, and I get excited every time it snows! :-)
Three years ago, hailing from sunny southern California, we couldn't have imagined this! But check this out. In order to prepare for next month's "Klondike" Boy Scout overnighter in the deep Cascades snow, Andrew and Mark decided to camp outside tonight in our back yard. At Klondike, the boys (and myself, if I'm in town) will be camping in snow probably 6-8 feet deep; many of the boys hollow out caves in the snow, and sleep in those.
We've had quite a bit of snow this weekend here in Boise, and it's forecast to continue snowing every day through Christmas. We will have a very White Christmas, and we're looking forward to that!
The tent you see here is pitched in the corner of our back yard, right by the patio deck and the pool. A corner of the pool is visible in the upper left corner. The day's snowfall has been cleared off in their apparent snowball fight, but the pool is completely frozen over. I should have taken pictures, but earlier today you could see Shadow's footprints in the fresh powder snow. Shadow is about 80 pounds, so the pool is pretty solidly frozen! Care for a swim, anyone??? :-)
We recently received a Christmas card from Larry Waugh, the best high school teacher ever (and the only one that I keep in touch with)!!! In his card he guilt trips me and says, "We enjoyed your 2007 newsletter and are looking forward to the 2008 edition." I think that in the past eight-or-so years, we've done only three (I think) Christmas newsletters, yet some have considered it a tradition. We're not doing so well with that tradition this year (I still need to pen this year's edition)...
However, there is one Christmas tradition that we NEVER miss, although this year it was changed a bit. Without fail, we do a picture of the kids visiting Santa. This year was no exception; however, for the first time ever, we're missing one of our children. We visited Santa on December 9th (Brianna's 16th birthday!!!), and Justin is not in the picture as he is serving a mission in Tulsa Oklahoma. Hopefully his ward in Clarksville, Arkansas did a ward Christmas party, and there will eventually be a photo of Elder Goodale from that (but I won't hold my breath). :-)
My pressing question, as perhaps is yours, is where did Steven's lips go??? His trademark smile is really cute, but his lips seem to have disappeared. :-)
Enjoy this year's photo, but more importantly, HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
Michelle and I certainly had a GREAT time in Europe together (Michelle and I at the right, on the Ferris wheel at the Concorde Square in Paris)!!! And as I write this post, I'm stuck in Minneapolis. Severe winter weather in both Paris and in the midwest caused me to get only two-thirds the way home. Michelle left Tuesday morning from Boise, via L.A. back to Boise. She made it home last night. I had a business meeting Tuesday morning, so I left in the afternoon, from Paris through Detroit and Minneapolis. My flight from Paris was delayed for two hours due to fog. That would have made me miss my Detroit connection, but flights out of there were late, too, so I actually made my flight there. But by the time my flight landed in Minneapolis, my connecting flight to Boise had already taken off. So here I sit in Minneapolis, not able to get a return flight until this evening.
But what a GREAT time Michelle and I had. After I had some good business meetings in Paris and in Frankfurt (I have some great opportunities there, which I will undoubtedly follow up on in the future), I picked Michelle up at the airport in Frankfurt, she just having arrived from Boise via L.A. and London.
On Saturday, we drove from Frankfurt to Paris, stopping in Heidelburg, Germany and Strassbourg, France along the way. The Heidelburg Castle was incredible (Michelle at the castle pictured here on the left)!!! It's amazing to think that at some point that was somebody's home! It would be a nice-sized home for our family, but man... I can only imagine how cold it gets in those big stone castles. Strassbourg was a very cute city, but a bit of a disappointment. We wanted to see the cathedral there, but it's right downtown, and Christmas shoppers flooded the streets so that many of them were blocked off, and we couldn't find parking anywhere! We were a bit pressed for time to get to Paris, so we ended up not stopping there, and just drove through the city a bit.
On Sunday, we attended church in Paris. Went to all three hours, and Michelle was in heaven!! It reminded her so much of her mission there, and she really enjoyed it. I'll have to talk more about the diversity of Paris, and how it makes things so interesting.
After church on Sunday, we walked through the Louvre. Sure it was artsy fartsy, but I actually really enjoyed it! It was cool seeing all those old relics; kind of like a family reunion! Just kidding! They have 35,000 works of art there, from obscure stuff to the Mona Lisa. After the Louvre, we walked down the Champs Des Eleysees. I'm sure I'm butchering spelling, so I'll have Michelle correct me later. :-)
On Monday, we went all over, including seeing the St. Germain, the Notre Dame (Michelle pictured herein at the Notre Dame cathedral), and others. We also took a Seine River boat cruise, and saw quite a bit of the city that way. Without the guide book, sitting here in my Days Inn room in Minneapolis, I'm afraid I cannot put in too much detail. Perhaps I'll add some later.
Enjoy the pictures herein; I have also posted all 175 photos on Flickr; please click here. Since Facebook albums cannot hold more than 60 photos, you'll find the photos on Facebook in three different albums: Pics from Paris (#1), Germany, and Pics from Paris (#2).
But, as a MasterCard commercial might say, "Two tickets to Europe: 140,000 miles. Hotel rooms paid mostly by clients: nearly free. 20 Paris Metro tickets: about $20. A weekend in Paris together with no kids: Priceless." We had a GREAT time, and fortunately, it was very cheap (it had to be)!!! :-)
Tonight I took the Metro from my hotel to the Concorde station, right near the Concorde monument. It's also at the one end of the Avenue des Champs Eleysees. I walked from the Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe (the length of my walk pictured here, at the right). What a beautiful walk! It's pretty all lit up for Christmas. My guess is that it was somewhere between 32 and 35 degrees (F) out - somewhat chilly. But there were a lot of people out, and I enjoyed the walk. Posted here are 4 of the 10 pictures I've put online, these and the others are posted here on Facebook or here on Flickr. Enjoy.
A view down the Avenue des Champs Eleysees. Notice the people eating at the brasserie, sitting OUTSIDE. This is what you do in France, so that you can people watch, even when it's freezing (literally) outside!!! :-)
Me standing in some funky sculpture on the Avenue des Champs Eleysees. I set my camera on my tiny travel tripod, set the self-timer, then jumped in the picture. A couple was walking by, and the woman looked at me standing there, looked at my camera going off by itself (I used the flash), and said to her companion, "tres intelligent." I returned the compliment by taking a picture of the two of them, with their camera, standing in this same sculpture.
I love the architecture in France. I thought this shot was cool, because I could see the architecture, with the French flag waving on top of the building, and the moon in clouds in the background. This building, on the Avenue des Champs Eleysees, was the forger Embassy for Thailand ("former" because in front there was a sign announcing their new address).
Whenever I travel, even though my wife accuses me of not being very observant, I at least TRY to notice things that are different wherever I'm at, and then point them out to my family, so they can sort of "travel with me." I have two observations tonight, one completely useless trivia, and one gross, hence no photos in this posting. Here goes:
Opening the Subway Door. I've ridden subways (Metros, tubes, chikatetsu... whatever you want to call them) in Tokyo, Nagoya, Seoul, Shanghai, Hong Kong, France, London, Osaka, Kyoto, Fukuoka, Daegu, New York City, once in L.A., and even in Atlanta (MARTA). There's one thing totally unique to the Parisian Metro. Can anybody think of what it is? OK... I'll tell you. In my experience, ONLY in France do you have to open the car door to get on of off the Metro, by pushing a green button on the door. In every country I've ever been in, each door on the subway cars just open automatically. Here in Paris, though, for every single door or every single car of every single train on the Metro, you have to open the door to get on (or off). Push the button. I guess this is actually a pretty efficient way of doing things. I also imagine that it would stop some people from trying to dive in to the car as the doors are closing (I've seen people get injured doing that in other cities!). I have noticed, though, that the doors, upon pushing the botton, will start opening even before complete stop. Yikes!
Nobody Pukes Like Europeans. OK, now this is just weird and gross. Last night as I was crossing the street (in a busy crosswalk), this man coming the other way started puking. And just kept walking (while bending over slightly and inserting his stomach contents on to the ground), like nothing ever happened. "Oh geesh... puke... I guess I better just keep walking!" I've now witnessed this in England, Germany, and France. And every time it's like nothing ever happened! They just keep going. Now... when I start puking, I feel awful and want to go lay down! I must hand it to the Europeans, that they really know how to puke and keep right on going!!!
We love the sunsets we get here in Boise. They are a nightly occurrence, and they're awesome. In spite of the fact that they're predictable, both nights this week that I ran out to take pictures of them, they were nearly gone, and not as bright and pretty as they had been, even 10 minutes earlier. The one on the right, here, is taken from our front porch, and the others here are taken from various points in our neighborhood.
Something funny happened at dinner the other night, too. You'll see this as one of the chapters in my book, if I ever get it published, but we put a high priority on everybody gathering for dinner each night. As part of this, we'll often go around the table and each person will share what the best part of his/her day was, or conversely, the worst part of their day. With both Michelle and I, we each stated that the best part of our day was going out and shopping with each other earlier in the day. Christopher's reaction was, "That's it? That was the best part of your day? You guys need a life!"
But that's my life, and I can't imagine being any happier any other way! :-)
Speaking of being happy, enjoy also the picture of Andrew using Shadow as a pillow. Shadow seems to enjoy this, as do the kids. Christmas stockings hung over the living room fireplace (fake logs there, but we have a real fireplace in our family room).
Being a non-alcohol household, this past weekend for Thanksgiving we went all out and bought four bottles of Martineli's Sparkling Cider. Non-alcoholic, of course. Saturday, Steven polished off the last of the leftover bottle of cider, and since it was the last drop, we just let him drink it straight from the bottle. Brianna took this picture with her phone. I just thought it was really funny; he totally looks like a wino! :-)
Back on October 22nd, we had some family photos taken. Our first family photos since moving to Idaho. Becky Phillips took the photos, and she did a great job! She's a girl after my own heart, and still loves her trusty dusty plain-ol'-regular-film SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera. She took a bunch with her digital SLR, as well, and they all look great, in spite of the subjects she was shooting! :-)
We had the photos shot at a place in Eagle, Idaho, only about five minutes from our home. The Fall leaves made for a very nice backdrop, as well as did the grass, the river, and all the beauty that is in Idaho, right in our back yard, practically!
Posted here are a few of the photos, and you will find more on Facebook or on Flickr.
A cute shot of the kids sitting on a log.
Sorry Steven is sort of hidden in this shot, but as you can tell, we had a lot of fun during the photo shoot! :-)
Isn't it nice that Brianna's brothers are so supportive?!?!
Ahhh... even got several shots of Mom & Dad.
We used to do these "Stack-'O-Kids" shots when the kids were younger. These shots were so much easier several years ago!!!
Indeed, these are emotional times; I find myself Crying CONSTANTLY while working these days! I just can't help it!!! After all... I do work for Crytek now. :-) And in fact, these ARE emotional times, but in a good way. I am very happy with my new job, my new associates, my new company, my new products... it's all good. Crytek is the European developer behind the successful and stunningly beautiful game franchises Far Cry and Crysis. They are headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany and have studios in Budapest, Kiev, and Seoul. They have approximately 300 employees from close to 30 countries, and ironically, the primary language in their Frankfurt headquarters is English.
Their award-winning CryENGINE game engine is, in my opinion as well as that of most developers I've spoken to, the best game development technology in the industry. To date Crytek has not had a real aggressive engine licensing business; however, in spite of that they have been fairly prominent in that space. We are becoming quite aggressive in the business, though, for reasons that I cannot yet announce because an official announcement will be made just before the Game Developers Conference in March.
I am joining the company as Director of Asia Pacific Licensing, and will be responsible for the engine licensing business in North America and Asia. I will be working closely with their Seoul studio, and I will be establishing operations for them in Shanghai, Tokyo, and in North America. I am crazily putting together business plans for each region and preparing to hire more than a dozen staff members in three countries for my team. All the sort of stuff I just love! The tougher part of the gig will be all of my travel. Last year I spent a total of more than four months overseas during six different trips (plus domestic travel); this year looks to be no different
I had some memorable experiences as General Manager of Asia Operations for Emergent Game Technologies and they had some compelling products. Since parting ways with them in October, I've really been enjoying spending so much time with my family; on my fifth day of this current business trip to Frankfurt, I'm feeling quite homesick already! But to have a job in today's tough environment is a blessing; to have such an awesome job is just amazing! :-)
