Last week, at e-week

Last Friday, my talk closed the e-week, a weeklong series of talks and seminars on digital culture held at the University of Vic, in Catalonya. This year has been quite hectic in terms of talks but the good thing is that the audience keeps getting younger (and that means smarter, too). Ok, maybe I am getting older, I'll give you that. In any case, it was a lot of fun. The e-week was organized by people like Carlos Scolari (with whom I share a common interest in South American comics from the 80's) and Hugo Pardo. They really took great care of the attendants and I was thrilled at discovering even more aspects of Catalonian cuisine (cuina catalana). I still wake up in the middle of the night thinking of something I tasted in Vic: fresh duck liver on baby figs with red wine sauce (I am seriously thinking about walking back there just to take another taste of it). Last, but by any means least, I had the pleasure to hang out with Ted Nelson and his wife. I showed them my games and they gave me a hands-on on ZigZag. In addition to Barcelona, my favorite places in Catalonia had been Girona, Figueres and Cap de Creu's fantastic beaches. Now Vic is on my list, too.
rOh, one more thing. I bought The Sims 2 for the DS. I am still checking it out but I must say that the 3D is killing me. Why is everybody assuming that 3D is the way to go? Their previous game, The Urbs, worked perfectly well in 2D on the DS. Surely, 3D adds a lot of features and can make development easier (to a certain degree) but I wish their were more 2D and isometric games out there. Anyway, I'll keep you posted on how I manage my Sims hotel.