Learning new stuff: Unity

Two friends of mine, both game developers, swear by Unity.  Unity is a game engine and authoring environment that's designed to be accessible to indie game developers.  Now that it's free, I decided to give it a whirl, and I am impressed.  It's a deep tool, and I've only scratched the surface with the first tutorial, but so far, wow!  I love the visual approach that they've taken.  You put enemies in the scene, drop some scripts on them that define their behaviors, and boom, they're off and chasing you.  Here's a screen shot of the tutorial project.

There are two things I haven't quite figured out yet.

1. How to place objects efficiently.  My objects end up floating off in space, then I need to go retrieve them and painstakingly bring them back.  I've started clicking on nearby objects, getting their coordinates, and copy-pasting them.  Anyone know a better way?
2. How to track down errors.  My tutorial project had a bunch of errors I couldn't figure out.  Unity points me to the offending objects, but how do I know what's wrong?

More Turkey

Okan and I just came back from a one-week long vacation to Southern Turkey.  It was a vacation within a vacation.  How luxurious is that!

The highlights of our trip were visiting Gomusluk and Pamukkale.  Gomusluk is a tiny fishing village close to Bodrum.  The village was built on top of a previous version of itself, which you can still see when you snorkel.  It was amazing seeing the underground walls...almost like flying over the ruins of a city.

Pamukkale is spa heaven.  After spending blissful hours soaking in the heated mineral water at our hotel, my skin feels soft and smooth.

The gotchas for anyone thinking of going to Southern Turkey:
- We didn't enjoy staying at an all-inclusive.  It sounded nice to have breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and drinks all included with the room, but we ended up spending all our time eating mediocre food instead of exploring the city of Kusadasi.
- The Otel Okaliptus in Bitez (close to Bodrum) looks nice from the outside, but it's dirty inside.
- All prices are negotiable in Turkey, including hotel rooms, especially if you're going on the off-season. So don't pay full price!  We paid 60 YTL per person at the Okaliptus and at the hotel we stayed at in Pamukkale, the Lycus River.

Let's talk Turkey

Here I am in Turkey!  Every year my husband and I come here to visit his family.  I'm trying to be a better blogger, so this trip I resolved to take some pictures.  (Most of the few family pictures we have are of our cat.)  I just downloaded the pictures I've taken so far with my iPhone, and they're all of food!  Blogging is teaching me a lot about myself.

Two of these pictures are not for the faint of heart, so if you object to seeing fish gills or a lamb's head, it's probably best for you to move on.

Anyway, this is a big roll of meat.  You can get a sense of scale by looking at the cooks.  The cooks shave off thin slices, which are then eaten with yogurt, butter, tomatoes, and bread in one of my favorite dishes, iskender kebap.

I also took some pictures at the fish market.  Check out the red structure on the right fish.  I'd never seen a fish's gills before taking this picture.

Finally, here are some roosters (my only not-food picture), and a lamb's head shrink-wrapped at the supermarket.

My next blogging goal is to try to take pictures not of food.  I'm expanding my horizons!

Street view

Ever wondered how Google Street View works?  Check this out.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQGrIsYUm4c  Thanks Augusto!

Silicon Valley wedding

A link from @micromobs led me to a NY Times article about someone I know!  It's a crazy, small world.  I met Drew my freshman year at Stanford.  Congratulations on your wedding!

Hasta la vista, baby

Thanks Ashley for the link!

Sea Ranch

 Just got back from a little trip to Sea Ranch.  It's a couple hours north of San Francisco right along the coast.  One hidden gem we discovered (aside from Sea Ranch itself, which is amazing!) is the Annapolis Winery.  One of the owners is a really nice woman, and unlike many wineries, they still have free tastings.

Will Wright and kittenwar.com

At Siggraph, Will Wright talked about perception.  He started off talking about kittenwar.com, which is like hotornot for cats.  Two cat pictures square off, and users vote on which is cuter.  As Will noted, you can see patterns in the winningest and losingest cats.  The winners tend to be small, and many are in a pounce pose.  The losingest cats tend to be less fluffy and bigger.  From these patterns, Will correctly predicted how two pictures of his cat would do. 

Here's a picture of my cat Sparkle, just for fun.

Can't talk now

Boss fight.  http://icanhascheezburger.com/2009/08/20/funny-pictures-now-boss-fight/