Lech Lecha

I left my job last week. Or my job left me. The company downsized, and thank goodness I was part of it. Like I mentioned in my last post, happiness is when what we think, what we say and what we do are in harmony. Now I can finally begin to live happily again.

The last few days of unemployment have been heavenly. Running when the sun is still up, hiking without the endless discussions about company politics, and open conversations about the millions of options I have from here. This is a wonderful place to be.

Of the Moment

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

I'm at GDC Online in Austin, TX. The conference has a strong focus on social gaming, and I can't help but feel we're a little over the hump in this arena now. I imagine Casual Connect in Seattle a year and a half ago. 18 months ago was the grand debut of social gaming as a widespread phenomenon. I had back to back meetings with casual game developers, introducing them to the Facebook gaming concept. They were intrigued. Six months after that, it had hit the mainstream (FarmVille). And now, two of the three keynotes at the most respected gaming conference in the US are from social gaming companies. Bravo Zynga and Playdom. Oh yeah, and everyone and their mother has tried to build a social game.

So, I can't wait to hear what they have to say tomorrow. Particularly about what's next. Personally, I'm banking on a return to the board game and walks in the woods.

Tel Aviv Boardwalk

On vacation with my family in Tel Aviv, I decided to take a morning jog to work out the jetlag. It's the third time I've been to Israel in the past 12 months, and like always, it's just wonderful enough that I wish I could stay. Reality bites.

Anyway, the Tel Aviv boardwalk is really a fantastic place to run if you don't want to deal with traffic, are looking for great views throughout your walk/run, and want to know exactly how far you've gone. It's 5k in length and has mile markers randomly placed throughout - keep your eyes peeled, they're hard to find. It snakes along the Mediterranean coast all the way from downtown, past grand hotels and beachside cafes to the old town of Jaffa at the southermost point of the city.

I have to admit that at 9:30am, it's already too late to run. I think I had a mini heatstroke, and now at 11:50am, I'm still beet red and nauseated. Was it the heat? the sun? the jetlag? Probably all three. Word to the wise, take it easy your first day in a new time zone, and if you're not used to sun and heat, same goes. Combining the two is pretty darn painful.

Redwood Regional Park Surprise

The weather was so sparklingly gorgeous yesterday morning that we could do nothing but leave the house. Headed straight for Mt. Diablo, images of a peaceful ride up the 24 and a picnic with an aerial view of the SF Bay flashed through my mind. That is, until we reached the east side of the Bay Bridge, and noticed the miles upon miles of pileup traffic headed into city. A mile after that, our own pileup headed into the Berkeley Hills.

Here enters the GPS and its handy "no-highway" mode. We pull off highway 24 into winding, hilly neighborhoods, through a small town, and left onto "Snake Road." Snake Road leads us to Skyline Blvd, and soon enough, we are at the top of a ridge zipping through some of the most beautiful open space scenery I have seen in Northern California. 20 minutes from downtown SF. Aside from a few bikers and cyclists, the cars are sparse.

We could have kept going this way to get to Mt. Diablo, but the open space surrounding us was just too compelling. A few clicks into the GPS, and we realized we were skirting Redwood Regional Park. We found the entrance, and pulled into the park.

I have no idea how this park is off the radar for all the Bay Area weekend adventurers. It was downright gorgeous, unpopulated, and quiet (aside from the chattering birds and hum of the bees in the wildflowers). Picnic lunch in an open field, a little bit of frisbee and a lazy afternoon nap in the sun. Then, a hike along a creek, a few campsites and sweet benches along the way, a regrowth redwood forest to cool us down, and a climb up to the ridge surrounding the park - vista views all the way home.

If you are one of the 5 people who read this blog, please go to this park and enjoy it like we did. But, don't tell anyone else :) We like this secret park relatively close to home.

Are the Salad Days Over for Social Gaming ... and Facebook?

Let's face it, the days of tinkering with virtual worlds on Facebook for bored office workers or young mothers connecting to the outside world between kids' naps has peaked. It's just not as fun anymore. Every new game that comes out is just a copy of the last game, and as people care less about what their friends' "Farms" or "Zoos" or "Sororities" look like... the less they're going to tend to their own.

I'm not saying there's no innovation any longer, because there is. The problem really is, Facebook is losing its edge as a personal platform. People may still be using it as a place to passively stay in touch with others, or to publicize their witty thoughts and silly photos. But, as the platform opens up to integrations such as Twitter, YouTube, millions of Fan Pages and Groups, annoying updates from applications like Farmville, Zoo World, Restaurant City, and online ads galore begging for users attention to turn to the right hand pain of the screen, it just doesn't feel personal anymore.

Facebook is turning into an online platform that ENABLES users to socially browse the web - think Facebook Connect for news, ecommerce, blogs, etc.

And Social Gaming isn't dead ... it's just being resurrected in more convenient places like the iPad, the iPhone, the Android.

Ethical Gems

Working at a startup in Silicon Valley is just straight up insane. One week is so different from the next that I feel I might as well be working at completely different companies. Ahh, such is life at a social gaming company. I went through three different job titles in the past three months, and somewhere in the middle of that, I began to dream of starting my own company.

Rules for the new company were:
1. Tangible product
2. Ethically sourced and manufactured products
3. A product that could paradigm-shift an existing, traditional industry in an ethical direction
4. A product and industry I, personally, found exciting

So, I created it!

www.LanyiGems.com

Check it out. I source ethical gemstones for consumers, custom jewelers, and ethical artisans. I work with a small-scale mining association in Tanzania, and am hoping to expand to similar organizations in other countries. These associations, with help from the World Bank, bring together women and small-scale miners to collectivize their products so that they can compete with larger mines and lapidaries, all the while educating workers on ethical, sustainable and fair-trade practices.

Bay to Breakers vs. Half Moon Bay hike

I woke up this morning to my roommates and a visiting friend prancing the house in wrestler and superman costumes. They were in rare form for 6am, but fittingly so. Today was Bay to Breakers in San Francisco. It's an annual run that takes throngs of runners, walkers, beer guzzlers, and exhibitionists from the Bay to the Beach.







Despite the fact that I am usually up for running events in any shape or form, for example, I LOVE the Hash. Particularly in random foreign countries. I had a craving to take advantage of our *finally* empty house and one of countless gorgeous hikes in the Bay Area on such a beautiful day. A quick Google search later, paring down potential hiking routes by length (wanted 7 miles), difficulty (wanted it tough), and location (nowhere near a beach because of traffic), I came across this one:

http://www.bahiker.com/southbayhikes/purisimahiggins.html

It was absolutely wonderful ... once I got over my fear of mountain lions - there was a warning sign at the trailhead. Within my first half mile of descent into the North Ridge Trail, I asked another lone female hiker if I should worry. She was blonde and weathered in that I've-been-on-a-million-hikes and eat-only-what-I-grow-in-my-garden way. I loved her multicolored compression pants, mostly because they didn't seem to fit her "look." Her response:

"It's more dangerous to drive on Skyline to get here ... or to sit on your couch and become a couch potato. Don't worry about the lions, I've lived here for 21 years and never seen one in my life. Nor has my husband and he's an ultramarathoner, so he's seen a lot. That said, I do carry a knife as a last resort."

I thanked her and went on my way, imagining what it would be like to pull out my knife while being mauled by a mountain lion. I didn't like the thought. It was one that entered my mind periodically through the 2.5 hour walk, between taking photographs of rocks and flowers, when everything became a little too silent for comfort.