ericgooch

Electric Bicycle!

Eric Gooch — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 04:33:28 +0000

So I decided to start riding my bike to work here in San Diego a couple months ago. I live in an area called City Heights, and work downtown near Seaport Village.

It’s about 7 miles one way, 14 miles round trip on the route I usually take. The distance doesn’t bother me, but the hills are obnoxious. There’s a 300 foot elevation change between work and home, and it’s all uphill at night when I ride home.

So I got this electric bike a couple weeks ago, and it’s been awesome. It’s a Currie IZIP E3 Zuma. Battery is supposedly good for about 25 miles before it needs a recharge, but on my rides, I’ve never dropped to the halfway mark yet, so it handles my 14 mile trip easy. Only takes about 2 hours to recharge…I bring the battery pack in at night and charge it.

I’m completely paranoid about it being stolen, but fortunately I can bring it in the building at work.

Will report more on it after I’ve been riding for a while.

San Diego

Eric Gooch — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 05:15:28 +0000

Current Mood: Happy

Wow, it’s been great how well I’ve been keeping up with this blog, isn’t it?

*sigh*

Lots has changed over the past few months. I got a new job at Psyonix, moved to San Diego, and went to Hawaii for a couple weeks during Christmas. I am working with the Unreal engine and doing lighting and special effects for upcoming titles. It’s the first time in 18 years that I’ve worked with anything other than a proprietary game engine. Unreal is pretty cool…I’m able to do fast turnarounds on lighting, and Cascade is a pretty nice particle system.

Looking forward to seeing what I can do as I become more familiar with the tools!

TED Talk: How Algorithms Shape Our World

Eric Gooch — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 23:26:03 +0000

Great talk about algorithms!

Singularity

Eric Gooch — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 19:55:17 +0000

Current Mood: Cool

Finished playing “Singularity” last night. Enjoyed it a lot…cool time manipulation puzzles and weapons.

Haven’t tried multiplayer yet but the campaign was fun. (Actually, I seem to be not playing multiplayer very much these days, and am usually looking for games with good single-player.

Here’s a clip:

Suo Gân

Eric Gooch — Wed, 26 May 2010 04:56:52 +0000

You know how sometimes you hear a piece of music, and it makes you crazy because you know you heard it somewhere else recently and can’t place it?

That happened tonight when I went to see my kid perform at choir at his middle school. There was a piece sung by the Select Choir that I really liked, and I kept thinking “where have I heard this?” The program said the song was called Suo Gân, and after looking it up online, it turns out it’s a piece that was featured in Spielberg’s film Empire of the Sun, which I had watched not too long ago.

It’s a Welsh lullaby, lyrics here…and here’s a clip from the film:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Fall Color in Ohio Photos

Eric Gooch — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:15:22 +0000

So I posted a while back that I was on my Ohio vacation. That was, sheesh, clear back in October. I finally got around to getting the photos posted.

Check them out here.

New Art: The Frog King

Eric Gooch — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 21:46:51 +0000

Current Mood: Cool

Finished a new image!

I’m working on a series right now that’s more oriented towards children, as I want to put together a promotional flier with some examples of children’s illustration. This one is called the Frog King:

You can see it full size at my gallery site here.

Traveling in Ohio

Eric Gooch — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 03:44:48 +0000

So I’m on my 2 week vacation after we wrapped up Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time.

I’m currently sitting in a hotel room in Canal Winchester, Ohio. I’m a little more than half-way through my trip, which has thus far included hay rides, apple orchards, pumpkin patches, haunted houses, hiking, and lots of Fall color photography.

I’m basically reliving my childhood (I grew up in Worthington, Ohio) and have been meaning for several years now to come back during what is probably my favorite season. I’ve lived out West most of my adult life, and sometimes miss the Fall colors. (Yes, the leaves change color in the Fall everywhere, but it’s just not the same as those vibrant colors back East.)

After I get back to Nevada, I’ll sift through the hundreds of photos I’ve shot and put together a link with photos. For now, I’m still having fun!

Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time Goes Gold!

Eric Gooch — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 19:28:29 +0000

Current Mood: Happy

Woohoo!

Always good to wrap up another title. And man, a lot of work went into that one. Early reviews have been good, so I’m hoping it does really well this holiday season!

New Art: Murkfall Forest

Eric Gooch — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 06:28:23 +0000

Well, it’s been a while, but I finished a new piece.

Pretty simple in concept, just a couple of kids at the edge of a spooky forest. I wanted to do a “fairytale” scene on the dark side, so here it is:

I added lots of creepy-crawlies into the woods at various places.

You can see the larger version at my gallery site here.