The way I see it, the odds of me living in an Olympic host city again probably aren't too high, so I wanted to get over town and be a part of the celebrations. Yesterday, my son and I gave the lines another chance, and I'm glad we did. Except for a few disappointments (the line for Russia House was too long and the Ontario Pavilion ran out of pins), we had a pretty good day.

Yes, we had to wait, but honestly, the wait times were pretty reasonable. We started off at the Mint to get the latest coin celebrating women's hockey, then headed over to Concord Place to check out some of the provincial pavilions. Saskatchewan's rocked (they gave us pins as we went in which gave us a focus for the rest of the day -- collecting). We stopped for a bite to eat and then watched the Canadian women beat the Swiss at curling. While in the area, we went through the Right to Play pavilion, checked out the l41 home (running into the architect along the way), and also the Ontario pavilion to play synched Blackberry games (and get more to eat). Other highlights included: answering questions to get our Manitoba pins (we had to recite facts about the province -- luckily, one of our favourite bands -- the Dust Rhinos -- are from Winnipeg, so we had something to talk about); virtual snowboarding at the Canada pavilion (we had the highest scores of anyone else we saw and practically tied at the end); watching my son be a curling rock in an impromptu street-theatre performance; going back to the Mint and actually getting inside; finding big screens all over the place to watch the games (wish we'd seen them the other day); and still making it home on time to watch the Canada/US women's hockey final.

Canadian pavilion pins.

All in all, a very good day, even if my son ended up with three more pins than I did (nobody said we weren't competitive).

So, we've got this little sporting event going on over town -- I'll stop being annoyingly coy -- it's the Olympics and all-in-all, it's pretty cool. Sure there have been some glitches and problems (How can there not be when this many people gather together in one place at one time?), but still, living in an Olympic host city where you can go out and take part in all the fun is, as I've said, pretty cool.

Last night I saw the Sweden/Finland game at the temporarily renamed Canada Hockey Place. Lots of big names on both sides (several current and former Canucks, too), and lots of fans who took their cheering very seriously. As I've noticed and mentioned before, the crowd was well-behaved. No F-bombs during the game, and for the most part, people stayed in their seats and didn't get in other people's way. Even when a blue-and-white face-painted Suomi-shouting Finnish fan was sitting next to a blue-and-gold Viking-helmeted Swede with fake blonde braids.

Teams Sweden and Finland, post-game. Lining up.

But the end of the game reminded me of something I haven't found so cool about the Olympics -- the lines (see photo above). Now, I completely understand that moving this many people around the city safely and peacefully requires heaps of logistical planning. I get it. But for me, that planning is the one thing that's frustrating me about the games. I've found many times my knowledge of the city is working against me. I know where the SkyTrain stations are. I know my way around False Creek and Robson Square and the rest of downtown. I even know a short-cut or two. What I don't know is where all of the Olympic lines start and how to join them to get to the places I want to go. Yesterday, the Bay had a block-and-a-half-long line just to get into the Olympic Store. Stairwells at Robson Square had been designated as up or down only. SkyTrain stations required a loop around the block to get in. TV screens (showing the Canada/US game) were either small or off or displaying sea turtles or viewable only in restricted-access areas. In short, I guess my real complaint is that as a local, I'm feeling a little excluded. I want to participate. I want to join in the fun. I'm just not sure how to get there without wasting hours in a line to do so. But that doesn't mean I'm going to give up. Not yet.

Another break from writing today -- this time not so quick. I went over town to check out the free pavilions and to find out where the flame I saw the other day ended up. On Granville Street, I found heaps of art installations, and, after a little hike down to Canada Place, I found the Olympic cauldron with the flame burning brightly. For having so many people in the city, it didn't feel that crowded. Everyone seemed well-behaved, happy, and were doing that most Canadian of public formations -- the line up.

Art on Granville Street (left) and the Olympic Cauldron (right).

The biggest surprise of the day? Christ Church Cathedral. I've never been in before, and with heaps and heaps of people in the city, it was easy to play tourist. Seeing as the Cathedral has nothing to do with the Olympics, it was a bit of a respite from the queues. A very nice gentleman gave a very interesting and informative tour of a building he was obviously very proud of. The old cedar and the open design inside makes this building worth the trip. Also, the Cathedral recently commissioned an artist to create a sculpture out of the old organ stops (they've put in a new one) and the result is very cool.

I took a quick break from writing today -- there were a few people gathered close to where I live and I just had to see what was going on. Lots of people, lots of noise (all of it happy), and the rain stayed away until after the flame moved on.

I just had a rather interesting weekend -- Maureen Medved from UBC got in touch with me last week and asked if I'd give a guest lecture on writing for video games to her Introduction to Writing for New Media class today. Specifically, she wanted me to talk about branching narratives and how to implement them. Of course I said yes -- I like Maureen -- but, for a couple of reasons I knew I'd end up doing more than just a quick chat about game story theory.

Reason One: I don't believe branching narratives are the whole picture in game story design. I believe there are six different approaches development houses use to construct game stories, and a knowledge of each will only help writers in designing their own games. By the way, the six approaches as I understand them are: linear traditional narratives, branching narratives, parallel paths, threaded narratives, dynamic narratives, and implied narratives (thanks to Chris Bateman, editor of Beyond Game Design: Nine Steps Towards Better Videogames, for the terminology).

Reason Two: I'm a whole-hearted convert to the principles of participatory learning and learner-centric teaching models. In short, rather than passively sitting through a lecture, I thought it would be more effective for people to actually see how these different narrative approaches can be put together. And I figured the best way to show this to people would be to have them play games in class (and then show them the underlying code that makes it work).

Which is where the "rather interesting weekend" part came in -- I spent the last three days hunched over my computer, coding in six different mini-games, one each highlighting a different approach. I used the Aurora Toolset with the Neverwinter Nights I game engine, and hopefully, I've got six little examples which aren't too buggy (read three days to code = not enough play testing) which people can learn from and enjoy. If you'd like to see the mini-games, I've included zipped files of the modules as well as two player characters for you to download. Please note, to play these games, you'll need the Neverwinter Nights I game (patch 1.69), with both the Hordes of the Underdark and the Shadows of Undrentide expansion packs installed.

• Characters.zip (4 KB)
• Modules.zip (168 KB)

While out for a walk in Mexico, my family and I stumbled across a group of Mayan ruins we hadn't known existed -- the ancient coastal community of Xaman-Há. We were going from our hotel in Playacar to the city of Playa del Carmen, looking at these rather large and expensive houses and anticipating a frenzy of souvenir shopping when we came across a stone sign proclaiming Ruinas Arqueológicas. Of course, we took the opportunity to investigate, running from the sidewalk into the forest to see what the abandoned buildings were all about (cue the Indiana Jones theme music).

two opposing views of the same structure

Where Chichen Itza was crowded with hawkers and bands of tourists, we had this site completely to ourselves. We first encountered a series of low step-pyramids, then came a ruined curving wall. We followed the wall through the forest and found another set of ruins, these ones overlooking the Island of Cozumel.

Xaman-Há ruin

By reading the signs posted throughout the site, we discovered Xaman-Há was occupied during the Mayan post-classic period (1300 - 1500 A.D.) as a resupply depot as well as a point of embarkation for women travelling on pilgrimage to the sanctuary of Ixchel on Cozumel (I've been told Ixchel was a goddess of midwifery and medicine, and women would seek her favour to secure fruitful marriages).

arboreal termite nest

In the photo above, you can see the remains of the wall we followed through the forest. Above the wall is the nest (about the size of four basketballs) of some arboreal termites. Apart from an iguana and several geckos, this nest was the wildest thing we saw at this site -- it's completely surrounded by Playacar and Plana del Carmen. Not really Indy's style, but it is kind of cool for a local neighbourhood park.