This very moment I’m at Logan International Airport (Boston, USA), waiting for my flight to Amsterdam. I am invited as a keynote speaker at Picnic. I will be back “home” this Friday, just in time to see the first presidential debate. It will be weird to visit Amsterdam as a tourist and I already look forward to go back to Charlestown, to get my 2pm Latte at DnD, to watch The Daily Show live, to endanger my life in Boston traffic (by biking), and to watch Fox News again (“Governor Palin, why are you so awesome?”).

My Picnic 08 keynote is about virtual worlds (and games and social networks) and is part of the Picnic Young Special. The speakers (& projects) include Donkeypedia, Eric Klopfer, Josephine Dorado, Games Atelier, Yo! Opera, Wrts Mobiel, MobileMath, Mijn Naam is Haas, Art2Unite and more. I will be part of Immersive Virtual Learning Worlds at 2pm on Wednesday. See the rest of the program here.

Last week I did a very tiny review (“Vieze Japanse nasmaak“) on the new Zen series DS games for Dagblad de Pers, nuttin’ special. But for today’s paper I did a full page story on the official launch of Newzoo.com, an online broker/consultant project for games & advertising. Here’s the online version: “Reclamemakers ontdekken games” and the .pdf is here (see page 21). I interviewed Peter Warman who I knew from his days at Media Republic and the Eccky project. Whether you like it or not, games & advertising will be huge and Peter’s new project just might be on the forefront of the next wave of branded interactive entertainment.

Life in Boston is great. I survived hurricane Hannah, I also survived the Boston traffic on my new bike. I do have serious issues with the size of the coffee cups (i.e. they’re too big) and I am slowly getting addicted to DnD donuts. So, yes, it’s good to be back in the US again!

Many of you already knew, but for those who did not, from September 4 until November 22 I will be a Visiting Scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a.k.a. MIT. I will be located at GAMBIT, so please drop by if you are near! I will live in Charlestown and very much look forward to getting my hand on a Krispy Kreme donut.

My newspaper, Dagblad De Pers, did a restyling after the summer holiday during which news was a bit slow and I was working on my PhD. But, from September onwards there will be a page of game galore every Monday (fyi, I won’t fill a page every Monday). After my visit to Leipzig (covering the Games Convention) I did a load of stories, many of them for GMR magazine, but some for De Pers as well. Both the Leipzig stories and what I wrote for today’s paper is listed here:

- “De ongemakkelijke waarheid van 11 september” – September 1, 2008.
- “Too Human valt tegen” – September 1, 2008.
- “Ook het grootste leger ter wereld vindt Leipzig belangrijk. Meet Hank Keirsey“. August 26, 2008.
- “Nerdfest in Leipzig voor hardcore gamers“. August 26, 2008.
- Review MadWorld. “Garantie voor rumoer“. August 26, 2008.