Year 4: 1996

[New York] My main memory of this trip is coming in from the cold to Dad’s warm dry half-dark apartment, slipping into bed in the guest room and closing my eyes every time I found myself with more than an hour to kill. The static crackle of the sheets. The walls bare, spackled and plastered preparatory to being painted. My only communication with the outside world the ancient Code-A-Phone, its code forgotten, the green light flashing to greet me whenever I returned to my little room, blinking its message of friendship and invitation from the dark cold city outside...

I’m getting back in touch with my other selves. In every place there are parts of you that habit wears down and finally erases. To find them again you just need to leave.

I’ve given myself a week to decide whether to hire John Eaton.

Maybe it’s time to start letting go. Accept that Smoking Car, in its first incarnation, is over. It can grow or it can die, but it’ll never be the same as it was.

If I hire John, Robert will probably start distancing himself emotionally from Smoking Car and will leave for Boston sooner than later.

There’s Robert, Netter, Nicki, Tomi, Patrick, Jon, Mark, Noel, Mitchell, Guido, Kevin, Dana, Juliana, Eugene, John, Anita, Chris, Graham, Charles, Matt, Randy, Greg, Amber, James, Dennis, Sean, Brian, Ken – Geez, we got a lot of people.

Just returned from another day at the smoking car. Left Mark, Noel, Mitchell and Eugene still there.

This is fun. Soon it will be a real game.

I’m getting used to the John Eaton Future.

Jim Tso came in the morning and presented us with our new schedule. Part 1 alpha Feb. 3, beta June 6, sign out in August, ship in October. I think we can do it. I think we should set our internal beta clock for April 30.

Hiro Fukami stayed all day long. Good meeting. We signed off on 16-bit only, Win 95 only, Japanese subtitled version in October to be followed by dubbed version in December. Still excited.

New title: Orient Express: The Eve of War.

Lunch with John Eaton, Robert and Patrick. Dinner with Tomi. Drink with Patrick. Tomorrow I have dinner with John and we decide if we’re going forward.

I say yea. Patrick’s on board. Tomi’s on board. Robert’s invited, but he’s going to Boston. Patrick and Tomi both think he’s making the mistake of his life. Mark N. is still an open question. Patrick convinced me to give him another chance.

“You’re Othello, we are all Iagos,” Patrick said cheerfully.