Cherry 

Best of the past week

Hi , I'm back in Denver after an amazing week in the Rocky mountains. I had the chance of skiing in both Vail and Beaver Creek ski resorts, it was a fantastic experience!I loved it and am looking forward to being an even better skier and exploring even more of the difficult slopes next time around. I'm actually quite proud I went out and skied on my own, and of the progress from just after Christmas last year: I hadn't been on skis since I was ten years old, and now going off exploring resorts by myself in Colorado.My friend Adam's cousin Lauren owns the Alpine Arts Center in nearby Edwards, Colorado, and was just reopening in a new location so I had the chance of staying with her and helping her a little bit. It's a fantastic location and business, if ever you know anyone in the region or you wander by there I highly recommend checking it out. They offer arts classes of many different styles for children and adults in the evenings (with wine and beer too) as well as art pieces for sale.I realised that Vail Resorts are a huge operator of mountain ski resorts around the world and that their early bird season pass is for sale, I have about a month to decide whether I want to get a full access pass and am seriously considering it for next year. As my father said I should probably do their PR and marketing. I've actually started having a look into that too... Seriously, their seasonal pass gives full access to 13 different ski resorts, plus days in the most popular resorts all over Europe as well. If I ski just over a week next year it's worth my while.Hoping you're not too bored of the sound of my voice this time round, here's a photo of me with the amazing views from Belle's Camp in Vail's Blue Sky Basin:

 Sprinkles What's the GIF? 

Whipped Cream

Cards Against Humanity is one of my favourite games, I love the company and the fact they're in Chicago is one of the reasons I'm also seriously considering it as a place to live.Check out their Superbowl ad. More on that in the communications section of the newsletter.In case you missed it, they also crowdfunded over $100,000 to dig a giant hole in Illinois for Black Friday last year.

Caramel Fudge

What's sticky in the communications industry?

As pointed out in the previous section, Cards Against Humanity is one of my favourite games and companies all round. Unfortunately their Superbowl ad wasn't hugely successful though. Or was it?I love it. PS: Meanwhile, one of the largest interactive and over the past few years also ad / branding fests is going on right now at SXSW in Austin, Texas. For once I'm not following very closely even though I'm in the US right now. Apparently the AMC network channel reproduced a Los Pollos Hermanos fast food outlet from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, complete with Saul's car in front. When I went to SXSW in 2009, brands were just about barely sponsoring a few parties with drinks.

Chocolate

What's going on in gaming?

Did I mention the Cards Against Humanity Superbowl stunt?Yes?Oh well. In that case I'll mention this game my good friend Julien from the French roleplay gaming podcast Les Voix d'Altaride brought my attention to this:  Katanas & Trenchcoats RPG.An excerpt he posted on Facebook and I found quite entertaining."The tale of your life is the proof of your dark sexiness, and the proof to everyone at the table that your imagination rules. For each section of your saga, write down as much as your mind can conjure. Keep in mind: more is more. The more you write, the higher your Grandeur Rank will be (which we’ll get to on the next page).If you’re not into writing, passionate extemporaneous soliloquies and epic YouTube videos may be acceptable."This is probably particularly entertaining if you're quite the geek and appreciate tabletop roleplaying games in general and games like Vampire the Masquerade in particular. Sorry if it doesn't compute for you.

Vanilla

What else is interesting this week?

I really enjoyed this article about the author's struggle with mastering America's style of small talk. It felt particularly relevant as I've just moved to the United States.I hope you enjoyed this Sundae, please forward on to a friend if you did!Till next week!All the best,Willem