Level 99

You have PM, Brad! Also, the French are about to kick your ass.

I will, unfortunately, be dropping my claim on the ending demo track for the project. I've had about three different takes on it, in different styles, and nothings come out of it that I'm satisfied with. So, good luck with everyone on the project, and feel free to request a presence on OCAD to argue with us hosts about being n00bs and how much we suck and your project rules. Also, Luigi 4 lyfe

Okay, I'm fine with something else because it's something we just want to do before Sebastian goes back home, so I can take him another day, probably with Jay as well and whomever else wants to go. I dunno about jamming just because we have people who would be with us who wouldn't have instruments or want to jam. I'm sure some of them would be down for a goodbye party though, hmm... Anyone else have ideas for stuff after OCAD? Depending on what we decide for after, OCAD may happen at my place or Brush's.

I'm aware. I look like a twelve year old with big eyes in a funny hat that fell face-first onto magnetic fuzzy-felt for form a beard-like structure. That's what I wanted. Edit: Umm...bad news...the first half of the magfest audio got some weird fucking sound corruption. I'm trying to search for a recovery file, but right now it's not looking too good. I place the blame 100% with HP, and this shitty-ass laptop that crashed audacity every time I tried to open it. FUCK YOU, HP!

Saturday seems to be the day that peoples want to hangout. OCAD also is set to record that day. Putting them together seems logical. SO our current idea is this: Some sort of gigantic recording of OCAD with MAGFest reflections and whatnot at Brushfire's house in the afternoon. Dinner at Medieval Times (I've actually never been myself). They do have vegetarian meals upon request, and the one we'd be going to is at Arundel Mills Mall. Thoughts?

Double-post like double-bubble bubble gum! I'll be editing the audio for the magcast and posting it, in whatever condition it is in, as soon as I can. It probably turned out a lot worse than I thought, and you're getting your warning now about lots of sound and mic pops and unequal levels and everything. Take it for what it's worth, and it'll probably be a ton better once video shows up for lip-reading/context reference usage.

I'm much happier listening to your amazing rock than I am knowing you're stretched too thin to give your all to the things you love. Will miss you as a judge, Mr. Fishman, but am glad you're making a well-thought-out choice. Focus on school and music and whatnot! You aren't going away from this community anytime soon, we still need to guitar-battle! RAWWWWK!

Count me in.

The eternal question to which only Arek has the answer...

VERY LONG POST AHEAD! As I sit here with my Fiber One yogurt and my Peanut Butter Granola Bar (sorry, I didn’t have any APPLE JUIIIIIICE! to bring with me today), I am reflecting on the past week or so, and all the insanity that happened then. Warning: This contains massive amounts of MAG-gasms so if you’re sick of hearing about it for one reason or another, don’t read it. I’ve just got to get it out of my system before I lose it. I wouldn’t dare try to list every person or describe every awesome activity, but I’ll exhaust all the things that stand out and apologize if I gloss over something or get names wrong or whatever. Picking OA up from the airport with AeroZ as we’re all dressed in our bond outfits, holding up a sign that said “Rufus and Shinra Inc. ‘Taxi’ Service”. The look on his face was priceless, and we had wonderful man-hugs. Rolled up to the hotel and got our badges and whatnot very quickly, no hassle with the hotel room at all, and prepared ourselves for the upcoming insanity. Aeroz, OA, and myself went to the game room to kill some time. As OA was playing DrumFreaks, AeroZ and myself stood bodyguard, and it basically looked like we were protecting Chris Doughtry. As people started to show up, we all talked about what craziness would happen. Reminiscing about old MAGs and talking about community stuff was a blast, as is always putting names to faces. Ushering in New Years Eve with Duke Nukem and a kickass concert was unreal (all the performing artists were also awesome). Seeing how much weight Virt had lost in-person was ridiculous, and he’s still as energetic and amazing as ever. Meeting Prot and Mono was also a very special experience. All my perceptions of them were shattered in every way. Hanging with DJP, Liontamer, and the crew in their room until Audio Fidelity showed up with Abadoss was a lot of fun. Throughout the entire con, I felt more of a part of OCR than I ever have before (probably because of the sheer physical presence of everything). The amount of beer-sharing bonding was staggering. Day 1 was the least fun for me, probably, due to a headache the set on in the evening, but having the rest of the people show up for the bulk of MAG was great. I couldn’t go 200 ft. without seeing someone I knew or having someone yell my name, or just experiencing nerd-nirvana. Taking over the Subway for dinner was great, even if Busta wasn’t there to have a VR troopers love-seizure again. Day 2 was probably the most hectic day out of all of them. It started with Sid Meier playing in Jamspace, with Brental Floss on the drums for a few songs, and then lead to the OCR panel, the OCAD podcast, the concert, and the DoD listening party. All made for a non-stop run of things to do… The OCR panel was the first panel I’ve ever actually sat on, and I can’t thank the crew enough for letting OCAD up there for be represented. As Brushfire sat to my left, and Epicenter far left taking some video, I was exposed to an awesomely random slideshow and a few videos while passing jokes and facts along with my fellow community members. Having a slide for OCAD, even a botched one (which resulted in some good jokes, so I’m kinda glad it happened), was rocking. I also got to see, for the first time, the video that Jose had made for the podcast. Too cool, too cool. I don’t want to give away too much the panel’s antics in-general, because most of it was capture on video, but it was crazy and there definitely needs to be more time allocated to it next year. The OCAD podcast was a sensation. We were told before the con that there was going to be a table in the vendor area for podcasting, but it was actually off to the side, in a lower area, where it was less crowded but also generally less space. Note for next year: we’re going to ask for a panel room to have it take place. Easier for all the people and equipment that way. We all were in our robes, and had a really great turnout despite numerous equipment failures. We had some awesome giveaways, and got lots of hopefully good audio and video material out of it. The comments and things people did were ridiculous. No spoilers here, as it’ll all be sifted through and uploaded sometime soon-ish. Thanks to everyone who had a presence there, you all rock. Missed more of the concert than I planned due to dinner, though dinner was awesome fun. Caught some of it at least, and had more drinking fun. By the time the DoD listening party started, I had quite a few beers and shots in me. So many cool entries, and that video was a killer. I only made it to about 4:30/5ish, but I was able to witness the expected pictochat exchanges and seeing AeroZ dance with Prozax (both drunk), TWICE, was alone worth it. Day 3 was mostly jamming and wrap-ups. Jamspace was awesome in the morning, and I vow to never play Ken’s theme again…until next year. We all kinda bummed around most of the day, doing small things. Made our rooms usual trip to Whole Foods to be filled with expensive yet delicious food, despite missing one of the roomies. Got back to do more jamspace and hanging out, some actual gaming and the last concert. The OCR staff and whatnot took over our hotel room (which is understandable, considering they didn’t have one this year and we had lots of delicious beer) for a few hours to discuss serious business, but it all ended in time for the end of the concerts and the costume contest. I’d say at around midnight is when the final ramp-up began for MAG’s last day. The costume contest was awesome from what I got to see (Starla’s Mia Fey outfit was a killer) but I didn’t get to see her go up because OA and myself were informed, in mid-costume-contest, that we had won DoD. Rushed back just in time to get a few pictures and hugs: it was all a pretty surreal experience (considering the late hours and intake of beer). A bunch of people went upstairs to celebrate the evening with pizza and drinks. Mazedude is a CHAMP and the latter. That’s about the last I really remember of the evening. After some necessary sleep, we all got together to do some last minute shopping and say our goodbyes. There are quite a few people still in the area, so PMD has yet to really hit in for me. AeroZ and I missed the IHOP trip while we took OA back to the airport, but a lot met up again at Dave and Busters later that night. Before Monday ended, DJP posted my first OC ReMix: a fitting end to the last official day of MAGFest 8, even though I was nowhere near the hotel. So, to everyone I met, either new or old friends, I say thank you. To OCR, the remixing community in-general, and to the staff and all who made this possible, I say the same. With the amount of people now determined to make it next year, or make it BACK next year, I can say without a doubt that it’s only going to get better. I’m sure I left out WAY too much stuff, but that’s my experience. Oh, and next year, there needs to be more Settlers games. I definitely regret not doing that even though it was planned.

Lol thanks, Brushfire. I'd say that was a fitting end to the last day of MAG. 2010 couldn't be starting off on a better foot for me, and I'm beyond thankful for everything. Well we all (at least as far as I know) got back safe and sound from M8. I got myself a nice new lunchbox for being a super supporter, which is awesome cause my old one was busting up. I'll be writing up all my reflections on MAGFest 8 in-total soon and posting them in the thread, while still taking advantage of seeing everyone who's still in the area. Expect some more OCAD-focused news here sometime this week as I gather all my brain-goop back into my head and attempt to face the dreaded horrors of the real world. Some things you can expect very soon though: * An updated guest list. At the moment, with all confirmed, prospective, and currently in-talk guests, we have cool people planing to come on from now until friggin' October, more-or-less! Now to figure out how to organize it all and make sure we didn't forget anyone. (apologies to all guests who want to return ASAP, but we'll be figuring out the best way to please everyone) * A MAGFest 8 "Reflection in Video". We have footage of most of the OCR panel and at little over half of our podcast there, and someone else has footage of the second half that we missed due to the camera dying. Should be pretty cool and will hopefully have it out sometime between now and the next MAGFest. * The amazing OCAD video made by José the Bronx Rican. Planning on uploading to the ewe-toob sometime and will link when it is up. * All the usual insanity, AND THEN SOME! Great seeing such an awesome turnout to the con, the OCR panel, our podcast, and everything else. Really awesome to see that we had more than four fans (but now I lost a bet to Epicenter because of it, and will be forced to do unmentionable things for my incorrectness) and got to hang out with everyone. I have run out of words for now so.....bye!

Looks like Avaris got really really sick and probably wont be able to make it. However, AeroZ and myself are all dressed up for the bond party already. We're heading to Dulles in a few in these outfits to pick up OA with the "Rufus and Shinra Inc. 'Taxi' Service", and then...to MAG. WE RIDE!

http://www.mediafire.com/?gm3mmjyyjte There, there's a temp full MP3 archive hosted on my mediafire. If bandwidth becomes an issue over time, however, I will remove it. It clocks in just under 450 mb, and is all that's in the official release except no FLAC.

This end of year sale has taken way too much of my hard earned cash now. I've gone from about 70-80ish games to 129. Why am I paying for games which take up more time, thus resulting in me making less money? Because games are fun, damnit. And it's great, cheap way to get other people hooked too! RS:V2 for 4.99? DO IT!

Okay, who paid you to say semi-nice things about us? Was it Joey? Tell Joey he can keep his money but he ain't getting my toes, damnit. That's the last time I borrow money from the Aquarium Mafia... Anyways, thanks for the feedback. Yes, we have grown considerably in a very short time, trying to get the best balance between structure and unstructure. Only time will tell if it was worth it, and coming from someone like you, Mr. Mokram, this means a good bit. Tell your food to watch out: more choking opportunities are coming. Starting with the next episode...

So nice. Well, thank you, Andrew, for all you've done. I hope this is only one less facet you encompass around here and that you keep all your other forms of presence. Best of luck not-judging (so best of luck doing everything else), and I'll miss getting no'd by you, even though I don't think I have been yet

No one yet, because the deadline got pushed back a bit. And many of the entrants get second-prizes of free manga as well. GO ENTER, DUDE!

Whoa, it's Svartzie's birthday? Cool! Maybe today will finally be the day he stops posting crazy freaky anime he's collected from around the web!

"And lo, thus did there become another monkey in the monkey machine." Congrats on the new little one!

Late to the congrats party, but mazel tov! Wonderful news! Very happy for you both.

No no, I don't believe that's nearly accurate either. I don't think the words exist yet to describe what she's done, and I've tried looking. Even my 1947 Dictionary of Slang and Common Phrases doesn't have adequate terminology. Looks like 2010 is going to be an absolutely stellar year for projects! I feel terrible that the next WIP date for this is the day after MAG ends, though. Do you give the procrastinators no chance?!