Wow. I don’t know how long this deal is going to last… but Amazon is having a huge sale on Halo goodies; if you haven’t bought Christmas presents yet, now’s a good time. Some figures are as much as 70% off. Go look!(Louis Wu 18:43:02 UTC)

AnTi PRO let us know that Arm The Flag is hosting a t-shirt design contest – if your design wins, you get some cool prizes. Visit their forum for full details.(Louis Wu 18:33:47 UTC)

Wanna keep your employees happy and productive? Let ’em play games! redOrbit has an article about how gaming can keep employee motivation high and turnover low. Halo makes your employees work better!(Louis Wu 18:14:37 UTC)

mrsmiley is pretty unhappy that the second round of Halo Babies’ Happy Halodays art contest has exactly ONE submission so far – the deadline is tomorrow night at midnight, and all you need to do to win 1600 MS Points is turn in the coolest Traffic Cone screenshot! If you’re interested in participating, swing by their forum and sign up, so you can read the rules! Update: the rules are now visible without signing in. (You still need to sign up to submit, but at least you can see what’s up as a member of the public.)(Louis Wu 18:01:32 UTC)

Bungie’s blog highlights a montage of fun driving clips – check out Silver 772’s Major League Driving.(Louis Wu 17:44:43 UTC)

GamesRadar put together a list of non-playable characters they wish they could play… and a major NPC from Halo 2 made the list. Thanks to NickLee808 for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 17:43:51 UTC)

MTV’s Stephen Totilo is going to be playing Halo 3 against rapper Soulja Boy next week – so he went to Bungie’s Luke Smith for some pointers. We’ll have to wait until the showdown to see if Luke’s advice can turn the tide! Thanks, urk. (Louis Wu 17:43:24 UTC)

The Weekly What’s Update is up – and while it’s not really loaded with info about what the Studio’s been doing this week, it DOES have some interesting info about Halo 3: ODST, as well as a bunch of Questions asked by B.net regulars with answers given in Bungie style. As usual, it can be read at Bungie.net or in our Weekly Update Archive.(Louis Wu 00:09:02 UTC)

Darknesshasfallen suggested a holiday-themed emblem for your Spartan – and Shishka liked the idea enough that he’s going to give Recon armor to the emblem he likes the best by the end of today. Read his post for full details.(Louis Wu 21:13:11 UTC)

MTV’s Stephen Totilo has a heartwarming story of two lovers brought together by Halo – who will celebrate that connection by working the game into the wedding. It’s part of the invitations, it’s part of the cake, they’ve even got a website. The wedding day? January 17, of course (117). Halo attire is strictly optional for guests.(Louis Wu 20:51:17 UTC)