Remember when I said that yesterday, I cleaned out the uploads folder after a two-month neglect period? I wanted to remind people what NOT to use that folder for. There were 267 items in there when I started downloading. There were the few dozen misc art pieces I posted yesterday, plus another dozen or so wallpapers (coming soon). There were half a dozen cool items (we’ll get to those)… and the rest was stuff that shouldn’t be uploaded here. There were DOZENS of movies, even though the uploads page says not to use it for movies (in big red letters). There were wallpapers totally unrelated to Halo. There was porn. There were files from our own servers, reuploaded (I’m guessing by people who were curious about how the upload process works). There was fan fiction. Amazing. Anyway, before I go get buried in the minutae of preparing for 18 bird-eating guests, I thought I’d toss a couple of things out there. We got this picture (80K), from William Bush – took him a week to make this for his son for Halloween (yes, it’s been sitting for a while). Pretty cool! More soon.

Another Halo tourney to be played out on a movie screen is happening in Ohio this Saturday – XKade will host a Halo 2 tourney at the Tiffin Mall in Tiffin, OH. $50 per person, prizes to be announced. More info is in the link.

Happy Thanksgiving! We may have some trouble here – we normally cook our turkey outside, on the grill, and it’s… um, rather white right now – but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. In the meantime, there’s a bit of Halo news. MLGPro.com has posted a primer for Halo50k4, their huge Atlanta tourney coming up this weekend, and there’s some good stuff in there. There’s an intro to the new bracket system… and a new feature – the MLG Betting Table. (It’s not real money, don’t worry.) Fun stuff! Thanks, 3Suns.

Once again, I’ve let an absurdly long period of time go by without cleaning out our uploads queue. There will likely be more content later today or later this week – but for now, we’ve got several dozen images for you in the Miscellaneous Art section. Paul Davies continues to astound me, but there are plenty of other amazing artists in this batch – go see what you can find!

A large percentage of the gaming news in the last couple of days has been about the Xbox360 (we’re staying relatively quiet on the general bits, because they’re not really Halo-related)… the part that IS Halo-related is the backwards-compatibility thing. Stuntmutt takes a look in today’s One One Se7en.

The MPRRS reviewers have been pretty harsh of late – so when they let a movie through, it’s probably worth watching. First one through in a while is ‘BoB Zero: Genesis’, the prequel to a popular French machinima series (you can find more of their work on the TGO Team website). Filmed in Halo (as opposed to Halo 2), it combines nice camera work, good humor, and decent audio. This version is in French, with English subtitles. Grab it in WMP9 format (49.3 mb) or QuickTime format (45.2 mb). Bon Appetit!

Very cool – Stubbs the Zombie has been released for Mac OSX! Thanks, spartan erik.

Just six new pieces in the Fan Fiction section this morning… you can easily catch up.

TheGhost has put together a collection of tutorial resource links for HaloCE – amazing organization. This can help you find exactly the tools you were looking for. Check it out! Update (16 April 2006): Ghost has moved this to a permanent home at Halomaps.

There’s a story over at IGN about cross-compatibility between the Xbox360 and the original Xbox when playing Halo 2. Their verdict: the 360 plays Halo 2 beautifully, but there might be some joining glitches when playing games involving both boxes. Read the whole article for details. (And remember, this is a single data point; others might have a completely different experience.)

Frankie wrote up his experiences at the Xbox360 Launch Event in the Mojave desert. Nice pics, funny stuff (I wish I could meet the guy who’s got his Cliffy B autograph), a little bit of Halo content to keep it all on-topic. Go read! (Yeah, he gets credit for the heads-up, too… good thing he got his butt kicked at Halo 2 at the event.)

Rooster Teeth have posted a new Red vs Blue video, ‘Zero O’Clock’, for sponsors. At the moment, only the WMP9 version is up – but I assume the QuickTime and DivX versions are coming soon. (I’m also assuming it’ll show up for everyone else in the not-too-distant future.) Griff does his best to get to the Zero Hour Xbox360 event… looks like when begging doesn’t work, you should try deceit. Thanks to Karl Almjeld for the heads-up.

Whoa – it’s less than 8 hours from tomorrow, UTC, on a weekday, and there’s no news on HBO? Call the fire department – HBO HQ must have burned down. (Actually, not really – but I have been kicked out of my place of work by a horde of carpet-laying gnomes, forcing me to alternative tasks. The plus side is, I’ll be able to work barefoot again as of tonight.) We got a note from XerxdeeJ, who has updated his Tied the Leader blog with a piece on holiday gadgets for geeks (nothing Halo-related in there, but some nice goodies nonetheless), and some Halo filler to guarantee the on-topicness. (No, that picture does not depict anything that you, as a geek, can buy for the holidays.)

Timed nicely to go with last night’s coverage on MTV, you’ll find an article at MLGPro.com about T-squared, and his gaming skills school. Check it out! Thanks, 3Suns.

While it’s relatively common for me to crack a smile when looking over One One Se7en submissions, it’s rare for me to laugh out loud. Today’s entry didn’t ruin the ratio. (I kid. It’s up there with some of the classics.)

Seventeen stories in the Fan Fiction section for you today… go read!

Halo Babies has instituted a new feature – Featured Artist. This month is Andrew-sama… go check out his work.

UNSCDF points out that his eponymous website has an article about the M6C pistol – go read.

Dropshock has released episode 6 – they discuss their writeup in Tips and Tricks magazine, they rant about free Xbox360s for celebrities, and they talk about the normal Bungie stuff. As usual, not safe for work. Just under an hour, 24 mb.

Birthdays

Let us have birthdays every day,
(I had the thought while I was shaving)
Because a birthday should be gay,
And full of grace and good behaving.
We can’t have cakes and candles bright,
And presents are beyond our giving,
But let lt us cherish with delight
The birthday way of lovely living.

For I have passed three-score and ten
And I can count upon my fingers
The years I hope to bide with men,
(Though by God’s grace one often lingers.)
So in the summers left to me,
Because I’m blest beyond my merit,
I hope with gratitude and glee
To sparkle with the birthday spirit.

Let me inform myself each day
Who’s proudmost on the natal roster;
If Washington or Henry Clay,
Or Eugene Field or Stephen Foster.
oh lots of famous folks I’ll find
Who more than measure to my rating,
And so thanksgivingly inclined
Their birthdays I’ll be celebrating.

For Oh I know the cheery glow
Of Anniversary rejoicing;
Let me reflect its radiance so
My daily gladness I’ll be voicing.
And though I’m stooped and silver-haired,
Let me with laughter make the hearth gay,
So by the gods I may be spared
Each year to hear: “Pop, Happy Birthday.”

Robert William Service
For our favorite webmaster!