Speaking of art… I’m embarrassed at how long the art queues are here at HBO. Artists submitting their work (or posting it on our forum) have been ASTOUNDINGLY patient – but I’m finally finding some time to clear out the queues. I’m putting up the first 22 pieces in the Miscellaneous Art gallery today – there’ll be another batch tomorrow, and on and on until they’re clear. Go see what’s there now; some have surfaced before, many are brand-new. Levi Hoffmeier has a whole batch (with more coming in the next couple of days), Sea-Salt created a very cool Family Guy/Halo crossover, and there’s even a Mongoose Transformer. Poke around!(Louis Wu 20:14:09 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy found a piece of Halo artwork for sale on eBay – it’s pretty nicely done (if a tad expensive). Take a look!(Louis Wu 20:05:59 UTC)

The final Larry the Marine ‘How it all began’ episode is now up – 2phast is gearing up for new adventures!(Louis Wu 18:16:46 UTC)

According to Next Generation, several keynote speakers for this year’s Develop conference have been announced – and among them is Damian Isla (AI Programming Lead for Halo 2 and Halo 3), who will discuss “Halo AI Retrospective: Eight Years of Work on 30 Seconds of Fun”. The conference takes place in Brighton (in the UK), at the end of July.(Louis Wu 15:45:31 UTC)

FireDragon04 sent word of Stiched (not a typo) – a bunch of silly skits and lots of teabagging. He’s looking for feedback – leave a comment!(Louis Wu 14:27:09 UTC)

ScrewAttack put together their Top Ten FPS Games Ever – Halo (the original) made it near the top. Many of the GameTrailers commenters find issues with the list – see what you think! Thanks, PHANTOMFIRE X.(Louis Wu 14:15:37 UTC)

Bryan Ojeda noticed that the University of Maryland’s Gamer Symphony Orchestra played the Halo 3 theme at last year’s Fall Concert – you can hear it on their website. (Forumgoers are giving it low marks; see if you agree!)(Louis Wu 14:13:28 UTC)

Luke Smith posted a note on Bungie.net explaining a small change on Xbox LIVE for folks with Bungie.net profiles – the seventh column symbol will appear automatically now, instead of having to be turned on explicitly. (You can still turn it off if you want.)(Louis Wu 22:00:34 UTC)

Crabbo let us know that Escape from Zanzibar has a new teaser up now – go watch!(Louis Wu 21:58:46 UTC)