Adam Kovic let us know that Inside Halo 14 (well, now it’s Aureola Interior, since it’s been taken over by Pancho Villa’s great-grandson Pete) is now online at YouTube. As surreal as ever, except now with a taste of Mexico. Seven minutes long. (Coincidence? I think not!)(Louis Wu 18:50:52 UTC)

Last night, Team HBO lost their Quarterfinal Spring League Grifball playoff match, dashing their championship hopes… but today, Bungie kicked off the latest Double XP Weekend using the Spring League Grifball map. (This one is far more difficult to cheat in than the Winter League map was.) Go hammer someone in our memory! (Thanks to Avateur for the heads-up.)(Louis Wu 18:39:04 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy noticed a Cafe Press t-shirt devoted to the Spike Grenade (and the feeling it inspires in its victims). Go look!(Louis Wu 18:34:04 UTC)

Okay, Gryphonosiris wins the ‘Silliest Story of the Day’ award with his link to a Gamespot article about a bunch of 13-year-olds who hired prostitutes to play Halo with them on daddy’s stolen credit card. You have to read the whole story for the biggest WTF moments, though… I mean… oh, never mind. Just read it.(Louis Wu 17:33:01 UTC)

Very cool – JustyB noticed a time-lapse video of someone drawing Cortana, in Photoshop. It’s really interesting to watch. The artist stopped by the thread, and it’s possible we might be getting a higher-resolution version of the video soon…(Louis Wu 17:03:59 UTC)

Laird reminded us (by pointing to an article over at Hawty McBloggy’s) that CanWest08 is coming up in just over a week. It’s going to be a weekend of mayhem and mischief, with machinima galore, a couple of contests (with cool prizes), and lots of Halo community stars. (If I lived closer than 3000 miles and didn’t have about 3 weeks of stuff to do in the seven days, I’d be on a plane in a heartbeat.) If you’re anywhere near Vancouver, or even if you’re not… check this out.(Louis Wu 16:56:24 UTC)

Yesterday, we mentioned that Mcnealy was considering creating a Halo manga, and wanted you to weigh in with your interest. Apparently, interest was high; he’s going ahead with it. There’s an example of what he’s going to be working with up now. (Louis Wu 16:56:07 UTC)

bentllama, half of the Cananimators, stopped by our forum this afternoon to let folks know that he’s left Bungie (where he’s going, we don’t know yet, but he says info is coming soon). John ‘Anim8rJB’ Butkus left last month for Blizzard, so the entire Cananimator team is gone! Good thing Bungie’s not building Halo 4… it wouldn’t be the same without the ‘llama and JB. We’ll miss you guys! (Go say goodbye, everyone!)(Louis Wu 20:57:57 UTC)

Hawty McBloggy let us know that she’s been creating simple avatars out of some of the spectacular screenshots she’s been collecting at I <3 Halo 3 Screenshots – swing by and see what’s available! (Louis Wu 19:29:04 UTC)

Mcnealy is thinking about creating a Halo Manga this summer – but wants to know if there is any interest from the community, first. Swing by Ninjacritic and vote in his simple poll.(Louis Wu 19:23:24 UTC)

For anyone who has trouble with YouTube, Davis Beutler uploaded a higher-quality direct-download version of his playing of the Finish the Fight theme at his school (we mentioned this yesterday). You can grab a copy from his forum post.(Louis Wu 19:22:03 UTC)

TTL Demag0gue stopped by to announce Reclaimer #46 – the Reclaimer steps up.(Louis Wu 15:04:04 UTC)

The Celebrity Cafe is giving away a Halo 3 Plasma Pistol, from Jasman Toys – just fill out their form before June 30!(Louis Wu 15:01:29 UTC)

nomis78 continues to put together panoramas – there are a half-dozen new ones in his forum post last night. I really like the reworked Foundry environs…(Louis Wu 15:00:24 UTC)

Shane Kim talked to Computer and Video Games, and both Halo Wars and the Bungie-mediated Peter Jackson Halo project came up. Nothing terribly new – but you can glean some tidbits by reading between the lines. For example, TVG decided that Kim’s assertion that Halo Wars wasn’t ready to be shown at Microsoft’s Spring Showcase this year was evidence that the game won’t be out before 2009. (This is certainly not the first time that’s been speculated, but each brick helps build the house.) Go read!(Louis Wu 14:58:14 UTC)

Almost missed the deadline… not quite, though. Today’s installment of Another Halo Comic Strip shows how much rationalization the Chief is capable of…(Louis Wu 22:34:06 UTC)

The German Xbox Live Forum is hosting a 2v2 Blackout tourney – you can read about it (in German) on their site. There’s a link in there to a huge tribute vid; 13 minutes, a quarter of a gigabyte, some nice angles. (It’s mostly artfully-done 2v2 footage.) Thanks, Mullekatze.(Louis Wu 21:11:29 UTC)