The year is winding down, and for some of you it’s already 2004. For me it’s not, so I’d like to take the opportunity to wish all of you a most joyous new year. For some reason I’ve been especially nostalgic of late (I blame Wu’s work on library.bungie.org which makes it easier to go in the time travel machine here at HBO) and I marvel at how long we’ve been at this, together, all of us. Playing such a cool game and making new friends and forging strong relationships regardless of physical distance. A few years ago I would never have been traveling to Connecticut on a semi-regular basis, yet now it’s a done deal and I count Louis Wu as one of my dearest friends. I will follow him to the ends of this earth, on our mission to play fun games and share a laugh together. Isn’t that such a fine and noble quest? I think so.

I’ve made many other friends among the Wu LAN party regulars: KP, nof, Konrad9, Blackstar, Spenser, Juggler, etc. Then there are all my new NY Halo playing buddies, like Jynx, Fuhrman, M Scope, the guys at King Games, etc.

And we here at HBO are of course grateful to Bungie for making themselves available to us throughout the year. Sketchfactor himself is to be showered with kudos for keeping us all informed of the goings on within the walls of Bungie Studios, truly one of the most successful arms within Microsoft Game Studios. And now with the advent of the PC and Mac versions of Halo, we also would like to thank the dear folks at Gearbox and Destineer/MacSoft for making a dream actually come true!

Of course, the forum itself has been fertile ground for new relationships, and there are many, too many folks for me to list here that I consider good people and that I hope to someday meet up with. Even though I lay down the Ban Hammer from time to time, I really am not as grumpy as you may think. I love any and all communication we can share together as a group. We are all in this together. And I absolutely am thrilled that soon, hopefully very soon we will all have another venue, Halo 2, to meet up and share some ammo clips as we fight the virtual enemy.

Now having said all that, I am also very mindful of how we have other aspects of our lives besides this one little corner of the bitstream. We have our families, our ‘real life’ friends, and the neighborhood that we live in. So in the spirit of staying in touch with the real, physical world, I would like you all to indulge me:

In a few minutes, I’m going to shut down the forum for a few hours!

Now don’t get all in a huff. Take the opportunity to shut off your computer, breath some fresh air, and relax. It’ll be back soon enough.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

note: I haven’t actually tried shutting down the forum and I know I have the notes here somewhere on how to do it, but just in case something doesn’t work, not to worry, I’ll leave the forum as is.

• Shadow Ops II: Chapter Nine, by Agent Shade
• Halo: The Scythe of Death Part Seven, by LordofDestruction
• Marooned Chapter Ten, by Steve Ollett
• Battle for the Norah: Part Thirteen, by Sterfrye36
• Galaxy 07 – Part 7 – Regimes, by Jillybean the Impatient
• Specters (Part 2), by MadJackal
• The Fall of Fate: Special Edition (Destiny-Freedom), by ‘Nosolee

• A Conclusive History of the United Nations Space Command: Chapter Four: The Human-Covenant War, by witelancer
• Jake A Model IV: Episode Three: The Trinity, by Slipping Knot
• Tides of Destruction (Part 7, Rolling Thunder), by teemus
• Battle for Tectron: Chapter 5, by Helljumper
• Halo 2 Fight For Earth: Out of the Frying Pan. . . , by HunterKiller
• Jake A Model IV: Episode Four: , by Slipping Knot
• Forced Betrayal (Chapter 2: Escape and Sabatoge), by CoLd BlooDed
• Returning the Favor, by Mainevent

Heck, that was easy! I might even update again. Someday.