From November 2000 through January 2002, HBO received a number of Fan Fiction submissions from Chris Cox. Much of what he wrote was submitted before our Comments section was online… but what DID get commented on was generally liked. I’d always wondered why the submissions stopped, with no word from Chris – and now I know. A couple of days ago, we received mail from Steve Cox, Chris’ father… who stumbled on his son’s stories accidentally. Chris chose to take his own life on March 21, 2002, less than 2 months after his last submission here. As his father points out, Chris will live on for family and loved ones through pictures, memories, and the work he’s created – like these stories. (There’s a memorial page for him at the family’s website.)

Dave Writz writes to point out a Halogamers.com-sponsored tournament, in Rice Lake, WI, in late August. There’s not that much info at the website yet (give it a couple of days), but there is a flyer that will be posted around the area; looks like they’re shooting for 32 4-man teams. Check it out!

Seeing as the Fourth was a holiday, yesterday’s One One Se7en didn’t get announced until right now – still, technically, at the home of the poster (if not via the timesystem in use at this website) the Fourth… If you have to ask what Babality is, you didn’t get the title of this strip, either. At least the POOF is relevant for today (or yesterday, as the case may be).

In a daring daylight raid on the Halo Story Page, mnemesis, perhaps one of the hardest working people in the b.org family, provides still more meat for your eat- er, reading pleasure. Check it out!

Today is the Fourth of July, a pretty major holiday here in the US. My family and I are declaring independence from the wired world – we’re going to spend the day on the beach. We recommend you do the same – even if you live elsewhere in the world!

Wow. A couple of months late for our Pillar of Art contest (gallery showing tomorrow!)… but it’s a killer piece of work. Chris Bryan has submitted a picture of a rifle he built; solid wood body, laser sight scope, co2 powered pellet gun – it’s even the same scale as the actual 3d gun model! He’s now off to work on the suit…

7 Fan Fiction stories for you today:

• Buried Treasure, by Frensa Geran
• Chapter 3: The Battle Of Cairo, by Nightblade
• Chapter 4: Weapons of Mass Destruction, by Nightblade
• Covenant Invasion Part 1 (Changed), by Hunter_Killer & Elfster
• Foresaken Forefathers Part VII- Knowledge Gained is Knowledge Earned, by Havok and AlphaBravo343
• HALO 2: Earth’s Reclaimer (part eins), by Brian vms
• On A Pale Horse: Silent Assasin, by Silent Hunter

Seems like the Series glitches are worked out… fingers crossed!

It’s Red vs Blue night… sort of. Over on Bungie.net, there’s an interview with the team – and it’s a great read. If you’re curious about how some of the shots were pulled off, or how much sleep Buzby’s gotten in the past couple of months… you’ll enjoy this. Then, because tomorrow is a holiday, and the guys don’t wanna be around this weekend, they’ve posted this week’s episode (which is actually the special episode they made for E3 this year, not a normal story episode) on their site 1-3 days early (depending on what kind of visitor you are). Unfortunately… their main movie server seems to have died, which means you can’t actually get it now. 🙁 All we can say is… keep trying, it’s a pretty funny episode. Update: BitTorrent works. See their site for details.

Matt Ogonowski asked JoyRide directly about the availability of the Halo Action Figures… and the response he got from thier customer service department read, in part:

They will begin release in mid-July.

A bit sooner than Bungie’s forecasting… but Bungie’s always been a bit conservative. Nice to know!

Bad news… but sometimes knowing is better than not knowing. Due to circumstances beyond EVERYONE’s control, Mythica.org, the site that provides the bulk of our movie hosting bandwidth, will remain offline for at least another week. We’re doing the best we can… but sometimes, there’s just someone out to get you. As soon as we know anything more definite, we’ll be sure to pass it along. What this means to you, the site viewer: many movies, hosted EXCLUSIVELY at mythica, are unreachable for the next while. (They WILL become available again at some point, one way or another.) For movie creators – the queue for incoming movies is already considerable (due to the fact that Mythica’s been offline already for two weeks), and it’s only going to get longer. If you have your own hosting, we’re happy to put up a news item about your movie… but if you need hosting, you’re just going to have to wait; best-case scenario is maybe 3 weeks at this point. (That is – a movie coming in today would have to wait 3 weeks before we could post it, if Mythica comes back up next week.) If the outage continues for longer than a week, obviously the queue length will grow. I wish I had a better answer for you all… but bandwidth is expensive, and Mythica was providing, on average, maybe 50 GB/day for us. Unless someone else steps up to the plate and is willing to host movies… we’re stuck. 🙁

Desktop submissions were pretty varied in the past couple of days… you’ll find 15 screens (plus a couple of variations) in our Wallpaper section. See what suits your fancy!

Well, it turns out I made some mistakes in the new Fan Fiction submission code – but only one user was badly burned. I think I’ve fixed things – but in the meantime, here are 11 pieces submitted in the past day or so.

• A Marine Named Peters: Saving Private Johnson, by GLADIATRRR3000
• Halo:After the Ring, the War Goes on, by Master of Halo
• The Road to Combat Zone 4, by The Scribe
• On A Pale Horse: New Mombasa, by Silent Hunter
• Special Ops: Captured, by Nightblade
• The Fall of Fate: Freedom(8), by ‘Nosolee
• Covenant Invasion! Part Seven, by Hunter_Killer
• Rise and Fall of the Flood Chapter 1, by BlackValkyire
• Special Ops Chapter 2: The Rescue, by Nightblade
• All Roads Lead To Sol…Despite What The Map Says: Chapter 6, by S7N
• Shadow Spartans, Chapter Two: The Story, by Agent Shade and Arinoth Koby

Again – if you run into trouble, PLEASE send in a bug report; I can’t fix what I don’t know about. Thanks!

You might remember a small movie from a group called FTC – it showed some pretty classy shooting. Well, they’ve whipped up another small movie, The Tunnel Trap (it’s 4.7 mb, just under 2 minutes long, in DivX format) that’s simply hilarious. Take a look – and feel free to comment in this forum thread.

For those frustrated by the quietness of the Halo PC teams (multiple Randy Pitchford interviews notwithstanding), swing on by Bungie’s Tru7h and Reconciliation site for a major update. (It can also be found here, in a more permanent location, in case you’re reading this down the road.) Michel Bastien talks about where their time has been spent, and what’s coming… and offers a custom screenshot (you’ll have to post your request on Bungie’s Underground forum). Go read it – now!

A couple of days ago, SouthPaw posted a note on our forum, asking about an odd shape on the top of the pistol. Shishka grabbed a pic – and identified it as a Japanese ‘7’. (BOLL later got a better shot.) Looked like an egg… and lo and behold, that’s exactly what it is. Check this post by SketchFactor for the history behind its creation. Nice going, folks!

Wraith writes that Halo: Shadow Ops is up and running over at Forerunners.org. The hook? Check out the Sounds page, with 45 genuine Grunt WAV files, recorded in-game. (7mb download.) Nice!

The CPL Winter 2003 Championships has been announced – Dallas, TX, December 16-20, 2003. Three tournaments, including a $30,000 Halo PC (team) tournament. Nice! (Thanks to kappa, who noticed it on Cached.net.)

Marathon again… and some other good stuff. Check out the Halo Story Page. Yeah, baby.

One One Se7en looks at Covenant naming standards. Um… yeah.

SketchFactor has posted a note to Bungie.net – if you’re interested in pre-ordering Halo Action Figures, you can do so now at the Bungie Store. Oooh… I want that Warthog.