…it makes for such a quiet office. HBO HQ went offline again for a few hours this afternoon – the main site (and, in fact, most web-based assets) remained up, but email and the forum were inaccessible. It’s not clear that the problem is actually fixed yet – but we’re live again for now, and that’s good. Fingers are crossed…(Louis Wu 22:13:17 UTC)

Lord Friendship it putting together a BOB Video Guide – Part 1 answers the questions “What is a BOB?” The information is well-presented, and pretty extensive – go watch and be educated!(Louis Wu 16:56:05 UTC)

nairB noticed a Maker Faire video about Shawn Thorsson, a propmaker who builds a lot of Halo armor. We’ve mentioned him before (actually, we accidentally mentioned a single blog post twice – once in July, once last November) – but this is footage from the Bay Area Maker Faire gathering last May, in which Thorsson discusses how he makes his outfits. Check it out!(Louis Wu 13:36:32 UTC)

GodlyPerfection is back from a break (instigated by the birth of his son last summer) with a new Forge Lesson – this one is designed to help you advertise your creations. (Louis Wu 13:35:24 UTC)

Nak3d Eli put together a video to show you how to get the current Weekly Challenge in as little as 13 minutes of gameplay. Now THAT’S a pretty easy 30,000 cR!(Louis Wu 13:33:31 UTC)

Rooster Teeth released Episode 18 of RvB Season 9 last night (thanks, Ibeechu) – some serious plot movement on this one! Things are beginning to come together… and some old friends are back.(Louis Wu 13:32:33 UTC)

Ty_Coker stopped in with word of ‘Return to CANADA!!!‘ – a BCP Halloween special. Spooky!(Louis Wu 13:32:03 UTC)

HC Redemption had this up at HaloChallenges in time for Halloween yesterday – but our connectivity troubles kept us from seeing it before today. Nevertheless, it’s a fun-looking challenge – so swing by and see if you’re up for their Living Dead Challenge! (Louis Wu 13:30:57 UTC)

Dani’s been busy finding previously unseen Halo concept art and adding it to the Forward Unto Dawn Concept Art Gallery – new work from Ryan Demita, Halo Wars stuff from Marco Nelor, a whole new Halo Wars section, and, in this NeoGAF post, a couple of Noble Map Pack concept pieces that look seriously cool. Go explore!(Louis Wu 13:28:18 UTC)

SonGoharotto pointed out that Halo (specifically, conventiongoers in Master Chief armor, and a Gunnery Sergeant you might know) plays a significant role in Season Five of The Guild, the long-running webseries that made Felicia Day a (geek) household name. If you haven’t been watching recently… pick it up again! Update: man, I’m doing this a lot lately. We mentioned this stuff back in August. Sorry. (Louis Wu 13:26:32 UTC)

TheOddOne pointed out a pumpkin-centric Tweet from @WideEyedFox – dat Halo font… (Louis Wu 13:25:19 UTC)

More deviantART from CaptainTony – I think we’re going to start combining these a couple of times per week. Look for future roundups on Thursdays and Sundays! (Louis Wu 13:23:22 UTC)

Gametrailers has kicked off their Halo Anniversary coverage – uberfoop was the first to let us know about the Anniversary Trailer, released yesterday (already on YouTube), and ZZoMBiE13 forwarded links for their ‘Ultimate Fan’ contest and the first video in their Retrospective series (which actually starts much earlier than Halo). Keep your eyes peeled – there’ll be more! Update: we’ve posted the official press release.(Louis Wu 13:13:39 UTC)

When poking around CGHub, I stumbled across an artist known as ‘alp‘ – Allen Altiner is an art director in the film industry, but he does a lot of Halo work on his own time. Here are some of his pieces.

• Concept Painting – Spartan vs Elite
• Halo Fight – speed painting
• HALOMAN – Spartan and landscape
• Halo – speed painting
• Halo Alley – Gritty Spartan
• Scifi Gun Set – Halo-inspired weapons
• Halo 3 – speed painting

Pretty cool stuff! (Louis Wu 22:42:34 UTC)

Jarod Lenz Erwin, who created the UI and painted background for the Waypoint mobile app, posted a pretty cool picture of Jun he did for 343. Love that detail! Thanks to NeoGAF’s TheOddOne for finding it. (Wait… does this mean we’ll be seeing Jun in future 343 creations? Ack! What will happen to A Fistful of Arrows?) (Louis Wu 22:39:27 UTC)

Podtacular 267 went live this weekend – Dust Storm talked to CruelLEGACEY about his series Playtime, and to one of Playtime’s characters about the plot. Go listen!(Louis Wu 22:39:08 UTC)

It’s been a long time since we heard from ICDedPpl – but he sent us a link of his buddy’s Photobucket album showing off some great armor pics. thorn696 is a 405th regular who doesn’t even play Halo – but he makes armor good enough to win contests (three First Place awards this weekend alone!). Check ’em out!(Louis Wu 22:38:30 UTC)

CaptainTony pointed out a pretty cool Halo Comic poster created by Riznof he found on deviantART – look at that six-pack! (Louis Wu 22:35:49 UTC)

Morpheus noticed a GameInformer article on the Top Ten Launch Games of All Time (how do you measure this?) – Halo made the list. Pretty high up, even! (Louis Wu 22:35:27 UTC)