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I apologize for last week’s lack of update. Jeff was still on his sabbatical and I was in Washington. I realize that’s a poor excuse. It would have taken a mere five seconds to throw up a note that read “BBL,” but rest assured, I give myself ten lashes a night for not giving this site the attention that it deserves.

  So Thursday was a day of firsts for me. I traveled alone for the first time, as well as rode in my first cab and flew on my first plane. I was on assignment from Gamepro and they flew me out to Bungie Studios in Kirkland, Washington to try out the new Halo 3 map pack with a bunch of other journalists and a handful of Bungie developers. It was an exciting experience, especially given the presence of Dan “Shoe” Hsu, the current editor-in-chief of Electronic Gaming Monthly. I’ve been reading Shoe’s stuff for years, so it was pretty intimidating seeing him there. I wish I would have been more assertive, however. My only face-to-face with the man was letting him back in the demo room after he went to the can. He gave me a friendly “thank you” and I mumbled an incoherent response and scurried back to my seat.

The best part of the day came when I was goofing around with Halo’s Forge feature (think level editor) and one of the Bungie developers came up to check out what I was doing. My explanation was nothing but nervous babbling and it ended with me pulling the controller up, only to find out that the cord was under my foot, and then dropping it, where it crashed into a metal grate below my seat with a painful clank. It’s not easy being both socially and functionally retarded.

 That said, it was an amazing trip and although it definitely qualifies as once-in-a-lifetime stuff, I kind of hope it happens more than that. My preview is up at OMGHalo.com if you’re into that sorta thing. I was excited to hear that it was also going to be posted on Gamepro.com, and I was ecstatic when I saw that it was linked to on their main page. For the first time since I started this freelance writing thing, I actually feel like I’m possibly shaping a career. Big gaming, here I come!