First bounce, “hey that's really sweet!” Second bounce, “Wow!” Third bounce, “It just keeps going!” Fourth bounce, “Uh oh, getting shorter now!” Fifth bounce, “I think she's done...”

Then the stone sinks, quickly, welcomed only by a dark, cold, murky grave made of mud and moss.

That was the life of our first office. It was a hell of a toss.

This will be my last blog update from the office. It's bitter, but not a defeat. No, no, everyone has a job to do. Everyone has a task, deadlines to meet, an animation to create. This simple fact will not change. We must pick our battles very carefully, and fighting that hard for the office would have likely done nothing but destroy the dream. Nay, the dream lives on, emboldened and shining bright.

It is sad, to be sure, but the alternative would have been a daily struggle to merely exist. The sort that tears deep at ones soul. That is not what DoQ needs. What DoQ needs is to focus on the most important factor, the reason we're even here in the first place: To rock your freaking socks off with AAA Machinima.

That's just what we're going to do. Office or not.

We worked our asses off to build and make the office work, and it DID. I've never been more proud of DoQ, the motivation, the drive, the wherewithal to see the job done. It's been a long time coming, and I for one will not disappoint her now. From the depths of my new cave, I will go above and beyond, and see it done. And done well.


G'night, love.

They say no news is good news. Well, they don't work in the entertainment business! The golden silence has been brought to you by economic turmoil, and the wavering mirage that is the continued existence of our office. I don't know what the next month will bring, but what I do know is that the office is moving. Whether it be downstairs or split between two cities, I just don't know. What I do know is, that this will have no impact on production. We all have our orders, and there is no question as to what needs to be done.

We promised Phil that we'd hit'em up with some sideshows before too long. We've got some killer ideas, and I've been scouring our recording sessions for something clean enough to present in good conscience, but have so-far failed. Our outtakes are a little... too much, even for the internets. We are truly horrible people. I wouldn't even post this shit to YTMND. Tuesday's are the epic work-day, so the plan is to punch out a recording tonight, and have it sent along for your enjoyment. Then we'll read all the hate mail, and relish in it like Uncle Scrooge so dost unto his monies.

With the right people Warhammer turns out to be a lot of fun. By right people I mean super casual, and cool enough to not play 7 hours a day and level so far ahead as to leave me eating clouds of troll dust. (And then berate me for being too slow... Maybe if it were twitch, boom-boom-headshot I might be more inclined to oblige, but I digress) Not a bad feat for an MMO, considering I once vowed that I would never pay to play anything.

My 360 shat the bed last month with red ring spew. Went to the xbox website and they want $99.99 to look at it. One can get a brand new unit for only $170, so I'm pretty pissed off. Pissed enough to consider not replacing it, and picking up a PS3 instead. Of course, sticker shock put that impulse to rest... this time...

I'm making a mark here. Something incredible happened this week, and so that if I may look back years from now, I'll have all the evidence I need that this life is worth living.

Nothing Machinima related, just a chance to face the one regret that got me started down the path of, "If you must have regret, it is better to regret what you have done, rather than what you have not." It took me YEARS to reach that point, and truthfully, I'm still working on it.

Like Atreyu beyond The Oracles, I must now face myself.

So the meeting went well! We covered a ton of ground, and I ate enough Chinese food to render me clinically dead for the remainder of the evening. It was the sugar biscuits that finished the job; I just know it! So. Damn. Yummy. Sugary. Thank the mighty Thor, God of Rock (and thunder), for Alka-Seltzer.

The biggest news is that we are NOT going to the NYC festival. The reasons are many, but mostly so we can save our monies and have an epic showing at the next festival(s). As you can guess, money is tight these days, and we may need to show face at other festivals early next year, once we complete the pilot episode of “For Science.” Instead we’re going to spend that weekend camping, as is our early November tradition, and hit up the Machinima EXPO in Second Life the following weekend.

So, in lieu of our presence, we would like to go ahead and extend our best wishes to the participants. Each year shows a huge leap in Machinima’s growth, and this year will be no different! I for one cannot wait to see the results of this year’s event!

Internally we took a serious look at our progress and work ethic over the summer, and we were not pleased. So we ironed out a plan of action to help keep us both in high spirits, and working more consistently. Barry has all but been appointed to be our formal team manager, the cruel taskmaster that will give us ice cream when we work well, and kick us in the nards when we work… poorly? Right now the whole office is on ice packs until the doctor says otherwise. We also started an A capella soprano band. The opening number will be, Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!”

Also,

Avast ye scurvy dogs! Man the bilge me lad, she'a be takin on water like the clever beauty do take 'er suitor's coin!

Looks like we're having a huge meeting tonight. As you may have heard, Montreal is a bust, with Second Life rising up in its stead. Word on the street is that even MORE people are going to turn out to the SL event than the Montreal iteration... at least more people from the Machinima community. Which is cool, but I really do enjoy talking and converting the uninitiated public too.

This means I'm mostly likely going to NYC after all, but I won't be taking a week of vacation to do it in. Then again, maybe I'll be in the office working on For Science instead!

We're having an emergency meeting tonight to discuss a much more relaxed production schedule, giving ourselves a week or two to be people persons again. I also believe we may try to have our characters re-designed one last time.

/tosses out hours of rigging and animation.

Since the schedule has become personable again, I may take the opportunity and try some non For Science ideas that I've had floating around my brain for far too long. Our master project list has a music video up next, so I may just say screw-it and get started on it, even though it's designed to be a tie-in of sorts... Mike's theatrical opus follows that, with plenty of breathing room for my 'secret project' that I've been working on, also, for far too long.

One of the ideas floating around my head is a Machinima in Nintendo DS spec. Something cute and super silly, maybe with ninjas and pirates... I could totally see it being an unintentional epic. Mmmmmmm.... 120K/s polygons total @ 256 x 192 pixels resolution....