Squidpunch.com

So I just realized that I haven’t posted about my trip last weekend to hang out with Steve (Fatty Chubs) and Trapper (ChangeAgent) from 360voice.com.  That’t not entirely true actually, I did mention it in my Status Report, but at the time of that post I had not uploaded photos. 

Friday Evening after work I headed to my wonderful small time airport awaiting my flight to Chicago.  The flight was like most flights these days delayed, but luckily they offer free internet service in the airport.  So I was able to pass my time with Zelda: Phanton Hourglass on my DS (I still haven’t come close to finishing this game - I am such a slacker), and randomly browsing forums and chatting with friends etc. 

I finally landed in Chicago, and found out first hand that the O’Hare airport is freaking gigantic.  Previously living in Philadelphia, I was used to a larger airport than my local airport but that was not even close to the airport I just stepped foot into.  Strangely when we were about to get off the flight the stewardess said “make sure to go to the left not around the tail of the plane”, which before getting off confused me - before this flight I had never been actually unloaded onto the actual runway.  I tried to call Trapper right then to tell him I had landed - but the jet engines made it impossible to hear.

Finally into the acutal building I was able to make the call, and we were able to plan where we were meeting.  Trapper and Fatty pulled up in Trappers car I hopped in the back and we started introductions as we drove away - not exactly your normal place of introductions but it worked

Not long after getting to the house and somewhat setttled we headed out for dinner at a local micro-brew.  It was within walking distance, but i dont recall the name.  The food was excellent and the beer was as well.  We took a couple growlers back - food fuel, game fuel, coffee fuel, and beer fuel - they are all required for a successful weekend full of code, with an occasional gaming break.

After dinner, we headed back to 360voice HQ (aka Trappers Dining room) and got to work. 

Both Fatty and Trapper where Neck deep in coding new things for the Old Spice Challenge promotion they have going on, and I was really just brainstorming some ideas for 360friendspot, theliveeye, and talking with them about the future of our sites and the future of the XCDP program - you know, where we would like to be, where we think we will be - that kind of thing. 

There was a few antics as well, talking about various internet gags, and such.  Some I laughed at, some I laughed at but felt dirty after - it was unexpected, funny, gross all at the same time - it caused a rainbow of feelings, and yet I think I might have lost some of my innocence at the same time.

We obviously took some gaming breaks, mostly Guitar Hero 3, a few games of Mutant Storm Empire, and Trapper picked up Assasins Creed for me to drool over as well.  I however forgot to get a memory unit so non of my gaming was logged, no achievements were gained, and worst of all code weekend stole my gaming streak!

Trapper said it best honestly, when he posted Code Weekend Was a Blur, time really did fly by and I started thinking did I even get anything done or did I just sit around and consume large quantities of beer, game fuel, caffine, meat and snacks.  I did a couple small changes around theliveeye.com, and I created a script that will help both 3fs/tle and 360voice do the manual game updates a bit easier.  If nothing else I got to officially meet the two guys behind 360voice, which alone was worth the trip. 

I always heard about Chicago Deep Dish Pizza, but never of the ‘Chicago Style Hot Dog’, not only did i get to try a chicago dog - I got a bit of a history lesson about Vienna Beef from Trapper

I only took a few pictures, but you can check them out here

 Thanks guys, I had a blast

Category: 360voice, 3FS, Assasin's Creed, Guitar Hero 3, Mutant Storm Empire, XCDP, Xbox360 by Squidpunch