November 26, 2003
Li'l Cheffin' It

So I've been playing a new PS2 game, Prince of Persia. It's actually a pretty cool game that Penny Arcade reviewed and liked.

The story is always the same - Young prince gets his hands on a sword that opens an hourglass containing sand that turns everyone into monsters that all suddenly hate you. The sword lets you play with the fabric of time, slowing it down and rewinding it in case you die but don't want to. Prince meets princess. Princess helps prince fight and kill monsters. Everyone loves tapioca. I'm 10% from the end, so I don't know how the rest of the story goes.

Headed out to Michigan tonight. Turkey trot and parade tomorrow morning. Turkey dinner tomorrow night. Must get together with you and you before Sunday.

Posted by Austin at 02:46 PM
November 18, 2003
Recognition at last!

So our prototype is still working. We've been checking out every detail we can try to think of, but so far everything is meeting or beating our expectations. The business people (a.k.a. The Suits) are as close to dancing in the halls as they've ever been, and we're pretty stoked that we keep having the same conversation every day:

Him: So, did you test the x-y-z today? Me: Yup, and it worked! It passed with flying colors! Him: Cool!

Because everything's rolling along so incredibly well and the business big-wigs are incredibly happy with our progress, everyone on our team got a recognition award! I now have a nice framed piece of paper with my name and boss' signature on it, and it's really nice to know that all of our hard work has really paid off...

... and the nice little monetary bonus makes it even more rewarding!

Posted by Austin at 09:32 PM
November 12, 2003
Two Weeks Worth

So my trip to Texas last week was actually a good one. The prototype build went incredibly smoothly, I ate lots of steak, and I even smooth-talked my way to Dallas to see my step-sister, brother-in-law, and 9-month old nephew. I'm really glad I drove the 200+ miles to see them - that kid is growing quick as a weed, but he's still cute as a button!

This weekend Janine and I went into downtown. She went to a Sex and The City party a former co-worker of mine threw, and since it was girls only I tooled around my old stomping grounds in the city. We ended up getting a room in the south loop for under $70, and seeing that most other hotels in the city were above $125/night we got a good deal but got what we paid for. The only good thing about it was the free parking on the street. The banging radiator and the L rolling by every 5 minutes, not so good.

Back at work this week, and things are rolling along very well here, too. The prototype boards I build last week are working as expected - which sounds dumb, but you never know until you plug it in to a battery and watch it work or smoke - and I'm even learning a little more about Bluetooth. This is turning out to be one of those rare "good" work weeks. Let's hope it keeps on rolling.

By now a few of you have received letters or postcards in the mail. I actually missed writing.

This week is also turning into a cleaning-fest at home, seeing that the in-laws are coming for a visit this weekend. I'm trying to avoid tossing stuff from one room to another, but it's pretty damn tempting!

Posted by Austin at 03:16 PM
November 02, 2003
Cartoons go real-life!

Okay... This story is the coolest! Someone actually grafted a tomato plant to a tobacco root and has created - are you ready? - TOMACCO!

You have to scroll down to see the article on simpsonschannel.com, and they don't have individual links to the stories, but it's still awesome!

Posted by Austin at 10:16 PM