I wonder how many people will think you are kidding about the pilot episode we wrote.

I'm actually glad to say that I'm not familiar with District Managers, I feel no shame in being wrong about that.

Some quick updates about the new shirts and the comic con.

I worked retail for a long time, so these pages form the EB employee hand book stir up some pretty bad memories for me. People who have worked retail for any amount of time can share stories like veterans of some foreign war. It is a shared experience that allows people who would otherwise probably never get along to laugh and joke like old college buddies.

There is a really interesting post by Haden Blackman (a.k.a. "Shug Ninx," Lucasarts Producer on Star Wars Galaxies) about features that have been culled from the launch and reserved for future updates. They include some fairly big-ticket omissions.

There is that special feeling in the air, all around us, the feeling that only comes once a year on Tycho's Birthday Eve. Let's savor it together.

I didn’t have time to check my e-mail at all today. So um, now I am a little behind.

Just a couple quick updates.

That big-ass Battlefield 1942 1.3 patch I mentioned is out. Grabbing it now - I was up late playing it last night, and I'm really looking forward to the additions.

I see that Mary Sunshine is awake.

You forgot to talk about the Seattle Comic Con and how we will be there and stuff.

Absentmindledly sifting through gaming news a month or so ago, I saw a list of Germany's top ten games of 2002. This list in particular showed a game at number one that I had never heard of - Anno 1503. This list wasn't just strategy games or just German games or just games with Anno in the title, this was the complete list - so why had I never heard of this game Germans crave above all others?

All I'm saying is that it is time for a new Sonic game, and I don't mean new to the GameCube. Rumors said the new one might not be a remake, and wouldn't that have been nice!

You might not know this about me, but I am a cookie freak. Having been my roommate for a number of years Tycho can no doubt attest to two things. One, I don’t understand how to work can openers and two, I am totally obsessed with cookies and milk. In fact, until I got married and I was forced to eat real food I often consumed cookies and milk for every meal of the day.

I thought I would chime in on the topic of PSO on the Xbox since I keep getting mail about it. I read the press release just like everyone else and I agree that eight bucks a month for your hunters license is way too much. However the game comes with two free months and I honestly can’t imagine it holding my attention any longer than that. That is about how long I played it when it came out on the DC. However, I think that it does set a bad precedent and this is something that Tycho actually brought up when we were invited out to that Xbox Live event at MS before the service launched. Mainly games charging fees on top of your Live fee is hard to swallow. The idea that I might have to pay for a hunter’s license in PSO and another fee for Star Wars Galaxies and another fee for some other game all in addition to what I already pay for Live is insane. There should be one fee for the Live service period. I think Tycho will agree with me on this one.

In his latest article Storm Shadow gave us the low down on his recent trip to CES. One of the items he mentioned in passing in that article was a possible new price and design for the Xbox. Here is the excerpt from his article: