Sleepy December

I slept in this morning for the fifth straight day in a row. Excessive? Maybe, but I needed it, and I'd like to think that I deserved it. After a solid week of all-nighters, including one 35-hour stretch of nonstop action, our eight-month game is done and in the packaging. We gave our final presentations on our games last Friday evening at the Downtown UCF auditorium here in Orlando.

My group's presentation of our game, Danger Zone, was bookended by the other game that just wrapped up production, Opera Slinger, and the final presentation of The Blob, whose creators graduated this week to a great deal of fanfare. I couldn't believe how well my presentation went off -- I'd been sweating bullets about it for about a week leading up to it. But the audience laughed and clapped and cheered, so I'll count that as a win. The party that FIEA threw for everyone afterwards was a real gala event -- it was just what we needed after a hugely busy semester.

And then the sleep -- the blessed, badly-needed sleep. I spent about a full day snoozing after the party. When I finally awoke, I marathoned a game, which I haven't done in a while. This time it was Ico, which had I picked up after loving everything about the game's spiritual successor, Shadow of the Colossus. Ico was a pretty different game -- shorter and a great deal easier -- but still pretty enjoyable and not a bad pickup off of the used rack at Gamestop.

A few more days were spent in the company of friends that I hadn't seen in a long time. We fraternized and hung out and -- what else -- played video games. (This time it was Destroy All Humans! 2. Fantastic game.)

All the while, I was checking my e-mail every ten minutes, looking for a confirmation from EA Tiburon that they'd want to have a second interview with me for a production internship. I was positive I'd be getting the interview but my brain hungered for certainty. Having to wait the entirety of winter break before getting a thumbs-up would've been a little much to bear. Fortunately, as soon as I checked my inbox this afternoon, I found the e-mail that I'd been waiting a month for -- I've got my interview.

Now I've got three weeks to do stuff with. I'm determined to find something to do over the course of the break rather than simply stagnate. When summer break rolled around I indulged in an awful lot of World of Warcraft. Don't get me wrong, it was the best summer break ever. But I didn't spend time on a single thing besides Warcraft. This time around, I want to have something to show for all the free time that I've got available. Unless Azeroth or more pillow proves too powerful a seduction, I should have something to show for it next post.