And it’s not just my blog, it seems.  I’ve seen considerably less posting in on the blogs that I watch.  Purely a subjective observation, mind you.  There’s no hard evidence to verify my wild speculations.

You see, I took a few days vacation around the Thanksgiving holiday and just needed to “check out”.  Too much work and no play makes Bob a dull boy.  I’ve been “working” on a few things – but they have been personal projects.

Like finally taking my copy of Halo 2 out of its shrinkwrap.  It’s really a spectacular release – living up to most of the hype surrounding it.  And Bungie has done some really neat things with the XBOX Live functionality.  For example, did you know that you can access all of your stats online once you’ve linked your Live account to a .Net passport?  They’ve even got an RSS feed setup so that you can subscribe to your stats in your news aggregator!  A little arranged game last night with Hambone was loads of fun.  He’s deadly with the Energy Sword – be warned.  Speaking of Halo 2 – Sean Alexander points to “Dark Helmet” who broke the physics engine in Halo 2 and figured out How To Fly.  My how the gaming landscape has changed in just a few years.  What was once a child’s toy is now a major entertainment phenomenon for adults.  My favorite quote from a XBOX Live match this week occurred right after a heated match with a few other players, “Good game, RoudyBob.  The baby’s screaming.  I have to run.” 

I’ve also been working on what should be the last redesign of RoudyBob.NET.  I started building skins for .Text to teach myself about CSS.  I don’t know how much I’ve learned in the process (except that it’s a pain in the a$$ to develop CSS as Internet Explorer does an awful job of being “compliant“) – but I’m pretty sure that this will be the last go-around.  The new site is shaping up nicely with some long-overdue additions (like a calendar) that I’ve been meaning to do forever.  Here’s a sneak peak at it - but it should be up in the next few days if I can “get over” trying to make it perfect.  The logo at the top is custom-built using Photoshop Elements using free stock photography from http://www.sxc.hu/.  I have a few different versions of it using different background photographs.  If anyone (Chrissy or Ryan?) can help me figure out how to auto-rotate them in ASP.NET I would be forever grateful…  ;-)

This is the part where I eat my own words.  Remember how I said I thought that Windows XP Media Center was a pretty stupid idea?  Well, after presenting on the topic at the Intel Channel Conference and AMD Fall Tech Tour 2004 shows, I decided to scrounge up some spare parts from around the house and build one.  I went with a Cooler Master case that looks right at home in the A/V cabinet and, quite frankly, we couldn’t be happier with the result.  Although it’s still a pain that I have to manage it like a PC and not a dedicated appliance, the functionality is amazing.  We can store ~140 hours (thanks to the addition of a big ole’ 300GB drive) of recorded TV at quality that makes the Tivo recordings look like they were done with Etch-A-Sketch.  Dual-tuner support allows me to watch something while recording the latest episode of Stargate SG-1 at the same time.  I moved all of the family pictures and every single ripped CD from our collection to the MCE PC.  From the comfort of the couch, Ben can now listen to the Sesame Street soundtrack and play with the Media Player visualizations in all their big-screen TV glory.  “Look, Daddy!  That one looks like a candy cane!”  In other news, Ben has mastered MSPaint and thinks it’s the coolest thing since sliced bread.  We’re enrolling him in PhotoShop classes next week at pre-school.  I jest, but how long before that’s reality?  They’re already doing on-site gymnastics classes.  I can imagine in the near future a mobile truck equiped with laptops and instructors doing computer training for 4 year olds…

So, look for some major posting in the next week as I attempt to catch up with the blogosphere.