Friday with Means - December 25th, 2009 - Christmas Day
Christmas Day 2009!
Those of you who dislike when I speak about my personal life in my own weekly post should stop reading here. There is nothing to see here...move along. There is no important information in here of any kind...so I hope Waldgeist doesn't bother translating it....Go OUT have fun!
I bet some of you also wish you were at work :)
I've been down in Stockholm in Hammarby Sjöstad staying at by wife's sisters house for Christmas. The drive down here from Oslo would take a normal family 7 hours..it took us 11. I have finally found something to compare to the pain of marketing meetings...sitting in the back of the car with my kids while my wife drives AND has full control over the AC. Middle of winter and I am sitting in the back of the car in shorts...still sweating and stuck to the leather seat. (Sorry for the mental image nobody needed..). It is always nice for my kids and their cousins to get together...we have a new cousin I hadn't even had the time to meet yet..nice to finally get to hold the little 6 month old girl as they are so much fun and so cute at this age. But wow...Christmas is tiring. I thought my days at work were busy...here with 4 kids under 4 years of age...3 dogs...a insane cat...and way too many humans for a small apartment...it is sometimes hard to breathe. THE WALLS ARE CLOSING IN!!!!!! I hope I get the chance to actually see some of Stockholm this time :) Don't worry Macrosun and Lindelu...I will text you with my plans so you can avoid me like the plague and not see me until the 5th when we all return to the office.
At least nobody asked me about drop rates last night at dinner. The turkey will be ready Soon TM!
I am of course checking my mail...when the kids and everyone else finally goes to sleep. I was made aware of the inability to ignore professionals on the forums last night at about 3am...I wrote to Kintaii..who fixed it and wrote me back about 7 minutes later. We are a bunch of sick workaholics...I'm certain that if they locked us out of the office all of us would be remote accessing our machines within the hour. It is a good thing that we are getting this break...working on AO is not a sprint..it is a marathon. I've been amazed by the hard work and dedication put in by the team this year...none of us have any right to expect the kind of loyalty and dedication we have seen from the individuals that make AO work and grow every day.
This year we have seen the game grow and develop in important ways...and a lot of the old AO demons slowly put to bed. I can't wait to see what the future has in store for us all...and I can't wait to get started on it again on the 5th.
Thank you all for your support and criticism over the last year...I'm sure we'll keep this on track.
2010 is going to be a big year for us all. The new engine, daily missions, new beginning experience, focused balancing efforts are all looming in the future....this is going to be exciting.
I can't wait!
Merry Christmas!
