I didn't have my dev journal password (my own incompetence!) so I haven't been able to write a dev journal in a while. This is js a brief update on how stuff is going (off the top of my head and in no particular order):

We say hello to Ginger Lord & Imbrifer (level design) and mervaka (sound dude).

SD2 & Push are done other than superficial things. Mervaka wanted some fancier soundscapes, so I updated the map so he could do his thang, which he did. Which was nice.

eat_this_it's_high_in_vitamin_c_and_therefore_good_for_you finished well and did a celebratory moonwalk. Badly. (the moonwalk, not the map [which is good, natch].)

I've been programming as well as mapping to help squash the bug count. The SDK is tough to get used to and there's a lot of code involved. Reams of it. Much more than I've ever had to handle. So far I've just limited myself to picking up relatively straightforward (but noticeable) bugs. Looking at this stuff just reinforces what a great job mirv & co have done over the years to design & implement all of this stuff in their spare time! HONK!

DrEvil made several improvements to the lua implementation and squashed a few big bugs. It's now much more flexible and we can do even more handy things with it. The lua is never going to please everyone, but I'm satisfied that you can do a lot of fancy things with it in a relatively straightforward way. Once it's fully documented and we prefab some of the more common stuff I think people will appreciate it a bit more.

DK has really kicked on with the animations and the final problems are now being solved (swim animations and things like that) thanks to DK & Jiggles. Things are looking really nice now. There's still a few things that will be tweaked post-release, but in general nearly all of the big/noticeable animation glitches & problems have been eliminated thanks to DK's hard work.

Omen completed the character LOD models. Everyone's framerates simultaneously jumped up in appreciation but then immediately fell over due to getting up too fast. Kenneth just grumbled in appreciation and then posted a youtube video that was too filthy to embed on a family website.

jon lost on Jeopardy (baby, oooh-oooh-oooh-oooh) and now exists in a fail-zone. Actually, he just got worked to death and then had to move apartments because Jesse failed him, but he's back and better than ever. Jesse apparently just got WoW, so I think murdering him his my only recourse.

PHISH ran around like a level-headed chicken who had everything in hand. CRASH! He updated things. BANG! He saved the beta test by reverting buggered-up .dlls! (it's a bit like saving the orphanage at Christmas, but more important and less twee.) WALLOP! He gathered detailed statistics on what's killing the server. Spy cloaking stood accused of strangling the server. The (shimmering) glove didn't fit and spy cloaking walked free from court, only to be successfully sued by Kyle in a civil action. Later, spy cloaking wrote a 'hypothetical' account of proceedings, titled "If I did kill the server, I would've choked the bitch." Surprisingly, it was later deemed to be in excellent taste and sold a boatload of copies.

Ukulele new wave. What?