Hey all,

Just wanted to mention this, primarily as shameless linkbait

So one of my side interests has always been politics: even though I'm a software engineer now, my degree from UCLA is for Political Science. For a handful of reasons, I've been even more interested in this election season than I have been in the past , especially when it comes to the Presidential campaign. And my political views? They definitely tip toward the left.

So, with all that stuff in mind, I built a political site from the ground up: http://www.flip-flop-express.com

It was a good opportunity for me to do some top-to-bottom development: from setting up the Web server, doing the backend and database, and all the way up to the design, html, and css. It was definitely a good learning experience, especially in the fields I haven't had much experience with, particularly the front-end html and css.

As far as my personal blog, it mostly died, which is okay. I've switched to Twitter anyway!

Later all!

Hi GameSpot,

It's been awhile. You look good. I saw you with whatshisface.. what's that? Oh, just friends, huh? So... um, we had some rocky times back there, didn't we?

What's that? Oh, I've been seeing other sites, but mostly pretty casually. A stop by to get Yahtzee's opinion of something, or maybe I could read a quick overview at 1up on something. That Dan Hsu is cool, but we're just not that compatible.

You know, you and I had some good times. I remember stopping by a computer lab on the UCLA campus around lunchtime sometimes just to see what kind of crazy chatter was happening in Deep Fighter... er... Goose's Garage when we first contemplated heading into Iraq. Those were good times. The time we spent together, I mean, not the Iraq war.

I didn't know what I was gonna do after college -- I knew I needed a job, but my Political Science degree turned out to be not all that practical -- go figure. I had even thought about going back to my original home state of Wisconsin. But then Greg Kasavin saw a PM I made about an intern position, and since we had been casually acquainted due to Developer for a Day (I!) and thanks to my previous stalkership of the GameSpot booth during E3, I had a very small part of a foot in the door.

I ended up with an internship in San Francisco at GameSpot, a place that was awesome. The people were awesome. And it turned out, that led to a career in development. Just turns out I had a knack for it, who knew? GameSpot gave me that opportunity, and I look back on those days fondly. I also look fondly at stuff like the DDR Arcade machine on the third floor, which I sadly do not have access to anymore.

It's been a turbulent time, GameSpot. Some bad stuff went down, and everyone's unhappy with that. But I happened to check the site today and saw fiddlecub... er.. Kevin van Ord is taking over the reigns of Developer for a Day, that contest whose first iteration I ran while I was still in college, and the TOTAL prize for that? $100.. I guess I found it touching that after everything, people like Kevin are showing they truly care. It made me realize that there's plenty of good still in you, and maybe, just maybe we can someday work things out.

We've all gotten a little older and wiser, and what's happened in the past is done. For the good of the country, GameSpot should drop out of the race... err.. wait, that's politics, not gaming. Anyway, remember what got you where you are, and with persistence, you can get back there. There are still thousands of talented people who'd love a job there. And I have no doubt that Ricardo can take care of things since the man has literally been able to break the laws of the Universe by being in eight different places at once, or so it seems.

Bring back GameSpotting Live! There are plenty of talented people in the organization who are behind the scenes. Remember Vinnie? Anyway, have a good one.

I'll be watching you!

Sincerely,

former Superfan, Intern, Data Produer, Associate Software Engineer, Software Engineer, Lead Software Engineer,

-Adam

I don't have much more to say than that...

Oh, hell, sure I do. "Almost perfect" just doesn't have quite the same ring to it, does it?

In how many games did Tom Brady lead a come-from-behind drive to win the game? Well, he almost did it this time, till he got outshone by Peyton's little brother...

Billy Billachek showed what a great sportsman he was when he left the field before the game was even over. Go cheat some more, Bill.

So so sweet.