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So it turns out that I wasn't:

- Fired
- Dead
- In a cave

For the past three weeks, like some users thought I was. I admit it's easy to understand why any of the above could happen. I'm a loose-cannon rebel with a penchant for spelunking who was born to die young, so there's a high probability that on any given week, I've been fired, died, or searched for underground dwellers.

Seriously though, I've just been crazy busy with the long-awaited and recently announced "Summer Festival" set to launch in just a few days (7 days at the time of this writing).

Still-Technically-Summer Festival 2007
I briefly ascended from the work-pit that is the Gaia Summer Festival to write this journal. I'll go back down in there after I'm done writing it, where I've been for the past 3 weeks, toiling away in the byte mines, trying to hit a fun vein and hoping my deadline canary doesn't die. Every once in a while I stare at the picture of my sweetheart, my "Gaia Life" journal, and I know that I'm working for her, all for her, and that we'll be together again soon.

Working on a deadline for an event has a few peculiarities which make it both exciting and stressful. I've been in the office past 3:00 AM and on weekends before to make a deadlines, and I haven't regretted it (much), for several reasons:

(1) The event team is really driven to making events fun. There are a lot of ways we could just re-use events from the past, but every person involved likes to add extra touches and make each event run just a little bit better than it did in the past. Though there have been some hiccups along the way, we learn new stuff with each event - and we take those things into account each time. Hopefully Summer Festival incorporates all the things you thought was fun about past events - plus a lot of stuff you weren't expecting.

(2) Each event is like a programming triathalon, requiring speed, form, coordination, and a wide variety problem-solving abilities. Each event tends to have a very hard deadline, and the development time is usually very short. On top of that, whatever you release will have people using it in insane amounts - so you have to take into consideration how you're going to keep the site from crashing. Pulling off an event is a very unique development accomplishment, and I think everyone around here high-fives (and breathes a sigh of relief) when one goes off with few hitches.

(3) Gaians will rip out my throat and desecrate my corpse in unspeakable ways if I fail.

So I'm here again on a late night making sure that the event is as perfect as I can so that when it comes out next Monday, you guys have as much fun as we here can wrangle up.

Vacation's All I Ever Wanted
So before I went invisible, I went to Portugal (technically the Azores), and I wanted to give you guys a snapshot of what I did.

- Partied at the four day "Festa da Santa Maria Madalena" (Feast of St. Mary Magdalene), basically a 4 day long party in the city center with concerts, food, and stuff to buy

- I explored a cave (Pico, my home island, has a 3 Km long underground volcanic cave, the largest in Portugal!)

- I bought a set of hand-carved/painted See-No-Evil, Hear-No-Evil, Speak-No-Evil monkeys carved from wood from a guy from Cabo Verde (an ex-colony of Portugal in Africa) which now sit on the bookshelf in my bedroom

- Ate a lot of great cheese

- Had Maracuja (passion fruit soda) every single day

- Walked everywhere

- Saw a pregnant cat, later saw it's kittens, and finally saw the kittens open their eyes right before I left

- Rode a rickety little plane between islands

- Spoke a lot of Portuguese (badly at first, then slightly better as time went on rofl )

It's Business, It's Business Time
I've gotta get back to work, but I thought I'd leave you with a reference to one of my favorite shows. If you found the reference, then you get bonus points in my book.