Six Days left

No, not days til MTV airs–that’s Thursday at 9:30. I’m looking forward to it as much as any of you are. I actually missed ‘the reveal’ because CC DeVille would not stop jabbering to Major Nelson. Thanks for that CC. That, and "Unskinny Bop." 

No, the countdown I’m talking about is days until I go to E3. We at Xbox.com are basically tearing our hair out. So, for anyone who thinks that working at Xbox, and/or being a writer is a breeze, let me share with you the final days before E3. Boys and girls, I give you T minus 6:

• We reviewed the latest design of the E3 microsite. It’s looking pretty fine if you ask me…it’s completely revamped from last year. I predict y’all will wanna hit that url every couple of hours throughout the week–we’ve got THAT MUCH kickass stuff planned for you.
• Our darling Art Director Rinaldi returned to work today after an illness, and we are so glad to have him in good health and good spirits. Welcome back, Robocop.
• Rinaldi will be taking it easy this year, so won’t be at E3. Our favorite International Production Manager, Chris, will be taking his place bossing around the lackey, getting me drunk, and spooning up at the Hyatt with Peter. Just kidding, guys. Kinda.
• Today I realized that I owe seven interviews…yesterday. Yep, that’s how long it would take to go through the rounds of reviews, editorial and production in order to publish these bad boys on time. Basically I am screwed. So I discuss my ineptitude with Peter, and we reprioritize: now I only owe three articles. By tomorrow. Kill me.
• Spent a fair bit of time sending New Found Glory tickets to Xbox Live members in San Antonio and New Orleans. Only I can’t give the San Antonio guys any info about meeting the band because they haven’t nailed down a time yet. One dude forgot to give me his zip code. There is much emailing, messing with MS’s devilish shipping tool (heh, I said ‘tool’), and cursing. I curse loudly and sometimes the hallways are filled with the f-word. One day, amidst a particularly violent volley of invectives, a coworker came into my office and asked me, "Who lit your ass on fire today?" ‘Today,’ indeed.
• Took a liitle journey over to the Advanced Technology Group to deliver C3 (Community Connection Celebration) tickets to the Technical Game Managers. They are my pimps, who will bring game developers to the party. Mark G informs me that he has been spreading rumors that the Beastie Boys and Pussycat Dolls will be at the party. This is categorically untrue, and is sure to lead to pissed off developers who think they’ll see Carmen Electra and will only see Major Nelson. I tell Mark he’s an a**hole, and head back to my office.
• Me and O (I know, I know, but it’s stupid to say "O and I". I once IM’d a friend "O and I are going to Mexico in May" and he said, "What about A, E, and U?" I’ve avoided the phrase ever since) ANYWAY, me and O missed feeding time at the Xbox crapateria, so at 2:30 we drove over to Taco Time, inhaled mexi-fries and talked about boys. Good fun. Back in the office by 3pm.
• Strange things are afoot on the Internet. That’s all I’m sayin’.
• Talked to Patrick the finance dude about how we’ll lay hands on some do-re-mi for our two contest winners’ cash prize. This makes me start to worry. I’ve got both Shawn and Mordeux carefully scheduled to fly into LAX at approximately the same time so I can make one trip to the airport. If one of the flights is cancelled or delayed, my sched is shot. Also, what if I don’t get along with my winners? What if they think I’m a see-you-next-tuesday, and post as much on their blogs? That would suck.
• I go home and burn some pasta. Not possible? Oh, my dear, you’ve never sampled the menu chez Trix. Why didn’t I just do McDonald’s? Well. I spent 160 dollars on a pair of Coach shoes, we don’t get paid ’til Friday, and I’m a dumbsh*t.
• Finally got a chance to play Forza Motorsports. Sweet Jeebus do I suck! I actually had people leave the frickin race because they didn’t want to waste their time playing me. I wasn’t even using the headset because I chose not to listen to the taunting. I am number 17,700-something on the scoreboards. Switched to Super Collapse on Live Arcade and got to level 9 before that scary torpedo-in-the-water ‘aaaaaOOOOgaaaa’ sound finally pushed me over the edge.

My god, I wrote a ton. I HATE that. 😦