Two Week Wrap-Up Post
Okay it’s been a while since I blogged on my personal blog. So I present to you my "wrap-up" post for the last two weeks, sorry that it’s compressed and bounces around but time flew by too quickly to keep up!
We released XNA Game Studio Express!
That’s right! Shocking news but it’s the truth 
as evident by my posting on the team blog here. Seriously though, I doubt I really need to tell you that as you already knew but I wanted to say it was great to come in Monday morning and get everything released. Shawn and Kevin also joined me for the release at work and they have some great posts about the event that are worth reading. On a slightly more funny note here is a picture we took of me showing off my mehndi tattoo that I got of our release date at the company party the prior night.
The whole process was really a blast. I ended up coming into work early and passing the time by watching some movies I had already seen from Xbox Live Marketplace. For my double feature I picked The Sum of All Fears and then The Core (I know what your thinking!). It was just a convenient way to burn some time before 2:00AM rolled around. One surprising thing was how on the ball everyone is with releases. People were noticing things coming online as we’re working with them even early in the morning!
I’ve now been at Microsoft a whole year!
Only one day after releasing the final version of XNA Game Studio Express, I hit my one year anniversary at Microsoft. Needless to say it’s been quite a year! I’m not sure but I think it’s pretty rare for people to develop and ship a product within their first year of Microsoft so I am pretty proud of that. I know some people may think that working at Microsoft is like being a number or something but that’s so far off from the truth. Pretty much I get up and go to work with a bunch of my friends to try and solve problems and make great software. If you’ve ever been interested in working for Microsoft I’d say go for it, it’s a great environment to be in.
Where did the power go?
Last Thursday, we got hit with a huge storm that was all over the news, with winds up to 70 MPH it left almost 1 Million people without power. Between the wind knocking my house around like it was a small branch on a tree and that I was without power for a week it really ended throwing things off. It could have been much worse so I am glad nothing major happened. There certainly has been some strange weather in the last few months. Between floods, snows, and now the storm I think I’ve had all the extreme weather I need for the next 10 years or so.
Thanks for all your feedback!
I just wanted to thank you all for taking the time to leave some comments on my "feedback" posts. We really do use the information and suggestions you have so keep them coming! I’ll probably be posting more soon, everything from suggestions for the XNA Team Blog to features in future versions, so hopefully I’ll come across topics that you have opinions about. Again thanks for taking the time to leave comments on that stuff!
Well that about covers everything for right now, I’ll get back to a regular posting schedule but in the mean time have a very Merry Christmas and I hope you all are enjoying the release of XNA Game Studio Express!
