Le Mittens 08 - It kind of looks like a...

[Miez]

In anticipation of the "post-op Mittens thread" that is bound to appear, I would like to share the few pictures that I took during my Mittens defloration. 

I had more pictures, but I managed to corrupt my memory card - so these are of the last three days only. Anyway:

Clicky clicky

GodDAMN I had a blast... Thanks guys and gals!

You obviously got home first dude, so I have split this topic & given you the post-Mittens thread creating honours   --Mods

[DutchMarco]

I had a blast  well, even without blowing up thhe chateau was fun. I hope you had a safe journey? Ours was rather uneventful, although we got in the early part of the daily traffic jam on the A10 motorway. I will look forthe converter for my camera's memorystick, so I can upload the photos + videos (which will even contain some sneak previews of the BJ movie! )

I AM looking forward to a long night's sleep in a decent-sized bed with decent-sized sheetsand a mattras-cover which doesn't creep out from under you, leaving the cold mattres material  to grace your skin.

Oh well, I got home at approx 1600 hours, so there aren't too many Americans or Canadians who could say the same thing (I doubt even the Britons could) I suggest the following name for next Mittens: Miamittens (I know, a disgracefully lame pun. but forgive me, I've been waiting for so long to mention it and it's late now, almost bed time (uncannily early given prior Mittens experience, but it's boring here by comparison to the chateau. On the upside, my book (well, Oliver Sacks's) arived while I was away,  so that should give me some interesting reading time, as well as the one I still had lying around and had started but have yet to finish, but I now have a new toy! Oh darn, the agony of choice!
It is a shame that I didn't get to say goodbye to the Mittensians from the USA and Canada etc, I only got to wave at you! I'll now try to coompensate for that by typing very loudly: GOODBYE! IT WAS NICE BEING WITH YOU! HAVE A GOOD TRIP HOME/TO PARIS!

Oh well, a quick conclusion: Fromage (CJ), how much do I owe you in total (and  how do I pay? Paypal-id pleazy) including the dangerous boat trip (no, I won't be asking for a boredom discount for that, I was in fact awake for the whole boattrip so it can't have been that bad)

(Ed: corrected a few typos - blasted laptop keyboard!)
BJ movie spoilers have been removed :p  --Mods

[m0ds]

This Mittens....so awesome! Really great to be with everyone! Got some things to do, but I will post my thoughts later

PORN!



SHIT! I FORGOT TO SAY!!!

PLEASE, NO SPOILERS FOR THE BJ MOVIE, ESPECIALLY THE ENDING FX, PHOTOS, VIDEOS OR OTHERWISE!!!!

THE RELEASE OF IT DEPENDS ON YOUR CO-OPERATION!!!!!!!

[Matt Goble]

I'm already jealous of you guys  :'(

Looks like you had a great time - lot's of familiar faces.

Keep em coming!

[Privateer Puddin']

I have returned. My highlight of the trip was visiting Laleham on the way back! Maybe. A better post with only a few photos tommorow (since most of my photos are of the bj movie)

[Domino]

Glad everybody had a good time at Mittens. I always look forward to seeing the pictures that everyone took.

[AGA]

I just got home, 14 hours after leaving. Photos will come eventually. I had fun!

[Esseb]

I too have returned.

Je suis fromage!

[Darth Mandarb]

I'm in a hotel room in Paris ... will be in London tomorrow morning/afternoon, New York tomorrow night, back home Sunday afternoon.

I had a great time!  It was excellent to finally meet some of my fellow AGSers!

Tons of good memories which I'll be happy to share when I've collected my thoughts!

[Layabout]

Je suis Fromage frais!!!!

I am back, and photos will follow at some time. By the time I reached the ferry I was sooo tired. When I made it home I was almost asleep.

It was most awesome, particuarly being one of the central characters in the aforementioned film.

I want to say thanks to so many people. The oven (AGA) for hosting, Grundislav for sharing a room and a bed with me (zut alors!!!!), Ivy for giving me a voice acting part in her sekret gayme, eric and jess for all the penii, millsjross in the ass, Ken aka disco for giving me a second chance after me being a total **** to him in spain, chris for being abraham, the rover crew, Mark Lovegrove for filming said rover over the hill (you will see), Jeremy for the chats, Nacho for the trampoline incident, Lorena for putting up with it, Fruittree for the live guitar, Miez, for being a massive inspiration to all 'background art that puts Curse of MI to shame!!!), the Deep Fat Fryer, all the cats, Tony the donkeypony, and of coarse, the tiny old dog.

I shall be the first to mention here that many of us did not want to leave and wish it could have been for another week.

IMO, it was a creative exciting event to witness and take part in.

To all mentioned, I love you all. xxx and manhug

[jetxl]

Good times.

[Adamski]

I'm already jealous of you guys  :'(

Looks like you had a great time - lot's of familiar faces.

Keep em coming!

Yes, I'm feeling the Mittens envy too! Bah, oh well, there's always next year.

[Layabout]

Have a postcard!

[AGA]

Le photos.
Le videos.

[Chrille]

I got back last night and found I'd gotten the virus that many people had to endure during the Mittens. I feel better already though.

Great to see all the old faces again and finally getting to meet the americans, canadians and the dutch people I hadn't met before.
I only regret not getting to say farewell to Marco, Fransisco, Blazej & Dominika.

http://www.americangirlscouts.org/chrille_Mittens2008/

I'm going to miss you guys!

[Quintaros]

I too had a great time.  So much so that I ve decided to extend my stay in France.  Actually, no I ve missed my return flight to Canada and am trapped in Paris another 3 days.  Merde alors.

[Miez]

I too had a great time.  So much so that I ve decided to extend my stay in France.  Actually, no I ve missed my return flight to Canada and am trapped in Paris another 3 days.  Merde alors.

Wow - good luck with that!

[Pumaman]

Nice pics, guys!

I am also back, and as always Mittens was a great laugh! Thanks to AGA for organising it, AGA and Jet for doing the quiz, Jess and Marijke for their group cooking, m0ds for filming, everyone for acting, Quintaros for cleaning, scotch for directions, whoever bought the first night pizza, and to 118 118 for their Indian call centre that was incapable of telling the difference between a pub and a takeaway. And of course thanks to all of you for coming, hope to see you all again in Miami 2009!

My photos are here. At m0ds' request I've removed the ones that spoil the film, but once the movie has been posted I will upload the missing pics.
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/mittens2008/

[AGA]

Here be quotes.

[Pumaman]

Ok, I've updated the forum titles. It should now be as follows:

7 mittens = Mittician
6 mittens = Mittoholic
5 mittens = Mittens Addict
4 mittens = Mittens Liege
3 mittens = Mittens Regular
2 mittens = Mittens Faithful
1 mittens = Mittens Initiate

if I've made a mistake with anyone's title, please let me know.

[Grundislav]

Oui oui, I have returned as well!  Unfortunately I've come home to find a bit of a family emergency, so I should have my pictures/vids up later this evening or tomorrow.

Thanks to every single one of you for making this another spectacular Mittens, and I hope to see you all here next year.

[Andail]

Aw, I so regret missing this year's mittens.
Next time I will make sure to be there come hell or high water.

[scotch]

I'm finally alive after mittens. Suffering with the mysterious virus and the usual mittens withdrawl symptoms. Had a great time, as usual. One of my favourite meets.

Many happy memories, including the space center, the caves, the failed boulangerie runs - all those mind expanding adventures - but most of all sitting around talking to all the AGSers I'd met before, the ones I hadn't, and Marijke, everyone is great fun*. Twenty seven people was way more intimate than I expected, so thanks Chateau le Risdoux for managing that.

Now I'm off to my hibernation pod. Wake me up for my flight to Miami.

*except AGA, obviously

[Kira]

hey,

Here's Marijke.... still had this idea in my head, so I am going to try something. First going to read the help threads I guess.

Mittens was fun =P

[DutchMarco]

OK, I've uploaded some photos and philms here:

http://home.planet.nl/~ooije335/Mittens08-Tramampoline.rar
http://home.planet.nl/~ooije375/Mittens08/Mittens08-pics.rar

These  (and future ones) are without any references to the BJ-movie, and the first one only contains some photos and films relating to the tramampoline (I love that typo someone else made at Mittens [no I didn't come up with it myself: no such honour for me], so I will be using it quite a few times), the 2nd is general and even includes the pony! (fly-breedingface)

I am uploading more RARs, but don't have enough room on my ISP's webspace, so I guess I'll be deleting the old archives to make room for new ones.

And yes, I do fully intend to attend Miamittens 09, and even Mittens 10 (but let's not look too far into the future: it only comes day by day anyway).

Good to see Mittens has even generated a new BBC'er (big blue cupper/forummer)! (Kira)

BTW I'm still recovering from a lack of sleep (those darn beds at the chateau!) and a longish trip (so I didn't have  to cross a sea or travel to another continent, it's still tiring) But it was woth my while, thank you all!
Oh and Grundy: best of luck with the family emergency!

[AGA]

Tramampoline was me, but I stole it from The Simpsons

[Evil]

I laughed my ass off when I saw CJ's photo with Bluecup over Jess's crack.

[zabnat]

Now, I've just come from my friends 60's (I'm no sure if it's 60ts) birthday, and I'm the mood to warn you all that I am determined to participate the next mittens, and it does not matter where on earth you are gathering, you can't escape me . So be preapared to pack your sense of bad humour, because you will have to bear with me not matter what

[Darth Mandarb]

One more stop on my way home ... I'm in New York now.  Staying at a Holiday Inn Express.  It's not the nicest hotel, however, tomorrow whenever anybody asks me a question that I would answer no to, I will get to say "No ... but I did stay at a holiday inn express last night" ... so that's good.

I too am suffering from the Mitttens virus ... sick as a dog   I sorted my photos on the train ride from Paris to London this morning.  TONS to post ... will post as soon as I'm home and sleeping!

[Disco]

I hath made it home now too after leaving the group at CDG yesterday morning I almost could not board my flight to London on time because a half hour before boarding, an unattended bag was discovered and the surrounding 20 gates evacuated while the bomb squad came to inspect. Surprisingly, it was taken care of within 15 or so minutes.

Now after a flight, bus, train, 14 hours overnight at Gatwick and two more flights I am finally in my own bed (first time in 39 days) wish I was still there though. A proper round up and photos will follow after I sleep this vodka-esque haze off!

[MrColossal]

We are also home, got home last night but SLEEPY, I haven't been that tired in a while.

I also haven't laughed that much in a long while, I always love Mittens and can not wait for next year.

I too had a great time.  So much so that I ve decided to extend my stay in France.  Actually, no I ve missed my return flight to Canada and am trapped in Paris another 3 days.  Merde alors.

OH NO! I think Mills also missed his flight because we slept through the wake-up-call from the hotel and Erin's alarm was set to "Weekdays only!" so we woke up at 8:30, got out of there around 9, got on the train, made a wrong turn, finally got to CDG and he had an hour to get through the entire boarding procedure, I don't think it worked BUT I HOPE IT DID!

I will post pictures later but this one is for Derren:



This is what Mills looked like after he realized that you left without saying goodbye... AND you forgot your granola bar! Love'em and Leave'em, eh?

EDIT: WAIT A MINUTE! Jess was sick at mittens and now all you dudes are getting sick.. JUST WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE? pix pls!

[AGA]

For those of you who have yet to post your photos, if you want to make a PhotoThumb gallery (like CJ always does), send me a PM and I'll link you to a copy.

[Nacho]

Hey, we arrived yesterday at midnight... I wanted to see some pics and read some threads before posting here... This post for me closes a circle and I wanted the delay it as much as possible. I loved this mittens and I wanted it to last as much as possible.

This has been the best mittens so far, with difference (and the previous were not bad!) It is impossible to share the mittens time with everybody at the same level, of course, you must chose your group of mates, but I liked every mitteneer I met. Some of them becoming to the level of "big brothers" (You know I am talking about you, JP!), some other to, at least, good mates.

For example, for circumstances that had nothing to see with my desire to socialise with everybody (and his, I guess), I treated very few with DutchMarco (We were usually sitting in different places of the table, we went to different activities, we went with different groups...) but the feeling I had of him is that he is a very veeeeery good person. Similar feeling with him now that the ones I had about Disco in Mittens Greece. No need to say that I will fix that in next mittens, as I did with Jet in Greece and with Disco in Benidorm. It's kind a tradition. The one I treat less in Mittens YYYY, becomes a remarkable mate in Mittens YYYY+1. Simillar feelings with Esseb.

(My problems with Jet are thing of the past, we knew that before, but I repeat that in public again for the knowleadge of everybody!)

Who else to mention without being unfair with the rest? I' ll be honest, I think there was a good feeling between FruitTree and me... Same with Miez. Erin has been a surprise, I must confess... After seeing the "sexy" photos she likes to post about her, I expected a funny nice girl, but no more... she finally impressed me for her intelligence and talent. A future Hillary... ^_^. Or a world famous neuroscientist! Mills is also a very clever and funny man.

I was a bit excited about Eric... I had the feeling that during a certain period his secret hobby was to pursuit Nacho over the forums to use his moderatorism powers with me. He told me via PM that the feeling was uncorrect, and I believed he was being sincere, but I still wanted to meet him in person. Reluctances off from the very first moment! I really like him and Jess. Awesome lady, very talented and very funny!

If I don' t mention the rest is because we' ve meet before and you know my feelings about you. I am willing to see you again, ASAP, guys! You have a friend here for everything you need!

And welcome to the forums Marijke!

[Creed Malay]

Finally got home at ten last night. I am either ill with the virus, or one of my lungs has collapsed. Mittens was truly, sincerly awesome, location was great, being "Bob" in the BJ movie was a blast, and every one was extremely lovely. Could not have hoped for a better crowd.
Off to die now. Farewell.

[Nacho]

Damn! I forgot to mention Davy in the commentaries about my new mates! and I don' t really know why, because you are in my list! You are great... I really liked you! I won' t spoil anything about BJ' s movie, but what you said and how you said it after seeing what you saw in the swings was awesome ^_^ Lots of laughs. Awakening you everymorning has been a pleasure!

[Creed Malay]

I love you too, Nacho. When I woke up this morning and no Spaniard leapt onto me and vigorusly humped me, I died a little inside.

[Nacho]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCOTCHIE!!!

[La Lore]

Well ... I think it's my turn.

I'm fine, but tired because of the long hours of travel and the 6,000,000 miles that we walked in Paris ... hehehehe .... I am also cold, but it will happen 'cos the pleasant temperatures of Benidorm.

What to say that you don't already know!

For new Mitteners: It has been a pleasure to meet everyone. Jess and Eric, you are very funny. Erin, thanks for being our translator. Mills, sorry, but I did not understand anything you said   ... try your luck in Miami. Esseb, Davy, Marco, I haven' t spent much time with us, but happens to me the same as Nacho, I have good vibes about you . Fruit tree, every morning jumping into the Trampoline ... hahahaha transmitted me great joy, hope to see you in other Mittens. Miez, very kind and sympathetic, I like the background . Marikje, welcome! And finally Jeremy, "mi hermano mayor" ... has been my greatest friendship of this Mittens, thank you for your patience with my poor English, I hope to talk a lot with you in the msn.

For other Mitteners: I was delighted to see everyone. Jetx hope you heal your nose ... Radiant, I liked your game "Vector". AGA, thanks for the organization, the place is beautiful. Tom and Scotch, a pleasure to see you again, I hope to continue to do so. Darren, I felt sorr for your flight ... But I liked being with you and Disco in Paris. Chrille, I feel Nacho' s obsession by your head. Dominika and Golmund, I love being with you, my friends from "Polandia" hahahaha, Golmund, take care of Dominika and "Alien". CJ, I forgive you for having asked Nacho marriage. M0ds, thank you for wanting me to appear in BJ. Ryan, I love your jacket, I think it was obvious . .. Paco, my great friend ... I'm very eager to go to Miami in 2009. I especially liked our reunion the first night, hugs ... yours, and then Ryan,  m0ds, and later to Dominika and Golmund.

See my pictures, but in another post.

Kisses to all 

[DutchMarco]

Lorena, I didn't know your English was so good, otherwise I'd have talked with you more. I now only have the impression of "she seems like very nice girl", and talking would have only confirmed that impression, I'm sure.

Nacho, I also wish we could have spent more time with each other, but look on the bright side: at least my rear opening is intact and unscathed. That's worth something too.

And to Eric and Jess: thanks for the tip about Gogol Bordello. The band I mentioned who resemble him so much is Korpiklaani. I know, slightly bizarre spelling, but what would you expect with this taste of music? (I'm now listening to Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, who I first heard of in NY, btw)

On of the most amazing things was that we could even talk about politics among diferent nations and not start a war! (I now officially close this cesspitt BTW)

What a band of warm personalities! And lots of  fun to be had as well. Makes me particularly regret having not finished my game at least up to the level of being able to show off a credible demo (all I have now is not worth showing).

Luckily I never got so cose to Jess as to catch her virus (I hope she's better now, and Eric, I think they were all smart enough not to take pictures of anything that would have transferred those germs, the most likely kira's plate suspect would have been kitty who'd been licking clean.But I trust that was also treated to the chemical stew that the dishwasher applies to all the washing up. BTW, My photo and philm archves are rather big so downloading them will take some time.

Mark, sorry about threatening to spoil the movie ending, I've been telling everyone about it ("look for Ben Jordan on U-tube in a few weeks time"), that's how excited I am about it, and about being in it, obviously. Thabks for letting me appear in there as a living, not-obsessed  human as well. It's not even the only acting I've done, Ivy kindly asked for some voices for her game-ski.

Oh and Ivy, I enjoyed voice acting for your game-ski, I wish I had made dying noises with more of a stereotypical Soviet-Russian accent
the experience alone is all the reward one could ever ask (unless you're Tom Cruise, which I'm obviously not), and I wish you best of luck in your up and coming career as a game creator.

Oh and I uploaded some more movies:
http://home.planet.nl/~ooije375/Mittens08/Mittens08-bateauing.rar (caution, 100 MB)

BTW Berrian, The Simpsons are a good place to steal quotes from.

Darthm shouldn't you say "sick as a horse"? You said that Mandarb is a horse, and we also had a little hoarse which wasn't too well (I still grinned at the joke, Eric).

And noholiday will ever again without a rubber chicken with a pulley on-it-somewhere  (alas not in the middle, but at the legs was close enough)
Oh well, back to work again for a tomorrow, and no acces to the website

[La Lore]

Thanks ^_^ but I write better than I speak

[Kira]

The days I wasnt there, I was at lowlands, a three-day-music-festival in the netherlands. The funny thing is that I actually saw gogol bordello and korpiklaani there. I am already a fan of gogol bordello quite a while. They were really awesome. Korpiklaani was alright, but didn't amaze me.

[Grundislav]

Hooray, my pictures are up!

Here are some panoramic shots:
Dover from the ferry
The view of the river

Also the initial set of videos from my digital camera, I'll put my video camera ones up soon.

The Tramp-porn-line
Don't Stop Thinkin' About the Waffles
Bonjour Dinant!
History's Mysteries
Le Chat Dans Le Chapeau

And some post-Mittens silliness in London with Davy, CJ, and my friend Rob:
We Need a Bar!
London by Night is Shit!

[Nacho]

Dutch, actually Lorena used a translator and I helped a bit as well... But she really wants to improve for next year. I will try to improve as well... I get almost everything this year, but in Miami I don' t want to miss even the unfunnier jokes!

[Miez]

Okay - this needs to be said: I really, REALLY enjoyed mittens '08. You lot are a great, warm, funny and - above all - creative bunch of people.
I enjoyed the let's-sketch-and-draw-and-make-movies-and-show-what-we've-done atmosphere immensely.

[Nacho]

I am launching an idea, mainly via msn. Some people expressed the obvious "con" (We wouldn' t know new places), but nobody really complained, so, here it goes: Why don't we do Domain Le Risdoux permanent European base for Europe?

[Layabout]

Nacho, in miami, you and francisco will have to translate half the time.

As for the idea of using Risdoux as the base of Mittens in Europe, it's sounds a pretty cool idea.

[scotch]

It's a nice location, but there are many nice houses all over the world, and most of them are cheaper than in France. AGS meets are the main holiday of the year for a lot of us, so it's nice to be able to see new places.

We have talked about doing a Dutch meet next year, in place of Brittens, because AGA's house is getting a bit old. It's too early to get too heavily into that though, of course, and it'd have to be low budget, because of Miami.

[Darth Mandarb]

I am back (finally) in South Florida!

My [first] Mittens reflections...

While I enjoyed meeting everybody, there were a few I wanted to mention specifically.

Nacho y Lorena (mi hermanita!).  You were good friends before, now you are dear and true life-friends.  I can't say more than that!  I love you both and am already suffering separation anxiety!

Misja (Miez) - one of my main inspirations for my art-work since coming to AGS!  I cannot tell you the joy I received simply watching you work on a background and to top it all off you were a great guy (and my side-seat navigator!!).  I am honored that you mentioned working together on that "shiny" little project we talked of!  I can't wait!  Cheers!

Goldmund and Dominika - an extreme pleasure to meet you both!  The late-night chats by the fire, wandering through Bastogne, slogging through the space center ... I enjoyed every minute of it (even the space center!)

Ryan (Layabout) - most excellent getting to know ya!  we didn't chat as much as I would have liked, but I'm glad for the times we did!

Tom (Custard) - don't think we'd ever exchanged much on the forums here before so had no idea of anything about you!  but was more than glad to get to know you!  And thanks for the most excellent quote (in my sig!)

Ron (FruitTree) - my mountain climbing partner!!  What can I say!!  It was awesome to meet you and I hope to see you in Miami next year!

CJ - obviously!  It was great to finally meet you!  I would have like to chat a bit more but am happy for all of it!

I'm sure I'm forgetting to mention many ... but I don't want to write a 10 page post!  Rest assured, if we spoke, I'm glad we met!

Some memories ...

Renting one car, but only driving the other (until the very last day when we dropped Darren off at CDG!)  Not sure how/why but I only drove Nacho's rental the whole week and got quite a crash-course (sorry Ivy!) in driving manual on the way home from Bastogne!

The wonderful [imaginative] caves.

The ice-cold river swims.

The nature hike with the mountain climb (Nacho and Ron!!).

I could just go on and on ... so I will stop now!  So many great memories!  Can't wait till next year!!

Photos being posted now, coming soon!!

Edit - forgot to mention Davy/Bob (Creed) - a pleasure to finally meet you!  Wish we'd chatted more (and sorry about the arm-wrestling incident!)  Let the collaboration continue!  Can't wait to see where we go with it mate!

[Miez]

I am honored that you mentioned working together on that "shiny" little project we talked of!  I can't wait!

Jing tsai! and the feeling is mutual...

[Finkenstein]

HEY everyone!!
Mittens was amazing this year, although I have no doubt it's my fault all of you are sick   I caught something on the plane and I felt terrible through most of the trip, but it didn't stop me from having an amazing time. I haven't laughed that much in a while and I loved walking in the woods and sitting out on the porch and watching the dailies and seeing eveyone's game demos. I feel like mittens is such a lucky thing we all get to enjoy, being around so many smart, funny creative people is really refreshing and I look forward to next year so much!

Our location was absolutely gorgeous, and I don't even feel bad that we didn't get to spend much time in Paris because the Chateau and the town were just so lovely (despite the 2 hour lunch breaks and early shop closing times)

We had a lovely time walking around Paris the next day, I was sad and felt bad we missed the catacombs but the museum of Modern Art was one of the most amazing buildings I've ever seen and eating diner in the Latin quarter was just lovely.

Thanks be to Erin for translating so wonderfully and to Darren and Jeremy and Nacho for knowing how to drive stick! And to (gay)Ga for organizing the Mittens quiz. Playing 1000 blank white cards was definitely a highlight of the trip for me, there were a lot of repeat cards but it was hilarious. Especially fruit tree's card!

I really hope Erin and Mills caught their planes. And Darren, I hope you can make due in Paris for three days! This is where having that job thing comes in handy right? You really should have said bye to Mills, I swear he was just blubbering like a baby, in the butt. (hey, maybe he's staying in your hotel, heh)

Oh yeah, and sorry if my butt crack offended anyone. It has a mind of it's own! When I worked at Borders they used to call me "cracky". I really just have a long crack, it cannot be contained no matter what I do, I have learned to live with it, and so must you.
Maybe I will graffiti a blue cup (with a wiener in it of course) on top of it to make it more appropriate.

I am looking at all the pictures and getting nostalgic already!! Creed, I can't believe Silvia Plath fell asleep on you!
Nacho, remember to send me the Spanish words for that special salute phrase you were telling me about! Hahaha.
Marco I'm sorry I didn't get to say goodbye! I missed a few other people too who went to bed early, oh well, you will all just have to come to Miami next year!!

I will post my pictures as soon as I can get through them all, I took A LOT of pictures.

-jess

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Cookin' with Simon n' Seamus!

[MillsJROSS]

I got lucky and unlucky on the way back.

After leaving Jess, Eric, and Erin behind I made my way to the terminal, and the Delta booth. I got there forty minutes before the flight, and the lady informed me, too bad, booking has stopped. But thirty seconds later, she said, hold on, the plane's been delayed a half hour, go right on ahead.

So that flight went uneventfully, but in Atlanta, my connecting flight got canceled. So I had to wait there for another 24 hours for another flight. However, I did get a free hotel and two free meals out of it, so it wasn't awful.

Right now I have to get to work, I'll post some retrospection later.

-MillsJROSS

[MrColossal]

Hooray mills! Now we just need a message from Erin and I can rest easy.

Also, here are my pictures!

MITTENS PICTURES

All have been pruned from over 450 photos down to 293 with captions, enjoy or don't!

I will get my videos online at some point too

[Haddas]

Korpiklaani was alright, but didn't amaze me.

BLASPHEMY!

I might come next year. I won't make any promises, but perhaps i might come, maybe.

Yes, definitely maybe.

[m0ds]

Another fantastic Mittens! It was great to re-unite with so many of you guys and have a good laugh!

This was definitely the most productive Mittens I've experienced so far - and I'm not talking only about myself but seeing everyone else doing so much was AWESOME! All the artwork and design going on in the banquet hall and of course all the voice acting for Erin's game! Show & tell was interesting, despite losing my USB stick (which turned up in Layabouts boot on the last day ><) and the card game and quiz were a lot of fun! The card game was particularly hillarious

Francisco, many thanks for all your acting skillz & all the great laughs we had together. I love your videos and photos! Dont! Stop! Thinking about tomorrooow! Creed, you helped shape the movie so much I really appreciate it! You were a great mate at this Mittens (as ever!) and looked out for me & everyone else, cheers dude! Layabout, always a good laugh! I know there were some stressful points on day 1 for you but we also know thats just cos you were sober Thanks for all the interesting chats & your Frenchy role in the film! And of course, all your driving. Thanks Erin for letting me voice act in your game & maybe complete that other task in under...5 days? :O It was good to meet you. Miez, I owe you a debt of gratitude, I don't even think I bought you a beer! Oh well, make it a crate at Miamittens! Thanks for your sterling work on the backgrounds and of course the set pieces for the film! Nacho, it was great to see you too - and thanks for showing your stuff at the show & tell!! Good to see you humping people too :p Lorena a pleasure as always, thanks for acting & always making me smile! Thank you of course to Berian & Scotch for finding us such a great place to stay at. Mills, it's been 3 years since I last saw you, along with eric & Jess and all you guys were particularly hillarious! Always good company Also Goldmund, for your generosity & good humour, congratulations you and Dominika! Will we see you again? CJ, a pleasure as always - and incredibly ironic to find myself sitting watching MST and The Pumaman with you!!! Are you still smoking those pretzel sticks??? : Darren, great to see you again bud, tho I regret not spending so much time with you! Marco, thanks for your awesome performance and for being such a good sport at this Mittens! FruitTree, I'm really glad you could make it this year, your first since the first Mittens?? :O Awesome! It was also really weird to end up at Laleham with the Rover crew on the last day... Jeremy, pleased to meet you for the first time! Tom, glad you could finally get to Mittens again this year, question is, did you finally get to sleep, ever? Chrille, great to see you again too - I was impressed with your whisky drinking hehe! Jet, Radiant, and everyone else I haven't mentioned - it was fun to be with you guys too! The group activities were great fun but it was just great to chill at the chateaux & have some great conversations & great beers & pretzels!

The film was a really good laugh and everyone helped out so much! Thank you EVERYONE who acted in it or played extras or just let it go on around them!! It got quite hard and I feel guilty about pestering everyone but all that hard work has paid off! The movie is looking great, and has a run time of just under 35 minutes. I hope to have it online tomorrow

Anyway, gotta go now, back tomorrow, with the movie!

See you all at next Mittens!!

[DutchMarco]

OK and now there is this last file available: Some footage of Nacho's singing abilities! (you didn't sound too bad Nacho, honest: I doubt if ould better you, or if I could stand on my hands like that, nevermind about doing both simultaneously!)

http://home.planet.nl/~ooije335/Mittens08/Mittens08-1000%20cards.rar

We'll have to come up with another fun song for you to sing in a funny new position next year! (how about swinging through the room, like Tarzan?)

BTWI was (and still am) trulys Mittens by the event.

I just hope that next year we'll have a shorter walk to do groceries, esp. as not everyone can drive (has a car/license)

Yay, the movie'll be done tomorrow! Thanks Mark 'Shady' Lovegrove (inside joke)! Oh and no need to thank me for being a sport wrt the filming, the pleasure was all mine, thanks for letting me play such an entertaining (albeit short) role! Why do you think I couldn't get that stupid grin off of my face while being so enchanted my spiritual nemesis (Btw Jess, I still smile thinking about both of you)

Oh, this thread was lways destined to become a yucky kiss and hug thread like this, wasn't it? Oh well, because it's beenthe kind of event which deserves it!

[Pumaman]

Ah that reminds me, I took a couple of videos that I forgot to post:
Nacho tests the river
Everyone else joins in
Oops, this was meant to be a photo

I am launching an idea, mainly via msn. Some people expressed the obvious "con" (We wouldn' t know new places), but nobody really complained, so, here it goes: Why don't we do Domain Le Risdoux permanent European base for Europe?

While the Chateux de Risdoux was cool, one of the things I enjoy about Mittens is exploring new places, speaking new languages and finding new things ... so it'd be a bit premature to fix the location here, I think.

[Grundislav]

A couple more videos:
Melt The Limit 3
Cookin' Wit' Simon an' Seamus

[Creed Malay]

 Yes, a crazily productive time - I don't think there was a moment that there wasn't some thing being drawn or coded at the big table, or a movie being shot. And if there weren't, there was folks leaping into ice cold rivers, or running off up mountains, or being bought drinks by Leon the Hitman at the Tipy Bar. Possibilities at every hour and every angle. Ponies to pat and kittens to put hats on. Crepes to cook and cellars to get yelled at for going in.  Old friends to blether with, and folk you thought you disliked to learn to love.
It is all quiet and empty and lonley now, here in my flat. I have become used to having twenty odd peoply contantly wandering around the building I'm in.
Miss you all.

[Miez]

A couple more videos:
Melt The Limit 3

Waaaah! :o Jet jumpin' up and down scared the bejeesus out of me... awesome work!

Is there any way to put these youtube videos on a server so that we may save them for posterity?

[AGA]

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=download+youtube+videos&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a

[Miez]

Aah! now THAT's gonna come in handy... thanks AGA.

[La Lore]

I miss youuuuuuu  :'( and Nacho is in France again... with his bike... and without me I´m alone  :'(

My photos will be soon.... I hope...

[Finkenstein]

hahaha, what an excellent Melt the Limit this year.
And just for the hell of it I went back and watched all the other ones again, man, Nacho had so much hair! Haha!

[Miez]

Just to show you that Mittens 08 at le Chateau was a kick in the creative nuts, here's that background I started. Not the best background in our little game, and it still needs some tweaking but it's there in record time because of you and all the creative juices you were excreting :

Rough sketch

As far as I got at mittens

[The Ivy]

Photos are here here here!

Okay, now for the mushy stuff.

Eric and Jess, wonderful to see you as always. We'll push all mention of penises out of the way so I can get on to saying how cool it is to know such creative people. I'm always inspired by the things you guys create, and I look forward to whatever it is you're working on next.

Grundislav, it was great to see you again and I must say, you had your A Game going for that entire Ben Jordan movie. I had a fabulous time acting alongside you (I was impressed by your star power even during shooting!). Thanks for voicing you-know-who-Cat in you-know-what-Game. And thanks for agreeing to be slave labour for the project.

CJ, once again I enjoyed your deadpan sense of humour and insider wisdom about the Brits (that goes for you too, AGA). I also enjoyed your attempts to pronounce French words, despite how many times I tried to correct you.

m0ds, I am so grateful that you decided to include me in your movie. Having had zero acting experience (with the exception of my one line in the Clumsy Fop movie), it was incredibly exciting to have a role with some lines. I'm looking forward to the film so much. Oh, and thanks for agreeing to be slave labour for the secret project as well. Are you on MSN? We should chat some time.

Layabout, FruitTree, Chrille, Miez, and the others who frequented the "drawing table," you were a constant source of inspiration for me during the trip. Somehow I found the doodling kept me going in my own work (you may have noticed I didn't move for about two days). Anyways, keep in touch dudes! (P.S. Layabout, will we be seeing a reappearance of Jean-Pierre next year?)

Nacho and Lorena, thanks for being a constant source of incredibly cute pictures. It was great to finally meet you after seeing you on the forums for the last few years. And Nacho, you're really too kind. Although I think I'd rather be a "Tina Fey" than a "Hillary" though.

Disco, great to see you again, you were a top-notch roommate this time around. Thanks for putting up with my constant attempts to straighten my hair in front of the mirror. Jet, Radiant, and Quintaros, it was great to see you again too, although we didn't talk nearly enough this time around.

Darth, it was really cool to meet you in person, as you were one of the first AGS "personalities" I knew when I started posting here. Hey everyone, there's a really nice guy behind that pixelly avatar. I look forward to seeing you in Miami.

Goldmund and Dominika, thanks for some of the most intellectual conversations I've had in months (seriously, some of those topics were more intellectually stimulating than anything I learned at university). Goldmund, thanks for all your kind words about Nanobots, it really meant a lot to me. Seeing "Donna" has inspired me to try adding background flourishes to my games, among other things.

DutchMarco, thank you for lending your voice to my rather silly little project. I also thought you played an excellent ghost victim in the Ben Jordan film. "It's so beautiful..."

Mills, thanks for rescuing me from the airport on the first day. I really enjoyed your sense of humour throughout the trip, puns and all. Please keep making Mills jokes! (yeah, like the world needs any more sarcasm).

Creed, I thought your performance in the Ben Jordan film was inspiring as well. It was also good to have another redhead around so that it wasn't just me getting compared to the pony. I look forward to talking to you more at the next gathering.

Custard, Scotch, Esseb, and Kira, perhaps we'll actually talk next time!

Whew, that took a while! I'm trying not to be too sad that it's over, but I'll probably write a sappy blog post about all the events shortly. Enjoy the photos and I'll talk to y'all soon. :}

P.S. I'm working away at the secret project; hopefully it'll be done soon/fantastically.

[Darth Mandarb]

Darth, it was really cool to meet you in person, as you were one of the first AGS "personalities" I knew when I started posting here. Hey everyone, there's a really nice guy behind that pixelly avatar. I look forward to seeing you in Miami.

* Blush * Thanks   It was most excellent to meet you too!  Sorry we didn't get to say an offical goodbye the last morning in Paris!  Hope your phone charged successfully!!  See you in Miami for sure!

I too have posted some of my pictures (I took 1050 pictures total) weened it down to a select few I thought worth sharing:

And here they be

[DutchMarco]

Hey all, I've done something weird (isn't that what Mittens is all about?): I've recorded the yelping (that's how you call it, right? someone told me, but I forgot) of the little pony on the Mittens grounds, and made some ringtones out of them.

So Ring1 is the loudest sound on the recording, but I thought I'd include ring 2 as well as it sounded so funny. The sound is a bit too soft though, so I've placed 3 copies of it: one unmodified version (clean) and 2 amplified versions (wihch are both a bit overdriven, but one more so than the other and you might not like the sound of the more overdriven one), so there's plenty to choose from. Just do us all a  favor, OK, and next Mittens, let's not all have the same ringtone on our phones, as that'll be confusing.
http://home.planet.nl/~ooije335/Mittens08/Ring1-LittleHoarsey.MP3
http://home.planet.nl/~ooije335/Mittens08/ring2-LittleHoarsey-clean.MP3
http://home.planet.nl/~ooije335/Mittens08/ring2-LittleHoarsey-MildlyOverdriven.MP3
http://home.planet.nl/~ooije335/Mittens08/ring2-Littlehoarsey-overdriven.MP3

[Layabout]

Finally, I get my pictures uploaded.

http://www.sausagepocket.co.uk/Mittens08/index.html

Enjoy!

[Pumaman]

Great pics and vids, everyone ... Melt the Limit 3 is certainly deserving of its title!

Ivy, I can't believe I almost forgot to thank you and Radiant for your translation services, you guys were lifesavers a good few times! And of course good luck in your new career as a tour guide.

[Quintaros]

Yay, I'm finally home. 

It turns out that missing a flight is a bigger deal than I thought.  My extra days in Paris were kind of ho-hum where there wasn't anything new to see or do that I hadn't done the week before.  The highlight was having a French pot dealer approach me and pantomine getting high.  He was probably the friendliest Parisian I met the whole trip.  Then I got food poisoning from trying Steak Tartare and spent a day curled in the fetal position in my hotel room.

Anyway, Mittens this year was awesome, surpassing the previous years.  The chateau was great and the laughter shared with everyone was terrific.  I'm kind of in withdrawl right now and can't wait til Mittens '09. 

Mills, I'm sorry I didn't say goodbye at the airport.  I was kind of in a whirlwind at the moment and in retrospect I should have cut my losses and joined you guys for another day in Paris. 

[Goldmund]

We're back!

We stayed in Paris for one more day; miraculously, weather on Sunday was fine and we could sit on our favourite bridge, wander around and eat crepes with nutella!

French Mittens I deem very fine, the quality of company outweighted the usual crappiness of the weather.

I am very happy for getting to know these from among you that I now consider friends, and I am sorry that I did not get to know some others as well as I could (and I'm talking not only about sodomy).

Mittens is important, and if you rascals won't abolish the no-kids rule, we will join forces with Vince and SSH and Nikolas to form Kiddens. We're going to have strippers, casino, paraglides, balloons, zeppelins and orgies (with children under custody of SuperNanny tm)

[The Ivy]

For those of you who were there:



Are you as frightened of her stare as I am?

[Miez]

For those of you who were there:



Are you as frightened of her stare as I am?

Not as frightened as I am of that nasty looking weapon... Little girl looks good, Ivy!

[Creed Malay]

Where is stick she find in wood? 

[Finkenstein]

hahaha, she looks awesome. And frightening.
In Soviet Russia, stick find you.

[MillsJROSS]

Mittens Rant, begin:

This was easily one of the top five Mittens events I've been to. It truly is one of the happiest, carefree, and enjoyable moments in my life, and I have a pretty good life...well...um...still Mittens is pretty awesome. I'd talk about France/Paris and how exciting it was to be there, but really we could have had mittens in a sewer pipe (Miami), and I would still have had a somewhat good time. So onward to the people, in no particular order, other than alphabetical.

AGA - Who reads five books during mittens?! In between reading, sleeping, and a bit of drinking...wait where were you?

Chrille - We didn't get too much one on one, but it was still very much a pleasure meeting you. You're far less scary than your games...even with a bald head.

CJ - What can one say but, amour and fromage

Creed Malay - Can't wait to meet you again, we didn't get any one on one time, but orgies will do that to a person.

custard - An Ace Quest fan...what's wrong with you?

Darth Mandarb - We need to do a gloves event...seriously. I think there's many Space Questy things to be gleaned from you.

Disco - Best trampoliner...ever

Dominika - You took my sweet suite, and I still managed to enjoy your company.

DutchMarco - One of my favorite mitten moments was your story about your friend who died...how morbid. You have a wonderful sense of humor, and I couldn't imagine being funny in another language, it's hard enough doing it one. Can't wait to see you next year.

Esseb - My feet still hurt from the 18 quarters we walked, but you made it worth it.

Finkenstein - [insert penis joke] [insert ass out of pants joke] [insertion] (giggle)

FruitTree - You gave me head...well a balloon with a (very) convincing picture of my head...that goes a long way in my book.

Goldmund - I owe you dinner...flirt with me a bit and we'll add a movie.

Grundislav - Gloves...you know the drill.

JetXL - I didn't take out the pack of gum I saved from last Mittens, but I guarantee it's still in mint condition.

Layabout - You were a very convincing Frenchman, but we need to work on your Australian...I didn't hear Crikey one time.

Lorena - I didn't understand anything you said either...other than "NACHO!"

miez - I'm still amazed at the board game, and the model, and the art work. In general...I'm amazed. You amaze me.

MillsJROSS - Where'd your hair go?

m0ds - It was nice to see you outside of you shell this Mittens. The movie was fun to make...thanks for allowing me some freedom with my lines.

MrColossal - We will communicate more often, but right now my voice is a little hoarse.

Nacho - I want to be a Nacho man.

Quintaros - You complete me...in a completely straight heterosexual way, with amazing sex on the side.

Radiant - I didn't say it when we were playing the game...but the sex change was for you.

scotch - You should drink more often...you're more amusing that way.

The Ivy - I held up a sign that said Mittens in an airport for an hour waiting for you...you didn't even notice...everyone else did. I promise not to stop making puns...frankly, it's not in me to stop.

Tony The Pony - RIP

Alright, wonderful time. Not much more to say. See you guys next year.

-MillsJROSS

[DutchMarco]

For those of you who were there:



Are you as frightened of her stare as I am?

I'm not easily frightened, but she goes a long way towards achieving that, esp. the stare when combined with the kniving action. Can't wait to see walkcycles!And there were lots of Aargh!-lines to be voice-acted by all actors. Somehow I get the impression that this game won't be rated for little children (well,you know: in Soviet Russia game rates you). I'm looking forward to playing this twisted little game.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

That background looks great, miez - but what's with all the artifacting?

[Miez]

That background looks great, miez - but what's with all the artifacting?

Thanks ... but as I said: it still needs some work. There's a very noticeable noise map in it (the artefacting you can see) that is either going to be turned down or removed alltogether. The wall tiles need some work and the Golden Penis Statuesâ,,¢ will be cleaned up a little - these are a little too eroded...

[DutchMarco]

DutchMarco - One of my favorite mitten moments was your story about your friend who died...how morbid. You have a wonderful sense of humor, and I couldn't imagine being funny in another language, it's hard enough doing it one. Can't wait to see you next year.

Likewise, Mills, but the story about my neighbour dying, wasn't a joke, just a story I used to illustrate a point we were making.

I hadn't taken you to be so morbid.

But seriously, I'll miss your company for the rest of the year.  Looking forward to meeting you again!

[Dualnames]

Ivy's space shennanigans.. loving picture the title scores it.

[DutchMarco]

Ivy's space shennanigans.. loving picture the title scores it.

Is that a pun on the Soviet-twist Ivy's putting on her game? If not, please explain because the sentence doesn't register with me.....

[Finkenstein]

OH FINALLY, I have uploaded my pictures. JEEZ what took me so long??
There were like 400 or something, but I narrowed it down and captioned them all, and it made me miss Mittens even more!
Enjoy:

http://www.kafkaskoffee.com/Mittens/Mittens08Jess/mitt_2008006.html

(P.S. it was very difficult for me not to draw wieners on all of these photos. I showed some serious restraint here.)

[Layabout]

Yay. Those photo's are awesome Jess.

[Miez]

and it made me miss Mittens even more!

What? You're Miss Mittens now?

[The Ivy]

Ivy's space shennanigans.. loving picture the title scores it.

Is that a pun on the Soviet-twist Ivy's putting on her game? If not, please explain because the sentence doesn't register with me.....

I didn't go to space. Did I? Goddamn red wine night...

[Dualnames]

Red wine can be hazardous if combine with AGs people.

[Nacho]

Finally! Thanks to AGA for a quick course of FTP, and the owner of AmericanGirlScout for hosting... Our photos!

http://www.americangirlscouts.org/nacho_Mittens2008/index.html

And here, the same pics, but bigger (no gallery, though) just in case somebody wants to download a pic in higher resolution...

http://www.americangirlscouts.org/nacho_Mittens2008/large/


Pitty I don' t know how to put commentaries... 


Hehehe... The pic is not very good... but doesn't this girl/guy look like Maggintz?

[Miez]

The Belgian Space Center. It will BLOW your MIND.



Or maybe not.

[Radiant]

Wow, way too many pictures here

I'm so glad I missed that space center, too...

[magintz]

If I gained some weight, died my hair and let it grow and grew some hefty man boobs.....

... scary.

[FruitTree]

no way! the spacecentre was ultra modern and soon europe will rule space!

oh man, this post mittens depression thing is really getting to me, I had such a blast!
the chateau was awesome, you people were awesome! made loads of great memories and friends, golly! thanks all!

love, hugs and warm cookies!

(Jeremy where's the bohemian rhapsody video?!)

[SSH]

If I gained some weight, died my hair and let it grow and grew some hefty man boobs.....

... scary.

You're too busy doing those confused.com ads, I bet...

[Darth Mandarb]

(Jeremy where's the bohemian rhapsody video?!)

Ahhhh yes!  I will post that ASAP (at work now, will see about posting it up tonight)

[m0ds]

Great photos Jess, yay!

[Darth Mandarb]

Ladies and gentlemen ... at long last I present you with the brilliant version of:
BOHEMITTENS RHAPSODY

This was either the single-most geekiest thing I've ever been witness to ... or the coolest.

I haven't decided yet

And here is Nacho's upside-down rendition of the Smurf's Theme!!
WHAT THE SMURF??

[AGA]

Hah, great. For people who (for some reason) want to listen to it multiple times, I made an MP3 of it.

[Dualnames]

Ladies and gentlemen ... at long last I present you with the brilliant version of:
BOHEMITTENS RHAPSODY

And here is Nacho's upside-down rendition of the Smurf's Theme!!
WHAT THE SMURF??

This was either the single-most geekiest thing I've ever been witness to ... or the coolest.

I haven't decided yet

For me!!!!Loving song.. wish i was there to sing..

[m0ds]

I'm trying to remember, what was Eric's answer to that Zak McCrackhead question in the Mittens super-quiz & what was the question??

[Grundislav]

Q: What was the name of the first released Zak McKracken fan sequel?

Eric's Answer: Zak McKracken and the duh duh dumb nobody played it because it was in German.

[Nacho]

Q: What was the name of the first released Zak McKracken fan sequel?

Eric's Answer: Zak McKracken and the duh duh dumb nobody played it because it was in German.

I think we took it for valid...

[m0ds]

LOL that makes me chuckle so much still!!! Thanks 

[The Ivy]

Erm...I outed us. Sorry!

I take full responsibility for any gate-crashing and/or pranks by rival adventure game developers at the next Mittens.

[Darth Mandarb]

A very nice article!  Thanks for sharing (with us and the world!)

[The Ivy]

A very nice article!  Thanks for sharing (with us and the world!)

Thanks Darth! I like your moustache, by the way.

[Miez]

Erm...I outed us. Sorry!

I take full responsibility for any gate-crashing and/or pranks by rival adventure game developers at the next Mittens.

Oh wooh - you used a picture of the little cobbled-together chateau! Cool...
And as I said before: it's a very nice article. You can write as well. Damn - some people just get ALL the talent!

[Pumaman]

Oh noes!!

Luckily you've done a good job of making it anonymous enough that I think we'll get away with it!

[LimpingFish]

Think of all those Wintermute users itching for revenge!

They're up to double figures now!

[The Ivy]

I'm going to be honest, I really like the idea of us having internet rivals.

Miez, thanks as always for the kind words.

And Chris, I was going to tell them all about your opium addiction, but I figured I'd save that for the next posting.

[m0ds]

Ah but Miez, other people get old age and wiseness!

Not ME I hasten to had !!!

Great article Ivy, a pleasure to read! And be mentioned in third person. Teh spiff!

[Dualnames]

Good one. Congrats, i guess..