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

[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?