Hi there! Do people still use these blogs? I realized I haven't posted on any blog in awhile, and thought about this one. I miss you guys ^_^ Is anyone still here?

Hey GameSpotters,

The last few weeks have been completely insane. My boss left for another great opportunity and I was mentally bracing myself to help pick up the slack until we found a replacement, but I was asked to take on the role of Editor-in-Chief. (!!!) It took me a week to let it all sink in. After having worked closely with Ricardo here at GameSpot, I knew that this job was not going to be easy and that I will likely be stressed out permanently. (but I still love it!) To be honest, when I made the decision to switch careers and move into video games, I really wasn't gunning for any kind of position. I just wanted to be surrounded by games and talk about games all day. Turns out I am pretty organized and apparently management likes that ;) I've been so incredibly lucky and blessed, and I wouldn't be where I am today if it weren't for the wonderful people I've worked with at GameSpot, especially Ricardo, who taught me almost everything I know. (about yelling at people mostly. lol, just kidding. No not really.)

I still really like this community and I've been a part of it for so long, it's hard to leave but I'm excited to see what my team at GR can do. I'm on Facebookand Twitterso please stay in touch, and if you want to keep up with Bailey, he's got his own Facebook page and Tumblr too.http://thingsiputonmydogshead.tumblr.com/

Even if I'm not going to blog here, I will check PMs and lurk on YOUR blogs. Those of you who have messaged me in the past, know that I will always respond :)

GamesRadar has a lot of exciting plans in the next year, so I hope that we cross paths again on the internets!

http://www.gamesradar.com/ping-radar-letter-editor/

xoxo

Sophia & Bailey

Bailey turned 9 today! I took him swimming, as I normally would for his birthday. I used to take him to Monterey, but since he can't run like a crazy person off leash, I decided to take him to a closer park that has a smaller swimming area for dogs and he seemed to enjoy it. I may take him more this summer, since it's good exercise and low impact for his leg. He's pretty pooped now. He got a doggie donut cookie and big doggy biscuit that says happy birthday (you can see below on his head). I take a picture with him every year, can't believe he's 9 already! He brings me so much joy, I don't know what I'd do without him.

Sorry to @GunnyHath who has been waiting for the Minecraft server to go back up. It keeps getting reset so it goes back down. Will get it back tonight! If anyone else wants to join, it's50.19.220.129.

It's Bailey's birthday this weekend so I"ll try to have a post with some pictures :) It'll be 2 months tomorrow since his surgery and he's been walking and playing just fine. I can't let him run yet, but he is gaining his strength back slowly so I'm happy and relieved.

I've added some new photos on his tumblr here:http://thingsiputonmydogshead.tumblr.com/

Things have otherwise been going well at GamesRadar. Lots of changes happening, but I'll update when I get around to it. I do miss GameSpot still, but I know you guys are doing well so that makes me happy :)

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Is everyone playing Diablo III? Bailey's surgery went well. The bad news is that he has a partially torn ligament in his other leg, so it may be a matter of time before he'll have to get surgery on the other one :( I just bought him a memory foam bed and have to confine him all day. He's happy though and in a good mood, which is bad because then he wants to run around and grab his toys and play. So unfortunately I have to give him sedatives to keep him sleepy. His leg is kind of swelling so I have to give him a hot compress and massage his leg. I'm not even sure he likes it, but he has an e-collar on so it can't be worse :P

The cone of shame. His usual dopey self after he's had his dinner.

After the drugs kicked in...O_o

Hey guys,

Sorry about the Minecraft server going down, it's been rebooted so let me know if you can't get on. (50.19.220.129, try not to cause any trouble ;) will try to log on this week)I haven't been able to play lately since my time at home is spent feeling sorry for Bailey, even though he's doing well and on plenty of meds. He tore his doggy equivalent of an ACL at the park last weekend and will need surgery. The hard part is that it comes with 3 months of physical therapy and he'll have to be confined and stay quiet. Even though he can't use his back left leg, he's still bouncing around and hobbling toward me like nothing's wrong. It makes ME sad but I get the impression he's not really bothered by it. I am worried that he'll hurt his other leg, and this is a really expensive procedure. He's also turning 9 in July, so he's no spring chicken either!

Here he is, drugged and hiding under my desk when I work from home.

I would like to take more photos of him, which I may since he can't do much but sit around anyway. I also got my hands on some doggy treat recipes so I'll make him some dog friendly cookies to bribe him into posing for me. No playtime for awhile unfortunately.

Other than that, not much happening here. I played Fez a little bit but then got stuck and gave up. I've been spending a lot of my free time working out and experimenting with new recipes so that leaves very little gaming time. Luckily it's been kind of slow anyway, but I have a lot to catch up with.

Hope everyone had a nice weekend :) I was in Vancouver and Victoria to see my sister. Lovely part of the country!

I've been itching to get back into Minecraft lately since I haven't really played it since the Adventure Update went live. (There are cheetahs?!) So a few of us started playing over the weekend, and since I've been messing with livestreaming from home, I had it open to everyone/anyone who was interested. (In case you're curious as to how it went down:http://www.twitch.tv/soapymoose) At one point, someone asked me to join their server, you can see that arena craziness about an hour and 20 minutes in.

Lim_ak joined and it got me thinking about the GS Community night we had last year. (Photos here)I don't know if some of you are still playing on the GS UK server or if you're still playing on the community one, but if you want to join in sometime just leave me a note here or a PM :) I don't have anything scheduled, I'll probably be online later tonight. If you're on TwitterI'll let people know when we go live, otherwise, feel free to swing by and say hi!

On another Minecraft related note, I just pre-ordered this:http://www.facebook.com/LEGOMinecraft

Update: 50.19.220.129 is the server. It's going to stay up for awhile, so drop by whenever you can. I won't always be there but feel free to look around. City hall shouldn't be that far from spawn point if you need a place to hide :)

These union things still work right? A few GameSpot members (who still work there) have banded together to start an SC2 union!http://www.gamespot.com/pages/unions/read_article.php?topic_id=29085601&union_id=20608

Instead of spamming all of you who may or may not care, you guys should join if you're interested. I honestly don't know what they're doing with it, but I do play SC2 from time to time and I remember that last game night we had was pretty fun. Minecraft game night was fun too! I hope GS is still doing those.

Hope everyone is doing well. GDC is over, which makes me a little sad because I had a wonderful experience this year. It was great meeting so many talented people and it was also nice to catch up with some GS folks.

Sorry, no Bailey pictures yet. I swear I get asked almost every other week. :) I hope to be posting a couple of podcasts soon featuring the composers of Mass Effect 3 and one for Journey.

Ok so I haven't set up the studio yet at my new place to take pictures of Bailey, but here's Snowball, a beautiful American Eskimo I met over the Xmas holiday :)

He's sooooo cute. I love how he'd let me squeeeeze him. (Well, not sure if he let me or I just forced it out of him)

I only had my camera lens cap, so I put it on his head. Hehehehe.

More pics to come, hopefully soon! Oh, and I also went horseback riding for the 2nd time yesterday. Can you guess who I went with? :D

Hey everyone :)

Hope everyone had a fun and relaxing holiday! I still have so many games I need to play but I ended up playing mostly Pushmo over the holidays since I was traveling. Last year was a pretty awesome year in terms of game and game music, and I'm glad that Jonathan has taken over Sound Byte so he can share this:

[video=6348487]

I'm still working on SoundRadarbecause it's a lot of fun, while trying to help plan and organize the team over here at GamesRadar.

I would have ton a top 10 of 2011 but there are a bunch of games I haven't finished. The ones that have stood out to me include Portal 2, Ghost Trick, To the Moon, Gears of War 3, Battlefield 3, Alice: Madness Returns, Super Mario 3D Land, Outland, Minecraft and I know I'll like Uncharted 3 when I get around to it and Rayman Origins if I played more. So that's almost 10 ;)

Here's to an even better 2012!

Sorry, no new Bailey pictures yet. I just moved before the holidays so I haven't set up my studio. But I do have a bunch of new toys I could use... heehee.

I did meet this adorable American Eskimo named Snowball over the break that let me put things on his head too so I'll have to dig up a picture of him.