I'll admit, my two+ years in the McDonnell-Barksdale Honors College is now a bit of a blur. I dropped out of it my junior year when it became abundantly clear I wouldn't get enough credits to graduate. (In my defense, I was a business major, and there weren't many honors courses for business majors -- Honors Oil and Gas Lease would have been great). For whatever reason, I never was particularly well-received in the Honors College either. Most times I went into the building's living room area, I got a couple of quizzical or dirty looks from the Honors College insiders, who were deemed HC Squared (Hard Core Honors College) by people outside the circle.

That said, I really do value the time I spent there. I got to take classes from some outstanding professors (Dr. Ochs, Dr. Ron Schroeder and Dr. Watt come to mind) in a seminar setting, guaranteed myself a spot on the 10th or 11th floor of Stockard (as opposed to being cast away to GHM), registered earlier than the other students in same year, and most importantly, established friendships with a lot of folks I otherwise might not have met in the dorm or in other organizations. A bunch of The Network's most avid readers joined the Honors College at the same time, which is part of the reason I gave this writeup of MBHC before delving into the meat of the story.

Over dinner recently, I was discussing with an old friend the whereabouts of a few of our fellow classmates from Fall 1999 Honors 101, a required 15-person freshman seminar course. A couple have started their medical residencies. Two others are practicing attorneys. And at least two more are working on law degrees. Good and noble traditional occupations, but not necessarily fodder for conversation on SNN. No, I wanted to speak about the most unique occupation chosen by our classmates: video game developer.

That's what Honors 101 member Nich Maragos is doing these days. Maragos started as a video game journalist, working for the Gaming Intelligence Agency, 1up.com, and Gamasutra magazine. He's been featured on Kotaku.com and his reviews have made it on top-flight review site RottenTomatoes.com.

Now, he works for Irvine, CA, based Atlus USA as a project leader for a video game called Etrian Odyssey, a "a 3D dungeon crawler RPG for the Nintendo DS." For the game, Maragos edited the game's text (not sure what this means), and oversees aspect of the game's localization (this may mean putting an American spin on a Japanese product)

He has been an editor for Shin Megami Tensei, Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army, Yggdra Union, Monster Kingdom, Jewel Summoner, and Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja.

Now, I must point out, SNN knows nothing about RPG games. The most extensive role playing I do is Moot Court and Trial Advocacy, neither of which are available on Nintendo or XBOX consoles, and neither of which offer 30 tries like Contra did with that special password.

I have to send props to anyone who has been able to grind out a living dealing with the same stuff he'd be doing in his spare time.

So you tell me: what are some of the unique occupations taken up by your one-time classmates?