For this week's "best-of" column, I've chosen what is my all-time personal favorite, "A Day In The Life". I came up with the idea of doing a choose-your-own-adventure column over a year ago but I didn't know what it would be about. Then one day while reading my mail I came across a letter asking what a day in R&D was like. And then the answer seemed obvious. The biggest problem with this article is that it takes a while to read, both because of the technical constraints and the need to reread it to see different avenues (it is physically impossible to see everything on the first pass). As the holiday week traditionally has less traffic and this article requires repeat reading it seemed like a perfect candidate for "best-of" week.

When I first printed this column I got a bunch of mail asking how accurate the article was. I think I'll quote one unnamed R&D member who said, "It's more realistic than the audience will ever believe."

So if you ever wanted to know what it would be like to have my job, read away.

Oneof the questions I’m often asked is what is an average day like as a member of R&D. I could tell you but then I realized that with the Internet I could do even more. I could actually show you.

So, welcome to "Making Magic's" first Choose Your Own Adventure. In this column, I will allow each one of you to experience a day in the life of an R&D member. More specifically, a day in my life as I cannot speak for anyone else. Each R&D members has a different skill set so each person’s day is unique. To keep in the spirit of the Choose Your Own Adventure genre, there are ways to lose.

A note before we begin. In order for this to work, your web browser has to have the ability to accept cookies. If it can't, well, I take no responsibility for how weird this article behaves. Also, the structure of the article is such that your "Back" button might not do what you want it to do, either. If you want to start over, click on the article title under the blue bar to the right.

Ready?

Okay.

Welcome to R&D.