I don't feel like the parentheses ever really closed on this trip. Maybe the last one won't be placed until I step off the plane in Seattle. What it seems like happened - and I am open to alternate explanations in the vein of Grassy Knoll - is that we got off the plane, held a PAX that obliterated the first one here on every conceivable axis, made shedloads of friends, and now before I can even stack these memories appropriately in my brain I'm getting back into a plane.

I’ve had a lot of folks ask me for an update on my Surface 3 impressions. I said at the time it came out that I could not really recommend it for artists. The new placement of the Home button caused some problems but it was moving from the Wacom digitizer to N-Trig that really made the device very frustrating to try and draw on in my opinion. Microsoft has been working on various ways of fixing some of those issues and since I wrote that post they have managed to fix a lot of them.

They seem to corral their mean Australians at the border, just like they do in Canada, and everyone else is generally so nice here that my first inclination is that they are fucking with me. I'm heading over to PAX Aus in a second, after I link the comic and go HAM on this muesli. Oh! Actually, wait a second. There was something else.

We got to Australia about the time a PST person would normally wake up, but then we tried to do the sorta prescribed thing where you stay awake all day to get your head straight for the new place. I don't know if it worked all the way. Everything seems to be contained within a parenthetical which denotes its contents are not to be trusted.

Here in about seven hours or so we'll be on our way to the fabled burg of Mael-Byn, or at any rate we'll fly to the place we will fly to Melbourne from, that extra little kick this finite universe must always get in. It's the first time we won't be home for Halloween, but I know that some of our number fully intend to bring a measure of it there, at such volume and to such an extent that we may discover what laws prohibit wholesale lolly importation.

As is our way, we have delivered the most recently donated Child's Play Strip at or near the buzzer. I think the buzzer might already have gone off actually, but we ended up doing it for people who are as busy as we are, if not busier. It ended up being a crossover with a comic they also do in addition to everything else. Here's theirs, and here's ours. Many thanks to Steve and Ash for letting us play around with their toys.

I play Destiny every day. This past weekend I even started an Alt character. Now I have my level 27 Hunter as well as a level 5 Titan. Whenever I have a bit of free time I am in there playing. Kids taking a bath? I can do a story mission. 30 minutes until I have to leave for work? I can knock out a bounty or two. The Seahawks are playing? I’ll just play Destiny on my Vita all afternoon while we watch the game. Playing games is my job and so kara sees this a lot. I’m always playing something but even she commented the other day that I seem a little obsessed with Destiny. I can’t deny it either. This game has its hooks in me and I can’t stop.

The last time I played Fantasia: Music Evolved, my apparatus was not tuned for assessment.

Automata: Silverside launched officially today. We’re still wrapping up the end but it’s looking like it will be around 11 pages. It’s been a lot of fun re-visiting the world of Automata and writing for Sam and Carl again.

We've posted the cover for this project today. Actual pages will start going up tomorrow with a new one arriving every Tuesday and Thursday. For as long as the story is running you'll be able to find the latest page right up there at the top of this page, occupying the far right slot next to Camp Weedonwantcha.

Pin Pals, here is your Pin Quest for PAX Aus 2014. You can grab the PDF right here. Bring it with you to the show and check off the pins as you acquire them! Good luck!

Shadow of Mordor has a Photo Mode now, and our first question was along the lines of "how would an Uruk use Instagram." Until it occurred to us that they would use Instagram in precisely the same way everyone else does.

We’re bringing some great pins with us to PAX Australia at the end of the month. Here’s a look at the Pinny Arcade pins you’ll be able to collect in Melbourne this year!

I have Kik messenger to chat with my family. Sometimes I get crazy spam messages though. This morning I decided to have a conversation with the the spam bot. I showed it to Tycho and he said I had to post it up here. Click on the image for the big version.

I have suggested it on a few occasions, but I am something like a consultant(?) on Broodhollow. This is a sort of ornamental way of saying that I am essentially a fan with access to the creator. His writhing, newly-hatched larva is, no doubt, a veritable mine of horrors he can fold into his work - but we spent a few hours yesterday fully enunciating the spine of the setting and setting up the most pristine domino configuration to knock down over the course of the next year. The whiteboard in his office now resembles (if not fully manifests) the "crazy wall" universally embroidered by cult members and psychic children.

We have a new Halloween set for this year! Since Halloween's date is constantly in flux landing on not only different days but even different months each year, it’s hard to get the pin set done at the right time. At least that is what our merchandise manager Brian told me.