Brenna's been packing since Sunday for Australia. Most of our personal items are arranged around the house in patterns which I assume have a metaphysical component - perhaps they focus H-waves, like a lens. I used to try and help with this process, until I realized that the best way to help was not to touch nothin'. When I pack, it's like, I put as many underwears in as I have days, and one pair of pants regardless of the trip's duration, and as many identical black shirts as are currently clean. I think of my backpack like a diving bell, or something: I'm not trying to live there, wherever it is, it simply furnishes whatever is required to exist wherever I happen to be going.

I'm still plugging away on Sand and I'm really happy with the way it's turning out. It should start running on the 15th or the 17th and it will pick up the story immediately after this strip.

You have probably heard about Justin Carter in passing, maybe on one of the sites you read, or video channels you watch, but it comes down to the fact that a dumb kid said something dumb and because of the world we live in now this entitles the state to steal eight years of your life.

Write me back, and tell which option they would find more horrifying. On the docket now we've got my "famous" Texas Tofu Skewers, or something from our Jail Dining series like "Hot Potato" (sounds euphemistic, is actually literal) or Snarfs, which is whatever they wouldn't eat last night with microwaved with ketchup.

I made a delicious chicken parmesan last night and both my kids turned their noses up at it. I think I might send them up to your house for a dinner so they can see how good they have it here. Can you let me know the next time you’re making bok choy and white rice?

A little while ago Tycho and I sat down with Scott and Kris to play D&D:chronicles of Mystara for Capcom. It's a re-release of a game that I actually loved playing in the arcade and then eventually imported for my Saturn. We streemed the play session live but you might have missed it. Capcom has gone ahead and posted the entire thing to the YouTubes now. We've been asked to do a few of these recently where we just sit and play a videogame while someone records it. Tycho tells me this is actually a genre called "Let's Play" and I'm sure he's right. Personally I call it the greatest job ever.

The notion of a penalty box or "sin bin" is well understood - games occasionally come with their own purgatories. But these vile aggressors are typically not made to play another game while the first one is going on, churning in their own abusive stew. Halo offered up something like this, but if this OXM article is to be believed Microsoft wants to leverage that service-wide. It makes a lot of sense to me. Like other forms of prohibition, telling people to follow rules is great and all, works for some people, but ultimately you need a lever you can throw at some point and start working to minimize harm.

Craigslist is just the weirdest, weirdest site. I'm almost fifty-fifty between experiences where people "gratefully, even tearfully pay me for things I don't even want anymore" and those who "come back to my fucking house uninvited, wild of eye, as though under the brainsong of a psychotropic worm."

Back in 2010 we did one of our idea pitches where we give you the first page of three different comics and let you vote on the one you’d like to see more of. The first time we did it Automata won but the Lookouts ended up being a big hit as well and has its own comic book now. The second time Sand won but the New Kid came in a very close second. We eventually sold the movie rights to the New Kid to Paramount (who have yet to do anything with it) but we never gave you guys more Sand.

The only hard part about choosing a speaker for these things is the scheduling; if we want them to speak, it's a very good chance that we aren't the only one. The choosing part is incredibly easy. Peter Molyneux was like a Rockstar to me, one of the first whose games I could seek out by personal pedigree. I really, really can't wait to hear what he has to say.

I did not create any arcades in my garage this weekend. I mowed part, part, of the fucking lawn!

Today’s comic strip is another one taken right from real life. About a month ago I decided I wanted to turn my garage into a classic arcade. I spent huge chunks of my youth in places with names like Electron Palace, Tilt, and Wonderland. I imagine the same desire that drives another 35 year old man to buy the car he could never have as a kid is the same one that made me want to fill my garage with games from 25 years ago.

Arcade Cabinets are less magical than they seem. We associate them with feats of mystical transfer, of impossible travel, because they are close by when the magic occurs. But they're not doors; they are more like door frames. The guts are typically one of a few standardized boards tuned to whatever experience the owner has decided upon, hooked into a screen, and also wired to a plate where button holes of various configurations have been punched through. Because the meat of that plate is functionally invisible, like so much of the cab, the solder is often, uh... enthusiastic. Let's go with that. There are buckets inside to hold children's money until a slightly agitated veteran of the Vietnam War comes to wring them out. At least, that's what I remember.

Because it it a true PAX, it must also have an Omegathon - just as it was written in the ancient scrolls. We've made the calls, and the players are locked in, but what will they be playing?!? I have the answer. The rounds are, in order:

In my opinion there is almost nothing that is not improved by making it turn based. RPG’s, Fighting games, Root Beer. I love dem turns. Arena of Heroes is a turn based MOBA and I’ve been having a lot of fun with it today. Like any MOBA it’s free and this one you can play on PC, Mac or iPad. How about a Windows 8 version for tablets?

The official page is up now, and there's super cool stuff on there. Antichamber I knew about before - indeed, I have it installed! - but Black Annex, DUET, Fractured Soul, InFlux, and MacGuffin's Curse were all new to me.