Any person who has flown internationally knows that the airplane, at some point in your trajectory, becomes a sort of flying asylum. Time loses meaning. You are buffetted by wailing of all kinds as you try to retain a grip on the steady operation of your mind. Children keen and shriek as though being murdered, and you hold to your in-flight cookie like a life preserver.

It's up to me to hold down the fort while Tycho is off gallivanting across Europe. I realized that this meant it was up to me to upload the comic strips at the appropriate times but it did not occur to me until just a few minutes ago that I would also need to produce a news post. It's funny, back in 1998 when we started doing this PA thing we were one of only half a dozen or so web comics. We left loonygames after Jason told us that the word fuck "just isn't a funny word" and we decided to make our own website. Being as we had not yet met Emma and had only the most rudimentary knowledge of HTML it amounted to some buttons on the left side and a big empty space on the right. Tycho said he didn't like having all that white space on the right and that we should do something to fill it up. I told him to figure it out and he decided to write a little post to accompany each comic strip. Originally he would write posts just long enough so that they equaled the length of the buttons on the left, making the page look more balanced. As the years went by the number of buttons on the left side of the page grew and his posts became longer and longer. He essentially invented the web comic "news post" as we all know it today in an effort to make our page not look like ass. We could have just as easily centered the buttons or put a picture of a lobster over there and accomplished the same thing. Obviously I'm glad that he revolutionized the world of web comics or whatever, but its times like this when he is gone and the news post falls on my shoulders that I think how much easier this would be if I'd just put a picture of a goddamned lobster over there.

This is my favorite band. They have a new CD out. It’s really good.

I'm typing this on Thursday morning, because I'm going to that Europe thing. I mention these things because

Tycho is gone and the place is going to shit already. I couldn’t get the strip uploaded correctly so for now you can see it here. Christ he hasn’t even been gone a whole day. Within a week I figure I will have destroyed the entire website.

I'm typing this on Thursday morning, because I'm going to that Europe thing. I mention these things because

It's out, and you're welcome to grab it. I could never really come to a conclusion about the test they released for it, I'd like to see how things play out on different maps.

You might recall my enthusiasm regarding this game, drawing parallels between it and what the early screens seemed to represent - a sort of modern day Archon. As it turns out, that's not far from the mark - I received a mail from the developer regarding my comparisons, assuring me that they were all big fans of that classic game. How is it different? Well, let's see.

I just got this from Fatrick who is setting up NWC 2003:

Since I got such a good response to my last video I decided to make another. While the last video had some cool combos a few of the hardcore SC players mentioned that someone could “air control” out of them pretty easy. For those of you who are not hard core SC players, air control is when you hold guard and mash a direction while in the air in order to roll out of the way of combos. It’s true that if you time it right you can get out of some of the combos from my last video. Anyway, this second video is all guaranteed hits. As far as I know there is no way to air control out of these.

But, um... I was sort of playing WarioWare when I was supposed to be doing my post. Each game is like three seconds, but when you play a few hundred of them every now and then it sort of builds up. It won't happen again, at least, not until the next time I do it.

After seeing Scott's iPod storyline, Gabe had to see one of these things for himself. He was very impressed with everything but the price, which quite naturally lead to a heated conversation with a person who doesn't exist in a place that is not real.

Wow thanks for all the mail about my little video. This was my first attempt so hopefully they will get better from here on. I do plan on making some videos of actual fights between Robert and I as well as some more combo vids. Thanks again for the great response. Oh, and since everyone is asking the song is Striptease by Hawksley Workman.

I have been bummed about the lack of combo videos being made available for Soul Calibur 2. Especially the lack of Talim videos as she is my character of choice and it’s always nice to see how other people play her. Anyway I decided to go ahead and make my own little video in the hopes that it might get some other people excited about doing the same thing. I am not the best Talim player ever so don’t expect to be blown away by my sick skills. Here it is though if you are interested. Maybe I’ll do some more if you guys like it.

Well, contest might be overstating it a bit.

If you join Club PA this month you will get a picture of Gabe and Tycho drawn by an artist from a videogame company that you know and love. Shhhh, it’s a secret.