Last Friday, I wondered aloud whether the voice issues with Rainbow Six would be resolved before I quit playing the game altogether. Well, it didn't take long - I'm done.

Just a reminder that the last day to purchase tickets for the Child’s Play charity dinner and auction is Thursday. New items for the auction are coming in every day. I wanted to let you all know that we’ll have items in all different price ranges. I know last year we talked about items going for ten and twenty thousand dollars. Trust me when I tell you that you can come with significantly less than that and walk out with something cool. Even if you don’t want to bid on anything it’s a really fun event to watch. Either way, Thursday is the last day to get your tickets.

To the great delight of a vocal percentage of the readership, Div has returned. Briefly. Now he can return to attic storage, there to languish in oak, resting in close proximity to my Spelling Bee medals and a black baseball mitt (unused).

Since we launched so many new products this week I just wanted to draw your attention to the store one more time. Here’s a look at our new batch of shirts.

I realize I haven’t talked much recently about the Penny Arcade Alliance over on Dark Iron. That’s not because they aren’t still out there slaughtering Horde. It’s just that with all the console games that hit recently I haven’t had time to join them.

I've tormented my cohort with it, and now I will torture the readership: Bookworm Adventures is linguaphile crack, and games with much larger budgets have been losing to it daily since its release. Describing my cavern of amassed lexical artifacts might take weeks, but let me say that the collection is so comprehensive, so robust, and so well-organized that I'm thinking about charging admission.

I just wanted to mention two Child's Play related items. First the
Minibosses have an eBay auction up that benefits CP. It's essentially
a Minnibosses gift pack full of CD's, posters,shirts and whatever else
they can cram in there. Please hit the link for their auction and
remember it's all for Charity.

Second the deadline to purchase tickets for the Child's Play charity
dinner and auction is approaching. We'll be closing ticket sales next
week. If you want to go and you haven't purchased your ticket yet
now is the time.

Also please take some time today to check out our list of hospitals
this year. If you haven't picked anything up yet please give it some
thought. It might just be a couple coloring books or even a package of
batteries. Trust me when I tell you that anything, no matter what it
is will be very much appreciated by these hospitals. Don't think that
just becasue you can't get the kids a PS3 you can't help. Some simple
things like Playdough actually need to be thrown away after each use.
Certain items that the kids like to play with collect germs and can
only be used once. They can never have too many containers of the
stuff. Or too many batteries for that matter. Or coloring books or
markers. Believe me when I tell you that you could spend five dollars
and really make a difference.

-Gabe out

(The weather here is pretty screwed up, slush and ice (with a chance of late afternoon blood) which kept us both home today.  In Spokane, there would be gravel out and other public safety measures, but when snow falls over on this side of the state people don't see it as weather, it's seen as a portent - evidence of an angry pantheon.  A single snowflake will fall on their windshield, and they will immediately swerve their SUV into a truck hauling fuel.  Faced with miles of ice and idiots between his home and work (and a reported eight hour commute), Gabe chose to hole up in Fort Krahulik, which means no tablet and no scanner.  I really like the result.)   

We did a really awesome project (can I say it’s awesome, is that okay?) for Wired magazine. You can either go pick up the most recent issue and read it there or check it out on their site. They asked us to do a piece for them handicapping all three of the next generation systems. We tried to be as fair as we could and hopefully you’ll get a kick out of it.

So the big news today, in the world of web comics at least is that PvP is getting itself animated. Scott posted the news along with a little teaser over on his site. He’s actually writing the entire thing with the help of Kris Straub. I was a big fan of the old Blamimations they did together and I’ve told them both whenever possible that they needed to collaborate more. I make jokes when I’m uncomfortable and it just so happens I have issues with anxiety so I’m essentially uncomfortable all day. That means I spend a lot of my time making jokes. When Scott and Kris were up here visiting I hardly said a word. They’re just too funny and they’re always on. You just can’t compete with them, all you can do is laugh.

Joystiq had some interesting articles up over the weekend about introducing your family to the Wii. I actually had a similar experience. We had a house full of friends and family for Thanksgiving and the Wii was really the star of the show. Kara and I both had parents over and we actually had a hard time getting them off of Wii sports. I can’t even count how many rounds of bowling I must have played. It was amazing to watch how easily they picked it up and how much fun they had. What was great was watching Kara’s Dad who loves to bowl but can’t anymore because of his knees. I wouldn’t be surprised if he goes home this week and tries to pick one up.

Our Turkey Triloging comes to a close with this, our denouement. Gabriel is, of course, a caricature of the genuine article. On the other hand, the grandma and the greasy fireman are only too real. I sometimes wish that the fireman were less real, particularly when I am sent to the basement on an errand.

The Turkey Trilogy warbles into its second episode - in this installment, it is revealed that Gabriel has turkeys lurking in his lineage. It's All Tied Together with references to a mysterious religion set against the backdrop of galactic war.

Several crucial items(!!!)). For one, eight new hospitals have been recently added. Is one of them near you?

We’ll be launching two new T Shirt designs on Monday as well as some new hoodies. The first shirt is called "Fruit Fucker Apocalypse".

The Turkey Trilogy is a thrilling, three-part story that only deals with turkey one time - and even then, it does so in a non-committal fashion. The narrative is really not focused on roasted birds. I hoe you will be able to overlook this shortcoming, and enjoy those parts which are tangential to heritage fowl.