There were a few more jinks in reserve. These are aged jinks, comparable to a smoky Gouda.
I don’t really know what to do with myself when staying at Brenna’s parents, as an adjunct, tucked into the curls of nested parentheses. Aside from generating forced syntactical comparisons, I never really know what I’m supposed to do at a given moment - where my actual coordinate in the family hierarchy is. One thing is certain: there are no paints here, and no tiny men to apply them to. It’s a grisly state of affairs, but I have taken my solace in the written word.
I’ve tried, hopefully with some success, to make you as big a fan of Lois McMaster Bujold as I am. I celebrate her entire catalog - but trying to genuinely activate a person’s enthusiasm for a twenty-two year old sci-fi swashbucklin’ epic is a grim endeavor. Even if the interest is there, not everyone can spend time tracking down every volume of this thing on a stranger’s say-so. This is what makes the fact that it is now freely available online such authentically crazy bullshit.
The Miles Vorkosigan Saga, which the aforementioned link represents almost in its entirety, constitutes some of the best, greatest fun I have ever had with the printed page. I’ve chosen the word fun on purpose; there’s interesting world-building, a fairly singular protagonist, and I’m a huge fan so I could make this sentence go for awhile. But fun - as a substance, as a kind of mineral almost, a quantity - exists here in great supply. Adventure and derring-do. On spaceships. Which are, themselves, in space.
I mention this because we are entering the dark season, a season whose frigid excesses are best ameliorated by books of any shape, where you may find yourself tucked into nested parentheses and in desperate need of interstellar escape. By the end of your journey through this series, I’m certain you’ll buy some of these books out of tearful gratitude, even though you nominally already “own” them. You may decide you need enough books to build a house, so that you can live inside. This seems likely, also.
(CW)TB out.
deet deedle-eet deedle eedle eedle-eet
It being Friday, there is new episode of Penny Arcade: The Series. Specifically, The Proposal. Also called “Erika: The Series.”
(CW)TB
As a young man I worked a series of retail jobs at Toys R Us and then Circuit City. With out a doubt the worst day to work was Black Friday. I used to dread having to come in and deal with the insane people who showed up for all the deals. I remember one year at Circuit City we were offering a “free” computer. It was a shitty Compaq and you had to sign up for like four years of AOL to get all the rebates. You’d be surprised how many people don’t read the fine print. When they found out about the AOL bit I got yelled at as if this was my fucking policy. I sat there taking the abuse and trying to imagine the world that these people lived in. A world where computers are just given away for free on every street corner. It must be wonderful to be that stupid.
Thanks to you all I no longer have to deal with that bullshit and for that I can not possibly thank you enough. What I can do is offer my own incredible Black Friday deals!
Let’s start with the new stuff!
Jim Darkmagic Portrait:
These are hand painted reproductions of an original painting I did of my D&D character Jim Darkmagic. This was one of my first attempts and painting and I was really happy with the results. The piece has been reproduced with Oil paint on canvas. It is 20” high x 16” wide and Includes hanging materials. Only 500 of these exist and of those only about 490 will be sold.
Book Six Limited Edition Hard Cover:
This is the same as a normal book six only it comes in a hard cover, it’s signed by Tycho and I and there are only 1000 of them.
Dickwolves Pennant:
Support your favorite imaginary sports team with this pennant. Gooooooo Dickwolves!
Twisp Argyle T-shirt and Hoodie:
This is a new design from Kiko that had all of us in the office laughing. You can pre-order in in a shirt or a hoodie.
One Turn in Ladies:
The lady nerds have spoken and they demanded their own version of our One turn shirt. So we made it for them. Because… we love the ladies.
Airhorn Debat Shirt:
He cannot be beaten. But he operates better with a team. Join the winning side of every debate with this tasteful shirt featuring the timeless Airhorn Debate Team crest.
Dickwolves Ladies Shirt:
After the ladies spoke earlier they spoke again. This time they wanted their own Dickwolves shirt. We refuse to deny the ladies anything!
We also have great deals on some older items. Our Paint the Line and Photoshop Hero shirts are on sale for a mind blowing five dollars off!
OK. Now the offers: We wanted to try out this Black Friday thing this year. So for 5 days, starting on Thanksgiving, everyone who spends $60 or more at the Penny Arcade store will get a Subway poster added to your order completely for free. We’ll also add one of our new sticker sets for free. They won’t show up on your invoice. You don’t have to do anything beyond spend $60 or over. We’ll take care of the rest!
You can also check out the print section of the store where you can get print packs of some of our more popular strips. Pick up the Lookouts pack or the CTS pack for that special PA fan on your christmas list!
Finally, we wanted to offer a new, local shipping option. Something fun. So, if you live within 20 minutes of our warehouse location in Seattle’s alluring 98121 ZIP code and order over $400 of merch, and would LIKE us to, Penny Arcade will deliver your order to you ourselves. Keep an eye on the store news for more details. All we ask is that when we show up at your house you don’t murder us.
-Gabe out
