First I was gone for San Diego Comic Con and then I had to take off again for Spokane. I’ve been out of the office for weeks and I’m just now back for real. I would like to give a huge thank you to the incredibly talented artists who have been holding down the fort while Tycho and I take a bit of a vacation. This is our 16th year making Penny Arcade and I can tell you that we’ve never had a guest series run this long. I sat down and made a list of all the artists I wanted to reach out to for guest comics assuming I’d get maybe half of them. When they all said they were in, I realised I had booked something like two and a half weeks of comic strips. I might feel bad about it if they weren’t all so amazing.
I had intended to write a post over the weekend while I was in Spokane but then Jerry made his “Further intrusions of actual life” post and It punched me right in the gut. When I was 16 I thought he was the best writer I’d ever seen and that feeling has not changed in the last twenty years. His post was brutally honest and I thought following it up with a post about my new suitcase might be “too soon”.
I feel like there’s enough distance now to tell you about it though!
There are some things I get excited about buying. I dig into reviews and do all kinds of research. I do this with stuff like televisions and other electronics. I like reading about gadgets. Then there’s other stuff I buy where I just go to Target and get whatever is cheap. This is how I purchased suitcases. So now I have five or six suitcases in my house all busted in various ways. Some have broken zippers, some have broken handles or wheels. I finally realised that with all the traveling I’m doing now I should get myself a nice bag.
So I treated it like I was buying a television. I started looking at reviews, feeling out the high and low ends. Figuring out what the differences were between brands. Pretty soon I was watching Youtube videos of people talking about suitcases and I knew I had gone far enough to make my decision. I ended up buying the Incase Roller.
I picked it because of the great reviews and the design choices built around holding all your tech. I’ve had an opportunity to travel with it now and I love this thing. The front of the bag is given over to a really smart assortment of pouches and zippered pockets including a massive padded sleeve that easily fit my 17” laptop.
You can organize all your cables and peripherals right there in the front compartment. Then you have super easy access to them if you need to grab something during the flight.
I know it probably sounds kind of silly to like a suitcase so much but when you travel a lot it really makes a difference to have something designed so well. Everything on it from the handle to the zippers to the wheels feels solid unlike the shit bags I’ve been buying. My next big trip is to Australia in October for PAX Aus and I’m super happy I’ve got this thing now. I’m so impressed with this roller I may even pick up their travel backpack before I go.
Also I’m playing League of Legends again. I thought I might just play a few rounds for fun. Last night at midnight I was re-configuring all my runes and masteries while studying pages of Wukong strategies.
Fuck.
-Gabe out
