Shotgun Wins

Various objects meet the shotgun. In this show the shotgun always wins.

Fly meets shotgun: shotgun wins.

Deathwishes

Following a visit to the urologist and a routine phlebotomy (unrelated), I dreamt I was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Variety columnist Army Archerd, hearing of my affliction, offered to donate his Ford F-100 pickup truck to me. His wish was that I study electrical engineering at UCLA but I knew that wasn't what I wanted.

To avoid talking about the subject, during a tour of his mansion, I walked briskly ahead of the group, hurrying to slide down the numerous mahogany-banistered slides that connected floors.

Midnight Monster

Yellow
Four-pointed
Helium-filled
Hemophiliac
Levitating
Distended
Vampire

Spy Action!

Ancient Japanese dual-wielding swordfighting techniques.

Miniature gatling-gun bulldozer warehouse security.

Robotic cloaking stealth-suit scaffolding acrobatics.

Cat-and-mouse jetpack apprehension affidavit plausibility.

Bowling and Pokemon

My daughter was the first to bowl a strike in lane 13.

I caught two "shiny" Zubat in a row.

The next Pokemon I caught was named "MANASSA".

Stranded in Sweden

It all started with a long-distance phone call. The person on the other end was clearly speaking a language that I didn't understand (German?) but somehow I did understand.

I woke up later in the office (really a room next to a high school gymnasium, linoleum floors and all) where a software engineer was describing his problem to me. He spoke Swedish (I learned later) and I responded in English and yet we both were able to discuss the problem of modifying his system of text-delimited fields to accomodate graphical input.

I strolled through the gym after our meeting, then outside where children were swimming in a community pool.

Knowing I needed to return to the airport, but not which way to proceed, I wandered down a street on the sidewalk and decided to phone my contact in the US, FM. I asked him to look up directions to the airport, complaining that it was beginning to get dark. He said he'd call me right back as I opened an extremely narrow door set into a wall. It turned out that I couldn't fit through the door wearing my backpack and since I was on the phone, I decided to go around it. It also turns out that it wasn't beginning to get dark at all, just a quickly moving black bank of clouds passing by.

I had to find a bathroom and doffed my backpack, setting it down on the sidewalk outside a women's lavatory. As I entered the men's room my phone rang. I flipped it open. Instead of hearing FM's voice, I saw about twenty pictures of slot machines that he had taken on a recent trip to Las Vegas.

I cursed him as I snapped the phone shut, used the urinal and washed my hands. My backpack was still sitting on the sidewalk when I returned for it.

Next door to the bathrooms was an arcade; of course I had to check it out. They had a strange Dance Dance Revolution clone (I couldn't make out the title on the marquee) and I could hear the familiar sounds of Defender echoing from a far corner.

Just then I realized I could search my Recently Dialed list for American Airlines and book a flight home and get a taxi to the airport.

It was 11PM

Sitcom Musical

5:30 am PST
Each episode is comprised of a handful of short sequences choreographed and set to music.

Eric Johnson - Cliffs of Dover

It's lunchtime and MT and Steve cross a parking lot on their way to a Mexican fast food restaurant at a strip mall.

As they stroll, the two coworkers recall their earlier activities of working in a Sim City 3000 3D modeling package to customize a Zoo headquarters skyscraper. The design is reminiscent of the Wisconsin Gas Company building in Milwaukee with its terraced facades; the two workers were busy converting the surrounding city streets into sprawling green parks.

Steve pulls some papers out of his khaki trousers and flips a red square - shuriken style - at MT shouting, "Green square!" It turns out that the square piece of paper is actually colored blue, and is a game piece to a promotional sweepstakes game sponsored by Burger King, and is the match to a pair of blue game pieces MT needs in order to redeem them for a toasted English muffin.

MT decides to collect his prize and Steve continues into the Mexican food restaurant, tossing the remainder of his game pieces in a nearby trash receptacle, saying "I don't need this trash in my pocket."

Steve nods to an ex-coworker seated on a table between the restaurant's entrance and the ordering counter. Glancing at the menu, he mutters, "I don't need this trash in my body," then turns and leaves.

Lunchtime is over and Steve heads to his second job at a rival Mexican restaurant next door to the one he just left, and, spotting his coworker AC, launches into an impromptu game of 'feed the beast' in which Steve attempts to strangle AC.

AC spots Steve and bolts away in panic, flipping over a table to block a doorway. Steve leaps through the doorway and over the table and deftly grabs AC by the neck in one fluid catlike movement all at the beginning of the final riff at the 4-minute mark in the song.

After Closing

I wanted to settle our bill late last night at Las Palmas.

I pointed up the stairs to where we had been sitting - two small tables pushed together next to a balcony door.

I heard the cashier mutter and saw her point towards the banister, asking who would pay for the 'renter'.

I looked and saw a sleeping bag, a black shirt, and some paper plates jumbled together in a heap beside the stairs.

I asked the cashier who she thought was staying there from our party.

"Juanes," she said.

One-sided Phone Conversations

"What the hell's going on? When did we pick Kate Beckinsale to play Samus?"

"What happened to Rose McGowan?"

"I didn't get any meeting invites or emails on this! It would've been nice to tell me!"

"Well we're all very sorry RD left, but wake up and make some decisions already!"

"Fine. OK."

"What?"

"Today? Now?"

"OK could you please at least send me the new dialog?"

"Yes, now!"

"When did all this change?"

"Who said?"

"You know what? Forget it. It doesn't matter anymore. Just shut up, get the hell out of my way and let me make this game!"

(100th show celibration)

Friday Night Dualism / I'm asleep

How To Win Friends And Influence People / Making people scared won't get you very far.

The Band meeting / The Smoke Break
---
In a driveway in Wichita, Kansas / In a green field in Edinburgh, Scotland
a lead guitarist, / an ROTC dropout,
rhythm guitarist, / hairdresser,
bass guitarist, / astrophysicist,
mandolin player, / roadie,
and a keyboardist / and a numismatist
discuss their next gig's song list. / discuss tomorrow night's D&D session.

Dinner / Political Positioning
---
At a round table in Round Table / At a rectangular table in Sirius Black's dining room
a CEO, / a Doctor Who fan,
Lead Engineer, / Goalkeeper,
and a Lead Designer / and a Parasail instructor
catch up on their careers in the video game industry. / play an electroshock party game.

The Raid / Easter egg hunt
---
At the bottom of an exterior wall inside an unfinished spare room made from a cardboard refrigerator box/ In the grass
granite spheres / dinosaur eggs
were stolen. / were moved.

Inventions

Part 1: Mercedes Benz 2010 Green Metal (with simulated woodgrain finish) Motorized Office Chair!

A lab assistant demonstrates the new model for 2010 while a narrator provides details about the engineering behind the vehicle:
- Sits inside the development office
- Walks down a corridor
- Rides an elevator to the lobby
- Exits the building
- Arrives at the entrance to the parking garage
- Swipes an identification card across a proximity panel
- Ducks underneath the opening metal accordion door
- Introduces the Motorized Office Chair (MOC)
- Boards the MOC
- Fastens the safety harness
- Dons an open-face motorcycle helmet
- Grasps both armrests
- Coaxes the MOC forward and out of the parking garage

The MOC features a 3hp electric motor and batteries underneath the seat. A complex transmission drives each of the four wheels independently. The central spindle is on a gyroscope which automatically leans against centripetal forces when braking, accelerating and cornering. Throttle, brake, and signaling controls are contained in the front of the armrests as integrated motorcycle handles.

Part 2: Shenanigans!

An extreme sports superstar demonstrates a new extreme sports apparatus called Shenanigans while a narrator provides details about the engineering behind the device.

- Opens a small briefcase
- Unfolds what appear to be a pair of jumbled steel rods
- Locks pieces into place
- Holds up the pair of oblong bent steel parts
- Straps the Shenanigans on his feet
- Stands upright on the apparatus
- Jumps, kicks, spins and twirls
- Grabs the steel rods
- Skates across a concrete courtyard
- Jumps and slides effortlessly down a stone staircase

The Shenanigans prototype started as a pair of bent paper clips. The inventor scaled up the original prototype and made each piece collapsible.

Hip Hop Travel Agency

Test Pattern

Bowling Alley Smell

In a bowling alley in Honolulu, Hawaii, Steve chats with the shoe rental clerk about the state's new dollar coins. Steve decides to take a few home as souvenirs and changes his mind about changing $20.00. He gets only 4 of the coins as change after paying his rental shoes.

The bowling alley features a restaurant and an arcade, Steve notes as he takes in the signature smell.

The arcade features ultraviolet lighting which accentuates the bright orange and green patterns, as well as his white Calvin Klein Underwear against the dark walls and floors.

"No pockets for tokens," he mutters.

Room 217

In room 217 in a hotel owned by JA there is a giant flooded hole in the tile around the toilet in the bathroom.

In the living room closet a guest has hung a Primal Rage duffel bag in between antique wooden bassinets.

Glimpses

Security line

Nintendo DS

Baby stroller

Ear buds

Arcade World Tour

Waiting to get into an arcade in Tokyo, they only let a few people in every five minutes.

The dimly-lit floor features dozens of classic arcade cabinets from the 'golden era' of American arcades.

I rush to an empty Moon Cresta and start playing, memories of my childhood - bottlecaps, dumpster diving, smashing fluorescent tube lights, and Juice Newton singing "Angel of the Morning" - come flooding back.

08/08/1938

First day at new school

I'm late so I find my seat

I'm in the back row

Classwork is assigned

my good friend Sean is absent

he moved to New York

Senator McCain

turns around to face me and

declares a thumb war

He points and I see

a prosthetic finger made

with a green pepper

How To Live On Handouts

Today is Free Pizza Thursday at Pizza Hut!

I asked a girl behind the counter where the free samples were and she pointed to a counter behind me. I grabbed three slices of cheese pizza without first locating a plate, then also grabbed three paper towels and folded them to accommodate the pizza slices, which I also folded - triangle on top of triangle in a letter-fold, then awkwardly by rolling the point of the triangle up to the crust. After all this, with both my hands full of drippy greasy pizza, I noticed there was Canadian bacon and pineapple.

I walked back to the apartment complex where GO was organizing a kickball game. I went around to KM's and MH's to see if they could play.

I saw KM through the open front window sitting in the dining room, his eyes glistening and face flushed. At the far end of the hallway stood a dark shadow. KM whispered, "I have to work on my homework, Steve. Sorry."

MH was leaning against the hallway outside her front door. "Tonight is family time and I messed it all up," she whimpered up at me.

I thought then how so often and unfairly the stress and problems of parents are confusingly twisted then projected onto their children.

I Don't Dream

Melatonin: no flashing lights or lucidity, only Jack Nicholson gargling a mouthful of miniature red pencils.

Last Picked

JR was the last picked for my team in a game of Quidditch.

Membership

It's 5:00 PM;
is Costco Closed?

A boy on a BMX bike goes
up and down grey concrete ramps
in a basement engineering floor.

Staircases with no guardrails beckon lost wanderers.

My wife's long black hair stops me
from revisiting a tribute gold medallion
left at a fighter's photo
like a stone on a Jewish grave.

London Back Alleys

The driver of a black triple-decker bus operates the vehicle from the third floor. He is a chauffeur following another livery vehicle, a Mercedes. I marvel at his instinctual dexterity which allows him to deftly manoeuvre through traffic and around roundabouts in the clockwise direction.

After exiting the bus, on the sidewalk I see a column of brightly-coloured couples - men and women - in 5 matched pairs dressed in fuchsia, mauve, chartreuse, burgundy, and turquoise unitards. The males are costumed in inflatable outfits which make them resemble walking fruits.

Rounding a corner, I stumble upon an altercation that turns violent, the dark-skinned, wall-eyed instigator complaining why onlookers - myself included - aren't interested in joining her cause. Just then I glance down to a drainage underpass in time to see a Jeep roll through ankle-deep water being chased by a dirty white dog. The Jeep and dog splash by in the opposite direction, then emerge on the street surface a few metres ahead. The Jeep literally corners the dog in a parking lot.

Rolling onto the scene, a Toyota minivan arrives with a damaged passenger-side sliding door. The driver of the van opens the damaged sliding door from the inside (I note that he's tanned to withering, wearing only green briefs) and asks a bystander how much it will cost to repair the damage.

Fire Campers

Instead of traditional outdoor camping each year, our family visits evacuated towns on the edges of wildfires in California.

In a deserted Pinecrest bar, chilled kegs of beer are the only uncontaminated drinkable liquid and firefighters toast, "To a rat, 'cause I ain't dead yet!"

After finishing off two half-full mugs of beer, Steve notices residents returning to their homes. One emerges from the crawlspace beneath the front porch and introduces himself as EC to the gathering at the bar.

Work Hard Play Hard

Huddled around a tiny VAX terminal, JB's and SG's faces are illuminated by the amber glow of the CRT, puzzling over a chunk of code. Through the double-doors to the cafeteria strides BF, willing to help even after leaving the company for their rival across the street.

Sam spies RG in the lunchroom playing with Pokémon cards and decides to join him. RG holds twenty-five cards in his hand and has dozens more organized in front of him.

"I'm playing Clue rules," mumbles RG.

SG strides outside to Disneyland park where the train is just letting out its passengers near a glass-walled merry-go-round. SG ambles down a slope to a ridge overlooking a wide moat. In the moat are three crocodiles, two of which are involved in some kind of eating ritual, the male swallowing a female up to her throat. Sam spies a redheaded toddler climbing underneath the guardrail and looks frantically around for its parents.

Luckily, a park employee wearing a jetpack rescues the child and its father as the mother screams with relief.

rnd PHP

At a family party, I stay indoors until the pleasant sunny afternoon darkens. I welcome the rain on my face as other guests take refuge.

Returning indoors, the party is a classroom. I take my seat in the back row on the right, as the instructor quickly explains variable naming in PHP code. When trying to remember the correct spelling of 'carp', the students begin chanting, "Spell it wrong! Spell it wrong!" The professor scribbles, "$crap" on the whiteboard as a nearby classmate shouts amid the flutter of laughter, "She might as well name it '$cottoncandy' now!"

Halloween Marathon

The last trick-or-treater arrived at 4am, a drum majorette.

Homunculus

Steve's twin arrived last night, August 17, 2009.

We aren't sure of its origins, since its life-line is much longer than Steve's. We interpret this to mean that it was born before Steve, or will outlive him, or both.

Old Game, New Game

Centipede played on an old modified arcade cabinet (P1 and P2 start buttons are mysteriously swapped)

A "Katamari In Space" trailer video surfaces, prompting a game designer's rant, "This is why the video game industry doesn't innovate - it's because players are unwilling to innovate."

Pet Peeves

Broken glass! On carpet!

Steve's Drawing Adventure

I sketched Optimus Prime on a sheet of butcher paper with a blue marker.

Shading in details, I noticed that yellow and red ink had appeared in the places I had previously drawn, then the drawing turned into a 3-dimensional Lego model.

Celebrity Neighbor

Nolan Bushnell lives next door to me. Last night he was hosting a party for ex-Midway employees when I went over to borrow a cup of flour. The guests all sat silently in their seats with their heads bowed.

Today I posed in his arboretum for a group of art students with an orange balloon. TH congratulated me afterwards.

Boot Camp

Stationed at a border patrol checkpoint camp, Private Riesenberger has had to defend their base from numerous insurgent skirmishes. In one recent battle his assault rifle malfunctioned forcing him to reload it as one would reload a toy shotgun as he took aim and fired on rebel forces who had commandeered a humvee, plowing it into crowds of civilians. Two shots from his rifle resulted in killing the driver with a blow to the back of the head.

Later that night, Corporal SC led the troop in a game of movie charades. Private Riesenberger knew that one soldier's guess of 'James Cagney imitating Bugs Bunny' was incorrect in favor of Edward G. Robinson's portrayal of Rico in Little Caesar.

In the morning, a routine check of his vehicle revealed that the emergency brake gear had been stripped.

SoCal LoCal

At one hotel in San Francisco, Steve asks for directions to the Marriott downtown but learns that it is the hotel's policy not to give directions to other competing hotels.

"What if I get the address to the hotel, then ask you for directions to the street?", he complains, rummaging through his backpack and tattered maps.

Later at a street carnival, Steve tries his luck at a Midway game. The rules state that a thrown ping-pong ball must come to rest atop a square block. He does so and opens the block to reveal a toy goldfish in a bag of water. Steve exchanges this for five more blocks which he then proceeds to open. Each one contains a cheap plastic leaf, some green, some yellow, some of which the barker informs him are 'rare'.

Steve decides to rent a tent and roller coaster from the nearby amusement park. Inside the tent are arcade games and the roller coaster features corkscrews and loops.

Abstraction

Painting hair planaria.

Party Crash

On their way to the parking lot during lunchtime, the team comments on the weather. One member asks, "Where does Summer come from?"

Steve nonchalantly mumbles, "Summer comes from the Summer box." as he leans over a bite of honey-peanut butter sandwich. Then, so as to not spill any of the oozing honey, tilting his head back looking up to the sky he adds, "Then Summer parks in the Summer garage when Autumn is ready to roll."

Car doors open and team members assemble into groups, BM climbs into MT's Subaru. Steve loses the unspoken game of musical cars and the lot is empty save for an old Mercedes - the car is so ancient that the steering mechanism is a single crank that moves side to side instead of a steering wheel.

Steve barely kisses the car in front of him as the weary thin brakes strain against the weight of the car on a gentle slope at a stop light. The caravan arrives at the video game convention as AR is setting up the event.

Glistening shiny Pokemon cards adorn the display cases. "Hong Kong knock offs.", scoffs an onlooker.

Faking The Grade

Under the assumed surname, "Aramwa", Stephen enrolls at the University of California's Santa Barbara Campus and takes up residence at Anacapa hall with his friend TF as a roommate.

A campus-wide game of Assassin comes to his mind as he passes a whiteboard in the dormitory's common room. RH and JP, also residents of the dorm, are still on the list.

Confused as to why he is still enrolled under a false name, Stephen walks into his Discrete Mathematics midterm only to realize that there are many examples he does not know how to do. He spends 75% of the allotted time writing the name 'Riesenberger' on his Nintendo DS Pictochat program in an attempt to transfer the writing to the header of his midterm exam unsuccessfully.

Rainy Days

JL: "You wanna pick up Run DMC tickets? Only five bucks!"
Steve: "Nah. Just take me home please."

The Science-fiction of Technology

iPhones can predict the future with new 'forward-looking' technology.

In the app store, users can click on the 'view future purchases' to enter a date and time in the future and get a list of all the predicted user purchases from the current time until then, with each individual purchase stamped with the time down to the second.

Apple uses this information to forecast sales of the iPhone, as well as when to introduce new versions and upgrades, but it is the iPhone application developers who benefit most from this feature:

From the moment a new application is made available to the masses, at the set pricepoint, an iPhone developer can get a pinpoint accurate forecast (to the year 3000) of all future sales of their application, making planning and allocation of resources far easier than in the days before 'forward-looking' technology! It also goes without saying that developers can choose to adjust the price of their application up or down, and see instantaneous changes in the future purchases of their product in order to fine-tune sales, product longevity, and market penetration.

Google is developing a similar functioning technology called 'hindsight' whereby it intends to alter Apple's iPhone sales figures in the past in an attempt to boost sales of its own smart phone.

Cartoon Cops

Tonight's episode is narrated by MB.

Two coroners enter a stately mansion as Barney Rubble follows after several hours of a hostage stand-off against Skeletor. Under a hail of gunfire, the upstairs foyer went silent. A wide staircase leads upward towards massive double doors which lead through the foyer and into a ballroom.

Upon opening the double doors, Skeletor, who was merely wounded, lunges from behind an ornate bust firing an AK-47 at the group of three screaming, "Diiieee!" as only he can. One of the coroners falls as Barney takes cover outside the doorway. He sprays bullets in the direction of the threat as a weak flashlight flickers from atop the barrel of his assault rifle. Skeletor makes a run for it and Barney decides to rush into the room.

In a flurry of commotion, running, and desperate gunfire, Skeletor reaches the same doorway where the coroner was gunned down. Barney, in true Hollywood B-movie style, hurls his weapon at the fleeing fugitive once he realizes he is out of ammunition and miraculously strikes Skeletor in the solar plexus sending him flying through the first floor atrium and crashing through a closed door.

The villain is pierced through the back upon landing on a closet door knob in a child's bedroom.

80's Movie Montage Mania

Not so much a transformation but manic series of cuts depicting Steve and his desperate attempt at not having his BMX bike stolen during a school assembly.

The sequence takes place while "Fascination" by Company B plays in the background.

At first, arriving in the auditorium while riding the bike, Steve tries to find a suitable place to park it, then leaves it leaning up against the divider to the front half of the auditorium to retrieve his coiled bike lock from his apartment.

Several cuts show an increasingly exasperated Steve leaving the apartment and closing and locking the front door, only to unlock and reopen the door to:
- go to the bathroom
- brush his teeth
- close the refrigerator
- turn off the lights
- check that the oven is turned off

Finally, we see Steve locking up his bike to a water standpipe outside the auditorium. After the school assembly, we see the bike being ridden away, the rider popping wheelies.

This episode of 80's Movie Montage Mania brought to you by The 80's Movie Montage Hall of Fame.

CQC - Contract Quality Control

BS and Steve run test procedures on video game software in an area of the game where the main character speaks a different phrase depending on whether or not he is in shadow or sunlight.

Terrariums

...where we work.

JD and Steve clear out the last of their computer equipment including keyboards and a musical keyboard.

Steve relocates a few stuck-in-the-ground Halloween decorations including a plastic headstone and notices another headstone partially covered by dead grass.

Haiku Triptych

an old red beetle
melts into a mountain bike
on the lake bottom

slow backwards rolling
on a shaky wooden pier
flying then drowning

visiting grandpa
throws my bike in the water
then we eat ice cream

Lord Of The Rings FanFiction

Viewers email story, character and plot ideas in to the show and the best ones are woven into next week's episode.

Frodo, enraged at Gimli's decision to leave the Fellowship with his old dwarven drinking buddies, grabs fistful after fistful of wood from fallen Ents, and, crushing them with The One Ring's imbued super strength, produces glass and semiprecious stones.

Blue Vette Sting

Police officers use the same blue Corvette Stingray over and over as a lure for carjackers.

We watch two teenagers steal the Vette, then pick up their parents' dry cleaning before being caught.

Plates

An ex-con and his two teenage boys run a mobile license-plate customization service.

Returning with lunch, the father sifts through his change of quarters and nickels, noticing each one is older and rarer than the last.

Photoshop Chop Shop

The voice of Leonard Nimoy hosts this show where graphic illustration experts design futuristic vehicles using Adobe's Photoshop image editing computer software in an automotive garage setting.

Steve designs a tandem two passenger car using the rubber stamp tool.

Intermission 5 and 14

In a men's bathroom
during intermission the back half becomes a food court.

A mother enters;
a moviegoer looks over stainless-steel urinals.

Unfortunately
many of the urinals are filled with boiling water

and black gelatin.
Day turns into night at the base of a green ziggurat.

A soccer circle
kicks a ball around. One player has two pointy elbows.

Bicycling away,
Stephen's vehicle transforms into a Jaguar roadster.

Another Jaguar
speeds down a winding mountain road with Stephen pursuing.

Descending into
a clockwise square spiral, the driver of the fleeing car

handsignals his turns.
At the bottom of the spiral is a spacious white room.

On first inspection,
besides gilded chair rails and moldings, there are no exits.

Furniture appears
softly as he susses to himself, "Satan's sitting room."

Another victim,
TS, stands. Two unlit tunnels materialize.

She mutters, "Stephen,
come sit in this room with me. There's a warm fireplace in here."

One last sideways glance
is Stephen's vision of an obsidian mannequin

silently groping
her terrified face, pulling her backwards to nothingness.

More doorways open
outward and Stephen moves through one purposefully to find

a bruised shirtless man
crying. Steve Martin, in the role of Navin R. Johnson,

wields a cardboard axe.
He slashes it at Stephen who says to the dangling man

tied to a dead tree,
"Steve Martin can't hurt me because his name doesn't match mine.

Nor Steven Spielberg."
Stephen finally hides in the top-floor concession stand

on a cargo ship.

---

Intermission - by Ryuta Kawashima's Brain Age

Land Surfers

A bunch of college students drive into the desert in search or rocky and sandy dust bowls.

GB has a roof-mounted skimboard rack. His special formulated wax allows he and his classmates to 'surf' on dry land, over rough terrain and even rocks.

Riding The Rails

Stunt riders perform acrobatic tricks on dangerously busy public transit routes.

Ashton Kutcher wears ski attire and rides a mountain bike along the monorail of the San Francisco Bay Area's BART system.

Onlookers from a nearby parking lot watch as Ashton pops a wheelie while riding on the rail, then falls off only to be caught up in guide wires. The BART train approaches.

Battle And A Convention

This week's Battle is a Pirate on Pirate Hunter affair and the Convention features Classic arcade video games.

Before the Pirate battle, there is a feast arranged in the banquet hall.

During the arcade game convention, CU informs players that the Robotron: 2084 unit contains a modified chipset that plays an RPG version of the game.

Zach Braff Adventures

Dax Shepard impersonates Zach Braff in a myriad number of jack-ass style stunts.

One of them sees Dax at an acupuncturist. The technician intentionally waggles the needle before inserting it into Dax's arm to inflict excruciating pain.

While You Were Showering

A travelling salesman's wife accompanies him on every business trip. They hop from one Marriott hotel to another.

In today's episode, while his wife is showering, all of the locks and deadbolts in the (not-yet-upgraded-to-keycards) hotel are replaced. The salesman leaves for the proverbial bucket of ice and finds the door unresponsive when he returns.

Luckily, his time at a watch and jewelry repair counter in a department store helps him pick the lock with a filed-down allen wrench and paper clip.

Relativity

M. C. Escher whispers, "Don't trip in here or you'll break every bone in your body. Twice!"

Video Game Development 101

In this 9-week class, each student will experience the roles of software engineer, artist, producer, designer, and audio composer.

KH, in his role as engineer, asks current producer JH about the streaming of assets in the game.

"We'll be streaming audio in-game," she replies, "and animations during cut-scenes."

Made Up Games

Tonight's Made Up Game takes place around the escalators in a 3-floor Macy's department store. Adam Carolla sneaks around silently while contestants scavenge grenades off the linoleum-tiled floors. The few who collect the grenades then load them into 8-foot long cardboard tubes. Mr. Carolla needs only to spill a little of his can of Diet Coke in view of a contestant to knock them out of the competition.

Round 2 features stop-motion animator JB as the director of a yoga class. He instructs his students to reach towards their outstretched toes. His eyes languish luxuriously across the long foot of a female student only to be stopped short when they meet with her unpopped-corn-kernel toes.

"Tabasco," he mutters.

Lost Dog Savers

The LDS spy a lady driving a grey Mercedes Benz sedan past a Starbucks. The car slows and the door opens. She shoos a baby daschund out of the passenger door into the gutter.

"Shame on you!" one of the LDS shouts as the grey sedan speeds away.

Hours of investigative detective work lead the trio to an old Chicago apartment complex. A green Volkswagen Beetle zips into the parking lot as they question security. In the evening's dying light, exploring the lifeless landings in the forest of timber staircases feels like tip-toeing through an alien landscape captured within the vacuum of an empty snow globe.

Mall Tour

JR and Dad visit shopping malls around the world.

At a Japanese mall, MC and DR join JR and Dad. Shoppers can rent a Skitter-like shopping 'racer' that has room for one adult and 1 child (with room for purchases). JR and Dad enjoy swiftly coasting through the linoleum-covered floors, dodging walking shoppers and bumping into other Skitter riders.

In pods of eight racers, shoppers can also participate in several video game scenarios by wheeling into brightly lit multicolored elevators.

JR and Dad fight valiantly against their on-screen adversaries along with seven other groups in Skitters. The gameplay consists of quick cuts of Japanese anime styled robots and Power Rangers protagonists battling.

GAME OVER!

It turns out that MC and DR returned their Skitter racer and became separated from JR and Dad. Dad borrows a friendly local's cel phone but is unsuccessful in calling MC's phone, becoming lost in the esoteric menu system.

Dad wheels through corridors, elevators and ramps into a meeting room where BS agonizes over last night's homework assignment entitled '10 most common math mistakes'.

Wild West Arena

Today's contestant is successful in defeating Wild Bill Hickock (played by Sam Elliott) finally finishing him with six shots to the face.

Fog Bank

Each episode begins with Steve waking up in a fog bank, still unclear about his identity.

Braking to a stop in a fast food parking lot, creeping.
Noticing children's silhouettes floating.
Rummaging through car floorboard flotsam for blue jeans fumbling.
Contorting his body reversing.
Inching backwards in a three point turn by a slowly moving car squeezing.
Gazing along the length of an impossibly long green Mercedes limousine barely grazing.
Spying the turquoise Hyundai 3-wheeled Trihawk-inspired coupe wondering.
Following the vehicle the fog lifted in his motorized two-stroke recumbent scooter transforming.
Reaching under the seat to increase speed throttling.
Cruising noisily through early morning school campus covered walkways battery dying.
Coasting slowly to pause at a container of Lysol Disinfecting Wipes opening.
Running joggers pass by thirsty asking.
Hooking up the small battery Steve sees his quarry disappear around a corner skidding.

Big Poppa

Craig Mack and crew rendezvous at the crib around two.

A t-bone steak, cheese eggs, and Welch's grape what they be mackin.

American Orphan in Tokyo

KK, a Japanese girl living in Tokyo, befriends an orphaned American toddler she finds in a parking garage.

A popular tourist shopping mall sits at the top of the parking structure, and the two friends eavesdrop on passersby from underneath a frayed Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade serape.

"They have escorts!" one shopper exclaims.

Dad & Son At The Movies

Today's feature is a 30 minute Alice In Wonderland spoof.

Dad pulls out pocketfuls of quarters and dimes, and arranges them in two dollar-sized piles in order to buy nachos. The cashier stands inappropriately close.

After the show there's always an arcade game to play. Today it is a first-person virtual reality helicopter simulation flying over battlefields in World War II. Dad scoffs at the historical inaccuracy as Nazi machine gun nests open fire on his sickeningly circling gunship. In the next scenario the helicopter is circling inside a hotel courtyard as enemy soldiers stream from inside the rooms.

Black Cube Nickel

The Black Cube Nickel is a federally recognized unit of currency with a face value of 5 cents. It weighs 4 ounces, measures 2 inches on an edge, is made of 100% black aluminum and engraved on 5 of the six sides with Jefferson's profile, the Monticello, and the requisite United States mottos, phrases, date, and mintmark.

The sixth side is missing, allowing exactly 20 'regular' nickels to fit inside a specially-shaped hollow cavity.

Unfortunately, besides it being unique, the Black Cube Nickel is endowed with a mysterious and powerful ancient and foul curse which bestows incredibly bad luck on its owner. Negative effects that have afflicted owners include depression, weakness, loss of appetite, intoxication, memory loss, foul body odor, blindness, physical mutation, rotting flesh disease, arterio-venous malformation, being visited by cyberdemons, and death.

675 Sycamore Drive

Friday and Saturday night parties in a converted office building.

A local collector has set up four transforming gaming machines that look at first like a wheel-less version of Scooby-Doo's Mystery Machine, then open up and expand to reveal 8 San Francisco Rush The Rock linked arcade units.

On a nearby whiteboard a message is scribbled in green dry-erase marker, "There's a BONG on floor 3nd and NOTHING ELSE!" The building is a single-story structure.

Four Reunions and a Wedding

This show combines a four-year high school reunion and the marriage between two of the attendees.

Tonight's show spotlight's the 1988-1991 graduating classes from Leigh High School in San Jose, California. The reunion and wedding take place in an auditorium and we see each graduating class file in following an announcement and roll call.

RB, PC, DG, RP, and Stephen Riesenberger are among a few of the representatives from the Track Team in attendance.

DG's twin toddlers dance to Grover Washington Jr.'s - Just The Two Of Us on top of a table.

0-0-0

The team informs LC that he has a meeting on floor 4.5

French Creative Writing

Eager to discover his grades on the most recent writing assignments, Steve rifles through the pile of graded papers for his own, stopping to gloat to PC over the 'A' he received on his poem on the subject of meat, complete with a cut-out illustration from the cover of Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Searching the stack of papers further, he finds his second poem, a ballad on the subject of his assault on the world-record high score for the video game, Robotron: 2084, and ascending to the rank of 5th place on Twin Galaxies' websites. Even with additional liner notes composed by JG, Steve still only earns a 'B' on the opus.

LTV - Life Television

Amateur video clips are broadcast in 2-3 minute bite-sized ADD-friendly chunks.

Caught on mobile video, a group of teenagers break into an abandoned shack and proceed to cull together ingredients to make Jose Cuervo margaritas.

Later, at a college football game, a group of spectators smoke marijuana cigarettes, not knowing that Mother Nature looks on from the sidelines. Later, she confronts one of the miscreants from inside a glowing coffin.

Finally, a security guard attempts to confuse a Lovecraftian octapus-tentacled demon by turning on showers in the men's locker room. The demon manifests itself as a female torso with impossibly long flowing black hair. The hair follows the flowing water down the drains, clogging them.

The Clarinet Case

The Case is at an airport, in a cab, then on a bus.

One of the twins buys Princess Zelda a new part for her flute.

ALFASBG

Always Late For A Softball Game

Text Adventure Reality TV

A text log scrolls along the bottom of the screen while actors in a Reality TV show carry out the instructions in real-time. In an atrium at the center of the Woltz mansion, a VH tastes a Capri-Sun, decides she doesn't like it, then shoves it into CP's mouth. Steve asks her what her favorite drink is and she responds, "Stoli". Steve exits the atrium to the >EAST and takes a >LOOK around.

A number of men and women are performing yoga in an indoor gymnasium. The female instructor topples. Double doors lead >NORTH

Steve is in a room over a garage. In a corner of the room a dog-nosed boy watches a television as his nanny looks on. "I in here," says the boy. A long hallway leads away to the >WEST

Steve runs down the long hallway, side-stepping the receptionist in a dog-leg of the hall. The hallway bends to the >SOUTH and Steve emerges into an atrium. Doorways lead off in 4 directions. He hears the sound of approaching running footsteps so he decides to jump >DOWN through an opening in the ceiling panels below.

Steve is in the midst of a collection of office cubicles that are tracking the Pogo.com subscriptions of the women on Morgan Street in Flagstaff Arizona. The office workers notice Steve as he remarks, "I just set up my account last week!"

Gameshow Network Scandinavia

On a Swedish gameshow, contestants are challenged to answer questions on geography while riding a bicycle down a street with an enormous electromagnet embedded in the asphalt in order to win a Swatch wristwatch.

During a commercial break, a plumber up the street from where the game is taking place urinates into the sink since the toilet has not yet been installed.

The 88th Wiggly Wayne

That's The Name Of The Game

New Millennia Thriftshop

Mr. KK Ph. D. helps customers with electronic devices in a 21st century Goodwill.

Tonight's episode focuses on aural, visual, and electro-stimulating brainwave entrainment devices and plasma TV's.

Oldfellas

Four Italian-American men - "Fat One" Jimmy Fatone, "Val's husband" Sal, Tommy "Ten Times", and Vinnie "The Barber" Barbarino - in their late 60's have a sit-down meeting to discuss their plans to import deli sandwiches from Italy.

One of them does a Regis Philbin impression to emphasize how 'out of control' the sandwiches are.

At the time of this posting, Abe Vigoda is ALIVE!

Weird Alleys

Steve and PJ take you on a tour of little-known shopping streets in San Francisco. At a corner store there are no signs or welcoming doors. Entering is like letting yourself into an abandoned house. The merchandise is not marked. Browsing the various rooms gives you the feeling of walking through an insane serial killer's home, stepping gingerly on squeaky floorboards and avoiding eye contact with zombielike characters watching television. Squeezing through a boarded-up door on their way out the guard dog barely shuffles.

Day turns instantly to night (or do they wander indoors?) as they stroll teeteringly down the street. The alley is confusingly wide, forcing one to swivel one's head completely around to see the other side. Silent shoppers in ski masks peruse the contents of another store through the front window, deciding whether to enter the dark premises or investigate the new double-headed shopper that has emerged on the street.

A makeshift arcade boasts black-lit garish swirls and patterns, as well as a Whack-a-Elmo game. A sit-down thrill ride entitled "GEEZ" releases its passengers as the barker inside ushers them out with spooky clichés and cackles.

Ad-mageddon

Mervyn's going-out-of-business sales advertisement campaign is a celebration in devastation. Using a post-apocalyptic 'motif' to drive victims of the fallout towards their 'shelters' Mervyn's stores have installed afflicted neighborhoods surrounding stores with destroyed buildings, debris, flaming wreckage, and even actors hired to fill the roles of dead and dying victims.

When potential customers walk or drive past these 'fallout' survivors, the actors are armed with flyers and discount coupons redeemable at the stores.

Emergent Sporting

Tonight's show focuses on the combination of competitive Water Polo and Hacky Sack.

The new rules of the sport require the players to tread water to remain off the bottom of the pool as in Water Polo, but the opposing goals are both underwater, as is the ball for the majority of the game. Athletes pass the ball, which is a cross between the Hacky Sack and a Water Polo ball; its buoyancy is governed by fluid inside the ball. Athletes are prohibited from using their hands or forearms to contact the ball.

During an exhibition match, a spectator falls into the pool, remarking that only 3M's Mucilage glue would feel stickier than the water in the pool.

CSI Anytown

JL, owner of 'Fly By Night' helicopter pilot training school is under investigation after a motorist dials 911 after seeing two of his school's single-seater helicopters (which resemble Air Hogs toy helicopters) plummet from the sky over the freeway.

One of the small helicopters slammed straight into the pavement, bursting into flames, while the other one sped off. Even as the motorist was on the phone with 911, JL arrived on the scene and began painting the pavement nearby with gasoline.

The remains of the bright green helicopter, along with its pilot were burned into ash before emergency services could arrive. The pilot of the bright yellow chopper has not been located.

Flats

Host Simon Cowell drives on a congested downtown London street and smells the unmistakable aroma of marijuana smoke. The source of the odor is a convertible Mini Cooper taxi: its rear-facing backseat passenger is smoking the drug through cotton balls.

Wending his way to a friend's apartment, Simon waltzes through the tiled foyer and relaxes on a couch watching the telly. A German cooking show appears. In the background in the kitchen on the show is a do-it-yourself rolling polished nickel shelf unit laden with bread-loaf-sized bricks of Switzerland cheese. This is odd because it is an exact replica - brick for brick - of the bread-loaf-sized cheese-brick-laden rolling polished shelf unit in the kitchen not 5 meters away from where Simon is sitting.

Hidden Message

Right now
all people are at peace 
just imagine if that statement were true
even if only for
split seconds - 
how could we be more careless?

Could such an
unimaginable sentiment,
rightfully impossible, 

ever become a

distant reality?

Could it be that in
another time or place
never before
conceived by mortal man
each being can finally achieve the
respite that he or she seeks?

--

This message brought to you by Bayer Aspirin!

Good Deed Doers

PC and AS, two brothers from Compton, attend a local street fair and agree to look after a vendor's booth while she goes for a jog around the block.

They sell $1 bottles of Arrowhead water as well as many of her beaded earrings and necklaces laid out on a small ironing board.

Fantasy Resort

This reality show spotlights a fake tropical resort on beachfront property in Los Angeles county. White sandy beaches with palm trees, bamboo bungalows right up to the water's edge complete with Jacuzzi tubs and fireplaces greet vacationers.

Their journey begins at the airport where they are picked up by a shuttle van which takes them to an office building service elevator, then to the roof where they board a helicopter. The chopper deposits them in a clearing near a small lagoon where they walk down a pier and climb into a catamaran. Actors dressed in Polynesian accessories paddle them towards the fictitious resort compound.

Brought to you by Duraflame firelogs.

How We Roll

JC and STV kick it in their garage with a 20-year-old friend. JP rolls in with their project car: a lavender 2008 Scion XD. While JC pours Bacardi liberally into a plastic tumbler, STV remarks, "Just one or two drinks this time." (meaning drinks of water)

Later, STV remarks to JP that he registered to vote at an elementary school near JP's house.

MP's, MH's & Steve's OK Journey

While attending a sales and marketing meeting at a hotel in New York City, Steve finds three Gibson guitar picks and passes them out to his two co-workers commenting on how 'lame' the whole trip has been.

At that very moment, his two coworkers suddenly morph into MH and MP, two of his friends from high school! Awestruck at how this could have happened, they convene at a Denny's restaurant across the street to figure things out.

Steve explains, "I remember getting into a cab and hearing the driver ask, 'Are you guys buzzin' yet?' to which I remarked, 'We're gonna DO stuff!' at which point some weird space-time continuum crap happened that you only see in the movies. That's when I remember finding the guitar picks and handing them to KM and RH, and then they transformed into you two."

"Well then," says MP, "we'd better call up IS."

Driving Hazards

This week's show focuses on dangerous bridges. Steve drives a Mark I Mini across a multi-lane bridge in Scotland during a rainstorm. With rain-slicked roads and grades approaching 40 degrees, the Mini soon loses traction and slides like a hockey puck into oncoming traffic!

So You Think You Can Dance Some More

Winner of So You Think You Can Dance's 2008 season, Joshua Allen, makes a guest appearance and performs with another male dancer to country singer Craig Morgan's "Tough".

This New House

Today's project is a Jacuzzi in the basement of the RC home. A bare dirt hole is in the process of being dug in the corner of the dark, unfinished basement. Along one wall, we can see open ventilation pipes and ducts and hear strange echoes of sounds - like a sick wolf's cry and alien babies - carried from other parts of the house.

Host FM, whose claim-to-fame is the Hoop It Up 3-on-3 World Tour Arcade redemption game, shows us through the owner's bedroom: it contains not one but two bunkbeds and a stereo plays the Dance Dance Revolution original game soundtrack.

EA Sports FIFA 2008 - Austria vs. Poland

The world's brightest video game players compete online in real-time playing Electronic Arts' FIFA 08 video game.

Stephen Riesenberger represents Austria and AM plays for Poland in this red-on-white on white-on-red matchup.

Feeling Marsala

Early morning before work, Steve is awakened by the sound of a car pulling up on the street outside his 2nd story apartment bedroom window - it sounds like his Honda Civic. Looking out the window, he notices that it's a white Toyota RAV4 instead.

He rises, stopping to deliver a stuffed monkey to JL, explaining that the reason that it smells like cigars is that he'd been keeping it inside a cigar box, "Just ask for their empties," he suggests. Then later, following her to the bathroom, he asks for the transcript of last night's presidential debate while she sits (clothed) on the closed toilet.

At work at Electronic Arts Los Angeles, Steve jokes to RH about following MM, saying, "It might turn into a free lunch." However, MM relays an important mission, one that involves a terrorist plot to bomb the cafeteria, and Steve's new assignment to assassinate the bomb carrier while en route by staking out the reflecting pool.

Steve arms himself with 12 finger rockets.

Acquaintances

After discussing the gameplay, sightlines, vantage points, affordances, and potential for carnage in the Venetian gondola area of the Countries-of-the-World-themed first-person-shooter deathmatch level - using virtual reality helmets to visualize the layout and commenting on the giant animated gong complete with sound effects (and stretched 3D rigging) in the Asian area - Steve and MH play soccer with a half-peeled Haas Avocado.

Later, while trying to locate a radiator cap at a Raley's supermarket, then waiting in line at the sushi counter, Steve runs into ML, RH, and PC (who is curiously working at the credit union inside the store) standing around a Japanese San Francisco Rush 2049 - offroad truck version arcade cabinet with HD flatscreen display complaining about the machine's inability to accept quarters.

Role Models

RH rolls up to the motel in his faded red pickup truck, pulling into a space in the gravel parking lot. SK and JB invite him into their room to watch a Japanese kaiju anime video under the pretense that they're getting into character for upcoming roles.

RH's mother confronts her tenant next door, demanding a letter of intent. On the TV set in the living room is the making of footage from a Crest toothpaste commercial. In it, an actor in a giant ape costume rampages through a miniature mock downtown skyscraper set.

Mr. Moms

While dropping off his kindergartners early one morning, CW runs into FK in an empty classroom, watching a football game on an old weathered black-and-white TV set.

The Chicago Bears are up 2-0. Somehow the ancient television has a built-in digital video recorder that captures the picture, static and all.

A Man's World

TB is a journalist researching sexual discrimination in the world of automotive sales. Today he's finally gotten the hand of walking in heels.

He carries a granite paper weight in one hand, cel phone to his ear with his left, as he walks up and down the street trying to remember where he parked his 2008 Infiniti G37 Coupe, trying to ignore the curious stares he gets from passersby.

He recalls his trip to Beijing where he got the same reaction, only without the wig, dress, and high-heeled shoes.

Star Trek Union

Two new elementary school employees - a Klingon and a Ferengi from Star Trek : The Next Generation - demand special holiday pay for cultural and religious celebrations.

Need a Penny?

Steve is an eccentric billionaire who travels across the country visiting convenience stores and chatting with cashiers, routinely starting the conversations over the 'need a penny' receptacle placed on the counter near the cash registers.

At one 7-Eleven store, he encounters a World War II veteran and they talk for several minutes about history while Steve sorts through the change in the 'need a penny' cup.

The discovery of a 1913 Cent prompts further investigation of the cash drawer. This search reveals a Walking Liberty Half Dollar and a worn Mercury Dime stamped onto a copper Penny blank.

The veteran is rewarded with a check in the amount of ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred ninety-nine dollars and thirty-nine cents.

Life Detour

A young couple drive down a familiar frontage road in the middle of the day and encounter a new detour. A police cruiser parked off to one side of the road accompanies a barricade.

As the husband rolls to a stop to speak with the officer stationed there a tan Ford Expedition rolls to a stop on the opposite side of the detour.

The passenger emerges from the vehicle doubled over in pain and - leaning against the barricade for support and the police officer for moral support - she quietly cries, humiliated, as the young couple take in the scene.

Undergraduates

At the gym, JH and SB do their core training together. The usual banter turns awkward as JH attempts to conceal his true feelings for her.

Tearing across campus on his Specialized Fat Boy BMX bike, SC arrives early to his Philosophy class, sweating the take-home quiz he spaced on. Glancing over the first question, he surveys the variables: an elephant, a crowd, an ostrich, a sand box, and a soccer ball. Students arrive as class starts. The professor immediately dismisses the class and SC hops in an 80's Honda Civic and cruises across the quad, down the stairs diagonally and passes another student coming out of a restaurant.

The two strangers share the exact same thought at that moment, that of, "I wonder if God ever gets angry over petty misunderstandings."

Wedded Bliss

After ignoring the hole in their fitted sheets for weeks, the couple awakens one morning to find the sheet split into four quadrants, still clinging to their king size Sealy Posturepedic mattress by the elastic strap.

The husband tears off the shredded remnants of the bedding when the wife complains of tripping over it during her midnight bathroom visit.

Urban Wilderness

Spiders infest the local high school.

In the boy's locker room, a basketball player finds two spiders have crawled into his New Balance sneakers. He reaches down to squash the one as it rests motionless atop his foot and realizes as he presses down on it that it is a deadly Black Widow!

A computer-generated extreme close up shows the spider's fangs pressing through his sock and against his flesh. Drawing in a nearly silent choking gasp, he mentally plays out the entire scenario of being bitten - his body reacting to the venom, and the subsequent rush to an emergency room screaming in agonizing pain - then holds his breath for what seems like minutes as he deftly removes his shoe, brushes the spider away with it, then squashes it flat with the sole.

Inspecting the second spider closely, he notices it is a common Wolf Spider. Leaving nothing to chance, he executes the second arachnid in similar fashion as the first.

The bell rings for the next class.

Harvest Nights

A farmhand precariously places pieces of a broken-down stainless steel Frigidaire refrigerator together and is startled by the sound of livestock grunting in their sleep as it echoes from the barn wall behind him.

Achtung Fleisch!

An American documentary crew is thrown in an Austrian jail for attempting to bribe a police officer with a Harris Ranch 12 oz. rib eye steak.

The Scavengers

SC and Steve scour over remnants in a church rummage sale, eating Pringles potato chips.

Laid out on a card table are several 'stretched' coins; Steve finds a penny with two tails and proceeds to trick SC out of his chips, flipping the Lincoln Memorial over and over until he fumbles a catch and the fake coin goes rolling.

The boys chase the penny into a dark dusty corner and they both spy it there, tails again of course.

Taco & Lifto

The boys, Taco and Lifto, find an abandoned red MG Midget and take turns pulling it down the street.

Taco powerslides the car like a shopping cart through the T-intersection on their street and slams the driver's side wheels into a curb.

The two wheels are folded underneath the chassis, 'tacoed' as both friends erupt with peals of laughter.

Under Construction

JD unexpectedly leaves the company. None of his coworkers have any idea why and a succinct email message offers no more information: "I'm leaving."

MS returns from Home Depot with his crew of dudes in bright orange jackets.

Detective Story

A mysterious white panel van (not a Ford Econoline) attempts to elude our heroes.

At the conclusion of a high-speed chase, it is spotted in the parking lot of a run-down apartment complex.

Pilot

Welcome to Seventies Television!

Bits and pieces of Steve's dreams turn into 70's TV shows.

Sponsored by Electronic Arts, and the Courier font.