Come on in heeeeeere…. It’s Halloween night and there’s an insane painting running around. Enjoy this incredibly scary Halloween-type cartoon from Homestar Runner.

(I also thought Bubs was Schneider from One Day at a Time.)

Use your anger in a positive way and play Cubicle Freakout. As you can tell from the picture, you can look pretty crazy when you loose your temper. I don’t know about the re-playability of this game, but at least it’s something to get your mind off that TPS report you’re working on while sitting in that tiny cubicle. Or just take a nap.

(With that fuzzy hair and big eyes, he reminds me of the Honeycomb Craver.)

Enjoy this entertaining short film that reminds me of when Agent Smith, in the Matrix, compares humanity to a virus. The animation is pretty cool and it gets you to thinking.

It’s almost Halloween so be sure that you’ve got your pumpkins ready! Like last year, you can find some entertaining stencils at Homestar Runner. You can also find a lot more templates and designs to decorate your pumpkin here, here or here. If you don’t have a pumpkin, don’t like getting messy or hate killing an innocent pumpkin, try carving your very own Virtual Pumpkin!

From my own personal apocalypse to the more fun kind. Over at the official Fallout site, they’ve recently added the second of their series of Fallout Diaries. There’s some super concept art of some cool industrial hardware. The Pip-Boy 3000 is still a work-in-process, but I do like what I see so far. It’s that fun, simple, grimey look that we’ve come to enjoy in the Fallout series. I just can’t wait for this game!

Well you might have wondered why the site has been down for the last few days and here’s why. Between the maintenance update that my service provider ran which ransacked most of my data and then my complete attention to all these fires which still rage around us, I just decided to leave it down. We’re still in between several wild fires, that are barely contained as we sit inside with the windows shut, in the smoke filled air. (I feel like a smoked piece of meat.) We’ve not been evacuated yet, but it is still possible with the uncertainty of these fires and the wind.

Being stuck in the house since Sunday, I got a little tired of watching the non stop news about the fires and decided to try to fix up the site. If you notice anything broken or missing on the site, please let me know. I had some backups and am waiting for more to be found.

My family and I have been safe so far. Let’s hope for the best.

Every once in a while a cartoon comes along with the most amazing skateboarding animation ever. After watching the animated cat throw down giant kickflips, you will weep with unbearable joy. The new Kleeman and Mike cartoon from Randall Christopher is out and it’s a laugh riot! Be sure to check out the ‘making of’ section too. (There are subtitled versions available on the site: English, Spanish, Japanese.) Psssssssssssssssssssssssssssssst, dude. Order me a carne asada burrito.

Take action - Kleeman and Mike for Africa 2007! Everyone who donates will get a DVD of the new cartoon (with a nice case) and the new KnM sticker pack.

Rainbow Monster - It’s a two minute long animation based on kaiju inspired characters created by Paul Shih. Enjoy this colorful, silly little clip about “You are what you eat…” The rocking music featured in this cartoon was done by some talented Belgian musicians DimDim and Yoummie! It’s pretty catchy.

As if World War Hulk wasn’t popular enough, Marvel has created a new ongoing series that starts January 2008 - THE HULK #1! Writer Jeph Loeb and artist Ed McGuinness are joining forces in this all new Hulk series. I guess we’ll just have to wait until next year to find out why the Hulk is red. Perhaps he’s boiling with rage or has a sunburn, but he looks to have taken it to a whole new level. Is this Hulk going to be stronger or have new abilities? I’m definitely going to collect this new comic series!

Kdice is a free, online, turn-based, strategy game that you play on your browser and is like a simplified version of Risk. The goal of the game is to control the highest number of territories on the map at the end of the game. Now I’ve not played this game yet, but it’s been around for a couple of years and has over 70,000 registered players, so I imagine the game is pretty good and probably addictive.

Note: I’m really big into games of strategy, chance and psychology. Plus the geek in me is also interested in this game as it is an Ajax-based Flash game built using the Google Web Toolkit. That’s some nice programming.

word!=art is an artful play on words. The words themselves become part of the subject in the artwork. Clever, witty and creative, this word art is kind of like a game in which the point is manipulating words and their meaning. It’s fun with words.

If you went to grade school (in the US) after the mid 70’s you might remember a computer game called The Oregon Trail. It was a game designed to teach students about the harsh realities of 19th century pioneer life on the trail to Oregon Territory. (The primary learning objective of the game is to develop decision-making skills with changing and sometimes unforeseen conditions.) Marion Vitus made a great comic that will help you relive your fond memories as a child, playing this crazy game.

The Simpsons Game features a hilarious, sprawling and brain-busting storyline based on the popular TV show. To help the Simpsons battle through the levels, gamers must journey through Springfield and other well known locations from the show. The ever talented writers from the show packed this game with parodies and satire of the video game industry, pop culture and current events. The game comes out this November and you’ll find a version of it for whatever platform you play. WooHoo!

I’m not sure if I’ll be getting the Wii or the Nintendo DS version of this action-comedy game, but either way I don’t expect to come close to finishing the game. The special powers that each of the Simpsons characters have look pretty clever. I like the Homerball which has a bloated Homer rolling around a la Katamari Damacy.

I’ve not gotten far into The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, but the many hours I have played it I have found it to be entertaining, mildly challenging and I’m enjoying the fantastic gameplay. It’s got all the Zelda-styled exploration, treasure hunting, questing and puzzles we’ve come to love in this series. If you have a Nintendo DS, you should get this game.

The gameplay is structured similarly to it’s predecessors in the The Legend of Zelda series and yet it still feels like a whole new game. Playing relies solely on taps and swipes of the stylus on the touch screen in truly innovative ways. It takes a bit of practice to control Link’s actions using only your stylus, but it’s that interaction with the game that makes it so much fun. Using the stylus to run around, scribble on the map, throw stuff and slash at the bad guys is a blast. This is a deeply engaging epic adventure game and a highly recommended must buy! It’s back to the game for me!

Here’s something more scary. When I first saw the pictures that Shawn from Branded in the 80’s posted, for his Halloween Contest, a warm feeling of nostalgia flowed over me. The vinyl record release of Halloween Horrors from 1977 was part of my collection many, many years ago. A-side has a short ghost story to get you in the Halloween mood and B-side has loads of spooky sounds to scare the snot out of you.

Back in the day, I used to play B-side when kids came to the door for Halloween candy. It might have been scarier if the record didn’t have all those clicks, pops and crackles. Perhaps if I had just showed them the record sleeve it would have scared them more. (The lone lit window in that haunted mansion always invoked a fear of the unknown for me.) Even if the kids were easier to scare in those days, it’s hard to scare them with a 78 (rpm record). What’s up with kids these days?

Enter the “Branded in the 80’s” Halloween contest and download the ghoulish record.