April is a milestone for me as I welcomed my birthday as a time to look back and reflect on what I have accomplished this past year. When we started TBS I didn’t know how long it would last, if people would enjoy reading it and how far it would reach to the community as a whole. I have been touched (emotionally!) by so many people, have met many community members in person and I look forward to meeting many more this upcoming year. With this said, I am pleased to see that we have reached so far into the community that we have not only expanded our reader base, but have also, once again, expanded our staff.

As you may have noticed, we also have one more big change – we went web based! When Tim (Surplus Talent) joined TBS at the very beginning as an editor and writer, I knew he was also bringing along many hidden talents. He talked about his interests in brewing beer (and drinking it) and photography but failed to mention the most amazing one; the ability to convert TBS into this wonderful web based ‘zine. We couldn’t have done it without him and his knowledge continues to astonish me. Now we just need to get him back into writing articles again…. Kiki has poured her blood, sweat, and tears into the ‘zine this month as well. From editing to getting new staff for the magazine and basically covering the areas I can’t keep up with, without her I would be lost. Thanks girl!

As I mentioned, we have new staff to introduce this edition. Pinksage has been doing most of the graphics for the magazine on her own for the past five months so we were lucky to find kwynn in the GamerchiX forum and she offered her graphics skills to help ease the load. kwynn was thrown into the ‘zine right away this month and made her graphical début on TBS doing the graphics for fatherwags article, “While My Plastic Guitar Gently Weeps”. She deserves a big thank you as well as she stepped up to work with Tim on getting everything graphically ready for our web ‘zine début. We have three new contributors to our staff as well. Absolute Tara waxes poetical about golf and shooters, a must read. Watch for her name in future editions of TBS. Koolaye joined us this month to write the podcast feature. Thank you Koolaye and we look forward to future articles with you. PMS Harlequin decided to tackle a three part series about the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX), since she has never been. Make sure to check out the article to find out more about what PAX is and what to expect. She will be working with Frag Monger (an experienced PAX attendee) to give a newbies insight to PAX.

Speaking of PAX - I attended PAX for the first time last year and it was an experience I will never forget. Almost as soon as it was over I was plotting and planning next years trip (this years now) so that I could enjoy the event to the fullest. This year PAX takes place on Labor Day weekend in Seattle, and will most likely be attended by more then the 37,000 gamers that went last year. Last year; Kiki, mulderseque, pinksage, and myself were all there in attendance from The Blue Skittle and met so many amazing people. Kiki and I had put together a Pre-Pax “get together” dinner at The Cheesecake Factory and had a turn out of about 20 people (this was very casual and we weren’t sure who would actually want to hang out with us!). It was the first time either of us had attended PAX and we were excited and nervous about meeting everyone, but it was a great way to start PAX! We both decided last year that we were going to do this as an annual event.

So we are pleased to announce Ooopy’s and Kiki’s 2nd Annual Pre Pax Party! It will take place on Thursday August 28th, 2008 at the Tap House Grill from 8pm - 11 pm. This is a community event and will be a pre-sold ticketed event (no tickets at the door). It will also be a first-come first-buy basis. Tickets go on sale May 1st, 2008 via The Blue Skittle or Gamertag Radio. For details, check out the forums at The Blue Skittle or Gamertag Radio

One last note… We will be updating things on the site as we finish the transition so please be patient if you see something is missing, or drop me a message at ooopy@theblueskittle.com and I’ll be sure to look into it.

Thank you again for your support. Much love and respect!

Ooopy