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Final Reminder: Funde Razor Tonight

I feel like I’d be remiss in my duties if I didn’t remind everyone that tonight, December 10th, is that magical time of year known as Funde Razor. Allow me to explain—once a year in December, the gamers of America’s major metropolitan areas gather for a night of rhythm action and charity auctioning, with all the proceeds going to brighten the lives of sick children through Penny Arcade’s Child’s Play.

Okay, so it’s really just an excuse to drink a lot of beer and sing Eye of the Tiger in public, which is something I do pretty much every weekend anyway. But it’s a really good excuse, what with the helping children and spirit of the holidays and all. And there’s stuff to win in contests and raffles, from Castlevania whips to signed games and typically awesome grand prizes. While this year’s grand prizes haven’t been announced, last year you had the chance to win a gigantic Weighted Companion Cube plush toy. By the end of the night it was only humped by two or three really drunk guys, so that’s a pretty good deal.

A picture of last year's prize is after jump.

Brandon Crisp's Family Sets Up a Charity For...Sports?

The grieving parents of Brandon Crisp plan to set up a charity in their son's name. If you're familiar with the life and death of Brandon Crisp (and if you're not, welcome to Earth), you might be curious about this. It's not unusual for loved ones to set up charities in the names of those loved and lost, though the cause usually relates to the deceased's death. Parents who lost a child to cancer might set up a charity that benefits research, for example. Or a wife who lost her husband to a drunk driver might solicit donations for other victims.

Brandon's charity is meant to raise money for underprivileged children who wish to play sports. It's an odd choice, to be sure. If it were me, I'd want money put towards research and cures for addiction. Still, it didn't strike me as completely off the mark: organised sports cost a lot of money to play. This is especially true for heavy-equipment games like hockey, which (true to the stereotype) is enormously popular in Canada among boys Brandon's age.

The person who alerted me to the story thinks the charity has a different, though unspoken, purpose. Namely, "Get kids away from video games and into sports."

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.