Those of you on my Twitter feed know what a difficult time I had getting today’s strip made. Not only did my MacBook Pro malfunction and need to be taken to the Apple Store for repairs, but my hard drive died last night, too. Fortunately, no data was lost in either case and Apple got my laptop back to me in time to do this strip. Maybe a virtual Abraxas is running through my system, chomping on wires and wreaking havoc.

Anyway, today’s strip is for all my Pokémon playing JEFbot readers out there. With a recent stint playing Pokémon Platinum and anticipation for the upcoming HeartGold and SoulSilver editions of the game on the DS, it’s no wonder Pokémon has seeped into the strip, as it is wont to do at times. Will this finally be the solution to get jefbot and the Cornfather unstuck, or is this just an excuse for jefbot to get back in touch with cel? Both, perhaps? Would she even know what to make of his pokémail if she gets it? With this storyline wrapping up, expect answers soon!

Also, my mom just celebrated another spin around the sun yesterday! Happy Birthday, Mombot!

UPDATE!: The Marathon’s over and the guys caught all 493 Pokémon and raised over $18,000 for Ally’s House charity! That’s over $3000 more than their target! Amazing work, guys.

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The guys over at TheSpeedGamers.com are attempting to raise $15,000 for Ally’s House, a charity which helps kids with cancer and their families, by catching every Pokémon in the Nintendo Gameboy and DS games within 72 hours. This is no simple feat, I know, as it literally took me several weeks of playing and trading Pokémon with friends back in the 90s to capture the then-complete Pokédex of 151. Today, there are 493 Pocket Monsters to be caught, spread out over several games. What a cool way to raise money for a good cause while playing an awesome game, right?

As I write this, they’ve been playing for 33 hours, have raised a little over $7000 and caught 227 Pokémon and counting. If you’d like to help TheSpeedGamers make their goal and/or see the live feed of their progress, head on over to TheSpeedGamers.com before the marathon ends. Pika!

So if the previous strip with Mombot showcased how videogames can be used as a learning tool and force for good, then today’s strip reveals how they can have the exact opposite effect when used as a force for misinformation and lies.

As many of you know, Charles Darwin was born 200 years ago last Thursday (February 12, 1809 – 2009) and I just wanted to commemorate that occasion with a strip. I also wanted to draw some Pokémon and explore the theme from the previous strip a bit more, so it all fell together nicely. Check out the Natural History Museum’s Darwin200 site for info about Darwin’s contributions to science and humanity, and events celebrating his birthday.

Yeah, I’ll be buying Pokémon Mystery Dungeon 2 (probably Explorers of Darkness) when it comes out this week. Unfortunately, I won’t be playing it until I finish Pokémon Diamond, one of the previous games in the series. At least that’s what I’ve been telling myself. I really, really like Diamond, but as usual with the “main games” in the series, I get obsessed with minutiae like planting seeds to accumulate berries, getting “Japanese” pokémon online for the kanji, and basically “catching them all” which distracts me from finishing the actual quest.If anyone has a decent Gible (preferably Japanese) and wants to trade, I’ve got a cute Pachirisu looking for a nice home.