Tabletop Gaming Pieces by ECityBlues from the Seattlest Flickr pool. more ›

GAMES (AND THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE/PLAY THEM): If you're a gamer, then you've already planned to spend your entire weekend around the convention center for the Penny Arcade Expo. What better way to spend the last days of summer than indoors playing the latest and upcoming games, talking to developers and hearing gamer-friendly music? It's officially sold out, but it never hurts to try. If that doesn't work, there's always PAX East in March. Convention Center, Friday-Sunday. more ›

• DCist reported live from the Democratic National Convention.
• Bostonist tasted the best heirloom tomatoes in the city.
• Torontoist featured some of their favorite photos of an extraordinary summer for the city's weather, with huge storm clouds, apocalyptic sunsets, double rainbows, and stunning lightning strikes the norm rather than the exception.

Saturday we made it back to PAX with the idea of spending the day in panel discussions. We of course ended up wandering the grounds taking everything in again (the people watching is nothing short of epic), playing more games in the exhibition hall, and only made it to a couple of panels before calling it a day. more ›

Seattlest took a break from the HQ today to head down for some early time at the Penny Arcade Expo. We wanted to get our pass and our bearings a bit before the bulk of the crowds arrived, and it's shaping up to be quite the weekend. Lines were already long, crowds were building, and the swag was flowing freely. It's nerd nirvana, and you won't want to miss out. more ›

GAMERS GONE WIRED: sudo apt-get PAX-10!!!!11one1!! The gamer convention of the year is upon us. On Friday, "Girls and Games: The Growing Role of Women in the Game Industry" at 4:30 p.m. caught our eye. On Saturday, "Is Casual Killing Core Games?" at 6 p.m. sounded interesting. Ken Levine of BioShock fame delivers the keynote address on Friday night, and there will be music and LAN parties! Ahhh, we just had a nerdgasm. more ›

Bumbershoot has completely dominated the press this week, but for gamers, this weekend holds importance because of the Penny Arcade Expo, the gaming convention run by the local crew behind gaming/geek culture comic Penny Arcade. The Penny Arcade Expo (aka PAX) starts tomorrow (tonight if you include the pub crawl), marking the the fifth anniversary of the event, and as with every prior year, it looks to be the largest yet, with an expected 45,000 gamers flooding the Convention Center. Seattlest experienced the geekery first-hand two years ago, and we're diving into the madness again this year. more ›