So Pete and I have found many, many duos and pairings with which to compare ourselves over the course of our friendship. I still prefer the pairing of Danny and Casey from Sports Night, even though it's woefully unrepresentative of how cool, how witty, and how romantically successful we really are. Still it matches our aspirations, and that goes a long way.

But while we often compare ourselves to duos who are well-oiled machines, we also have a long-standing tradition where Pete says something, I verbally cut him down with the speed and efficiency of a Matrix-bred combine harvester, and he sputters and tells me how much he hates me. This is called "fun". Years ago I vetoed the use of the phrase "I'll kill you", which led to the codification of the acronym SUIHY, or "Shut up, I hate you". Peter, however, has always preferred "I"ll kill you", which has led to its recent revival, including threats involving an axe, or how he'll deliberately invite in the inevitable horde of attacking zombies, just so he'll be zombified first and experience the joy of feasting upon my flesh.

So he was well-chuffed when he discovered this recent Penny Arcade comic where Gabe is able to hasten Tycho's death merely by wanting it hard enough. And since Pete — in the spirit of good fun — really wants me dead, he showed me the strip and told me to watch out for any future nosebleeds. I informed him that I regularly have nosebleeds, especially in the Spring, and it would therefore be difficult to attribute to him and his malicious will any bloody expulsions from my nasal passages.

Regardless, it was still rather creepy when I sneezed today and the predictable happened.