Okay, so maybe not everyone has a box of “Darke Magicks” like jefbot in today’s strip, but I know from the comments of at least a few of you readers that you disguise your boxes with codenames and symbols. So what are you guys hiding? The suspicious, untrustworthy parts of my brain made me codename my boxes of vintage game consoles and games, Blu-ray/DVD/Laserdisc collection, random gadgets and even some old t-shirts from the ’80s. Never know when you’re gonna get a mover who’s a thief/t-shirt connoisseur.
What clever names!
I usually mark my boxes very clearly and honestly. YMMV, I guess.
yeah, i kind of enjoy giving my boxes secret names, Insectoid. it’s only a problem when i discover the boxes in my closet years later, and have no idea what’s in ’em or what their codenames mean.
and check you out: you got the first comment, which means you get the Shades of Firsting! not that i need to explain this to you since you got the Shades last month, too, but regardless, wear them well: these allow you to divine the true nature of all symbols and code words, even those delving in “Darke Magicks”:
😎
I stay up too late. Bad habit of mine. 😎
me too. we must break this habit.
I don’t call it “Dark Magicks”, but I do have a box almost exactly like the one Cornfather’s holding…mine are mostly DVDs and magazines. I think I covered the main contents with a layer of shoes to throw off trackers.
Usually my boxes are clearly labeled with “Books: Apartment” or “Crafting Supplies: Storage”. I do have one, buried in the storage unit, marked “Pretties” and another marked “Shinys”. Those have my fandom related items, like my Babylon 5 figurine collection and my unassembled Starfury…I should dig that out…
I’m up too late too…Spring Break, yay!
i’m not sure which box i’m more intrigued by: your box with the items that are covered with shoes to throw off trackers or the one with the B5 figurines and… unassembled Starfury. *drool* i have most, if not all, the figurines (along with a bunch of the ones with the variant colors) but i don’t have a Starfury. wow. just wow. now back to your other box… 😉
enjoy your Spring Break!!! (yay!)
now i should be going to bed, since i have to be up early for work tomorrow. (boo!)
There’s only a couple of the Babylon 5 figurines that I don’t have, and in my defense, the Shadow Sentient is VERY hard to find and VERY expensive whenever it does flash across my radar. And I’m considering putting together that Starfury (with Commander Ivanova’s insignia across it) as a depressurizing project over the rest of the semester. And my other box…well, its contents are varied and quite interesting, and quite a few are signed by the…working girls therein.
Thanks! Hopefully, the rest will be more interesting than today, what with the almost-fainting from poor food intake and hot water changes. >_< Annoying, to say the least.
Yes, get some sleep! I plan on turning in pretty soon myself. Sleeping to 1 pm is only fun if that's more than eight hours after I fell asleep. 😉 Night!
i’m still jealous of your Starfury, T – i’ve been busy with getting ready for/exhibiting at WonderCon for the past several days, but hoping to see your progress on Facebook when i get a chance. (i’m currently in an FB-blocked environment at the moment.) hope your depressurizing attempt went well!
now get some food, water and rest! 🙂
I have alot of shiny things too…
Hey we have something in common, then.
I love things that ar….
OoOh, SHINY!
*runs off*
Wow, I’m boring.
All I have to hide is some vintage costume jewelry I don’t want the kids to get into and a couple of hardcopy (cough) books they’re too young to read. They’ve already devastated my Justice League stuff (except for Question — no one touches Mommy’s Question figurine).
I figure by the time they’re old enough to realize there’s a top shelf to the closet and tall enough to reach (with some help from the same chair I use), they’ll be mature enough to be gentle with the jewelry and won’t be scarred for life by the books.
It’s a working theory.
ha! i’m happy to hear you have boundaries with your figurines (at least for Question), Sarah W – i pretty much had to tell my niece when she was a kid that everything in my room was off limits!
and i hope your “working theory” works out!
mmmm…internet
yummy. 🙂
Morning BOTiverse!
OK so I start out marking my boxes fairly and honestly. “Book Shelf, heavy, glass figures, handle with caution.” Sometimes I even list the major items on a sheet of paper taped to the outside. You know…
Glass Tea Pot
Asst. Teacups and Saucers
I end up with stuff like:
Craft room!
Misc.
Handle with care.
Go Through
Translation: “Last day of the move, shoving s**t into boxes, Badness knows what’s in here, Where the H-E double hockey sticks is the cat?!”
I ship stuff for a living so no one is getting into the boxes without a boxcutter or without ripping off a lot of tape! And usually the stuff I don’t want people to see stays with me anyway so there’s no problem there. Not..that I uh…you know…ummm have anything to….ya know….hide or uh anything. *points in the distance* What was that?!
morning, Pixie!
happy to hear you don’t have a box marked “cat” when you run out of time and start tossing stuff into boxes. heheh. and i’m sure i’m just being paranoid by labeling boxes with code words, but, ya know – better safe than sorry! especially when it comes to my most precious, nerdy things.
also surprised to find out you don’t have any… ya know… “stuff” to hide or anything. cuz i thought… of all people, that you’d have some… uh… you know… *turns head quickly* wait! what was that!? *runs off-screen*
Please.
Everyone knows that you two are talking about the “stuff” that’s on the memory stick in the…
Oh, Look! A distraction!
*Runs off with the others*
Never used movers, had to hide the, um, ‘ew’ stuff from my parents and sister. My basic strategy was to put it in a box filled with my cloths, figured no one would look in there since they were my cloths and I was right! I hope anyway.
I helped a friend move and he wasn’t so clever. As we were moving his dresser and taking the drawers out I found an entire drawer filled with VHS tapes with names that would make any blush. I walked up to him and said, “I think you better hide your porn better.” He just shrugged, guess he was more nonchalant about his stuff than I was.
man, it’d be so nice not to have to use movers, TPC. maybe i’ll get there someday! and after hearing your story, i’m thinking the next time i move i’ll mock up some really crazy “VHS tapes” with some blush-worthy titles and images, and have them “accidentally” fall out of a dresser just to freak out my friends and/or the movers. 😉
hahahaha,,,,….OMG….my tactic was to burn after reading
Do not burn what you can secretly buried in the woods, drawing a map using the knowledge gained in many roleplaying
Of course, the most logical to save the maps is put them in a box and buried secretly in the forest ……….
if i grew up next to some woods, methinks this is something i would’ve done, CE!
“burn after reading”!? wow. you musta had easy access to new material, Anonymous. i swear, i had some of that “material” for years cuz it was so scarce when i was younger!
Well, at least ‘bot seems to have a Master Checklist with all the classifications of his boxes on it…surely nothing bad will happen to that list in future strips, right?
And, while The Cornfather may be tempted by “Dark Magicks,” I’m more intrigued by the other boxes…clearly the Space Invader box is for retro video game consoles/video game paraphernalia in general, but…CoBoSto? Fiddler Green [octopus]? Are there more boxes with similar classifications? If so, how does it work, “Fiddler Orange [octopus]” or “Fiddler Green [fish/squid]?”
heh. yes, remains to be seen whether bot’s checklist will be important in the future or not, Joe…
and you’re right – the “Space Invader” was indeed to label my retro gaming stuffs! CoBoSto – hardly anyone would be able to figure that out, as it’s an abbreviation of an old business i used to work at, that i bought and collected much movie merch from. and “Fiddler’s Green” was a character in the Sandman comics, so many of my most valuable comics are stored in that box. 🙂
I’m more interested in what fiddler’s green is
If I’m not mistaken and Gaiman took it from somewhere else, it’s a person/place inside the Dreaming, from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comic series.
I know that Robin, but if Darke Magic equals porn who knows what fiddler’s green really means right?
fiddler’s green, in various lores, is one of the ‘otherworlds’
it’s an afterlife. one of the possible heavens. a realm where the mirth is endless, and there is perpetual fiddles being played.
it’s a nice thought.
i want to go to there, acolyte.
yep! Robin has it right – bot stores his comics in that one, as tribute to the character from Gaiman’s Sandman comics.
When I move next, I will mark my boxes with freehand sketches of items from The Legend of Zelda. Gotta remember NOT to keep the breakables in the boomerang box.
No, you keep the breakables in the box with the clay pot on it (or are you supposed to keep your money in that box?).
ha! no, if any adventurer sees a “clay pot” on the box, he’ll instantly want to slash the box with his sword or throw it to the ground, Joe!
good idea, NateNexus! and most definitely don’t mark your breakables with a “Bomb Flower” sketch.
…. This is brilliant. I must adopt this technique. Simply for the confused looks of family/friends and strangers alike.
feel free, Rinthia! …just make sure the code words/drawings make sense to you, or you might just thwart yourself. 🙂
You remembering my friend, the road-maniac?
He wrote a german note for the movers and sticked it on top of his VHS-collection.
Translation:
“Private porn collection.
Fap at your own risk.
The owner is not responsible for caused mental injuries”
Under this note he drew a skull and crossed bones.
I had to fight against my own, upcoming laughter-reflex, while the movers were transporting his boxes. You could literally see in their faces what they were thinking.
heh. your friend sounds like quite a character, Malkav! my sister, Linda/Xinda, would probably get along just fine with him. 🙂
Strange names like that would probably just make me want to open all of the boxes, just so I could know what the heck is in the boxes.
Yeah, I’d be a bad mover.
you have a point, GB! on my next move (hopefully not anytime soon) i might just have to label those boxes with something more mundane like, “paper products” or “top ramen supply.”
Everything gets encoded so that I know where it all goes.
1’s and 2’s. 1’s are the most important boxes that will result in the death or dismemberment of whoever is responsible for dropping, damaging, or losing said box. Generally I move 1’s myself and or they travel with me to the new secret hideout.
2’s are just as important but not as fatal for screwing up with. These can be handled by other people without me freaking out as badly and don’t necessarily have to travel with me directly under my watchful eye. I will be upset if they’re lost or misplaced, but life will go on.
Destroy or lose a 1 or any of the contents there in? You’re toast. Those actually have my life in them. Like a phylactery.
i like your system, Infamous Nefarious! and the cool thing is that i can mix your system with my own – i could, say, put a “1” under the “Darke Magicks” title. (actually, more like a “3” – gadgets, games and blu-rays would have a much higher priority.)
You need your own Reality TV show! It’s too funny.
awww, thanks, FunnyShaffer! i should get you to produce it. 🙂
I’m good at photography, so I’m on board as a cameraman, if you’ll have me!
boxes!? Pfff… talk about 20th century. I hide everything in sock drawers, under beds, or neck deep in my other junk to where you wouldn’t even notice what exactly it is. And also in external drives. And lets just say its the same issue as yours, except they’re not VHS…
in other news, “ew” is about the right word I’da used…
but i can’t hide the “Darke Magicks” in those items while moving, steve – they’d be discovered as soon as the movers moved my bed, computer or dressers! unless that’s what you’re going for (see Timothy P. Callahan’s comment above) i think i gotta be more covert, or just get rid of that stuff altogether. 🙂
VHS? What’s that?
dude. you’re making me feel old. *sob*
Very Hot Sex, of course
Betamax! (No, i don’t really have any Betamax cassettes.)
I do, however, have one moving box (used several times now) which has, on one end, in Magic Marker, the label “Magnetic Monster. This End North.” I have no idea what is actually in it at this time.
you totally have to open that box and let us know what’s inside, Stonefoot! 😀
sneaky sneaky jefbot. I used to hide things on my computer from my mom when I was researching different religions. >>
heheh. i don’t blame you – religion can be even more inflammatory than “Darke Magicks” to some people, dj!
I had a box like that, but the last time I moved I threw it all away, because I have much better options now.
i hear ya, MichaelHaneline – i don’t even know why i still have the stuff. i don’t think my VHS has even been powered on in years. time to just chuck that box.
just make sure you transfer the “important” stuff to hard drive or DVD first.
Obsolete by the high speed internet. There are quite a lot of things that compete for that title. And yet we all know what is implied in this strip. After all, we all have a box like that stashed somewhere, so no wonder there.
What I do wonder about, is what do you have in the box marked with the Space Invader.
“After all, we all have a box like that stashed somewhere, so no wonder there.” A box? No! 5 boxes, 10 boxes, maybe more? Yeah. That we have.
impressive, Stonefoot! most impressive.
ha! i’m happy your brain knew exactly what bot was talking about, Maryz, but i know of at least two friends (with cleaner minds than yours and mine, no doubt) that had no idea what was in that box!
oh, and the Space Invader box has most of bot’s vintage consoles and games in there.
Space Invader for the Game consoles? Thats… surprisingly logical.
Mine’s filled with stuff to summon C’thulhu, actually. Amongst other types of evil demonic/diabolic overlords. I usually summon Graz’zt for bacchanals, Dagon for drowning my enemies…the usual stuff. Ufufufufufuuuuu!
so you really do have “Darke Magicks” in a box, KB? nice!
If you just labeled it “used porn” no one would touch it anyway.
i’ll give that a try on the next move, Stan. if they steal it, i’ll be totally fine with it. 🙂
He’s not making this stuff up… 😮
i hope you didn’t look in my Darke Magicks box, Xin! don’t say i didn’t warn ya…
Oh, Cute Strip!!! I’m trying to get to your Comic Book Thingy Sat and or Sunday! Unless it hails.
was fun seeing you at WonderCon! glad you made it! 😀
😉
;0……
I did it!!!!!! Happy Birthday!!! 😉
yay! was fun! hope your friend Ryan wasn’t too freaked out by all the geeky madness going on there. 😉
Just got my net back and catching up bot! I usually move anything really important in those plastic totes. if its something no one else should get a hold of, I drill some holes in it and put locks on it. Most other stuff is usually marked Jeff:Books, Jeff:ComputerParts or Jeff:Open&Die. of course anything not in a tote always has a fake snake or spider on it, just for the unsuspecting snoop to open and get the crap scared out of them. When I can’t get my hands on fake snakes/spiders I go with several layers of colored tape. Red= fragile Blue = games, Red + Blue= classic video games, green = misc, yellow = glass and easily broken, In the days before I had reliable high speed internet Darke Magicks was purple.
Ah, on a side note, I have my shiny blue 3DS back! I don’t know if you guys remember, but the screen cracked in June, we sent it for repairs in July, and now, 51 weeks after I got it for the first time, a Nintendo Marked package arrives in the mail…
SHIIINNEEEEEEYYYYYY O_O
Oh, that was meant to go up with my Xinda reply…
Last time I moved I got lazy towards the end and started throwing random stuff in boxes and labeled them “MISC” and they are still sitting in my closet unsorted haha… Really should get to that sometime… My mom’s on an anti-hoarder kick and cleansing out her house, I;ve been meaning to get on that too haha