As you can see in the photo above, next to my BioShock Big Daddy and Little Sister and framed photo of Niero in front of MTV Studios, there is one incredibly hip looking silver flask. With the Dtoid head engraved on it, in fact. Yeah, it's a pretty epic item, and probably one of the coolest things I've ever been given in my years of working with Dtoid. Let me back up a bit, though...



Hamza is one of my closest friends and has been for years now, and I can honestly say that without this guy there's a lot of things I might not have made it through. So you can imagine, when he tells me he's hanging out with a girl, well, I want to like her, but you know, he's like my little brother. So it's cool, unless she breaks his heart, at which point I might have to kill her. What kind of girl would be amazing enough to deserve Hamza and his arm hair?



Then, I met her. Maya is cooler than cool, you can tell right off the bat that she's not much like the average girl. She doesn't take shit. She says what she means. Best of all, she's real. I was happy to meet her in person and be able to tell she was this awesome, but then, she did something that took it to the next level. She came to the room and she presented Niero and I, Rey, Nick and Dale all with little paper bags. When we opened them, we found these engraved flasks inside. Also, each bag had a handwritten note on it. I'm not going to share what was written on mine, but it rocked my world, I'll tell you that. Let me show you my new reactions to this gift.

First I was like:


And then I was like:


All silly aside though, this year's PAX really made me reflect what an incredible adventure its been these past three years working for Destructoid. You guys really are something else, and now every time I look across the office and see this flask I have a concrete reminder of that. Well, other than the countless frames photos of Niero and I with hundreds of community members, that is...

Anyway, to all of you I met this year and all of you I hope to meet in the years to come ... you're awesome. :)