The allure of the road trip is ingrained into the American spirit. On his journey through the desert, neo-beat Jeff Merrion experiences the mystique of the highway with a slightly unusual passenger.

The Penny Arcade Expo is like an underground meeting of a vast secret society. Rumors, legends, and other apocrypha pass through the convention halls like plagues. Supernerd Nick Martens witnessed the most storied PAX occurrence in person, and here reveals its details for the first time.

In an attempt to console his love/hate relationship with author Nick Hornby, pseudo-intellectual Kevin Nguyen scrutinizes his summer wrapped up in books.

Walkie talkies, uniforms, and special lingo–all features one would expect to find as an agent for the Secret Service. Instead, Caitlin Boersma recalls these quirks as she mulls over her summer working at the mall.

Tacoma, where The Bygone Bureau is headquartered, is like the slightly mutated younger brother of Seattle. Everything’s a little weirder in Tacoma, even the restaurants. Kevin Nguyen and Nick Martens showcase some of the city’s finest examples of strange businesses that ostensibly serve Asian food.

Before The Bygone Bureau, visionaries Kevin Nguyen and Nick Martens staked a claim as t-shirt retailers targeting indie rock hipsters. Due to a series of production issues, conflicts of interest, America’s obesity problem, and robotic monotones, the site never took off. The Bureau’s editors present their line of shirts, sadly never put into production.

This is the final installment in a series of essays by jet-setter Jordan Barber, who is currently studying Mandarin at Donghai University in Taichung, Taiwan. Jordan reflects on his time in East Asia and the experience of living as a “semi-citizen.�?

The Bureau Staff considers the television game show in which they would most like to be a contestant. Topics discussed: Prozac, ninjas, RVs, and Drew Carey.

The internet is packed full of comics, some great, some not. Here, the adolescent-minded Nick Martens explores an excellent webcomic that, amazingly, does not rely on tech jokes or nonsensical humor.

Getting donation requests from your college can be irritating. As a caller, Kevin Nguyen finds phone solicitations tricky and ethically ambiguous.