What was the last program you DERPGRADED? I generally wait until things get stable before upgrading for this very reason, but I know some people have been complaining about Mac OSX Lion, every Adobe Creative Suite upgrade, and a whole lot about the new Final Cut.

Also, as mentioned, my computer is in the shop (I’m borrowing a friend’s). If anyone feels like chipping in a few bucks for all the free comics on the site, it’s much appreciated! I wrote a post if you want more info here, or you can use the button below.

10,000th Tweet Day

Celebrated by: Reminiscing about tweets past. Singing songs like “Auld Slang Syne” and drinking. Silly hats are a must.

Traditional gifts: A new charger/battery for your Twitter-choosing device of choice. Cards should be no more than 140 characters. Sending photos of gifts and well-wishes via TwitPic and yFrog.

AIM Screen Name’s Bar / Bat Mitzvah

Celebrated by: Attending the event where your little boy screen name becomes a man (screen name). Witness as DrkwngDck1245 comes of age as he chats those on his buddy list with the chosen reading from the Torah, or more likely a link to a funny video that’s secretly a way to send your friend a picture of something they didn’t want to see.

Traditional gifts: Skype credits in multiples of 18, or a really nice Wacom pen.

Computer Warranty Expiration Day

Celebrated by: Wearing black, and looking back on the good times. The minute your warranty expires, your computer will start showing signs of age. The only real good news is the older your computer gets, the sooner you get to a new one.

Traditional gifts: A new computer.*

*Send money to systemcomic at gmail dot com.

What new holidays do you celebrate?

Yet another tip for success, courtesy of the T4S team of myself, Marty and Lindsay! If you’re liking these lately, check out the @Tips4Success feed on Twitter. It’s our testing ground.

It’s true, Comedy Central has a new logo that they revealed the other day (thanks to Marty for the link!) and will be going live in January. A very many blogs have been picking on this logo for being too boring for such a funny network, looking too much like the Chanel logo, and just not being that interesting. And, of course, the similarity to the copyright symbol.

One thing is for sure, this logo lends itself much more to being a simple and clear logo. In an age of swooshes and 3-D messes for logos, I for one am excited to see something look so clean with a slight visual wit. Of course it will be rare that this logo sits still. It will be on screen, on web, etc. and in that context it will have its chance to really shine. I think those haters will be turning tides. I mean, come on. This isn’t the Gap logo. This is clear and a refinement of what came before.

Btw, how has nobody made the obvious reference? Comedy Central is going to build Robocop. Check out the OCP logo:

A special public service announcement from your friends at The System. By the way if this comic looks familiar, it ran as part of an article on ZDnet thanks to Systemic SkawtNYC, who is now a blogger over there. I reformat and sometimes write him comics for his blog posts, which has been great to invite people over to the site. If you’re coming over because of that, hello! Otherwise you should check out his blog here, it’s pretty interesting stuff.

Remember, I’ll be at InterventionCon this coming weekend with many goods for sale. Be sure to stop by my table and say hi, even if you don’t plan on purchasing anything. If you find me at the con, be sure to let me know that you’ve already read the comic. Current readers get free stuff! The secret password is “tacos”.

For that matter, I’ll be on a few events as part of SUPER ART FIGHT which we’re doing as part of the con. The confirmed events so far are our full live event on Saturday and an “after dark” SAF show that night that is sure to be interesting, and R-rated in nature. We’re letting Noguchi use all his 4-letter words, so that will not be something to miss. Be sure to come see those too!

Welcome to comic #400, and the 2-year anniversary of The System! I know what you’re saying, comic #1 was posted July 1st. True, but it went live somewhere around July 8th and y’know what? Close enough.

Since then we’ve seen lots of changes to the site, from some recurring characters to comics that have been across the internet and back (with varying amounts of credit thrown my way). I could not have made it this far if not for the help of my many friends (both those with websites and without) and fans who have encouraged and supported this project along the way.

Over the next few weeks you will start seeing some improvements around here, as some new personal opportunities have come up that will allow for some more time and effort to be put on the comic and its various accoutrement. If you’re a fan of the site and would like to do your part, check out the online store and consider supporting the comic and taking something home while you’re at it. If you don’t see something you like don’t worry, preorder for BOOK 1 of The System will be going up soon along with other pieces of amazingness.

For those of you less monetarily inclined but with plenty of free time, it always helps when you share comics on StumbleUpon, Reddit, forums, blogs, BoingBoing or any other sites you frequent. Or for that matter just participating around here by commenting on posts and talking back as I use this site (and Twitter, and Tumblr) to talk at you. I know RossMom always appreciates it, and at this point I think we can pretty much call her a moderator. And yeah, that’s my mom.

Also upcoming, I’m going to start posting a bit of a retrospective on how The System is doing in an effort to show you guys what goes on behind the scenes and also get some thoughts out. Posts about how I’ve gotten this far (if you call this far) and what I’ve learned along the way. For those who like that kind of inside baseball I think you’ll appreciate them. For those that don’t, well, there’s always the comic.

Speaking of the comic, can you pick out where all the panels are from? The art is all from previous comics starting between comic #304 and #399. See what you can do and post it in the comments!

Ever navigate using the tags with each post? I do a pretty good job on sorting them. Check it out!

This is actually going to be the featured graphic on my new set of business cards I was working on the other night. This and 3 others like it. I figured you shouldn’t have to see me to see how awesome this is, right?

Btw! If you ever submit a comic to Reddit, Digg, whatever, post the link to the submission in the comments so others can help it out! Big surges in traffic from those sorts of things really helps me get the comic out there, and does wonders for my always-fragile ego.

Who’s going to be at Connecticon this weekend? Me! How about you?

Be careful who you make your bad puns around.

I dare say that is the best explosion ever. Yes, even better than Factbomb Day. In fact, the first time I drew the explosion it was so explosive that it CRASHED ILLUSTRATOR. You know what Illustrator said? I couldn’t believe it so I took a screen shot.

If you love how extremely f%$king epic this comic is you can always hang a 13″x19″ poster of it on your wall. How, you say? A little thing called our online store, HilariAwesome. It’s listed as one of the comic prints, as well as EVERY OTHER COMIC EVER.

Dividing by zero is our ace in the hole. Remember that when your toaster has you backed into a corner.