Costumes, cupcakes, and crafting...
Halloween is fast approaching, and rather than my usual "wake up and notice there are people with sacks banging on the door demanding my edibles so it must be the apocalypse" noticing of the holiday, I thought I'd gather a few items that might inspire others to enhance their celebratory activities this year. We'll be dressing the kid in something no doubt cute and embarrassing for him to recall in his later years, and we'll be carving a pumpkin or two (photos of those to come, if they turn out well). Here's some ideas for those with far more time, resources, and ambition than I:
- Dvice has 67 ideas for geek costumes.
- A video tutorial about making fake blood.
- A few of these have been here before, but festive recipes for goodies are always needed, especially if the results look like eyeballs.
- Adding to the previous item, these skeleton pretzel cupcakes are pretty clever (scroll past the bit about catty moms if you're not into that sort of thing).
- A warning that pumpkins can be seen in one photo being used to simulate one scarecrow mooning the viewer and another opening her top (and these aren't terribly sexy pumpkins anyway, but there you go), but here's a collection of Halloween decor both past and present.
- A few posts ago, in the comments, we wondered where one could get a Steve Jobs turtleneck. I figured that could make an easy and geeky costume, so I did a little searching. They are available, they're $175, and there's been a run on them recently for some reason.
- Why not create/refine your cosplay outfit for the next round of comic conventions? Showing the movie studios how it should be done is always good for bonus points.
- And we had (warning: another "bum" pumpkin) 50 ideas for pumpkin carving lying about, so that should round out the list.
Of course, thanks to certain video games (see the next paragraph) and a certain toy line, cardboard boxes can make some pretty cool outfits. Think of them as pixels and then vicariously have that Trick-Or-Treat session you secretly wanted where you went out dressed as a Space Invader or Dig Dug. :)
Minecraft has released a fourth 1.9 update with Notch-knows-how-many more to come. Some footage of the Enderdragon has surfaced, and it looks pretty cool so long as my dude and/or my stuff is nowhere near it when it starts making things explode. Also, Notch has apologized for blaspheming against the game's more cube/square orientation in regards to celestial bodies. Reddit has a ongoing changelog with all the tweaks and new stuff, if you want to check it out. This one I might skip, just because (for the moment) you can't return from the End Dimension to the "normal" world without dying, and the effort to get there is pretty hefty in survival mode. Still, with this, potions, and all the rest, this game is becoming the first single and multi-player game where you can explore dungeons, other planes, build castles, construct city-sized mechanical computers, and conduct physics experiments all in the same application. It's like World of Warcraft as designed by Radio Shack, which is somehow awesome in execution. If you really want something challenging as well as creepier than a creeper, you could install a Doctor Who "Weeping Angels" mod.
Seth MacFarlane wants to make a Star Trek TV show. At first, my brain revolted at being reminded of "Family Guy." A disclaimer: I don't think all of MacFarlane's gags are bad, I just can't find much to like about most of the show's cast. As much as the cut-away jokes are lambasted, those are often the clips I find the most amusing. Anyway, let's assume he did get his wish. How bad could it be, really? "Voyager" is the low-end benchmark for most, with a lot of "Enterprise" (especially the theme song) often coming in a close second (though it can pride itself on not having an episode as bad as the Warp 10/de-evolution one nobody talks about). I'm not sure where I'd want to see such a show set, but I'm thinking it should be completely divorced from the continuities we've seen so far. We need a sector of the Federation that hasn't been done, that won't cross paths with any of the previous Enterprises (assuming it takes place in one of those ships' time frames), and doesn't have too many foregone conclusions that have to happen (like an offensive with the Klingons that takes place on/near Praxis, or something). It probably won't happen until Paramount decides the movie franchise isn't doing as well as previous installments, and then the question will be whether it'll want to do a new show or "Star Trek: The Next Alternate Universe Generation."
Time to put on my Seinfeld-esque "'what's up with that?" hat for a moment. I just saw this meme image, and I really wish that was how things worked around my house. We have a microwave that was purchased about a year ago to replace one that had died, and I can only think that somebody at the corporation who made it has stock in "beep sounds, inc." because this is the beepingest oven that ever existed. It beeps when you push the buttons, it beeps when it starts, it beeps when you open the door, and it beeps when it's done cooking whatever you put into it. And then it beeps some more every few minutes if you haven't come to acknowledge the previous "I'm done, master," beeps it just got through yelling about. I've maintained that for residences where people keep odd and opposite hours or who have small, easily roused kids, microwaves with a disable-able beeping system would sell like hotcakes. The same goes for toaster ovens where you could disable that #*@!-ing bell.
And now it's time for "parental indulgence theater," where I subject you to a video of my kid that's hopefully entertaining as well. A while ago, we went to the Westport Art Fair here in KC, and there was a man playing the accordion on one of the side streets. Josh and he would make quite the vaudeville duo, I think. It's also one of those great examples of what one can do before being self-conscious about your expressiveness kicks in. He's also got far better rhythm than I do, which I think is his mother's fault.
Okay, I've got a house to clean in preparation for a small celebration of Josh turning two. Ironically, he's the reason the place is a wreck at the moment (okay, at least half of the reason), but given that his favorite things are trucks, balls, "The Iron Giant," and sticks, he's a cheap birthday boy. Were I certain he would embrace his geek heritage instead of possibly rebelling and having a stable, productive life with health insurance, I might have to cash in his college fund and get him what's probably the ultimate World of Warcraft collectible. "Blades," indeed, nyuk-nyuk-nyuk. Maybe I can still request one as a bonus for that Diablo comic I'm almost done writing? :)
Onward to the real reason we're here:
- So I wanted to find more information on this car, but got sidetracked and found this one, this model of a car, this incredible vehicle that has accompanying video, and this car. A fair trade-off, I suppose.
- Voltron in real life. It may not answer any questions, but it asks a lot of the ones I've wondered about for years.
- If you really develop your speedrunning skills and don't have RPG OCD (which makes you loot every lootable corner, corpse, and container in a game), you can finish the main quest in the upcoming Skyrim game in a little over two hours.
- Georganism is a puzzle-platformer where you use the talents of various jelly-like creatures, sometimes combining their talents, to solve each level's obstacles.
- Two words: Balloon TARDIS. Two more: Magic SchoolTARDIS.
- Film is dying. Not the actual activity of making movies (though sequelitis and rebootiosis are rotting the art form) but the physical product, film, itself.
- Unless things bovine are udderly not safe at your workplace, here's something that's being debated as "recycling vs. repulsive": A dress made from 3,000 cow nipples that were going to be thrown out anyway. I hope the artist doesn't just milk this for publicity. And I'll just show myself out after that one...
- Time for some art gallery stuff: The art of Yuki Matsueda makes me think this is how art would be sold if it was manufactured by the same people who make action figures.
- Here's a story that was completely unexpected to me: A small group of Amish have been attacking other Amish. I find the fact the attacks included cutting off the beards of the victims with electric shavers even more startling.
- If I promised the world a bunch of titanium, could we return to the moon?
- You might want to stock up on peanut butter if you consume a lot of it as prices are expected to rise as much as 30% due to devastated crops in Georgia.
- LucasArts gamers, this one's for you. It's a collection of backgrounds from their old adventure games. Anyone up for a trip to Monkey Island?
- I suppose the posters were inevitable. I wonder if this has anything to do with Darth Maul's return to life in the "Clone Wars" TV show? And will he have robo-legs or was that toy more of a "it was cool in our comic so let's make us some toys" thing?
- Further puns of "Game of Bones" or "A Dance with Doggies" were discarded in this bulletin board item.
- Alert Reader Richard tempted me with this (relatively) inexpensive 3D printer kit from MakerBot. While looking at a few sites that mentioned the fun you could have with such a device, there's a bit of a debate about whether or not sites should host files for printing out parts of weapons.
- No one will be seated during the riveting white-cape-worn-backwards scene in the upcoming "Superman" movie.
- Expect to see a few of these pooches in your e-mail from relatives: It's the "Embarrass Your Dog" show, I think...
- How about we end with Hanger 2? Use your Spiderman-like ability to swing from a pair of extendable lines to try and make it through even more levels without losing limbs or other vital body parts.