Blog Archive for October 2008
The Bad Graphics Ghost Shirt
When I saw that the Homestar Runner Store was selling this shirt, I knew I should get it. My original excuse was because I didn't want to wear a costume for Halloween but I did want to do something special to acknowledge the "holiday" (although work didn't count it as a "costume", not surprisingly). It's in that spirit, of course, that I turned to the experts of Halloween, the folks at HomestarRunner.com for inspiration (and merchandise):
For those who are not so well-versed in the Homestar Runner canon, the Bad Graphics Ghost first appeared in sbemail 48, where Strong Bad's old Apple II-style computer haunts him. The ghost is replicated in beautiful blocks on the front of this shirt, with an amazingly simple BASIC program below it:
Let's see... Geeky. Check. Homestar-related. Check. Halloween-related. Check.
Another fun shirt, and if you're not up to speed with Homestar Runner and Strong Bad, get into it.
The Jars of Clay Shirt
Finally! I've been a huge fan of Jars of Clay for over a decade and it took me until August 2008 to get a Jars of Clay T-shirt! But it's a beauty:
Plus, I got it during one of the best mini-vacations ever - a whirlwind weekend to Chicago to hang out with two of my sisters and see a bunch of my favorite bands! In late August, my sister and I traveled to Chicago to meet my sister who goes to college in nearby South Bend, Indiana. (We took the Megabus from Minneapolis, which is a very cost-effective way to get to Chicago from many places in the midwest.) That evening, we caught a stop on the Music Builds Tour, which featured Jars of Clay, Robert Randolph & The Family Band, Switchfoot and Third Day, possibly one of the most amazing lineups in my rather short music history. It was great to see the Jars guys rockin' it onstage since the last time we'd seen them was in 2002. Robert Randolph and hte Family Band rocked the place like only they can and brought a bit of Gospel flavor as well. Switchfoot, of course, put on an amazing and inspiring show and all the bands came back for a synergistic encore. Oh, and did I mention that it was outdoors on Lake Michigan on a beautiful August day? That too!
The shirt, as you can probably tell, is gray and has the outline of the word "Jars of Clay" on it with some little bird figures. It's rock and roll and kinda pretty at the same time. And now, I support one of my all-time favorite bands via my favorite art form: T-shirts.
The Classic Game Over Shirt
Today's shirt is a nice, black look at retro gaming. And thanks to my terrible camera work in the bathroom mirror, it looks even cooler because the motion applied while taking the photo gives the illusion of a drop shadow:
Yes, the words "GAME OVER" are printed in a large, pixelated font destined to remind classic gamers of their favorite Atari or original NES games. And then, it also says (in standard white text) the creators of the shirt: thinkgeek.com, the central place for all products geeky and cool.
For those who don't know, ThinkGeek has lots of great products, although they usually are a bit pricey. Back in the day, I outfitted myself with this shirt as well as a couple others. Also, you can get ties, mini-copters, airsoft guns, marshmallow guns, action figures, knives, sporks, squids, lots of clocks, batteries, tape players, caffeine, phones, and much more. It's tons of geeky fun.
The Drupal Man
A couple days ago I posted my quick attempt at Drupal artwork. A commenter questioned my reference to most of our no-so-great skills in drawing under pressure, which all of us cover up via the computer. I responded by saying that the best sketch artist is Shawn, our manager. Shawn didn't know this, but he proved my point this morning.
A number of months ago we all found these little wooden guys on our desk. Shawn took mine home last night and it came back as the Drupal man! I love it! Thanks Shawn!
