Fashion

Check out my new morph ball tattoo.

While it’s not my first tattoo, I have to say this morph ball tattoo I got yesterday is my first gaming tattoo, and probably not my last. If you have a tattoo, or know someone who does, you already know they can be addictive. I was fortunate enough to have a relative who’s a tattoo artist and enjoys giving tattoos as gifts. A real pro, she made the three hour sitting breeze right by.

The design for this tattoo comes from the original Metroid Prime concept art, which is unlockable on the game disc. I considered a few pieces before this one, and figured this one would translate well. I eventually want to get one of Ridley, but the kind of detail that would likely require would mean it would have to be a huge tattoo. That would be a bit much.

See also:
Do not feed the metroids.
Leave Luck To Heaven - Crazy Gamer Tattoo
Get your gamer ink on.
Metroid Hatchling Tattoo

Cuddle up with Katamari.

Crafters are the best. They manage to whip up the cutest things with just a little bit of yarn, a crochet hook and some patience. Oh, and in this case - a love for a little game known as Katamari Damacy. Ann Fox, a textile artist, whipped up this Katamari Prince of All Cosmos blanket out of good ol’ acrylic yarn (the kind you can find at any craft store) in a pattern she made with Adobe Illustrator and OmniGraffle, a diagramming program for MacOS X. Check out Ann’s other work at her site: Ann Fox Art

This isn’t the first Katamari craft Aeropause has seen, mind you. Check out these other beauties:

Etsy Katamari Mashup Toy
Cool Katamari Shoes
Crocheted Katamari Doll

Do not feed the metroids.

While researching ideas for my next tattoo, I ran into this cool shirt featuring an icon-style metroid on Threadless. Corruption players might recognize the symbol as being very similar to the one used to represent the “creatures” category of scannables in that game, though this image has been around for a little while and might actually predate Prime 3.

Ultimately, I chose to go with a morph ball tattoo, but this is still a neat shirt. Not sure why it was made to look like an element from the periodic table, but there it is.

Noteworthy is the recommendation however… I agree that feeding metroids is a bad idea. Unless you’ve overrun by X, or if you have the opportunity to feed it a Space Pirate. At which point I encourage the feeding, particularly if you have something cold to use against it once it’s eaten.

Source: Threadless

See also:

Poor Sonic
Mario shirt on Threadless
E For All loves Threadless
This Is Not A Pipe
Threadless Watch
Gaming Threadless tee
Original Gamester T-shirt
Bioshock Loves Threadless
LocoRoco loves Threadless
Poor dog, nice shirt

Whew! These people need to advertise here! Actually, no they don’t, do they.

GameStop advertising… in Redbook?

While flipping through the latest issue of the women’s magazine Redbook this evening, my wife (who is also a gamer, mind you) stumbled upon an amusing ad. There, tucked between the ads for Shedd’s Country Crock Deluxe Homestyle Stuffing and the article on page 99 called Your Love Life, is a full page ad showing a line art picture of a flamethrower with a green bow on it, and the words,

This Christmas melt his heart with a new flamethrower

By way of explanation at the bottom of the page, they insist,

Even if you don’t share his love of video games, giving him a new console, accessory, or game shows you really care

My wife, incidentally insists she only has the magazine because it was free. And it seems I only read it for the ads.

Is GameStop pushing it by walking the line of a stereotype here? I don’t think so. The wording feels very cautious. It’s not as though they said, “Even though you don’t share his love…” What do you think?

There’s also an ad for the Wii in the magazine, which is nowhere near as surprising considering its clear success in the expanded market it currently dominates.

Excellent “I Love Arcade Games” Ms. Pac-Man necklace at Etsy.

Well, let’s just say it was at Etsy… and now my credit card has a wisp of smoke rising off it. My wife will have this one dangling from her neck before you know it. The seller, SparkleMe, has some other cute designs like a Smurfette and a Ouija board, definitely some cool stuff, but I already snapped this one up, so unless she chooses to make more, that’s that.

Original design by SparkleMe not to be found anywhere else!

Chain measures 17″ long (8.5″ on each side)
Pendant measures 2″ high

Source: Etsy.

Review: Sumo Lounge Omni beanbag.

What is it?

Omni is one of two pieces of bean bag furniture offered by manufacturer Sumo Lounge. It is a very large rectangular heavy-duty vinyl bean bag that is meant to be very versatile: you can pick it up and turn it and place it in a number of different configurations, most of which are formed when you plant yourself down into it and it forms a chairlike shape around you. Sumo Lounge offers a surprising 10 different color options, and I opted for the “charcoal green” color when they offered me the bag in exchange for a review. I’ve spent a few days using the Omni for various things, and I have to say I was surprised at what I found.

Read the rest of this entry »

Poor Sonic

Poor lost Sonic. How do you suppose he ended up here? Maybe he rolled so fast that he blasted clean out of his world and into Mario’s! This is another Threadless shirt up for voting in the E For All Threadless contest.

PSP appearing in clothing ads at Target.

The minimalist clothing model posters you see at Target have recently begun to feature a certain Sony handheld device you may have heard of. I boldly snapped this photo with my cell phone today, glad for the opportunity to share such hard-hitting news with you.

The reason I’m talking about this at all is it shows that the gaming devices you and I carry around are more than just gaming devices, they are accessories. The implication here is not simply that Sony has given Target money to put a PSP in this kid’s hands before they took his picture, which is fine, but rather that they are trying to connect the oh-so-trendy camouflage shorts they’re trying to sell with the image of the kid who plays PSP while in freefall while apparently enjoying it a great deal. Just look at that smile! I guess he let it finish loading before he leapt off that building. Zing!

Mario shirt on Threadless

Speaking of Threadless, here’s the latest Mario-related shirt there. I think I would have enjoyed Frog Mario sitting on a lily pad in a pond more than this, but that wouldn’t have been so funny. To each his own! Go vote!

E For All loves Threadless

E For All is now trying to promote themselves by having a Threadless contest. The theme is “Power up and play.” Not only does the winner get their shirt printed, but the grand prize includes: A $400 JetBlue giftcard (presumably to go towards your airfare to E For All), two 4-day passes to E For All, a collection of show swag, a $500 Threadless gift certificate, a brand new Nintendo Wii system, and $2,000 in cash.

The details are here, and the current entries are here. Right now, there’s one lonely little entrant. Poor E For All, I almost feel sorry for it.