There’s that one story or rumor (“stormor”?) about how Walt Disney came up with the look of Mickey Mouse.  Circles and ovals are the most visually-pleasing shapes, and their convexity reminds us of something that is wholesome, smooth, and friendly.

Ah, but you see, three ovals might read “mouse” but that’s really the entire extent of the shape’s message. For me, the design of the basic Mickey silhouette does not convey a sense of personality or action.

But aha! Japan gave us Pac-Man, who is a only mere fraction of a circle.  Bare-boned and simple, the Pac-Man shape speaks so much with so little; a yellow circle with a deprived sector as a mouth.  Freaking brilliant.  Pac-Man is just simply Pac-Man, neither human nor animal…but somehow, just by its design, we can get a glimpse of his personality without the context of the game.

It’s really no wonder that so many designers use Pac-Man as a source of inspiration.  Here’s a good list of awesome Pac-Man inspired design-y items.  Read it and weep (and maybe buy).

Pac-Man Potholder:

Goddammit, why did I never think of this before?  I’m not too crazy about the eyes but I love how the maze pattern inside also acts as friction grip.

from Vat 19 [$14.95]

Pac-Man Leather iPod Case:

Cute to use the Pac-Man body over the iPod controls… though I wonder if his mouth poses scrolling problems.

from Videogame Central  [$29.99]

Pac-Man Candy Tin:

So simple, so sleek.  Funnier if the candy inside were shaped like fruits from the game.

from Anime Castle  [$2.99]

Pac-Man Power Pellet Ring:

Okay, so the design doesn’t feature a whole Pac-Man but it definitely captured the feel of the hungry little guy.  I’ve seen a lot of this type of “tension setting” jewelry on etsy but never this clever!

from Etsy [$55]

Not that I’m religious or anything but saying “Happy Easter” to people does put a nice bounce to my step. The best Easter surprise so far (aside from dozen flutes of mimosas) came from my email inbox. Ania from Warsaw, a fellow talented artsy gamer girl, sent me a photo of this:

I am floored.

Painstakingly beautiful stain-glass versions of WoW character with a complete Warcraft map draped behind it.  I don’t think I even have that much patience to do something exquisite like that.  Ania on the process:

Well, fist i drew on the egg with a graphic pen, the kind that can write on any surface. I drew the continents
and simple character outlines. Than I busted out my acrylic paint and painted the surface.
And last i retouched the contours with the pen again.

So i think the whole thing took about an hour a half maybe more, I was really into it so I’m not sure
I realised a more “realistic” or illustrative style wouldn’t work, or really fit on to the egg.

Also, I love that the Outlands whirl Maelstrom looks like a giant meteorological typhoon.  Reminds me of home a lot.

Thanks so much Ania! You’ve brightened up my Easter Sunday!

Thanks to Virgin Megastore’s OMG-EVERYTHING-MUST-GO sale, I got a pretty good deal on Kid Robot’s Munnies.  Ya know, between the job and my freelancing (and the relentless tooling with my new iPhone), I haven’t had any time to be creative just for fun.   So in honor of the Watchmen movie release, I set some time aside from my busy schedule to make something crafty and Watchmen-related.

Now, I never got into the whole vinyl toy craze so I really had no idea what I was doing.  I’d figure my experience in painting Warhammer 40k figurines would give me an edge.  All in all, I’m pretty happy with my first modded Munny but there’s always room for improvement!

Used: matte gel medium, gouache, color pencils, markers, Warhammer paint with kooky names, and a gold cord that I just fortunately happen to have in my craft box.

I’m not scared of the woodshop- I just don’t trust myself.  I’ve belt-sanded my knuckles twice and accidentally melted a plastic bucket while spot welding.  So of course, I’m impressed by people who just dive right into woodworking and come out with awesome projects and healthy knuckles.

My guildie friend Zander has been working on replicating some of the coolest videogame weapons.  And this is a photo of his recent project:

Holy crap!  It’s a life-like model of the sentry from Team Fortress II!  Look at that candy apple red!  Now this is what it looks like in the game:

If I had attempted to make that, I’m sure I would’ve lost a limb by now.

This will be our first Christmas together as a mini-family in the new house.

Too bad I don’t really care about Christmas at all!

But now that I am officially a wife and a Dog-Mom, I thought I should at least get into the holiday spirit by at least have something Christmas-y in the house since it’s such a family-oriented holiday. I guess a half-baked Christmas is better than no Christmas.

So I got a fake Christmas tree (and so what if it’s 20 inches tall), and decided to wrap some presents.

And I hate it.

I don’t get gift wrap. All that fuss for basically feeding the garbage can some more trash. You know, I already went through the whole chaotic tempest of Christmas shopping, and I don’t want to spend more money on disposable frilly shit. But armored with a new found taste for Christmas, I decided to do gift wrapping my way.

I used an old issue of The New Yorker, some red masking tape I found in the house, a leftover brown paper bag, and a black marker. I present to you… XMAS GIFT MONSTERS!

Crazy Pajama Cat

Carmen

Robo-Ninja Bunny? Or Jordie Laforge Bunny?

Super Mario Boo-inspired ghost thing

Happy Holidays!

Gabe from Penny Arcade last year hosted a good natured holiday cookie contest where people have to bake schlong-shaped snickerdoodles, aptly dubbed as the mighty Dickerdoodle. The contest is back this year, and Chris, Rob, and I decided it was time we ourselves could use some good culinary holiday cheer on a lazy Sunday. I was inspired by this particular comic:

A nice little parallel, really. And besides, cookies, cocks, LittleBigPlanet, and dinosaurs are, like, a few of my most favorite things.  Photo deluge:

*Note the restaurant name from the calendar in the back.

Hooray for my B.A. in architecture!

Note: Thanks to my stupidity, I wiped out my site earlier today.  Thanks to Bluehost for helping me out and resolving everything!

Last Saturday night, after Kristeen and Sam told me what their Halloween costumes are going to be (SUPER AWESOME), I got even more frustrated because I just couldn’t come up with anything.  Kristeen suggested Sarah Palin since Patrick can sport a nice First Dude look.  Meh.  Sam thought I should go as something game-related since last year’s costume was such a “huge success.”  So I decided to go as something LittleBigPlanet-related last minute!  Photos of Sunday’s fruits of labor below:

Stay tuned for the finished Sackboy and LittleBigPlanet costume!

So I had a shitload of Guitar Hero 2 boxes laying around, a few hours to kill, and a freakishly deep attachment to inanimate objects with hearts on them. The result? A weighted companion cube that I had to carry around a crowded Halloween party all night – that also served as a pillow after my stomach decided to disagree with some chocolate Rice Krispy treats I ate. Boo lactose.

(I actually dressed up as a “girl scout”…and with PJ dressed as a lazy Gordon Freeman, we were “The Orange Box”)

I actually made the cube for Mr. Cheats Superguide Extraordinaire Mike Nelson since he’s planning to dress up as an Aperture Science Office worker this Wednesday. I got carried away this weekend, and what was going to be a simple cut-and-paste-box project evolved into this architectural monstrosity. Look Mom, my B.A. in Architecture isn’t useless afterall!

Here’s how I made my Weighted Companion Cube:

The basic structure and foundation is a generic 6-sided cube, measuring 12 inches in height, width, and depth. I suggest using foam core. It’s sturdy and it’s lightweight and I knew I had to lug it around like a baby a la Angelina Jolie.

The corners are made from a template from 4Chan by Moony for /po/, via BoingBoing. Now, the template was designed on a very small paper craft scale. It was great that I had the overall template but I had to make a few changes to suit the larger scale that I’m constructing around. I used normal paper chip board for the corners…and by “normal paper chip board”…I actually mean “left over Guitar Hero controller boxes.” The key is to use something sturdy, less than 1/16″ thick, and easy to cut.

You can download my template here.

Here’s my cube undergoing the first paint of metal spray paint. After the first coat, I slathered modeling paste and gel medium all over (to ensure a better seal so the spray paint won’t just chip off…also, I was “beer-proofing” the cube), and then painted the corners a lighter color. I then used some silly pink ribbon I found from a skirt and used that as the pink crevices on each face of the cube.

Stick some foam core heart circles on each side and ta da! You have yourself a new best friend!

My new Instructable is up!

I made a nightlight out of LED, an altoid tin, and an egg. I’ve been pretty addicted to instructables these days and I have a bunch of projects in the works….as soon as I teach myself more about circuitboarding and relive my honor physics days.

Stay tuned for more projects!

On the gaming side of things, I found this amazing gaming podcast. It’s funny, it’s super informative, and it has the right amount of penis jokes mixed in with supernerd references.

Also, I am sleeping with the host.