Dilemmas I have known

Witty Retort

A clever Mac/PC t-shirt design from Split Reason.

Matrix Warranty Shirt

In an attempt to make a cool Matrix styled t-shirt, a clever graphic designer grabbed some readily available Japanese text and arranged it as the familiar "falling code".

But what, ultimately, does it say? Enter Tian, editor of the "Hanzi Smatter" website. While Engrish is the mistranslation of English by those in the far East, Hanzi Smatter is dedicated to Western misuse of Chinese characters. Readers send in suspicious tattoos and Asian-themed products, and Tian attempts to make sense of it all.

Among the many entries of regrettable body art, was this spiffy looking shirt. What does it really say? It says that the graphic designer grabbed the warranty information for an IBM computer. It adds a level of irony to an already cool shirt if you know it says things like "In the case that a malfunction should occur, only repair service will be offered." or "We do not accept orders by FAX."

Unfortunately, we don't know where you can buy such a shirt, but if you find on,e feel free to sound clever about what the shirt actually says.

[Hanzi Smatter: IBM Support Tee]

Dystopian Future Shirt

I'm not sure why this post was sitting in my draft folder for two years. It contains link to buy a perfectly cromulent t-shirt, one lamenting the current state of affairs.


Dystopian Future Shirt

Moon conspiracy shirt

I think it's obvious that the Moon bombing was an inside job. Anyone with two eyes and a brain could tell you that, but THEY don't want you know. This shirt will let everyone know the TRUTH!

Or this is an ironic shirt, mocking conspiracy nuts. Or that's just what the Illuminati and the World Bank want you to think.

Wake up sheeple!

[Shirt available from Spreadshirt]

You're doing it wrong, by popular demand

I have a new shirt available, emblazoned with the phrase "I don't know what you are doing, but you're doing it wrong". This is a common response from common critics, who don't even have to know what you are trying to accomplish before they declare your failure at it.

Placeholder T-shirts

In the changing world of science fiction fandom and internet memes, having the latest, coolest and hippest shirt can be a daunting task.

Now Slashboing brings you "Placeholder shirts" to keep you on the vanguard of geek-hipster fashion. No more waiting to see which meme takes off and which ones fizzle. No more waiting for new designs to be created, ordered and sent in time for an upcoming convention.

These shirts are guaranteed to be appropriate and suitable for science fiction and fantasy conventions and other geek friendly events for years to come. Don't be caught in an out-of-date shirt again. Order Now!

Current Shirts include:
[quote from a cancelled TV show]
[inside joke from my local fan club]
[meme that was funny six months ago]

Current Fixation: Pho

I've been on a Pho kick for a few months now. Pho (pronounced "fuh") is a Vietnamese noodle soup that combines Chinese, French and native influences into a bowl of pure joy.

I am not alone in touting this man-soup love. Every Friday our company drives about 50 blocks to have huge bowls of Beef Sate. We have taken to wearing red shirts on this day to prevent sate splash damage. One of our crew has even started wearing sate goggles to prevent eye damage from the savoury soup. Yes, we are serious Pho lovers.

To make our Phodays extra special, I have created gang colours for our company to wear. Group Pictures will follow.



In other photastic news, the blog Phofever seeks to track every Pho place in the United States along with reviews. When they include Canada to the guide, I plan on adding to it.

Shirt idea I wish I had

P1010114.JPG
Originally uploaded by SMITHMag.

Sunday means flickr favourites on Slashboing. This is one of the many fine geek shirts captured on SMITH Magazine's first annual SXSW Interactive Geek T-Stream, "a mostly cotton wonder of personal expression."

The complete set can be found here: Geek T-Shirts

Megatron Patent

I really don't have much for everyone today. Here is US patent application 4,571,201 for a "Toy Gun Convertible into robotic-humanoid form," or as we know him "Megatron." It is interesting to note that it was originally designed to shoot pellets.

Would this make a cool shirt or what?

Cease and Desist

Richard Stevens, the artist behind Diesel Sweeties recently was served with a "Cease and Desist" order from Lucasfilm, regarding some of his Star Wars themed T-shirts. I have one of his "Gonk Droid had a Posse" shirts, and have been eying the "Space Demon From Beyond Pluto" shirt as well.

The shirts in question still seem to be available here: http://www.dieselsweeties.com/shirts/geekshirts.shtml

Get them before they are gone.

In a pseudo-protest Richard made a lovely "Cease and Desist" shirt. It speaks volumes.

Some People need a good punch in the face

A few weeks ago, Defender75 posted to his journal ( here ) that he wanted a shirt with the phrase, "Some people need a good punch in the face" printed on it. So Slashboing obliged him thusly:
Finding the seal generator on www.says-it.com, I was moved to make a seal with the same sentiment.Enjoy!

Technorati Tags:
Mr. T, Some people, seal generator, spreadshirt, punch in the face

Best Sci-Fi Shirt Ever Made By Anyone in the History of Everything

As many people already know, Universal Studios has been shutting down fans who have been making swag with Serenity themes, images and quotes.

In my opinion the fan made stuff was much more creative and available than the official stuff, which leaves fans with a tough choice. Do we only buy the official stuff in the hopes that the sales will mean a continuation of the franchise? Or do we back the fan made stuff that was filling the needs of the fans better?

Blackmarketbeagles.com has pre-emptively responded to this latest wave of Cease and Desist orders from Universal, and pulled his entire line of Serenity products.

In its place, he has given us this jewel of a shirt:

Suitable for any convention one may want to go to, but free of licensing and copyright restrictions.

This is about 47 metric Awesomes.

Technorati Tags:
Black Market Beagles, fandom, tshirt, Universal, Serenity, Firefly, Cease and Desist

Quick Links (cool tshirt edition)

The link ninja strikes again, droping off stack of geeky t-shirt related links as a warning of things to come.

• Think Geek Tshirts - http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts
• J!NX for gamers and geeks - http://www.jinx.com
• Threadless: User submitted art shirts - http://www.threadless.com
• GeekTs: Geek history through shirts - http://geekt.org/geekt
• Diesel Sweeties Shirts - http://www.dieselsweeties.com/shirts

Crackers!

Technorati Tags:
quick links, tshirts, tee shirts, geek

DragonCon 2006: Last Day Monday

Monday is a little more sedate at DragonCon. Even though programming runs until 5:00, many people spend the morning checking out of the hotel to save on an extra night.

We spent the previous night shaking our groove things at the Drum Circle after the Yule Ball so we slept in a little. The drum circle made veritate and Lexial want to take up bellydancing again, and made defender75 and I want to hit the Gym. We are coming back to D*Con as bronzed gods.

I honestly don't remember much of Monday. I don't think I wore a costume beyond my geek patch shirt. I had a nice little lunch then off to some panels.

First up was "Unsolved Codes" hosted by Elonka Dunin, a noted cryptographer. First she debunked the Da Vinci Code as the load fiction that it is. Then she gave a brief review of her work with Kryptos, the Code challenge sculpture on the CIA grounds. She is the leading expert on Kryptos and is very passionate about the work, the artist and its eventual solution.

She also reviewed some of the world's famous unsolved codes, including the Voynich Manuscript. I was a little disappointed to find out that she thinks the work is a hoax, as it has intrigued me for several years. I will save a detailed explanation of the Voynich Manuscript for another post, but I will include a sample page to show why it is so compelling.

The next panel up was "The Wikipedia Effect" which I was quite excited for as I am a strong supporter of Wikipedia, but the presentation was directed towards convincing neophytes of the value of the project, and not to long time contributors. I left this panel early.

• Panel Count Monday: Two
• Total Panel Count: Seven, a record?

We hit the dealers room for some last minute deals as things were shutting down. I wore my "Down with Pants, Up with Kilts" shirt and got a few compliments on it. Mark Goddard (Major Don West from Lost in Space) told me it was a good shirt, and asked about all the Kilts worn at the convention. "Is there a show on now where some guy wears a kilt?" He asked, thinking the Utilikit was an homage. I informed him that, "No, the are just fun to wear."

And then the event was done. Not with a bang but with a *sigh, that was fun lets do it all again soon*.

Our whole squad got together for the first time Monday in preparation for dinner. Individual schedules kept us in smaller "fireteams" through the weekend so it was nice to see everyone all at once.

(missing from this picture is iRob/iJenn as they had to leave early for home)

We all want to go back again sometime, though for me it may be an every-other-year thing to save money. I will eventually post some conclusions I came to during my trip, but that will have to wait.

Yours in Fandom
Drhaggis.

Technorati Tags:
Dragoncon 2006, Elonka Dunin, Kryptos, Convention report, Fandom

Road trip inside joke

Here is a quick digression from the day-by-day account of my trip to DragonCon 2006 for some background information. In the recent Strong Bad Email "road trip" the following is postulated:

"every good road trip needs a good inside joke that only the people that went on the road trip will get"

This trip followed the rule to the letter. During our expedition to the Georgia Aquarium (see previous post) there were plenty of signs around the touch pools indicating that the proper method of touching the creatures was gently, with two fingers.

DSCF0177.JPG,
originally uploaded by c2jupin.

This was risque enough for our juvenile minds to elicit off-colour jokes for the whole weekend. It also inspired me to create a shirt, available now at the Slashboing Store.






Bask in its aquarium humour! Bask I say! Half the fun is explaining the reference to others!

Technorati Tags:
Georgia Aquarium, Inside Joke, Two Fingers, Spreadshirt

Wichitalking 'bout Kansas

I created my own US State t-shirt at the Slashboing T-shirt shop. The shirt follows a long tradition of slightly funny shirts with punnish references to the names of US states.

Technorati Tags:
Kansas, State T-shirt, slogans, shameless

More T-shirts from Slashboing

The next offering from the SlashBoing t-shirt shop is the "Hopeless Situation Warrior" shirt. When one mechanically translates "Jedi" into a dialect of Chinese, then back into English without understanding either language, the result is "Hopeless Situation Warrior," as is evidenced by the Chinese bootleg copy of "Revenge of the Sith" called "Backstroke ot the West."

The back of the shirt reads "www.calgaryfanforce.com" which as Slashboing readers know, is not mis-translated dialog, but rather the website of the Calgary Star Wars FanForce.

To make ordering from the Slashboing shop easier, I have added a link to my list.

Enjoy!

Technorati Tags:
starwars, backstroke of the west, tshirt, spreadshirt

Sith Girls are Easy

Available now, are the famous "Sith Girl" shirts that I made for the ladies of the FanForce/501st.

The front reads "Sith Girl" while the back lists of the Dark Side's best qualities: "Quicker, Easier, More Seductive."

These shirts are available through Spreadshirt here:
https://www.spreadshirt.com/shop.php?sid=12709

They come in a variety of colours and cuts, just like the Sith!