the generally quite fun and always quite crazy 2008 san francisco bay to breakers is this sunday, may 18th. the race is 12 kilometer (7.46 miles) and goes from one end of san francisco to the other. giantmonster will be running (but no, not as the mighty glergg) and enjoying the madness! hope to see you there!
Archive for the 'nerds & geeks' Category
giantmonster’s favorite resident space alien and (and sometimes dedicated office worker) glergg was in full effect at the super fun how weird street faire last sunday in san francisco. making friends & busting out the freshest dance moves is what glergg is all about! thanks how weird! on an inter-galactic scale, the people, food, art, dancing, and music of how weird 2008 were all great great great! there are additional glergg pics posted below & they were found by culling flickr for pics tagged ‘how weird’ (thanks everyone for snapping photos!).
check out this video titled Head Tracking for Desktop VR Displays using the WiiRemote. it’s quite impressive! you can watch the whole video and see how the virtual reality & headtracking is accomplished. or let the video load and skip to the 2:30 mark to see the vast difference between a normal display and a virtual reality headtracking display. amazing! excellent work & video by johnny lee! & thanks goose for the link!
when politics collide with my hard wired sense of star wars nerdy-ness, magical things can happen. the battles and infighting between our next president barack obama and former first lady hilary clinton can best be summed up in this awesome clip titled the empire strikes barrack. totally laugh it up fuzzball - it’s good stuff! i feel oddly compelled to watch the empire strikes back again. thanks brit for the link!
the super fun and super exciting maker faire is fast approaching! how fast? well, the maker faire is this weekend! saturday may 3rd and sunday may 4th at the san mateo county fairgrounds (map)! the maker faire is a metric ton of fun! you should definitely go! here are some pics from 2007’s makers faire to entice you. see you there!
for spring break week, it’s taxidermy gone wild! yes, monday morning bringeth the beaver jokes with the most awesome beaver case mod ever (maybe the only beaver case mod ever). built by kasey mcmahon. for steaming PC action, check out the specs on that hot beaver too! a very nice beaver at that! some pics of the amazing project below. awesome job kasey! i think i love you!
the nerdy yet very mighty wondercon approacheth the san francisco moscone center this weekend! plus the even mightier folks at maverix studios are having a wondercon party & showing off their many talents. awe-shume! i know folks like rhode and jamie will be exhibiting their hot stuff (& their comics & drawings too) at wondercon. are you going? are you exhibiting? feel free to post your booth info all up in the comments. see you there!
fellow nerds & geeks can now safely go where no such nerd has allegedly gone before with this very handy map of the star trek universe. the map is a scan from Star Trek Star Charts: The Complete Atlas of Star Trek. yeah, totally. additional star trek inspiration available here. trek map via geekstir.
fanning the flames of hype for the 4th indiana jones adventure, movieweb has an alleged exclusive first look at the actual crystal skull from indiana jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull. hmmm … i may be wrong, but the indiana jones crystal skull looks almost exactly like eddie the head of the heavy metal band iron maiden. ye olde crystal skull and eddie the head cover art from ‘number of the beast‘ provided to help you decide. speilberg and lucas must be secret metal heads, so there’s hope for this movie yet!
very cool time-lapsed video clip of what is called an automatic graffiti robot. the art is created using a spray can attached to cables running on a X / Y axis. the cables control or press the nozzle on the spray can at precise moments. the cable are moved & controlled by a computer program. it reminds me of a giant plotter printer. very cool idea! the clip is from 2006 but i haven’t been able to find any other info on this artist other that the video. anyway, enjoy!
while the quest for an even more hi-res version continues, giantmonster would like to thank one of our 13 readers - 10nito - for sending in the larger and more complete image above of the very mighty & sought after star wars awesome poster previously posted on giantmonster. ps - the poster was originally created by hugh fleming. thanks 10nito!!
yes, it’s friday, may 25th - and it’s totally star wars day. everywhere. i mean everywhere. star wars, star wars, star wars! to celebrate the star wars-ness, here is a joy: it’s The Two-Hour Star Wars Holiday Special in only Five Minutes! you’re welcome. and what a five minutes. there’s art carney (gotta have art carney - whatever it takes), bea arthur, wookie life day, chewbacca’s disfunctional family, stormtroopers, luke skywalker with waay too much make up, jefferson starship/airplane awfulness, han solo hugging wookies, wookies hugging han solo, bizarre wookie religious ritual, and so much more. all done on a budget of $100! remember though, it’s 5 minutes of your life that you won’t get back. but then there is the largest slave leia photo shoot coming up to rescue you.
posted up on flickr are photos from the 2007 maker faire that took place this weekend. wow - there was soo much to see! i barely scratched the surface of looking at all the cool stuff. luckily, scott beale over at laughing squid took a gigantic amount of photos at the maker faire too (link to laughing squid’s flickr set)! yes, i will definitely go next year and this time participate in the rad-ness!!
the brilliant minds at the Holotypic Occlupanid Research Group (HORG!) provide an excellent and free scientific resource for all to learn from: intensive study and classification of bread tie species. yes, bread ties. you’ve used them all your life, but do you really know them? HORG is here to help. HORG’s research covers bread tie taxonomy, life and habits, known species, and some mutations. from the HORG website:
Class Occlupania (Occlu=to close, pan= bread) are placed under the Kingdom Microsynthera, Phylum Plasticae. Occlupanids share phylum Plasticae with “45″ record holders, plastic juice covers, and other often ignored small plastic objects.
my brain is hurting from the influx of knowledge. i like that - thank you HORG! thank you.
the 2nd annual maker faire is going on this weekend. saturday, may, 19th from 10am to 6pm and sunday, may 20th, from 10am to 5pm. happening at the san mateo fairgounds. here’s a link with directions to the fairgrounds and here’s a pdf link of a map of the makers faire. am i going? hells yeah! lots to see! just check out the schedule! i am definitely going to check out chicken john’s woodgas pickup truck, the arts, the crafts, the mad science & scientists, hacks, mods, robots, solar inventions, tiny houses, and did somebody say sock monkey madness? yes they did. dammit - why aren’t you going?
UPDATE:
wired has a great maker faire 2007 preview gallery to get you in the mood.
it’s friday, and what do you do when there’s a big - really big - man-shaped thing walking around in your back yard. call 9-1-1. good stuff. this audio clip is edited & i haven’t been able to find the full version. in return, i offer you this rad stabilized film clip of the famous patterson bigfoot footage (via bigfootencounters.com). previous sasquatch joy here.
loving this find on youtube titled Six Million Dollar Man “The Secret of Bigfoot” featuring a young lee majors and a young andre the giant as the mighty bigfoot. nothing more i need to say. just watch the radness. it’s just enough to make you want to start sewing your own bigfoot costume (if you haven’t done so already).
UPDATE:
more rad bionic bigfoot clips in the comments section …
it’s a war of the gargantuas! or to be more specific, a very heated shouting match between the gargantuan fox news political assholes bill o’reilly and geraldo rivera. complete with aggressive finger pointing! and grand-standing! wow. i find myself agreeing with geraldo (did i just type that?) though it’s hard to hear him with the loud sounds of bill o’reilly losing his mind throughout the clip. and yes it is a treat to see bill o’reilly wound up as tight as winnebago man. between geraldo & bill, i can’t tell which is the green gargantua or the brown gargantua. luckily, there is video provided below so you can decide for yourself.
Bill O’Reilly Loses His Mind
War of the Gargantuas (1966) - English Trailer
please excuse my absence of late. i was busy playing with my new star wars action figure.
a great example of 1) george lucas always focusing on story and 2) seeing my childhood memories sold back to me: r2d2 mailboxes! also on theforce.net. for the 30th anniversary of star wars. coming to (and soon stolen from) a post office near you. would you trust your mail into a mailbox that is highly likley to be stolen by collectors? or forced to work in the spice mines of kessel, smashed into who knows what? i actually thought you could not endorse a product using government property or materials. who knew? so the question everyone asking is: where in the hell is my ‘howard the duck’ mailbox?
being a sucker for giant monster movies, i feel obliged to post about the upcoming south korean monster film called The Host (originally released as Gwoemul in 2006). i haven’t seen it. i know little about it. and yes, it could really suck (like previously mentioned films here have done). but seeing as it has a giant, mutated, catfish-like monster in it and this website is titled giantmonster, i must write something about it. The Host opens friday, march 9th. link to The Host trailer on apple’s website. link to the official The Host movie website (opens with trailer). movie & plot summary (spoiler alert!) via wikipedia. CG work done by weta studios and the orphanage. bad but very good monster movies are hard to find these days (last one for me was Slither) so i’m hoping to get my fix.
darn it - i missed stretch monster week over at neatocoolville! yes, neatocoolville is where everything and anything stretch monster related can be found. everything from a stretch monster coloring book (with such sexy poses!), the stretch monster box art, stretch monster anatomy, a stretch monster birthday cake baked by yours truly, and a lot more. check it out when you get a chance.
so, yeah, we just ordered 12 new wampa suits. perfect for spring! i hope to have them here before easter. that way i don’t have to rent a boring old easter bunny costume for the giantmonster family easter egg hunt. photos of old school wampa rad-ness found via michael heilemann’s flickr set titled classic star wars.
my friend fon over at foncocreative just posted pictures from yoda: a restrospective art show held way back in the day (1995 to be more accurate) at skellington productions. with some left over silicone on the james and the giant peach set and a yoda puppet nearby, the mighty yoda mold was created. born from that mold were dozens of plaster yodas that eventually transformed into elvis yoda, dr. zaius yoda, styrofoam yoda, piss yoda, and many others. thanks for posting the pics fon!
feeling the frost? the freeze? the winter? the chill in the air? i don’t know about you, but this weather lately … it’s been very … um … how do you say ? … kKOHLDdd. yes.
struggling with what to get for the star wars sex fetish geek in your circle of jedi friends? this unique take on restoring order to the galaxy should do it. use the force & stuff stockings in style with this step-by-step DIY post on how to make a laser sword dildo sex toy. brilliant! makes a handy flashlight & conversation starter for when the lights go out too.
i have to give a big hat tip and a deep waist bow of respect to my good friend jason sadler on his build of the ultimate star wars halloween costume. not a tie fighter pilot mind you, no. this is the actual tie fighter itself! made from trashcan lids, pvc tubing, foam core, four baby food containers, and a whole lot of love. go jason! crush the rebellion!
more pics inside … Continue reading ‘rad tie fighter halloween costume’
in keeping with the gomer inspirational poster theme, derekmonster sends in the image below with the reminder that while you are definitely awesome, you may not be as awesome as this poster.
my friend derek introduced me to the very funny and addictive cartoon The Venture Brothers on adult swim. i am hooked. a bit of a parody of the johnny quest cartoon, venture brothers seems to get better and better as i watch it. as a card carrying member of the nerd, gomer, & geek community (with an emphasis on the sci-fi) i doubt any one fellow nerd could resist the strong comedic gravitational pull that the venture brothers provides. a sample of such pull can be found in the venture brothers season 2 opener. so dumb, yet soo good. and i tip my hat at the duran duran ‘hungry like the wolf’ video reference. very nice.
nice scratch track video of james earl jones doing the first pass of dialogue for darth vader. the vader sessions. or maybe this is the the real dialogue, as it was meant to be seen & heard? hmmm. funny video created by the kids at akjak & link sent in from the derekmonster. please watch the vid below & enjoy! remember, daddy is the breadwinner.