John Gushue . . . Dot Dot Dot

Mario and Luigi, zombified

This is the TeeFury design for today. Since it plays on both Plants Versus Zombies and Super Mario, it was like a magnet for our son, who cashed in savings from his weekly allowances to cover the tab. 

 

The Super Mario victory garden

As seen on Boing Boing. 

Tetris quilt

To complete the Arts & Crafts Movement in your room, of course. 

As seen here. 

8-Bit Station

Another reason to go to Sweden, just to see this Mario Bros.-theme at a Stockholm station. 

Scrabble opponents

"Children are the most desirable opponents at Scrabble as they are both easy to beat and fun to cheat."
- Fran Lebowitz 

 

Angry Birds: The game

If dragging your fingers across a screen to engineer an avian victory over porcine greed is not enough anymore ... you can buy an actual Angry Birds game.

As seen on (where else, really?) ThinkGeek.

The Old Republic

Coming soon, to a Star Wars-friendly living space near you. 

Rock, paper, scissors, crosswalk

Crosswalk Rock Paper Scissors from Brian G Cheung on Vimeo.

Angry Birds came from the future

Riker from Star Trek: The Next Generation shows you how. (Pretty clever.)

 

A game of chess for Lego and Star Wars freaks

Well, isn't this the Venn diagram for obsessive types? Chess players who are into Lego and Star Wars ... not that small a number, I'd bet. Anyway, here's a DIY for that demographic:

Click here to get the lowdown on how to put this set together for yourself. Although making Darth Vader the queen of the Dark Side? Whoa, that's risky. (The Emperor is the king, which does kind of make sense.) 

Angry Birds get the Lego treatment

From Mashable.

Wasn't it just a matter of time?

 

Pac-Map: The app that turns your city into a Pac-Man backdrop

Hmmm! I'm not crazy about a lot of GPS-aware apps, but I might turn it just to give this try ... except that Pac-Map is just for Android so far.

A T-shirt for those with a clue

Col. Mustard, in the kitchen ... with a knife! As seen here, on Zazzle.

Moving on up to Movember

Surf’s Up, as published in the St. John's Telegram on Thursday, Nov. 4, 2010. Click here to read more Surf's Up.]

According to legend from ancient times (that is, in 2003), Movember started as a bar chat in Australia among a bunch of friends. It’s November, one noted, so why not grow a moustache?

Not long after that, Movember became a movement, and a way of raising funds to fight prostate cancer, one of the deadliest cancers affecting men.

Now, in 2010, it’s everywhere, although I don’t think I’ve ever seen as much Mo-mentum and related activity online.

Movember Canada
Hockey playoff beards? Oh, they’ll be back in the spring, but for now, the facial hair of choice is the moustache. If you see a fellow trying to get that caterpillar to evolve into a handlebar, give him a pat on the back … and be prepared to donate. The official site for Movember in Canada has background information, online tools and everything you’ll need to get involved.

A Newfoundland Movember
Participant Jon Duke of St. John’s is one of the people pitching in, and using social media to get friends and others to donate. He shaved off his beloved beard and is posting pictures as his Movember grows in. Best wishes!

Elsewhere this week

Scale of the Universe
Here’s something that amazed my son when I showed it to him this week. It’s a feature that delves into the relative scale of things, allowing you to zoom in and out a wide variety of things. You move surprisingly quickly from, say, viruses to human beings to planets. It’s when you look at the micro and macro ends of the spectrum that your mind gets quite the workout. Now that I know what quantum foam is, I will think very differently about what it means to be very, very small. An eye-popper.

Music Time Machine
Would youngsters today even recognize a jukebox? Perhaps you need to be of a certain age to appreciate the Music Time Machine, not just for the jukebox setting, but also for the vintage tunes you can select from the year of your choice. I had a lot of fun with this one recent evening while I was working away, and kept tapping for tunes to keep me going. Even better, it was a whole lot cheaper than jukeboxes used to be!

Balloon popper
What is the appeal of mindlessly popping balloons? In a virtual setting, there are no broken bits, no needles flying about, and you can turn the volume off if you like, too. This simple page flows balloons continually, in diagonal lines. Your job (to use a word very loosely indeed) is to glide your mouse around, earning one weirdly satisfying pop after another.

Park seasons
With the seasons changing before our eyes, this site is a nice amusement for a spare moment: spin your mouse, and see an animated park transform as rapidly as you desire.

Google Blogoscoped
Google has an incredible amount of influence over the daily habits of tens of millions of people, and yet many of us don’t think that much about how Google itself operates. (That may be because Google usually offers us a clean white slate when we go to look something up.) Google Blogoscoped follows the company and its services as, say, a car blogger would cover Honda or Ford. For web enthusiasts, it’s always a revealing read.

Past Life Analysis
How’s this for some time-passing hooey? You type in the day you were born, and you’re presented with an “analysis” of what you were like in a prior life. I, evidently, was a shepherd or horseman in Labrador in the 13^th century with a “revolutionary” streak who inspired many changes! Too bad the journals I ought to have written have evidently been lost for the ages.  

John Gushue is an online editor with CBC News in St. John’s. Twitter: @johngushue. Empire Avenue: (e)gushue.

The Muppets: a lab where things go viral

Surf’s Up, as published in the St. John's Telegram on Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010. Click here to read more Surf's Up.]

He’s blue, he’s furry, he stands a few feet tall, preschoolers have wanted to squeeze him for four decades straight, and now – finally – he’s a viral star on the web.

 Grover, in case you haven’t heard, stars in one of the latest videos to catch flame online. It’s a Sesame Street video that pokes fun of Old Spice’s “the man your man could smell like” commercial, which itself was a viral sensation only this winter.

Smell Like a Monster

In this case, Grover focuses  on the word “on,” as in, “on a boat.” Or, “I’m on a horse,” as Grover says at the end … except that the animal below him says “Moo.” “Cow,” Grover quickly adds.

Hilarious. It works for adults, particularly those who like a little burst of satire, and it definitely works for children, too. By early this week, well over five million people had seen the video on YouTube, not including copies posted elsewhere.

I wasn’t surprised, then, to read a piece from New York magazine that revealed not only that the producers of Sesame Street aim to hit two generations with one video, but also deliberately try to get a viral thing happening when they make a video.

They’ve also done parodies of Mad Men – “I’m mad!” says one irate Muppet – and True Blood, a.k.a. True Mud. Yes, it’s a bit risky source material, but the idea is that the kids appreciate what they’re seeing for what it is, while the adults get a lift on a couple of levels.

The Grover parody was conceived, in part, as a way of getting people’s attention, and its internal budget was justified as a promotional event (you’ll notice a brief slide at the end suggesting you watch Sesame Street on PBS, or their website).

More with Muppets

Of course, Grover is a Muppet, but he sticks to Sesame Street. The Muppets, as a brand in their own right, have been reinventing themselves over the last couple of years, and have been making extraordinary clever use of the web to do it.

Muppets Studio

Consider the cover of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, which reunited all of the Muppet Show gang for a rousing yet kid-friendly rendition. (Animal “sang” the word Mama over and over in the place of the lines about pulling a trigger and shooting a man dead.) The video was just posted, a few nudges were made, and boom – everyone got excited about the Muppets again.

For some, it was a bit of nostalgia; for others, like my son – who particularly likes watching videos of Beaker and Bunsen Honeydew’s ill-fated experiments – the videos are entirely fresh.

When you think about it, the Muppets had a built-in advantage for the web. Their sketches were short and often action-packed, built around one strong joke … and just the right length for bite-size videos that people overwhelmingly prefer online.

Many viral hits are shot with a simple camera, even a cellphone, which makes the Muppets different. The production values on the new ones are sumptuous, and quite a bit of thought and skill has gone into pulling them off.

The Muppet videos are laying the groundwork for a new movie, and no doubt a multimedia presence that will probably be hard to ignore, and possibly overwhelming.  For now, though, millions of people can’t get enough of those morsels of Muppet humour.

Angry Birds: Halloween
Angry Birds has been a worldwide phenomenon since this summer: a game where a little geometry knowledge helps, and a whole lot of fun for anyone with a smartphone. The free version unveiled for Android phones this month drew 2 million downloads in half a week.  

Rovio, the company behind the addictively compelling game, has issued a special Halloween edition, with new levels and challenges. Downloading it made me a hit in our house, where both my wife and son are far adept than I am in maneuvering those die-hard birds into slingshots.

John Gushue is an online editor with CBC News in St. John’s. Twitter: @johngushue.

You know what I find weird?

Leading up to, during and now after Remembrance Day, I've heard many moving accounts about war and valour and sacrifices, and the horror of the battlefield, and about the strain and post-traumatic stress that veterans have endured.

And still, during the week, I have repeatedly seen the new TV commercial for Call of Duty: Black Ops, which is no doubt making a mint. The ad - with Gimme Shelter in the background - features ordinary folks going full-tilt in fantasy shoot-em-up modes.

Friends of mine play it, and I'm sure they're having fun, but isn't it at the very least weird that the ad campaign launched the very week that we remember the dead?

My friend, qadi

I love playing Scrabble, even though these days it's Lexulous, the online knockoff that formerly had been Scrabulous. In any event, you need to know a whole bunch of tricky little words to win (Qi? Oui!), and here's a handy list from Mental Floss of 10 Scrabble words every one should know.

A hangman tailored to your tastes

[Surf's Up, as published in the St. John's Telegram on Thursday, May 27, 2010. Click here to read more Surf's Up.]

When I was a kid, Hangman games were one of the ways we got through road trips. It’s simple enough for anyone to play. You guess some letters, knowing that a correct choice gets you closer to an answer, while an incorrect one … well, that gets you closer to something worse than a dangling participle.

This week’s web tour includes an updated version of Hangman, one that even plays to your particular interests and hobbies. We’ll also tap a well-known magazine’s audience for expert advice, get some Kiwi gardening advice, and learn about the value of those CFL lightbulbs.

Hangman
This Norwegian twist on Hangman has a key appeal: you get to select a category before you start playing. Just a few of the categories include countries, Al Pacino movies and frequently misspelled words … many of which, in the last category, didn’t strike me as being commonly misspelled. Then again, this game comes to us from Norway! The categories add a little sparkle, but they also do help make it easier to guess correctly.

Wired How-To Wiki
Wired magazine is a must-read for technofiles of varying degrees of skill and geekitude. It’s not surprising, though, that its audience would have the chops to make a go of expert-guidance articles on all manner of topics, from converting a DVD so it can play on an iPad to making your own yogurt. Registration is required, if you want to write or edit. If you just want to read or browse, you can click your way straight through.

Moosey’s Country Garden
From New Zealand comes this gardening site, which one of my friends heartily recommends. That may because she enjoys reading about someone’s bounty during the cold winter months here – which is perfect, because when we’re snowbound here they’re right in the height of summer. That also means the latest posts are about their less-lush season, but gardening buffs will relish seeing tracking back through the last few months.

Executed Today
Perhaps it’s a little on the grim side, but Executed Today looks at history in an unorthodox way. It’s a blog that each day documents an execution. The range of subject matter is surprisingly wide. The tone aims to be fair and neutral, which is impressive, given how loaded some of the specific subjects can be.

Pictorial History of Dentristry
Humans have been figuring out how to fix dental problems for a long time – much longer than I ever imagined. I have no problem with reading up about dentistry, tooth decay, surgery and such, but I found myself strangely fascinated by the materials here. If you’re nervous about the modern dentist’s chair, you may want to stay away.

CFL bulb savings calculator
I started using compact fluorescent lights a few years ago, gradually replacing my incandescent bulbs. (Well, most of them.) The bulbs have certainly taken off in public acceptance, with the Canadian Football League now competing for top-of-mind awareness for the CFL acronym. While I’m wary of the mercury in these bulbs, and wonder how well we’re disposing of them, I’ve gotten used to the light they provide. Here’s a handy resource on the financial reasons to switch.

Arcade Fire single
Next week, Montreal-based Arcade Fire will release a 12-inch vinyl single called The Suburbs, in advance of their first album in three years. Last week, we got an online teaser in the guise of a mini-stunt: you see an image of a vinyl record, and when you click on it, it spins and a sound comes out. Sort of. It speeds up and slows down, and you won’t hear very much, but it’s an amusing way to spark some interest in new music.

John Gushue is an online editor with CBC News in St. John’s. Twitter: @johngushue.

Pac Man cupcakes

After all, wasn't Pac Man about eating lots of stuff? More food that looks like other things can be seen right here.

WIth a Stephen Fy game, you throw dictionaries, of course

It's called Quantum of Torrents. Ha.

G-l-o-r-i-a, and other spell-'em-out songs for the Scrabble set

Van Morrison's Gloria is one thing, but there are other songs that make you want to reach for the Scrabble tiles. Why, here's a list.

Seinfeld Rock Band

From Funny Or Die UK, a game that some people would probably buy sight unseen, if it did actually exist.

Seinfeld Rockband - watch more funny videos

Space Invaders go to the big city

What if the next movie about an alien invasion takes its inspiration from the games arcades of the early Eighties?

A Star Wars twist on Space Invaders

On TeeFury today, a retro T-shirt that appeals to fans of both (or either) Star Wars and first-generation Space Invaders. Available only through the day.

Lego Harry Potter

Coming this spring ... to our TV. I can bet on that, particularly since the kid has taken note of it.