OMEGAZOID

uk etsy ok!

2010-11-23T13:25:00.012+00:00

Union Jack Pin Cushion by darlingdillydilly

i loved it when folksy arrived on the scene to allow us british crafters to buy and sell stuff in our own country and currency - but i have to say that the majority of my buyers still come through etsy, whether they're from the USA and elsewhere in the world, or from the UK. so it's with much excitement that i can pass on the news that etsy is making things way easier for UK craft fans to buy more UK craft!

local search is the big thing i've been wanting for ages as a buyer myself - if just because you know that if you buy things from just down the road, they'll get to you in the post a whole lot quicker than having to negotiate the choppy unpredictable waters of international airmail and customs. so that's just made last minute disorganised christmas present buying soooooo much easier :D

the other thing etsy are working on is currency. they've already given people the choice of what currency to see prices in (with paypal's exchange rates and currency conversion fees built in, just like on ebay) so you don't have check xe.com every five seconds - but now they've also given sellers the choice of what currency to list in. so now i'm torn... do i keep things in $USD since most of my etsy fans are from america, and UK customers can always buy in £GBP from my folksy shop? or do i switch over and hope that more UK people will find it easier to buy now? i'd love any feedback on how this affects you as an internet shopper if you want to get in touch :)

anyway, in honour of the new features, and to stop from pimping my own stuff for once (or as a not so subtle hint at what to buy me for christmas ;) here is a treasury featuring some of my favourite uk crafty gamers that i think you might like too :) and the plus side is that you still have time to order any of this stuff to get it before christmas!*

Etsy
spugmeistress

*which reminds me, on the subject of last posting dates - they're now up on both shops and the OMEGAZOID fan page on facebook - basically if you're in the uk, you've got til the 20th December for first class post, but shop earlier and save yourself the stress!

a very rupee christmas and a starry new year...

2010-11-22T03:16:00.004+00:00

shiny things :), originally uploaded by spugmeistress

...and coins for anyone who doesn't celebrate either! (wouldn't want you to miss out on displaying your 8bit love to the world)

i've been playing around with the larger (well, normal sized to everyone else) hama beads recently to come up with some new christmas tree decorations / holiday hangers in time for the impending festive season. if you don't have a tree, they also look good in windows where the translucent beads really catch the light nicely.

you can get a super mario star, super mario coin, red rupee or green rupee (or both!) or one of each in a super retro videogame christmas decoration gift four-pack. of course, they're also available on folksy for UK people, and as always i'm happy to do things in different colours, combinations or quantities if people ask nicely :)

i'm also always up for suggestions or requests - festive 8bit videogame sprites were a bit thin on the ground as i was researching, even from the snow-laden super mario levels, so i ended up going with generic shiny things in festive colours. maybe 5 gold rings from sonic the hedgehog would be a good next project? but if you can think of any christmas-themed videogames of a suitable era, let me know! either here, or on the OMEGAZOID facebook fan page and if you come up with a good enough idea, i might make you a prototype!

if you like the look of these, but want something a little bit more wearable, i've got some jewellery/accessories lined up ready to be listed so look out for those soon...

game city 5 and other such distractions

2010-11-05T12:59:00.004+00:00

Pac Notts originally uploaded by Game City

wow, it's been nearly a year since my last post... since then i've changed jobs at work, joined a roller derby team, broke my wrist (yes those last two are connected...) and there's been another Game City festival in Nottingham, which was just as awesome as last year's! the photo above shows us playing pac-notts - live action running around pacman on the streets of nottingham, controlled by frantic mobile phone directions and a non-GPS enabled custom map back on laptops at HQ - run by the very lovely and very fun people from Pac-Lyon. too many other highlights to write about, especially as i was too busy having fun to tweet half as much as i did last year, but you can see some more about the week (and hunt for familiar faces in photos) here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2010/nov/01/gamecity-highlights
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-11/02/gamecity-humanises-gaming
http://www.flickr.com/groups/1520480@N24/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gamecityfestival/
http://twitter.com/spugmeistress/game-city

apart from catching up and testing whether this thing still works, i just wanted to check in to say that i'm currently working on restocking both the etsy shop and folksy shop in time for the holidays, and if you want to join the Facebook page for (hopefully more frequent) updates, you can Like OMEGAZOID here :)

free games for free(?!) time

2009-12-10T04:02:00.002+00:00

Mario´s Picross (Man!ac 6/95), originally uploaded by Kantenflimmern.

there's been a slight slow down again round these parts due to the usual pre-christmas insanity, but also exciting things afoot in the future of crafty/gamesy/internetty stuff - you'll hopefully hear more soon :)

in the meantime, i thought it might be good to provide some flash game links to distract everyone from the lack of blogging:

Small Worlds is an exploring game. some people have said that it only takes 30 mins to complete, but as someone who is sadly lacking in the basic videogame skill of jumping, i've obviously gotten more value out of it and still have only seen 3 of the gorgeously pixellated worlds that lie through the mysterious teleports.

Continuity is a weird one - it's like they took a really simple game and watch level and turned it into one of those slidey puzzles (which, for the record, i hate. i absolutely suck at them and still haven't completed the ones in professor layton, even with walkthroughs.) it's immensely clever, although takes a while to realise the nuances of why exactly you aren't allowed to go through the wall to the next screen yet, and soon ramps up the difficulty - just wish it had a save game.

but mostly i've just been playing Wii Picross. now i've finally completed Picross DS, and 3D Picross isn't out over here quite yet, this completely free website is keeping me more than occupied - I'm addicted to the daily puzzles and their advent challenge is proving quite interesting this time (is it sad to realise i've been playing this site long enough to remember the last two years' worth of christmas specials?) i bought a book of puzzles recently to carry round but the majority of them are logically incomplete, full of mistakes, or plain broken, which makes me appreciate wii picross even more. have to say i much prefer to use it on the pc than to the wii browser though.

and finally... not exactly a flash game, but i downloaded world of goo recently as part of their 'pay what you want' promotion - at first i was most intrigued by the experiment, and to be honest i still haven't got round to installing the mac version. however, they've also gone on to offer the first chapter as a free demo on wiiware, which *did* hook me in, and i finally got round to realising what i suspected all along: it's ace fun :) highly recommended, and yay for wiiware demos!

i've got the key, i've got the secret

2009-12-05T12:16:00.004+00:00

collection of keys, originally uploaded by spugmeistress.

it's quite disgraceful that i've been trailing this for over a year, but look, new collection! these keys are taken from various 8bit nintendo games (well, mostly legend of zelda, but one random mystery one in there too) and put on a necklace in order to make cheesy jokes like 'you've got the key to my heart!'. Link would be proud of such a chat up line, i'm sure...

i've always wanted one of the keys from the latchkey project, not only because they look so damn cool, and each one is unique, but also because of the unknown story behind each one - the mystery of knowing that a key must belong to an item that it unlocks and trying to reunite the two. is there a super secret prize at the end of the quest, or is the joy in the journey (that to be honest, i doubt many people have ever completed. but i'm not sure that's the point...)

on the subject of games and puzzles and fun with almost pointless point scoring, i just found out about noticin.gs and it looks awesome. just like with wii fit or singstar - the points/games/rules help give the experience some sort of legitimacy against time wasting, but they're really only a framing device for the real fun - such as shedding inhibitions with friends, interacting with the world around you.

anyway, if you want a key, they're available here:

etsy ($) : gold key necklace, silver key necklace, bronze key necklace

folksy (£) : gold key necklace, silver key necklace, bronze key necklace

the best things ever

2009-12-02T22:30:00.000+00:00

photo borrowed from angelsk's flickr

*before we start: the blue wig is there for a reason. we were on our way to a hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy party and i dressed up as a hooloovoo (i like to think being a hyperintelligent shade of blue quite befits my personality ;) )

best umbrella ever: by squid london

i do like smart textiles. so when i saw this hydrochromic umbrella, i *had* to have it. the silhouettes start off white and change colour when they get rained on, kinda like those kids water painting things :) a couple of days after it arrived (in a package with butterfly print packing tape and some wallpaper samples by my *favourite* wallpaper designers - how did they know?!), technabob kindly pointed out that the umbrella owner can't actually see how awesomely colour changing it is when they are underneath it, but i don't care - at least everyone else gets to see and know that my umbrella is better than theirs :P it doesn't hurt that it has a london skyline on it either - manchester would have been nicer but at least it's not MK (not that MK really *has* a skyline...)

best watch ever: by nixon

i love my watch. it's not new - i've had it probably nearly 7 or 8 years and it's currently sporting a paperclip as a strap loop, but it's still the classiest watch i've seen. i'm pretty sure i was influenced towards the nixon rocker by its inclusion as a 'create a skater' option in one of the tony hawk's pro skater games (maybe 3 or 4?) but i can't for the life of me find out which one. even recreated in pixels it looked amazing, and then even more so when i realised dave grohl had one. cedric diggory sports something looking remarkably similar in the lake scene in harry potter: goblet of fire too, but i'll let him off ;)

best live band ever: muse

nothing more really needs to be said. but i will anyway ;) as much as i love radiohead to bits and they are probably my favourite band of all time, muse don't half kick their ass. went to see them for the 7(?)th time at the 02 in London a few weeks ago, and they rocked so hard that i almost don't care that i never got to see queen live. utterly ridiculous, utterly sublime and i've already bought tickets to see them again next september at wembley. cannot wait :)

small* duck update

2009-11-25T22:46:00.006+00:00

inspired from the duck hunt wall friezes i blogged the other day, we get back to the usual etsy stylings with some wearables again :) the mini hama bead versions are about half the size of the big ones, so just the right size - although i did have to slightly redesign the sprite, so duck hunt purists are warned that these aren't *exactly* canon ;) here's the duck necklace for the girls, and the duck pin for everyone to enjoy - they can come in any of the three colours if you have a particular outfit/wallpaper in mind that it needs to match ;)

*count all the different meanings of small in one short post! ;)

hunting ducks

2009-11-24T23:17:00.002+00:00

so here you go: you saw the work in progress concept a few weeks ago, and now i can show the final product: the flying duck hunt wall frieze! (on etsy and folksy)

i have to make a confession: flying ducks have always reminded me more of coronation street than nintendo's duck hunt - the NES was just a little bit before my time. but there is perhaps no better amalgamation of videogame sprites with good old real northern life than hilda ogden's trio of ducks recreated in glorious pixel form.

i think it's interesting that videogames are often seen as quite an immature and young industry or artform, and yet we already embrace nostalgia - especially if you're as into 8bit retro pixels as me. obviously there's something in the basicness of it all that makes us yearn for simpler times, when you only had one or two buttons to mash instead of a whole control system to learn, and games were short, straightforward and (in my opinion) often a lot more fun for it. i guess the wii is getting back to that kind of thing, especially as the industry realises that my overcomplicating things, they lost a huge chunk of the casual market along the way, which i guess is why we're seeing a lot more of these vintage titles appearing on things like wiiware.

i don't know if it's for these reasons, or just that he *really* likes ducks, that a friend from the mktweetup group (who, incidentally, makes awesome custom arcade cabinets) commissioned a special single colour duck trio for his very own wall. if anyone else fancies one, get in touch with me via the blog, flickr, etsy or folksy and i'll see what i can do :)

game city's last stand - day 5

2009-11-18T23:42:00.007+00:00

so I got no sleep friday night... :( horrible stinking cold from being too sociable, talking too much and generally being on holiday, but i wasn't about to let it get in the way of rocking out!

in the big tent @gamecity watching the world's first lego rock festival \m/, hope i can still sing with a stinking cold

they set the giant tent up with astroturf, deckchairs, umbrellas and lots and lots of lego, with giant lego bricks on stage and raina lee being incredibly enthusiastic and lovely. but whilst i waited for the rest of my band to arrive, there was a small matter of matsuraa-san's keynote in the ballroom to go to. there was live music, live playing of brand new rhythm games, lots of general excitement and margaret robertson doing an excellent job of interviewing landing exactly on the right side of the fangirl line.

waiting back stage for our brickstock performance @gamecity to a crowd of thousands (of minifigs ;)

but now it was time... after already hearing quite a few renditions of bryan adams and bon jovi, we decided to give the crowd a break and go for walking on sunshine by katrina and the waves. possibly not a wise choice as it goes on for*ever* at the end with bits i didn't know how to sing, and a bass player who had never played the game before, let alone in public! but we had fun, and rocked out, and Omegazoid seemed to go down well with the crowd :) definitely the highlight that i've been telling people about the most :D

finished rocking out to lego rock band in time to go see jonathan smith ballroom bricks @gamecity, lego alex james is uber cute!

and then straight after playing the game, had to run back to the ballroom to see the lovely jonathan smith talk about lego rock band. i like how the songs were picked to be ones that would make you feel awesome :) i also like how they've managed to take out most of the annoying bits and made the game even more fun, rather than just a change of song list. he told us afterwards that previous rock band DLC will work with lego rock band too which is pretty awesome (dependant on family friendly-ness, understandably, the Lego corp probably don't want their characters singing dodgy stuff). one of my favourite things has been the character design though - lego blur are adorable; i always had a crush on alex james and his lego'd up floppy fringe is incredibly cute - and lego queen follow quickly behind with the immensity that is brian may's curly lego mullet. the whole thing is tempting me horribly into the murky (well, seemingly expensive) world of lego minifig modding...

Also TT are working on lego harry potter! :o going to be aaaawesooome :D next year @gamecity?

*how* excited am i about this?! it seems it had already been announced and so wasn't new news to anyone but me, but yay! i wanna do magic spells with my wiimote with the same ease and pure joy as lightsabre fighting in lego star wars. and then, that was it... hometime for me, as i'd not booked a hotel room for saturday night due to not realising there was another party that night, and to be honest, the cold was getting the better of me anyway. would've loved to stay and get dressed up with professional makeup to do Left For Dead: Live, not to mention to see how they were going to manage StreetFighter: Live (something like this maybe?) but it was sadly not to be...

til next year :)

sadly having to leave @gamecity before The End party (bah illness n lack of sunday trains) but thank you for an absolutely brilliant week :)

p.s. one of my tweets is in Edge! check out their gamecity round up (slightly more concise than mine, but not half as interesting hopefully ;) in the christmas issue out now :)

pixels and parappa at game city day 4

2009-11-18T23:02:00.006+00:00

and day 4 of gamecity starts like this...

just about to head into town for more @gamecity, anyone know when live @onelifeleft is going to be? Do i risk going to curry sessions?

the answer was yes. gotta love mystery twitterer (although he wasn't entirely sure what i was on about) and the status updates from two of the OLL presenters saying they were still on the motorway, but yaaaaay, it was so worth making it to the final curry session - all worked out to be timed quite nicely in the end :)

The pixel ani curry session w/spiteyourface & alaskanmilitaryschool @gamecity was ace, want to go get out the lego and gameboy camera now :)

alaskan military school are the genii behind the 15 pixel gamecity idents (play the game, see how many you can guess!) which i absolutely *love*. spite your face are the genii behind the whole lego stop motion animation phenomena, and the dudes who did lego camelot which appeared on the monty python & the quest for the holy grail dvd (2nd favourite film ever). one of the spite your face guys managed to 'play' music from the gameboy chunky camera which wasn't exactly a pop sensation but nonetheless impressive. i still have my [sister's] gameboy camera somewhere...

i love how both of them managed to distil such vast things into pixel form (either literally, or in lego pixels) and still be so recognisable and powerful. simplification of pixel art seems to bring out the sheer quality of things sometimes i think. but then i would say that with my hama bead obsession ;)

is sat in front of jonathan smith watching @onelifeleft @gamecity :)

it's quite bizarre seeing one of your favourite podcasts being recorded live, but i was glad i finally got the chance after missing them 2 years ago (when i was yet to be a listener, but had just heard about it from ste curran's talk). even bizarrer to turn around and see jonathan smith from TT games (mr lego everything) sat behind you, enjoying the show! i wonder if he's started work on lego sweeney todd yet...

really enjoyed Mr matsuura's majestic march @gamecity - much fun with kazoos and now i *need* to play vib ribbon :)

this was the warm up for masaya matsuraa's keynote the next day, but was possibly actually way more fun. we got given kazoos on the way in and practiced warming up a bit by going through every sci fi theme tune we could possible remember (old school star trek and stargate themes probably worked best out of the bunch - imperial deathmarch does not suit the kazoo and super mario bros is too hard...) the reason for all of this was two-fold - first he was promoting his new wiiware game, Major Minor's Majestic March, which looks hella fun to play. matsuraa-san is the king of rhythm action games (i learned) as he was behind stuff like vib ribbon and parappa the rapper (both of which i should really hunt out and play properly sometime), but i really like how he's managed to evolve the gameplay when so many people seem to be doing the same old thing. the majestic march doesn't require you to stick to a pre-determined beat and test your accuracy - it lets you keep your own tempo, and change it according to the needs of the song. way more like real music performance than mere karaoke :)

the second reason we got kazoos was for our mass performance of hey jude together. brilliantly smily moment, harkened back to when i got linked to this hey jude lyric flowchart diagram when i got back (absolutely genius)

Watching gamers dance to chip tunes is funny (i fully include myself in this)

nerdiest party/night out i think i've ever been to, but at least there *was* dancing, which i wasn't entirely expecting! i have to confess i'm not the hugest fan of chip tunes, but syphus was pretty cool, sabrepulse played the blockbuster theme tune and i had an excuse to boogie :)

fun times partying with @onelifeleft @gamecity, dancing to knights of triforce muse/zelda mashup was immense :)

i think this is the closest i can find to the song in question, but i'm sure the version @byronicman played was far more remixy/mashup than badly played guitar cover. if anyone can find it, link me up - i *need* that mp3 in my life :D

lambs, flowers and girls with guitars on day 3

2009-11-09T20:55:00.002+00:00

Night Blooms at The Arcade Exchange - 11, originally uploaded by nottinghamgamecity.

day 3 started with even more gaming of the non-video variety at gambling lambs, a group of lovely people who meet at lee rosy's tea shop to play games together every month. if only MK wasn't so far away...

Playing medieval cards at gambling lambs @gamecity - i am the greater dalmuti!

firstly we were introduced to dalmuti. i realised i'd played it before with standard cards as president (which in turn is based on an old chinese game, dai hin min) but the new deck and setting made it even more fun as the power struggles soon got people into character :)

playing last night on earth: defend the manor house, i am the zombie lord \o/ @gamblinglambs @gamecity

i'd also played last night on earth before (a zombie board game that feels kinda like an interactive movie), but not this scenario. it was fun, but complicated, and we never did really finish the game, but had some interesting storylines come up along the way at least - far more hilarious than expected ;)

we left last night on earth in a mess of inappropriate zombie orgies, won at werewolf and now at @gamecity u panel for a breather :)

more werewolf, albeit in a bigger group and i had to be a wolf this time (which i hate cos i suck at it, amazed i lasted as long as i did...) - we were having so much fun we missed the start of the gamecity U stuff, but decided to go along for the afternoon session with rex who did the art on little big planet, babsy from papermint and robin hunicke who now works for thatgamecompany. not sure what i expected from a games design panel, but it was inspiring stuff - just frustrating that some of them were lucky types who were arty and visual (like me) and still managed to find teams to work with to make videogames despite a lack of technical knowledge (also like me). there had been some previous talk about games as creative, and how children love being creative from a young age, but it seems the barrier to games design is just so much higher than that of art or music: kids can experience either of those and then go and instantly make them themselves , even if it is just a crude attempt at finger painting or banging pots and pans - what's the games equivalent? how do people who have ideas, but not the mad coding skills, get a chance to do anything with them?

with this still on the mind, we went to a curry sessions debate on taboo in games, although it wasn't particularly debateful or indeed audible from where we were sat.

is about to experience flower: night blooms @gamecity :)

robin hunicke came back for the big live art performance of Flower in the exchange arcade. again, not sure what to expect, and on paper/screen it might even sound a little disappointing, but it really was a little shared moment between all involved. flower is a ps3 download game that i'd heard about but not played before - basically you are the wind, picking up petals and, in the words of robin, 'spreading love throughout the world'. one of the things that was particularly cool was how there was no words, no text or dialogue, in the whole thing - reminding me of one of my favourite comics, owly, in both how accessible it becomes to children or people who speak other languages, but also in how it makes the reader/player put their own emotion into the gaps.

Watching flower played big isnt quite like a film, better than video art installation, live dance with petals as ballerinas maybe?

the previous day, david braben and lord puttnam had both talked about videogames not yet reaching the stage where they can make people cry - as if this pinnacle of emotion is a sign of artistic legitimacy - but robin clearly proved them both wrong by admitting (and demonstrating) how emotional the game made her feel. all we, the audience, did was to stand, sit or lie down and watch someone else play a videogame, projected onto wavy muslin, but it was a unique and moving (in an undefinable sorta way) experience. (insert something about games as art, except i think that perhaps the more we go on about something is already blatently real, the more gamers as a whole sound as if we're just on the defensive...)

Also: wind turbines as things of beauty; colour reminiscent of Hero; and nice to see a bunch of gamers chilling out and soaking it in

and on that note, and later than planned, we moved on the 'world of wordcraft' event to see rebecca mayes (of gameswipe fame) play live, and also maybe listen to people talk about games writing too.

i have to say at this point, game city was horrendously disorganised this year, but it did have its benefits at times. flower overran its slot and we honestly made our way over to the gig thinking we were an hour late and would've missed it all, but because practically everyone was at flower anyway (including the organisers), it didn't actually matter. we just bumped the schedule on a bit, and still had time to play fluxx before it started. maybe not the most professional type of thing, but i think the nice community feel is one of the best things about game city.

World of wordcraft @gamecity was interesting: i still secretly want to be a games writer/editor. rebecca mayes is pretty cool too :)

there was a lot of discussion about games reviews, which, coming from ste curran of '7/10 onelifeleft' fame, and started by a statement that games reviews were pretty much meaningless these days, may hint at the slight irreverance to follow

RT @avalix "pacman is *almost* the most rounded video game character in video game history" @gamecity @steishere :D)

being a word geek, editor, zine contributer etc... i have a bias towards critical writing even if i do admit it bears very little influence on the games i buy anymore, but i like non-fiction writing as a creative artform, and was particularly impressed at the ability to put that into a musical construct with not just acoustic guitar but awesome pedal layering too. there may be more along this kind of front in the future...

a splendid day 2 at game city

2009-11-07T01:30:00.002+00:00

something splendid at game city, originally uploaded by spugmeistress.

Day 2 in the game city week and it starts off with Something Splendid...

Omg takahashi's playground is actually going to happen @gamecity! Yay mobile internet!

11:46 AM Oct 28th from mobile web

So, Keita Takahashi (aka Mr Katamari Damacy) is going to design a playground to be built in Nottingham! He kind of talked about it at his keynote two years ago but I don't think I ever expected anything to come of it, especially considering how long it took for them to get Noby Noby Boy out, but it's pretty awesome that hopefully in a year or two we might get to go play on it! The Q&A made sure that adults (and dogs) would be allowed to join in the fun too, although what the fun will actually be is still a mystery, other than something involving natural hill slides (interestingly, hand gestures and delayed translation add a strange layer to proceedings) and a provocatively large amount of polystyrene balls. One of these days I will have another go at unlocking the 2nd level of We <3>

(This is also the point where I'd visited the o2 store, and the very lovely assistant guy managed to stifle his laughter at my ancient (but awesome) Nokia E70 long enough to get me on the mobile web, woo! \o/)

Just played canabalt for the first time @gamecity in front of a curry house of people and didnt suck!

12:52 PM Oct 28th from mobile web

Canabalt kicks ass. I'd heard about it before but not played (as I later found out, it runs at about 7fps on my stupidly broken iBook) but quite aside from AdamAtomic being lovely and very interesting while we ate curry for lunch (another pleasantly surprising first!), it is just so damn addictive.

Also just got a certificate declaring i am officially brilliant at lego rock band \o/ @gamecity

12:56 PM Oct 28th from web

I think these are the wrong way round, but somewhere along the line we made it to HMV to audition for Brick Factor. Lego Rock Band is ace fun - much hilarity watching the guys before us do an awesome rendition of Walking on Sunshine before securing our place in Brickstock with Summer of '69 by Bryan Adams (I was on vocals - always am - as much as I love the drums and am a natural bass player, I'm usually the one least shy at singing, after waaaaaay too much experience on Singstar :D )

Is celebrating being born the same year as band aid and elite @gamecity

3:20 PM Oct 28th from mobile web

Do they know it's Christmas is my Christmas song :) 1984 was obviously a good year for the world ;) The Elite talk started out interesting, the game visuals and music are still surprisingly beautiful and I'd enjoyed learning about a game that I'd never played (due to the aforementioned being born the same year it came out), but unfortunately I remember very little of the actual talk because I don't think it was that enlightening... Got a very stylish origami poster though so can't complain :)

I think after that we took the opportunity to visit the best comic shop in the country, Page 45 of Nottingham, (always nice to go to a comic shop where everybody knows your name, even if you've only been buying by mail order) - introducing my friend Marc to the graphic novel that inspired the Batman: Arkham Asylum game (I know it's critically acclaimed and all, but unfortunately I can't stand the art style which in turn totally puts me off the game, which I hear is actually really good), and buying some new Joss Whedon loveliness.

About to go play at hide&seek sandpit @gamecity yay!

6:49 PM Oct 28th from mobile web

Well I already knew Hide & Seek was going to be fun - certainly enough to miss the 'We were 64' commodore love in event that it clashed with (I was an Amstrad girl) - but it was kinda nice to go to Sandpit in a place other than London where the atmosphere has changed a fair bit since more people have found out about it. Very glad that the lovely people on the desk let us in despite me being the only one out of our group to have found out about pre-registering, and ended up being roped into a game of 'Are you Thursday?' whilst we were still in the queue. The aim was to swap playing cards branded with the days of the week by asking people and finding out if they were a day adjacent to you - I never made it out of the weekend, but wonder if it was at all inspired by Garth Nix's Mister Monday books...

Awesome fun at sandpit @gamecity, *waves* to cool ppl we played impromptu werewolf with! more lego rock band too \m/,

12:34 AM Oct 29th from mobile web

So yeah, we got there a tad late (due to Wetherspoons food issues) but bagged ourselves stickers for two of the games running at the end of the night, so decided to head over to Lee Rosy's lovely tea shop just across the road from Broadway cinema where they had *more* Lego Rock Band (yay! - we got to do You give love a bad name by Bon Jovi amongst other things) and delicious chocolate cake mmmmm...

Then, in the true spirit of Sandpit, deciding we didn't need a scheduled game to gather people together, we teamed up with some (quite lovely!) random people and taught them how to play Werewolf. I *suck* at Werewolf, but nevertheless it is still fun, and got to meet some ace people (hi Hannah!)

We played hipsync (silent disco:the game, v fun) & moveyhouse (which, despite tech difficulties, might be the best film ever :)

12:37 AM Oct 29th from mobile web

Then the 'proper' games: first up HipSync, which was basically a Silent Disco (in the middle of the bar!) where everyone had randomised MP3 tracks and had to find other players who were dancing to the same style of music as them. A few sync issues (ironically) but fun none the less, and the 'game' aspect of it did mean that no one really cared about dancing/moshing/headbanging to silent music in front of a bar full of people :) Would definitely like to play again.

Lastly was Moveyhouse, in which a cinema full of people watched descriptions of people in another cinema and attempted to act out the human drama which was probably far more interesting than the film being shown. Some more technical issues, but the joy of these type of games meant that we weren't entirely sure what was supposed to be part of the script or not, what was pre-written or improvised live, and just got on with having fun with Darth Vader masks and Werthers Originals instead :) A surprisingly emotive experience - laughter really is self-perpetuating, and might actually have been the best film ever (they told us to say that ;) )

Off to the pub after that for fake cobwebby beer and interesting discussion - but possibly the concluding thought from the day is that the most fun came from when we were just chilling out and playing together. Which would make sense, considering we were at a games festival, but the interesting part was that the games we played were mostly of the non-videogame variety...

game city round up: day 1

2009-11-04T00:22:00.002+00:00

super special game city squared badge, originally uploaded by spugmeistress.

editing complete, work all done on time, out of office on, time to play! @gamecity http://flic.kr/p/7aFiP5

7:19 PM Oct 26th from Flickr

so here we go :) i enjoyed gamecity so much when i went 2 years ago that this year i thought it was worth taking a whole week off work and having the most awesome videogame-based holiday ever!

is *finally* on her way to nottingham for game city :) got up late n had to pack... probably shouldnt have been hama beading at 2am

2:13 PM Oct 27th from txt

tuesday wasn't immensely eventful so it wasn't too bad that i arrived late: the badge i made for the mystery @gamecity tweeter was well worth the last minute crafting.

Hotel is looooovely (esp. considering how cheap it is) but a slight lack of wifi. This may be an issue. Must go o2 shop n get phone online

5:40 PM Oct 27th from txt

hotel was lovely, highly recommended. o2 shop very helpful and got me back online with twitter the next day, yay! \o/ as it turned out, very much needed for the rest of the week...

had awesome fun times at the @gamecity launch do, hanging out with @marmaladegirl n drinking free champagne \o/ can't read twitter tho :(

9:57 PM Oct 27th from txt

so the highlight of gamecity:day 1 was the launch party, which i'm not entirely sure i was officially supposed to be there, but stumbled upon the ticket whilst browsing their eventbrite listings. free drink, free sushi (which i didn't eat, but *did* want to rearrange into space invader sprites as it looked all pixellated with the different types and colours squished in the boxes) and meeting up with random lovely people :) iain claimed the badge as the mystery tweeter who had been so helpful answering questions, and this is how lovely it looked with sparkles and giant origami spaceships from Elite which you can still go and download, print out n make for yourself! (see my efforts here)

is listening to last week's @onelifeleft in her hotel room, eatin a choc dip n playin paper picross :) who needs tv radio or internet? (me)

10:18 PM Oct 27th from txt

getting back into (etsy) business

2009-10-26T21:08:00.002+00:00

work in progress, originally uploaded by spugmeistress.

attempting to revive this whole thing in case anyone wants to buy stuff for christmas ;) and also because i've had tons of ideas for ages that i've not really had time to do anything about for the past couple of months. (can you guess the games i have in mind?!)

the ibook is still on the critical list, so not got huge amounts of processing power/time to blog, but if you get bored, feel free to follow my twitter for ramblings of a mostly etsy-unrelated nature, but lots of opinionated music, sci fi and games stuff :)

hopefully will be back full of inspiration and new listings after a week full of playing games (and maybe a little shopping...) at game city!

i has a posse in moscow! (and other public service announcements)

2009-05-10T16:30:00.002+01:00

heart meter pin, originally uploaded by spugmeistress.

hey everyone - am aware i haven't blogged in a while (or updated my flickr - this photo isn't even of what the heart meter pin looks like now!). unfortunately my ibook has died so i can't do a whole lot of internet stuff at home atm, typing this (very slowly, forgive the horrendous grammar...) from my wii currently (thank the lord for the opera browser, even if it is a bit pants!). all donations to the 'let's buy rach a new laptop' fund gratefully accepted ;) especially in the form of buying stuff from the shops or particularly custom orders - if you've been thinking of getting something personalised or asking for something special for a while then now's the time to do it! i certainly have plenty of time on my hands atm so to take advantage of that i'm offering special discounts on all custom orders - just convo me or use the alchemy button on etsy or send me a message on folksy :)
*** notice: due to the wonderful wii browser, i'm able to check both sites and fill orders as fast as ever, but be aware that if you send me a message/email and don't hear back quite so soon, it's just cos i'm waiting for a spare lunchbreak at work to reply on a computer where i can type faster than 8 words per minute ;) ***

so what've i been up to in the meantime? well, making new stuff (which i hope to be able to blog/flickr/upload to shops asap), getting back into exploring the awesome possibilities of cross stitch (don't worry, i won't be putting the hama beads away any time soon), and knitting something very special :)
thanks to everyone who has kept on buying though despite quietness. special props to my new russian fans (i am forever debted to your country (and alexey pajitnov) for giving the world the gift of tetris*), to my repeat buyers who just keep coming back for more (hi kim n holly!) and to the influx of orders from folksy.
hopefully i can return you all to your regularly scheduled OMEGAZOID soon :)

*new hi score! 205 lines, 350631 pts \o/ any tips for gba screenshots?

UK DIY

2009-02-16T22:13:00.003+00:00

UK DIY is a craft exhibition at the Turnpike Gallery in Leigh (up north!), and as of last Saturday, I'm in it! Alongside some other amazing stuff, all about science and craft, craftivism, technocraft, subversive stitching and art, recycled and upcycled craft and lots and lots of awesome knitting. One of my favourite things there were these amazing sculptures made from straws which I went home and tried to emulate with my newfound glue gun and Morrissons drinking straws but didn't quite manage to make anything half as beautiful. Either way, it was pretty cool to have some of my stuff on show on the wall next to such cool people :) The exhibition is on til the end of April so there's plenty of time to go along and have a look if you're in the area, it's free too! I've re-stocked the Etsy and Folksy shops just in case people get the urge to buy ;)

mario star pin
boo ghost pin
chunky heart pin
red super mushroom pin (also available in green)
pacman and ghost earrings
ms pacman and ghost earrings
victorious space invader necklace
shy space invader necklace
pacman ghost chase bracelet (also available with ms pacman)

and now to make up for shamelessly pimping my wares, here's a big up for someone else's stuff! there was so much cool knitting on show at the exhibition on saturday, that i think this awesome mario cushion would certainly have fitted right in :)

geek love <3

2009-02-03T23:37:00.005+00:00

heart collection, originally uploaded by spugmeistress.

happy new year everyone! wow, i can't believe i haven't blogged this year yet, but to be honest it's everyone else's fault for keeping me busy with so many orders over christmas and new year ;) it was very much appreciated, so thanks for buying and i hope all gift recipients loved their presents!

next big thing seems to be valentine's day, and since i won't be celebrating it personally (awwww), it gives me even more time to make things to help geeks everywhere find love, romance and cool gifts for their videogame-loving partners :D to accompany the best selling heart container necklace and heart meter pin, we now have pieces of heart necklaces (available individually or as a set of two split heart necklaces to share with your extra special friends or loved ones) and pieces of heart earrings too. chunky heart pins and heart keyrings are also still available for the less-jewellery-inclined/male types too :) for uk types, all the pixel heart valentinesy type gifts are all available here on folksy.

also, exciting news! i've been invited to be in a cool craft exhibition up north which opens coincidentally on valentine's day(feb 14th that is)! more details to come soon...

i heart christmas music

2008-12-20T19:37:00.002+00:00

i *love* christmas music :D

so i made you all a ~~muxtape^~~ 8trackplaylist to share in my joy and my vast christmas music mp3 collection.

liner notes:

*Weezer - O Holy night*
apparently they recorded this for an iPhone game which everyone loved so much they are releasing the mp3s on itunes (but possibly only in america? i can't find them on the uk store) this is my favourite of the 6 and i am absolutely addicted to listening to this song at the moment. as in i will happily play it 4 or 5 times on repeat. the high note near the end is pure win, and it's quite weird to hear weezer singing such explicitly Christian carols but very cool at the same time

*Darlene Love - It's a Marshmallow World
more generically winter than christmas but absolutely amazing all the same. kinda reminds me of hairspray and makes me want to be darlene love. she is truly queen of christmas music.

*Last Christmas - pas/cal
never heard of the band before this but much much much better than the wussy version jimmyeatworld did on the OC chrismukkah cd. kinda almost chip-tuney which is quite nice

*I Want an Alien for Christmas - Fountains of Wayne
i can't remember where i first heard this but i remember having to special order it into hmv when i was 13 because it was so cool. and then i plagiarised the cover artwork for my art homework... this was *way* before they fell in love with stacey's mom

*All I Want for Christmas is You - My Chemical Romance
my least favourite christmas song (when sung by mariah carey at least) made more than listenable by one of the few nu-emo bands actually worth listening to (sometimes)

*Trains to Brazil - Guillemots
not a christmas song. except it blatently is. even in the middle of summer this song never fails to make me feel all jingle bellsy inside

*Everything's Gonna Be Cool this Christmas - eels
one of the finest examples of original indie christmas songs, found on indie radio station compilation cd's, chrismukkah mixes and mp3 blogs the world over

*Merry Christmas Everyone - Shakin' Stevens
my absolute favourite christmas song ever. it's a classic. the video with shakey's awesome jumper makes it even better.

A spaceman came travelling by Chris de Burgh is my 2nd favourite (mostly because of how bizarre the lyrics are, but partly because the 'lalalah's' are immense) but I'm saving that for another time... yup, there's plenty more where this came from if you really want it ;)

credits:
*all the bands or artists for being awesome and...
*all the original songwriters for writing kickass songs that, whilst sounding horrendously annoying and/or crap when sung by the original artist (i'm looking at you mariah), make ace covers
*the amazing hypemachine for supplying me with many many mp3s and...
*all the music bloggers in the world who have even ~~geekier~~more exhaustive christmas music collections than me and share them every year
*adam and joe for playing the darlene love track last week on their 6music radio show and introducing me to my favourite 'new' christmas song (even though it's probably about 40 yrs old)
*my sister for knowing i wasn't being ironic when i asked for the O.C. Chrismukkah mix album
*my mum and dad for bringing me up with the annual christmas cd whilst tree decorating, letting me listen to the evening session one christmas and allowing me to experience the wonderful juxtaposition of the guillemot's non-christmas but blatently festive song, and for owning the Phil Spector Christmas LP
*god, because he invented christmas, and gave us something *even* better than christmas songs, but so good that it has inspired music throughout the ages

^i never ever used muxtape when it was going, and as soon as i find the perfect use for it, i find it got taken down by the stupid RIAA :(

http://8tracks.com/spugmeistress/merry-christmas-everyone

star power

2008-12-06T13:02:00.002+00:00

star pin, originally uploaded by spugmeistress.

two new brooches up today, big ghost pin and star pin, available on etsy or folksy for the uk types.

speaking of star power - i recently became completely addicted to rock band when they had it at a conference i was at with work and nearly lost my voice pretending to be shirley manson :) back home all i've got is guitar hero 2 and singstar on the ps2. so the question is, to rock band or to guitar hero: world tour? and on the ps2 with the stuff i've already got (and some drums obviously, it's always been my secret ambition to be a drummer) or on the wii with the hope that nintendo gets DLC working? apparently rock band peripherals work with guitar hero world tour (or is it the other way round?) but it's all very complicated... any suggestions or advice welcome, for a rocking out christmas :)

the high score table of life

2008-11-30T13:41:00.004+00:00

people who have been around me long enough know that i get a little bit excited about high scores. particularly tetris ones :) it's somewhat of an achievement when you beat your own personal best (and since my copy of tetris is so old that it doesn't save high scores, i have to write mine down on the back of the cart in permanent marker*) that you don't get very often in real life.

except for this week anyway :) the aforementioned people will also know that i am a little bit fangirly about late night radio 1, particularly colin murray's show on from 10 til 12. every tuesday night he does the black hole of radio 1 where they play an hour or so of stuff that people send in from the internet, exclusive myspace tracks, youtube live stuff, mashups and remixes from the hype machine etc. well last week i wasn't around much so i had to catch up on what i'd missed on the iplayer (praise the lord for its invention) and found that colin hadn't been in either, so it was huw stevens standing in for him (not quite as amazing as colin but still quite cool and introduced me to the wonder of iliketrains) but i thought i'd listen to the black hole anyway and how glad was i that i did? because i'd completely forgotten about it, but i had submitted my own link the previous week, and that, ladies and gentlemen, is why radio 1 played tragedy, the heavy metal bee gee's tribute band, on tuesday 18th november. i have a bit of a history of trying to get my name mentioned on every single radio 1 show i like - i won a competition on mike davies' punk show a while ago (he thought my surname was awesome), but this was certainly a personal high score for me :)

aaaaaaand, all this in a roundabout way links to my most recent collection! if you too want to celebrate being the winner on the high score table of your life, you could do much worse than one of my customised personalised pins or necklaces available on folksy or etsy. how cheesy does that sound?! i promise you i didn't make it all up to sound like the worst infomercial ever, but i really enjoyed making these and i hope people will like them - they come in whatever colour you like (including neon for all you nu-ravers out there) and there may even be a special mention somewhere for the person who comes up with the funniest 3 letter/digit combination ;)

*for the record, 205 lines or 261485 points depending on which one you count

one zine left

2008-11-24T10:41:00.002+00:00

i've been mentioning this on the etsy and folksy listings, but omegazoid issue #1 is very nearly sold out! so if you wanted to get one, buy now to avoid disappointment ;) but if you *do* miss out, no worries because issue #2 is on the way soon! anyone got any requests? we'll have more puzzles, more games reviews, some pixel by numbers colouring in, but there's still room to fit in more if anyone has any super special ideas! there may even be some previews of the new stuff i have on the way including hi-score necklaces and pins, the key collection and more christmas tree decorations for this year :) all appearing on flickr soon!

music tip of the week: i went to see sigur ros at alexandra palace in london last week and they were *awesome* - we had snow (twice!), rain and a confetti party, not quite what i was expecting after seeing their heima documentary but a brilliant show, especially given the loveliness of the venue. however, i think the best bit of the night was the support band, for a minor reflection, also from iceland but with less lyrics and slightly more rock. i've been listening to their cd non-stop since i got back and it is the sound of pure win. check out their myspace if you like a good bit of post-rock!

mutants and alchemy

2008-11-05T19:54:00.003+00:00

spugmeistress is pleased to announce that Alchemy is open! Alchemy is a feature on Etsy where you can commission custom items to your own specifications. you can either put your request in the public Alchemy forum and sellers will bid on it to see who can do you the best quote - or you can press the 'Request custom item' on my Etsy page if you would like me to do something for you. as you can see from the pics, i've done custom stuff before by request - one person wanted a heart container necklace in legend of zelda colours, and another more recently wanted four lives on their heart meter pin. it's the place to go if you want variations on items i'm selling, requests for restocking from my back catalogue or suggestions or commissions for new stuff!

if you can't think of anything spectacular to ask for, there are a couple of new lines and items in the works, so keep your eyes on this space (or on my flickr) where i'll post up the new stuff before it goes into the shop.

videogames: live and musical

2008-11-01T22:29:00.005+00:00

it was london games festival this week, and whilst i didn't get to go to much (or to nottingham game city either :( ) i did get to see videogames live kick the whole thing off last friday. videogames live is an american thing where they get classical orchestras to play the themes from well known games in an attempt to celebrate videogames as a proper artform and give a bit of respect to the composers (can you guess whose idea the whole thing was? ;) ) unfortunately, the games with the most orchestral theme tunes seem to be the type of shooty war games i don't really play, so i didn't recognise half of them. super mario bros, and famous blindfolded youtube guy doing the PROPER tetris theme (the orchestra did a really random version in the arcade medley at the start) were probably my favourites.

i chose the final fantasy video to top off the post for a special reason though - the choir singing in it included my friend daisy! yay daisy! she (and the rest of the choir) was awesome, and blatently the best reason for going, although the choir didn't get to sing as much as they should have. videogame music doesn't tend to have many words in it... legend of zelda could have had words to sing along to if they'd gone with the awesome system of a down version but sadly not :(

one other particularly cool bit of the night was them showing this go team video before the show - i *love* the go team, pacman, and silly urban gaming type things, and i hope you all do too :) i also liked the loading screen they put up in the intermission, every show should have one of these! means you can judge whether you can make it to the bar/loo/tshirt stand in time before they dim the houselights again. life needs more progress bars.

speaking of progress - i've started getting back into my etsy/folksy shops a bit after a flurry of recent activity out of nowhere (thank you random buyers!) so i should probably start posting a bit more. i still have some new stuff i haven't got round to taking photos of, so i should unleash these on the world sometime soon. in the meantime, enjoy your shaky cam youtube fest!

operation: sleeper cell are go!

2008-09-22T19:55:00.005+01:00

ok, so i know you've all been sat there at your computers, refreshing and wondering 'where on earth has spugmeistress gone?' well, now, ladies and gentlemen, i can finally reveal the super secret special project that has been stealing my time away from hama beads and DS games for the past couple of months!

are you ready? no, you're not. you need to be properly prepared for this kind of awesomeness. go get yourself a nice cup of tea, some suitable biscuits (the OMEGAZOID recommends and endorses ginger nuts, always) and find a comfy seat (and maybe your wallet...)

www.operationsleepercell.com is many things. it's an internet massively multiplayer game type thing. it's an interactive story about spies, intrigue and the eternal struggle between loveliness and EVIL. but most of all, IT'S FOR CHARITY! :D go, poke about the site, play and have fun, knowing you are doing it all in the cause of loveliness and raising funds for Cancer Research UK.

the OMEGAZOID is proud to sponsor Operation: Sleeper Cell and The Agency (as well as pointing at the websites and going 'I made that!' in a girly high pitched squeal ;) ) and as a result of over-flowing loveliness and all other things awesome, the OMEGAZOID would like to extend very special discounts to all members of The Agency who identify themselves in the proper fashion. If you have found yourself here for the first time, then check out the two shops:

www.spugmeistress.folksy.com (UK based site)

www.spugmeistress.etsy.com (US based site) and

www.flickr.com/spugmeistress to see the full range of jewellery, accessories and zines i've made in the past.

the game is running for the next 10 weeks, so we'll be a little busy until then, but any orders will be processed as soon as possible, and i'll be taking commissions and re-stock requests at the end of November/early December in time for Christmas. meanwhile, enjoy the game, and help us save the world!

dnner dnner dnner dnner batgirl!

2008-07-14T23:36:00.001+01:00

for daisy (aka batgirl), originally uploaded by spugmeistress.

i haven't made any new hama bead things in aaaaages but daisy's birthday was a special occasion and gave me good excuse to unpack the craft stuff :) me and daisy both have excellent taste in comics!

me, her, izzy and jo had a very girly weekend in, well to the extent that geeks can be girly anyway - it basically just means we were playing singstar and wii fit instead of halo :P speaking of wii fit - i'm doing pretty well on it now, my wii fit age is consistently lower than my real one, and it's actually working at making me fitter! i was slightly disturbed by my (male) yoga trainer (the girl is annoying) having the worlds tinyest ponytail, but on daisy's game it wasn't there! jo didn't even believe me! when i got home, my trainer had longer hair and no ponytail either, but it was back today... i haven't figured out if the trainer changes (but keeps the same voice) or whether he just likes having his hair up some days and not others...

tested out a bit of brawl too which was fun, mario kart wii which is haaaaaard to get the hang of, and played an awesome zombie board game called last night on earth too.

we are also all slightly obsessed with animal crossing, so the DSs came out on sunday :D daisy had lost her village like I did with mine a while ago, so I could feel her pain, but we helped make her a new one and brought her spare things for her house, and everyone came round and brought fruit to Tallaght to start my new orchard, and helped me with the last bit of the weeding, but the big news in Animal Crossing land came when we went to visit izzy's village, sunidale. izzy is slightly more careful with her games, and thus still has a well established village and didn't need much help, so i had a wander and met her villagers. After a bird called Robin introduced himself to me with a squee, I began to get deja vu. It turned out Robin was one of my long-lost villagers from Aceville! I hadn't the heart to do a Zaphod Beeblebox and tell him his home town was destroyed, never to be seen or returned to again. What broke my heart is that he didn't even recognise me - with a new face and hailing from a new village, why would he? I don't know how the Doctor does it....

ace weekend though, lots of gaming, good food and fun times :D