Well, it was fun: Draw Something, an interactive mobile application that gained developers Omgpop a Flurry App Spotlight Award this year, took over the lives of our tech-savvy society for a couple short months and then, like so many App Store fads before it (I’m looking at you, Words with Friends), slowly but surely faded away.

The game was simple: pick a friend, pick a word, draw that word, send your drawing and hope its recipient is able to guess the answer. With few of us gifted with the abilities of Da Vinci, Monet or Picasso (okay, maybe Picasso), many users’ drawings were overly simplistic, crudely drawn stick-figure sketches, the kind of stuff a non-prodigious four-year-old scribbles with crayons at kindergarten.

But some artistic souls out there took full advantage of their Draw Something canvas, and crafted technological masterpieces on the touch-screens of their iPods and iPhones, all for the sake of three measly points (or sometimes just one or two). With the game’s popularity now having all but dried up, I think it’s time to take a look back at the best examples of drawings created in Draw Something’s history. Some of them are mighty impressive. But what’s your favourite?

A semi-recent trend to pop up in the geek-ridden terrain of the internet movie blog is that of the alternate movie poster: basically, an amateurly produced piece of artwork intended to pose as marketing material for a full-length feature. Effectively kick-started by the sublime works of Austin-based company Mondo, the trend has ultimately stretched to the four corners of the earth, with movie-loving artists the world over designing and presenting their very own alternative posters to the ones displayed at one time or another inside a theatre near you.

Ranging from the clever to the ingenious, the simple to the intricate, the classic to the contemporary, and the funny to the utterly spell-binding, alternate movie posters really can prove that sometimes an amateur’s work can be better than a professional’s, as you shall see in the 25 stunning examples assembled below.

“The Cabin in the Woods” – Phantom City Creative

“Toy Story” – Tom Whalen

“Donnie Darko” - Powl Goudsmit

“Back to the Future” – Phantom City Creative

“Drive” – Ken Taylor

“Bambi” – Rowan Stocks Moore

“Get Carter” - Grzegorz Domaradzki

“The Evil Dead” – Olly Moss

“Jurassic Park” – J.C. Richard

“Blade Runner” – Kakofonia

“House on Haunted Hill” – Phantom City Creative

“The City of Lost Children” – Ken Taylor

“The Burning” – Phantom City Creative

“An American Werewolf in London” – Olly Moss

“The Godfather” - Schemacoma

“Scream” – Alex Pardee

“The Invisible Man” – Kevin Tong

“The Lion King” – Rowan Stocks Moore

“Halloween” – Methane Studios

“Gremlins” – Ken Taylor

“Sucker Punch” – Ken Taylor

“Night of the Living Dead” - Grzegorz Domaradzki

“Straw Dogs” – Josh Eckert

“Poltergeist” – Ken Taylor

“Who Framed Roger Rabbit” – Tom Whalen

Last month, ThisBlogRules brought you the coffee table that doubles up as a fully-functional Nintendo controller. Now we have another coffee table that doubles up as another gizmo, although this time it’s a slightly more primitive, possibly more nostalgic piece of technology. Designed by Seattle-based artist Jeff Skierka, this table has a distinct resemblance to an audio cassette tape, albeit a massively oversized one that will make its owner feel like a Borrower.

Now, I’m aware some of our younger readers may be confused as to what a cassette tape actually is: to put it basically, a cassette tape is a CD that’s rectangular and not circular, bulky and not slim, lame and not not-so-lame. It also sometimes benefits from the use of a pencil – you figure out how.

Here are the technical details on Skierka’s one-of-a-kind mixtape table. Sized at 47.25″ x 30″ x 5″, it is twelve times the size of a regular cassette tape. It is made of reclaimed maple, walnut and lucite, and is fitted with a glass top. It’s also completely reversible, with a side A and a side B (just like the real thing!), although sadly it does not actually play any music – well, not until someone designs a cassette tape player the size of a bungalow, that is.

Check out more pics of the table below.

Today marks the release of “Men in Black III,” the sci-fi action comedy sequel that sees Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones returning as alien-hunting Agents J and K for the second time. Also, in two weeks, we will be treated with Ridley Scott’s “Prometheus,” the highly anticipated prequel to his 1979 sci-fi horror masterpiece “Alien.” To celebrate, I’m taking a look at the ten greatest alien characters ever to feature on the big-screen, be they vicious monsters, quirky visitors or conquering invaders. Whatever they may be and whatever their intentions, they’ve all got one thing in common: they’re outta this world.

10. The Coneheads, “Coneheads” (1993)

Home Planet: Remulak
Come in Peace? Yes
Alien Awesomeness: Making their screen debut in a “Saturday Night Live” sketch aired in 1977, the Coneheads are an alien family who come to Earth wishing to achieve the American Dream. A middle-class family of three, they consist of father Beldar (played by Dan Aykroyd), mother Prymaat (Jane Curtin) and teenage daughter Connie (Michelle Burke). And with their nasally voices, bizarre eating habits (pencil shavings and toilet paper are quite tasty, apparently) and pointy-tipped craniums, the Coneheads certainly stand out from a crowd, not that anyone else notices too much.

9. Klaatu, “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (1951)

Home Planet: Unknown
Comes in Peace? Sort of
Alien Awesomeness: Acting as an ambassador from an extraterrestrial confederation, Klaatu arrives on Earth in a flying saucer to deliver a message: end your violence, or we’ll end you. Performed charmingly by Michael Rennie (take notes, Keanu Reeves), Klaatu is humanoid, speaks with an English accent, and wishes only for peace on Earth, although he will obliterate our entire planet if his hand is pushed. He also has a mute robot companion named Gort, whose bulky, metallic structure and watchful presence makes for quiet, unsettling intimidation.

8. The Martians, “Mars Attacks!” (1996)

Home Planet: Mars
Come in Peace? No
Alien Awesomeness: “Ack! Ack ack ack!” Need I say more? In Tim Burton’s gleefully demented pastiche of ‘50s alien invasion movies, the villainous Martians are very much the stars of the show, skillfully stealing whole scenes from the likes of Danny DeVito and Jack Nicholson. Portrayed mostly through CGI, the diminutive Martians are devilishly mischievous, big-headed bullies clad in skin-tight spacesuits who come to Earth for the sole purpose of demolishing our buildings, graffitiing our landmarks and generally creating unruly, senseless carnage. Oh, and their only weakness? The yodelling of Slim Whitman. Ack!

7. The Prawns, “District 9” (2009)

Home Planet: Unknown
Come in Peace? Yes
Alien Awesomeness: So called for their physical resemblance to the decapod crustaceans, the Prawns aren’t exactly the most sightly of creatures, but what they are is rather cool. In 1982, a gigantic spacecraft stops and hovers above the South African city of Johannesburg. Inside the craft are the Prawns, who are promptly relocated to a series of slums, where they are feared by the locals and oppressed by the government. Terrifically animated by way of CGI, the Prawns are a ceaselessly intriguing species, capable of limb-tearing violence, heart-wrenching emotion and technological wizardry – they also have an irresistible craving for tinned cat food.

6. The Na’vi, “Avatar” (2009)

Home Planet: Pandora (moon)
Come in Peace? Kinda
Alien Awesomeness: “Smurf on a stick” was what the Na’vi were commonly referred to upon release of James Cameron’s sci-fi epic “Avatar.” “Smurf,” because of the Na’vi’s sky-tinted complexion, and “on a stick” because of the way they protruded out of the screen due to the film’s famous use of 3D. Smurfs on sticks or not, the Na’vi are a fascinating species, characterised as tree-dwelling natives dedicated to the protection of their land and living in fierce scorn of the invading human army trying to take it from them. Damn us selfish humans! Oh, and apparently they can use their ponytails to have sex with each other. Alien sex is weird, dude.

5. Predator, “Predator” (1987)

Home Planet: Unknown
Comes in Peace? No
Alien Awesomeness: The Predators are keen sportsmen, but their sport isn’t football or tennis or snowboarding: it’s hunting. And in the “Predator” series, they’re not hunting foxes or rabbits: they’re hunting us. In John McTiernan’s original sci-fi actioner, there is only one Predator, and he’s paying a visit to the jungles of Central America, where he faces an elite special forces team. He can shoot lasers, skin his victims, set off nuclear bombs and even turn invisible. But none of those are much of a match for macho man Arnold Schwarzenegger, who bravely comments right to its hideous face that the alien menace is “one ugly motherf***er.” Go Arnie!

4. Superman, “Superman” (1987)

Home Planet: Krypton
Comes in Peace? Yes
Alien Awesomeness: Superman is commonly regarded as one of the greatest superheroes to ever grace the pages of a comic book and to be projected onto the silver screen, and rightfully so: he represents justice, bravery and the quest for peace. Sent to Earth from his crumbling planet of Krypton as an infant, he grows up to become the Man of Steel, an all-American hero and part-time journalist, fearlessly and selflessly battling the forces of evil when not reporting on stuff. Christopher Reeve commandingly played the super-powered being in Richard Donner’s original film and its three subsequent sequels, the last two of which society has smartly chosen to ignore and forget.

3. The Thing, “The Thing” (1982)

Home Planet: Unknown
Comes in Peace? No
Alien Awesomeness: The Thing is a truly terrifying creation. Originally appearing on-screen in Christian Nyby’s 1951 science-fiction horror “The Thing from Another World,” the creature didn’t really get very scary until John Carpenter brilliantly remade Nyby’s film in 1982. The result was a sometimes shapeless, often undetectable but always mysterious movie monster capable of assimilating its victims and sneakily transforming into them, effectively stealing their identity. The alien creature proves particularly troubling for a group of researchers in Antarctica, who stumble upon the murderous life form and spend the rest of the film’s nail-biting runtime terrified that the creature might be one of them. Or is it you?

2. The Xenomorph, “Alien” (1979)

Home Planet: Unknown
Comes in Peace? No
Alien Awesomeness: If first impressions are everything, then one can understand why the Xenomorph got such a hard time from the crew of the Nostromo spacecraft. We first encounter the Xenomorph in Ridley Scott’s sci-fi horror masterpiece as it violently bursts out from the throbbing chest of a spasmodic John Hurt during dinner. Over the course of the film, the rest of the crew are slowly but surely offed one-by-one (sans franchise heroine Ripley) by the fully-grown alien parasite, which is fixed with two snapping sets of fangs, acid for blood and an unprecedented knack for bloody murder. Truly, the Xenomorph is the ultimate killing machine, and if you were to ever have the misfortune of encountering one, it’s game over, man! Game over!

1. E.T., “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” (1982)

Home Planet: Unknown
Comes in Peace? Yes
Alien Awesomeness: Who doesn’t love E.T.? The pudgy little alien, with his adorable wrinkles, big blue bug eyes and weird finger-torch thingy, is so sweet and cuddly that to not fall in love with him is to not have a soul. In Steven Spielberg’s science-fiction classic, E.T. is mistakenly left behind on Earth by his alien companions. He is soon taken in by 10-year-old Elliott and his two siblings, who attempt to get him back to his home planet, much as the American government tries to intervene. Both the film and the character have become beloved icons of sci-fi cinema, with E.T. warming the hearts of millions worldwide as a hopelessly lost alien just trying to phone home. D’aww.

By Stephen Watson

Picture this. You’re an Eskimo (or an Inuit – is Eskimo offensive?). You’re in snowy Alaska and have become lost in the middle of nowhere. You’re on your own. It’s cold. You’re cold. You need shelter. So, you use the skills your misplaced tribe recently taught you and build an igloo. You enter the igloo. You’re not so cold anymore. But now you’re faced with another problem: you’re bored. What do you need to quench your boredom while you hopefully await rescuing? You need some books to read! But you don’t have any books on you, nor a Kindle. You’re in a (admittedly unlikely) rut, aren’t you?

Well, Miler Lagos may have solved your problem. The Colombia-based artist, whose exhibitions have been featured all over the globe, has created an igloo – or a dome – made entirely out of books. Handy, right? The installation, which is called Home and which opened in New York last year, was carefully assembled by Lagos, who painstakingly stacked each individual book (spine facing the interior) to create a self-sustaining dome. Whether or not you can actually remove any of the books to have a quick flick through them I’m unsure – the whole structure may topple down and crush you to death. Just in case, make sure you have a Kindle with you on your next venture into Alaska’s freezing wasteland.