New Design: Unobtanium Miners Local 314

One of the ways my bizarre geek mind works is that with whatever media (book, game, movie) I'm absorbed in at the moment, I'm often taking little side-ideas and expanding them in my head. For example, the wife and I went to see Avatar waaaay back during Christmas break. It was, you know, fun. Neat movie. Very long. Stuff gets blowed up good. Lots of cats.

If you're going to watch it, don't go for the plot, because you've seen this one before (Evil White Man discovers Gold on Indian Land, pushes Indians off to get Gold). But even so, it was enjoyable. Good use of language, which made me very happy. One other thing that got my attention was the mining (holy cow, the mining equipment!) - specifically, they were mining Unobtanium.

Unobtanium is a name that's been around for Quite Some Time. In short, it is whatever the writer needs it to be in order to keep moving smoothly past objections raised by Reality. The name "Unobtanium" most often gets used behind the scenes, instead of directly in the media itself. But in Avatar, the Gold that the Evil White Man discovers is not only figurative Unobtanium (convenient spaceflight ftw), but in-world it is an element explicitly named Unobtanium, and with a straight face. It thrilled my little geek heart to see that.

So most people will watch Avatar and take away from it memories of Noble Savage Blue Cat People and a strong impression that Western Civilization Is Evil. I watch Avatar and end up thinking about Noble Savage Blue Cat People, why James Cameron would want me to think Western Civilization Is Evil, and the logistics of mining potentially-floating rock. Would these Unobtanium Miners have a union? What would they talk about at their meetings? What would the logo look like?

Here's what I ended up with (complete with fun Latin motto!):



There's also an "icon" version with just the Periodic Table entry for the golf shirt, zippered hoodies, etc.:



Mugs, mousepads, beach umbrellas, light switch covers and jumpdrive caps to come, whenever I get around to them. ;)

-- Cynic

Timing Is Everything

So we had the little earthquake here the other day - USGS says 4.9 according to Richter, local papers say 4.3. They also show the center a good ways southwest of USGS's location, so I don't know. Whatever. It was nice that it didn't flatten the house with us inside. It was interesting, anyway - much more Exciting than Scary. Afterwards, I changed my IM status to "whee, earthquake!" to reflect this.

Guess who felt like a total heel when he found out about the Haiti earthquake a day after it happened?

Small update.

Just got the golf shirt and the zippered hoodies (tracksuit, etc.) up on the site earlier today. These ones don't have the full design with the text, it's just the single d20 on the pocket, so it's a cleaner, more iconic look. The die should be 1.5" tall on the finished product. Let me know what you guys think.

I wanted to do actual polos, but they're no-go for now. I had thought that I could do a transparent background behind the die, and they'd just not use thread for that part, but it turns out they put thread in the whole circle. You end up with a red d20 on a white thread background on a black shirt... Frankly, it looks like crap, so I decided against it. It's a shame, really, because it's the kind of thing I could see myself wearing to job interviews.

And back to work.

-- Cynic

New Years Resolutions

Man, Holidays can be such a pain in terms of Getting Jack Done. On the other hand, much fun was had. So congratulations, people, you made it to 2010 without blowing yourselves up! Most of you did, anyway. If you didn't, then look on the bright side: you won't have to suffer through this year.

So while I'm back within Internet Range, without further ado or whatever, here are my New Year's Resolutions. For 2010, I resolve:

a) to try to suck at things a little less. I mean, damn.
2) to not get shot over stupid jokes. (I hope I hope I hope.)
d) to listen to more Hooverphonic and Placebo. And Muse. And ELO. I love me some ELO.
d.5) to learn to play poker.
3) to learn more Spanish, dammit. I'm in an immersion environment, for God's sake.
4) (censored). Heh.
4b) to get my finances in order and maybe make some money. Being poor Sucks Hard.
4) ???
5) Profit!

Probably back out of Internet Range again tomorrow, but I'll see you guys around.

-- Cynic