arne360

I joined Nick and Tom over at G-pinions this week to be a “guest” on their podcast. I say “guest” because I don’t really think I’m all that interesting, but hey, they were glad to have me on the show and they’re great guys.

I stayed on for the whole show, so hopefully I didn’t reveal any corporate secrets say anything dumb or something borderline that will get me in trouble! I had a good time on the show, so maybe one day I’ll get the nod to come back on again.

If they had a direct, permanent link, I would link to the post (that’s a hint, Nick).

Grab the podcast here (mp3 download or iTunes link). They’re also offering up a chance to get into the Shadowrun beta if you leave a comment on the podcast post.

Now way you can hear me sound all nervous, be absolutely unable to be analytical about anything and add nothing of real worth.

Also, don’t forget to check out the pitch-fork and torch carrying mob scene commentary on the NeoGAF thread as well.

Earlier this week, with all the announcements, melt-downs and general craziness on NeoGAF, things felt like an episode of The Twlight Zone. Sort of. I was being a smartass on NeoGAF in a bunch of different threads being sarcastic and joking around. Things were crazy, so what else could I do. All logic and reason had escaped from the board temporarily for a couple of days. On some thread I was being sarcastic about shifting my fake programming work from some backwards compatibility title to working on, also fake, theme decks for the Xbox Live Arcade version of Uno. I said that I was working on theme decks based on Perfect Dark Zero and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

What’s funny is that doing a theme deck on the latter probably wouldn’t be too bad an idea. I think m0dus figured this out because he whipped me up this great fake “screenshot” of what the Uno theme deck (and table) would look like. Pretty awesome work.

I think it’s something Konami should look into…

I’ve been sort of “conversing” with Tastsumi-san, who runs the Japanese Xbox.com webmaster and community blog, for a while now. We’ve mentioned to each other that we should play a game — a retail or Xbox Live Arcade title — one day so we could “meet.” We haven’t gotten around to it yet, the least of not is the language barrier. I can’t speak for Tatsumi-san, but my Japanese is non-existent and Xbox Live games being voice chat based isn’t helping me much either.

Instead, I noticed one night he was online playing Viva Piñata and I got an idea that I would send him a piñata via the in-game post office. I bought a Kittyfloss from Paper Pets and I think gave the him (or her) a flower and a scarf and, with some help, named it Tama — which is apparently a very common pet name in Japan. I sent it to Tatsumi-san one evening. Some time later I got the tip to check my post office in the game. I got a crate back! I cracked it open and Tatsumi-san sent me a Pretztail and the name was in the Japanese charater set. This was great! I feel weirdly attached to this unique Pretztail in my garden. Some piñata better not ever try to eat it.

It was really nice of him and so in return I sent him a Doenut that I named “Haruko” which means something like “the child born of the spring.” I felt it was a timely name. I hope he likes it too.

A video of the special Pretztail in my graden is below.

Video: Viva Piñata - 「あつまれ！ピニャータ」 - Japanese Pretztail

(You need a Windows Live ID to log in to MSN Soapbox for a short time it seems.)

These days, using that thing Al Gore invented called the Internets or something like that, you can easily score yourself some video game wearables. Whether it’s an old-school video game t-shirt or an artsy game t-shirt or even a fancy handmade scarf — it’s all out there, somewhere, for you to find. But nothing says you really love video games like wearing a pair of hand crafted knit socks on your feet that you or someone you know made just for you.

If you’re not scared of terms like “purl” or “yarn over” like I tend to be, you might want to head over to online knitting magazine, Knitty. In their newly released Spring 2007 issue, contributor Aija Goto provides patterns and instructions on how to put some Space Invaders nostalgia on your feet. You’re not limited to Aija’s skillful pattern suggestion — you can change the colors, layout and texture in different ways and, as Aija suggests, you can even put your own high score on the socks.

…and they might be well paired with that Space Invaders clock you might have picked up recently.

Full instructions in Knitty’s Patterns section.