I recently came across a neat video on YouTube of a user named Sp0ntanius playing the Palace Theme from Zelda II: The Adventure of Link on guitar and paper, and filmed it in 4 pieces with stop-motion video. (Yes, using guitar and paper for instruments.) This is a unique type of art. If you ever played Zelda II on the original Nintendo (NES), you will remember this music and it will probably make you want to play it again. (Well, if you never beat it, you may not want to play it again, but if that’s the case, you should play it again, because it’s a great game, and it’s definitely beatable — I can vouch for that.)
There’s also a video of this guy playing the “Song of Healing” from The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, using only wine glasses, if you’re interested.
This week’s caption contest features a guy making rock sculptures, with several people watching. As usual, explain what could be going on here. Your caption can be from the point-of-view of anyone in the picture or even just commentary on the picture. Where it comes from doesn’t really matter, as long as it’s funny. So get to writing!
(To see the other caption contests, click on the “Say What?” category in the sidebar.)
A lot of people are making birthday cakes with video game themes these days, but this one I’m about to show you really takes the cake. (That was a really bad pun, wasn’t it? Nonetheless, I refuse to apologize because some of you deserve it. You know who you are.) The design of this cake comes from the Nintendo Wii game Super Mario Galaxy (which is one of the best games ever, in case you didn’t know). Not only is it cake, but it’s also animated. There’s cake and Rice Krispy treats, but also electrical wiring, motors, MP3 players, a wooden frame, fiber optic lights, and so forth. (Obviously it’s not all edible, at least for normal people.)
For starters, here’s a picture of it:
But that picture is not a good representation of it. At the creators’ homepage, you can see a lot more pictures of it, up close and from different angles. (Just scroll past the text, unless you’re interested in that.) But they also have a video of the cake in motion, as well as a few behind-the-scenes shots. For your convenience, here’s the video:
I read the FAQ by the cake’s creators, and they’re not professional cake-makers. In fact, they make just 2 cakes a year, or 3 if they volunteer one for a friend. In the FAQ, someone asked them why they don’t start a cake business, because someone would pay a lot of money for that. The creators said they don’t want to make it a business, though if someone offered them “a lot of money” they would build them a cake. However, no one has ever offered them money for it.
The same people have made numerous cakes, with themes like Elmo, Halo, Wheel of Fortune, and so on. That’s a lot of work for a birthday cake that gets destroyed rather quickly. But, then again, there are sites that are talking about it (such as this one), so they are getting some publicity. Maybe they feel famous.
I think it’s pretty safe to say I never got a birthday cake like that… but that’s okay, because I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and people like me. I don’t need any fancy cake to tell me I’m special.
Here’s part 3 of the special days and holidays in January.
24 Compliment Day — One website suggests giving at least 5 compliments to different people on this day. I’ll give one now (which should meet the goal all at once) : You obviously have good taste in blogs, since you’re here reading this one. 🙂
26 Spouse’s Day — Isn’t there already a holiday for this, like Valentine’s Day? Oh, I know — Valentine’s Day is mainly for the women, because they get expensive roses and teddy bears and chocolates, and guys usually get nothing but a card. So maybe this day is the more balanced of the holidays.
27 Chocolate Cake Day — Woohoo! You know what to do : eat… lots… of… cake.
27 Punch the Clock Day — This is an innovative idea, especially if applied to the clock at work. Just make sure that you don’t lose track of when 5:00 rolls around if you break the clock.
28 Fun at Work Day — Personally I have more fun not working, but at least this is better than a typical work day. Unfortunately, the 28th falls on a Monday this year, which makes it even more difficult to carry out. Here at Buffet o’ Blog we’ve had a couple of discussions (here and here) on ways to improve the work day. Since these aren’t implemented full-time yet, this would be a good day to start.
29 National Cornchip Day — We take them for granted now, but they haven’t been around forever. Fritos corn chips debuted in 1961. How do you celebrate this day? Eat corn chips, preferably with cheese dip and/or salsa.
30 National Inane Answering Message Day — Oh, this is a fun one! Back when I was single and lived at the “Bachelor Pad”, we often put inane messages for callers to hear, and sometimes people left inane messages. I still like to leave funny messages for friends when I know they won’t answer their phone. (I know for a fact that Mango-Man despises the theme song from Sanford & Son, so it’s a great prank to call his work number after hours and leave that song on there. He will act all upset and stuff, but he will really get a kick out of it, so everyone do this!) 🙂
31 Backward Day — Is this because of the rap group Kris Kross? Just kidding. I looked online and found this about the holiday : “Try writing backwards or reading backwards. Wear your shirt with the back in the front. Eat your meal, starting with dessert. Now that’s what I call fun! Walk backwards, or talk backwards. Play a board game backwards, from the finish line to the start. Are you starting to get the picture!? This day is limited only by your imagination.” Um, no. Although I guess we could play a board game like Monopoly backwards, where I start with all the money and properties with hotels. 🙂
31 Inspire Your Heart with Art Day — Again, I looked online and found something amusing on this : “Look at a piece of art and ask yourself: What is telling me? How does it make me feel? What emotions is it evoking (if any) within me?” I’m no art expert, but what I usually think about contemporary art is, “You paid how much for that?!?” I suppose you could consider the environment of video games as art, especially something like Super Mario Galaxy, with its various unique worlds. Yeah, that sounds like a good way to celebrate this day.
Hey, we finally reached the end! January had a lot of special days, huh? Or maybe January had a lot of rambling concerning its special days. 🙂 Anyway, there you have it. As always, you’re welcome to share any thoughts in the comments.
27 Chocolate Cake Day — Woohoo! You know what to do : eat… lots… of… cake.
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