The Elder Wand (Yet Another Man Cave Decoration Project)

If you've been following this blog, then you know that I love me my Man Cave. You have seen that I like to decorate it with themed decorations from some of my favorite things, like retro video games, favorite childhood cartoons and shows, and what not. When my wife told me that I could have complete authority over how the room was decorated, I already had a list of things in mind that I would like to see incorporated into the room. The list went something like this:

Old school games, probably Tetris shelves (this was the only thing that I knew I would build from the get-go).

Something Star Wars.

Something Harry Potter.

Well, then I decided that I wanted to make most of the stuff, because let's face it, you just can't find video game themed furniture at the furniture store, and if I make it, I could guarantee that it would be unique. So I set about designing the room, and building or acquiring the decor. Inspiration, however, did not come in the order of my original list. As the inspiration came, I built/printed/decorated and ended up with the following:

Tetris Bookshelves

Greatest American Hero Clock

Pac Man Sconces and Fevorite Cartoon Pictures

The Wood Sword from The Legend of Zelda

As you can see from the list above, the only thing that made it into the Man Cave from my original list so far were the Tetris shelves. Other than the GAH clock, cartoon pictures, and a few other things strewn about the Tetris shelves, the room is mainly old-school-game oriented. That is totally cool with me, but I still wanted something Harry Potter and Star Wars in there. Originally the spot where the Wood Sword is mounted was meant for a stuffed Tauntaun head from Star Wars, but that was unoriginal and too complicated to make, so I'm still contemplating Star Wars. Harry Potter, though, I got that done today.

For my "something Harry Potter" I've thought about several things from a talking Sorting Hat to the Sword of Godric Griffindor, but I'm out of room for big displays now. Finally I decided on one of the Deathly Hallows mentioned in the final book, so I had a few choices. Once I decided that the Elder Wand was what I wanted, then I just had to either spend a ridiculous amount of money on an official replica from the Noble Collection, or make one of my own design. Neither seemed too appealing at first, the replica would be expensive and not unique, whereas a homemade wand might require the use of a lathe and hours of work for something tiny, so I put that on the back burner, until I found some online instructions on how to make a nice, sturdy wand out of paper, hot glue, and paint. That inspired me, now I have my own version of the Elder Wand sitting in its rightful place atop the Tetris Bookshelves. Here's the photo barrage:

I took a piece of card stock and a hot glue gun, then rolled the card stock up diagonally, slightly tighter at one end to create a taper. I used double-sided tape and Elmer's glue to hold the paper together. Once that dried, I cut the ends straight, stuffed it with tissue, and used the hot glue to plug both ends and create a design around the wand:

Once the hot glue dries, it just needs paint. I decided that I wanted the Elder Wand to look like it was made from ivory as opposed to wood, so I chose an almond color for the base coat. After the base coat dried, I then "distressed" the wand by watering down some black paint, painting the wand black, then quickly wiping most of the black off. Finally I used silver paint to highlight the graphic around the wand. Here's what that looked like done:

Finally I just needed a stand. I didn't feel like constructing one out of wood though, so I thought that I'd just make a quick one out of a piece of paper.

Here's the finished wand on the shelves:

Now, how to fit Star Wars in this room...?

Casting Call!!!

Have you ever watched a show, and been like, "That person is terrible in that role!" then come up with better alternatives? I do sometimes, and here's my latest:

In Smallville, this woman played Granny Goodness

Um... Ok, so she's got the Granny part down, but that's about it.
Here's a sample of the real Granny Goodness:

You know who would have been better for that role?

Coach Beist!

Is There a Blacksmith in the House?

Days have passed, months have passed, and this blog has fallen into abandonment and obscurity, just like The One Ring did in the days of middle earth. Another thing that has kind of fallen by the wayside is my Mancave, codenamed: Watchtower.

If you recall, just as Sauron put his own self into his ring of power, so I have poured my own labor, blood, and essence of manly nerdiness into my Mancave. Click on these links if you want to read about my past Mancave Beutification Projects: Tetris Bookshelves, The Greatest American Clock, and Pac Man Mood Lighting. After all that work, I got tired, ran out of inspiration (and budget), and the Mancave's decor fell off my radar. There are still parts of me that I would like to see shown in the decor somewhere. I've got to get something Harry-Potter-ish in here, then maybe something Mario Bros. themed too, and at some point (when budget allows) I've got to get those wires under the TV hidden in the wall. All of that will wait, however, until there is sufficient budget, or inspiration.

A couple of nights ago, I sat here in my cave pondering what else I could add. I was feeling crafty, and had a sudden urge to smell sawdust, which always leads to something awesome. So I thought, "what this room needs is a weapon, mounted somewhere on the wall," but what weapon could I choose? I wasn't just going to go out and get a replica of Gandalf's staff from Lord of The Rings, the portal gun from Portal, or The Sword of Griffindor from Harry Potter. Those things are expensive, and as much as I love Harry Potter, the Sword of Griffindor isn't the part that would match my personality. Then, just like a confundus charm was removed from me, inspiration hit, and I had already had everything I needed to bring my vision to fruition. Those weapons have no super personal tie to me. Why not use something that does? Why not get the very first sword I ever picked up and wielded myself? The first sword I ever used to battle the forces of evil? Granted this sword, and these battles all existed only digitally in the 8-bit world that was Hyrule in The Legend of Zelda. Yep, I decided to make my first weapon in that game, and mount it on my wall: The 8-bit Wood Sword, that is given to Link by an old man in a cave.

Here's a close-up of the Wood Sword:

And I think I'll put it...

And so the project begins...

And so another 8-hour day of myself poured into an awesome nerd-project. Here is the finished plaque for mounting:

And here are some shots of the finished sword, in its 8-bit glory:

Finally here are some shots of the finished product, on the wall:

Just like the original from the game, this sword is made of wood and it is a scale model, modeled so that the grip would fit in my hand's grip with each pixel equaling 3/4 inch. While it looks awesome, there is one more thing that will be added, but is coming in the mail. I ordered a small sound box that I will mount inside the back of the plaque, so that if someone takes the sword off the mount, the plaque will play the sound that is played when link picks up the sword in the cave. Here is a video of someone playing the game, but don't worry about watching it, it is just so you can hear the sound, when Link picks up the sword. the video is a lot longer than that, but I didn't know how to cut it down.



Bring it on Ganon, bring. it. on.

Random Musings of a Nerd

Since my mind is in a constant state of thought, or imagining, or day-dreaming, I thought that I would share some of these thoughts with you. Here are some things I've thought of over the past few days, in no certain order:

-There has never been a better time on our planet to be a nerd. We control everything, and a grand majority of entertainment, media, marketing, and culture are now aimed at us. Finally, we can see good comic book movies on the big screen, and they are hugely successful. 10 years ago, no one would have invested the money in a movie about the X-Men (except a few made-for-TV movies that were based on the comics, but with new characters, these movies were stupid). Comics had their place on TV then, but now, they are EVERYWHERE. And I love it. Now we have big movie stars playing the actual characters from the comic books. It's awesome!

-On a related note: Hugh Jackman is a dork. He bugs me in everything he does, except X-Men. It's like he's trying too hard to be sexy. I loved the movie The Prestige, he did well there, but he still bugged me. He was made to play Wolverine and nothing else. Summary: Hugh Jackman as [insert anything except Wolverine] = stupid; Hugh Jackman as Wolverine = Totally awesome.

-Finally more and more TV shows seem to be appealing to my sense of humor. Usually I am the only person that can make myself laugh. I don't know why, but that's just the way it is. Seriously, if I type LOL on your Facebook post, it really means CSTM (chuckled softly to myself). Sorry, it takes something special to make me laugh. I've never really gotten into sitcoms, because they really just weren't that funny to me before. But now the nerds have risen up, and are situated amongst every class of people, including TV writers. Now there are a bunch of shows that make me laugh. What's funny though is that it is the little parts of these shows that might go unnoticed that tickle my fancy (I keep my fancy well protected, so tickling it is quite a feet). Recently I made a new addition to my list of favorite cartoons of all time. The list is now 3 long. They are Invader Zim

The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy

And the most recent, Adventure Time.

Invader Zim remains my all time favorite (I have every episode ever on my phone so I can rewatch it whenever I want), but Adventure time is a close second.

-Like I said, I'm not much of a comic collector, but the new Scott Pilgrim movie makes me want to go out and buy every Scott Pilgrim comic there is, right now. That or get the new iPhone app, but I would still have to buy them all through the iPhone app, either way, it's money that I don't have thanks to sinking $600 into my vehicles over the past couple of months. That hurt bad. Anyway, the fact that that movie exists, and has some huge-budget, awesome effects, is proof that this is the time to live if you're a nerd.


-That's about it for today, now here are some videos that make me CSTM.

June: A Techno Nerd's Dream

This month has been awesome if you're a gamer/Apple nerd. First, we got to see the awesomeness that is the iPhone 4, then there was E3, which is a huge conference where the video game industry unveils their newest games and technology to the world, to market their consoles, and get people pumped to go buy them.

First things first, iPhone 4:

I've been waiting for this phone for a long time, ever since the 3GS was released just a few short months after I bought the 3G. I thought about upgrading, but listened to some rumors of a major overhaul, and decided to wait. I'm glad I did. I was planning on going and camping out on launch day (because I'm a nerd, and we do stuff like that), but I am scheduled to work that day, so I thought I'd preorder the phone instead. That was a mess. I was trying for 1 hour before I finally got confirmation that my order went through (5-6 am PST). It is supposed to come on launch day, but AT&T sold out of preorder phones by 4:30 EST on day 1 of preordering, so we'll see if I'm lucky. Today I have been sitting and waiting for my old and crusty 3G to update to iOS4 all day, so I thought I'd blog.

Now on to E3 2010:

I like video games, a lot. Mostly I like the ones that challenge my brain more than my thumbs. I also like a game to have a great story, or back story, and humor always helps too. Granted, I do like regular beat-em-ups, RPGs, and shooters too (sometimes mind-numbing destruction is a great way to unwind at the end of the day), but these usually have to have some special edge (like Marvel vs Capcom 2, Elder Scrolls, or Team Fortress 2). As much as I like games, I don't purchase games too frequently, because I'll only buy a game if I know I'm really going to enjoy it. I get more use out of my PS3 as a bluray player, or for streaming netflix, than I do for gaming. So usually when E3 comes around, I am more excited about the hardware than the software. This year, however, the hardware was... meh. I'm not all that excited about the Playstation Move, or the Microsoft Kinect (formerly Project Natal). Don't get me wrong, they will be fun, but they are nothing new. The only new thing about them is that now we have release dates. I was really hoping for a newer, more awesome version of the PSP, but nada there. I was on the verge of feeling a little let down by this years E3, then they wrapped up the hardware talk, and got into the software, which was AWESOME. So here are some of the titles I'm excited about:



And



So those are ok. The one I really can't wait for though is Portal 2. The original Portal remains one of my favorite games ever, it is an original puzzle game with a hilarious story. Here is the trailer for the original:



Basically you wake up as a test subject for the Aperture science Portal device, and have to perform many death defying tests under the guidance of a female, robotic voice, which promises you cake and grief counselling when you are finished. Eventually, you find out that the computerized voice that has guided you through the whole thing is trying to kill you and you need to escape. You then find out that the whole facility has been abandoned for some time (or maybe the robot killed them all), as you come upon messages written on walls in hidden areas that read things like "The Cake is a Lie." Eventually you face the robot, tear it apart and get sucked outside in a huge facility meltdown. Once the game is finished, you are treated to this song as GLaDOS (the AI robot controlling everything) assures you that the test was a success, and she is still alive.



At the end, while you are lying outside the facility unable to move, a robot shows up and thanks you for "assuming the party escort position," and drags you back inside. If you know me, you can see why I love this game. It is an intellectual puzzle with a hilarious and mysterious story. The game came bundled with Valve's Orange Box, with Half Life 2 and Team Fortress 2, because it was a short game with a new theme, and the company saw it as a bit of a gamble, so it was released as part of a package with other "hit" games. I bought the package, just for Portal, and it remains the one game that I will play over and over. So, if nothing else at E3 excited me, the following trailer would have been enough:



Dude, I can't wait.