I received this today. I know nothing about Mushroom men and I doubt if I can come up with anything. Maybe you have an idea that will express well in an odd gamer world.

SPACE SQUID, in association with GamecockMedia.com and RevolutionSF.com, announces the Mushroom Men fiction contest, a free writing contest! First prize is a free Wii game console and a copy of the new Wii videogame Mushroom Men!
Other prizes include Les Claypool Mushroom Men rock posters, Mushroom Men baseball caps, trading cards with sweepstakes codes, Mushroom Men squeezy toys, and copies of Mushroom Men for the Wii and for the Nintendo DS. Runner-up stories will appear on the fiction page of RevolutionSF.com and in a special supplementary issue that will be seen by hundreds of people at gaming events like the Penny Arcade Expo.
The first-prize story will appear in the supplementary issue, RevolutionSF.com, Space Squid issue #6, and may appear as promotional material for the game elsewhere.
Contest Details:
-Deadline August 1st, 2008
-Write a story that incorporates the universe of the Mushroom Men console game, published by Gamecock Media. Entrants should read the game background information at SpaceSquid.com or MushroomMen.com before submitting their entries.
-Free writing contest entries should be between 500 and 1500 words.
-Submit entries to squishy@spacesquid.com as an attached RTF file. Please put "Free Writing Contest: YOUR STORY TITLE" in the subject line.
-Submissions will be judged according to
a.) How well they adhere to the game universe, and
b.) How much they rock.
-First prize is a free Wii game console, the Mushroom Men videogame, and publication in Space Squid.
-Runners up prizes TBA and publication in RevolutionSF.com.
-This is a free writing contest; multiple entries encouraged.
Additional information and updates at:
http://www.spacesquid.com/free_writing_contests.htm
http://www.revolutionsf.com/bb/weblog.php?w=5&category=Space%20Squid

Google announced its Virtually Reality Web Site. It is slow, like second life, easier to use, but geared towards children. I was hoping that they would have a nice API so I could create some content. No content yet, though and the only avatar that you can make is about 14 years old. (I was disappointed that they didn’t have over-weight, out-of-shape old guys as an option.)

Here’s my blues harp room. I have Carlos playing on the jumbotron and my Lava Lamp playing on a wall TV.

Go to www.lively.com to get the software – it’s a browser plug-in.

We went up to Cape Cod, stopping by Plymouth. I tried to take pictures of the Standish Sampler for Erica, but the pictures didn’t come out. I didn’t take many still pictures, so here are the videos.

I uploaded these to Vimeo, a video service similar to YouTube, but easier to use.

First is us taking out across the TZ bridge

Cape Cod Vacation 1 from jt30guy on Vimeo.

Next is Plymouth Rock.

Larry and Keith at Plymouth Rock from jt30guy on Vimeo.

Last is Larry explaining about the Mayflower.

Larry and Keith at the Mayflower from jt30guy on Vimeo.

I got this for free at a garage sale two weeks ago. The owner said that it didn’t work. I took a chance and bought a battery and charger for it for $12 and put in an old flash card. It seems to work. Here are some pictures from garage sailing this week.

So far it has been a very good deal. The 4Meg flash card can only hold 8 pictures so I have ordered a couple of one gig cards.

I bought a Canon Elura Camcorder at the same sale. I did well.

My brother Larry found this searching eBay for obscure guitar parts. This picture was included with an auction for a Gibson ES-355 pickguard. He called me three times to make sure that I blogged it.

The pendant must have been a tricky paint job.