Amanita Design is offering amnesty for pirates. Until August 12, the very Steampunkish game Machinarium is on sale for only $5 (instead of the usual $20) to recoup some revenue from illegal downloads. Even if you didn't pirate the game, $5 is a great deal on a great looking game that plays on 3 platforms (Win+Mac+Linux) and includes an original soundtrack.

Arrr, matey, get your legal plunder here. Screenshot below.

A very old, tiny font of mine for your next Titanic themed party - 5 related dingbats (uppercase A - E). Make stationery, invitations, and party favors and everything will go just swimmingly. Download here.

HotPrints continues to give away free printed photo books (mock-up example below) without even requiring a credit card. You are entitled to one free 16 page customizable HotBook per month when you register and can include photos from your Facebook and Bebo accounts, or upload your own photos for free. Perfect little keepsake for a weekend jaunt or small event.

I just received my second booklet last week. Turnaround on it was only 3 days! I now have a nifty souvenir of a weekend Vanishing Texas River Cruise Freedom Flight where two rehabilitated Red-tailed Hawks were released back into the wild. Below is a photo of John Karger of Last Chance Forever instructing a lucky passenger on how to release a juvenile bird.

This limerick is mine, all mine. I wrote it today and posted it elsewhere, but if you see it anywhere else but here and Big Fish Games, please attribute it to me, 'kay? Don't make come over there and Cease and Desist you...

The Internet made Sally bitter
No forum or chat seemed to fit her
Not a soul took a look
At her blog or Facebook
And nobody Googled her Twitter

Make cool virtual packaging with shadows and reflections with online 3DPackage, Choose from cd-box, 3d-box,  cd & box, dvd-box or book, then orient your virtual product to a customized point of view. Example below (my cat again).

If you've never checked it out, Giveaway of the Day is a great place to score legitimate, free, licensed software. No warez, no timed trials -  just great sanctioned and spyware free full-sized applications. Thing is, if you like the software and you want to migrate it, well, yer outta luck unless you pony up and buy it. Or something.

A recent offering, Corner-A Art Studio is a gas to play with. It animates static graphics. The "nature" options are especially great fun. Below is a photo I took in Ireland last fall that I played with in Art Studio. Spiffy.
 

Cool. That steampunk PC from The Steampunk Workshop showed up in a new hidden object game from Namco Games titled Mishap: An Accidental Haunting - an excellent casual game. You can see the modeled 'puter in the screen shot below. Click to enlarge.

I adore steampunk. I want a PC like this:

I'm currently trying to design a worthy font in the vein of "The Mysterious Explorations of Jasper Morello". In the meantime, here's a free little flash game trying to aspire likewise.

Little Wheel

Another of my later experiments with fonts (trust me, I didn't inhale). This was originally titled Inca Dinca Deco but upon arbitrary and thoroughly unresearched reassessment of it, I decided it looked more Mayan than Incan. Don't get me started on the Aztec.  That's some sort of Mesoamerican insurance company with an Imperial Woodpecker for a spokesman, right? Says the girl with an anthropology degree...

Anywho, presented for your entertainment - a totally unkerned and numberless display font that can't possibly amount to a hill of domesticated beans or maize or squash:

Obviously, not to be used for texting or closed captioning - but maybe as a flotation device. Download it here.

Still dragging out the comforter and nestling into the feather bed here in central Texas at night. Not that there's anything wrong with that... But think about the basil seedlings, people. And those moon flowers in their shallow pots.

Ah, well. It's always snowing (as you may know) somewhere. And you can see some of my contributions to that here,

Some cool tools. Try the Tartan Designer here and create tileable tartans like these:

Also, try the Tiled Backgrounds Designer here. Examples:

Great time wasters ;-)

I created One Wingy Dingy under the pseudonym La Vie Dansante many moons ago during my alt.binaries.fonts days. It consists of 13 pairs of wings to flank a letter or image with or to incorporate into a logo. Its companion, Two Wingy Dingy, is still flying around out there but the original is a rare bird indeed. Here's a serving suggestion: 

Not just Red Bull gives you wings anymore. Download One Wingy Dingy here.

Download the sequel here.

View and download my other fonts from the good old Usenet days here.

A pretty useless Photoshop action to create playing cards (ace of hearts only showing), but with your own modifications, you can produce something like this:

Default settings (with your choice of pattern for back of card) will produce this:

Download action here.

My alter ego created this font, inspired by the drone flap of 2007. Explanation in text file. Click here to download.

Font I created some years back using the Alphabet Synthesis Machine. Good for abstract swooshes. Example below. Click here to download.

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