T-Shirt Bullies Blogger
It will be a sad day when I admit that my t-shirt is smarter than I am. Luckier surely, maybe even tougher, but no way that matrix of fibers is smarter than I am. It’s just a limp rag when it comes to chess, checkers, and table tennis. But when we really compete head to weave, like playing rock-scissors-paper, it dominates. That demonic cotton consistently covers my rock, smashes my scissors, and cuts my paper to uh, threads.
I Tells Ya’, It Ain’t Fair
It must be cheating. Sure, that’s it. That’s got to be it.
Okay, not everybody shares a closet with a monster t-shirt. Even “Anti-Jim” and I (started betting names when I ran out of money) only go back a few months.
Let me explain. Like any technology journalist, I’m fascinated by the way the media is changing, has to change really. I have watched as the very things I write about, pieces of silicon and loops of 1’s and 0’s, leap off the page and strangle the pen I write with. Electronic and social media are displacing the elder forms, from newspapers, to technical magazines, to inscribing wax tablets. When I see the monster media companies trying to force back the tide of change I don’t know whether to cheer for the winds of technology (and my job) or the bitter resistance of traditional media (and oh, yeah, my job).
Dawn of the Drapes
But well before imec and other innovation houses began to crank out wearable media and self-powered displays (just add body heat), there were already wearable media and self-powered displays (just add ambient light). T-Post magazine (http://www.t-post.se/index.php) has been cranking out offbeat news on designer t-shirts since the dawn of time (well, 2004 actually). They started with 5 shirts between friends and now have subscribers in 50 countries. They pick one current news item every issue and work with a designer for a unique contemporary shirt (http://www.t-post.se/past-issues).
Issue #51. (Not the author. Just another volunteer shirt model.)
The issue I obtained was issue #51 (http://www.t-post.se/past-issues/item/root/higher-education-or-just-plain-high). The article (printed with ecologically friendly ink on the inside of the organic cotton tee) was intelligent and even-codger friendly. My wife and daughter (both artists) liked the design (they usually hate my choices) and my wife even walked off with “Anti-Jim” (it was a small; editors are not small, in ego or chest size).
“Not my night? I could’ve taken that t-shirt apart!”
However, before she made off with her prize, I read the fine print and realized the shirt actually played a game. All I had to do was grab it back and click over to their website (http://www.t-post.se/rockpaperscissors). Sure I let it take the first couple of shots; I wanted it to get overconfident. But the unearthly, cadaverous hand that emerged from my chest didn’t need confidence, just another victim.
Don’t believe me? You can watch it devour some other palookas at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIof7yEsOn8
Want your own? Forget it. They only make enough to cover (literally) subscribers for that issue. Each month is unique.
But if my warnings and crushed ego (my wife’s probably snuggling up to Anti-Jim even now) won’t stop you, go to their website. You’ll find a downloadable printed version so you can climb into the ring yourself. There’s always room for another member in the rock-paper-scissors cellar.
Somewhere there’s a wearable medium I can beat. Or at least wear.