My real life job consists of being in charge of a youth technology lab. I’ve been told in a training to do whatever I want with the lab, claim it as my own, and leave my mark behind. So I racked my brain for a theme I could use to do a slight overhaul with the place. At first I considered doing a theme based off of classical music composers, like naming each computers after them. However, the idea of kids misspelling “Rachmaninoff” on the sign-in sheet turned me off quiet badly.

Next, I thought about doing a general Nintendo theme, but after giving myself a headache because of its broadness, I decided to go for a simpler theme. A Mario theme! I decided to call my lab “The Mushroom Kingdom”, and named each computers after these characters: Mario, Luigi, Toad, Peach, Bowser, Wario, and Yoshi.

Inspired by this ubiquitous video game series, I redesigned several binder’s covers and the daily upkeep sheet (like what’s working and not working) with images of goombas, Mario, and Luigi. I even created a banner with “Paper Mario” images that says, “Welcome to the Mushroom Kingdom”. Now, I am planning to find those question mark box as images, print them out, and put them on the wall behind the monitors, cut and hang up some mushrooms and invincible stars from the ceilings, and put pictures of the characters on the window. If I was really evil, I’d also figure out a way to attach a sound system to the entrance, so that whenever someone enters and exits the lab, the Mario songs play out loud.

I am extremely stoked by this entire thing. Yes, I am a nerd! Muhahaha!