Carpe Noctum

The Carpe Noctum shirt was a Christmas gift that I got to pick out for myself from a catalog.
There are a few things that my family gets from magazines and mailers; t-shirts are but one of them. Every year we get a whole bunch of different catalogs and browse through them a month or so before the holidays. This practice is a nice way to get what we want for each other while still having time to forget that we ordered it. We also shop for others this way too, meats & cheeses, fruits and chocolates all around.
As you can see by how dirty this shirt is, I have owned this for a really long time. It was ordered from a computer geek themed book, and was probably a bit more expensive than at retail. I still wish that it was a higher quality or something. Though, I suppose that is the precise reason I chose it. Simple, white text on black started me off on this whole awesome tee adventure.
I bought it back when I was playing a lot of computer games and having LAN parties. There is only one element of today's design. The words "Carpe Noctum" are set across the chest of this basic shirt. In Latin it means, "Seize the night." A play on the old phrase Carpe Diem, "Seize the day." Perfect for a kid who goes to school all day and plays games until the wee hours of the morning.
In high school I would wear this as a badge of honor, a way to show who I was when I wasn't on campus. Having a very strict schedule and a lot of homework makes the gaming you get in all the sweeter. Work hard, Play Hard. This holds true even more-so when I got into college and then work. This is also a shirt that I always try and pack when I go on vacation. Like a simple logo it works across language barriers. I hope that I am able to strike a cord with other nerds and geeks wherever I go. Though it probably comes across as a "party all night long" message.

I wore this many times in many countries without a second look or any sort of comments. So that's out, maybe I'll try something else next time. I don't know why that didn't work. I tried to wear this to LAN parties and video game nights, just because I thought it was really appropriate. It was fun and made sense but all of my friends already saw it the first time, it didn't have much of an effect the subsequent times. Though every once and a while I get someone that reads it out loud either wondering what it means or who understands it and wants to show off their trivial knowledge -as if I don't know what it means somehow-.