I sitting around Friday night, trying to learning Bowie’s Moonage Daydream on guitar (or something at least resembling it), when I had an idea:  what would happen if I ran my Nintendo DSi through a couple guitar effect pedals and then into my portable Marshall amp?

I had the portable amp out because I plan on dressing up as a Spider from Mars for an “intergalactic” birthday party (which is why I was learning Moonage Daydream).

This idea came to me when I was curious if I could run my iPod Shuffle or DSi through the amp in case I didn’t want to try and play the song.

I decided against the Shuffle quickly because it has “issues.” It is doing this thing where one of the sound channels keeps cutting in and out and it is very sensitive to any cord movement–it pauses right away if the sound cord giggles too much.

So I went with the DSi.

I ran it through my distortion pedal and then my chorus pedal and messed with the tone and distortion on the amp itself.  It made for an interesting sound.

You can tweak the pitch and speed of the songs via the DSi, which I of course did. Listening to Rush’s Working Man sped up, distorted and in a chorus was  something out of this world.

I liked being able to tweak the output of the song live via the pedals and the DSi interface.

Does this have any sort of practical application? I doubt it, but it was fun.

The little Marshall, with its built in belt clip, makes for a great portable speaker if I need sound for a costume however.

I am going to have the guitar and amp with me for my costume and I am toying with attaching one of the pedals (maybe the distortion) somewhere on my costume, as the OD (overdrive) on the little amp leaves a lot to be desired.

I jumped into the field of modern day portable gaming by purchasing a Nintendo DSi today (black).

I went back and forth between getting the newer DSi and the slightly older and cheaper DS Lite for a spell, but I am very happy with my choice.

Why? For starters, it has an SD card slot and it’ll play music files, thus filling in until I get a new iPod.

The other reason was the downloadable games available only for the DSi.  Seeing as how downloadable content is where the industry is going, I decided that I did not want to be left behind.

One program in particular was the deciding factor–Flipnote Studio.  It is actually free (came pre-installed with mine) and all kinds of fun.  It is a simple drawing and animation program, but what I love most is that I can export my (horrible) drawings as .GIF files so I can subject all of the Internet with more of my terrible sketches.

My first drawing with Flipnote, a rendering of two cartoony hamsters.

That’s suppose to say “Hams Without a Cause.”  A narrative involving two rebelous hamsters, I reckon? I have no idea.  I was inspired and went with it.

I’m still getting used to the stylus and drawing on the screen but I it is a lot of fun, and being a person that likes to doodle, I see all kinds of potential here (…potential to make hundreds of lameo drawings).

The animation process is pretty fun too–and you can export your “toons” as an animated .GIF file. Neat.

The music player also impressed me greatly, especially with the ability to alter songs in real time (I messed with the speed and pitch of Pink Floyd’s  Comfortably Numb and it was a hoot).

So yes, I’m having fun with my new toy.