Armed with knives much too large for the job and a pile of printed templates from our contest submissions, we set upon our sacrificial gourds yesterday.

It was difficult to choose our favorites--and not stab ourselves, Andrea--but it was a good time. Thanks to all our template submitters on giving us an excuse to carve pumpkins!

Our 2nd Annual Geeky Pumpkin Template Contest winners are...

1st Place "My Best Friend," by Cognitive Wins 1st place, $131 ThinkGeek gift certificate + Zombie Cookie Jar

2nd Place "Android," by Puckbyter Wins $31 ThinkGeek gift certificate + Dismember Me Plush Zombie

3rd Place "Adipose," by @Suzaku7 Wins $31 ThinkGeek gift certificate

Honorable mentions

Most Paku Paku Paku "Pac O'Lantern," by @jacobwstewart	Angriest "Angry Birds," by @maddoghoek100	Creepiest "Minecraft Creeper," by Michael Shad
Most frustrating to codemonkey Jennifer P. "1UP Pumpkin," by Jennifer Summe	Best Use of Light "Proof your pumpkin has a heart," by @CaptDNA	Most unapologetically nerdy (and requires a permit in most states) "Erlenmeyer Flask," by SciFunk

Thanks to all 200+ submitters for sharing their pumpkin templates with us this year! Our pumpkins slaughtered for this grand occasion were less thankful, but still honored, to meet their fate at your hands.

More Halloweenery, if you haven't had enough yet

• Peruse the full list of 57 downloadable templates
• Find last-minute costume ideas on Instructables.com
• Check out the gallery of geeky pumpkins submitted by our Facebook comrades

Have a happy Halloween, geeks!

We've been running a geeky pumpkin template carving for the past two weeks, and we're reaching a critical mass of excellent submissions.

Not only do we intend to carve our pumpkins with our favorites, but we're hoping you'll find one or two you'd like to try out. If you're puzzled by any of the thumbnails below, hovering over the image might help explain, xkcd-style. And our favorites from last year are still available, too.

If you've got a great idea for a template, there's still time to enter: you have until midnight ET on Tuesday 10/26 to pitch your idea into the ring, and here's the submission form. We'll announce our winners on 10/29 after we've had a chance to carve our pumpkins.

UPDATE 10/27: Submissions have closed and we're looking forward to disemboweling our pumpkins tomorrow!

• 1st place, $131 ThinkGeek gift certificate + Zombie Cookie Jar
• 2nd place, $31 ThinkGeek gift certificate + Dismember Me Plush Zombie
• 3rd place, $31 ThinkGeek gift certificate
• Superlatives, who will get recognition and something pumpkin-y TBD.

More Halloweenery resources

• Our video-game and super-geek assortment of costumes for kids and adult-kids
• Instructables' bizarre and awesome DIY costumes, snacks, and general spookiness
• Halloween costumes for procrastinators

45 57 of the the best pumpkin templates

UPDATED 10/27 12:00pm ET: Just added 2 more for a total of 57!

Would you like to be in a ThinkGeek video where you didn't have to be on the roof of a moving car, pummeled by tribbles, or the subject of a new brain-poking "experiment"?

Then we have just the Instant YouTube Semi-Celebrity^TM opportunity you've been waiting for!

We've got a new moving picture project underway and we need footage of you saying, yelling, singing, or signing "No!" into the camera. Dancing, goofing off, and general muppeting is optional but strongly encouraged. Appropriately geeky props are also appreciated, but what we mostly want is you, staring into a camera, telling us "No!"

The quality doesn't have to be awesome, and we don't even necessarily need sound, so flip on those webcams and upload your video anywhere on the internet--to YouTube or just a file on your web server or favorite sharing service--by midnight EST on Friday, October 22nd.

How to enter your "No!" clip:

1. Tweet to @thinkgeek with a link to your video, with the tweet tagged #thinkgeekvideo. (Note: Your tweet must mention @thinkgeek and the tag #thinkgeekvideo)
2. Comment on this Facebook update about the contest with a link to your video. (Note: If you post it to our Facebook wall as a regular ol' wall post, it will not get captured as an entry.)
3. If you do not use Twitter or Facebook (we hear tell of some holdouts), you may email replybot at thinkgeek dot com your link; just make sure the subject line is "ThinkGeek Video Project."

Your video entry qualifies you to win a $50 ThinkGeek gift certificate, chosen randomly. Please use only one method of entering so we don't have to sort through dupes; double- or triple-entering will not increase your chances of winning, but will increase your chances of having a monocular laser-eyed robot visit your home to ask you why you ignored our instructions.

Oh, and there might be some celebri-geeks in this video that you'd be happy to appear alongside. We can't divulge any secrets right now but it should be good. And the legalese: by submitting a link of your video, you're agreeing that we have the right to remix it into a video as we see fit.

Get going! You only have until Friday, October 22nd to claim your Instant YouTube Semi-Celebrity^TM moment!

UPDATE 10/25 11:49AM: The entry period has ended and we've accepted over 40 clips for inclusion in our next video! Our random winner is Brian McDermott, who found a way to break our hearts all over again.

Tremble, yon gourds, for 'tis the season of disembowelment!

We're sharpening our knives and greasing the pumpkin seed roasting pan in preparation for our 2nd Annual Maybe We'll Do This Again Next Year Pumpkin Patch Trip 2010.

Last year Timmy almost got eaten by a cow, and (somehow) we all made it down the sack slide without crushing any small children. It was awesome.

But once again we'll be faced with the same dilemma: What geeky designs should we carve on our pumpkins? And who's gonna clean up this mess?

That's why we're foisting the task of being creative onto *you.* Make it 8-bit, an obscure reference to Red Dwarf, do a set of Mythbusters pumpkins (don't forget Jamie's beret), a line drawing of Sheldon, whatever you want--just please, stay away from pumpkin pi jokes. Seriously. Here are our favorites from last year if you need a kickstart.

Submit your geeky pumpkin carving template--preferably large enough to print & tape directly to a pumpkin--by October 26, we'll carve our favorites on October 28, and announce the 3 winners on October 29th. We'll post the best here on the blog as they come in so check back if you're looking for a template for your pumpkin.

• 1st place, $131 ThinkGeek gift certificate + Zombie Cookie Jar
• 2nd place, $31 ThinkGeek gift certificate + Dismember Me Plush Zombie
• 3rd place, $31 ThinkGeek gift certificate
• Superlatives, who will get recognition and something pumpkin-y TBD.

Pumpkinauts, please note: If you entered last year, please enter something new for 2010. And don't just yoink a design from Deviant Art. The internet ceiling cat cops are watching you.

Enter your Geeky Pumpkin Template

UPDATE 10/27: Submissions have closed!

UPDATE 10/25: Here are 48 of the best submissions so far. (Click to download each one.) Keep 'em coming!