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Cubist Miata #2

Another time waster from Moss Motors: Car Cutout Challenge. I’m in. Trouble is, on their contest page all they have links to papercraft Miatas for the 1st (NA) and 4th (ND) generation. I have a 2nd generation NB, so what’s a fellow to do? Why reach back into the past and find the copy of the instruction sheet for the second gen car from his papercraft archives. Back in 2006 the Mazda Museum in Japan produce some square-ish looking templates for all three of then current, generations of Miatas, NA, NB & NC.

Like I did 14 years ago, I spent a couple hours “coloring” it in to look like my current Miata. You can see 2020’s results above. Here were the results of 2006’s Cubist Niata #1.

Happy Star Wars Day

I guess I could have redone my Darth Vader CubeCraft one, but I wanted to try something new. This is a simple one sheet R2D2. I have a 4 page, much more detailed R2D2 papercraft template, but it would have taken a lot longer to complete than I had time for. Maybe if I start on it tomorrow I could have it finished by next May 4th.

It’s Super Bowl Sunday

Not only that, but every Sunday in May is going to be Super Bowl Sunday. So, not only has Major League Baseball opened up their archive of games to watch for free, but the National Football League has too. From now until May 31st you can get NFL Game Pass for free and watch any football game from 2009 to 2019. You want to watch preseason games? Sure, why not? Every regular season game? Check. Playoffs? Absolutely. The Super Bowls? You got ’em! You can even watch the Pro Bowl games, but for the life of me I can’t figure out why you would.

The nice thing about Game Pass’s football games, is unlike MLBTV, they have nicely edited out all the commercials1. They have even chopped out half time as well. Three and a half hour football games come in a little over 2 hours.

The bit of papercraft above is called Papercraft Propaganda and was created by someone who called themselves PaperTom and it is supposed to put you in mind of an old school Soviet statue. His web site doesn’t seem to exist anymore, so if you want to create your own, download the PDF here.

Thanks Mazda

A couple of weeks ago, Mazda decided to honor their 100th anniversary and to give us something to keep us indoors and busy during these interesting times, they let loose into the world some paper craft models of their current (and some past) models.

Because I already have, from back in 2006, the instructions to make the first 3 generations of Miatas and this new release included the 4th generation car, I felt compelled to download it. To color it a pleasing blue. And to make one.

This led to my rediscovering a folder full of papercraft stuff I collected back a decade or so ago. Well, I do still have a few sheets of card stock and time on my hands, so I decided to print out a couple of favorites and remake them.


First up is a Java Sparrow last seen here a little over 9 years ago in the post Here Birdie, Birdie. If you would like to make your own Java Sparrow out of paper got to this Livedoor blog page and scroll down a bit to the Marubun Java Sparrow Paper Models where you have several color choices to pick from.

We’re Doing Our Part

Our CARES Act check arrived unceremoniously into our savings account a week ago, exactly 2 weeks after I had the IRS deduct almost half of that to pay for 2019’s taxes. Since then we have been doing our part to stimulate the economy by spending the other half on buying:

  • A battery for the Miata from NAPA – the old one was done it by the car sitting for 2-1/2 months awaiting shipment to Oregon.
  • A 15″ Dell laptop from Amazon – the old one was limping along with a dead battery and was mortally wounded by a liquid spill.
  • A lawnmower, a weed whacker and a leaf blower from Home Depot – the old ones were left behind for the new owner of 778 Boardman Road. The mower and trimmer couldn’t be shipped anyway as they were gas powered…

Living in the Recent Past

With the 2020 Major League Baseball season on hold, possibly forever, MLBTV has opened up the 2018 & 2019 archives for viewing. Because I am subscribed to MLB Audio and my $20 yearly subscription was automatically renewed on the 1st of March I can watch any of the approximately 4,800 games, regular and post-season, from the last 2 years. From what I can find, this treat is available to all users. You may have to create an MLB account, which if I know these guys they will require a credit card and this will mean that if they do start the season, they will probably hit your card and sign you up for $100 package.

Having exhausted all the Brit TV we could stand, MLBTV becomes a perfect TV time waster in these times of #stayonyourcouchtoflattenthecurveandsavelives. So, I figured it would be cool to watch a Red Sox game a day, on the date the game was played. Well, guess which which season I’m going to pick? A) Last year, 2019, where the Sox finished just 6 games over .500 in third place in the division, 19 games behind the Yankees or B) 2018 when they won the division by 5 games and ended up winning the World Series. No-brainer huh?

Yesterday’s game was the finale of a 3 game shellacking of the Angels in the their home stadium where the FRS outscored them 27 to 3 to move their won/loss record to 16-2. For all of the entire 2019 season, I remember about this April series and the fact that they won the Worlds Series, everything else will be “new” to me.

Timely Analogy

“The curve is flattening; we can start lifting restrictions now.”

equals

“The parachute has slowed our rate of descent; we can take it off now.”