Sandcrawler

This bit of folded paper is kind of crude compared to the cute Minimimmo and not nearly as slick as The Alien, but the Star Wars geek in me just had to make it. Trouble is, it is not so recognizable as to what it is. My wife who has seen A New Hope as many times as I have, thought it might be from Firefly. Of course when she said that I thought, “Oooh, oooh, maybe somebody has done a papercraft Serenity.” Sure enough, someone has, and the plans are on the God-blessed Internet. Unfortunately what I have been doing so far in no way prepares me to make that model. I’m just graduating from Papercraft Pre-school and this project is Graduate School level. It is approximately 80 pieces cut from thirteen 8-1/2 x 11 sheets with instructions consisting of 14 jpeg images.

From IMDB’s trivia page for Star Wars:
While George Lucas was filming on location in Tunisia, the Libyan government became worried about a massive military vehicle parked near the Libyan border. Consequently, the Tunisian government, receiving threats of military mobilization, politely asked Lucas to move his Jawa sandcrawler farther away from the border.

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Hawk Field

A slight break from the papercraft madness, at least picture-wise, as today’s photo is of Donna and friend Joan taking a brief rest at Hawk Field in Hitchcock Woods. We had two purposes in the woods today, one was a nice walk on a nice winter afternoon (~4.5 miles) and two was scouting a geocache placement. Mission accomplished.

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Hostess Truck Version 2.0

This model is recognizable by the Hostess logo on the back and the rearview mirrors that I didn’t have time to put on the first version. I’m thinking for Version 3.0 I might have the rear door open with hundreds of tiny Sno-Balls tumbling out of it. I did this one at home using Elmer’s Glue and I’m not that happy with the results. At work I have a glue stick that works a lot better, but more importantly I have a very well lit area that makes it easier to see the cut /fold lines. The glue stick is an easy fix, but I’m not sure what to do about the lighting.

First up today was the usual Saturday breakfast at DD while reading the Weekend Edition of the WSJ they get. We enjoy reading it so much we thought about getting it home delivered, but you can only get the weekend paper if you subscribe to the Monday through Friday editions as well. Those we probably wouldn’t read, so it would be a terrible waste of paper, plus the cost was more than we wanted to spend for a newspaper for one day a week ($119 a year.)

Then we went out in the 27° morning and did a few local and semi-local caches. We found the first two we looked for and then it went down hill from there, ending up finding just three of the next seven. We were about due a few DNFs as we hadn’t had one in three weeks and 30 caches.

We finished out the day at Olive Garden with friends. We always go out to eat early to avoid the crowds, but that plan didn’t work tonight. We arrived at 5:15 and ended up with a 50 minute wait for a table. If it was just Donna and I we would have just walked next door to Wendy’s, but we had Rudy and Patti to share stories with while we waited, so while the wait was long, it was pleasant.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 931

A Day Late


The Alien

Today’s art project is so simple a caveman could do it. No tape, no glue, no tabs and no xacto knife needed, just scissors and a steady hand.

Mark wore his new Zombieland T-shirt to work today and took every chance he got to show off his sartorial splendor and rub in the fact that I was wearing nothing but a plain green shirt. Of course, wouldn’t you know it, the shirt I ordered several hours before he ordered his, was in the mailbox when I got home tonight.

So what did I do, you might ask, well, I didn’t even open it up, I wrote return to sender in big red letters and stuffed the overstuffed envelope back in the mailbox.

OK, not really, I eagerly ripped open the bag and I’m wearing it now and plan on not taking it off. Ever.

Truthfully, I put it in the hamper to be washed. I have this phobia about wearing anything brand new, it has to be washed first.* Amateur psychologists, feel free to pipe in with a diagnosis.

*Actually, that would make a nice Z-Land rule. #33. Always wash new clothes. Because you never know if a zombie has tried it on before you.

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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 931

Minimimmo

My latest fixation, started in the usual manner, a random blog post on a random web page. Now I just can’t help myself, I just have to cut something out of card stock and glue, insert tab into slot or press it together to create “art.”

Today’s papercraft piece, Minimimmo, is from Italy and hopes to colonize the world. These boogers are just so cute, I might just make a hundred of them, starting a southeastern US outpost. Good thing there is a video on the web site as the downloadable instructions were only available in Italian.

No package in today’s mail. No failed attempted delivery notice. Some rat bastard postal worker is wearing my Pacific Playland T-shirt.

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Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 930

Still No Shirt :-(

The Hostess truck from TDZM was easier than making a mini-me. The truck was held together by tabs glued to panels, but this had tabs going into slots and while the head was kind of easy the body was tricky and the “legs” were a real pain. And even though I used a metal ruler for a straight edge, cutting parallel and perpendicular was equally important as straight. As you can see I had to resort to clear tape to keep me together.

It took UPS two days to move my Pacific Playland T-shirt from Groveport, Ohio 530 miles to Atlanta, GA. It has taken the USPS two days to get it from Atlanta, GA 150 miles to Augusta GA. I wonder how long it will take them to go the last 25 miles? Two days?

Little Rock: Have you heard about Pacific Playland? There are no zombies there.
Columbus: The amusement park?
Little Rock: Yep!
Tallahassee: That place totally blows!
[Little Rock and Wichita shoot Tallahassee angry looks]
Tallahassee: … my mind. Just fun for the whole family.

My current car insurance is with State Farm and after watching Two and a Half Men this evening I think I can get 21st Century insurance to pay me to be insured with them. First, switching to Geico will save me 15%, then switching to Allstate from Geico will save me an additional $396. Changing to Progressive from Allstate will save me $474. Then converting to 21st Century from Progressive saves me another $550.

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