Christmas cards

Hmmm... What kind of cards to send.



















Soviet Era Aerospace Cards

or


















Retina Burning Ultra Fromage Glitter cards

Yow.

Throwing in the Towel

I don't give up on projects. I will put them on hold indefinitely, or put them away for a re-think, but giving up is something I don't usually do. I have an N-Scale craftsman building kit, for instance - "Watt Moreland Waxworks" - that I started eight years ago and am only about 25% through (it's a bear of a kit with a million tiny parts, each of which needs its own colour of paint - that and I've had plans to add light and sound to it which need solidifying...I can work on it for a week or so and find I've spent the whole time doing shingles on a tiny section of roof). But I'm in no race to finish it - never am with anything - it is a hobby after all.
Unfortunately, sometimes I do come up against a deadline (Halloween) and while I do work well under pressure - this time I've had it - there's not much I can do to finish Boba Fett on time and under budget. I think this was a project where my ambition was greater than my ability, or I just made some bad decisions in the construction process re: materials and methods. I'm sure #1 would have been happy with something that looked vaguely Boba Fettish ( I've paused for a minute to see if I can think of a joke to go along with that... but not this afternoon - it's not there), but I really wanted a proper "bucket" - as it is referred to on the Star Wars costuming forums. It looked simple enough, and the prototype I put together looked OK, but the finished product needs more work than I can put in this weekend (keeping in mind I've been on this for a month now). And I know now what I should have done and I should have experimented with different materials. But that's hindsight and #1 needs a costume. He's happy to go as "Link" again, which is good and we have all the pieces from when he went two years ago ( although some are a little tighter than they were). That and I promised he could use my ipod and speakers to blast the "Zelda Theme" from behind the shield I made for him.
I don't know if I'd try to make to Boba Fett costume again - it's one of those things it would have been nice if #1 had had a part in making it, but he's still clumsy with the scissors, and there's no way in heck I'd let him cut some of the cardboard I was using with a utility knife. Maybe in a few years time.

Happy Valentine's Day, Leonard Cohen

True Story. It's Valentine's Day, 1980 and I'm in English 11. OK, I'm at home playing pool with my friends at lunch time and Bob reminds me that we need a love poem for class right after lunch.
Now, my literal interests at the time mainly focused on Science Fiction. Poetry was something you had to do for English class ( oddly enough, little has changed ). So I wander over to the parent's scant book shelves - which mainly consisted of Reader's Digest condensed books, Dad's collection of Mark Twain and Robert Louis Stevenson and a few novels from the 70's that had the racier pages dogeared ( I still have that copy of "Coffee, Tea or Me"). OK - I'm doomed.
Suddenly, there it is. Sandwiched between "Peyton Place" and "Dr. Spock" - "Leonard Cohen - Selected Poems 1956 - 1968". Leonard, if there is a God, you WILL have written a romantic poem.
Walking back to school, I'm reading. OK - if this is romantic poetry, I'm a Dalek. This is all "burning cigarette heart...", "stale whiskey kisses...", "death of my soul..." ... not good. Not good at all.
So I picked the least despondent of them all and read it in front of the class. After Shakespearean sonnets, Gothic bodice rippers and verse ripped from Hallmark cards, here comes Leonard Cohen.
There's a silence, then the teacher says, "I just adore Leonard Cohen. I'm glad there's someone who knows what real poetry is all about".

Anyways, thanks Leonard. And for the record, "Suzanne" is a pretty cool song.