Irrelevance Glorified

In the beginning of May I went with Cameron and his boss, Elizabeth, to the Maker Faire: Bay Area 2008 convention in San Mateo. Maker Faire is put on by the publishers of Make and Craft magazine, and is really a celebration of do-it-yourself-ness and unguided experimentation. Read on for pics of some of the things I saw…
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Week 13, March 24 – March 28

Baby Bunny

This one is actually pretty cute. I’ll give it that. It does feel a bit out of place, though, since last week was Easter week.

Pop-Up Map

I’ll admit, this one made no sense to me. Look at the picture. This is actually quite a faithful representation of what they wanted me to make. I just can’t figure out how that’s a “Pop-Up Map”. The nearest I can figure is that it’s a relief map, a 3-D contour map. Although they could have just as easily made random folds, or crumpled and then uncrumpled the origami square. Maybe this makes a lot more sense in Japan.

Gnashers

This one is just strange. I mean, gnashers are just teeth, as far as I and Google can tell. And this thing is a giant, gaping, toothless maw. The hand-drawn eye was in the original design as well. But it does make a nice noise when snapped shut.

Bullfrog Brothers

Every once in a while, I’m instructed to cut my square into pieces and make multiple items. I hate this mindless repetition. But in this case, I felt compelled, because they are brothers. I would hate to break up family just because I’m lazy.

Durham Turtle

Much like Nathan’s Penguin, I don’t know if the Durham Turtle actually exists. It’s really none of my business.

As always, these origami designs were found in the Origami Page-A-Day Desk Calendar.

Week 12, March 17 – 21

Church

Not much to say about this. I think it’s a pretty good, 2-D representation of a Church. But just in case, I added the cross, to avoid any sort of ambiguity.

Rabbit Mask

You know, whenever I hear the words “Rabbit Mask”, I can’t help but think of Donnie Darko. So I was somewhat disappointed when I only saw a passing resemblance to Frank :

Rabbit

Just in case you don’t remember, this was right around Easter. So there’s a lot of lagomorph-related art going on here.

Easter Peep

For reference, click this link to see some real marshmallow peeps, courtesy of Wikipedia.
Frankly, I think it looks more like a Kiwi bird.

$ Bunny

The name of this item is $ Bunny, but I have to think they wouldn’t pass up the chance to use the phrase “Money Bunny”, so that’s what I will call it. This is my favorite rabbit depiction of the week. Unfortunately, pretty much all my cash reserves are now tied up in origami.

As always, these origami designs were found in the Origami Page-A-Day Desk Calendar.

Every once in a while I remember that I’m signed up with Google Analytics, which compiles the stats for visiting on my website, and I check it out. I haven’t updated this thing in a long while, so its not like I’m expecting lots of hits or anything. But I’m intrigued at the things that I find….
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Okay, okay, there’s been some delay, but I’m back on the case. In the time since I’ve declared myself too busy to post, some of my competitors fell by the wayside. I don’t know if perhaps they were too “open” with how the origami is made, or perhaps I’ve just slipped under the radar. I’m quite ninja-like in that respect. At any rate, let’s get this show on the road.

Week 11, March 10 – March 14

$ Sunglasses

These sunglasses are not life-size, obviously — our currency is too small. If we just had larger currency, maybe some of these monetary-bill-based-origami would be a little more functional. Because I’m pretty sure that would be very effective at blocking the sun’s rays.

Stunt Plane

This is the sort of thing begging for a video. It appears from the instructions that this thing is supposed to do loops and stuff. Pretty much the only thing I could get it to do is plummet straight to the ground. I can also do that with a rock. It takes a lot less work.

Chopstick Case

I don’t have any chopsticks lying around, so I had to make do with a pen. It could also serve as a pocket protector, as well.

Japanese Tea Cup

This indeed looks somewhat like a Japanese teacup. However, it’s not very functional, as this is basically a 2-D cup, with no interior volume.

Paloma

You know, when I made this, I just assumed that a Paloma was a certain species of bird. Now, I’m pretty sure that ‘paloma’ is just the Spanish word for dove or pigeon. I really don’t think that looks like a bird or a pigeon. I also tried to find pictures of the bird by doing a Google image search for ‘paloma’. I would highly recommend not doing that.

As always, these origami designs were found in the Origami Page-A-Day Desk Calendar.

So, I went to see The Dark Knight yesterday at an IMAX theater up in Dublin. Stupid story, in fact. I bought the tickets a week in advance, and still wasn’t able to get any Friday showings (on IMAX). So, on Saturday, Freshman Dan and I walk in, see the sign pointing us to IMAX auditorium #21, and wait in the long ass line to get in. After about five minutes, though, we overhear someone in line talking about how surprised they were this was the line for normal showing, since she figured there would only be a line for the IMAX showing. This is when we realized that while we were standing in a random line, the last seats in the IMAX theater were probably being taken up. Our stupidity unmasked, we rushed over…and found ourselves sitting in the front row of the movie theater. Not the best place to watch a movie on a 5 story tall screen.

But I digress. The movie was excellent, very intense, with some tremendous performances. And it was also inspiring. Not to spoil it at all, but Batman ends the movie taking on a heavy burden, trying to be the hero that he feels Gotham needs him to be. Similarly, I feel that I have been letting the Internet down. I have been hoping that a version of Harvey Dent would arise, so that I could be relieved of my duties, but it is clear that no one is stepping up, so I must, once again, save the Internet.

Well, the past two weeks I have been busy, don’t worry about that. Here’s the proof :