Irrelevance Glorified

Week 28, July 7th – July 11th

Elephant

This one was interesting because of the negative space involved. The trunk is defined by the whitespace between two folds. However, I was using a black background, which ruins the effect. So I had to cheat. Hence the pen ink.

Snake

This would have full of awesome if it had been preceded by a badger and a mushroom.

Party Hat

Pikachu here is modeling this hat for me. This hat definitely screams party to me! Why do I have a Pikachu, you ask? Uh….Uh….none of your damn business, that’s why!

Day Lily

Whatever. Another flower.

Buffet Napkin

I either need smaller silverware or a bigger napkin. Or one napkin for each utensil. I’m open to my options.

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

Well, I just wanted to extend some congrats to my good friends Cameron Jones and Jin Ha Lee, who got hitched this past week. I was honored by their decision to have me be a part of it, in the role of the wedding officiant. One of my secret superpowers is being an ordained Reverend, legally able to sign off on wedding certificates — something I’ve already done once, in the case of my good friends Bruce and Tina. However, just in case you doubt my abilities, here is some photographic proof.

Making sure that all rules are followed, I read the fine print with my keen, reverend eyes.

Again, I make sure that everything is on the up and up by making them go through some vows. I will be holding them to it.

Cameron shows off the completed form.

Cheers and congrats to Cameron and Jin Ha. Also, thanks to Elizabeth for serving as witness and taking the pictures, which I shamelessly stole.

Do you ever have a hard time figuring out where to go for vacation? In this day and age, vacation days are few and far between, and if you have the two-body problem, scheduling can become even more sketchy. With such demands, you need to make things count. A mediocre vacation is worse than no vacation at all! If you’re not going to go all out, just go ahead and send me the money you would have spent on airfare, and just sleep for a week. You’ll come out ahead.

But where to go? At first glance, the possibilities seem endless. Well, I’m always here to help. First of all, 2/3 of the world is covered by water. Unless you like to swim and have a large supply of shark repellent, I would recommend visiting places on land. So that cuts it down quite a bit. Secondly, you should always be broadening your horizons. And, it’s a known fact^* that the best way to broaden your horizon is to send me a postcard from a place that I don’t have a postcard from.

“But Ranjeet”, you ask devotingly, “how do I know what postcards you have?”

“Stop being so impatient”, I will respond condescendingly. “Check my Flickr page“.

Yes, I’ve added a new set to my Flickr connection, again the address is

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ranjeetrao/sets/72157607401290658/

To better serve you, you can check out the Map page by clicking here. Unfortunately, it only shows 21 pictures at a time on the map, but hopefully I can change that.

For the most part, I keep all postcards I get, so here is about 70 postcards that I’ve received since 1991 or so. I’ve cheated and included postcards that I’ve bought myself (mostly because a lot of postcards show picture angles that I can’t achieve with my own camera), but that still counts because at least I’ve traveled to the place that I bought the postcard for.

If you’ve ever sent me a postcard, there’s a chance that you might recognize some of the items. And if you don’t recognize something, maybe you should be spending less time on the internet and more time sending me postcards.

I look forward to your contributions, and your praise.

Update
Sara’s comment suggests that I narrow it down even further than I have already done so. So, here are some suggestions:

• Any place on the continents of Australia, Africa, or Antarctica. Mad props if you mail me a postcard from Antarctica.
• Someplace from Mainland China, like Shanghai or Beijing
• Iceland, Greenland, or Scandinavia
• Toronto
• India
• Danville, IL

^*this is not a well known fact

Week 27, June 30th – July 4th

Dollar Bowtie

This origami desk calendar always uses dollar bills. I can only assume that somewhere there is an excelsior version out there, some Platinum Edition, where you use $100 bills or something.

Ladybug

This would be more impressive if the backside of the paper was consistently colored, instead of being both red and white. Even more impressive if it was actually black. And still more impressive if it didn’t look like I stepped on it.

Dollar Bill Snail

I’ll have to thank Gina for this one. I felt it was impossible, even though I know it is. I had neither the dexterity nor the patience to get this one going. Stupid dollar bills.

Snail

To counter the catastrophe of the dollar bill snail, here’s a more reasonable snail. I think he/she/it looks quite dignified.

Betsy Ross’ Star

Oh man, this is super lame. Super duper lame. Pretty much folding this paper a few times, and then taking some scissors to it.

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

Week 26, June 23rd – June 27th

I’ll preface this week by mentioning the note in the calendar, which gives us something to look forward to : “Feb. 14 is Annual International Envelope and Letter Fold Association Day”. Mark your calendars, people!

Bamboo Letter Fold

This is less impressive in picture than in person. And also less impressive since you can’t see the awesome letter I folded this into.

Tamper Proof Letter

The dealio here is that once this letter is open, you can’t reroll and crimp it, so you know if someone has been in your Lucky Charms. So to speak.

Stand

This origami is a convenient place to put important notes.

Rowboat

There have been a number of rowboats and boats this year. This one looks a bit more like an actual rowboat than the one in Week 23, but still, no oars! C’mon, where’s the two parter, rowboat and rows? And maybe a coxswain.

Basket

Just a basket.

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

You know, this has been passed along the internets for a little while, but in light of the recent news, I thought it would be good to pass along for people who haven’t seen it.

Here is a link to a Google Presentation Document explaining how we got into the Sub-Prime mess. It’s a bit simplistic, obviously, but also very funny and very direct. It would probably be rated PG-13 for language.

Week 25, June 16 – June 20th

Sweet Swallow

I’ll admit, this didn’t get my best effort. Step 5 was pretty impossible. As such, this swallow is pretty depressed. That’s why it’s pointing downwards.

Offering Stand

It seems like this would be a better stand if it was upside down, but I am not an expert in offering stands, so I’m sure there is a subtle and spirtual reason it is the way it is.

Heart Place Card

Yet another heart-related origami. This one is perfect for putting on your mantel.

Wedding Noshi

This is something you’re supposed to give at a wedding, I suppose. It contains folded representations of a tortoise and a crane, which both are supposed to give good luck. I’m not going to take the time to actually look up what they mean, but I’m going to guess that the tortoise represents a long marriage, and the crane represents fertility or something, since cranes are big birds, like storks, and storks deliver babies.

Boutonniere

What lucky lady wouldn’t want to be presented one of these by Ranjeet?

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

Week 24, June 9th – June 13th

Swordfish

It’s amazing to me how much “personality” I can add to an origami by adding an eye and an eyebrow. I’m rather proud of that eyebrow. Doesn’t it look like that swordfish means business?

Seal

I like this seal. It seems eager and ready to balance a ball on its nose.

Blue Whale

I thought about making this life-size, but my paper suppliers couldn’t get me something of the right size. And I couldn’t get access to one of those hangars that they use for Mythbusters episodes. I do like how the pattern on the paper is reminiscent of the grooved throat of an actual blue whale. Serendipity? Probably.

Mouse

I thought this one was kinda of hard to make out….when looking at it, you just can’t be sure of what you’re seeing. So I colored in the nose, to make it a little more obvious. I think it looks a bit more like Pikachu than a real mouse.

Emergency Tie

I found this one to be hilarious. There is a certain subset of these origami designs that claim, whether realistically or facetiously, to be useful in real life. I try to imagine the Japanese businessman who realizes after he’s left home that he forgot his tie. Or maybe he got it caught in some machinery and had to cut it to same his own life. No worries! I will grab some paper, and no one will ever know! This is much better than just showing up without a tie!

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

Week 23, June 2nd – June 6

Rowboat

Without oars, this isn’t much of a rowboat. I’m not saying anything, I’m just saying.

Boomerang Plane

I don’t have much luck with planes. Any of them. Anything flying in general. I’m sure with a lot of tweaking and some balsa wood, though, I could get something that the Wright brothers would be proud of.

Letter Fold

There are shocking secrets written on that sheet of paper, but thanks to the fold, they are safe and sound.

Vase

This is a pretty vase, what with all angles and stuff.

Fishing Net

Extra lame. Whenever I see the instructions call for scissors, I think I’m cheating.

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

Week 22, May 26th – May 30th

This week, I learned about the frog base. The main thing I’ve learned is : RUN AWAY FROM THE FROG BASE. Whenever I saw the phrase “Start with a frog base”, I would cringe, almost reflexively. By the time I had the base finished, my origami square has enough folds to make another further work nigh-impossible. You hear that! Nigh! Well, enough whining.

Frog

Bold move, Origami Calendar. You label this as the frog, with no modifying adjective. So, all other frogs are inferior, corruptions of this ideal frog! Bow before it!

Lily

Not bad, Origami Calendar, not bad. This kinda looks like the actual flower.

Russian Cicada

I’m not sure what makes this cicada Russian. Maybe it can read Cyrillic.

Tulip

This was another two-dayer, one for the blossom, one for the stem. You know, I would feel bad if I were the stem. You get a whole day to yourself, and you think that finally, you will have your time to shine…and they cover you up with that blossom again, your mortal enemy, that attention-stealing hussy. Blossom, I’d watch my back if I were you.

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