Irrelevance Glorified

Week 37, September 8th – September 9th

Deployable Structure : Simple Wrap

So, this looks pretty stupid. But there’s science here. Basically, this is about structures that fold up flat for transportation, but then can be unfolded once the package has arrived to get the structure. One of the main researchers on this area is Simon Guest, a researcher at the University of Cambridge. This origami example is an example of a deployable structure that could be wrapped around a cylinder, like a hub, as he explains. The example given is of a solar sail.

Box Plane

Once again, a failed plane. Maybe I’m just not throwing it right. But I have yet to see any sort of difference in any of the planes that I’ve made.

Tricorne

According to Wikipedia, a tricorne is a type of hat.
But for me, when I saw it, I couldn’t stop thinking of Zelda.

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

Week 36, September 1st – September 5th

Pencil

This is fairly lame, mostly because it’s so two-dimensionally a pencil, and it totally depends on having the paper be two-toned.

Hungry Crow

I take full responsibility for not remembering how this works.

See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil

This is a a traditional theme, often done with monkeys. These were done with the accursed frog base as the starting point, which I hate. But it is good for creating limbs.

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

So, like I ranted a few days ago about how horrible Virtuosity was. And I mentioned that Demolition Man was on it’s way, and that I expected it to be horrible and entertaining. Boy, was I right! Now, here is how a horrible movie should be done!

The two movies are quite similar. Amazingly enough, both of their plots can be described as : A future Los Angeles Police Department is faced with a dilemma when a psychopathic killer from the past improbably escapes and gets out on the loose. While the escape seems mysterious and accidental, further detective work reveals a more sinister “inside job”, where a seemingly benevolent person has orchestrated the breakout. This psychotic killer kills people just for fun, and as the death count rises, the police department is forced to turn to the killer’s previous nemesis, a former cop who is now incarcerated. The cop clashes with the current administration, but between him and his female partner, they are finally able to bring the killer to justice. And by justice I mean death.

I guess this is why Netflix suggested both of them at the same time (I assume, since they were next to each other in the queue).

Demolition Man has more explosions, a more imaginative (cliched, but imaginative, if that makes any sense, which is kind of doesn’t) image of the future, and much much better one-liners. Wesley Snipes is a much more amusing villain, and Stallone pulls off the improbable victory over an insurmountable enemy with lots of style. Kudos, Demolition Man! You get four stars from me!

Week 35, June 25th – June 29th

Billfold

To give this some size perspective, I put the dollar armadillo in there. Someday, I will buy a car in cash, and pay it only in origami folded bills. That I will pull out of a giant origami wallet.

Beagle

America’s favorite dog breed, in disembodied head form.

Tissue Holder

They really should have instructed me to make this out of a piece of tissue paper. That would have been so meta.

Seed Packet

In the instructions it tells you when you can put in the seeds, and how to remove them. When it’s folded, it’s pretty leak proof. Did you know that all the seeds in the Global Seed Vault are stored in packets like these? Neither do I. But since I’m not going to check, it could be true, and that’s all that counts.

Summer Love

I presume this will be the last heart of Summer, so it’s Summer Love.

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

Week 34, August 19th – August 22

Today’s set of Origami is dedicated to Bruce and my sister Vandana. Happy Birthday guys!

Raccoon

This isn’t a faithful representation of a raccoon. How do I know? It doesn’t terrify me. Actually, the folding is imprecise enough that it kinda looks like a handicapped raccoon. Like, maybe it has cerebral palsy or cystic fibrosis or muscular dystrophy or some other two word medical condition that I don’t fully understand. Legionnaire’s disease?

Fan

Finally! An origami that I can’t screw up!

Hare

Not a rabbit. Not a bunny. A hare.

Volcano

I gave this one my best effort. It did not come with origami baking soda and origami vinegar, though. And, for the record, the instructions did call for me to crumple it a big to give it a volcanoey texture. Seriously. that white stripe is suppose to be, like the lava flow or something. Don’t be fooled by the volcano’s general orangeness. That orange probably isn’t lava.

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

Week 33, August 11th – August 18th

Modular Unit Ball

Not to be outdone by the 5 day Pagoda, here is a six dayer! Wow, Week 34 is gonna be pissed when it finds out that Monday was stolen by this ball. Anyways, six sides, six days, and some tape was needed to get certain joints to stay together while I connected other joints.

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

So, I have a Netflix account, and my queue is currently populated with over 200 items (a little bit overcounting, though, since multi-disc television shows list as one item per disc). I often put movies in the queue that probably wouldn’t be considered all that great, some that get poor reviews, just because I haven’t seen them, and I want to take a flyer on them. For instance, Demolition Man is currently in the mail, approaching my apartment. I expect this movie to be horrible, but hopefully it will be entertaining.

Virtuosity is horrible. And it is not entertaining Continue Reading »

Week 32, August 4th – August 8th

Dollar Armadillo

Yet another dollar origami. I’m starting to hate these for a couple of reason. One, dollar cloth just doesn’t take a fold very well. Second, a dollar bill is smaller than a normal origami square. So this is a tiny tiny armadillo. The plating folds didn’t take very well. Still, I like the ears.

Travel Wallet

The idea here is that when you travel, you take the local newspaper and make a wallet out of it as a keepsake. I didn’t have any foreign currency or foreign newspapers on hand to demonstrate, but I’m sure you get the idea.

Cat Head & Body

I feel like I’ve done this before. It’s probably just because I’ve done a dog and a rat before.

Panda

I really wish the designer would take into account what’s on the back of the origami sheets. The June 7th page had a black back (instead of orange), so it’s clear that they intended it to be used for today’s origami. But all the yellow and stuff on the back ruin the effect. Or it makes the panda look like it has a face-tattoo.

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

Week 31, July 28th – August 1st

Pagoda

My very first five-parter! Five stories, five pagodas.

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

So, last Thursday I was invited to a Halloween party. I didn’t have a costume. I never wear costumes. So I did the best that I could given a day to brainstorm. I figured that going topical would be my best bet.

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