Look what I got…
At only $1, how could I resist? Here’s what it looked like when I took the bits out:
The foam is adhesive, and assembly consists of attaching each tiny square piece individually to the dome, like this:
Since I am a master craftsman, this was easier and faster than it looked. Here’s the finished dome:
The extra bits and pieces had to be glued on (glue not provided) but since the foam was porous we had to use super glue. Here he is all done:
Not bad for $1 is he 🙂
This is by far the best advertisement ever made. I have watched it countless times over the years. If it doesn’t bring a tear to your eye then you’re not a man:
But wait! Did you know there was a sequel that came out five years after? (Watch the whole thing; it’s worth it…)
It reminds me of my youth, when mum and dad would play our ‘Man of La Mancha’ broadway album and sing along 🙂
I had grand plans for a blog entry today. I sat down about three hours ago to start and then, quite innocently I might add, checked my email!
ZOMG! Three hours later after replying to emails about grades (which were distributed today), I find I am mentally exhausted and can no longer summon the stamina to type a legendary blog post.
As a result, I present a historical one instead. Please carefully inspect this polaroid:
Can you guess (in comments) what is significant about this shot?
What did you do on June 22, 2006? Don’t remember, do you? I know what I did, I played World of Warcraft. I know this because on that day I made the very first entry on this blog. And that’s special because today is the day I make the 1000th entry 🙂
1000 entries in five and a half years! That’s almost exactly one every two days. It’s been going so long now that even I can’t remember most of what I have put on it. So I’m going to take today as a sort of ‘best of’ of my blog. After all, aren’t the nostalgic posts the best ones?
A few facts and figures first. There are 1000 posts in 14 categories that include a total of 3064 images. 705 comments have been made by a scant few 8 commentators. Since it has been impossible to create accounts for 5+ years this number is not likely to change soon. However there are three commentators out there that have never added a comment…
Here’s the timeline of significant blog events:
Sep 30, 2006: This nostalgic post about old homes, opened my eyes to using the blog as a sort of nostalgia tool and is what I consider to be a turning point. The post is worth clicking through today, not just for a re-read but also to see how much Google Earth imagery has improved in five years (compare to yesterday’s entry for instance).
Nov 18, 2006: It’s almost hard to believe now, but Yossi was once small.
Feb 14, 2007: An unspectacular post about a blizzard, and my pains (manually) clearing away the snow. Why do I cite this? It was clear by now the blog had become a part of my life: why else would I have taken such pains to document such a task, especially getting KLS to come outside as well just to take photos of me?!
May 12, 2007: First post dedicated to a movie review (Ultraman: The Next). Even today such dedicated posts are rare, but they’re usually good 🙂
May 21, 2007: First post from a phone. Ignore the title, I was testing the functionality so I could blog from Hawaii.
July 16, 2007: Still one of my all-time favourite posts about a specific game. This tale is 100% true. What a great day that was!
August 27, 2007: Great post about Dragon mag and an old RPG for two reasons. 1) My first ‘retro RPG post’, 2) AW’s comment 🙂
Pixels In My Eyes: This post, made in late August 2007, is, in my opinion, the best I’ve ever written for the blog. I don’t remember much about the creation of this post, but given that I very rarely plan any post beyond an idea, I expect I just wrote it all down as I thought of it with little revision. This is one of a very few incredibly personal posts about my thoughts that I’ve put out here for all to see, and even today when I read it it makes me powerfully nostalgic. This also happens to be the most-commented entry in the entire life of this blog.
Dec 31, 2007: First ever post from Australia. This was during the first of my (soon to be four) solo Australia vacations.
The Ten Worst Photos Of Me Ever Taken: What a post! This one will never go out of style. I love that I did this and it was well received. By the way, don’t I look a little like the Ancient Aliens guy in #8?
June 25, 2008: I wrote this post about cockfighting when I was in Puerto Rico, as a laugh. I later found out more than a few people actually believed it. I was surprised. I guess I can be convincing 🙂
Dec 12, 2008: Funny cellphone entry made during the ice storm that killed out power for a few days. I don’t think I was faking that facial expression…
Jan 10, 2009: There have been many World of Warcraft posts on the blog (including, as I said, the very first one) but this one, describing a 54 minute long fight between me and a single raid boss, is my favourite. I can’t wait to start playing WoW again in the new year!
Jan 31, 2009: Read the text, look at the picture, read the comments 🙂
Feb 8, 2009: I’m citing this because it is a very, very fond memory – the first time I got to meet a Doctor Who. He was a truly gracious person and I remember this fondly.
May 30, 2009: This is the most controversially titled blog post ever. Happily it is not without factual basis, and that’s not the only thing in this particular entry that demonstrates why we love Japan so much. We need to return…
June 6, 2009: This post can claim a lot. Not only is it full of Rilakkuma, but it also introduces my most-watched youtube video (over 45,000 views to date) and includes a now-legendary photo of me and Emi at the very end.
Doctor Who Video Games: Still my most-viewed post, and the number one source of redirects to this blog from Google. This was heavily researched when I wrote it, since I could find no such list online. Today this actual post is linked from a Wikipedia article 🙂
Dec 22, 2009: The infamous ‘trojan cake‘ event. Still a good and funny story 🙂
April 3, 2010: Hyperbolic post made from my cellphone when I was in line to buy an iPad on launch day.
June 22, 2010: This recipe post has my favourite opening line of any post I’ve ever made. I wonder if I should do more recipe entries?
July 28, 2010: My favourite post from England. Lovely Blackpool, in the rain. I’ll be back there one day.
October 21, 2010: A ghost story. Although my language may be flowery, you’d be surprised by how little I embellish the stories I post on this blog (and believe me, there are many others to come).
The Wish: A disturbing post, strangely real and incredibly melancholic. I was clearly in a funk that day, and this was the result. I’ll be honest and say I am proud of it, and I think it’s a powerful piece. But as with Pixels In My Eyes, these sorts of entries will probably come along only once ever 4 or 5 years.
April 25, 2011: For those that doubt my game-otaku-dom has reached the highest level! Going through the blog like I have, it’s remarkable how many game-related posts about truly arcane topics there are here. Even I’m impressed by my gaming knowledge and enthusiasm!
Tales From Green Hell (Part 1 & Part 2): I was so proud of these posts! To show off some spectacular photos supplied by my parents was a thrill. You can expect more like these in the future.
November 22, 2011: My other source of great pride this year.
Over five years is a long to time to keep this up, and 1000 posts is a lot of words. At times – including very recently – I have debated stopping and closing it once and for all, but it’s become a part of my life I feel I’d miss were it to end.
Given that I’m not close to running out of ideas, I don’t really see Robot Claw closing up shop any time soon 🙂
As a young boy, I loved fish and snails and little crayfish things and water boatmen and water beetles and leeches and frogs and tadpoles and even the occasional fresh-water crab (did these even exist?). I would regularly hunt and collect such things and admire them and, sadly, keep them until they died. When we moved to the house in Kahibah, I was in hog heaven because of the tiny creek mighty river out back.
I think it was in 1982 when I first spied the wyrm. It was large and green, sinuous and evil. It slunk around, hiding under the water flashing it’s great expanse of teeth. It terrified me, and became an obstacle in my pursuit of aquatic friends.
It had to go.
I recall heading to school the local guild to recruit a party to defeat the beast. Most were craven and spineless, and hid their faces. I did however find a stalwart ally in the form of AT, who came from a family with a long history of fishing wyrm-hunting. Furthermore, he could provide specialized equipment suited to the task, so on that day a covenant was reached to hunt the beast.
Some days later we set ourselves to the task. AT had brought his tools: some fishing line ‘Silver Cord‘, a bucket Bag of Holding and some galoshes Boots of Striding. But more importantly he had brought experience and an iron will. As far as wyrm-hunting was concerned, I’m not too proud to admit he was several levels higher than me. All I had, after all, was a home-made net.
“RS”, he said, “lets take the battle to it’s lair.”
As it happens, the creek river became shallow and went under a road into a deep cave, where it was quite dark. AT was sure the wyrm lived in this place, and – after donning his boots – placed a small piece of bait (the identity of which he kept secret) on the end of his line and dangled the end into the water. His technique was mesmerizing: boldly stride through the water and attempt to lure the wyrm out with whatever tidbit he had put on the line. This 10-year-old man knew no fear! I waited at the entrance with my net. My job was to run in and net it if he was able to get it on the line. To say I was afraid would be an understatement.
I can still recall those moments, as if time had slowed. AT was a silhouette, walking softly and silently in the dark. I was at the entrance, holding my breath, gripping the net with white knuckles. Was the wyrm there? Would it show itself? Could we succeed?
And then – it struck! A yell of surprise from AT: “It’s got me!”
Up came the line, but the wyrm was nowhere to be seen! AT was running through the water toward the entrance, splashing and thrashing and in obvious fear. He had been attacked, but it wasn’t clear how! I was paralyzed with fear…
And then I saw it. When he climbed out of the water and onto the bank the wyrm was attached to one of his boots by it’s jaws! As it twisted and turned in the sun, I got my first good look at the beast. And it looked like this:
We had prevailed! AT was unharmed, his thick rubber magical boots having thwarted the eel’s wyrm’s teeth. Into the bucket magic bag it went, never to be seen again by my eyes. Congratulations and celebrations followed! We may have even enjoyed some ice cream!
I would later learn the beast would end up on a dinner table, eaten by men. I remember being sad when I found that out, but only briefly. I was probably so happy I could once again hunt and collect my fish and snails and little crayfish things and water boatmen and water beetles and leeches and frogs and tadpoles and even the occasional fresh-water crab to care 🙂