Category: Miscellaneous

Chitocerium

  • September 6, 2021

It’s time for a new model kit. I don’t often do posts about kits these days, but this one is unusual:

It’s a tiny cat kit! This is one of several kits in a new line called Chitocerium, which apparently means ‘the protectors of the gates between worlds’. Yes it’s silly, but the kits are cool.

This kit is small and inexpensive (about $10) and all the pieces fit in the palm of your hand. It’s an easy one to build, but sandpapering down the flash was a little tricky due to the tiny scale. This segment for instance was made from 5 different pieces:

About a quarter of the total pieces in the kits are tails! There’s 8 to choose from; which one would you pick:

It took me only about ten minutes to assemble, and is very small but can be posed in many familiar cat poses. It’s an extraordinary kit for its size. Here it is next to a LEGO minifig;

As the box suggests this comes in two colours, and the line also includes some extraordinary figure kits of android girls (one of which I have). Given that this is a line from a company (Good Smile) not necessarily known for plastic model kits, I’m impressed.

  • Posted in Cats
  • Robert

Ten Things We Saw At The Fair

  • August 22, 2021

We went to Altamont fair the other day. It was fun, especially since things are getting like 2020 all over again and activities like this may be diminishing. Here’s a selection of what we saw:

There are some cages scattered around the fairgrounds that usually hold small animals or birds. This year they were empty, except for this one that had a velociraptor reminding us to wear a mask. We did. Most didn’t (which was ok, since the fair is almost entirely outdoors).

I saw this fellow taking a ride in an old truck in the automotive museum. A timely inclusion, given the situation? It’s not easy to see in the photo but someone had cleverly added red lights to his eyes, making him look ever-so-slightly sinister.

I always like the art contests, and this year there were many weird and wonderful entries worthy of this blog. But this saucy one caught our eye the most, both because it was life-sized and because I myself had recently created Marilyn art. The glass door was a few inches away from her, and I peeked behind. What did I see? I’ll never say 🙂

Speaking of art, this embroidery was an entry in the ‘craft’ section. What did you see when you first looked at it? Look again…

While there weren’t as many animals as previous years, there was still a lot of the usual farmland assortment to visit. This guy is a ‘Beatrix Potter’ sheep, so named because the author kept a flock of over 1000 that she bequeathed to England upon her death. I learned they’re a very handsome breed, and their hardy nature makes them well suited to the Scottish highlands.

The army was recruiting as always, and this year they brought some of their bigger guns to show off. This was one of three tanks, and there were several cannons and vehicles as well. This is of course an old and obsolete model, and I was surprised by how small and ramshackle it looked close up.

We had eaten before we went, but it was fiendishly hot and we had to get a drink. Needless to say I couldn’t resist a cinnamon donut from the same seller, and I’m glad I tried them since they were fantastic! We went back and bought a half dozen more 🙂

The police were recruiting as well, and they had this 9 meter wall to climb. I surprised myself by deciding to do it. They put me in a harness and up I scampered. The only real difficulty was the arthritis in my right hand which made holding the grips a little difficult, but overall it was easier than I expected. Pushing off and falling down on the auto-rappelling rope at the end was scarier than actually climbing.

Speaking of heat, here’s a couple of lemurs in the little zoo for kids. As you can see they’re both in a near-comatose state of heat exhaustion. Take a good look at the face of the guy on the right:

I should have tossed him a frosty beverage!

And lastly – as ever – the rides! I could watch them all day. I’m too prone to dizziness to ride most of them these days, but we went on the rollercoaster and I would have done the Ferris wheel if KLS wouldn’t have had to wait in the heat. The fair was very busy when we were there and the midway was full of people. It was a nice sight after this last one-and-a-half years.

Let’s hope next time the fair is in town, we may be able to leave our masks at home.

Rain Of Frogs

  • August 16, 2021

I sent Bernard fifty frog postcards at the same time!

I started by numbering them all. The cards were, of course, unique:

I then hand-addressed and stamped all fifty:

At first I was unsure what to write on each of them, but a quick amazon search gave a handy alternate solution:

The (exactly fifty!) frog stickers were then applied, and I wrote the lyrics to Rainbow Connection across all fifty cards:

This took some time as you may imagine, and the cost was about $40 for the cards, stamps and stickers. Given Bernard only paid $20, he got quite a deal.

“Paid?”, you ask? This was part of a deal i offered him: 50 frogs for $20. I never mentioned it was postcards (or indeed any details at all), but he gladly accepted regardless 🙂

I sent them all on the same day from a variety of post offices and mailboxes. Four days later he received 43 in the mail, and I expect the remaining 7 will arrive today. I hear they were a hit with him and Lakshmi. Overall I deem Operation Rain of Frogs to be a grand success!

I’ve still got a few frogs – and many toads – left. If you want one, indicate as much in the comments!