My ongoing effort to watch the American Film Institutes 100 greatest movies of all time.

Here are the current standings:

Movies in BOLD: I've seen these movies countless times, I can quote swathes of dialog from it. I most likely have it in my home collection. These I don't need to see again, I either love these movies, or have at least seen them recently.

Movies in ITALICS: I've seen these movies as well. I can describe the pivotal scenes these films are known for, but most of these I've seen only once or so long ago as to not remember. These movies I could use another viewing of.

Movies in PLAIN TEXT: I haven't seen these movies. In some cases, I've never even heard of these movies, but I'm about to. 

( Because this list is long, I've placed it under a cut... )

Blown up in my neighborhood this morning.


EDIT- While looking at other videos on YouTube I came across this one. Ignore the music, please, I don't know what the guy was thinking. The reason I add it is that this was taken from the condos across the alley, and you can see my house in the center foreground. That's how close this building was to me.

An odd little habit of mine, I've left "creamer daisies" in restaurants and diners across the country.


In the four years I've been here (on and off, I know) I've never had to make what people refer to as a "Friends Cut". It's actually become necessary for me to trim a little bit in the interests of continuing to maintain a presence here. After much consideration, and then some more, I went ahead and pulled the trigger on it.

To those who have left, I'm sorry we never connected, or I'm sorry you're not around anymore, or I'm sorry we can't see eye to eye on certain issues. I wish you all well.

For the first time in many months, I made two new bags this weekend. There's a bit of a backstory I'm not going to tell, as it's very late right now. The short version is that I was contacted by a total stranger who found my older bags through a Google search and logged on to her inactive LJ just to tell me she liked them. Turns out she runs an online store that sells tie-dyed clothes and duct tape flowers (and now purses.) After a few e-mails back and forth and some questions and suggestions, I'm going to attempt to start a website and sell my bags online. First I'm going to need an inventory, and that means new bags.

Here are some new bags:










Careful viewers with good memories will notice two changes in the design. First, I got rid of the cell phone pocket. It takes a long time to make it, adding the second magnet snap adds to expenses, and there's no guarantee it will fit every phone. Gone. Second, I've changed the snap to incorporate my new logo. See, I can't start a website called "Buy my crap, please? K thx bye." After a long and circuitous thought process with many duds produced and rejected, I decided on 22 Black Designs.

Here's my logo on the snap:


The name comes from a scene in Casablanca, one of my favorite movies. The young naive couple is trying to leave Casablanca but can't afford the exit visa. The husband is trying to win on the roulette table, while his wife, Annina, has made a deal to sell herself to Captain Renault for the papers. Rick, moved by her story and for the first time revealing himself as a "rank sentimentalist", fixes the roulette game for the husband to win the money. The ball lands twice in a row on 22 black. The logo was made out of heavy card to resemble the 22 tile on a roulette wheel, and I've made an RTV mold of the original and am now casting them in plastic. I like it, it adds a brand recognition and gives a professional look to stuff I make in my half converted studio.

Keep reading, when the website goes live, these and others will be available for purchase, and I'll provide a link when available.

In response to the Da Vinci Surgical System built miniature origami crane; I fold my own crane with a wingspan as wide as a penny, starting with a 30mm square of paper.

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I'm no longer working for the couple that sells origami online. I'm not sure if that means they didn't want to share the profits or they didn't like my work. (or maybe it was too good?) Either way, I've decided to keep it as a hobby, making origami "Useless Talent #328."

Here are some cubes:


This one is modular, and mabe out of 6 seperate sculptures:



This octahedron uses the same modules, only 12 of them:


This is my first kusodama. It's made from gluing together six identical sculptures, this one started with a star:



While I was looking on teh interwebs for patterns, I came across a video of an origami crane being folded by a technician using the Da Vinci S Surgical system. At first I thought it looked a little sloppy, but then I saw the resultant model was about the size of a penny! I'm no neurosurgeon, but I make origami and work with miniatures, so I saw it as a challenge. Here's my mini-crane:


Here it is by a penny to show scale:


And just to show off, here it is balanced on one of the meat sausages I have to work with to make teeny tiny things:

My daughter is 11 years old today. Every year, it's become a tradition of mine to send her roses on her birthday, one to represent each year I've been gifted with such a beautiful, wacky little girl. This year, I did it a little bit differently.
Since I've had such success with the origami flowers, I decided to fold my own. I chose a shade of purple, even though it's not natural because it's her favorite color. I even went a step above the ones I fold to sell to strangers by folding each individual leaf on hers.

These are Caitlyn's roses.



Happy Birthday Caitlyn Rose.

This weekend I had three origami projects to work on:



One dozen large red cranes:



One dozen red roses:


and one dozen yellow roses:


I've refined my technique with the roses. Now that I know how to properly fold and lock the bases, I can use the four pointed leaf sculpture underneath, instead of having to use the foam inserts like last time. I'm having fun with this, and making a little side cash while I'm at it.

On Monday night, I got the go ahead on my next origami project. The order was for hanging cranes.

This is a hanging crane:


So, Tuesday night I picked up supplies after work, and came home and folded cranes.

A lot of cranes:



And on Wednesday evening, even more cranes:


I just finished, here are all 50 hanging cranes.


I think I earned a nap!

So here's the story:
Every year around this time I start to look for a part time job. Mostly this is to make up the costs of Caitlyn's day camp while she's out here and the cost of airfare flying her back to the east coast. I answered a very peculiar craigslist ad last week looking for someone who can make origami flowers. The guy contacted me back and explained: He and his wife run a website where you can buy various origami sculptures, the most popular being bouquets of the kawasaki rose. The business is taking off and the wife can't handle all the orders anymore, so they're now looking to farm out some work and pay a percentage of the order to the independent producers.
This looked good, but I can't do the kawasaki rose. In fact, I had never tried spiral twist folding in the first place, I thought I'd be making lotus blossoms or cranes. I was going to try one this weekend and mail it off on Tuesday.
Last night, I get an e-mail around 6 PM from the guy, they have an order that needs to go out on Tuesday. He said the first person that replied with a picture of their rose would get the order, apparently there were 10 responders. I decided to give it a go, and I'll be honest, that thing kicked my ass. Then I remembered, in the first e-mail he sent me, he explained that they don't use actual kawasaki roses, they use a simplified four point variant and fold the petals for a more realistic effect. A quick stop to Walgreens gave me a silk rose I could cannibalize for a stem, and I came up with this:




Unfortuneately, I didn't finish up until 11 or so, so I sent him the pics anyway, explaining that I know I'm not the first but I wanted to submit some pictures to show I'm still interested in future work.
Yeah. Get up at noon today and read my e-mail. I was the first. Back out to Michael's this time for paper and stems and leaves, and here's the result:





The order was for a half dozen.



So, I'm in. He said they were actually better looking then the ones his wife makes, but I informed him it would be best not to tell her that. Now that he knows I'm both good and fast, I expect to monopolize the overflow. He did say one other guy answered after me, and three people wrote back that they couldn't do it.
As long as I can make about $100 a week or so doing this, I'm fine. It sure as hell beats getting a second job.

Edited to add:
I just got this e-mail:

Mike,

You really blew me away with your speed and proficiency on this first order. I want to go with you as my main producer. From here on, I will give you first shot at all out-of-house orders. If I do not hear from you within 12 hours, I will send email to the others.

It's official, I'm now getting paid $15 an hour to fold paper.