I’ve created some new accessories for my Munny! I used Super Sculpy and the boiled the pieces before painting them. Here some pics I took of the process and final product:
Here are the accessories, modelled on a black Munny figure:
Also an older set of Munny Chef accessories I made but never posted:
That’s right, rub your disbelieving eyes because this is the real deal… real fake that is. Alas this is not a real giant ice cube tray, but a mockup I conjured up using photoshop. This is the dream, people!
Boy, it stank in my apartment. The smell hit me like a wall when I walked in and became stronger as I walked around. “Phew, what is that smell?” Sniffing around, I found the smell became stronger towards the back of the room. Near the desk. No… it was something on the desk… my laptop? Yes, it was definitely the laptop. Phew!
I flipped open the cover and woke it up from sleep mode. My blog was lept open on the screen, the smell now more intense than ever. Uck!
“Well what did you expect,” she said, suddenly appearing behind me, “you did leave the page open all night long…” She walked over and snapped the lid down, sealing in the smell again.
“I’m afraid it seems the blog has become cheesy and stale.”
“Thanks for making the metaphor so literal!” I pulled my t-shirt up to cover my mouth and nose. “Umm, why is it so cheesy exactly?”
“Oh, you mean besides the stories you write about giant ice cubes or your bits of useless fiction? Well it could be these so called ‘reflections on real-life’ you’ve added recently.”
“I thought they were well written! You know sometimes I DO have interesting/insightful things happen to me. Sometimes…”
“Umm, hmm.” She walked over to the couch and sat down, feet up on the coffee table. I sat at my desk and opened the laptop again. I was getting used to the ripe smell of the cheddar. “People do visit the site though, I don’t know how much they take away from what they read here, but I do get visitors.” I said. “Besides, it’s MY blog, and I can cook up whatever cheese I want on here!”
“Oh ok, well then by all means proceed! Give your loving fan-base the three-cheese blend they long for!” She tossed me a sarcastic smirk. I threw her back one in reply, then turned back to the laptop and wrote another story about giant ice cubes. Give the people what they want ;)
“Have you seen this show?” My dad’s calling this to me from the TV room. I’m seated in an armchair down the hall with a book, from here I can only see the tips of my dad’s feet hanging off the end of his recliner. The feet call out again, “It’s called Destroyed in Seconds, they are going to blow up a whale with dynamite!”
I have actually seen the show before and the exact episode my Dad’s referring to. Even though one’s imagination can depict exactly what the show is about to – a whale being blown into a shower of meat – one cannot help but watch with curiosity. “Yeah I’ve seen that one before” I call back. One can only watch a whale blown to bits so many times before you can be bored by it.
“Seen what?” my Mom asks, now joining the conversation. She steps halfway into the TV room to the sound of a muffled explosion on the TV. “Oh…my God…” My Dad’s laughing and I can see the tips of his feet wiggling up and down with each chuckle. My mom now takes a seat to watch the instant replays of the spectacle. Everyone’s so busy these days and with their own priorities that it’s harder and harder to bring the family together. Sometimes I guess all it takes it a beached whale a ton of TNT. I put my book down and join them as another muffled explosion comes from the TV and it rains whale bits on the screen.
Standing around with a group of friends waiting for a theatre to let out. Opening weekend for a big film. The lobby is filling with other show watchers, everyone gathers into small huddles with their friends and significant others. Now, when that theatre door opens everyone is going to rush the door. Hopefully you’ll be close enough to the door to beat the crowds in and to the good seats.
OR
Instead of forming another circle of people near the theatre door, we stand by the door in single file. Face to back. Now having four or more individuals makes this really work, but someone is going to see your group standing in a line and line up behind you. Then someone will line up behind them. Like moths to the flame they form a line into the theatre, a line which YOU are now at the front of.
People love order to chaos, and so a line makes sense to most people. THAT, and they don’t want to get stuck at the back. Now what of the people that decide to skip the line and go into the theatre anyways. Ahh, well that’s where mob mentality comes in. You not only have a line, you have fifty people backing you up. Literally. No one’s going to want to skip the line, lest they feel the wrath of the whole mob.
I know this sounds crazy, but this works much better than you think it would. Form a line and watch what happens. You’ll be getting into movies alot faster, trust me!
I tend to over-think pretty much everything. It’s some sort of self-defense mechanism to help avoid making mistakes through rash decisions. Sometimes it’s obvious I’m over-thinking a problem but usually I just seem confused and look at you with a blank stare (In these cases what I’m really doing is pondering all the possible outcomes and circumstances for the situation and determining which will yield the best results. Duh!)
After much more thought, I’ve decided this best illustrates my thought process:
Hopefully seeing my thought process laid out in such a beautifully drawn flow chart will lead to people having a better understanding of me, and the complex processes that take place in my head. I’m not slow, I’m just very calculated…
A Smileandnod blog public service announcement:
Smileandnod has a developed a bit of an identity crisis as you might notice. One story is about me, one is fiction, one is a link, next is something intelligent but is bookended by two stupid entries… it’s kind of a mess.
But originally this blog was set up as a place for me just to write, because I enjoy creative writing. So in that spirit, I will continue to write shit up here on a weekly basis. This blog has no real theme or purpose and if you manage to find something useful here, wow. I don’t even know if anyone out there is reading any of this, but if you are I congratulate you.
Thank you for wasting your time here :)
I’ve been going to the same accountant for years. Located in a small office downtown, I visit him about this time each year to file my taxes. He is fast, inexpensive and never makes a mistake. In wanting to keep a good business relationship going with the man I’ve avoided asking him something that has always bothered me about him. Curiosity finally got the best of me…
“Are you really Santa Claus?”
The old man stopped typing on the computer and looked up at me over his bifocals. He let out a world weary sigh and tapped the little gold name plate on his desk. “That’s what the sign says, doesn’t it?” The sign did indeed say SANTA CLAUS.
“I see that, but are you really HE. The Santa Claus? Red suit, sleigh and reindeer and the whole deal?”
“North Pole, elves, cookies and milk… yeah the whole thing. That’s me.” His office chair creaked as turned back to face the computer. His chubby hands danced nimbly over the keys.
“You’re not being sarcastic are you? You’re really him! But why do you work here, in an accounting office? Is this what you do during the rest of the year? Why aren’t you in the North Pole? Who makes the toys while you are away? Wait till my friends hear about…”
“Enough!” he interrupted. “My god, you don’t ever shut up do you? This is exactly why I try to keep a low profile!” The old man opened his desk drawer and withdrew and huge old book bound in leather. He thumbed through the pages until he found the one with my name on it, grabbed a sharpie and wrote a huge “NAUGHY” in the book. Slamming the book shut, he put it back and in the drawer and said to me, “our business is done. Please leave my office.”
I stood up and walked out. Looking back, I saw him wiggle his nose and turn into golden pixie dust. The whole office sparkled into powder as well, then it flew through the AC unit. Papers, framed photos, office plants and computer all gone, leaving behind an empty office with desk and chair. After he’d disappeared I realized he took off with all my receipts and invoices! A jolly old man, but what an unprofessional accountant!
Eating my lunch at work, I can’t help but feel I’m being judged. I feel that people might use my lunch-time meals as a measure for how I live my life. Having tuna on white bread vs a combo from McDonalds vs a salad all say very different things about how I my views on personal health, money, time and maybe even appreciation for good food in general.
That being said, it is important to bring a good looking lunch to work. Here are some quick tips to spruce up your bag lunch’s appearance:
1. Asparagus
Whether it’s chicken or pork, sausages or pasta, asparagus instantly upgrades the appearance of any meal. Cooks as easily as broccoli or any other vegetable you’d steam, but it looks fancy because asparagus is what they use in food photography (check out any Campbells soup can or recipe book).
2. Garnishs
Yes even on bag lunches brough to work, garnishes are that finishing touch that makes your meal the envy of the staff kitchen. Just carry a sprig of parsley with you which can help dress up almost any meal. Or if you are a sandwich fan, bring some of those little toothpicks with the colored paper on the ends.
3. Extras
Any one can eat pasta for lunch, but melt some cheese on that bad-boy and Mmmm boy! Add a spoon of sour cream to a boring pile of beans, top it off with parsley and voila! (I don’t know if sour cream goes on beans, but it looks good). Instead of a regular ham sandwich, use tiny egg buns and cut them diagonally. Curl the ham inside so it stacks more tighter and more vertically giving your sandwich a more full appearance. Also extras next to the food, like cherry tomatoes or pickles or a little bit of salad help too.
4. Packaging
Finally, it’s what outside your food that counts too. You don’t want to be that guy who brings in the picnic size Thermos lunch bag full of Tupperware containers, but having a nice reusable lunch bag, or a paper bag looks better than old ratty bags from the supermarket. But we’re not eating the packages so it’s not critical, but details matter and packaging is an important detail! (Bonus, if you have very nice packages, keep it on the table near your food for maximum visibility and association with your lunch).
Bon appetit!
If you happened to pick up the Globe and Mail today, you’ll notice an article in the Globe Life section entitled “The Big Chill.” This story is about the rising trend in specialty ice cubes by upscale cocktail bars and restaurants.
“A new breed of glacial gourmets are picky about size, shape and clarity when choosing cubes, chips, shards, sticks or balls of ice to chill a cocktail.”
It is a greatly insightful article to those for “a fetish for frozen water.” New shapes and techniques for making ice cubes are catching on in the gourmet industry as chefs strive for new and exciting ways to make their beverages unique.
They just don’t make them like they used to…
“This fight is complete with knife licking, shirt tearing, gratuitous shirtlessness, and the best part is the girl with a broken arm who comes out of nowhere to save the day. This clip is from the movie Undefeatable.”
I received a package in the mail today, the contents of the which were wrapped in bubble wrap. Typical packaging right? Except that when I tried to pop the bubbles in the packaging, they would not pop.
What the hell? No-pop bubble wrap? Who would invent such a twisted and corrupted form of bubble wrapping? The bubbles are linked in parallel through small channels, so that pressing hard on one bubble inflates all the others in the chain and does not cause the typical over inflation that would result in popping the air pockets.
So I press on multiple bubbles, squeezing the air into the other. The pressure builds to a climax and… POP! The bubble bursts with great satisfaction! Haha, take that evil bubble wrap! Yet it would be the bubbles that have the last laugh, because linking the bubbles means linking the air, means when you pop one bubble, the whole row goes flat.
Not only is this designed NOT to pop, but when it does it robs you of satisfaction as well! I deflated ten bubbles with one pop. From an industrial point-of-view, this is genius, but for the rest of us it is terrible news! So now what am I supposed to use to occupy my simple mind with… oh something shiny…
The light shone bright enough to be seen through my closed eyelids. I scrunched up my face in response.
“What the hell is this?” she said, “Wake up, wake up!”
I could hear her voice, but it sounded like it was miles away. I tried to open my eyes but they wouldn’t budge. The effort alone was tiring me out, good thing I was already lying down. Lying down? I was wasn’t I… why was I lying down? I tried to open my eyes again. The lids slowly creaked open letting in the harsh morning light. Ugh, light! They snapped shut once again. My mouth was dry too, but I was too tired to care.
There was a blunt jab in my side, then another and another. OW! This got me up with a start. She was standing beside the bed jabbing me with her fingers. Even though I had sat up now, the jabbing continued.
“I’m up, I’m up, stop it, Ow. Quit it!”
She stopped her attacks and sat down next to me, on my pillow to be specific. This was probably her subtle attempt at keeping me from falling back asleep. No pillow, no sleep right? It didn’t work, my head fell in her lap instead. She simply pushed it off.
“Quit fooling around and get up” she said “you’re so lazy, you know how long you’ve been asleep?” There was a steaming coffee cup sitting on the nightstand, I presumed it was for me. My mouth was so dry. I pointed at the cup, she turned to look at it and then handed it to me. “You’re welcome…”
——
“FOUR MONTHS?” I was now looking at myself in the bathroom mirror. I had about a foot of beard hanging off my chin. Pyjamas were matted to my skin, joints felt sore and stiff. “I’ve been asleep for 4 months?”
“Well yeah, let’s see… last post was in February, so February, March, April, May.” She was count off the months on her fingers.
Cobwebs clung to my underarms and beard. “The beard and spiderwebs are nice touches by the way, you’re always thinking about the details eh?” I could see her in the mirror, standing behind me leaning against the door frame. She made a little rolling courtesy gesture with her hand, the corners of her mouth twitched up a little, then fell back down. She looked a little sad, or maybe it was concern… how touching! I opened the drawer and pulled out an electric trimmer, the old kind you need to actually plug-in. “Yeah, well I’m up now. Thanks” I said as the buzzer cut through the thick growth. My face was so pale under the thick beard. Soon the sink was full of tuffets of hair and my face was clean as a baby’s. She gave an approving nod as she turned to leave, flashing a quick smile over her shoulder as she vanished from sight.
In my last post about making giant ice cubes (click here to read) I thought the search was over, that I had finally reached the end of the search and found the ultimate solution to making these cubes. But I was very mistaken.
The original solution I had found to making the cubes involved using a square glass candle holder as the mold. What I had failed to realize at the time though was that almost any container can potentially make really cool, giant ice cubes. So I went to the supermarket and found a few more cheap and simple-to-use containers. Some of the best ones I found were pudding cups, yogurt cups and frozen juice boxes.
Compared to the original the glass candle holder mold, all these new containers made much smaller, but more manageable ice cubes. The pudding and yogurt containers also didn’t quite make cubes but instead made big cylinders of ice. They work the same in a drink, but are not as ascetically pleasing in my opinion. However because the pudding came in 4-packs and was squeezable, they were definitely my favorite molds thus far.
So yeah, big ice cubes are easy to make, all you really need is the right container. I’ve listed a few examples but there are potentially thousands of containers that would work just as well, so long as they are water-tight and freezable. None of these homemade solutions though have made the perfect giant ice cube, so I suppose my quest remains intact, until that day I find my holy grail of ice cube trays… maybe one day.
