Loopholes of Insanity

Five or six years ago, I got Scott a talking Yoda toy for Christmas. He's a very cute rubber replica, about 8 inches tall, who gives cryptic answers to "yes or no" questions when you squeeze his left hand. Most of the time he utters things like, "The answer I sense is 'no'." After a session of hand-squeezing, he'll wait about 5 minutes and then announce "Clearing your mind, are you? Or have you another question to ask?" Startled the heck out of me when he did that in the cart at Target!

When Yoda first arrived, he began repeating the same inane answer several times in a row, so Scott threatened him.
Scott: "Would you like us to put you over there by the Cave Troll?" (A 12" tall LOTR monster, armed with a large club and a spear.)
Yoda: "Strong with the Force am I, but not that strong!"

This was the first time he had ever said that. We fell over laughing and have always told people that Yoda is surprisingly astute for a small plastic and latex toy.



Tonight Mouse came over for sushi and early xmas gift exchanging. One of her "re-gifted" goodies was a mechanical Dr. Octopus gripper arm that I got for Scott back when "Spiderman 2" was in the theatres. Unfortunately, it was designed for kid-sized hands, so Scott was never able to work it very well. Mouse has dainty girl hands, so she is able to use the gripper to full effect. While practicing picking things up, I brought out Yoda. She grabbed him by the head, and I squeezed his hand. His first statement was normal, then he GIGGLED and blurted out, "Tickle me you have!" We've played with this toy off and on since before SW:Ep III was released (Yoda went to the premiere with me), and he's NEVER said that before. While gasping for breath in between fits of laughter, we squeezed his hand a few more times. He said a few normal things, then repeated the "tickle" statement TWO more times, both while Mouse was squeezing his head with the gripper.

Does Yoda have secret sensors that tell when someone is grabbing him roughly? It just isn't that sophisticated a toy, more like fancy a Magic Eight Ball, and I paid less than $15 for him. I guess he's just strong with the Force after all.

The week between Christmas and New Year's is traditionally the lowest-traffic week of the year for my site, and I'm gonna be out of town anyway, so I thought I might try something a little different this year. Here's a teaser for my idea:



I've already got the basic idea for the story and will hopefully start working on it before we drive down to Maryland (one advantage of driving down is I can actually bring my big Cintiq with me) for the holiday. Of course, going over my outline and idea list, this might end up being MORE work than the usual QC strips >.<

So uh I no promises yet I guess, but hopefully I won't puss out and will actually get this done.

Tubgirl staggered and finally collapsed. "You...you have defeated me," she gasped.

"No," Fart-chan replied. "It was you who defeated yourself."

"Crittercam" is a National Geographic program that puts video cameras on wild animals to study their behavior. As camera size decreases and digital resolution increases, researchers are getting wonderful videos of and by wild animal species. They make me a bit motion-sick, but are still very cool.
More at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/crittercam/about.html

Tree Kangaroos from New Guinea are adorable ... and are pretty good videographers.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/12/091216-crittercam-tree-kangaroo-video.html



Giant Galapagos tortoises are a bit harder on the equipment:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/11/091124-crittercam-galapagos-tortoise-missions-video.html

Even traditional human-controlled videos are improving and helping us to learn amazing new things about nature. This one makes me feel guilty about enjoying tako (octopus) sushi!
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/12/091214-octopus-carries-coconuts-coconut-carrying.html

I admit it. I sold out my livejournal to advertising so I could get 15 free icons. There's... there's just so much more possibility with 15 instead of 6. Don't you see?? The mercurial, artistic temperament in me cries out for expression! It wants to show all its favorite fandoms in the icons!! It is sad by being so limited!

I don't know why I'm writing this. I think it's late, Sunday, and I have to work tomorrow... but don't want to go to bed just yet. :) Happy night, all.