Random Thursday (ˈrandəm ˈTHərzdā): the day on which Sarah plunks down all the odd bits and pieces she’s been sent by friends or has otherwise stumbled upon this week in an effort to avoid writing a real post, the assembly of which usually ends up taking twice as much time as sitting down and creating actual content.
Just go with it.
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The Australian Booksellers Association would like to remind you of a simple, yet oft overlooked fact this holiday season:
Words to wrap by.
As a related aside,
when I told the friend who shared this on Facebook (hi, Paula!) that I wanted an Octopus anyway,
she sent me this:
All Hail the Octopodian Empire!
And good friends, too.
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Even Victoria Would Be Amused
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, already amazing, gets ten extra awesomepoints for this.
The conductor, Cezary Skubiszewski, gets twenty.
And the agency who came up with this and all the people who made it work?
They get All Of Them.
(Thanks, Siobhan!)
oooooooooooOOOOOooooooooooo
Terrapin Glass Octopus
The day after I finished Nanowrimo, I rewarded myself by going to the local Art Fair
and buying myself a small, handmade, glass octopus.
This should surprise no one who knows me.
This is a terrible photo—I took it—so just trust me when I say that the whole of this translucent little guy shines, and any nearby light source makes him glow.
Those tiny dots on the underside of his tentacles are the palest pink—it works—and they feel good when you hold him in the palm of your hand.
When I hold him, I mean. ‘Cause he’s mine.
I’m pretty sure his name is Herschel, but I don’t know why.
He was made by Jonathon Gartland,
a twenty-year old artist who can do beautifully detailed, remarkably tactile, and often disturbing things with glass.
Like this guy, who look up at me with his expressive little eye and reminded me of all the dragons I used to doodle in my math notebooks.
And maybe also a catfish crossed with a chihuahua:
All I know is, he fits perfectly into my hand while I’m thinking—
a smooth glass worrycreature packing two sharp barbs.
We’re still working on his name.
Mr. Gartland doesn’t have a website, yet,
or much of a Facebook presence at the moment,
but keep an eye out (pun intended) for Terrapin Glass out of Peoria.
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Random Dumb Joke You Will Be Telling at Least Two People:
What goes “Quick! Quick!” ?
A duck with the hiccups.
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Ode to an Ad Agency
I’ll confess to being indifferent about Fords, or even cars in general,
but I’m absolutely gone on the advertising agency who came up with this:
(thanks, Dee!)
Earful of Cider 
I’m with you on the octopus thing. Love em! I can watch them squish around all day. They, along with cuttlefish are my favorite invertebrates.
BTW: I believe gift bags were invented for octopus wrapping.
We’ve had the cuttlefish versus octopus debate before, I think, but I’ll concede that cuttlefish are cuddlefishier. 🙂
True, but I suspect you still have to tie the tentacles together with ribbon, first . . .
Sure. That makes the gift classy.
And relatively immobile.
Octopi are pretty awesome, with their camouflage, and skill at multi-tasking. But, as someone who struggles with wrapping paper, and uses far more tape than most people, I agree with Writerfellow. That is what gift bags are for. Stuff some tissue paper on top, and no one will know. (Though I suspect an octopus would not stay in a gift bag.)
I completely agree, caitlin!
If you put an octopus in a gift bag, you had better tape the top of it shut. 😀
I am in awe of blown glass artistry (or really any artistry, since I have so little of it myself). I let my husband tackle the gift wrapping. He has infinitely more patience for that sort of thing than I.
I love glass thingies. One of these days, I’m going to take a class . . .
But I can wrap anything . . . it won’t be pretty, but it will be covered in paper. 😀