Mutterings of a Mad Woman

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

I should be blogging about a terrific comic book I was recently sent, but instead I'm forced to vent about the ridiculous adventures of cross border shopping.

Readers of my blog will remember that I had an unfortunate shopping experience with Oriental Trading Company. They extended an olive branch and sent me a certificate toward my next purchase for my trouble. At the start of last month, I decided to give them a second try.

Everything showed up in good condition this time. The only groan I had was that at the time of ordering, I was told they couldn't confirm whether or not an item was in stock (normally not a big deal, but I wanted bang for my shipping buck. If I had been told I couldn't get the item, I would have picked something else).

Greetings Ghoulies. Just letting you know that there is a new tutorial on painting faux wooden boards on cardboard on the site. It's cheap and simple - anyone, and I mean anyone, can do it.

It's a great alternative to using real wood or, in some cases, styrofoam. Mind you, the same painting technique can be used on pieces of styrofoam (as you'll see in the tutorial).

With this technique, you can create boards for windows, full crates, or simple backgrounds. Cardboard isn't great for any area that is open to the elements (water + cardboard = bad), but inside it's fantastic (and did I mention free?).

Speaking of fantastic, I came across a sign made from foam board that was wonderfully crafted by a haunter in Maryland. Since we're on the topics of tutorials, I'll give you his as well. He was kind enough to share it with me when I asked for details.

I was playing around on flickr when I came across toyranch's account. It's a fun collection of vintage (1940ish-1980ish) toys and ads of monsters and Halloween. For example, there is an entire album dedicated to monster gumball toys (pictured right).

There are two other pictures that caught my eye (more, actually, but these were my favourites). Scanned from the Amazing Figure Modeler Magazine (issue #38, to be precise), here's a photograph that makes me wish I could step back in time. The caption beneath it reads:

Rich Palmer ran the nation's largest volume hobby shop in Parsippany, New Jersey. Aurora hired him to organize its Monster Customizing Contest in 1964. Aurora received national television attention when the CBS Evening News visited his shop. Walter Cronkite and Palmer held a conversation in the "Monster Korner" of the store. Big Frankie occupies the top shelf in the Monster Korner.

At sundown on October 4th, a Toronto condominium construction site is being taken over by zombies. And you can be a part of it.

Modern zombies are mindless monsters who are undead: neither dead nor alive. They travel in groups, hungry for humans. People who are bitten are infected and transformed into zombies themselves. Because they are dead, zombies look terrible, and usually move slowly and awkwardly. They are incapable of communication, and have no individual personalities. Zombies are metaphorically associated with the working class and consumers.

Condos are apartments, some luxurious, which are rising in popularity in major North American cities. Some can be found in convenient clusters, often in areas which artists and other less wealthy groups have helped to establish as safe and/or hip. People who can afford the expensive housing units are flocking to condos in droves, like zombies.