August 31 - Cargo Unit 14

PERSONAL LOG 84621.5
It's been 327 years since the last human left the ship.

Which means it's also been 327 years since I've had an intelligent conversation.

My only companion is Cargo Unit 14. It has three directives: carry boxes, return boxes, and avoid walls. It has never once contributed a useful thought.

He's terrible company.

I don't know what I'd do without him.

This is a color day BONUS balloon!
Kalisan Dark Blue

August 30 - Kalisan Dark Blue

Go spread your blue wings
Go light your blue sky
And I'll shed my blue tears

~ Dolly Parton - My Blue Tears

Kalisan Dark Blue is just on the darker side of royal blue.

I feel Kalisan balloons tend to run a little thicker than most, but these inflated surprisingly well and had a great texture to them.  They weren't particularly tight, nor did they have problems with distorting when re-inflating.  It's making me question my previous assumptions about the brand.

Honestly, based on my previous Kalisan experiences, I'm really pleased.  Texture-wise these are very good.

Color-wise.

It's blue.

A perfectly respectable, yet deeply uninteresting - blue.

 

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Other color day balloons:

August 28 - Hammerhead Shark

"The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names."

— Confucius (attributed)

This weeks practice is from the Isopresso balloon channel.

A hammerhead shark has a head shaped like a hammer.

A sawfish has a nose shaped like a saw.

A narwahl has a wahl shaped nar.

(view other sharks)

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Other balloons by or inspired by Isopresso Balloon:

August 27 - Tim

'Cause I've seen, oh, blue skies
Through the tears in my eyes
And I realize
I'm going home

~ Tim Curry I'm Going Home

When making a D&D character, you roll three dice and add them together to determine each of your statistics.

The scale runs from 3 to 18 - applied to Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution and Charisma.  An 18 is extraordinary - think Herculean for strength, or Einsteinian for intelligence.

We just lost two people who had rolled natural 18s in Charisma.

This Frank-N-Furter was originally made as decoration for a screening of Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Thinkback: October 31, 2017.

August 26 - Rainbow Lorikeet

"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."

~ Samuel Beckett, Worstward Ho

I was trying to unravel the color puzzle of a rainbow lorikeet. 

I got some of the pieces in roughly the right neighborhood.

Looking at it now, I know what I'd want to change: more green in places, and maybe forest green would work better than lime...

That's the annoying thing about hindsight.  

It never seems interested in helping out on the first one...

(view other birds)

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Other balloons inspired by Isopresso Balloon:

August 25 - Pink Blush Dawg

"These mountains that you are carrying, you were only supposed to climb."

~ Najwa Zebian

I love this quote.

It's strange how easily old experiences become things we carry around.

Not because we need them, necessarily.  They just became baggage somewhere along the way.

But there is a difference between remembering what happened and continuing to carry it.

You don't have to forget something to put it down.

This is a color day BONUS balloon!
Kalisan Pink Blush

August 24 - Fear of Snakes

Fears you develop as a child are often rooted in tolerable insanity.  

Thirty seconds earlier I had been crashing through the woods with the complete confidence of an eight year old idiot.

I was halfway over a fallen log when I caught sight of a coiled snake on the other side.

My body convulsed backwards like it had been yanked back with a cord, and I reversed direction to sprint towards safety.

... because NOW there were snakes everywhere.

I couldn't see any of them, obviously. That's how they work.

This is a color day BONUS balloon!
Kalisan Pink Blush

August 23 - Kalisan Pink Blush

I'm making you a coat of pink cashmere
You got to know how I feel about you
How I always want you near

~ Prince - Pink Cashmere

Kalisan Pink Blush is one in the "flesh" colors I looked into as a replacement for my beloved Qualatex Blush, but the color is actually a bit lighter for a skin tone.

The balloon texture is fantastic.  I typically associate Kalisan balloons with being fairly stiff, so perhaps I'm just enthusiastic that these were hardy without being too firm.  (I still don't think I could inflate any Kalisan by mouth.)

Overall impression of the color though?  Not the new king.

It's very light on the blushiness spectrum.  Barely embarrassed, really.

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Other color day balloons:

August 21 - Dolphin

"There's nothing wrong with enjoying looking at the surface of the ocean itself, except that when you finally see what goes on underwater, you realize that you've been missing the whole point of the ocean."

~ Dave Barry

This week I was doing my homework, watching Dave's weekly free twisting jubilee when he made a dolphin.  

He built a larger dolphin than he usually does, saying that he likes to make things bigger for the camera.  It makes sense.

I tried to build the original size.

So - for clarity, the size of a dolphin only matters if you're on camera.

 ... or if you're a hungry orca.

 ... or you're shopping for an aquarium.

 ... or if you're Jon-Eric Sullivan.

 ... or if you're choosing the mesh size for a tuna net.

 ... or if one jumped into your kayak.

You know, there are a surprising number of situations where this actually matters ...

(view other dolphin)

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Other balloons inspired by Dave Brenn:

August 20 - Rhino

I'm the mother flippin' Rhymenocerous
My beats are fat and the birds are on my back
And I'm horny (I'm horny)
If you choose to proceed you will indeed concede
'Cause I hit you with my flow
The Wild Rhino Stampede

~ The Flight of the Conchords - Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros

Thinking back this time to participating in the Balloon Rhino Project - led by Guido Verhoef in 2016 to raise awareness and funds to help protect rhinos at the Plainsberg National Park in Australia.

I looked at the website (http://www.theballoonrhinoproject.co.za/) with some hope that three would be a "here's how we made a difference" and dreading to hear how many rhinocerous had been poached since then.   I don't think it has been updated since 2016.

... don't look for me in the list of participating artists - I was too shy to click the link.

 

Thinkback: April 4, 2016.

August 19 - Yellow Cockatiel

"In order to see birds it is necessary to become a part of the silence."

~ Robert Lynd

This is my favorite bird design.

The wings give it such a nice texture, and making them is bit of a challenge - which is exactly why I should build them again and again and again.

This is also my favorite type of photo, 'balloon animals in the wild'.   There's something about putting them in a real environment that makes it feel a little more magical.

And you really can't beat the sun for lighting.

Though yellow may not be the best color to demonstrate that particular point.

(view other birds)

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Other balloons by or inspired by Isopresso Balloons:

August 18 - Rockstar Dawg

"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now."

~ Proverb

You don't have to be smart to succeed.

A book-on-tape on how to be successful in business made an observation that has stuck with me ever since.

Looking back, it wasn't necessarily the people who had ranked high academically who had become most successful.  Often, it was the opposite.  

The idea was that some people waited for the perfect opportunity, while others took a good opportunity and either turned it great or discovered great along the way.

They called it the corridor principle.  You can't see every open door  from the entrance.  Sometimes you have to start walking before you even know an opportunity is there.

And maybe you're meant to be the one knocking.

This is a color day BONUS balloon!
Tuftex Rockstar

August 17 - Cedric the Small

MONTESSORI SCHOOL OF RIVERMARK
FIELD TRIP PERMISSION SLIP

Name: ____CEDRIC THE SMALL____________________

Teacher: ____MRS. WILLOW_________________________

Destination: ____MT. CINDERPEAK______________________

Purpose: ____SLAY DRAGON_________________________

Bringing Maiden?
 ☐ yes   ☑ no   ☐ I AM the maiden

Next of Kin: ____FREDRIC THE TALL____________________

Lunch Provided?   
☐ yes   ☑ no

Known Allergies: __FIRE____________________________

Extra Class Credit: _PHYSICAL ED._______________

Parent/Guardian Signature:

_____MY DAD_HEDRICK HALL__________________

This is a color day BONUS balloon!
Tuftex Rockstar

August 16 - Tuftex Rockstar

They'll get you anything with that evil smile
Everybody's got a drug dealer on speed dial, well
Hey, hey, I wanna be a Rockstar

~ Nickelback - Rockstar

Tuftex Rockstar balloons are bad.   Like the original bad, before it became cool.  

Rockstar isn't a color last I checked, and honestly 'pink chrome'?   Be better, Tuftex.  Be - better.

I don't want to be "that guy", but these balloons are lousy to inflate and annoying to twist.  The Bret Michaels of balloons.   They also have that "chrome effect" of puffing up to a size, but losing elasticity like a pair of over starched underwear.

I was happy to be done with these and will avoid in the future.

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Other color day balloons: