Star Wars Rubik's Cubes

These HIGHLY collectable babies (no, guys, stop asking; I'm not selling) were dispersed in Canadian Kellogs cereal boxes during the summer of 2002 to capitalize on the release of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. I was working at a lodge in a remote town at the time, and these little brainteasers were a more-than-welcome distraction. Once I got one, however, I went on a rampage to collect all six; I was an addict, and sunk to the depths of stealing some from boxes in the cereal isle on grocery runs. It wasn't a time in my life that I was proud of, and I'm now sorry, Superstore, I'm sorry. In the end I only had four different ones, and perhaps that fact remains as my insufferable penance.


Anyhow, look how FUN and EXCITING these things are! Each one has four pieces that rotate and make up two faces on each head: from left to right, Count Dooku/Darth Sidious, Obi-Wan Kenobi (young/old), Jango Fett/Clone Trooper and Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader (I actually had doubles of this). The two I'm missing are of Princess Leia/Padme Amidala and R2-D2/C-3PO (which I REALLY wanted). I memorized how to solve them from the little cheat sheet they came with and when I was back in school I used to sit in the back of class, getting my friends to mess them up so I could fix them. I'm a fidgeter, so it was a perfect toy to have around.


Right now they're just sitting on my shelf collecting dust. A really fun thing to do with them though, is pretend they're making out. You can even switch their heads around so that one side of each head has two noses and mouths and do a double make out (Pietro, you're a genius!).

Fun fact: Rubik was Hungarian, and so am I!

Cacti

I bought these cacti from a rummage sale at the Russian People's Home in my neighbourhood in the summmer of 2005, primarily for their small but extravagant growing aesthetics. They were decoration for an art exhibition for about six weeks and then took up permanent residence in my home. They had a tiny cutout of a lady keeping them company for a while, too.

The cactus, often mistakenly believed to survive without water, is a strong succulent plant that requires a modicum of careful care. (Q: Can you even kill a cactus? A: Yes, I've done it before.) These two little guys started looking pretty dire and brown and deflated about six months ago; I got scared at the prospect of killing more unkillable plants and imposed a regimen involving watering them every six weeks (in reality, basically whenever I remember). Just today I had a look at them and was surprised at how strong and full of vitality they appeared! In fact, they may have even grown! So in conclusion, a year after this photo was taken for this blog, I was actually inspired to post it.

Oh God, I just remembered I dreamt that I had cancer last night.