Self Portrait

I've got a chipboard card that I use on my tray at work, makes for a good writing surface, and a place to stash stuff behind it. Some time ago, I was working with this one guy, and he writes "Great job" on one of the cover sheets left for me. When I got back, I handed him my sharpie and indicated the chipboard sheet, asked him if he could make it more permanent. He did, then underneath it he added the word, "Management". Everyone who saw it was greatly amused.

After a while, it was getting pretty worn, so I made up a new one, and stashed it in the back of my locker. A couple months back, I found it and broke it out again, for the sake of the new fillers. Not long after I had it out, I came across a sticker on the side of a box that said, "Mixed Skid". I thought that random, and put it over the bottom part of my chipboard. Not long after that, another filler put a line tag over the "D" and modified it into a "P", making it into my nickname. I thought that was pretty good, and came back with my cutter knife & modified the "Mixed" into my stage persona & the legend from my bowling shirt, Mix-Master!!! Everyone liked it.

It was pretty worn out when I'd first retired it, and it didn't get better. I decided to make a new one up, and do a visual representation!!!

I've only had it a day, and the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive!!! I tell people that it's a self portrait, and that my head isn't that big or lumpy in real life!!!

Dodecahedron!!!

It's been a LONG time since I've posted any bar code artwork. There's something of a reason for that, back when I'd been doing those, eventually one of the supervisors came up to me and made mention about people making balls and "other shapes", and put an end to all my fun. At the time I'd been working on a boat. One of the other fillers had said I should try and make a ship, I think he was thinking of a three masted clipper, but what I was coming up with looked a bit more like an America's Cup racer. All I had at the time was the hull, which I brought home and considered making a post entitled, "They Sunk my Battleship!!!" Also at that time I made up a red circle with the slash logo over the word "FUN" and had that on the back of my tray. It resides there to this day, along with my Mystery Spot bumper sticker & a catalog headline for the Apocalypse Super Sale.

Fast forward a few years. All but one of the supervisors from that era are now gone, and that one has always been cool. I started in with balls again, only doing one a day. Next I started in on a rectangle to amaze all the new hires. After that I tried a pyramid again, once again to less than stellar results. Whilst I was doing that, one of the new guys throws out, "Make a dodecahedron!!!"

I had heard the line before, "One's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains it's original dimensions". One hit attributes it Ralph Waldo Emerson, but most have it as Oliver Wendell Holmes. Well, I guess that's what happened!!! I had to see exactly how it went, and for some reason had it in my head that it had 20 faces, probably when I saw that it had 20 vertices. So here's what I figured to do, I made up 20 pentagons and laminated them kind of thick, like I'd done with the sword. It took a bit of doing before I came up with the proper 72 angle perfect pentagon. Had to stop by the area where we have protractors to check, and only one of my first 5 points was right, so I duplicated that one. Got up to the 20, & was assembling them in my head when I realized that 20 probably won't fit... looked it up again, and discovered the error of my ways. Actually putting it together was the easier part, and it came out fairly awesome!!! Everyone who saw it was amazed. Ironically, the guy who'd suggested this wasn't around while I was finishing it off, so he never got to see it.

The wrap up for all this??? I've got eight extra pentagons in my locker... As I'm walking out that evening, and I'm passing by the manager for warehouse, she asks, "Is that a ball of bar codes???" "No, it's actually a dodecahedron!!!" She asks how I did it, what's inside ("It's full of stars!!!") (actually a question I was asked several times after it was buttoned up) She was very impressed, and asked me if I could make one up for her. This will be made easier by the fact that I've got eight extra pentagons. Tell me something now, supervisors, I've been commissioned by the department head!!!