Thursday, September 12, 2002

by the Writer's Guild of Wunderland

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• Alison's next Animeld: The Felime
• GinohnNews: Puffballs, Jomsvikings, and Chicken Shrooms!
• The Ember Update: Sister Mary VW Beetle
• Renee put up a few pics from Newport Vintage dance week
• Petra's newest nails!

Although we are still just as busy as ever, I find I have nothing in particular to report on this week. We're catching our breath from the summer convention season, we're still behind schedule on SuperFRED, and our newest production efforts are currently classified. So, lacking other topics, I've decided just to put up another picture of the two women I'm lucky enough to live with, Kristin and Alison, my partners-in-fun here at Looney Labs, along with their favorite stuffed animals. Alison's snake is named Zig Zag, and Kristin's bear is called Stony, although his official name is Monstro J. Stonington III (a long name that starts with an 'M' in accordance with the Gund Bear Naming Convention, established in 1983). Zig Zag and Stony are the best of friends, and together they have had many adventures. (You might have even caught a glimpse of one or both of them before, if not during a trade show somewhere, then perhaps here on the web... Zig Zag was featured on a trio of pumpkins last year, and Stony was the star of Alison's first stop-motion movie.)

Like the title suggests, even though we're all in our thirties, we still love our stuffed toys. Our cartoon mascot Tirade, after all, is based on a stuffed toy broccoli Kristin has had for decades, who continues to this day to greet visitors to our house from his perch near our front door. And if you've poked around Tirade's pages much, you've probably discovered the Bears' secret webpage. And just for the record, two of the dinosaurs in Chrononauts are named after stuffed animals: Steggie is based on a beloved childhood friend of Alison's and Emily Bronto can still be found wandering around our living room.

Stuffed animals are great because they allow you to give voice to feelings and ideas you might not feel able to speak directly but which you'd still like to express. For example, if you don't feel like cooking dinner and would like to just order a pizza, you might say "Stony says we should just order a pizza." Now the idea is out there, to be discussed on its merits, and the Food Officer can't chastise you for suggesting it because it wasn't you who said it, it was Stony. Keith Baker's plush friend Bossy the Cow allows him to express a more feisty viewpoint than he himself is capable of, so much so that his official website is named for Bossy rather than Keith.

The great thing about Stony is how big he is! He's exactly like the classic Gund bear we have many of scattered around the house, except that he's adult-sized. Check it out: in comparison to Kristin, he's as big as he would be if he was a typical sized bear and Kristin were a little kid. So when Kristin carries him downstairs in the morning, she looks like a girl dragging around her favorite bear. Which of course, is what she is.

Zig Zag also has the large scale thing going for him, but he's also just a really great snake. He's extremely posable and expressive, particularly in the hands of a personifier like Alison. We found him at Ikea, and became so enamored of him that we featured him on a Nanofictionary card: He's the Snake with a Great Personality. And when we finally get our new online shopping center operational, we'll even be offering these really cool snakes as one of the items in our new e-store called the Random Emporium.

Speaking of Nanofictionary and our new e-stores, we're planning to start selling our newest card game here on the web next week. (We've been holding off on offering it here, to encourage our fans to order it through retail stores, but it's been long enough.) We were hoping to be collecting those orders through our new webstore, but probably we'll still be using the old one for a few more weeks.

Anyway, Stony says I have to go order a pizza now.