A longtime reader sent me this series of photos depicting origami using one dollar bills. It is incredible! These paper figures are apparently made by an artist named Won Park, who does amazing things with paper. (Thanks to reader Andy for sharing Won’s homepage!)
The email forward that is circulating the web says “Origami is the traditional Japanese art of paper folding. The goal of this art is to create a representation of an object using geometric folds and crease patterns preferably without the use of gluing or cutting the paper, and using only one piece of paper.
“Won Park is the master of Origami. He is also called the “money folder”, a practitioner of origami whose canvas is the United States One Dollar Bill. Bending, twisting, and folding, he creates life-like shapes in stunning detail. Be sure to see his home at the end of the art.”
One Dollar
One Dollar Butterfly
One Dollar Camera
Two Dollars Battle Tank
Two Dollars Chinese Dragon
One Dollar Crab
There are another 10 origami images after the jump. (more…)
Alyssa L. Miller/Flickr
A friend recently turned me on to a site that pokes fun at the cheesy “inspirational” posters that hang in offices. You know, the ones that aim to boost morale, cultivate hard workers, and create a team. Yeah, those ones. To give you a heads up for what to expect, the slogan of the site, Despair.com, is “increasing success by lowering expectations.” Ha…hahaha.
Here are some of the best demotivational posters.
Adversity – that which does not kill me postpones the inevitable.
Cluelessness – there are no stupid questions but there are a LOT of inquisitive idiots.
Compromise – let’s agree to respect each others views, no matter how wrong yours may be.
Defeat – For ever winner there are dozens of losers. Odds are you’re one of them.
Pretension – the downside of being better than everyone else is that people tend to assume you’re pretentious.
There are dozens more demotivational posters and they are more funny with the images that go along with them. (Like the one for Potential that has a picture of French fries and the slogan “Not everyone gets to be an astronaut when they grow up.”)
Despair.com sells these slogans on mugs, and as small framed pictures or laptop skins. They even have demotivational candy hearts for Valentine’s day!
UPDATE: Reader Jeannette was not pleased with these slogans.
I think this is an antithesis to Bargain Babe, as it takes work to watch your finances. How stupid this is, to devote time and energy to negativity.
But reader N. Davis says:
There’s nothing wrong with a little sarcasm to poke fun at how ridiculous the work environment can be. I’ve been a fan of despair.com for years and always keep a few items around the office (whether they’re out on display or tucked away depends on the people I’m working with). When I have a bad day their “demotivational” sayings are always able to make me laugh and help diffuse my anger and frustration a little, which is a good thing!
Related: Friday fun: if you can’t find the right book
Friday fun: how to get your lost camera back
Friday fun: I can’t have a brain tumor, I have dinner on the table
Thanks to reader Glenn who lightened my day with this joke. “Confucius say… if you cant find the book you are looking for, you are probably at the….”
A friend passed this slide show onto me and it was so funny I wanted to share it. It has nothing to do with saving money but everything to do with enjoying Fridays. Yay it’s almost the weekend!
I highly recommend watching blogger Andrew McDonald’s series of photos about how to get your lost camera back.
Thanks, Scott!
Here’s a deal to make your donation dollars go farther. The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation will match your donation on DonorChoose.org, in effect doubling your dollars.
The caveat is that the projects must help educate kids in rural or high-poverty areas. Projects include buying basic art supplies for a social studies lesson and chipping in toward five digital cameras for a special education class. Browse all the eligible projects here.
Thanks, Hubby!
No, I don’t have a brain tumor. But my friend Marla Jo, a fabulous writer at the Orange County Register, does. Or did. She had surgery recently to remove it but I didn’t find out about the whole ordeal until just now.
Marla Jo wrote about dealing with news of her tumor in a way that made me laugh. I bet you will too.
My sister Aicha is spending the summer observing women and children with HIV/AIDS in Africa to improve treatment. She has been in love with Africa ever since she went there as a Peace Corps volunteer ten summers ago. Her specialty back then was agroforestry, which meant she taught farmers in the Fouta region of Guinea basic farming techniques.
My mother bought me a plane ticket to visit Aicha, above, in Guinea for my college graduation present. Three days after leaving New York City we arrived in the remote village of Poredaka and settled in for a four week visit. Roads? Ha! Electricity? Ha! Rice for every meal? Yes! Well water that must be boiled? You betcha!
When I arrived my sister had been living in Guinea for a year already. Two things struck me about her concrete, one-room home. The toilet and shower drain were one in the same. And there was a dog-eared copy of Where There is no Doctor by her bedside.
Aicha, who had no formal medical training then, relied on that book for 28 months. After she introduced me to just about every person in the village, I knew the people of Poredaka didn’t even have a book about doctors. Everyone had a festering wound, missing digit or noticeable scar – things that ibuprofen and Neosporin would do wonders for. And that was just what I saw in four weeks.
During her two years in Guinea Aicha trained many farmers, but she realized she could help a lot more people as a nurse. She has returned many times since leaving the Corps, but this is her first time in Africa as a nurse.
This summer she is working for ICAP, the International Center for AIDS Treatment and Programs, in the Ivory Coast (Cote d’Ivoire). You can read about her adventures on the Africa Nurse blog, which is written by another nurse named Mara, who is working closely with her.
One recent post on Africa Nurse blog tells of six things Mara learned since arriving in Africa, including the art of the bucket bath, the importance of having an African name, and just how little locals know about AIDS. A snipet about going dancing:
Last night, as nostalgic for our friends as for the running water in Abidjan, we decided to suck it up and check out “King Discotheque” next door. It did not disappoint. The music was just as good as it was en ville, and the setup was exactly the same. The culture of going out dancing here has nothing much to do with pairing up—quite the opposite, actually. With my sample size of two dance clubs, I can now conclude that what you’re supposed to do is get dressed to the nines and then go dance by yourself in front of the full-length mirror that will inevitably cover one of the walls, staring at yourself. All night.
Also, the the music will inevitably be interrupted every few minutes by a DJ shouting something or other. Last night’s interruption-shouting theme was “Aaaaaaaaicha!”, and some form of my name, alternately, “Maaaaara!”, “Maaaaaria!”, “Maaaaaariam!” or “Maaaaariama!” It’s the most famous I’ve ever felt.
Check out the Africa Nurse blog!
Sunday’s NY Times had a funny Op-Art piece that parodies the iPhone ads about which apps save you money (some are free, others cost $.99 to $30 to download). You may recall I gushed about these ads, which have been running on back page of the NY Times’ front section.
The Op-Art piece reads: “iPanic: helping you deal with the loss of your life savings, one app at a time.” A sampling of the “apps” including:
Never Mind: $3.99 “Choose a vacation from more than 1,000 popular destinations, dinner at a restaurant you’ve always wanted to try or a round of golf at any one of your favorite courses. Never Mind calculates the money you save by not going.”
4merly Hot: $14.99 “Tired of economizing alone? Upload a picture of yourself when you had money, then use your iPhone to meet other singles pretending they still have money, too.”
Fantasy Finance League: $9.99 “Field your own 401 (k). Make imaginary trades with stocks you used to own. FFL keeps score, compiles stats and automatically updates when you could have retired.”
2 Late Now: $7.99 “Create, edit and save spreadsheet files documenting all the things you wish you’d never bought.”
Scrape: $6.99 “By using your iPhone’s GPS, Scrape lists part-time jobs within a five-mile radius of your current location. Find the opportunity to match your experience and skills, from valet parking to wearing a taco costume.”
Hmmm…the message I’m getting is that even as we watch our life savings disappear, we continue to pay for luxuries like the iPhone (guilty as charged!) But in my defense, I only download free apps.
So maybe you don’t have an iPhone, but I bet you have some other secret spendy habit that you are loathe to reveal to other bargain hunters. Spill the beans!
Ever wonder who we as a country owe money to? Foreigners are the answer about a third of the time. Of the United States’ $11 trillion debt, $3.3 trillion is owed to the following countries, according to a very cool graphic that ran in the June 8, 2009 issue of Newsweek (but is not available online, sadly).
Thanks to a reader named Dan who supplied this chart:
$767.9 billion – China
$686.7 billion – Japan
$213.6 billion – Caribbean countries
$204 billion – France/India/Korea/Mexico/Singapore/Turkey
$192 billion – Algeria/Bahrain/Ecuador/Gabon/Indonesia/Iran/Iraq/Kuwait/Libya/Nigeria/Oman/Qatar/Saudi Arabia/U.A.E./Venezuela
$138.4 billion – Russia
$128.2 billion – U.K.
$126.6 billion – Brazil
$124.3 billion – Egypt/Israel/Italy/Netherlands/Norway/Thailand
$106 billion – Luxembourg
$89.5 billion – Belgium/Canada/Chile/Colombia/Malaysia/Philippines/Sweden
$78.9 billion – Hong Kong
$75.8 billion – Taiwan
$67.7 billion – Switzerland
$55 billion – Germany
$54.7 billion – Ireland
$156.7 billion – all others
Related:
Friday Fun: what comes after trillions? (BargainBabe)
National Debt Clock (Brillig.com)
This is one of the coolest things I have seen in a long time. A blog called Scavenging has step-by-step directions to turn your credit card into a bracelet, ring, or earrings. Check it out! Below is one of their creations.
A friend recently turned me onto a new blog that is quite fun. It’s called GraphJam and its motto is “music and culture for people who love charts.” Here is one recent example this I think it funny.
Thanks, Dan!
ZooBorns.com has pictures and videos of baby animals from around the world. When I visited recently I saw pictures of frogmouth chicks, red panda cubs, baby wallabys, and a video of a mom and her two leopard cubs. Cats really do pick up their young with their mouths!
