Watch This Space

If 8 People with 9 Brooms Swept for 5 minutes, How Much Cleaning Would Get Done?

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 02:00:57 GMT

Answer: none, but it sure sounds good!

Stomp’s signature piece with brooms

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-_mUAhzhkg&feature=related

Who handles scores of trash cans at work but gets no garbage collected?

Answer: Stomp
Here is their Signature piece with trash cans. Watch for the guy with the trash can lids! (2 parts)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Az2qI5cEwLk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu15Ou-jKM0&NR=1

Stomp is...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha_K11LNl08

and here's one of my favorites: a piece with Zippo lighters: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNUEbR6MSY0

Inspection Come and Gone

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 03:31:29 GMT

It's only a spot inspection, a HUD inspection. They pick several apartments, but they don't tell which ones they will pick. I spent all last night putting the final touches on my apartment so that if it happens to be mine, I'll be ready.

But the day of inspection has come and gone, and, as usual, mine was not picked. So I can sit back and enjoy a nice clean apartment, even though I didn't have to stand for inspection.

Bits and Pieces

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:12:19 GMT

I'm taking a break from cleaning my apartment for inspection tomorrow, and while I do that, I'll take a moment to list the things that are in my life, right now.

1. I am editing my novel and have 8 pages left to edit before polishing up the format for sending it to a publisher. I will do that last 8 pages tomorrow, while I'm waiting for the inspecting people to come. Since it is a spot inspection (no one knows what apartments will be inspected), then I will wait all day for an inspection that might not come. Perfect opportunity to get this done.

2. I have a new printer from HP that is light, compact, and "all-in-one." I have printed color and black and white on it and scanned a few pictures into it. It does very well, and the color is good.

3. I have a new camera, a Pentax digital that I love. It does much more than my last camera did at half the price of my old camera. When the weather lets up, I will probably have more opportunity to take pictures.

4. I found out that my grocery sells camera media as much as CD-R's and flash drives. I can go to the grocery and pick up a flash media with 1G for 1/3 the price I paid for 512MB. I can get--and have got--a 1G SD card for my camera for less than what I would pay in other logical places.

5. I'm almost finished with my crocheted shell blouse. It needs one more shoulder piece, and I will be ready to join the sides. I hope it fits. If it doesn't, I'll just have to start over with a different size.

6. I fill up on doctored-up rice when I need something to fill up, on. Right now, I've doctored it with chicken base, garlic, and peas. Sometimes I've put zucchini pieces in it.

7. I am going to make some Chinese dishes in the next couple of days from Everybody's Wokking, by Martin Yan of the show, "Yan Can Cook."

8. My newsletter is finished for the first quarter, and I don't start working on it again till February.

9. I stink at knitting.

10. I crocheted a very nice hat!

11. I know two songs on the piano for my church, now!

12. I want to learn Japanese, and I'm thinking of going to the cultural center called the Crane House to learn there. Cheaper tuition than at University.

13. I have a picture to put up.

14. My friend sent me a Webkinz stuffed animal, and I'm enjoying playing with her and her daughters!

That's all I can think of right now.

Talking about the Weather...

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:17:39 GMT

This is part of a weather advisory that came up for my area:

The National Weather Service in Louisville has issued a wind chill advisory...

… Arctic air will bring plunging temperatures after midnight across our area...winds that will gust as high as 30 mph at times. Temperatures will fall…into the lower teens across the bluegrass area. Resultant wind chills will fall towards -10 degrees....

…Some sub-zero lows are possible across parts of the Bluegrass Region and Southern Indiana.

Al Gore, where are you when we need you?

Borscht Highs and Lows

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 00:39:21 GMT

I finally made my borscht, and it is a lovely, lovely beet soup! Ahhhh! Delicious and a half!

I have found, though, that not all veggies are created equal, and, for me, cabbage is not a dark, green, leafy vegetable. Indeed, the one I used was almost completely white. (They were all like that at the store.)

I love borscht, but because of the cabbage, it doesn't like me. And I'm desperately eating my kale (steamed, with balsamic vinegar--yummy!) to see if it cannot stem the battle going on inside me. I have been to the store tonight (where a bunch of kale is a thrifty $1.00!) and purchased reinforcements.

It's a matter of balance, y'know. I still have a significant amound of borscht left, but, like Alice, if I eat a little of this side and then a little of that side, I might meet a happy medium in the middle. (That is, if I jump from a Lewis Carroll book--Alice's Adventures in Wonderland--to a Madeleine L'Engle book--A Wrinkle in Time.)

I Made a Hat!

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 01:14:08 GMT

I have been losing my winter accessories all over the place!

I bought a new pair of blue stretch gloves and I lost one. I used my old pair of stretch gloves and I lost one of those! Then I lost my hat! So I am 3 for 3, now.

I’m hoping that my losing streak is at an end, now. It should be, now that I made myself a hat. It is the first garment that I have completed, and I thank Michaels craft store for putting out a book with it in there!

Here’s a picture of me in the hat:

Pretty cool, what what?
I used Lion Brand Homespun yarn, and the pattern is in
The Michaels Book of Needlecrafts, Lark Books, New York, 2005.

It comes down over my ears, too!

I Have Gingersnaps, Now!

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 05:03:38 GMT

Well, I finally got a batch of cookies made! I made some ginger snaps--the first time for this recipe and this oven, and I burned about half of them trying to figure out how long to bake them. It calls for 10 minutes; they need eight.

When Dad made toast and it scorched, he just scraped off the top layer of black singe and ate the rest. It's hard to scrape a cookie.

No, it is not the instrument; it is the user. Whenever I try a new recipe or a new oven, I have to get the right combination. 10 minutes might work fine in a giant range; but in my tiny oven, it just doesn't. In fact, it seems most cookies I bake in it need only about 7-8 minutes. Oh, well; live and learn.

But now I have gingersnaps that I've been craving all month! Next is a gingerbread house (unless I make gingerbread bears first). Do you get the idea I'm craving gingerbread?

But this will be the first gingerbread house I will have made. The houses are small and simple. No, I'm not making my own icing. Why make a mess trying to figure out how to dispense icing without a bag when I can get a ready-made squeezy-tube with a perfect tip? Why bother? I just want to make the house, not learn architecture cuisine.

So I am a happy camper tonight!

Plenty of Friendship

Sat, 20 Dec 2008 06:15:18 GMT

I have baked my first loaves of Friendship Bread. If I hadn't misread and put the oven temperature up 50 degrees too high (375 instead of 325), they would have been perfect. As it is, they are delicious on the inside with a "burnt-marshmallow" crust on the outside. Ha!

The recipe is forgiving, too. I waited a day later than I should, but it all baked out well.

So far, there are no takers on the extra starters I now have, so I put one in the freezer to see how that does in hibernation for later. The rest I'm taking care of for the next time or for when somebody wants a starter. I think at the beginning of the year I will have starter out my ears!

There is one thing that I did not anticipate at the store: the 2 small boxes of Jell-o pudding. I got the frosting for the gingerbread house I intend to make, and I got sour gummies for decorations--wreaths and all--but I forgot the pudding mix.

So I was on the phone and online to try to find out a substitute. It couldn't be hard; most of it was sugar. But I knew there was flour--or rather, I found out from my brother-in-law, it was corn starch. No problems. So he talked me through how his mom used to make it from scratch, and I took the ingredients down (mostly sugar!) to add to my mix.

The dry ingredients he gave me were:

1/2 cup sugar
2 tblsp cornstarch
1 tsp vanilla

(and these would go in 2 cups of milk)

So I doubled the dry ingredients (and cut back a little on the vanilla) and dumped it in. It worked very well.

Adventures in cooking!

My favorite health food store is having cooking classes (how to cook frugally! That ought to be good!), so maybe I'll learn to be a better cook.

What with this cooking class, the photography meetup, and the writers group meetup (and another group to follow up with, too!), I'm in the process of "getting a life!"

Wish me luck!

Start of a New Friendship?

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 21:22:26 GMT

So now I've told you what to do with a Friendship Bread starter when you receive this wonderful gift. But what if you don't have any and want to make some? With all the people in this world on the Internet and a Google of pages to search, there must be someone out there who knows how to make official starter. So I found this in Allrecipes.com:

Amish Friendship Bread Starter

SUBMITTED BY: GINNY LEE

Now, before accepting this as official, I have to think about what a society who does things in the simplest, most non-commercial way possible (the Amish) would do.

And I have known recipes for sourdough to require the ingredients to be left open to the open air for fermenting. Why? because yeast float around in the air and get into your food--like your milk--and make it go sour. That's where original starters come from. Not Red Star. (Though if you are going to use the above recipe, Red Star is, to me, the best active dry yeast: it makes a killer loaf of challah bread!)

So I read further down in the comments and found one by Olga, who agrees with me in her comment:

If you read up on sourdoughs and starters, you'll find that one of the reasons people mess with them is the health benefit of the natural occuring yeasts. Unfortunately, most people these days have become too "domesticated", and so can't see how letting something go sour on its own can be any good. Thus, most "official" starter recipes call for addition of store bought yeast. In the authentic way, you start with one cup each of flour, milk and sugar, stir it every day for the first 4 days, add one cup each of flour, milk and sugar on day 5, stir well; stir it every day for the next 4 days; add one cup each of flour, milk and sugar on day 10, stir well - and you should be ready to use the starter. Traditional recipes ask to only use wooden or plastic bowls/jars/utensils. This is done because there is a possibility of the yeast's acidity acting on the metal and changing PH and messing everything up. The other important point to make, is that when you're making the starter, it should be left uncovered or covered loosely with cheese cloth or such. The starter needs airflow! Once ready, the starter could be kept in the fridge for about 2 weeks; to reactivate it, take it out and feed it with one cup each of flour, milk and sugar, stir well and leave at room temperature. I think that starter can be covered with a lid/kept in a zip-lock bag while refridgerated. For those who want to have their starter always available - keep it at room temperature, stir it every day, and fe

(I added the emphasis. I wish there were more room for her to finish her comment)

It's up to you as to how you want to go about doing it. Some people in the comments have made Friendship Bread from the Allrecipes recipe and have sworn it tastes the same. Then there are purists who use the passed-around starter because of, well, for lack of a better term, the "vintage." Yeasts differ slightly from place to place, and a young starter is a different creature (so to speak) than an older starter, whether you keep it for yourself or give some to friends.

Personally, I'm fascinated with the idea that the starter that I got might have gotten all around Louisville, or Kentucky, or even farther around than that, since it's been almost 20 years since I saw starter to begin with! What subtleties and strains it might have picked up from this region and that region!

Happy bread baking!

This Year's Birthday Fun

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:49:54 GMT

December birthday:

12-21; Haiku Day fun!

Bring on the presents!

Friendship Bread

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 04:56:53 GMT

Have you ever been given a starter for friendship bread? It's a delicious, sweet quick bread that takes 10 days from the time you get it to the time you bake it. When you feed the starter, it must be divided out and each one is suitable for either baking right away or giving to a friend to start fermenting all over again. Because it is divided into 4, and maybe you're not up to making 4 loaves in a day, you give the extra away to other people, thus Friendship Bread.

My family first got friendship bread right around 1980. Wow! that was 28 years ago! I wonder if my starter is a descendent of that one back in the 80's?

Here I shall try to reproduce the instructions as it was given to me--and who knows how many times this recipe was xeroxed and xeroxed! Now if you receive a starter, you will know what to do with it!

I recommend getting real Ziploc bags--really tough ones--because the starter has to be mushed a lot, and that can weaken the zipper part.

Friendship Bread

Do Not Refrigerate
If air gets into the bag, let it out
It is normal for the batter to rise, bubble, and ferment.

Day 1: Do nothing. This is the day you received the batter, date on the bag.
Day 2: mush the bag
Day 3: mush the bag
Day 4: mush the bag
Day 5: mush the bag
Day 6: Add to the bag: 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup milk, then mush the bag.
Day 7: mush the bag
Day 8: mush the bag
Day 9: mush the bag
Day 10: Follow these directions:

1. Pour contents of bag into a non-metal bowl.
2. Add 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 1/2 cups sugar, and 1 1/2 cups milk.
3. Measure out 4 separate 1 cup batters and place in 4 one-gallon Ziplock bags. Keep a starter for yourself and give the other three to your friends along with a copy of the recipe. Should this not be passed onto your friends the first day, tell them which day the starter is at when you give them the bag.
4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
5. To remaining batter add:

A: 3 eggs
B: 1 cup oil
C: 1/2 cup milk
D: 1 cup sugar
E: 2 tsp cinnamon
F: 1/2 tsp vanilla
G: 1 1/2 tsp baking powder                                           If using self-rising flour, do not use baking powder,
H: 1/2 tsp baking soda                                                   soda, salt
I: 1/2 tsp salt
J: 2 cups flour
K: 1 large box instant vanilla pudding                            or 2 small boxes

6. grease two large loaf pans and mix additional 1/2 cup sugar and 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon. Dust the greased pans with half the mixture.
7. pour batter evenly into the two loaf pans and sprinkle the remaining sugar only on top.
8. Bake for one hour. Cool until bread loosens from the pans. (approx 10 mins) then turn onto serving dish. Serve warm or cold.

If you keep a starter for yourself, you will be baking bread every 10 days. Only the Amish know how to create a "starter", so if you give them all away you will have to wait until someone gives one back to you. Enjoy.
Raisins, nuts, and other flavors of pudding mix will make bread even tastier.

Savory Broccoli Salad

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 04:33:47 GMT

I love this recipe. It is a warm recipe rather than a cold one. I'd say it's appropriate for the weather.
I used balsamic vinaigrette instead of vinegar. It has a milder flavor with lots of pizzazz!

Savory Broccoli Salad

Salt

1 medium head broccoli (about 3 cups florets)

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1 tblsp vinegar (any kind; cider is good)

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup salted, toasted sunflower seeds

1 thin slice red onion

Fill a 3-quart saucepan with about 3 inches of water. Salt the water and bring it to a boil. Meanwhile, cutt the broccoli head into florets. If desired, peel the stem and cut it into small chunks. When water boils, add broccoli. Cover the pan for 1 minute, then remove the cover and cook broccoli 4 to 5 minutes more. Timing depends on how big the florets are, but the broccoli should be tender and bright green. Drain well. As the broccoli cooks, put mayonnaise and vinegar in a large bowl. Stir. Add drained broccoli and raisins. Add half the sunflower seeds and toss briefly. Mince the red onion. Sprinkle red onion and remaining sunflower seeds over the broccoli before serving. Serves 4.

enjoy!

Cookies!

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 03:28:13 GMT

I have gotten things squared away in my teenie-tiny kitchen, and now I think I'm ready to take on the puzzling task of baking cookies in a tiny oven with practically no counter space, no table space, and only a board to cover my sink for extra space.

However

I have ingredients for gingerbread bears.

I am pretty sure I have ingredients for other cookies I want to bake, too. Like chocolate crinkles! It is my favorite Betty Crocker cookie recipe.

I'm going to check out that recipe community they featured this week.

(Wii Would Like to Play)

Talk Like a Pirate Day, A Ninja Pities Them

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 02:26:18 GMT

In my quest for real science to put in my science fiction, I came across "Ask a Physicist" and "Ask an Astronomer," but in my quest, my Google list listed "Ask a Ninja." So I looked:

http://askaninja.com/node/5557

The picture of the ninja here scratching his head was something I don't expect ninjas to do, so I was understandably tickled.

Underneath the ninja talks about how they pity poor pirates as disabled drunkards that need a twelve-step program or killing. I'm sure a ninja would find the killing part easier.

I still go by the argument that a pirate has to command a ship on choppy seas in nasty storms, scaling wavering masts to secure sails and bring the ship safely into port with crew intact.

Besides, pirates did good trade and settled down to wealthy lives on highly defensible St. Mary Island. How many ninja enterpreneurs do you know?

But this ninja does what I've seen no other ninja do, and that is take on a debate with pirates on Talk Like a Pirate Day. I have to give him credit for that. I take my tricorn off to him.

So enjoy, and, though TLAPD is 9 months away, weigh in on what you feel about pirates.

You(Tube) Can Get Anything You Want...

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 03:38:07 GMT

My friend Heather put me onto this Thanksgiving Tradition. A local radio station annually plays Alice’s Restaurant at 12 noon on Thanksgiving. For the life of me I can’t remember which station does, but it doesn’t matter now; I found a decent YouTube with Arlo Guthrie playing at Guthrie Center, July, 2005:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_7C0QGkiVo

It has a few good visuals to it, too that you don’t quite get on the radio. So here are the words in case you want to take two or three friends with you to some coffee place or restaurant or something, sing this song at the top of your lungs--in harmony--and not be chased out for being 40 years too late!

(You’ll have to watch the ‘Tube or listen on the radio tomorrow at 12 noon for the tune)

You can get anything you want

At Alice’s Restaurant

(‘cept’n Alice)

You can get anything you want

At Alice’s Restaurant

Walk right in, it’s around the back

Just a half a mile from the railroad track

You can get anything you want

At Alice’s Restaurant

I still would want to be a cello.

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 06:33:49 GMT

Like I said: a great instrument is only as good as the player of that instrument. This guy, Ethan Winer, composed a piece of 37 parts on cello. He plays it like a percussion instrument, a slap bass, a cello, a violin, a flute, a guitar, and other things I never thought possible on a cello. And I've never seen a cello played with a pencil or two before!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsavk0FX3Ro

Some parts sound like a string quartet of 2 violins, a viola, and a cello. Another part sounds like a soft bass drum with brushes on a snare.

I never knew thumb position could be used so high up on the fingerboard! The highest note in the piece gives me chills every time I hear it!

Yes, he rivals Yo Yo Ma for best player.

I'd still like to be a cello if I were an instrument.

If You Were a Musical Instrument, What Would You Be? (meme)

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:40:47 GMT

To be a musical instrument, I would want to be made well and be able to produce the finest sound that particular instrument could make.

But even the finest instrument is only as good as the musician that plays it.

I would want to be Yo Yo Ma's cello. He makes every piece he plays sound wonderful. To watch him play is to see him make love to his instrument.

There are some amazing musicians out there, but I believe that Yo Yo Ma has so much heart for his music.

I won't put any links here; there are plenty on YouTube to go and enjoy. I'll let you look them up.

What instrument would you want to be?

I lied.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GczSTQ2nv94&NR=1

He Makes Sense to Himself

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 07:23:18 GMT

Ronald Jenkees does (Pachelbel's) Canon in D:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etHOFmFF3FA&NR=1

Pachelbel would roll over in his grave. Most baroque composers would, too. Many classical musicians possibly would, too.

Ronald Jenkees says, "I make sense to myself." And that's all that matters, really.

I like it.

Stay Crunchy

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 03:39:02 GMT

I has a moozik:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg8LfoyDFUM

by Ronald Jenkees
(channel) http://www.youtube.com/ronaldjenkees

who does music for SMP films
(channel) http://www.youtube.com/user/smpfilms

which is hosted by Cory "Mr. Safety" Williams, who is the dad of
Sparta of "Mean Kitty" fame and Loki--"how to annoy your kitty 2" (in a nice way)

(channel) http://www.youtube.com/user/themeankitty

Bebop Reprise

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 01:29:50 GMT

I've been going back to my Cowboy Bebop anime collection and reminiscing. Now I understand why I keep this series:

It's real.
(as in "get real!")
The characters are the least affected of any anime characters I've seen; the least put on.
It's not melodramatic.
The art is phenomenal and real, too.
The stories range from sublime to ridiculous to macabre to sentimental.
you don't have to wait forever for any back story.
You really get to know the characters and care about them, even some of the bad guys.
It's all of a piece and has closure, even though fans never wanted it to stop.
It has plenty to be avid about.

I remember the days in 2001 when the Bebopboard still existed. One could really revel in the fandom of a truly masterful work of art, as innovative as Gatchaman was in its heyday, as Hayao Miyazaki is in his stories. (Princess Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle, My Neighbor Totoro, etc.)

One of my favorite Cowboy Bebop sites is "The Jazz Messengers" at
http://www.jazzmess.com/
Which has revived its updates after 2 years between blogs. I'm glad someone still thinks of Cowboy Bebop with as much fondness as I do. Way to go, Fata Morgana. Rock on!

The site just recently published this news piece about a new live-action Cowboy Bebop film:
http://www.firstshowing.net/2008/07/22/fox-developing-cowboy-bebop-live-action-feature-film/

I really hope they stay true to the character of the series. It might not, since one of the items says Keanu Reeves will be Spike (God! I hope not! FOX! Please reconsider!)

The series has heart and a culture all its own, unmatched by any series before or since.
I salute everyone who made it happen.
It deserves a toast:

To the best anime series of all time, bar none.
Cowboy Bebop

Happy New Year! Happy Halloweenie!

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 01:43:59 GMT

Happy New Year to ECKists (Oct 22), Druids, Celts, and other cultures that celebrate the new year at the harvest season!

Happy Samhain!
Happy Halloweenie!

I really felt like I was Trick or Treating today! after a doctor visit, I found I was in the neighborhood of a Dollar Tree and a thrift store! So I took a look inside both.

To my amazement, there were actual items in the thrift shop that met my criteria: a pair of jeans, a pair of corduroys (new!), and a nice knit white top. They all fit and looked very good on me! I also found a fine belt that is my current size. The price was very right, too.

The Dollar Tree was next, and I gave it a thorough exploring, as Dollar Trees are meant to have. I saw pirate blunderbusses (-buses?), squeezy heads where the bubble thingies pop out and look and feel all gross, plastic armor plating, candy of all sorts, and toys and favors worthy of any Halloweenie booty. Halloween, I think, is made for pirates. Food, spices, dishes, mugs, cleaning stuff, figurines,frames, mechanical pencils, and all of the standard Dollar tree stuff still decked the aisles, and they seduced me to buy more.

As it is, I got some banana chips, sesame seeds, a 3-pack of soda, and a Baby Ruth 10-pack (the strip of small candy bars). I feel like I made a Halloween haul!

I visited Grandpa and he plied me with green beans and chicken soup; dessert was 3 small chocolate cake doughnuts--one for each hand and one for my mouth. Then he and my aunt and I sat on the porch and greeted trick-or-treaters. There were many young children with excellent costumes, including a pirate and a ninja. (Yeah, ninjas are cool, too.) One youth wore what looked like a sandwich board from far away, but up close I found he was dressed as a bar of deoderant! Hah! Worthy of a picture, says I!

I enjoyed it immensely! It was good to visit with Grandpa again, and I'm glad to see him in good spirits. When I left, he slipped me a cookie to eat on the way home.

And now I can finish my assignment for today to edit 8 more pages.

"Doesn't know the value of money"

Sat, 18 Oct 2008 04:22:11 GMT

The son of a highly successful investor was complaining to his friend:
"I don't know why my father's so mad. All I said was that I wanted to rip and burn his CD's."

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 01:41:32 GMT

(Why is it that the "Writer's Block" subjects never seem to make it to my blog?)

Greg Chamitoff vs. Earth

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 01:39:39 GMT

Game of chess, anyone?

The Space Station has been challenged to face the inhabitants of Earth to determine who has the superior mind!

Well, no, but there is a chess match between Greg Chamitoff (the astronaut of the hour) and Earthlings:

NASA, U.S. Chess Federation to Begin Earth vs. Space Match

The Earthlings are represented by The United States Chess Federation
and viewers like you. Voting is sometime late Monday night, October 6th through Tuesday, October 7.

The Earthlings must make the next move: will it be a friendly or hostile encounter?

Ocarina Again

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 01:24:23 GMT

I have been squeezing my brain to try to come up with a way to make an ocarina without spending money. Since you can make an ocarina out of a carrot or other veggies like a daikon root, I figure you can make an ocarina out of just about anything. It only takes a bit of imagination and the right tools.

The first thing I thought of was papier mache, since it is an easily-made construction material. However, it dries to rock-hardness: the beads I made out of it resisted any and all sanding attempts to make them smoother and rounder. Right now, I don’t have a drill, and a good drill (about $40) almost costs as much as a good ocarina. I can get an ocarina from Target for $6.95.

So I Googled and YouTubed the Internet for instruction on how to make an ocarina. I came up with some good tutorials, but some defeated my purpose of not spending money:

This is an advanced how-to for those adept at pottery or clay

This YouTube is more like a Mister Potato Head (Sweet Potato Head?)

This clay whistle shows the very critical point of how to make the whistle whistle well

This YouTube on making one out of a carrot gives you a clearer idea how the whistle part (the voice) is cut right.

And I found another site that talks about the all-important care and feeding of your ocarina.

Each of these takes tools which I don’t have. Veggies which tend to wither if you leave them out, or mold if you leave them in water.

Then I found this site by Design and Technology Projects to make an ocarina out of cardstock. Cardstock I can manage, as well as

a pair of scissors
a craft knife
glue
a steel safety rule
a cutting board

It is a seven-hole ocarina, so it will do a full scale easily. So I’m going to try it. If it works, I’m going to see how I can strengthen it with papier mache or other material. if I can, then I might be able to make different shapes.