davidd's A DOLL A DAY 2025

[davidd]

January Catch-Up: A Doll A Day 2025:

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16 January - A Doll A Day 2025:


Staying overnight in a "smart home" is always somewhat unnerving. Is somebody listening to everything? Are they watching? I find it disturbing how comfortable people have become with living in a surveillance state. Not only have they become comfortable with it, most people seem to be voluntarily and eagerly embracing the concept.

Oh well, 'tis but a brief stop before setting out on a grand adventure.

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17 January - A Doll A Day 2025:


First leg down; now for the hard (long) part.

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18 January - A Doll A Day 2025:


"¡Hola! ¡Bienvenidos a Buenos Aires!"

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19 January - A Doll A Day 2025:


Far Away Places with Strange-Sounding Names
Far away over the sea
Those far away places with strange-sounding names
Are calling, calling me

Bustling port scene in Buenos Aires, Argentina

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20 January - A Doll A Day 2025:


Sunset at Sea: Sailor's Delight

This voyage featured more "sea days," albeit non-consecutively, than the girls' recent Transatlantic crossing.

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21 January - A Doll A Day 2025:


The Little Sailor is Beginning to Show her Age

She's been doing this world traveler stuff for twenty years now! That's a lot of miles tucked inside pockets, satchels, and camera bags!

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22 January - A Doll A Day 2025:


Days at Sea, Nights of Glitz and Glamor

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23 January - A Doll A Day 2025:


Ushuaia, Argentina: Yasmin visits the southernmost post office on the entire planet... now permanently closed, of course.

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The southernmost lighthouse on the entire planet... if the hype is to be believed. Ushuaia really leans in to the "southernmost" concept.

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The southernmost vintage Routemaster double-decker bus on the entire planet... in case you were keeping track of Routemaster bus locations... offers tours in Ushuaia, Argentina (basically Tierra del Fuego).

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Maybe this is the southernmost Pinky Street photo ever taken on the entire planet... for the moment!

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24 January - A Doll A Day 2025:


Sea Day between Ushuaia and... Antarctica!

Calm seas and sunny skies -- ya'd think we wuz in the tropics rather than crossing the infamous Drake Passage!

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25 January - A Doll A Day 2025:


"Wait a minnit... we're where now?!?"

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"Is this where I think it is?"

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"Okay... now this is what I call an adventure!"

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Humpback Whale feeding behavior: emerging through a bubble circle

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26 January - A Doll A Day 2025:

Day Two among the ice floes of the Antarctic Peninsula.
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"No way!"


"No freakin' way!"


Yes way: the site of the Shackleton Ekspedition Camp on Elephant Island in the Antarctic Peninsula!

Have these girls officially been everywhere now?

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27 January - A Doll A Day 2025:


New seafaring eksperience; or, Mal de Mer: Revenge of the Drake Passage

It was not a good night. It was a very very bad night.

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28 January - A Doll A Day 2025:


Bratz Yasmin boards a Land Rover to eksplore the Falkland Islands


For the first time in years, Kokoro gets to see tide pools - real tide pools - in the Falkland Islands

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29 January - A Doll A Day 2025:


Sea Day aboard the Norwegian Star

Sea Day between The Falkland Islands and Puerto Madryn, Argentina

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30 January - A Doll A Day 2025:


Bratz Yasmin bids a fond farewell to Puerto Madryn, Argentina

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31 January - A Doll A Day 2025:


Final Sea Day

Last full sea day, steaming between Puerto Madryn, Argentina and Montevideo, Uruguay.

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1 February - A Doll A Day 2025:


Norwegian Star cruise ship in port at Puerto Montevideo, Montevideo, Uruguay


Memorial to the Second World War German battleship Graf Spee which was sunk near here during the Battle of the River Plate in 1939. This optical rangefinder for the long-range guns was salvaged from the wreck in 2004.


Yasmin revisits Montevideo. Yup, Yas and the Pinky girls were here before, in 2020, but I cannot find any pictures! Did I never post any?
It was just before The Dark Time, during which despair and confusion enveloped the world.



Hard Rock Cafe - Montevideo, Uruguay

In Long Ago Times, going all the way back to their first international travels in 2005/2026, it was kind of a "thing" for the girls to visit a Hard Rock Cafe in any city on their itinerary that had one. It's been a long time, but Pinky Reina resurrects the tradition in 2025.

Here's the Pinky Street crew waiting for onion rings at the Hard Rock Bangkok in Thailand, February 2006:

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2 February - A Doll A Day 2025:


Takin' it EZE - Buenos Aires International Airpot

Home Away from Home for the next, oh, twelve hours or so.

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3 February - A Doll A Day 2025:


Jet Lag in the Making

Twelve hours at the airport, a ten... or was it twelve?.. hour flight, another two hour layover that of course turned in to a desperate sprint to reach the transfer gate in time to board another six hour flight... guhhh! The drudgery takes a lot of the fun out of travel. I don't know -- has travel become more challenging over the past twenty years, or am I not as resilient as I once was?

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4 February - A Doll A Day 2025:


Full Circle: from the Middle of Nowhere To the End of the Earth and Back To the Middle of Nowhere

"Where am I? What time is it? What day is it? I don't know – ask me after I sleep for a week!"

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5 February - A Doll A Day 2025:


New Release, New Arrival: Bratz "Goin' Out" Jade

I succumbed to peer pressure; or at least to online influence. I saw a really cute snapshot of the new Bratz "Goin' Out" Jade doll on Instagram a few weeks ago. I immediately looked around online only to find she was sold out everywhere, even on the Official Bratz Website. The Bratz website offered an option to be notified when (or if) the item was restocked, so I signed up. Shortly before I left on my recent travels I received email notification of a restock, but when I checked the Bratz site the dolls had already sold out again. Not really ex-pecting to find anything, I looked on Amazon. The Amazon site indicated the doll was available, so I placed an order, figuring I would receive a "backordered" or "out of stock" message. Three weeks later, I've picked up my mail at the post office and here's Bratz "Goin' Out" Jade.

Of course, now that I have the doll "in hand" I'm kinda all like, "meh, it's just another doll and I definitely do not need any more dolls."

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6 February - A Doll A Day 2025:


You've Got Mondo Mail

I hope this isn't all "doll" or "action figure" stuff. Apparently I thought I needed a lot of things prior to heading out on my travels. Now that I've returned, I have little to no idea what most of this is. There should be a 1/6-scale head to complete an action figure project in this pile somewhere. I think there might be another head (or two) that was an impulse buy because it was on sale at a considerable price reduction. Maybe one of these parcels contains the small JOBY Gorillapod tripod that I thought would arrive two weeks before I left.

I found that I was not missing the "action figure" side of the toy photography hobby at all during my absence. Not once did I find myself thinking about my pirate dolls or nun dolls or military action figures. I was completely content with my Pinky Street and Bratz travel dolls. I never felt that a situation or opportunity called for or would have been improved by a flexible seamless action figure.

I thought about the Smart Dolls a time or two, mostly wondering what Janie and Triv were getting done during my absence (probably not a whole lot), and sometimes wondering if there's still a worthwhile secondary market for Smart Dolls.

Nertz! That reminds me: I think I have another toy purchase "on hold" at an online retailer. I need to let them know it's okay to ship it now... and then pay the remaining balance. It's another one of those "seemed like a fun idea at the moment" impulse buys that I now realize I do not need or particularly want.

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[davidd]

7 February - A Doll A Day 2025:

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Another Incarnation of Captain Action

I think I've finally found a head sculpt to serve as a permanent look for this 1/6-scale Captain Action character kitbash.

Costume: Round2 Captain Action figure
Body: TBLeague M33
Head: Unbranded (via eBay) "Antonio Banderas" head

In this incarnation, the character of Cap is portrayed by noted screen actor... uhhrrr Tony Bandana. Yeah, that'll be his name. Or maybe Tommy Bandana.

7 February - A Doll A Day 2025

[Alliecat]

Holy crap, you went WHERE now???
Wow!
You're really doing the globetrotting thing these days!  Hey, live it up while ya can, right? 
That's awesome.  Glad you had fun.  Well, aside from the Pepto night.  Now I gotta ask, how much wind and what sea state at that point.
Yeah, airport drudgery.  We hates it, Precious.  I looove planes and flying, but, the airports, ugh.  And it's usually either sitting around or standing in line forever, or, the coronary-inducing sprint.  And let's not forget the $20 sandwiches.
If I'd finished my pilot's license and had an extra million I could be travelling with my OWN plane, sigh.

Yeah, not keen on the "smart home" thing myself.  I am more and more inclined to want to disconnect from everything.

Ha, Tommy Bandana is a good name for him.
I like how the Pinkys are dressed for the different settings.  Did any of your fellow travellers get to see you photographing your little jet-setters?  Any comments?

Well, looks like it was pretty awesome, and you got to see some great scenery (although chilly).  Yay!  And it's nice to see you back.  Been quiet around here.

[davidd]

Now I gotta ask, how much wind and what sea state at that point.

If I'd finished my pilot's license and had an extra million I could be travelling with my OWN plane, sigh.

Oh, right, I meant to mention that because I suspected you'd be interested. Seas were 2.5m (8 feet) and the wind was in excess of 30kts, which was causing a surface chop running in a different direction than the swells. The ship was both pitching and rolling -- not a lot, but enough, I guess. I had felt myself coming down with a slight cold the day before, so I suspect falling ill was a combination of feeling run down to begin with and then a little bit too much motion in multiple angles.

You took flying lessons? How far did you progress? Were you close to soloing? Do you ever consider... well, we often consider picking up things we set aside in the past, don't we? Then we do the math and realize just how long ago it was.

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8 February - A Doll A Day 2025:

Khloë, the new drummer for Vagabond's House.

Having a dedicated drummer will allow Jade to focus on keyboards.

"Wait!" you might be asking. "Khloë? Jade? Vagabond's House?"

Vagabond's House (or should it be Vagabonds' House? How many vagabonds are there, and whose house is it?) is the name of a one-sixth scale action figure band I was putting together a while back -- let me see, how long has it been? Spring of 2021, so it's been four years since we last saw the band... at which time, I see, it was called Vagabonds' House. D*mmit, I'm gonna have to change the insert on the drum kit. Or change the name of the band. Maybe drop the apostrophe altogether. I don't know.

Anyway, the band was a trio: Sasha aka Sashabella, Jade aka Jayde Holly, and Yasmin Clarke aka Yazz E. Claire. Jade was the drummer, but her specialty is actually keyboard and piano, so the band has needed a drummer to free up Jade to focus on keyboards.

The characters are one-sixth scale TBLeague action figures based on the Bratz dollz who appeared in my "Dolly Dungeon" Bratz doll story several years ago.

Anyway, this is Cloë aka Khloë, the new drummer for Vagabond's' House.

What kind of music do they play? Loud music. Yasmin wants it to be a Thrash Death Punk Metal band. Jade has more artistic sensibilities but she's willing to play along to hang out with her friends. Sasha is there to meet guys. Cloë was drafted and we'll see if she sticks around or not.

How'zat for TMI?

Head: Super Duck SDH-019B
Body: TBLeague S41
Costume: Hasbro "Lookin' Smart" Maxie doll (1987) and Mattel Wild Hearts Crew (2019) and boots found on eBay

8 February - A Doll A Day 2025

[Alliecat]

That looks like a neat little drum set.
I think "Vagabonds' " works better if there are more than one of them

Seas were 2.5m (8 feet) and the wind was in excess of 30kts,

Oh. LOL. OK.
I will say though, that I've felt worse in 6-8' seas on our ferry a few miles out on the crossing than in the 20+ seas in the middle of the Atlantic, because a big heavy motorized thing lumbers along through the water and not with the wind, and it moves completely differently. And if you're not able to keep an eye on the horizon, that's a recipe for ick.
And yeah, if you already had a 'bug' that wouldn't help.
Best definition of seasick I ever heard was 'first you're afraid you're gonna die and then you're afraid you're not'.

You took flying lessons? How far did you progress? Were you close to soloing?

I had my student permit & 16 1/2 hours in the C-172 and then the instructor bailed and left for a better job out west with no notice. I'd have to start all over. I'd love to, but you can't on the island anymore. They stopped offering any lessons when some other student pranged a plane or something. And now our air-charter service is kinda messed up because bureaucratic politics.

[davidd]

I think "Vagabonds' " works better if there are more than one of them.



Best definition of seasick I ever heard was 'first you're afraid you're gonna die and then you're afraid you're not'. 



I had my student permit & 16 1/2 hours in the C-172....

I agree about Vagabonds' being a possessive plural and have changed the logo accordingly.

That is an extremely accurate definition. 

Out of curiosity I looked up the Cessna 172. The picture on the Wikipedia page is of a 1950s example on display at the Las Vegas airport. I saw that plane just last week! I had no idea it was a world record holder for the most time spent continually aloft: 64 continuous days in the air with periodic in-air refueling! I don't know if I even want to think about how the two pilots took care of basic physiological needs for two months in a not-very-large aircraft cabin.

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9 February - A Doll A Day 2025:

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No Gnarliness

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The more or less annual except when we forget Pinky Street Super Bowl Sunday Surf Session (or snow boarding when no surf is to be found) for 2025 is thwarted by lack of proximity to an ocean and a far below normal seasonal snow pack.

[Alliecat]

She’s cute. I would certainly love to see a below-normal snow pack around here. We seem to have had three winters’ worth of snow since Christmas. Had to have my driveway plowed 7 times so far and the snow is knee-deep.
I should look that up, about that plane, on a bigger screen. I suppose if it was in the 1950s, perhaps they just jettisoned things, since people probably cared less about polluting the environment then.

[davidd]

10 February - A Doll A Day 2025:

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Congratulations, Flickr on 21 Years: 2004 – 2025

Flickr was unveiled on 10 February 2004 by a small Vancouver-based game development company called Ludicorp. By the end of the year, Ludicorp and Flickr were purchased by California-based Internet technology giant Yahoo!

Over subsequent years, Yahoo! was absorbed by Verizon, who attempted to merge Yahoo! (and as a result, Flickr) with the previously purchased AOL under a parent company called Oath.

After making or considering a variety of changes to the Flickr interface, membership rules, and fee structure, and ultimately considering shutting down Flickr altogether, Oath sold Flickr to the much smaller online photo hosting service SmugMug in 2018.

From the outset, Flickr has offered various tiers of membership, including "free" and a paid "pro" level. I have been a paid "pro" member of Flickr since I joined in June 2005. I feel SmugMug has done a solid job stabilizing Flickr and working to return the site to its original format as a photo hosting-and-sharing site with an easily navigable social element, and thus I have continued to support Flickr with a paid membership for nearly 20 years.

The Pinky:st figures have been along for the entire ride. A Pinky Street photo was among my first bulk upload to Flickr, and was the first newly taken photo I posted to Flickr.

10 February - A Doll A Day 2025

[Alliecat]

A pleasant congratulation message. I remember the uproar that ensued when they announced limits on free accounts, and “pay up or we’ll delete your photos”. A lot of people – me included – were pretty annoyed. $$$… Well, guess you can’t get very much for free these days.

[davidd]

A lot of people – me included – were pretty annoyed. $$$… 

I've come close to leaving Flickr several times over the years. The closest was when Verizon/Oath said they were going to eliminate "Pro" accounts and make everything ad-supported free. I got so angry I deleted probably half of my content, with an intention of shifting over to a site called iPernity.

Verizon ended up selling Flickr to SmugMug, who raised the "Pro" prices but who have also gradually moved Flickr back to being a fun and effective photo-hosting site with a strong social aspect. iPernity devolved in to chaos, was almost shut down, and was ultimately taken over by a group of users who were, to put it mildly, highly opinionated. The iPernity.com site still exists, I see, but I have no interest in returning.

For simple photo hosting, 23hq.com remains a solid low-cost option, but even though the site offers limited Flickr-like social media features, there is no significant interaction there to speak of.

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11 February - A Doll A Day 2025:

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Janie and Trivia replace a corroded, gummed-up bathroom faucet:


Janie disconnects the water lines under the sink and removes the lock nuts.

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Triv pulls the old faucet out of the countertop.
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Trivia holds the new "waterfall style" faucet in place while Janie tightens up the connections under the sink cabinet.

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"SON OF A...."

And now the swearing starts. An inevitability when switching out a drain is that the tailpiece - the straight pipe that points downward under a sink drain - will be either too long or too short. Even though tailpiece connections are ostensibly adjustable, the tailpiece of the new drain will still be the wrong length to match up with the pre-existing drain line.

In this case, the tailpiece is too long, necessitating trimming it to be shorter. It has to do with that pesky physics issue of water being disinclined to flow up-slope. Could have been worse: a too-short tailpiece would have required a trip to the hardware store.

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"That ought to do it. Now to sand the burrs and bevel the outside edges a bit."

Janie uses a hacksaw to trim an over-long tailpiece.

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"Jus li' dat, sucker!"

Janie has a low tolerance for anything less than perfection.

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"Looks good up here! The water is running strong and smooth, hot and cold!"

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"No leaks down here! That's a wrap!"

[Alliecat]

Back at it, I see. I am really surprised that you weren’t involved with maintenance and fixing things aboard the boat on that cruise!!   
These are all so cute. I swear, you could do a DIY blog that actually teaches people how to do things, but with the dolls for illustration.
What is a home improvement project without swearing?

[davidd]

What is a home improvement project without swearing?

A home improvement project without swearing is like a day without orange juice... or a day without orange jumpsuits... or something.

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12 February - A Doll A Day 2025:

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Another Nun

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Another salvage operation - why I had used a versatile (and cute) TBLeague seamless S44 figure as the basis for this nun doll I'm not sure, but the body and head have been reclaimed for other purposes. As a bonus, the newly revised nun looks more imposing.

Head: War Story WS015
Body: generic jointed plastic
Costume: vintage (circa 1950s) "sleepy eye" doll via eBay

12 February - A Doll A Day 2025

[Alliecat]

Did she hurt her wrists helping out with Smarts and Crafts? … heh, I gather she has those joints that you don’t like. I zoomed in on her face and she looks like she might be in a classic painting. She’s pretty.

[davidd]

Did she hurt her wrists helping out with Smarts and Crafts?  

Bandages over the stigmata wounds.

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13 February - A Doll A Day 2025:

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Circa 1950s or 1960s unbranded nun dolls, about 8 inches tall.

The poor things have had nails driven through their skulls, and various other parts of their bodies, for nearly 70 years.

I purchased a number of these old nun dolls inex-pensively via eBay about four years ago to use as parts to create 1/6-scale nun figures. Most of the dolls I purchased were in poor condition so I had no qualms about using them as parts donors.

These two, however, were in much better condition. The one in the white costume looks as though she had rarely or never been removed from her box. I've been struggling emotionally over taking these dolls apart to use essentially as craft supplies. Somebody received these dolls as gifts, probably when they were very young (one of the dolls has a "first communion" pin attached). They were kept in good condition -- either cherished or stashed away and forgotten, for six or seven decades. I'm sure these dolls ended up as part of an estate liquidation before finding their way to eBay.

What right have I to destroy something that was cherished, or at least kept intact, for fifty, sixty, or even seventy years for one of my silly little craft projects that will never be of use to anyone?

As a result, these two dolls have been stashed away in my storage shed for the past three, maybe four years.

Today I decided to stop being so maudlin over something that nobody else cares about. The family of whoever they belonged to didn't keep them. The eBay seller didn't keep them. I'm sure I only paid ten or twelve dollars apiece, so it's not like they have any financial value. There are still loads of similar dolls on eBay at asking prices in the mid-$20 range, so they are not rare. A glance at "sold listings" on eBay indicates that very few dolls of this type end up selling, so there is little to no demand.

Objectively, looking at these dolls as mere "things," then, there is no reason not to "part them out" for other purposes. Subjectively, however, I can't help picturing some little girl of sixty or seventy years ago in her pretty communion dress that her mother made for her receiving her first communion service and then being given one of these dolls as a gift and treasuring it her entire life.

If I keep and treasure the doll, am I helping keep alive the memory of somebody I never knew and know nothing about? If I take the dolls apart, am I destroying the last vestige of something that was once very important to someone?

It's so hard to know what to do sometimes. I should just buy new stuff. But I could get two or three of these old dolls for the price of one new "nun costume" for a 1/6-scale figure, and the old ones actually look nicer.

Ultimately, I took apart the one in the black robe. As I took the doll apart, I felt less guilty. The fabric has become very brittle, as has the plastic of the body. The doll and the costume is deteriorating from age. I'm not sure if I'll be able to salvage enough to create another 1/6-scale nun figure.

I might keep the one in the white robe. She has "sleep eyes" and even included her original box, and is in better condition than the one in the black robe.

[Alliecat]

I’d feel bad taking them apart too, probably. Isn’t it funny how “things” with faces – dolls, plushies, figurines – can seem to have such personalities.