Udder Randomness

[Alopecia No Hime]

Not sure if house still smelling like fried onions is good or bad. So it's random.

[victoriavictrix]

Remember seeing The Magic Pony/Horse as a kid? Bet it never looked this good http://youtu.be/GFXpCtHmU1U We used to get faded, grainy, out of sync cartoons with muffled audio and we liked it!

That is a classic Russian Fairy Tale, "The Little Humpback Horse." There is also a ballet from the same fairy tale.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eQhpzsKmBk

There are a LOT of those lovely 1950s Russian-made Fairy Tale cartoons on YouTube.

Also known as a camel? hahahahaha... j/k

Heh....

But to be serious, the Little Humpbacked Horse is the youngest child of the Wind, a beautiful mare with mane and tail of fire. His two or three older brothers are equally gorgeous black stallions. He is small, donkey-eared, and malformed, but as the Wind tells Ivan Ivanovitch, he is worth more than all her sons put together. The titular little horse helps Ivan, a peasant’s son, carry out the many unreasonable demands of the tsar. During his adventures, Ivan captures the beautiful magic firebird for the tsar, keeps his magic horse, and finds his love, Tsar-Maid (Princess). At the end, the princess and the peasant’s son live happily for many years after.

[DollyKim]

All these years watching the 1947 English dub and I never connected that the white horse was the wind. The start with a farmer's wheat being trampled in the night makes sense. All I ever wanted to do was draw the black stallions and have them look like the cartoon.

Mix in The Last Unicorn and you have little girl heaven.

[victoriavictrix]

Any time you want to know something about a Russian fairy tale, just ask. I've been mining them for my retold fairy tale books for quite some time now, besides having an interest in them because I adore Russian ballet.

Ivan Ivanovitch in Humpbacked Horse is the youngest of the farmer's sons, and as the youngest (in Russian Tradition) is the Fool. This doesn't mean he is an idiot, it means he is an innocent, so he's the only one to be able to stay awake to catch the Wind trampling his father's grain; his brothers, when sent out to watch, are jaded and venal, and the Wind can easily make them fall asleep (you'll see this same pattern in many of the Firebird stories as well; the corrupt are susceptible to magic, but the innocent are immune).

[Trethowan]

I bought a collection of Russian fairy tales but have yet to sit down and read them. I've so many things to read and it seems when I sit down to do so I read the back of my eyelids instead. (ha) I have enjoyed the Primary Chronicle though! I figured I'd better brush up on some of this stuff since Ivan was in Russia between 1178 and 1250.

[Anderson'sAllPurpose]

[...] the ridiculous Harry Potter soundtrack for the songs Jarvis Cocker wrote [...]

I had to google that beause I had no idea he was in it, and if someone had mentioned it in casual conversation I would never have believed it! (The things you miss when you live under a rock.)

Random thing: I ordered some stuff from Amazon UK and they added about £1.20 to each item without explanation. If there's some kind of extra fee for international orders I could understand that, but you'd think they would tell you about i?

[littlesamuraigirl]

I have successfully converted my younger sister into a BJD lover xD She's going to go for a Resinsoul Han as her first doll pretty soon <3 She wanted a full-sized SD, but I convinced her it might be better to look at a slightly smaller doll, so she's settled on an MSD instead. Really looking forward to having another doll owner to talk to around here!

In other news...we got a puppy recently! A blue pitbull named Harley, and he certainly is a handful sometimes >w< But we all love him lots.

[victoriavictrix]

[...] the ridiculous Harry Potter soundtrack for the songs Jarvis Cocker wrote [...]

I had to google that beause I had no idea he was in it, and if someone had mentioned it in casual conversation I would never have believed it! (The things you miss when you live under a rock.)

Random thing: I ordered some stuff from Amazon UK and they added about £1.20 to each item without explanation. If there's some kind of extra fee for international orders I could understand that, but you'd think they would tell you about i?

There's a couple things it might be. VAT (Value Added Tax) that they slap on to EVERYTHING every time it gets sold in the manufacturing process (raw materials into parts, VAT, parts into object, VAT, wholesaler to retailer, VAT, retailer to you, VAT). Brits are so used to that they don't even think about it. Technically there is a way for a buyer in the US to get it back, but you need to fill out a special customs form. It could be a currency conversion fee, if Amazon does their own currency conversion instead of having the bank/debit/credit card company do it. Or it could be an international handling fee.

[DollyKim]

I ordered from Amazon Japan a couple of times and they had a pretty steep rate for sending to the US. The good thing was they got it to me super fast.

[knittnkitten]

I'm going to pack an overnight bag for work tonight. its possible a bad icestorm will hit while I'm at work and if it hits a level three, I'll have to stay and probably work on the hall. its possible I might fall asleep under a desk and surprise the administration in the morning... the upside is I might get a free breakfast!