PRODUCT REVIEW: Lamb Chop (Aurora)

Previously, on this blog, I had talked about how some of my idols like Shari Lewis was what gave me the idea for Living With a Hand Puppet. 

And one of my wishes was to be like her. And what better way to make this wish than do so on my 25th birthday.

Yesterday (June 26, 2018) was my 25th birthday, and of course, I had a very special guest...

LAMB CHOP!

That's right! A puppet replica of Lamb Chop is real! She was out there, and I was able to get her off of Amazon. She came in a big box, because I had bought something else. In my opinion, a box as a choice of packaging was fine by me--it sure beats putting the puppet in a flimsy Amazon bag packaging like when I got Dylan the bookworm. It even came with a fine protective plastic bag, which was also okay.

Right off the bat, Lamb Chop makes it perfectly clear that she's "a puppet" with the red tag on her neck. She also came with another tag on her ear that said that she was "The Lamb. The Legend."

(Well, of course she is!) 

This tag also had a "To-" and "From-" spot in case someone wanted to give this as a gift. 

A celebratory gesture, seeing that I got this on my birthday. 

On the back of this tag, we see that the character Lamb Chop is owned by Classic Media (since 2012), which begs the question: "Why haven't re-runs of Lamb Chop's Play Along been given the DVD treatment? (In other words, why can't this show be on streaming services like Netflix?)"

Upon sitting her down on the bed, Lamb Chop exceeds 12 in. (I think Amazon said that she was 17 in. long); and she's made with polyester just like the real Lamb Chop. The likeness of the puppet strongly resembles that of the original--in my opinion, that's good, because it's almost close to the real thing.

The puppet was brought to us by Aurora, which has a website when you type in "Aurora plush." At a glance, Aurora is known to sell plushies and other kid products that have licensed characters.

So then it was time to actually try my hand at using this puppet like how Shari Lewis would. 

(Lamb Chop blowing kisses)

Me: "She's a little shy..."

Now, putting my hand into the puppet to work the mouth was both exciting and challenging. 

The mouth is manufactured to where you can't really move your hand much to make it "talk." Her mouth doesn't open and close, but does a shuffling movement whenever you fit your pointer, middle finger, ring finger, and pinky in it. I guess the exciting part was that I got to move her arms with my fingers: my right thumb moves her left arm, and my pinky moves her right arm.

QUALITY

You can tell that Aurora took pride in recreating the Lamb Chop character, especially allowing the consumer to operate her as a puppet, just like Shari Lewis. Fine craftsmanship and needle-work show that a lot of effort was put into this product: the polyester, the fabric. The material to this product is super genuine.

The only negative I could give it is that when operating this puppet, working the mouth may not be for everyone: If you have small hands, then you're fine. If you have thin fingers, then you're fine. So, this, unfortunately, is not a one-size-fits-most format, like Dylan.

Rating: 9/10

ASSEMBLY?

No assembly required, other than taking off the tags.

Rating: 10/10

CREATIVITY

This product captures the spirit of the original source material. Having a replica of Lamb Chop--one that you yourself can own and operate--was one of my life's goals, because I wanted to so-badly channel Shari Lewis. So if you got the nostalgia, and if you know who Shari Lewis is and her works, then you'll love this product.

Rating: 10/10

UNIQUE & WEIRD?

There's ABSOLUTELY NOTHING weird about this product. This product is 100% unique, because again, it stays true to the original source material.

Rating: 10/10

DISTRIBUTION & PACKAGING

The way that Lamb Chop was distributed was decent. I respected the box that she came in, and the plastic wrapping that she was wrapped in. And that's saying a lot, compared to how Amazon treated the Dylan puppet with its flimsy bubble-wrap packaging (that wasn't The Puppet Company's fault). 

Rating: 10/10

***************************FINAL VERDICT: 10/10********************************

I love--I mean it, LOVE-- this product.

 It captures the spirit of Shari Lewis, and it was an honor to channel her with the Lamb Chop puppet.

Now... a suggestion: Can Aurora World make the Charlie Horse and Hush Puppy puppets next?

Sources:

Aurora World, Inc. (2018). www.auroragift.com/

Lamb Chop. Classic Media (2012).

REUSE IT!: Shredding Paper ---> Scratch Paper and Bookmarks

I was shredding some paperwork that I didn't need anymore.

Shredding can be hard work. But what happens to the unused part of the paper? It goes through the shredder regardless, when it could've been used for something else. Plus, the shredder works hard to shred every piece of paper that you would feed into it--the last thing you want to do is overwork it, and have it overheat on you.

FOR THE RECORD: The paper examples showed in the visuals are from some of the essays (drafts) that I would write during my time in school. I was shredding drafts that I no longer needed. (That's all part of being a writer, keeping drafts and discarding them for something better.)

SCRATCH PAPER

Now, I'm a writer, and I would jot down any ideas whenever they would come to mind. I also have a habit of writing grocery lists every time I go to the market to buy groceries. I even write To-Do lists--imagine that! But the thing is, I don't see myself going to the store just to buy a small pad of sticky notes that will only run out eventually.

So given that I don't want to waste paper, I decided to look through some of the paper that I want to shred, and cut off the blank, unused parts of the paper into small but sufficiently-sized scratch paper.

This way, not only are you reusing paper, but you're also indulging your inner-writer: jotting down ideas, keeping lists, etc.

DISCLAIMER: Adults are allowed to handle the scissors.

BOOKMARKS

I'm also an avid reader. Every time I start reading a book, I can't help but pick up a small piece of paper and use it as a bookmark. NEVER WOULD I EVER buy a bookmark at a store--I would use that kind of money to save up for a puppet friend for either Serena

or our bookworm Dylan!

So going back to the paper that we want to shred--cutting off a small rectangular portion of some paper that we want to shred…

that would be a bookmark that I would use.

It's nothing fancy, but it's doable.

Once you cut and separate the unused parts of the papers that you want to shred, the labor would be less time-consuming, and it would be less stress on your shredder--again, the last thing you want is for your shredder to die on you from too much labor.

Also, ANOTHER DISCLAIMER: Cutting the paper with scissors should be done moderately, so that you can avoid carpal tunnel in the hands.

So, this was something that I was fiddling with when I was shredding paper, because trust me--having a lot of papers is a lot to handle, especially when you're a writer trying to make note of everything that you want to put in a story. That's me: the busy writer.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So yeah, this was my first segment of REUSE IT! I'll probably do another one of these in the future, because when I start constructing projects (arts-and-crafts wise). Part of my inspiration for this segment came from Noel Macneal's book Box! Castles, Kitchens, and Other Cardboard Creations for Kids.

He had some good ideas on how to reuse stuff to create something new or to make it more effective in its use.
So, in the future, another segment of REUSE IT! will come soon on this blog.

Father's Day Weekend with Serena (2018)

Blog #6

This past weekend was Father's Day, and... well, my dad was out of town. So what other way to spend this weekend than with Serena and Mombo.

Thursday, June 14, 2018
(Okay, technically this is NOT part of the Father's Day weekend, but... we still had fun)

Serena and I played the LarryBoy and the Bad Apple video game on our PlayStation 2.

Like me, Serena likes this movie; and we both fangirl over LarryBoy.

LOL!
Serena kept winning on the minigames like Darts, but I was better at the Memory minigame.

The only time that Serena got frustrated was during the cutscenes, because there was no way to skip past them in the game--basically you would have to sit through the cutscenes.

Serena: "You can't skip through this! Grrrr!!!"

And the only times that Serena freaked out was when the Bad Apple came on screen. And boy did she freak out…

She went as far as calling out the Bad Apple for being horrendously evil.

Serena: "Don't listen to her! Shame! Shame on the Bad Apple, shame! SHAME!!!"

Anyway, we played through the first stage of the game, where LarryBoy is trying to escape his chocolate temptation.

Me: "Swoop in and BAM!"

And Serena helped.

Me: "Oooh! Ugh! Seriously! Serena, really?!"

Me: "Go ahead, Serena." (helping me with the buttons)

And then we get to the Boss Battle, where we have to maneuver LarryBoy on top of number-labeled cookies, while the Bad Apple counted up to 9 and stopped on a certain number.

Trust me, it's a lot harder than it seems when you actually play it.

(The Bad Apple counts off as we take LarryBoy to Number 4)

Me: "Well, that's easy!" (Us getting LarryBoy to Number 9 in two seconds!)

(We win, and the Bad Apple swears revenge)

Long story short, Serena and I gave the Bad Apple what-for!

Me: "Oh my gosh! Wow! We did it! We showed her, Serena! We showed her!"

Saturday, June 16, 2018
Mombo came by and hung out for a while. She was even nice enough to serve me a can of Sprite.

Mombo can be nice... I just wish that she would stop messing with the camera sometimes.

Mombo: "Can you see me in here?"
Meanwhile, Serena was upset because I had promised her that we would watch a Barney video on YouTube, and I forgot.

Serena: "You promised me Barney!!!"

So we watched a video (some random episode), and I rock Serena to sleep afterwards.

Sunday, June 17, 2018

Did you know that Serena had two brothers?
The right foot is Piggy, and the left foot is Pugsy.
Both of them played with a wind-up Android that I had gotten from a job fair back at UIW (a few years ago).

And then they test-drove the Larrymobile for a little bit, which was cool.

Today...
I've been thinking about buying a camcorder, so that it would be easier to make videos, especially for the SerenaTalksALot series. Not that I can't do the series with a tablet... but it would still be nice to have a camera that's handy, and not a struggle to hold onto while filming. I don't know... maybe when I save enough money, I can buy a camcorder.

Sources:
LarryBoy and the Bad Apple PS2, Crave Entertainment, Big Idea Entertainment, 2006.

Watching a DVD & Having a Thought

Blog #5

This week I gotten a new DVD player, because my old one had died earlier this month. It wasn't salvageable, even after using a lens cleaner. It was all of a sudden, it stopped working, and wouldn't read any of the DVDs that we put in it.
So, we got a new DVD player, and I plugged it in, set it up, and everything.

And to test it out, I put in Plaza Sesamo: Vamos a Cantar (now one of Serena's favorites)--

yeah, I've been using this DVD to test the old DVD player after using the lens cleaner, and then I used it with the new device.

Anyway, our new player works pretty good, and Serena was able to enjoy DVDs again. She was sad for a while that our other DVD player died.

After setting up the new DVD player without any assistance, I was suddenly having this idea about installing things--like maybe I was good at putting things together. There had to be a name for this...a technician, or an installer...? I don't know, maybe being a tradesman could be something I could do...maybe not...? At this point in my life, after graduating from grad school, I really want to follow opportunity. Maybe, besides writing, I could train to be some kind of skilled tradesman?

By the way, Serena had asked me if I had found a job yet, I would tell her that I was doing my best at getting one. We'll just have to see what happens...

UPDATE on Upcoming Series "SerenaTalksALot"

When I had first started this blog, I had a pretty cool idea in mind.

Serena is a very inquisitive and adventurous in pretty much everything she does.

I've already shown some of that on this blog so far. However, there's more where that came from.
That's why I'm creating the video series "SerenaTalksALot," and we'll have a YouTube channel. Now YouTube is nothing new to me, because of the "LarryBoy Fanatic" series that I did. So yeah, that means that I'm going to have a second channel under my belt if we launch the "SerenaTalksALot" series.

Long-story short: I'm excited to expand this blog to YouTube, because I've always had this idea in mind since my last semester at Our Lady of the Lake University (a couple of months ago). So as soon as I have it going, I'll provide a link to the channel in a future blog post.

Dessert and Bedtime with Serena

Blog #4

Yesterday I was having a Coffee Panna Cotta served with a splash of chocolate syrup and a side of Chips Ahoy cookies.

I got the recipe for Coffee Panna Cotta from Jacques Pepin's cookbook, Heart and Soul in the Kitchen,

and I had gotten into the habit of being creative in the kitchen ever since. The recipe only had the panna cotta itself; the chocolate syrup and cookies were my only additions to the dish.
Serena saw the dessert and wanted to try it... though she was more interested in the chocolate chip cookies than the actual dessert; but the food was enjoyable regardless.

(At least Serena didn't bounce off the walls, because of the panna cotta being coffee-flavored.)

Last night, I had tucked Serena into bed;

and Mombo was there to read a bedtime story... or The Joy of Cookies by Cookie Monster.

Mombo reading to Serena was nice and all but... I was wondering "Who reads to their kid at 1 o'clock in the morning?" We lost track of time last night, and I didn't look at the clock until around that time. Plus, Mombo kept asking me if the camera on the tablet was on so that she could document her reading to Serena. Here's the outcome of her doing just that...

As Serena fell asleep that night, I felt a little sad, because I wanted to be a mother someday, so that I could do things like this, like tuck my own child into bed.

I don't know--I just want that feeling of being loved and being looked up to. In fact, seeing Mombo and Serena makes me feel this way, because I want that- I want to be loved and looked up to.

TODAY...
I still think about wanting to be a mom. I think I could be a great mom someday. When that'll happen... I don't know.