pfffft

[rushthatspeaks]

Last night, when gaudior and I were sitting about with much of Sassafrass having a relaxing post-Balticon session of drinking (I will write up Balticon, when I am slightly less tired-- in short, it went well) we were talking about unwise things one can do while drunk, as one does. And I suggested drunken origami.

I did not get around to implementing this suggestion, mostly because I am kind of perfectionistic about origami and also was painting my toenails. But when I stopped paying attention to my toenails and started paying attention to other things, gaudior showed me a quite nice origami fox mask she'd just made, and a completely reasonable origami sun. I said something along the lines of 'that's neat, did you Google the models?', and she said no, I just wanted to fold a sun, and I knew it was pointy in the following ways, so I made it up. Me: Have you ever made up an origami model before? Answer: no.

I should note here that I am the one who spent the entirety of high school perfecting my sink folds and working my way through various Robert Lang diagrams. When we make our origami Christmas tree ornaments every year, I usually do the complicated ones and gaudior makes a lot of cranes and one or two other things she Googles.

... my wife has Drunken Master Origami.

I mean both that sun and that fox mask are actually good.

Wanting to be clear on this, I said, so you just sat down and this came out? Well, she said, I also made this deformed starfish.

Fair enough. It's not a happy starfish.

So this morning, no longer drunk, she decided she wanted to make another origami sun, and sat down to try to do it again. Direct quotation: "This made so much more sense when I was drunk!" The result was, again, deformed starfish.

She can't do it when not drunk.

gaudior actually has Drunken Master Origami. This is now officially one of the weirdest non-weapons proficiencies I have encountered in real life, and I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it.

What.

Comments

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

Wow. Pictures, please? (Of the fox mask and the sun at least?)

[gaudior.livejournal.com]

Here you go! I included Deformed Starfish I and II for completeness sake:

http://gaudior.livejournal.com/433044.html

[gaudior.livejournal.com]

Oh, wait, that's not a public post, and I don't think I want to make it so. Here they are:

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

Cool. Thank you!

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I think technically she needs to become drunk and be able to make origami at least one more time, as it could have been an alignment of stars or something. Possibly also she should best a blind origami-folding masseur.

[weirdquark]

Do it for science! (Also, if she can do it again and a non-drunk person with an origami proficiency is watching, you'll be able to recreate these things later.)

[faerieboots.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I should have thought of this! I was there and sober and everything! XD But I didn't know she was making them up.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

This is true! I was drunk, unfortunately, and also not paying attention. Next time, I am so paying attention.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

I am for all of these ideas! Consensus seems to be that I should test whether what liquor it is has any effect on what models are produced. Clearly at some point I must get her drunk again near origami paper FOR SCIENCE.

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

You know weapons proficiencies that are weirder?

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

I took a pencak silat class once in college, and I think that martial art involves personalized gravity suspension in real practitioners, because never have I fallen on my ass in a more impressive and confusing set of ways. As in, during the first class at one point the instructor told us all to rub our feet when we got home, because he suspected that most of us were not accustomed to rotating our entire bodies very quickly using only the muscle that runs from the base of your big toe down through the arch of your foot. I also wound up with a bruise because the only striking area we were using in that first class was the underside of our arms about two inches up from a bent elbow. I highly admire people who can get their bodies to make that school work for them, but I am not one of them, and it was the kinesthetic equivalent of painting in a mirror only with more toppling over.

In fiction, I think martial arts pairs figure skating from Ranma 1/2 ties with fancysantakind strife specibus from Homestuck (in which one literally hits people with fancy Santa Christmas ornaments).

[gallian.livejournal.com]

somehow, I fail to be surprised by this...

[larryhammer]

*blink* *blink*

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Wow. What was she drinking? On another potion, she might have done, say, a moonhare and a boat.

And yes, pictures. Please.

Nine

[faerieboots.livejournal.com]

Nothing that strong, I swear! I mostly made her cider-based things and mead-based things. XD

[sovay]

... my wife has Drunken Master Origami.

I want photographs.

Fair enough. It's not a happy starfish.

(Including the starfish.)

Does the kind of liquor affect the resultant shapes?

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

I am absolutely going to test to see whether the kind of liquor affects things.

[sovay]

I am absolutely going to test to see whether the kind of liquor affects things.

I request to be present for these experiments.

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

Of all the things one could possibly do while drunk, this sounds like the sort of thing one is least likely to regret. At least if valuable papers don't go missing as a result.

[faerieboots.livejournal.com]

Wait she seriously just *made up* the patterns for the fox mask and the sun? They came out really well!

(Also, having learned this, I find it inordinately amusing that she could not reproduce these efforts while sober)

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Yes! She just made those up! I looked over and that had happened!

I have been sitting here ever since going how and why did you even put skill points in that. What. What even. Wow.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

... gaudior can think up origami in her head and make them?

IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?

... Wow. That is such an amazing feat of spatial awareness and, and, and talent and---wow.

I have to go tell my kids....

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

ONLY WHEN DRUNK.

I can't get over that either. I mean, trying to make up my own origami models has always been a concept that intimidates the heck out of me, and I have, like, read actual books on the theory involved. Robert Lang wrote a book on how to come up with origami models and I read it and it was SCARY, it was really full of math and complicated diagrams and it made my head hurt.

While drunk, gaudior's description of the thought process involved was 'well I knew what I wanted and I knew where it had to be pointy so I just did it what?'

I have been poking at the fox mask and it is NOT A SIMPLE FOLD.

She now has no idea how to reverse engineer it.

Truly, both alcohol and the human brain are amazing mysteries to me.

[rosefox]

Robert Lang is a genius, no question, but he's the very Western sort of mathematical origami genius and if your brain doesn't work that way then all his advice will be so much nonsense.

Alas, I don't think Akira Yoshizawa wrote any advice books. Maybe try this one? It looks a bit less... rigid.

[khyros.livejournal.com]

This is the best thing I've read like EVER.