Friday, November 23, 2012

Small Egotistical Pleasures

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Here's an application which, except for the price, I want.   At the Omote 3D Shashin Kan portrait studio in Japan, they've combined a 3D printer and a hand-held scanner so that you can have a small plastic figurine of yourself made.   They come in three sizes:  10cm for $264, 15cm for $402, and 20cm for $528.  Ouch.

Still, what they're buying in Japan is novelty and the services of a professional photographer who knows how to pose you so you look good.  In a few years, fingers crossed, we ought to have self-serve kiosks which will give you your figurine for a pair of sawbucks.  Sort of like those those photo booths that used to give you ten tiny photos for a buck.  I'll confess to looking forward to it --  O brave new world, that has such tchotchkes in it!


You can read the Japan Daily Press article here.


And speaking of Lafferty . . .

The consensus here and on Facebook seems to be that liking R. A. Lafferty's work is not a guy thing.  Which, speaking as an admirer of the man, I find a relief.  There's also been a certain amount of grumbling at how hard it can be find Lafferty's work. 

So I'm pleased to be able to hint that there may be some good news in the offing next year.  I'll let you know as soon as I have all the details.  Stay tuned!

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2 comments:

Bruce said...

Great to hear about good Lafferty news! There was a brilliant Avram Davidson Treasury a few years ago; something similar would be welcome indeed. (Or just a collected stories Volume 1-N).

I recall that his literary state was for sale with a price tag of $70,000 iirc. I also remember that Neil Gaiman is a huge fan of Lafferty's short fiction, if not novels, and regarded him as the finest short fiction writer in the world for a two year interval in the early 70's...a defendable position to take, Coincidence? Mayhap!

Bruce said...

Hrrm. Google has anonymized me...I hight Bruce.