Lego Winter Village tableau

I put together a Christmas tableau on my dining room table.  It's made up of 6 kits of varying sizes, plus figures from 2 other kits.




If you move the train the Christmas tree on the flatbed car, revolves.  Very cool kit.


The horse in the sleigh kit can move his head.  Most Lego horses are stationary.

The Big Bang Theory Lego set

I had to have the Big Bang Theory Lego set.  I mean it's nerds.  And Legos.  And seven mini-figures.  And cool items on the shelves.

Here it is set up.  I added the Christmas tree for the holiday.

Bats, Legos, and perception

Recently I got a letter from Bat Conservation International (http://www.batcon.org) concerning a new Lego game, Heroica and its portrayal of bats as monsters.

As BCI stated in their e-mail: "It is unfortunate that Lego, a leader in children's toys, chose to perpetuate this outdated myth and reinforce baseless fears of such beneficial animals. For centuries, myths and misinformation have led to declines in bat populations. Without bats, humans would be in serious trouble."

BCI requested that people contact Lego in protest. Unfortunately, I didn't save the message I sent. But the gist was that I felt they were perpetuating bad information and encouraging children to be afraid of bats.

Here is part of the Lego response: "There is a long tradition for using animals as icons when creating stories that trigger the imagination of children. Children are able to distinguish between fantasy and real life, and we believe that playing this board game will not encourage them to harm living animals."

That's ridiculous. Yes, I expect children to understand that unicorns, werewolves, ogres, and orcs are fantasy. (And if you are not, I apologize.)

But bats are not fantasy creatures. Bats are living animals with a public relations problem. They don't need to be cast as monsters in a game.

I'll tell you why I joined Bat Conservation International in the first place. Because I was irrationally terrified of bats.

I lived in a house out in the Iowa countryside where critters tended to get inside. I had a plethora of mice, a couple birds, a squirrel, and even a snake enter the house. Not one of them bothered me as much as it did when a bat got into the house.

I was freaking terrified.

Lego expects a child to understand the difference between fantasy and reality. At that same age, I was exposed to the Dracula and vampire mythology. I was told that bats will get tangled into your hair. That they will bite you, and drink your blood.

None of it true. All of it fantasy.

And it didn't matter. As an adult, I was still terrified.

I researched bats and found these misunderstood creatures are beneficial to human society. Some of them are even cute. I assuage the guilt I felt over my fear by donating money every year to BCI.

Casting bats as monsters will instill that same fear into another generation of children.

I protest.

Declutter and purge

I've been doing a declutter and purge.  I generally keep my house reasonably uncluttered. I think it comes from having grown up with a hoarder.  I am an anti-hoarder.  Except with books.  And Beanie Babies.  What do I do with 300 Beanie Babies now that no one else wants them?

But I have taken a much more critical eye to my belongings than in years past. I got rid of several perfectly good shirts.  But every time I reached for one, I would draw my hand back and say, "Umm. No.."  The shirts deserve to be worn. Into the giveaway pile they went.

Four years ago, I took down gorgeous, full length curtains I made for my 8' wide bedroom window. They clashed with a stained glass piece I hung in the same window.  Do I really expect I would change my mind and rehang them?  Or make something else out of them?  I barely have time to finish the items on my to-do lists.  When would I find time to take on a new project?  Into the giveaway pile.

I had some delicate gold necklaces with real (tiny) diamonds.  I haven't worn them in at least 5 years.  I have a lucky necklace I wear every day.  So these necklaces have hung forlornly from a tie rack, pretty but forgotten.  Into the giveaway pile.

My hardest giveaway?  Legos.  I have accumulated 30 pounds of Legos.  Some from when I had young step kids, but most were purchased for work.  At one work place, I used Lego sets as a conversation starter.  They were also useful to occupy fidgety people.  At this workplace, we built an entire cityscape when we had down time compiling code on slow machines.

But we moved offices and the buildings came down.  We got faster computers and there was no down time. It's been over a year and the city has not been rebuilt. 

The Legos were stored in the garage, in transparent containers, reminding me that they were being unused, neglected. 

I couldn't bring myself to part with all of them.  But I sorted all the colors and the people and gave away 2/3 of my Legos to 2 boys that will love them and play with them. 

My next step?  Software disks.  Do I really need to keep the disk for TurboTax 1999?