Hi W!zard, Witchy, and everyone here! Chances are some folks here won't know me; I'm a long time truespace user.
I am a member here at these forums but for the past several months / year I've been extremely busy.
We finally got all our stuff packed up and made it to Denver with minimal casualties. Only a few things got broken,
and there's an electric toothbrush, and a green pair of shoes M.I.A. The toothbrush is gone for good, I'm sure, but the shoes,
I dunno; I doubt we would've put the toothbrush in with the shoes...

Let me tell you ... this was the hardest freakin move we've ever done. Even though we dumped a lot of stuff (donated) in Virginia Beach, it was still rough gettin out here.

Anyway. We're gettin used to the altitude, and I'm starting to spend some time with 3d again. Finally!
I am working on a 3-D Magic 8 Ball in truespace. I'll letcha know when it's done!

Ok; talk to everyone soon!

Froo

Woo Hoo! Welcome to the high life Froo! I'd been wondering about you guys and your move and how it was all going for you both. Glad to hear you made it at last. Sorry to hear about your toothbrush though - I love my electric toothbrush and would be heartbroken if I lost it! .

I can only guess at the logistics involved in moving such a great distance - though I've traveled around the world a bit I've usually only had to transport a backpack and a guitar - shifting all your belongings so far must have been a major mission.

Anyway, I hope Colorado works out for you and Nellja - from what I've heard it's not a bad place to live and at least you won't have to worry about rising sea levels for a while!!

All the best for the future and I hope the new job works out well for you.

What is a 3d magic 8 ball?

LMAO!!! What's a Magic 8 Ball?!? You do need to get out of the castle more Wiz!!

I'll let you look it up on the web, because I'm sure you've been in a toy store at least once in your life and you're just not thinking toys!

Sorry, buddy, that just hit me so funny our favorite Cozmyk Wizard not knowing what a fortune telling toy was! LMAO!!!

I hadn't heard of it either so I had to do a quick google. I don't think they ever sold it in England when I was young at least I never saw it in the toy shops and I'm sure I would have spotted it if it had been there

Well that's a little embarressing! Having now looked it up on Wikipedia I know now what a Magic 8 ball is. I can recall occasional references to them but have never seen one. I suspect they're something of a cultural icon in the US but but they don't seem to be all that well known here.
Oracular devices come in many forms of course and "an oracle always resonates to the needs of the time of inquiry" so I can imagine that a Magic 8 ball could easily be used for prophecy. After all many systems of generating meaning and significance from random events have been used around the world - tea leaves, clouds, chicken entrails (yech!), runes and tarot cards are all common examples.

Interestingly, (according to Wikipedia) the Laws of Probability state that on average it takes 72 consultations of the Magic 8 ball for all the possible 20 answers to be revealed - and traditional Tarot Decks all have 72 cards. Is this coincidental? Who can tell! As with all things mystical there is no real way to certain - like quantum mechanics. Of course as a Wizard I do have a range of useful theories about the subject ! The simplest theory is that "meaning, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. But I'll spare you all the extended version of the theory.

What is also interesting (to me anyway) is that given the huge amount of influence of American culture on NZ culture it seems the Magic 8 Ball is one piece of Americana which hasn't made it's way over to this side of the Pacific. Maybe I should go and gut a chicken and ask it's entrails why this is!!!

(On second thoughts I think I'll leave the chicken gutting to Colonel Saunders!)

Looking at the Wiki for this :

"The Magic 8-Ball is a hollow, plastic sphere resembling an oversized, black and white 8-ball. Inside is a cylindrical reservoir containing a white, plastic, icosahedral die floating in alcohol with dissolved dark blue dye."

I wondered if these would have been disallowed by immigration/health and safety due to the alcohol and dye

Mind you it didn't stop us getting toy soldiers made of solid lead and others with lead paint or radioactive luminous paint on them

Yeah those were dangerous days! We even had to actually walk to school! In the rain! WITHOUT ADULT SUPERVISION!!! It's a wonder any of us kids are still alive!!

Dunno if the Magic 8 Ball was banned because of the alcohol or not - given the history of this country though I suspect that the Magic 8 Ball simply wasn't British enough for this colonial outpost . After all we've only really had Halloween here for about 20 years - there was no such thing when I was a lad! And even though we now have it we still celebrate it at the same time as the Northern Hemishere meaning it's springtime here and ripe pumpkins are scarce as hens teeth!

It's a funny world!