Photo of the Day: December 29, 2015; snowy rainy day, Chia

Winter finally hit Toronto last night. Then it just got rainy, as the temperature warmed.

View from my window.  Manual focus, obviously.  It's raining in my heart....
Toronto.  December 29, 2015 at 7:40 AM, f/ 3.5, 1/6 s at ISO 200.

I'm starting to work on the list of stuff to get done, finally, now that I've been on leave for 1.5 months.  Here is something I've started to contemplate...

Random thoughts

Chia Pets

So, these new Chia Pets being advertised on TV are pissing me off because they are conceptually suspect and flawed.

When I was a kid, there were these things called Chia Pets.  For those who don't know, Chia Pets, in the words of wikipedia are "terracotta figurines used to sprout chia, where the chia sprouts grow within a couple of weeks to resemble the animal's fur or hair"  (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chia_Pet).

This is the way I remember them looking:

This picture not taken by me.  From http://0.tqn.com/d/inventors/1/S/U/9/ramchia.jpg

This makes sense, since the chia sprouts grow where the sheep or ram would grow fur.  Fine.

For that very reason, the new wave of Chia Pets make no sense!  No sense!  For instance, look at this "Indominus Rex" tie-in to the summer movie, Jurassic World.

This picture not by me, taken from chia.com at
http://chia.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/71bbKAwYXIL._SL1000_.jpg

The Indominus Rex does not grow fur or hair on its back!  As least as far as what I can tell!  

The same with this, Chia Kermit:

This picture not by me.  Taken from chia.com; see
http://chia.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Chia-Pet-Kermit-the-Frog-1030x1030.jpg

Kermit doesn't have any hair, let alone a perm!  

We should all be outraged by this! What happened to the art and purity of the concept? This isn't about the art of Chia; it's just crass commercialism.  For shame!  Well, at the very least, they don't make any sense and they violate my understanding of the product, that the chia sprouts are the fur or hair of the chia clay "pot."

This is the kind of thing you think of when you have time to ponder it....