Day five and we’re back to animals. Yes as much as I enjoyed the brief foray into origami beverages, animals are where I feel most at home. And today we have this pig. This was a fun model to fold, until it got to the point where I had to try and make the eyes symmetrical, then it became less fun. But overall I enjoyed this one. Now some of you might notice a bit of a pork-flavoured theme here, with the fugu (the characters for fugu ‘河豚’mean ‘river piglet’) and the hedgehog. And I will say this was completely intentional (even when it wasn’t). Perhaps a whole month dedicated to porcine origami is in order. ...

“The Inner Machinations of my mind are an enigma” Four, an unlucky number and an unlucky day. But hey, I survived the migraine and managed to glue all the pieces of my head back together with the power of a dark room and some white noise. Anyway, I nearly forgot I had to do one of these today and I also ran out of milk. What a miracle then, I am able to create milk from paper (goodness, imagine the global crises I could solve with this knowledge). Sadly, this milk does not taste like the real thing. Also, it’s generic brand. But at least taking photos of it was a great way to showcase some of these fancy mugs I found at the thrift shop! ...

And now for day three. Yes I sense a habit forming now. This year has been one of experimentation for me (not in that way). Those who know me know that I am a staunch purist with origami: one square, no cuts, no glue. Well I have now found the limits to my purism, yes these adorable and addicting to fold caterpillars are folded from rectangles and not squares (please scream in terror now)! Who knows, maybe next year I’ll be brave enough to work with triangles, life is full of surprises. ...

Alright, now for day two. The model I had actually planned to show today did not end up panning out as originally hoped (though who knows, maybe it might make a surprise appearance later on!). Anyway, I thankfully found a suitable replacement while doomscrolling youtube reels, so who says doomscrolling is not productive? Additionally, I may have scared some of my neighbours knocking on their doors at 10pm asking for a hairbrush. The things we suffer for our art I suppose. Now I had originally poses these hedgehogs for a photo titled ‘the Hedgehog’s dilemma’ but I also realised that my family and coworkers can see these posts. ...

Well I was about to call it a day when someone ‘kindly’ reminded me that it’s December, and that means I have a little tradition to honour… darn. Anyway yes I have to show off some of the things I have been working on this year to show that my year was not completely wasted, only mostly wasted. Today we have this very round and puppy-eyed fugu. Yes, ever since getting employed I have developed a rather expensive taste for the finer things, though this fugu probably is nowhere near as toxic as the authentic product. ...

Ah darn, they told me the snake situation is pretty bad in Australia but this is ridiculous. So I suppose we’re now at the year of the snake. Let us hope the expressions these snakes are showing are not indicative of what’s coming this year. I’m not going to wish for anything quite just yet, I’ll need to see the luck rankings for all the zodiac animals before I start setting any expectations. Also, I suppose I can no longer defer my New Year’s Resolutions… or maybe I might defer them until Matariki, I knew celebrating three different new years would come in clutch. ...

And I now am older… yay. I will report if being 27 feels any different from being 26. My general guess is that it probably won’t, though I was advised that the lower back pain is imminent. Anyway, yes I designed another original work! That’s three now. At this rate I might have enough models to publish a book when I’m like 44, man do I look forward to that day. ...

I’m rich! Only one more of these and I’m free until next year. Unfortunately, I have been advised that this model does not carry the same value as one bitcoin, which is sad since I did plan on mass-producing these and retiring early. But I suppose I’ll simply have to wait until the next harebrained scheme arrives. Or perhaps do I need to ‘manifest’ it? (Whatever that means) Bitcoin designed by @oriholic , folded by @the.papershaper ...

So I get a few questions every now and then about practical origami. Usually the answer is well if it were practical, then I wouldn’t be calling it a hobby, would I? Anyway, yes origami has some practical uses. For instance, this delightful goldfish themed chopstick sheath. No longer shall I curse myself every time I lose a chopstick. And yes I suppose I do get asked a fair few questions when I start slipping the chopsticks out of the rear end of a fish, this is often promptly followed by an ‘oh look at the time Victor, I should get going’. I do suppose it sucks for the fish to be impaled on chopsticks. ...