Things Are Changing

On April 2nd, I bought my second-ever jade plant, Ralph. He's named for a contemporary of Walt's favorite poet and namesake: Ralph Waldo Emerson. This makes sense because he's basically a Waldo anyways, maybe just because of the similarity to Walt. So far I've read him one Emerson essay and boy oh boy was it boring. It's strange how quickly you can tell the difference between baby plants - Walt was shy, creative, and gay, while Ralph is bookish, somewhat athletic, and as straight as a slingshot.

Here's your new jade, Ralph:


And here's your old friend Walt, who was growing so much:


Atta boy, Walt!

UPDATE: He's Probably A Weed

It's true, I have a certain feeling that this new iteration of Walt (and his numerous siblings) is actually a system of weeds. Here's how I feel about it: if this were a living, breathing child, I would not hesitate to raise him as my own, even upon hearing this news. However, Walt II is just a plant, and in fact he's a weed, which I have been trained to hate from the first day my mom made me pull weeds on weekend mornings. I will miss this reincarnation of Walt, but I feel that I would best honor Walt's spirit and memory by replacing him with another noble jade. The new plant will know how great Walt was, as I plan to tell him or her stories of Walt and his movie star joie de vivre.

Instead of getting rid of the weed, I could always just keep it around on the fire escape. Just in case it is a living, breathing thing after all.

UPDATE: Maybe He's A Tree?

Don't those stems look like baby tree trunks? If Walt, Christopher Robin, Elvis, and the rest are really going to try to grow up and be trees, they can't stay in that planter for much longer. Their roots would start to hurt!

The Tree Theory comes from a few facts:
1) our upstairs neighbors have a fire escape
2) that fire escape has a miniature tree planter
3) gravity seems to exist
4) germinated tree seeds might even be heavier than ungerminated tree seeds, meaning they'd DEFINITELY fall RIGHT ONTO WALT'S PLANTER!

Here are the holes in the Tree Theory:
1) But isn't Walt a jade plant?
2) I guess now he's a half-breed like me.
3) How exactly DO trees reproduce? I recall words like "gymnosperm" and "mitosis/meiosis," but I'm at a loss if I wanted to VERIFY that the germinated seeds could fall into Walt's planter. Krebs cycle? Xylem and phloem.

Another thing is that Walt needs MUCH, MUCH more water than before. If I miss three days in a row, he's drooping worse than Miss Havisham. Back when he was just a jade plant, he went for days and days and days without water because that's what desert plants do.

The mystery continues, but at least now we have a theory. Maybe he's a tree!

Getting To Know Walt (Putting It Walt's Way But Nicely)

Here's a candid of Walt on the fire escape. He's always out there. It's like he lives out there!






This is Christopher Robin, Walt's first little brother.











This is Walt and Christopher Robin's little brother, Elvis.







And in a hilarious parallel to Walt Solves The Mystery Of The Water Tower, even more babies have shown up in the past few weeks!








I think Elvis wants to start boy scouts soon. The funny thing is, Christopher Robin couldn't want anything more than NOT to start boy scouts soon. (He's trying to put it off.)

And I can't be sure, but Walt seems pretty secretive about his private life lately. I wonder if he met someone special. You know how boys are.

Walt Caught In A Papparazzi Storm

Doesn't this look like Walt's leaving a Hollywood restaurant and suddenly is surrounded by photographers because he was asking for it?

and also, look how big he's getting!

and lastly, he really, really, really doesn't look like he used to, and I'm only saying that I'm just the slightest bit suspicious.

walt and the mystery of the water tower

I call this the second in the series even though it was filmed third. Not only a celebration of babies and detective work, "walt and the mystery of the walter tower" showcases the best of my animation ability, or at least camera trickery. For these reasons, this one is my favorite.

filmed/edited on May 25th, 2006.

walt goes nuts!

This video was made ENTIRELY by me and Walt on April 19th, 2005 (a mere seven days after Walt's adoption at the fair that was taking up all of Low Plaza, where I picked the friendly looking jade over literally millions of other plants). It's loosely based on a Virginia Woolf book, although which one it's not clear. This movie is the first in a series by me and Walt.

Please keep in mind that I made this video as a younger girl, so there exist several very good reasons not to put this video up. But I put it up anyway, so enjoy it for my sake. Freshman year, everybody.

n.b. If you can't understand the dialogue, give it a few more views. I'm confident that everything is intelligible through context.