Pictures my precious...

I have been remiss in posting Arch related pictures so... here you go.



Above model is from the 5 planes project.



Above is the current project. I'll try and take a better picture that show some of spiffy-doodle details on the back side.

Blood sacrifice redeux.

So I mention the tip of the finger... what I hadn't mentioned was later that day in metal-smithing class I managed to cut my left hand twice more and the right once. Fortunately nothing more then nicks.

Four band aids in 24 hours made me feel a little daft though.

Further proof of why sleep deprivation and sharp things don't mix... I greet you with the little surprise I discovered upn getting out of the bath.

Maybe I should change the name of my new shaver from Head-blade to Head-bleed?

For the squeamish... Just enjoy the cute kitten picture from Lolcats archive

Click Me to see dah kittens. .


THIS link is not for the squeamish. It will not take you to kittens. Only pain and suffering await you. Really.

My, but head wounds do bleed a lot. The red dots on my head were blood splashes.

Blood sacrifice complete

MMy apologies for the shortage of posts since spring break, but starting school back up sorta kicked my but.

However since I am sitting here with my arm elevated waiting for the blood from my slightly mutilated left index finger to clot (so I don't bleed on the project I was working on) I thought I'd take this opportunity to give a quick update.

1) I normally type with my left hand... so this is hard.

2) Because I cashed out my 401K as part of the divorce...taxes suck this year. A lot. A whole lot. If anyone wants to contribute to the Architecture fund this would be a REALLY good time to do so.

3) I need to get photos of my last couple of projects, hopefully I will do so this
weekend.

4) I think my daily uke practice is on hold for a bit.

5) I think I just dripped blood on my head. Gross.

6) Kenpo is going well...however... I think sparing will be on hold for a bit too. We've finished orange belt techniques, I just have to learn the form and a bit more practice of the techniques and I'll be ready to test.

7) I have made a new friend over spring break, as readers of my other blog are aware of. She's a nice girl, who manages to occasionally out-geek me.

8) Between when I started this and now... I went and got a band-aid and latex glove and forgot what else I was going to write...

Back to work.

Saying of the week.

Aprendiz de todo, maestra en nada

Blood for the Blood god...

So I mentioned to my father that I was going to blog this and until my whacked up sleep schedule woke me up at 4:00 am I had forgotten too.

Some of you may have noticed that I periodically have mentioned exacto related injuries. When you mix sleep deprivation plus sharp blades bad things eventually happen. While most of my injuries have not been as bad as when I cut the tip of my thumb off last semester, some of them have been more embarrassing (yeah lap related accidents bad,) but usually its only little blood here or there. In my Arch class we jokingly have a pool to see if anyone makes it through a project without hurting themselves.

I actually would have won it this project. I managed to build 10 half-scale study models, 4 full scale study models, and one finished model without so much as nick.

Ironically, Friday morning I was to turn in my final project I completed it with time to spare and decided to take a hot bath before class both for sore shoulders and as an opportunity to touch up my recently shave head.

Remember what I said about sleep deprivation and sharp blades?

Now, normally in the course of shaving my head I nick myself about every other time. Usually I nick a scar on the back right side of my head.

This time however I managed to cut myself no less then 4 times. I didn't even notice until I put the lovely mentholated lotion on my scalp and the cuts well... they felt like I had rubbed salt into them.

Only one of them was bad, the others were piddly and I wouldn't have noticed them normally...

Sigh. I consider that my incarnadine contribution to the cause.

Spring Break plans

Since I am apparently neither going anywhere nor receiving visitors from abroad this spring break my plans are as follows:

Sleep
Read - Dante's "Divine Comedy", Salvatori's "Why building stand up", Gibson's "Spook Country" and Dreher's "Crunchy Con" have all been started thus far.
Unpack - I need to finish emptying out the art room and move it upstairs so I can get serious about roommate shopping.
Kenpo Practice - Everyday.
Ukulele Practice - Everyday.
Contact Juggling - Everyday.

If the price is not to prohibitive I am going to look into building a computer desk that fits into the space better and hopefully includes places to stash paper and other art supplies.

Midterm Modeling...

So I'm apparently getting better at this whole model-building/drawing thing.

Although I still spent the whole night working on my project, I actually am done 3 hours before class instead of 30 minutes.

My axio almost self-destructed... but my model is purty.

Now ...should I sleep for three hours or just grit my teeth an suffer through it?

hrmmm...

R.I.P Gary Gygax,

May you may you roll twenties on the ethereal plane forever.

I thought Penny Arcade had a fitting comic tribute . (Which is how I found out.)

Something catawampous in Denmark...errr... Bozeman

This project requires a lot of models. I've done five 1/2 scale study models and will probably need to do at least two more. I've also had to do three full scale study models and will have to do at least one more. Final model and drawing are due Friday.

So last night while working on yet another model, I could not get a my square planes...well... square. I'd measure both sides, but when I went to line up and cut using a T-square I'd be off as much as 1/4" on an 8" run.

After fighting with it for some time I finally realized either my t-square is off true or my work table is, and without both of them being square I cant use either. (*edit my worktable is not the lovely parallel arm table I got for Christmas... which is actually to big to fit upstairs until I either build a new desk or find a better arrangement.)

Fortunately, my cutting mat has a inch-grid and between that and a 12" ruler I was able to get things working. I should note that I have found my 30/60 triangle just when I needed it, bought a new 45/45 triangle and have managed to lose both of my 24" rulers.

Unfortunately, I need one of them to prep my base for my final model...

*edit* Found one 10 seconds after posting this.
*edit 2* Found the other.... 15 seconds later... creepy.

Design wise I am not floundering as much on this project as I have on the previous ones. In fact in a rare moment of turnabout I actually appear to be ahead of my compatriots as far as clarity of design. The initial design steps for this project were VERY restrictive, but precise and I followed them exactly. My classmates did not and have spent a lot of time backtracking. I do need to make the design more visually interesting now that we have been given some freedom to do so.

The Cake is a lie!

Beware the new drug hitting the market!

Pharmacutical mega-giant Smith-klien-becker is lobbying the FDA to legalize it as weight loss supplement! Act now! Contact your local represenative!*


Thank god for Brasseye crack team of reporting, otherwise I wouldn't know about the growing threat. Apparently their next report deals with the danger posed by "heavy electricity" and the horrible impact it is having on undeveloped countries that lack the shielding their modern counterparts possess.





*Don't actually or I will have to point and laugh.

Night with Wright

So there was an short but interesting little article about spending the night in one of Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian houses that is only 25 miles from falling water.

It seems like an interesting possibility and something to think about doing in couple of years from now.

It appears to be a mostly rental at $385 a night, two-night minimum, $770 a weekend wil have to wait for while.