My first monolith.

My roommate's senior thesis show is this weekend. He built a touch-screen driven interface for the art building and asked me to build an installation to hold a computer and support the touch screen.

For less then $200.

And it needed to look tech/slick.

I think I did okay...

From Furniture pics

From Furniture pics

Quick post update...

Oh how the time has flown. 5 months since my last post.

The less said about the last 5 months the better. I survived it.

Onto the updates.

Our lease is up (has it been a year already?) and busy looking for new digs.

So that is (not) fun.

Got some summer projects lined up, which has me excited.

I was regifted a small enamel kiln, which after I finish refurbishing I will doing more plique-a-jour pieces.

Also I have been inspired by the cool little blog called Knock-off Wood. So after I get moved in I am going build this.

From Furniture pics

Lastly, a chance encounter with a lovely lady has put me on the trail of new tattoo artist. I'm terrifically impressed with his portfolio, now I just need to finalize my design (and finish my green belt.)

Portfolio complete.

So around 11:00pm I had just finished printing out and assembling my portfolio for 2nd year admittance and I realized that I inexplicably had extra sleeves in the portfolio case...

Because I can't read directions.

I had been reading the instruction incorrectly and had been putting two assignments per page... instead of two pages PER assignment.

*face palm*

Fortunately I took a LOT of pictures, and was able to color-correct the remainder and stuff them in an only a couple of hours. I only had to photograph one model once more for a better shot and a single drawing that I had wanted to add anyways.

If I can get it to a reasonable size I'll post the whole thing here as a PDF.

In the meantime here is a picture of my final project.


My Meadow Music Room.

Busy busy busy

So as the semester draws to a close I am a little swamped with work. My final Architecture assignment needs to be done by Monday, with the jurying for my group occurring on Wednesday the 24th.

Couple that with planning for next year, my orange blet test, and trying to finish my cloisonné piece for metalsmithing...

Well I'm a bit swamped.

However in the near future you should expect to see pictures of my raising/sinking project (Baba Yaga's Chalice), the finished half-life bead necklace, my finished model from the last architecture assignment and my finished model for this final assignment.

Your patience will be rewarded.

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 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.

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.

Another Deadline... another sleepless night

Good News... my revised drawings are done after only... um... (math is hard) 15 hours or so.

Bad news... if I go to sleep now I get 30 minutes of sleep before I have to get up to get ready for class.

Worse news... Thus far this week I have got to sleep Wednesday night... and that it. Well... actually I got about two hours of sleep Monday night, but I was coughing so hard it was not restful. Anyway my time sense is completely screwed up at this point.

Also, I think it is safe to say I am in a seriously grumpy mood.

Model done

It only took me 13 hours and 25 minutes to completely redesign my project from scratch and build two models.

That leaves me 10 minutes to sleep until my alarm clock goes off and I need to get up and shower.

But I should have almost 2 hours after class to study for my math test at 2:00... and then I get to sleep after that.

P.S. thank god for Mozilla's on screen spell check... there were 11 misspeellings in that post...

Like a bridge over troubled water...

So I don't have pictures of my bridge (which incidentally is only one of three to have survived the testing) because I was holding the bucket during testing of mine instead of taking pictures. However, here are some pictures of the other bridges and our TA gleefully testing some to the point of demise.






Here is link to the entire album:

Arch 121 - bridge

I'll try and remember to take pictures of my bridge tomorrow when there is light.

Bridges burning the midnight oil....

So the TA for our Arch 121 class is going in for surgery so instead of all the bridges being due next Wednesday they are due this Wednesday.

It would have been nice to know this over the weekend so I would have done more the finalize my design, I would have actually built it.

Tomorrow I have client driving all the way from Idaho so that I can rebuild his laptop while he shops for Christmas so that leaves tonight and tomorrow night to build.

Grrr.

Oh and our paper deadline is moved up so I have to write a 4 page paper on arch bridges in that time too...

Done.

So after starting work on my final project for arch151 Friday at 4:00 PM I am finally done with all the drafting and rebuilding of my dog-eaten model at 6:49 AM on Monday.

I did pause for sleep for about 7 hours on Friday night, but I haven't slept since sometime yesterday.

So I should get about 4.5 hours sleep before class at this point. Unfortunately it looks like I may have to go into work after class or at least do an onsite visit, fortunately at the airport so when I'm done I can go home and whimper.

I suspect I have a 5 page paper on bridges due Wednesday.

Either that or my bridge is supposed to be built by then.

Ah well I'll burn that bridge when I come to it. (Hah!)

err..

right.

Sleep.

Anyone want a dog?

So my darling mutt apparently has a taste for Balsa wood.

Unfortunately for me, she demonstrated this by chewing on my UNGRADED model that took me 20 hours to make.

I might be able to salvage the base shaving off 3 hours of work left to be redone.

I am not a happy camper.

I am the exact opposite of a happy camper.

This on top of about 4 hours of drafting homework I was working on when my boss called me into help deal with a crises. One of the big clients has lost their server, but we've got the data backed up on our old test server, and we need to point all their machines temporarily at our server so they can remotely access the network.

Oh... and they neglected to give me any admin passwords so for every single machine I am touching I have to blow away the password before I can log in and redirect.

Cranky.

Alaskan Vampires and Assignments from hell.

Since the last 4 years have been a bust for trick-or-treaters for me and I didn't want to be stuck (again) with pounds of chocolate I took a page out of the Wiita playbook and made myself scarce for the evening.

However, because I did want to acknowledge my favorite day somehow (having to work and therefore unable to dress up) I and the dog went to see the film "30 Days of Night."

In case you are unfamiliar with the graphic novel, the premise is that during the 30 days without sun Barrow is cut off by and over-run with vampires.

I generally have low expectation for movies set in Alaska. Correction I have REALLY low expectations for movies set in Alaska, but hey vampires + Alaska... I will give it a try.

I was pleasantly surprised.

Things they did Right:

Movie Barrow didn't look like real Barrow, but it did look a reasonable amount like ye small isolated Alaskan town. Though frankly... it was cleaner then a lot of them.

Not to much exposition. See Distant Ship... see Man stumbling from distant ship. Message clear. Thank you for not giving us a 12 minute explanation of what was going on. I appreciate when directors don't treat me like an idiot.

North Slope Borough on the emergency vehicle... not North Slope County (which I have seen in some movie.)

Things that surprised me:

Josh Harnett didn't suck. He wasn't great... but I would even go so far as to say he did pretty good. I didn't like him in Pearl Harbor... so yeah....

The people reacted realistically and in human fashion. Some froze when frightened, some freaked out, and when someone did something really stupid it was for understandable reason (trying to save a family member or child...etc)

The vampires were not seductive or alluring. They were like the offspring of a shark and human. Visually and kinesthetically creepy, primeval and scary. They were NOT human, and that came across very well.

Oh... and the quisling... creepiest supporting character ever. EVER. Played by Ben foster. Who it turns out played Angel in the last X-man movie. (I didn't even recognize him.)


Things they did Wrong:
North Slope Police... not Barrow Sheriff. But, that was probably done for liability reasons. Likewise I suspect the "Alaska Fire Marshall" patch one of the characters wore. (With no State of Alaska patch visible.)

The trucks were all clean. In some cases immaculate. Riiiight.


~~~~~

So my latest Arch 121 assignment is ummm... yeah. This isn't isn't my Design class this is my weird Modern Architecture lecture class + design recitation thing.

We have to build a bridge 16" long and no less then 4" wide the entire length. It has to be able to support a 5 gallon bucket filled with 6" of water. I would guess that's about 10 lbs of weight but I will get bucket this weekend and find out.

Here's the kicker.

It can only be made out recycled or scavenged material.
It cannot contain any metal.
No piece of material can be longer then 6 inches, nor can any piece of material be thicker then 1/8".
No glue or melting strategies to form monolithic connections.

Gah.

Anyway I have a plan. (Two plans actually.)

Group Model Shot

What can I say. There it is in all it's glory.

They were taking some better pictures when I left for the night... but I figured feeding the dog was more important then preety pictures.

Cranky, day Two and Three. The GEEKS Revenge!

Okay, sadly not.

Saturday I worked 10-4, and then went to Romney. The same two people from yesterday were there, and no-one else showed up. We worked until about 8:30 and then knocked off for the night.

Sunday, we three agreed to meet at two, and when we got there it was decided the Steve sounded the most pissed off on the phone so it was his job to call people. His side of the dialogue would have done Machiavelli proud for being menacing without overtly threatening. Every one he actually reached on the phone showed up to help within 20 minutes. One of the people who showed up we sent home. He was actually sicker then Morgan and I. Also, he'd done the bulk of the building construction the first day while everyone else was arguing what type of board to use.

With enough people, and the with the damn contour lines finally getting easier (I figured out a faster and more accurate way of making them) it only took us 7 hours to complete it.

I'll try and post some pictures of it tomorrow I think I'm going to have to go andzzzz......... *drool*

Friday Work Session

Per request, here are some pictures of what we are working on today in class... and will be working on again in about 30 minutes when the other class gets out.




This one is annotated for you enjoyment. My TA was playing with camera and by some chance I got caught in the frame. You tell which desk belongs to the geek can't you?



My teammates... pondering building benches.




Closeup of the model interior, before contour lines are added.



Just one of the many banks of shrubbery that I am in charge of.

4 line Composition... the model

So here is my final model from the 4 line assignment. I wont go into the details of the rules I use to compose it, but everything is built to specific purpose. It's hard to see from this angle but most the elements sweep towards the center space.

Sick and tired. Oh and some school and job stuff too.

I addition to having limited use of both my thumbs, I appear to be be having intermittent head cold issues. I'm not sneezing, and not coughing much but I have a sore throat and I randomly feel like me head is stuffed with wool.

This of course is being aggravated by the fact that my air-bed has leak. I thought I had tracked down and patched said leak but apparently I either didn't patch it well enough (unpossible) or I missed one... which given the acreage of the bed is not out of the realm of possibility. The bed is not normal air-mattress height, but is in fact effectively two mattresses. This increases the square footage to be searched for leaks by like 32 times. Really.

I have apparently slowed down the leaks with my patching that I can almost go 8 hours before the bed tries to swallow me whole.

Oddly enough I keep having dreams about sinking in quicksand... no wonder I'm tired.

~~~~

The design project is full swing. It is both a group and individual assignment. The group portion, which we are exploring now is that each TA section of the class has to build a 1/4 scale model of the walkway area between Cheever (architecture) and Howard (music) halls. By my calculations the scale model will be slightly smaller then my car. But, I don't actually care because in the course dividing up tasks people noticed that 1) I have nice digital camera and 2) my scale figures are badass. All those years of miniature painting have paid off.
I was assigned the task of photo-documenting the building for reference (took less then an hour) and creating the 20 little wee men and women populating the scale model. I have 18 of them done allready and they aren't due for another week and a half. I further volunteered to "help" make the various shrubbery and trees since the guy it was assigned to shows up 1 in 4 classes.

After our scale model is coplete, individually we have to design an art instillation only using 3 8'x 20' sheets of 1 inch steel and 4 6'x6'x 6" peices of wood. We then are going to build scale models of them that will fit in our bigger scale models.

Finally will will draw plan, elevation, and section drawing of our instillation.

~~~

Today was my first day at Computer Troubleshooters of Bozeman. My new boss handed me a 600mhz iBook laptop with a dead hard-drive chuckled evilly and then left.

I wept.

You have to COMPLETELY dissemble EVERYTHING to get to the hard-drive. If I ever meet the designer of the laptop I will run him over with my car. Twice.

For those of you who aren't quite sure the implications of this... imagine trying to disassemble the worlds most complex wooden puzzle, with screw the size of seed beads and the screw holes are hidden inside of recesses you can only reach with a set of chop sticks.

This was slightly worse.

Other then that it was fine.

New assignment for Design

I don't know what it is, but the prof has dropped some tantalizing hints.

1) It will take us the entire remaining 5 weeks to accomplish
2) We will probably spend the first week arguing in groups. (which means it will be a group project)
3) We will apply what we have learned making models (so presumably a group model?)
4) Monday we are to show up with sketch-pad and raincoat in case it rains.

As a couple of dear friends said... "You'd think pants and pencils would be on the things to bring list."