Accomplishments of a Distracted Mind

More Creations to Share

2010-10-08T18:01:00.009-04:00

So I've made a few more things, and finally taken pictures of them and am now, at last, posting them.

We'll start small...

Last summer I bought myself a bag of basswood carving blanks to practice on and lately I've gotten on a flower carving kick. This is the most recently completed one.

It was a fun little carving and it also entertained my campers at DeBruce who liked watching me carve.

Next is a wood-spirit I made out of red cedar. I've been told it looks creepy... I've also been told it looks kinda like Jesus... *shrug* You decide :)

Now the finale :D

I started working on this box a while ago (September 09) and didn't actually completely finish until the beginning of July... 10 months... and toats worth it ^_^ I custom made it for an amazing friend. Someone sweet, kind, and caring who I decided needed an awesome Christmas present... Which later became a birthday present... Well at least I finished it :)

First, the concept art. I had to find a good picture to base it on and here it is.

10 months of many broken blades, a few new cuts, and lots of sanding later this was the final product.

The box itself is made of Osage Orange, Pooh's shirt is an inlay of Redheart, and his honey pot is an inlay of Red Cedar. Once it was cut and set, I sanded it... A lot... going from 80 grit all the way to 12000, and then sealed it with a wax finish.

So part 2 never came... but I have some other exciting news :)

2010-08-18T11:50:00.004-04:00

Part 2 of that now months old post was supposed to be pictures of the pool cue I finally made... but I still haven't taken pictures of it... I will though, I promise.

As for my exciting news, I have a job! I will be working for the New Jersey DEP on watershed management. I got the position through Americorps, so while I'm not getting paid a whole lot it's great experience and it's a major stepping stone! I'm super excited, I'm going to be moving to NJ and I'm going to be based out of Great Swamp environmental education center. Training for the position starts September 13th and I'll be working for them until August.

More details to come soon(ish), and also pictures of some recent wood projects. :D

Newest projects, part 1: A heart for a Sweetheart

2010-02-02T19:57:00.007-05:00

A few weeks back, late one night, I was talking to a friend of mine and showed her some of my projects. She jokingly said I should make her a heart since she is a sweetheart for my fraternity, and just a sweetheart in general. I decided that, joking or not, I was going to make her one anyway.

Here is the result:

The box was made from a 2 inch cube of readheart and was finished in record time, though my arm muscles were sore for a couple of days from sanding.

Part 2 coming as soon as I take pictures of the project.

Another irregular project update

2009-10-28T00:24:00.004-04:00

Its been forever, here is a quick update. Some pictures of a relief carving i made from some drift wood I got in Costa Rica.

Hopefully I'll start making at least pseudo regular posts again. I do have another two projects in the works that should be done before Christmas. They better be as they are both presents.

Speaking about the past..

2009-04-29T05:35:00.005-04:00

Remember that pool cue I was going to make? Well as soon as I get a lathe I am going to make it because I have the wood and the fittings for it all ready to go.

I'm also planning a few other projects. I think I may get a block of ebony and make a puzzle box or two in the shape of a crow, and I have a stack of wood sitting in my room that I'm supposed to be making into a P-51 shaped box. Well with only two weeks left of school, I suppose I'll actually be able to spend some time on my backlog of projects.

I did carve a new something for someone out of some driftwood I got off one of the beaches in Costa Rica. As with all my other projects, when it's finished I'll put pictures up :D

Consistently Inconsistent

2009-01-21T20:52:00.004-05:00

Well my desire to post regularly seems to have failed outright so I will instead revert to posting whenever I happen to remember to or when something exciting happens. As it is, something exciting will be happening soon I hope. Next Friday, the 30th, I will be presenting my plans for the Pace Fencing Club to the Student Association. I've gotten in contact with a couple of vendors to get some info about equipping the club, as well as the USFA to find out about becoming a member. Wish me luck! There was something else I wanted to write about but it has slipped my mind. When I remember (likely at 2am just as I'm falling asleep) I'll post it.

Another gift given

2008-12-06T15:40:00.004-05:00

I have another project to show. Since it has been given I can put up pictures because it won't ruin the surprise. Since about mid-September I've been working on my most intricate project yet. An incense burner made of four different types of wood and with inlays of semi-precious stones and mammoth ivory.

From left to right, Red Cedar, Satine, Purpleheart, and Redheart

I purchased the three hard woods (not the cedar) at Exotic Wood Group. They have a large selection of woods, and they are fairly close by. I could actually go visit their warehouse as an easy day trip!

First I carved the catch that the incense burns over from part of a stump of red cedar I found at Hillcroft. I thought it was neat that even after I finished the part, it still fit almost perfectly into the space I had cut it from.

The catch

lined up

back in the stump

The next section made was the stem, carved from satine and with 6 peices of flourine inlayed around it

The most difficult and time consuming part of the project was making the rose. Purpleheart is a much more dense wood than I expected it to be, so in addition to my chisels I made liberal use of the dremel tool. I have some pictures of it shortly before its completion as well as some closeups of after I attached the flower to the stem.

The strip was a scrap that I polished so I could see what the finished wood would look like

The dew drop is a moonstone

The last part was the base which I cut from a peice of Redheart. Once it was cut, polished and branded, I put it all together. It came out exactly as I envisioned it would and was worth every cut, burn and scar I got from making it.

Now the only question that remains is, what should I make next?

Feels like forever...

2008-12-04T10:40:00.000-05:00

Ok, so it has been well over a month since I last posted. Apparently my decision to try and post regularly is falling through. I will be putting up two new sets of project pictures soon since I've completed work on both projects. I've already given one and I only need to present the other. I'm hoping to get a wood lathe for christmas, there are a few things I'd like to do with it and one of them is attempt to make a pool cue. I've even picked out the wood for the cue, though I haven't bought it yet.

I'm going to use a 24 inch peice of Black and White Ebony for the butt of the cue

A 24 inch peice of Satine for the front half of the cue

And an 18 inch peice of Asian Satinwood for the joint between the two halves

The cue will be approximately 57 inches long when finished. I'm excited about the project idea if you can't tell. :D

Finals are fast approaching. I had my first one yesterday in Public Speaking and I think I did well, my next one is on the 10th in Environmental Chem, then the rest are on the 15th, 16th, and 17th.

One Secret Revealed

2008-10-19T01:40:00.002-04:00

So I know my last post was mostly cryptic and unintelligable, so I'm going to clear up a little bit of it. Having come to Troy this weekend I was able to give Dave and Laura the puzzle box I made for them as a wedding gift. and It also means I can put up pictures of it now! So here is the Dove box.

Now that's one mystery cleared up. I'm not gonna speculate on when the others will be, because that might give away what they are. Suffice it to say, I hope they will be soon.

A state of Limbo

2008-10-06T12:00:00.003-04:00

I find myself in an interesting position. I have stuff that I want to write about and show in detail, but I can't... because I say so...

What frustrates me most about this is the fact that I'm so excited about all of them. One is still a work in progress. I can officially call it half done, but the half that remains to do is simultaniously the hardest and the easiest part of the project (It's actually two sub-parts, hence the contradiction). Another is technically done, but the artist in me says it needs more; so it's getting a stand. The final item is complete and has been for a couple of months. It is just awaiting its destiny.
I have another project in the pipeline, it's a puzzle box shaped like a curled dragon. I think I'll take pictures of it and post them dispite it not being done. I also need to buy some of those scroll saw sanders because I think they will be incredibly useful.

I'm starting to ramble so I'll end here before it gets bad.

Skull signing off.

Fulfilling one small promise at lightning speed!

2008-09-26T20:50:00.004-04:00

I said I'd post pictures of my WALL-E sticker so here they are!

WALL-E in his new home on Marvin's cover which is getting quite full actually.

A close-up of the sticker.

If anyone else wants to press this particular sticker I still have the original image I used, already cropped and ready to upload to metacafe or where ever. So I'll e-mail it to whoever wants it. Though it's not exactly hard to find a picture of your own, just google images of Wall-e. :-D

I'll make more updates soon.
Skull out.

From now on I will always have my camera with me!!!

2008-09-24T18:30:00.001-04:00

So my first class of the day on Mondays and Wednesdays is Ethics. Today after class I was walking to the Union with Robin to help her finish up her chem lab for today when I look down at the path and see a Praying Mantis the size of my hand, sitting in the middle of the walk way. I immediately picked it up and at that moment Jackie and several of Robin's friends showed up and we had quite a crowd examining the Mantis and exclaiming over how cool it was for about 5 minutes. I then set it down on one of the large rocks along the side of the path, took a couple of pictures with my cell phone, and continued on to the Union. I passed that rock several more times during the day and the Mantis must have liked my choice of location because he was there the entire day! So from now on I carry my camera so I can take good pictures of the random cool things that happen and then post them here.

Promises delayed, but not broken

2008-09-15T20:00:00.000-04:00

So I said I was gonna try and keep up with regular posts, and while that did not indicate that regular == daily I do seem to be coming up on a time when they would be considered not regular. I've also taken a lot of pictures that I want to post to show off, among them the WALL-E sticker I had cafepressed for my laptop. Unfortunately I have not yet had time to upload those pictures. Hopefully I will have an opportunity soon to do that but as it is I'm writing this quickly between homework assignments that I didnt expect to have to worry about for almost a week! So I promise I'll get those pictures up, it will just have to be an eventuality rather than an immediate thing. Now back to the grind stone...

Back to School!

2008-09-03T20:03:00.003-04:00

So today was the first day of classes at PACE where I'm majoring in Environmental Studies. It was an interesting day, but fun too. For my first class of the day, which was supposed to be Normative Ethics, I accidentaly walked into a Law 101 class. I liked the professor though, oh well. One of the people I met yesterday, Alyssa, was in class with me which is cool, we'll be able to bounce philisophical ideas off each other. After Ethics I had lunch, where I had an argument with a ketchup dispenser, and lost. Just imagine how that would feel, losing an argument with a ketchup dispenser. So I had no ketchup with my fries today. I got to pet a Barred Owl while passing through the activity fair which was pretty sweet. Then I went to Environmental Chemistry. The last chem course I took I did not enjoy, but I think this one could be fun. I like the professor anyway, and we'll be going on a few feild trips which is always a good thing. Public Speaking was right after chem, and lo and behold, Alyssa and I are both in that class too! After we found that out we compared the rest of our schedules to see if we shared anymore classes, which we didn't. Two in the same day is still a pretty big coincidence though. I hope tomorrow goes as well as today did because if so, this semester will be shaping up into a good one!

A visit to Annapolis, another photo(b)log...

2008-09-01T14:42:00.010-04:00

We left Myrtle Beach on Friday afternoon and arrived in Annapolis that night at about 11pm. The next day, my parents woke up bright and early and told us to come meet them at breakfast when we were ready. By the time my sisters and I had woken up, showered, gotten dressed, and walked to where my parents had gone for breakfast, they had been finished and waiting for us for an hour. After we had all eaten, we strolled around the harbor a bit and I got a new t-shirt and hat. Emily began to complain she wasn't feeling good, so we dropped her off at the hotel room and the four of us went to visit the Naval Academy. Unfortunately I didn't take take nearly as many pictures as I should have, but I got a few.

Inside one of the Academy halls, This building looks a lot like the RPI Armory (and it actually was an armory for a while). The floor is designed to be used as an ice rink, but because of the age of the building, that function was recently discontinued.

Apparently the first in command at the Academy has to worry about being attacked a lot because he has a few mounted guns like this one around his campus residence.

This is the main entrance to the dorms, this grandeur is no delusion.

Entrance to the hall of honor.

This is Tecumsah, warrior spirit of the students. He stands guard outside the dorm building. The students have dressed him up as Iron Man.

Tecumsah from behind, I thought the left side of the plinth looked very cool from this angle.

During our tour of the Academy we were brought to see the Crypt of John Paul Jones, The man who said "I have not yet begun to fight" in response to a request for his surrender during a naval battle in the Revolutionary War.

The sarcaphogas of John Paul Jones.

His ceremonial sword along with some medals he might have worn. The medal on the far right was awarded to him (very)posthumously, though I've forgotten what it was for.

After the tour we got to see the midshipmen (not cadets, those are army recruits) forming up to march off to a football game. The sea of white was quite impressive.

After we left the Academy we reaquired Em, and went walking through town to do some shopping and get dinner. After dinner we took a walk around the historic district of Annapolis.

A view of the state house.

We found Fleet Street...

...but no demon barber.

My dad and I though this was an ironic combination of signs.

We also went for a ghost walk through the city. There were some cool stories, and some creepy stories, but as with every other ghost walk I've been on, we saw no ghosts. I have pictures from the walk, but none of them are especially good so I'm not going to bother posting them.

Sumter and Charleston, a photo(b)log...

2008-08-28T12:00:00.008-04:00

Today we visited Fort Sumter and the city of Charleston. Sumter was where the first shots of the Civil War were fired, and dispite the beating it took during the course of that war, it is still pretty impressive to see. Because the fort is on an island in Charleston's bay, we had to take a boat to get there. The boat left from a park where among other things, the aircraft carrier Yorktown is docked as a museum.

We took a ferry out to the fort which as it turned out, was actually used as a military installation up to the end of WWII. A large gun battery was built inside the old fort as part of our defences during the war.

It's the black thing you can see sticking up above the original brick walls of the fort.

We were greeted by a pair of park rangers. One of them, a guy that looked and sounded like an ex-marine drill seargent, gave us a general safety spiel when we arrived at the gates of the fort. among other things he told us not to climb on, attempt to move, or put objects or people (namely younger siblings) into the cannons around the fort. Not because he was worried about what damage could be done to the civil war era guns, but because he was worried about what could happen to us in the unlikely event that one should fall over. And as he also said, if a person were to be put into one of the guns, there were only two ways to get them out. Fire the cannon, or pull them by the ears, and since gunpowder needed to be put in before the projectile, that left only one option.

One of the guns we were told not to touch, or put little siblings into (/sigh ).

Just to give an idea of the size of the cannon.

The inside of the fort.

As we were taken on a tour of the fort, the ranger pointed out several shells still embedded in the walls of the fort dating back to the civil war. He told us that the old shells might still be live and strongly advised us against banging on them because they could still explode.

Here you can still see the steel tracks that the gun emplacements would have swung around on.

One of the guns still at its post. You can see the top of the ranger's hat peaking over the top of the cannon directly above the vertical pivot. The ranger was about as tall as me.

After he explained the operation of the cannon and the tasks involved, the ranger led us up to the top of the fort.

If you look closely you can see a small red band around the center flag staff, that marks the height that the walls of Fort Sumter would have been had the fort been completed and not bombed practicaly to its foundations.

Staring down the business end of one of the fort's cannon.

Staring down the barrel of the cannon (no children in this one).

Back on the ferry coming around the bow of Yorktown.

A ballistic missile on display at the park.

Once we returned from the fort we visited the city of Charleston. We had a very tasty lunch at a seafood resturant, and then visited The Battery. The Battery is a small promontory of land sticking out into the bay where there once was a battery of cannon for the defence of the city during the civil war. Now however it is prime realistate and there are some gorgeous houses there, we drove around aimlessly for a while just admiring them and I took a bunch of pictures.

As it turned out, not all the cannon had been removed from The Battery. Lucky for us, none of them were manned. ;-)

We also visited The Market, before we headed back to the condo. It was a fun day, and an informative one.

The Transition Between Times.

2008-08-26T20:05:00.000-04:00

Camp is over for another year, and school won't start till the 3rd; so in the intervening time I'm with my family in Myrtle Beach. We've been having fun, I got to go sailing on a 16 foot Hobie Cat that looked something like this.

It was a lot of fun to sail, but I didn't bring my camera because salt spray + electronics = bad stuff. After we got back from the sailing we chilled for a bit, had dinner, then went to see a show called Legends in Concert where we saw impersonators (pretty good ones too) of Buddy Holly, Dolly Parton, The Blues Brothers, George Strait, and Elvis Presley. It was a fun show, the favorites were a tie between Buddy Holly and the Blues Brothers, followed by Elvis. Tomorrows agenda is unknown as of now but I have been told it will include kite flying at 6:30 am so I had better get some sleep.

All good things must come to an end.

2008-08-20T18:20:00.000-04:00

So there are two days left of camp which is both exciting and sad. I can say without reservation that this has been my most fun summer working on the Hill ever. But on Saturday a lot of my camp friends will be leaving and there is a good chance I won't see them again. Though there are a few people who are local that I'll definitely be hanging out with because they are awsome. It feels like only a few days ago that I returned to camp for orientation and yet I feel like I've been friends with some of these people for years. It is still incredible how close you can get to people after knowing them for only 8 weeks, even after doing this for three years it amazes me. I feel like I want to say more but can't think what to say. so I'm gonna go do stuff instead.

More Project pictures

2008-08-18T10:42:00.000-04:00

Here are two more of my finished boxes, I've actually photographed 3 additional boxes but the third one can't be posted yet. I've decided that boxes I make with a special purpose in mind can't be posted till the purpose is completed.

This box is the third one I made and was also intended to be a raffle prize in last years International Children's Festival. It was won by my youngest sister who had seen it while I was working on it. She put in her tickets and got very lucky.

This was also the second double box I made. The first (also the first box I made) was shaped like a heart and given as a wedding gift. I doubt I'll ever have the opportunity to brand that one, but it would be nice if I could.

The second box in this update was also an inspiration project. I came across an end cut peice of cedar whose ring pattern made me think of a turtle shell, so I made a box that I could put my turtle shell on.

This box has also been given as a gift, but it has the honor of being the first box I've actually sold.

So there is my project update. Hopefully I'll be able to post the mystery box soon.

On an entirely unrelated note, I've got this urge to come up to Troy and be incredibly geeky, I also want to be able to put the D&D tag on another of these posts.

Promised updates

2008-08-14T21:38:00.012-04:00

So I promised pictures of the brand and the projects I've marked with it. I haven't taken pictures of everything yet but here are some of them.

The iron itself (lego man looks impressed)

The brand head (lego man says hello)

Part of my test block

And a brand on one of my projects

Now some of my projects, this first one is a nameplate I made for my co-counselor. She is a Spanish teacher and wanted a sign for her desk.

You can see my 'work bench' aka desk in the background of the pictures.

This next one is actually the second box I ever made but I only just finished it recently. I have had a love-hate relationship with this box ever since I began cutting it, but I'm actually quite happy with how it turned out in the end.

I made a photo background for these out of a sheet of matt board.

This is the last one for this post and was the result of a burst of inspiration. Last summer when I was working in the woodshop at camp, I made two boxes to be raffled off at the International Children's Festival, and when I looked at the block of wood I made this from, I noticed the large knott looked just like an eye. So that is what I made.

I managed to get it back on loan from the raffle winner so I could brand and photograph it.

I still have several boxes to brand and photograph, and 3 boxes that need to be finished, so expect future picture updates.

So Much for Regular Posts...

2008-08-13T00:20:00.000-04:00

It's been ages since I've actually posted and, there have been a lot of things going on. But rather than backtrack and write about the last several months of interesting things, I'll just start with the most recent. I now have a personal branding iron and it is awsome. I've been using it to brand all of my wood projects (I've been told by my parents that branding my sisters is not allowed). I will be posting pictures of the brand, as well as most of the wood projects I've used it on. Hopefully I'll start keeping up with regular posts again because I actually enjoy blogging about this stuff.

Excitement and Adventure and Really Neat Things!

2008-05-28T11:06:00.003-04:00

So it has been a while since my last post, but that while has been far from boring. I suppose for the sake of structure I'll try to go chronologically (I have no idea if that is spelled right but I hope it is).

First off, in the land of Ceylennor, tragedy has struck our band of adventurers. They were successful in getting Satura home, however both Deeka and Gerb were killed in the ensuing battle. So while they were successful in thier quest, their rewards were few and they have been left wondering if it was worth it. Once they left the caves they found a party of Vrill who explained the reason they wanted to kill Satura, possibly placing the characters in an even more akward predicament. Finaly, as they started the return journey to Horvath, they met Skull coming across the Blighted Hills in his airship and were invited aboard to spend the night. A perfect place to end a session and it leaves my characters in a precarious situation. Excellent for character development.

The next item of interest, I graduated from HVCC on the 17th... And I'll be going to PACE for Environmental Studies starting next semester! Ok, moving on.

Sunday May 18th, 5am
I am awakened by the insistent banging of Fuzzy's fist against my door.
By about 6am, Dan, Laura, and I were on the road and headed for our grand adventure in Tennessee. We were going to meet up with 4 of Laura's friends from Wisconsin, and the seven of us would be hiking almost 50 miles over 5 days through the back country of Smokey Mountain National Park. The hike included climbing over Clingmans Dome, the highest point in the park (and in the state I think). We started our trek at about 3pm on Monday, after finaly getting all the cars in the right places. We climbed about 2000 feet over 5 miles to reach our first camp and we were exhausted. Tuesday started better than Monday ended. We got a fairly early start out of camp and were making good progress because the trails were mostly flatish or slightly downhill with occasional uphill sections. Sadly our good fortune was not to last. As we discovered, the trail we were on was apparently one of the least popular in the park, and so was convered in several inches of leaves in many places. This means that things like tree roots are not always apparent. Laura found 2 of these roots the hard way, rolling her left ankle not once, but twice. Even so, it seemed like we would be able to make it through until we stopped for lunch. The three of us got as far as the next available camp site and had to stop. The three of us managed to set up the tent in record time and even kept it fairly dry dispite the thunderstorm that had started up. We spent the rest of the day and that night in the tent and then hiked out 7 miles to a ranger station the next morning where we were lucky enough to get a ride back to Dan's car from one of the rangers. Not wanting to miss what would have been the high point of the trip, we drove up to Clingmans Dome and climed up to the observation tower at the peak (pun totaly intended).

Now as it happens, my family had plans to go to Havre de Grace on the shore of the Chesapeak in Meryland for sailing lessons, and they had planned to arrive there on Thursday night. And since we were out of the woods several days earlier than planned we had lots of free time. We spent Wednesday night at a motel and drove the next day to meet my family in Havre de Grace.

When we arrived that night I was made an offer I couldnt refuse (I might not have survived if I had). Dan and Laura left the next day to visit Joe and go home. I stayed and learned to sail over the next three days. So now if ever I say I'd rather be sailing, don't laugh, I'm being serious. Sailing is a lot of fun, and now I'm certified to rent a 22 to 30 foot sailboat and take it out for a day of sailing.

The final event of note was yesterday when my dad and I went up to The Duck for the last time to finish packing up my room. Dispite all the quirks (some of them quite major) I'll miss Troy, though I fully intend to visit everyone.

and now summer projects call, lounging is not something that will happen often...

Darn it, I'm Gonna Live if it Kills Me!

2008-05-14T09:42:00.003-04:00

At the end of the summer of '06, when I started moving into my room here at The Duck, there were several items of mine from Sharp left in Dave's room over the summer. Among them was an African Violet (of unknown origin) which, dispite being left on its side in a dark room for the entire summer was not only alive but blooming. This plant was then moved to a spot on our kitchen table where it was periodically watered; usually by Melanie when she remembered if she happened to be doing her laundry. However, around the middle of this year, the violet looked like it was finally through. Very few of the leaves were still green, and the ones that were had started to die around the edges. I watered it a couple of times, not really expecting it to survive but lo and behold, when I looked at it today I realized that at the center of the plant, surrounded by dead and shriveled leaves, was a cluster of new growth leaves! If that isn't an example of Darwin at work I don't know what is.

On an entirely unrelated note, I've begun packing operations. I'm sure there will be many people pleased to know that a repeat of my freshman year packup is very unlikely to be needed. I'll be going home tomorrow and bringing most of my clothes in addition to a number of other items which I will be unlikely to need during the remainder of my time in this appartment. Saturday night a few more things will be sent home with my family since they are coming up and I'll be going to see a musical with them. The end goal is to have only a few things left in my room when I get back from backpacking a week from Sunday. Idealy there will only be one trip worth of things to go. But since when do I ever manage to execute a plan in the ideal way.

And the last item of interest. My PCs have finaly arrived at the edge of destiny for good or evil and on Friday we will finaly see how it plays out. Emily will be here to take on the roll of Lyra and depending on how things go the plot may thicken in unexpected ways. Hopefully I will be prepared for all the possible unexpected things that could happen, but for as much work as I put into creating the world, the world creates itself even more. It's eerie, sometimes I don't feel like I'm quite in control of my own universe. And now having said that I think I will have worred my players enough for this post.

Sightings and Exciting Stuff

2008-05-07T12:02:00.005-04:00

So it has been a few days since my last post, but it has also been a few days since there was anything I considered post worthy.

I have once again seen the Corvette that looks like a DeLorean. The thing about this 'vette is you only notice the resemblence in passing. If you spot it out of the corner of your eye your gut reaction is, "Hey cool, a DeLorean!", but if you go back to look at it you see it is a Corvette. And it isn't a 'vette that is trying to look like a DeLorean, it just turned out that way. And once you notice that you can't look at the car without thinking you saw a DeLorean. And while I'm on the subject, I googled the name to make sure I was spelling it correctly and look what I came up with. http://www.delorean.com/sales.asp. That is correct! Now you too can own your very own DeLorean, either a used one from 1981 to 1983 or your very own brand new one. Though I would personaly go for an old one, both for the geek cred and the fact that they are considerably less expensive. Crazy I know but the used ones are all around $30,000 while the new made ones start at $57,500.

In other news I went and got my cap and gown for my Hudson Valley graduation, which will be on the 17th at 8:45 am (Oy!)

And in some incredibly exciting news, I'M DONE WITH SCHOOL! Well, for this semester anyway. I handed in my last final project today and I have no exams! So now it is time for some fun. Fun may involve explosives if no one else has better ideas, though I wouldn't say no to some frisbee.

Christmas in May

2008-05-02T12:20:00.004-04:00

Now many people are of the oppinion that since there is Christmas in December, there should be Christmas in June (or July?), at the half-year point. But yesterday was like a mini Christmas for me, not only did I get my newest group of Slivers, I also finaly got my Damascus steel pocket knife. For those who don't know, Damascus steel is often reguarded as a mythical substance of awsome power, and the best choice for the blade of a weapon. However it isn't actually steel mined in Damascus, it is a complex process involving folding many layers of steel into a single item. My knife blade is made of 78 individual layers of folded steel, twisted and shaped red hot from the forge. There is no blade on earth that matches the appearance of mine. Pictures will follow later today.

Follow up time!

2008-04-30T12:16:00.000-04:00

So, as it turns out, I got the mana curve almost perfect in my sliver deck (which I will be re-working again today with any luck) and it performed spectacularly when I got a good draw, and still pretty well even when I was color screwed.

The concert went very well, though it was rather amusing to see the Pep Band on the Music Hall stage. And frankly, they sounded good, but all that brass was rediculously powerful in that hall.

And now onto the MAIN EVENT!
We finaly played D&D again on Sunday and (dramatic pause) no one died! Thats right, Tam survived, though he didnt expect to, and Kelthas escaped death by diving out of the third story window of the tower onto the roof of the stable. From there he was able to mount his demon horse and flee to Horvath; leaving the rest of the party to fight off all sorts of extraplanar horrors for the next two days before they reach their goal. I just hope we can finish this adventure, hit level seven for some people if not all, and get the party to have some fun in Heartrock (I hope you don't mind my use of the city Curt)

Now, sadly, I have other things to do...
ONWARD!

Magic, Concert, Dungeons and Dragons?

2008-04-25T12:31:00.000-04:00

I love getting new stuff. Last Friday was therefore a good day; but last night was better because I got to do things with my new stuff. That's right! I have rebuilt my sliver deck and It should be even more badass than it was before, assuming I got the mana curve correct. Hopefully I'll get to test it out soon.

Tomorrow will be my last concert ever in the Troy Music Hall, so I'll never again have to deal with the Alice in Wonderland style performer hallway; but I'll miss the concerts. It should be a fun program.

And on to Sunday. With any luck we will finaly get to resolve if Kelthas or Tam dies and what happens after that. A very exciting prospect indeed because it will mean the possibility of some very interesting occurances in the story line and progressing the current adventure. I do very much want to get everyone to level 7 if at all possible.

Small homework rant, followed by other things

2008-04-22T00:03:00.000-04:00

Oh the joy of the end of a semester. For the first time ever I have no final exams; which would be wonderful if it werent for the 3 final projects, all of them based on essays! At least one of the essays is finished. Well there is my homework rant and now on to other things.

On Friday my newest aquisiton arrived, Slivers! Jay has recently gotten me back into Magic big time. This resulted in me buying a whole bunch of new cards, most of them slivers. I now have the potential makings of an awsome killer deck, I just need to spend the time to make it. This is a rather involved process and will take up a lot of time I don't actually have to spend. You see my dilemma, do I invest the time required to make the deck correctly at the expense of actuall tasks? Or do I do the tasks I need to accomplish and just throw some crappy thing together. Maybe I can do both, but I doubt it somehow.

Another 'other thing' D&D! I'm starting to get the shakes from withdrawal, I miss playing! And now, for the third weekend in a row (this weekend coming up) not everyone will be available, meaning we probably won't play. I have some awsome ideas for possible upcoming branches in the plot too; though I must be vague here as my PCs are also readers and I don't want to ecourage meta-gaming. The most I will say is, something pretty crazy is going to happen if certain things happen...

And yet another 'other thing' this weather is driving me crazy for one specific reason, I want to play ultimate frisbee and haven't had an opportunity yet. I've been carrying one of my discs around in my backpack hoping for a chance to pull it out and play, but said chance has not yet presented itself.

Well that's my say for the day, I suppose I'll post again when next I have something interesting to say.

An Elaboration

2008-04-20T12:29:00.002-04:00

Ok, so that first post was bogus and pointless, but now that I've found rapid share my problems are solved! Well that one is anyway.

The whole point of that exercise was so I could host the files for my most recent fun project, developing plug-ins for Escape Velocity Nova. The plug-ins only work if you own a copy of the game, but for $20 it's worth it. My most recent project that I have determined is ready for public beta allows a player to purchase their very own Firefly transport to mod and tune to their hearts content. It also adds Serenity herself as a wandering AI who can randomly appear in any system.

(if you own Nova and want to try out the plug you can download it here, it is in PC format so Mac users have to convert it.)

Making the plug-ins is fun, testing and fixing them can become tedious as it is not always clear what is causing a particular problem, like the resource number for an object being a bit too high. Eventually I'll make the time to finish my big project which is a plug-in to add aspects of the
Warhammer 40,000 universe to Nova, and eventually make a total
conversion out of the idea. Well, on to other things!

EV Nova Plug-ins

2008-04-10T13:20:00.000-04:00

An attempt to post plug-in files for viewing