Heat, Gravity, and Darkness

My coffers are now replenished with plasticard and hot glue, basically the raw materials that I pull together to build just about all my projects these days. Unfortunately, I haven't the slightest clue of what to build.

I had briefly toyed with the idea of building a scale model of a dungeon for our oft-talked-about stint into D&D. However, for that, we'd actually need the rules for the game, a dedicated group of people, and a profound geekiness. We have the latter in plentiful supply, but until the former drops into our laps it may have to wait.

My second idea was to build something with a sci-fi theme, especially since we rocked the Space Hulk last weekend and it was very enjoyable. I'm very tempted to build something ivocative of the wrecked space ship corridors. There's something about a dead ship adrift in the cosmos that gives me the chills, and I tend to enjoy movies like Event Horizon as they do well in capturing that spooky weirdness.

I have some other ideas, but classwork is pushing a lot of it out of my mind. Hopefully there will be some time this week to start something new.

The Truth About Hats

Forced myself to sit and scribble out a drawing rather than be lazy and post another vacation pic. (that was SO last week anyway). Good compromise.

If I divide the people I know into two groups, an interesting pattern emerges. And forgive the self-indulgent aspect of this study, but that's sort of the point of blogging in the first place, right? So. Here goes:

Group A, are those people who read and/or comment on this blog.

Group B, are those people who know of this blog's existence, though don't read it.

After a year and a half of study I have found that Group A is composed of people who read the blog are actually interested in me as a person and generally tend to be overall more reliable, and more likely to hang out. (if you're reading this blog right now then you are Group A)

Which brings us to Group B. Group B represents an outer shell of acquaintances and fair-weather friends. Somehow we are drawn together by some freak gravitational alignment and never really sure what to do with each other.

So the blog acts as a good litmus test. Thanks for reading, buddy.

New Mission

New Mission is as follows: I will try to find my way to the ocean as often as possible for the rest of my life. At the least I will visit once a year; and at most, I will move into a hut on the coast.

Rawr.

Voyage of the Red Hand

Story time!

This is a legend about Mad Captain Salgo, a merchant turned rogue by hard times. His vessel, the Red Hand, preyed on the shipping lanes off the coast of the Western Wastes. Salgo had a knack raiding ships as they navigated through the bottlenecks. At just the key moment, the Red Hand would sail out of some hidden cove and pounce on its quarry.

For all the rumor of how Captain Salgo earned the "Mad" moniker, he was no butcher. Captured crews were always put off on the coast, their vessel run aground on a sandbar to be retrieved later.

Captain Salgo was considered mad based on claims that he sailed without a crew. Even taken into account that the Red Hand was a small raider craft, the notion that it could be crewed by only one man was absurd. Who was there to batten down the hatches in a storm? Who sounded the depths? Who cooked the meals? And most important on the minds of the merchant captains was how was this one man able to raid their ships?

To be sure, many of the raids took place at night: lightning strikes against unprepared crews dozing at the watch. But still, it became quickly apparent that one man was playing all the parts. Witnesses says that Mad Captain Salgo had the whole crew up here (tapping the side of the head). He was a small man with a bouncy quality, who never stopped talking, to the captives and to himself. It was as if he would issue himself orders in a loud captain's voice, hop sideways, confirm that the order was received in an entirely different voice, and then run off to accomplish the task.

Salgo's success came from his ability to mimic the crewmen of the vessel he was raiding. He would sneak aboard and convince everyone that he was the real captain, and then proceed to ground the ship on a sandbar before anyone suspected the ruse. This became such a well-known tactic of the Mad Captain that there is a story of a crewman on nightwatch accidently shooting his own captain in the leg fearing that it was Salgo in disguise.

Frog Days

Nothing much new to report on, instead I thought I'd just rock out with the new stylus and GIMP for a bit. Kind of got a shag carpet frog thing going on, but I guess that's good.

Finals are all finished. I finished my Bio exam pretty quick. Nothing to it.

Anyway, I'm going to go have a beer and toast myself for being great. Put my feet up and hang out for a bit.

Stylus Aquired!

Something that I've been wanting to get for this blog for a long time has finally dropped into my lap. I bummed a stylus pad off of an associate and it's a lot of fun. This is my first drawing using it, and also my first time trying out GIMP freeware, which is basically a superior version of Photoshop (because it's free!).

Looks like I've found a whole new level of procrastination.

Last final is tomorrow at 1:30 PM and then I'm done with school for a few days. Huzzah!

Buckeye Donuts (They Serve Gyros)

Sometimes I get bored and open up the street level option on Google map. After a marathon session of cramming for Spanish, I decided to find out where my final was being held this afternoon. One thing led to another and I was soon cruising the streets around campus in first person perspective.

Since the pictures were taken on different days, sometimes there is a jump in the weather halfway up the street, from sunny to dismal overcast two doors down. Ironic that a good stretch of High Street is overcast and miserable-looking, as I rather enjoy some of these places.

I took a screen shot of Buckeye Donuts seconds before it sank into an icy swirling hell. Always enjoyed getting my grease and/or sugar fix there day or night. In and around this establishment an interesting blend of folks can be found: local artist-types, college students, hobos. Regardless of the upscale developments taking place all along North High, this place still lives on, asserting its cozy eccentric weirdness at everyone who walks by. I hope it stays that way.

Circle Swim and Traffic Patterns

While browsing the aquatic center's finals week schedule I came across this little gem: the OSU Lap Swimming Etiquette! This is a hoot to read, and is mostly filled with proper traffic maneuvers between two or more people in a lap lane. They claim that a lane can accommodate up to 8 persons as long as the etiquette is followed.

Yikes.

Lifeless Ordinary

Disclaimer: Cleaning the studio usually precedes starting a new project, so this is more of a stream of consciousness post. The idea was just leave the blog open over the span of the evening in order to keep coming back to record different things.

I begin by drilling three screws into the wall in no particular order. The spacing is not premeditated.

Take a drink and get started.

The drill is very loud, but I've already started. Sheepish, I finish driving it in, even while picturing our neighbors lying in bed on the other side of the wall. I switch out the drill and push the last two screws into the wall with a screwdriver. It's quieter, but my arms ache afterward.

What next?

Now I'm just fuddling around, hanging different objects from the points. Waiting to see how long I can go before breaking out the glue gun, forcing myself to discover new methods. I use rubber bands, wire, and finally, scotch tape....

...And:

Screw this, I'm getting the glue gun.

One rule of thumb I use is that load-bearing supports get put together with screws and liquid nails. Currently, now this thing is hanging by old rubber bands. Unfortunately the wife has taken the camera with her on the road trip, so you'll just have to use your imagination.

Rapid Fire!

Thought I'd see if I could generate a relevant blog post in under ten minutes. Here goes...

Wife left this morning for a wedding about 5 states away. She will be gone all weekend. I have only one objective during that time: study.

Goal for the next seven days: ace all of my finals, especially Spanish, which has secretly been kicking my butt these past few weeks because I've gotten lazy.

The enemy: procrastination. He's a worthy opponent, clever in that he will usually disguise himself as something worthwhile and important, say like getting my warhammer miniatures built and painted, or like hanging out with friends. Sneaky, that one.

Alright, ten minutes up. Today's picture is about separating the upper and lower halves of an alligator through the process of osmosis.

En Otre Realms

I was nudged quietly to get on with writing a blog entry this week, and so some powerful elemental force has carried me to a computer on the 5th floor of Baker Laboratories to peck at some keys for your amusement.

We had a pot luck at our house last night, though I felt more like a spectator than participant. I had just come back from a math test that that burned out some of my social circuitry and wasn't really in top party form. Instead, I spent a good portion of the evening sprawled on different comfy chairs with a vested interest in the variety of dishes available.

For the past week or so I've been suffering from an affliction that I have coined as coffee creep. Despite my daily cup of coffee, I've been hit by fatigue and headache come early afternoon. The only way to feel better was to have a second cup. See, coffee creep requires that I consume an ever-steadily-increasing amount of caffeine in order to function at optimal performance throughout the day. Otherwise, there's the headaches, fatigue, and deep-seated annoyance at all lifeforms.

So I'm taking a break from coffee this week before my head explodes and a hellish tide of caffeine-hornets pours out of my neck cavity.

You still drinking three cups a day, Jeff?