The Archives

Life, Sketchup, Timber framing
Cobra codex now officially PRO
05.28.10 | Permalink | Comment?

The other day Holly brought home a printed copy of the book layout. Today we took it to her mom’s work and borrowed their binding machine. It feels neat to hold it and know I made it. I looked at it at dinner last night before it was bound, and thought – If I saw this on a bookstore shelf, not only would I buy it I’d also be impressed with the illustrations. That makes me feel good.

This is just a copy for me to look at and find corrections I need to make, without having to sit in front of the computer. I spend too much time sitting at the computer staring at a monitor, as I’ve mentioned here many times before (I complain using the very computer I complain about… fuck you irony). These days I look forward to having things to read that aren’t on an LCD display. Earlier today I had to call and renew my Timber Framer’s Guild membership, and they asked me if I’d like to save $10 annually by receiving their regular publications (Timber Framing, and Scantlings) via email, instead of in print form. I explained to them as well that I look forward to staring at anything other than a monitor, and although I could really use the $10 I would prefer to still get them in print form.

I then explained to the woman from the guild that I have never received any of the publications I should have, and asked her to check my contact info. It was all incorrect despite numerous emails between myself and the guild rep last year. It also turned out I had expired almost 6 months ago. The lady was kind, and fixed all my info then renewed my membership for free. She’s even sending me a few back issues of Scantlings she still has copies of (which I should have already received a long time ago).

I’m excited to finally get them since their full of great industry related info, and neat things I’ve yet to learn. It’s also one of the first places I read about how useful Sketchup could be for the timber framer. Perhaps one day I’ll read about myself in Scantlings. Oooooh.

When she was updating my info, the lady from the guild asked if I was currently employed as a timber framer. I said I wasn’t, but that I was working on a timber framing text book. She said “Oh, well then I’ll put you in the directory as a PROFESSIONAL.”. I said “Fucking right I’m professional, have you seen my Kill/Death ratio?”, then I spin kicked a boulder into a statue of myself banging aliens and saving the universe.

So far since Holly brought it home it hasn’t left my side, and I doubt a single person has managed to visit us without being forced to feign interest after I shove it in their face. So be warned. If you are one of the lucky few invited to attended the birthday bash in honour of everyone’s favourite nine year old tango neutralizer, you can expect to suffer the same fate.
Animals, Health, Photos
Crappy Cobra cardio
05.28.10 | Permalink | Comment?

Yesterday my brother and I went for a hike through the Gorge. When we left the house he commented on how perfect it was outside. About 10 minutes into our hike he said it was too hot out. By the time we reached our regular smoke stops we were both soaked in sweat and dying. We decided to forgo the smoking until we got back home, since we’d probably die on the stairs going back up. Above is what we looked like once we reached the top again.

Along the way we saw tons of millipedes, and I found a large corn snake hiding in the rocks near the rapids.

On our way up the stairs I saw this fuzzy little caterpillar on the stairs. The blue in him was much brighter in person, but my camera doesn’t seem to capture colours that well – or I don’t know how best to use it.

After the hike we went for milkshakes, and a well earned smoke. Both very counterproductive to our exercise. So what.
Food, Roanisms, Video
Birthday Breakfast
05.21.10 | Permalink | Comment?

As I mentioned earlier, I recorded some of Roan eating his birthday breakfast this morning. In this clip you hear: where the idea for this image came from, Roan’s birthday plans along with his discovery that it’s a long weekend, what happened to the shirt he originally planned to wear today, Holly complaining about people spelling Niagara wrong, me misunderstanding Roan about his xbox he has at his dad’s (didn’t realize that until just now), my recommendation that Gage and Roan play through Lego Star Wars II, and several of my bad jokes.

My favourite part of the video is definitely when I ask Roan if he just wiped his peanut butter hands all over his pants and he answers “No!… A little bit, but…”.

And here is the picture I took of Roan with peanut butter Joker lips, so I could show him how messy he was. I love how he felt it was necessary to throw up the peace signs even though I was just trying to get a picture of his mouth.
Roanisms, Video
Phase seven
05.21.10 | Permalink | 1 Comment

Here’s video proof of phase seven of Roan’s birthday. Keep an eye out for a special appearance by Shakespeare, who decided midway through Roan’s match that his hair needed some washing.

I love how far he lunges forward when he attempts to stab someone. I wonder if I move that much…
Photos, Roanisms
Str8UpBday
05.21.10 | Permalink | 1 Comment

It’s Roan’s birthday!!! Everyone’s favourite four foot assassin is almost a decade old today.

“But Cobra, how does Roan celebrate his ninth year of ass kicking?” – you ask. Well, phase one begins with birthday-beef-on-a-bun (which he hated) that has to be eaten entirely in order to move on to phase two: Marble Slab (And not that cheap kid’s size either. He’s a man now after all. A man who eats his big bowl of ice cream with a tiny, sample size spoon, but still a man nonetheless).

Phase three consists of returning home, full of ice cream, to setup Roan’s gift from me – an Xbox Live account (surprise!), which leads into phase four: Crying About Your Xbox Live Name Being Str8UpPerogies Because You Couldn’t Think of One So After Twenty Minutes I Made One Up.

Phase five is when he complains about having to go to bed over an hour after his bed time.

Phase six consists of having me make him breakfast and secretly slipping sunflower seeds into his lunch (hopefully he’s surprised), followed by a brief video interview.

Phase seven is highly important. It’s when he gets to pwn noobz for a half hour before school.

Phase eight is all about photo shoots. First we have the top photo (which was just too good to save until this far into the post) featuring Roan in his new wrist pads his aunt Dawn bought him (which he has disassembled in order to make them “cooler”, and then decided to wear to school today). After that, we decided to record his “emo” scars on his arms (something we discussed in our video interview). Gage claims Roan’s emo. Roans says it’s not his fault, the cat is emo.

Phase nine is the worst phase of all. The going to school all day, followed by up north all weekend phase. I’m sure he’ll have fun up north, but I’m also pretty sure that since he now has Xbox Live he’d rather spend the weekend unlocking ACOG scopes and knifing sentry guns while “cold blooded”.
Love, Photos
Coolest wedding invitations ever!
05.21.10 | Permalink | Comment?

Yesterday we received the coolest wedding invitation I’ve ever seen. Our friends Syx and Taryn are getting married this August in Vancouver, and with any luck maybe we’ll get to go. Not only would I like to attend the wedding, but I miss my west coast peeps.

If you’re interested (or just bored) take a few minutes to check out some of Syx’s photography. He does everything from post apocalyptic erotica to fun things I can’t really explain. It’s all really neat stuff and a lot of it features hawt bewbs, so you really can’t go wrong.

If you’re not in a bewb mood then what the fuck is wrong with you? perhaps you’d prefer to check out The Hanna Panda Chronicles (honestly, the names are a pure coincidence – we didn’t even know each other when I created this blog), which is full of images of little Hanna (Syx and Taryn’s 1 year old daughter), and lots of stories of her daily doings.
Life, Sketchup
Nothing interesting is contained in this post
05.20.10 | Permalink | Comment?

Here’s a sample of the exciting work I’ve been doing for the last few days. These drawings are hopefully going to please whoever the fuck it is I need to please, and aid in forming and pouring the foundation for James’ new house. Although I’m glad to have a reason to take a break from the pain in the ass that is the book (and it’s “scaling” riddle), I am bored to death with these types of drawings. On top of that, I don’t understand why I’m doing drawings that seem to be already done by some engineer, when James is going to take these drawings, show them to the engineer, then have a list of corrections for me to make that will make me want to punch someone in the dick.

I would so much rather be building this house, and not spending hours staring at it’s stupid detail drawings. I’d also settle for being paid to draw robots, or smoke weed (ideally both!) at this point. I’m stuck between boring detail drawings, and a frustrating book issues I’m not certain how to solve (although I did wake up at 7am the other day with an epiphany, which I have yet to attempt to implement).

Luckily for me, I have the entire weekend to be incredibly bored and productive all by myself. I was planning to get the preliminary work done on a new blog about my oldest friend, but it seems I waited too long and missed my opportunity. Too bad to, I was having lots of fun thinking of potential content, but I guess now I get to just sit back and read about all the fun without having to do any of the work.

*I bet you thought that was just a clever title… Ha! fooled you, wasted all our time.
Log building, Photos, Timber framing
Cobras will cut you!
05.17.10 | Permalink | Comment?

My new collection of old chisels!

After our incredibly long day Friday, we came home and Mary and Brandie came by to hang out. Mary came by with presents (as she often does) in the form of antique chisels. Some are pretty beat up, but I figure that gives me a great chance to practice sharpening. Some of them are completely homemade (one is clearly an old triangular file someone took a grinder to) which makes me want to find out how well they work, and possibly make some myself.

I really want to get some wood and build something. I’d love to get building that shed I designed for my dad (that he hated) now that I have all these tools. I think I will take another look at the plans I made and create a materials list and estimate cost of materials.

I don’t think it would take me long to build, but it could cost quite a bit for the lumber. I also need to find out about permits, and figure out a way of avoiding having to get one.
Food, Photos
Shredgar’s shocking and rocking from the womb!
05.17.10 | Permalink | Comment?
Apparently they were out of stork cakes, or perhaps that belief is antiquated. Either way, Lisa (my brother’s lovely girlfriend and tiny Cobra co-creator) ended up with this tasty treat at her non-gender-specific (if the icing colours didn’t give it away) baby shower on Saturday.

Although I see the humour in something so graphic, I doubt some of the older generations had the same reaction, and I don’t think I’d want to eat anything out of the first quadrant of this cake. Still, it must have taken someone an awful lot of time and talent.

My mum sent me this photo, and it made me realize two things:
1. I don’t ever want to witness child birth in real life, or cake form again.
2. I am not the only person who puts lots of time and effort into things that may or may not result in some smiles and laughs.
*Titling this post gave me an idea for t-shirts for the parents-to-be. Now I need to do some research.
Animals, Gaming, Life, Photos
From Niagara Falls to Vice Beach
05.16.10 | Permalink | 1 Comment

Yesterday was a busy day. Holly and I killed some zombies, then I sorted through some tools I got from the storage locker a few weeks back. The tools came from my Nan’s house, and I hadn’t looked in the box until yesterday. I found a bunch of neat stuff my brother could use, and also a bunch useful things for me that I didn’t realize I owned.

I was looking for auger bits for the boring machine Mary brought me and I found a bunch, unfortunately they all had square tangs and won’t fit. I could cut the tangs off and use them, but then they’re going to be pretty short, as well as no longer fit in my hand auger (which is what the bits are intended for). I also found a set of four corner clamps, tons of pliers and cutters, and a collection of rasps.

I realize now, I need a large tool box (as well as a large workshop).

In the afternoon, my brother came by and we took Roan and his friend Josh hiking at the gorge. We hunted for salamanders and climbed up lots of rocks. On one rock Roan and I found some pretty flowers. He picked this one for his mom, then tossed it on the ground 30 seconds later when he decided he didn’t want to carry it.

On top of salamanders, we found some neat centipedes and a fairly good sized millipede.

Watching my brother and Roan pick this thing up made me think of my old pet millipede that died on me the first time I went out to BC. Her name was Angelina, and I always loved having her crawl on me. I think if I could find one, I’d get another.

The centipede we saw was different than any I’d ever seen. It might not even be a centipede for all I know, but it was definitely a ‘pede of some sort, and it looked more like a centipede than a millipede.

It’s hard to tell, but this guy is about two inches long.

We cut our hike short so we could head home for pizza before our trip to the casino water-park. Holly promised Gage that for his birthday he could have a bunch of friends sleep over, and we’d all go to the water park. All but one of his friends bailed, so Roan brought Josh and the six of us went.

When we got there the water park was pretty empty. The boys ran off to go line up for water slides, and Holly and I made our way to the outdoor pool since it was completely empty. We thought we could get away with swimming out there alone until it was time to go, but a short while later some kids and their basketball ruined those plans.

We came back in and soaked in the hot tub for a bit, then lounged on some patio chairs while the boys pissed Roan off in the wave pool.

When it was time to leave we wandered around the parking garage for 30 minutes, because the labeling of the levels in the garage are weird, and therefore we got confused/lost. We finally made it out, then headed home for Dairy Queen.

I took this picture from the rooftop pool deck, and I felt like I was in Vice City. I was in a rooftop pool, with palm trees, and there was a helicopter flying by. I miss Lance Vance.