This is my maiden voyage on the high wheel. It’s pretty tough to get on (even when you haven’t had a dozen beers), and pretty scary at first. It took me a couple tries to get on, but I finally figured it out and managed to do okay up until the dismount.

Thanks to both Ryan O’Brien and the good folks at Mill St. Brewery for helping me fulfill one of my dreams.

For anyone who missed it, this is what the happiest girl at the gay parade looked like.

I’ve been hanging out in the shed quite a bit these days. I do all kinds of little things while I’m out there. Recently the Dude gave me a large set of Dremel bits, which I decided to attempt some carvings with. When Roan saw some of the things I was making he asked if he could try. I showed him the basics of how to hold the Dremel, and what not to do with it, then he picked out a piece of scrap wood and got to work.

He made a memorial plaque for his grandpa.

I love this kid.

Birds beware… Gilbert is ruthless.

This is what your laptop looks like after you close it on a piece of Bionicle (and hopefully learn a valuable/expensive lesson).

A few weeks ago we took the boys to the track for the first time. When I was younger, my father would take my brother and I all the time. He’d let us pick the horses, and sometimes we’d actually win. A couple times we got to go back to the stables and see the horses getting groomed. I thought I knew all about what went on at the track. I was wrong…

After the seventh race we noticed a lot of commotion on the back quarter of the track. A woman ran out from the bandstands and across the track, while a truck and trailer took off in the same direction. Although we couldn’t see what was happening, Holly’s friend Lesley was working at the track that day and had a front row view. She sent Holly a text confirming what we all thought… the horse died.

*I realize the photo doesn’t fit the post, but it’s the only one I took at the races that day.

When the boys finished school their desks and lockers were cleaned out, and a ton of things brought home. Among those things was the first (and apparently also the second, although I never saw it and now no one can find it) of a five part series titled: Attack of the Dinosaurs and Aliens. Created by Roan and his friends Emmit and Devon, it features highly graphic images of humanity’s struggle to ward off invading intergalactic intruders, while simultaneously defending against deadly dinosaurs. It is unclear whether or not the dinosaurs and aliens came together, or if it’s just some coincidence they are attacking at the same time. If you’re interested, the entire comic is posted after the break.

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Alright, so I failed at the catching up on the blog thing the other day. I’ll try again tomorrow. Right now, there is more important things to discuss than my lack of sticktoitivness.

Remember back in January I posted some concepts I had modeled of arcade cabinets, inspired by my favourite games? Well, just yesterday I was playing Call of Duty: Black Ops on the new DLC maps and I noticed something. On the map Drive-In, there is an arcade with some cabinets and a few skee-ball lanes. Two of the arcade cabinets are Call of Duty : World at War “Uber Shooter” machines, which I got incredibly excited to see. I can’t help but wonder if I had something to do with inspiring this prop.

Kotaku posted my designs back in January, and these maps just got released at the end of June. Is it wrong to think that someone from Treyarch saw my design and thought it was a good idea? or is this the ramblings of a depressed egomaniac desperate for some form of recognition?

I’m really behind in my blogging, so today I’m attempting to catch up. I’ve been super busy doing anything I can besides spend time on the computer, but I like keeping track of what I do, so despite it being a nice day out I’m going to sit here for a few hours. So here’s the first of a bunch of posts that I wrote a month ago, then never got around to posting.

The railing got its finishing touches a couple weeks back. As planned, I used the chainsaw to trim the posts, then screwed on some solar light post caps. A few days later, I bought a wood plug making bit an after spending an hour or so making and sanding wood plugs at Holly’s mom’s house, I had to cut some rabbets into the top rails to accommodate the incorrect hangers provided in the kits we bought at Home Depot, then counter-bore some screw holes, screw the rails down, plug the holes, and trim the plugs. It didn’t take long, and it looks great. It’s still not as sturdy as I would like, but it’s so much better than it was before.

The deadliest assassins always… (more…)