Still Around

I'm still around, I've switched to Chrome for my main browser so I have a nifty plug-in for Blogger. So as I find some neat sites I'm going to try to post them, that way I have at least some randomness flowing here.

Dude Craft: Metropolis II

Via Dudecraft - Metropolis II, an awesome Hot Wheels/die-cast car track, automated with several lanes and hundreds of cars. The Hot Wheels kid in me loves this and would have gone nuts for this kind of awesomeness.

Rocking through summer!

Can't believe that August is almost halfway done! And it really has been pleasant in PDX this year, only a couple 90+ days. In fact we haven't used the AC at all the last few days, normally at least have to run it a few hours in the bedroom to cool/dehumidify it but it's been dropping in the 40s at night. This weekend that'll change with some upper 90 weather but we're on the back side of mean heating days. Not mean as in junkyard dog, mean as in average. August 10th is normally the hottest day of the year, topped out mid-70s yesterday. That is one reason I love, love, love living in the Pacific Northwest!

I am still making Robot-A-Day, over two months in to the project and I still have a lot of ideas, just need the time to do some more intricate ones. Even managed to keep doing one a day while I went to Florida to visit my mom although that meant more drawing than building. But the spirit of it was to stay creative however I needed to.

I need to pull out some more linked 'stuff' for here as I find it, just to keep it interesting for my 3 readers.

Where It's At

So I am still around but I have a new project I've been working on. Robot-A-Day, a 365 day project inspired by Skull A Day.

Each day I make a new robot, be it drawn, made from old junk and computer parts or any other method. Main rule for me is I create it the day I post it, no making a bunch one day then posting all week, it's all about stimulating my creativity and getting some time discipline going.

Summer is approaching the Pacific Northwest, finally had some above 80 degree days. Come July I'll go right into the fire though, gonna head to Florida to visit my mom where it's already been near 100 and with high humidity. Should be a hot time.

Lazy blogger is lazy!

Cripes, not only has social media destroyed my old standby Livejournal it's also destroyed my blogging at all.

The rest of my time in DC was great, loved being able to see the museums and crazy protesters as well as catch up with some good friends. In fact it led to a reunion of some of my shipmates from the Coast Guard out here in Oregon after not seeing most of these guys for 15-16 years.

So I am back in Oregon, while it was an interesting experience I did miss not having my partner around even though she did get a weekend to come out and visit me. And the cat disapproved of my absence.

I have a new domain that I need to get set up RustedSkull.com. It will mostly have my art projects on it, may either embed my blog here or from my Livejournal.

Facebook is nearing extinction in my eyes, I know that if I was concerned about 100% privacy I should kill my account. Sad thing is it wasn't like that when I signed up there in 2006, privacy was pretty strong but membership was super low. As time has gone on things continue to be tweaked for the worse.

Maybe I should have titled this 'manic blogger is manic'. I'm all over the map, but that's what a lack of caffeine in my bloodstream does.

Snowmageddon!

Still going strong here, I am now in Washington DC for work, I'll be here until at least April. Benefit of that? Getting to be part of DC's snowiest winter EVAH! I worked 1 day in the last 8, half day last Friday, half day this Friday. In between was over 30" of snow between two storms. Ca-Ray-Zee!
This is in my neighborhood by Capitol Hill after the first storm, it put about 24" of snow. Then that second storm punched in to dump almost a foot more. The two storms were different types of snow - the first was wet and heavy, the second was drier and drifted all over and created true blizzard conditions with 40mph gusts of wind. I was happy that I'm in an apartment and not a hotel during this, I did get a little cabin fever but nothing like if I'd been in a cookie cutter room of a hotel.

The town is digging out now but the piles will be around for weeks unless there is a real warm up. They've run out of places to store the snow so huge piles are building up on corners and in vacant lots. Officially DC has had 60" or so this winter, but that's at National airport where it gets less snow than other areas, so some parts had much more snow. Fortunately no roof collapses in my neighborhood but there are impressive icicles.

So what am I doing out here anyway? It's a temporary detail as a project manager for the headquarters IT support desk, I'm the liaison between the contract support and the regular staff, basically the point of contact for special requests or when something doesn't go right (or does go right, occasionally). It's an interesting break from my regular work and lets me see a bit of the DC life.

I haven't had much time to enjoy DC that much yet though, by the time I get home from work I am pretty wiped and most museums are closed, and the weekends have been busy as well - went to Florida one weekend to visit my mom, out to Delaware with an old friend from the Coast Guard (and got a snow storm then) and then these storms. I will be pushing to go out today and see some sights. Speaking of which, I should finish my coffee and see what I can go do today.

P.S. - The last two episodes of Leverage are airing, the first has already and the second part is on Wednesday. Look for the tall dockworker, that will likely be me in the background!