still making and doing... just not blogging about it

as anticipated i haven't been good about keeping up on the blog, but to be fair i have a laundry list of excuses:

- i've been taking a german class at sfu, so i'm super busy during the week.
- i'm not exactly breaking new ground these days. mostly it's just more of the same.
- some projects are super secret... well, not exactly "super" secret, but secret enough.
- i am lazy.

here are some photos of the latest goings-on:

i made some more map magnets. technically this is a picture of the old ones. they're all places i love. this batch included:
- powderhorn (where i learned to ski)
- ouray (my favorite place in colorado)
- winterpark (my favorite ski resort)
- mt. pleasant (where i live now)
- broadway station (where i get on the skytrain every day)
- amtrak line down to seattle
- yonge subway line in toronto
- kensington market in toronto

the carnage

here are some sample screens i made last week. i'm not really happy with the white ink.

what will eventually be a shoulder bag

rube goldberg

i haven't been on my youtube account for years. while i was uploading my fancy flashing led videos i looked through the few videos i have up on the site. one of my favorites is a rube goldberg machine i made for a 4th grade science class i was teaching several years ago. the kids made their own machines and we put them all in series (no video of this) to make a giant rube goldberg that watered a plant. it all worked amazingly well. here's my part, complete with nasa stickers to make it look more official:


speaking of rube goldbergs, here is a video my buddy at work sent me the other day. needless to say they spent way more time on theirs.

baby steps

during the super bowl today i decided to break out my new arduino and start familiarizing myself. considering this is my first foray into micro-controllers i wasn't exactly designing my own killer robot. in fact i was making lights blink. see the results below:


then slowed them down and added a fancy paper diffuser:


later there was some messing around with serial inputs/outputs, but they don't really make for great videos... next step: killer robots.

coffee cozy

i love my coffee... probably a little too much. usually i want two cups from my french press, but it's always cold by the time i get to the second cup. not that it stops me from drinking it, but i figured a little sweater might solve this problem. so, with some extra yarn and a few hours during the nhl all-star game i made a french press cozy. it hasn't actually been put to the test yet, but hopefully that second cup will be toasty warm a little longer.

atari punk console

last night was my first time at the vancouver hackspace. for those unfamiliar with hack(er)spaces, here's wikipedia's definition:

"a hackerspace or hackspace is a real (as opposed to virtual) place where people with common interests, usually in science, technology, or digital or electronic art can meet, socialise and collaborate."

the colloquial definition of "hacking" generally involves subversive and often illegal activities. while this is an element of hacking, it is more accurately defined as creating or re-purposing electronics, software, or any other digital media outside the mainstream. hacking and hackerspaces are very connected to the diy ethos.

anyway, last night they organized an atari punk console workshop. an atari punk console is a simple soldering kit that uses two 555 timer chips (or in this case a 556 chip, which is two 555s in one) and a couple of potentiometers that usually control the volume of a speaker. the frequency and pulse width of the output are controlled by the potentiometers... basically the noise changes when you turn the knobs. capiche?

here is my board complete with jumper wire rats nest. surprisingly it worked!




here is an apc in action:


useful? no. cool? yes.

here's some links if you're interested in hackerspaces:
hackerspaces
vancouver hackspace

next project in my new arduino micro-controller:

gocco!

for those of you that don't know, gocco is a japanese machine/technique for screen printing on paper. unfortunately they discontinued production of the printing machines and now it is difficult, or at least expensive, to find one. i've lost several ebay auctions over the past couple months (mostly because they always get crazy expensive), but i finally won an auction yesterday and so there is now a gocco pg-10 on it's way from japan!

here are some examples of gocco prints.

here is a super awesome tutorial on youtube. it'll make you miss the 80's.

make stuff/do stuff: book binding

the first make stuff/do stuff of 2009 was yesterday. this was also the first time ms/ds was themed. usually the events are just free for alls, but i decided to focus on book binding this week. admittedly the term "event" is a little misleading as it was just liz and i, but we managed to get some impressive book binding done and enjoy some home-brew beer and nachos along the way. considering this is the first book binding either of us had done i was pleasantly surprised with the results. we used the coptic stitch and while my stitches could have been tighter, liz learned from my mistakes and hers turned out really well. geoff's:




liz's:

liz also added sweet tassels to her tuque