Nightmares and Blogscapes

Making a mannequin

2010-12-08T11:24:00.000-05:00

Last weekend I headed over to my trusty sidekick's place and started on the process of making a model of myself out of duct tape. Here are some process photos for you. I don't have nearly as many as I'd hoped to take, but I'm not quite done with the mannequin yet, so there are more to come. As we finish up, and make another of Curtis, I'll add more for you all.

I had to use a bandanna to hold my beard out of the way, otherwise it would have gotten all caught in the duct tape. That's the weird thing around my neck.

Beginning the chest:

Front done, back begun, and one arm started:

Right arm complete:

Both arms done. I can't move much at all now:

My girlfriend says I look like I'm ready to hit the gay nightclubs with this on. Another friend thought I look like a white Kimbo Slice. Such is life.

Detail shot of my back - note the cross hatch pattern to make it form-fitting:

Cutting the shell off - Curtis caught my undershirt. Awkward:

After we cut the body suit up the back and on the wrists (just enough so I can get my hand through), we threw it on the back of a chair and patched the back up. This was not a simple process, so be careful and take your time if you're doing your own. Then we covered the top (the neck) with cloth and taped it closed, and filled it with expanding foam insulation. Since the insulation isn't that cheap, and you need a ton of it (especially if you're a big dude like me), we decided to take up some of the space with a bunch of leftover 2 liter soda bottles. This ended up being a mistake, because they don't form into the right shape like the foam does, and you can't really get the foam under them. I'm going to have to do some repair work with the form because of that, but that's fine. We had two bottles of the "large gaps" type foam, and it filled most of the body along with five bottles. We still need to fill both arms and a portion around the neck and waist. Before the foam set, we put the form on a wooden dowel with screws sticking out of it, in order to give it something to stand on. I only have one picture of the foaming process, but as I said, more are certainly to come.

That's me and Mike (Curtis's brother) pouring in the foam. He was a great help through the process, so thanks Mike!

More coming soon!

2010-12-01T09:52:00.001-05:00

Hey no one! How haven't you been?

The funny thing about blogging is that you're basically not talking to anyone, and then you're suddenly talking to everyone. I'm still in the "not talking to anyone" stage, so no surprise that it's awful quiet around here. Prove me wrong. Leave me a comment.

It's been a while since Halloween, and I haven't touched any tools since then. I needed a break from robot costumes, and it's been nice to have a little more free time. That said, I'm starting to get the itch to work again.

Since my last foray into building, I've been researching techniques and methods for making more refined and detailed builds. It's lead me to www.therpf.com, where I've been reading up on casting molds in silicone and resin, as well as vacuum forming and sculpting. All of them are really related, it's tough to do a professional-level design without some amount of all of them. If you look to your right, you'll see a blog called Volpin Props in my following links - that blog, and Harrison's precision and attention to detail, has been instrumental in my own excitement to produce higher quality items.

I'm not entirely sure what direction I'll be headed from here. I know KILLroy will have a 2.0, but beyond that, the sky is really the limit. I don't have any particular movie or show that I'd like to start doing replicas for, I've been enjoying the freedom that comes with designing for myself, but as my experience with these new techniques grows, I'm sure I'll try to do a little replication here and there.

As a start, I've been picking up materials to make a 1:1 mannequin copy of myself, to be more able to do active work on costumes while I'm not wearing them. I found a pretty good tutorial on how to create your own here, and decided that I'd give it a shot.

I haven't had time to work on it beyond shopping, but now that I'm actually doing some brainstorming, I'll be sure to check back in once things start to progress again. I'm urging Curtis to start making a mannequin for himself, as well, since it's going to be beneficial for us both.

The next step for us is probably to clean up the basement, since it's basically still destroyed from our last minute stress work on our robots, but once we get some sort of organization in place, we're off to the races. Stay tuned!

PS - I've also been writing for a Magic: the Gathering site called ChannelFireball.com. I wrote a magic-oriented description of project day for them, which you can find here. Give it a look!

Success!

2010-10-25T10:05:00.000-04:00

It was down to the wire, but I finished the suit! And with less than a day to go before the competition, it was kind of hairy there for a while. Here is the finished product, in picture and video form!

My friend Tim is in the second pic to give you a sense of scale. He's a little on the vertically challenged side, but I stand about 8"6' at the tip of my shoulders.

As you can see from the video and pictures, I've put a little more effort into the suit since you last saw it. I managed to wire it all up, including two more cathodes on the upper legs, which were made out of some spare foam board I had laying around. I also put all the lights into the rest of the suit, and finished up the chestplate with a few of the highlighter tubes. They looked pretty cool in my last round of pictures, so I just threw a bunch more on. After that I went through and added electrical tape to detail a few areas, and was basically there!

Saturday, Curtis and his brother Mike, and his parents all headed to Turning Stone Casino for their annual costume competition. There were four categories for costumes (Open, Scariest, Funniest, Team) and Curtis and I chose to enter different categories to avoid knocking each other out. I entered Scariest (it is a giant attack robot suit, and people were certainly intimidated, if not scared). I ended up taking second place, losing to a guy in a Ghost Rider outfit, complete with bike - but it was close. Even at second place, I won $500! I'll add more pictures of the competition once I get them from Curt's dad, sometime this week.

It's been a really amazing journey, and I'm very glad I made this suit. We're already thinking about how to improve our costumes for next year, and after a few weeks off to rest, we'll be back at it. Stay tuned for more, and thanks for reading!

Oh SNAP

2010-10-16T21:03:00.001-04:00

We're SO CLOSE!!!

This weekend, I've been busy. Completed both arms, including a rebuild of the right arm. It's much more solid now, and I actually prefer this design over the old one, which was kind of weird. The more I looked at it - especially after doing the left arm - the less I liked it. Either way, it's been redone. I also changed where they attach to the body. The vertical pipes from the bike rack were the perfect size to fit a piece of half-inch PVC into. I have no clue why I never noticed that before. This let me remove the other arm attachments and use that space for the part that will house the battery pack. Speaking of which, I'm in the process of wiring that up now. I'm waiting for the last of the lights to come in on Monday (hopefully) and then I can wire it all up. I've attached the jet pack to the torso, and figured out how to wire that up as well. Really, we're basically waiting on the lights, and then I'll be wiring and wrapping it up. Whatever time is left after that is minor details and tinkering, making it look pretty. The pics below were taken prior to a bit of the work, but after most of it. The shoulders have been worked on, the back has been worked on, etc. - but you get an idea of what's going on here. I took this without the legs, but they're coming along as well. I'm pretty happy with the spot I'm in, with just under a week to go.

Next time you see it, you should be looking at the final product!

A light at the end of the tunnel

2010-10-12T11:47:00.000-04:00

We're getting down to the wire here. I'm scared that I won't have time to do all the work I want to, but there's really no time to even think about that. The costume competition is on the 23rd, which means I have only one weekend left before showtime. I've spent the last three days working constantly, since Jen was on a weekender to NYC, and I had basically no distractions. Each hour saw a bunch of work complete, but it just seems never-ending. The good news is, I have one arm basically finished and the other well on the way, along with a real chunk of the torso. The bad news is, I need to get all my lighting and electronics done this week, and finish up a million little things that stack up quickly. Here are some photos of what I've been working on.

This first picture is a view of the "jetpack" that will be behind me. These diamond cuts were totally tedious to make, and then fill with a chickenwire-type material from some dollar store garbage can. It looks really nice, and will pop when I light the inside of the case. I also added a strip of electrical tape at the joint between the two barrel sections, which was such a small detail, but totally changed the look of the piece for the better. It's the little things.

The feet have been re-done, again. I can't help it, I always end up hating how they look. That's changed now, since I love the look of the casing on these bad boys. So industrial, so awesome. The angle looks a little strange since you can see the shoes inside still, but you can't really from the front. The material is just this foamboard I picked up, cut into pieces basically freehand. The nice thing is that I actually thought ahead and figured I'd need to actually be able to tie the shoes and need access to do it, so I put the pieces together like this:

The sections nestle together, and are plenty sturdy, but give me the ability to actually wear the damned things. Works out well.

You've already seen the bottom half of this arm, and I didn't do anything special to it. I may still put some lights into it, but I haven't made any final decisions on that front. I like it being less light-up and more mechanical, so I may just leave it. However, more lights = awesome, so who knows. I think at this point, time will dictate. In this pic, you see the connection between the upper and lower arm, which has been added to. Where you'd see the ends of the bottles, I covered it with conduit to mask the material. I added more conduit as connectors at the joint. The green stuff is clear tubing filled with water and sealed off. The green comes from highlighter ink mixed into the water. It's a trick I've seen used in every college dorm ever to make blacklight-responsive vodka bottles. I like this application much more. Along the upper arm, I've removed the tape that masked the part that will be lit, although you can't really see it in that pic. The next two show it better. I've also added a strip of conduit to each side for detail. I think the arms are looking really amazing, and I'm excited to see it come together.

Here's the second arm, which is finally created. As you can see, I've decided to end it in a gun, rather than a claw. Curtis is modeling for us. The gun is made from some vacuum cleaner parts that we had kicking around. I used two for the barrels, which will eventually be lit up from inside. The handle is from a broken toy from Toys-R-Us, it used to be a sword. I extended the LEDs from the inside of the sword, and they're now located at the top of the barrels, they look like a laser scope. I still have a bit of work to do on the scope, but it's going to be killer. The white part in the second picture is another piece of the handle that lights up and spins. Kinda lame, kinda cool. I'll take it.

I've gone from zero to almost done with the left arm over the weekend, so I'm stoked - but every tick of the clock means less time till Halloween. This week I'm going to finish the arms and get started on assembling the torso pieces together. Hopefully when I finally get all the lights and batteries together, the thing will start to look like a Mech.

It's hard to take pics of everything at once at this point, since it's like 8 and a half feet tall, and in pieces, but as we get closer to H-day, I'll try to take some to show the costume in all its glory.

2010-09-28T13:52:00.000-04:00

Holy crap! I can't believe it's been three weeks since I updated!

I had a week off, there were some things going on that weekend and I needed a break. However, I've gotten one arm completely worked out, and I'm beginning to see the thing take shape.

The first week, I finally bit the bullet and re-made the foot that was crappy. Our friend Tim came by while we were working and took some pictures, I'll put them up when I have access to Facebook. I didn't realize how frigging heavy these things are. You really can't imagine how much work it is to walk in them until you try it. It's pretty rough. I think for the next version or whatever, I'm going to put some real consideration into making more things out of foam and coating them with some sort of sealant for permanence, rather than trying to make them out of sturdy stuff. It's a lot of weight, and I can already tell that I'm going to be spending a lot of time standing in one place rather than trying to lug myself around all over. Beyond that, it's pretty tough to walk on any surfaces that aren't flat or level. I managed to walk in some grass to see if I even could, and I didn't fall, but I did have a couple close calls. It is scary, I'll tell you.

Anyway, once I figured out how to make the arms look a bit thicker, I worked on making them light up. I'm not wired up yet, but I did test run the arm with lights in it and it looks pretty cool. We'll get there eventually, and I'll have to get some battery packs to power the lights. They are pretty expensive, so I've been hesitating on spending a bunch of money on them. I've got enough to get the arms lit, but I'd like to do a few other places, too. Maybe Curtis will have some leftovers... yeah right. The kid's costume lights up like a frigging Christmas tree.

So, here's the arm after painting layer 1:

You can see that the paint has a pretty nice color, it's the Krylon hammered metal textured paint. It looks pretty awesome on the forearm, and although the upper arm looks a little lame right now, it's going to have a lot more detailed work on it later on. The claw isn't perfect yet, it needs at least one more coat, but it still works and the new color makes it look intense. If you look close at the upper arm in the first picture, you can see the tape line running down it, masking where the lights will be. There's two bars, one on the inside and one on the outside of the arm.

The process for figuring out how to get the shell attached to the arm was actually a pain in the butt. I ended up using hot glue on the wrist section (an Ice Tea bottle), which has since come undone. I'll either try to fix the glue, or pick up some epoxy, although I didn't have much success with that last time I tried it. The next section was easier, since the soda bottles are basically locked on via the mouth. The thick section that covers my hand grip is a modified small garbage can, which was a tough one. I ended up gluing a small piece of 1/2" PVC to the arm cut to the correct length, and gluing a 2 liter bottle cap to the shell. These fit together quite nicely, and gave a sturdy attachment point for the shell. I'm thinking this is worth remembering, since it worked out. The final portion before the elbow is another soda bottle, and then of course three more go up the bicep. I'll be using some conduit to connect the upper and lower arms to make it look better, along with detailing work on the upper arm. I'm very optimistic on the look of this once it's done.

I still haven't figured out what to end the other arm with. It's getting on toward the point of no return, so hopefully i come up with something soon. More to come, stay tuned.

2010-09-07T09:46:00.000-04:00

Much work done this weekend, although by the end of it I felt like I hadn't really accomplished much at all. Still, I had at least two breakthroughs that felt like "Eureka!" much in the same way as when I first clamped PVC onto the bike frame. Before I get to that, here's the pic I promised a while ago of the feet complete minus the shoes:

They look pretty good, if I do say so myself, even if they are completely different shapes and sizes. I don't really care anymore, especially considering how frigging difficult they were to make in the first place. I'm sure you can tell which one I made first and which one had all the mistakes from that one worked out...

Here are a slew of pictures from my work this weekend. First, I've finally figured out how to make the arms thicker than a half-inch piece of PVC. The solution - 2liter soda bottles. Turns out the mouth of the bottles is exactly the same width as the PVC. Eureka number 1.

I'm still tinkering with how exactly to blend the thickened segments into the joints without it looking forced, but that will come with more time. The good news is that since the bottles are clear, I can light them up from inside, and exclude portions from painting to make it glow through. It should look pretty cool. Unfortunately, that's a ways off at this point, because that kind of detail work is simply unrealistic to me right now until I get the structure of the whole thing laid out.

Next up is the arm that includes a claw. As promised, here are a couple pics of how I made the claw work.

In the first picture, you can see the PVC connector chain I needed to use to get the thing to fit. It was guess work at Home Depot, since I didn't have the claw with me, but I knew how well my hand fit into it, so I figured the opening was about 4". Turns out I was almost exactly right, and after I used the dremel tool to round out the spot in the cuff that was flat (making the hole a circle, rather than an oval), the 4" PVC connector fit perfectly. It was a 4":2" connection, a 2":1", and a 1":1/2", by the way. Once I got that figured out, I ran some 16 gauge wire through a hole I drilled in the trigger of the claw down through the PVC, and out a hole near the handle. You can see this in the second pic. I attached the back end of the wire to a strap hinge , which was set up like a trigger. The tension on the hinge bent it, but that's fine, it doesn't really matter. This kinda worked by itself, but the problem was, it didn't reset itself since there wasn't enough tension on the wire. I had to take it all apart and attach an extra spring inside the claw trigger to make it go back to open when I released the trigger on the handle. Now it works awesome, and I can open and close the claw from a foot outside the cuff. Here's one more pic of the arm attached to the chestpiece, to give you some idea of how long it is:

It doesn't really look like that anymore, because of two things. First, I realized I need more support for the front of the arm if I don't want my wrist to break or my arm to fall off by the end of a night wearing this thing. It's heavy on the end, and that weight only gets harder to carry with time. The best way to do this is to attach the arm to my own near the elbow. This is a great plan, except for one thing: The hinge at the elbow doesn't provide a good range of motion for my own elbow, and makes using the arm awkward. The solution Curtis came up with was to find a way to let the arm swivel as well as bend. He found an attachment for a vacuum cleaner that let this happen, but I was looking for something more elegant. I went back to the Depot looking for a ball-in-socket joint of any type, but found inspiration elsewhere. Enter Eureka number 2.

Yep. It's a caster for furniture or whatever. The top swivels just like it should, and after screwing into the wheel, the elbow flexes and bends just like it should. This one got a "You're a genius" out of Curtis. It was the breakthrough of the day, until he found some sick speakers to attach to his own costume. Still, I'm pretty proud of this one. It's going to make my life much simpler, and on top of that, it makes the elbows way thinner, so I don't have to worry about those clunky joints.

The last thing I worked on was the "jet pack" for the back of the costume. I knew I wanted something shaped basically like a big keg, since rocket engines aren't much more than that. I also figured I wanted it to have some sort of conical shaped thing inside, I'm pretty sure that's what they have, too. The result of this concept is pictured below. It's a couple of dollar store buckets connected together, along with some wire mesh garbage cans cut up and inverted into each other. It doesn't sound like much, but it looks pretty solid, and will look even better when it isn't just duct taped together. No, the duct tape won't be staying on the bottom or sides once I'm done.

Like I said, I'm pretty happy with this week's progress, so hopefully I can continue with that trend this next week. I plan to order some lights, which should come in this week, and that will give me the opportunity to at least start thinking about the finished product. It's hard to put final touches on anything till you get the wiring figured out for any lights you want to add, so I need to get them started asap.

2010-09-03T18:13:00.000-04:00

Today wasn't a huge day time wise, I only had about two hours this afternoon to work. It was pretty productive though, I managed to get the arm assembly attached to the Matchbox claw and get it working. Here's a pic of the arm attached and strapped onto my real arm:

Tomorrow I'm going to try and figure out how to make 1/2" PVC look like anything but what it really is. It should be a neat trick, since I've got no clue what I want to do yet. I'll try to take some pictures of the trigger assembly for the claw extension and the way that I connected it to the PVC.

The upper body is starting to come together in the same way I felt the legs were, so I'm getting more and more excited. Stay tuned.

Chest Plate, etc.

2010-08-23T08:52:00.000-04:00

I took a couple pictures of the upper body on Friday, after I had a little time to work on it. Since other than a couple limited pics of hypothetical parts, I haven't shared any of the top half, I figure it's about time. Pardon the ghetto stance on one of them, Curtis thought it was funny.

As you can see, the top half is coming along as well. I took the yellow pieces off the ends of the vertical part, and I'll be finishing them to look like missiles. The back will feature a pretty large jet engine (well, it will look like one, anyway) that will light up pretty heavily, and look awesome. I haven't decided if I want to attach wings yet, but it's an idea we're toying with.

I also figured out a very important piece of the puzzle - how to attach things to the frame. If I use the dremel tool to cut about a quarter of the circumference out of some 3/4" PVC (imagine the profile of it resembles a C), it snaps onto the bike rack frame like a clamp. If you look at the chest plate, you'll notice two screws where I've used this method to clamp it to the frame. Since Friday, I've started making the mech's arms, using the same concept. I used a T-connector to act as the initial attaching point, with the arms coming off the horizontal part of the frame at a 45* angle, and down around my shoulders. They look pretty good so far, but I'm not 100% sure on the best way to make them movable, but secure. I used a joint like the knee joints on the Mechs I linked to before for the shoulder joint, but I don't want to use it for the elbow too, since it makes the arms a little too flexible to easily control. I'll keep thinking on it, I'm sure I'll figure something out. That's the major stuff I did this week, next time I build I plan to continue figuring out the arms and possibly make the jet pack.

After that, we're left figuring out the upper legs, the lower torso, and building out the structure to be more robust. As great as PVC is for framing, it's not very polished or intimidating on its own. Then the finishing touches - I can't wait to light this thing up. 10 weeks till Halloween!

Mech robot costume stilts - 1st attempt

2010-08-13T18:00:00.000-04:00

Today was a victory! We managed to get some video of the finished stilts in action, with a description of what I did to make them work. The audio is so-so since it's on Curt's iPohone, but the video shows you pretty well what the finished product will look like. I have a few pictures of the stilts right before I attached the shoes and took my first walk, I'll edit those into the post a little later. For now, take a look at this!

First Glimpses

2010-08-09T10:02:00.004-04:00

This weekend was both productive and completely wasted at the same time.

On one hand, I managed to complete the assembly of one of the legs. On the other, I hate how it turned out, and I need to completely re-do it. This is frustrating and exhilarating all at once. Here are some pictures:

This first image is of the piston assembly that will be featured on the feet of the costume. As you can see, this part came out awesome. I'm really pleased with the look of the assembly, and Curtis was impressed enough to decide to copy them for his own stilts. He won't have the same ladder extensions, so I do worry about the stability of his feet, but that's a bridge to cross at another time.

This second image is the completed foot. It's pretty gnarly, and I think it looks really great - except for the shape of the top and bottom pieces. They both started off as squares, but as soon as I assembled the foot, I noticed that they didn't line up. This is a result of a flaw I failed to anticipate. I bought two different sized flanges, since I wasn't certain which I would like better - a 3/4" and a 1". Each of the pistons is a 3/4" on top and a 1" on the bottom. The problem is that the holes aren't positioned the same in the different sized flanges, and I can't make a template that works for all of the blocks. I had to free-hand it, and obviously that didn't work. Then I attempted to make it look less shitty by cutting away the excess portions of the blocks, but in reality it just made the whole thing look worse. I planned to just say forget it and run with it that way, but it gnawed at me and I couldn't just let it go. I plan to correct the mistake this weekend by re-doing the whole foot. On the other foot, I've planned ahead and made 1 piston entirely out of the 3/4" flanges, and the other out of the 1". This should allow me to make a template and match the feet up the right way. I may try to fix the pistons from the first foot to do the same, but I'd rather not need to paint them again and just figure something else out.

This last picture is a close-up of the "Action" portion of the feet. I don't like the wood block I used as a spacer for the ladder part - I'm going to try and find something that's round and useable instead. I kinda wish I had a bunch of AOL discs to use...

I also managed to successfully attach the bike rack to my shoulder pads. It looks really amazing. I'm starting to get pretty excited about the whole costume, now that I'm seeing pieces of it come together. I don't have any pics ready for you on that part, but as we finish up the feet and move upward I'll keep them coming.

2010-08-05T15:56:00.009-04:00

Last night I spent a few hours shopping for supplies and building. I've figured out a good way to make the legs function in a manner that won't result in broken bones or death, which I think is a good thing. I explained it briefly in the last post, but now that I've actually applied this guessing game to the real world, I'm gonna elaborate.

Begin with the ladder leg extensions. I've measured from the base of the foot (or, rather, the point where I'd attach it to the "foot" of the costume), and up to the top of the bracket. This is about 12". I've purchased 2 metal flanges to secure the PVC, and attachments so the PVC can screw into them. Measured these assemblies, and cut a tube of 1" PVC to fit the height. I then cut a 1.25" tube to act as the sleeve for the piston, and will attach that as a decorative piece to the outside of the 1" pipe. You can see some of the pieces here:

This picture is missing the 1" pieces, but the rest is all there. The next step is to paint the pieces the appropriate color. I bought some Rustolium textured grey spray paint that I'm pretty sure I'll use over most of the skeleton, and some really shiny chrome paint to use for the pistons. Here's the assembly in paint:

As you can see, there will be a pretty stark contrast in color, which should make a cool effect. I'll be checking to see if any more coats are needed probably tomorrow, and then I'll begin to assemble the base of the legs. I'm still trying to decide on what to make the horizontal pieces out of, since plywood is super heavy. A firm (relatively thick) plastic piece would be great, but I'm not 100% on where to get what I'm looking for. I'm going to keep working and deal with that eventually. As for the top of the legs, I've attached another 2' section of 1" PVC (painted chrome) to the upper portion of the stilt, to extend it long enough to attach to my upper calf. This should be high enough to stabilize my footing as I walk with a bunch of crap on my feet and back.

Speaking of, Curtis found this AWESOME bike rack at the thrift store that we've been working with. It's completely replaced my idea for the chair piece and for the backpack - this thing is about 100x better. I've found a great way to attach it to my shoulderpads, so it's all systems go. I'll update with more pics and details of the process as I have more time to work.

I wish this stuff was in my garage, but Curtis shipped me a key to his place, so now I can work on my own time instead of everyone else's.

2010-08-04T09:19:00.003-04:00

So this weekend, I went hunting in the barn at my parent's house, hoping to find anything of use for the costume I could get my hands on. My dad was pretty helpful, offering to help me find anything I was looking for. The problem was, I wouldn't know what I'm looking for until I found it. Ultimately the search was fruitful, finding a plastic satchel that's used for holding vacuum cleaner accessories (no idea what I'm doing with it yet, but the shape and the material are good), and a pair of these:

I'm going to modify these into the stilts for the leg section of the costume. They're really only going to bear a resemblance to their original purpose by the time I'm done with them (originally they were ladder leg extensions), because I'll need to reinforce them if I plan to not break my neck. My intention is to use 1" and 3/4" PVC pipes to create two additional supports between my feet and the ground. This will be great for a few reasons;

First, as I learned in high school shop class, cylinders are the most stable shape to support weight on. Second, using three points of contact gives me a broad enough base to feel stable on the feet and not worry about tipping one way or the other and breaking my ankle. Third, there's a way to work the PVC so that when painted, it looks like hydraulic cylinders, which means that I can maintain a cool look with them at the same time as being functional.

I've also purchased this:

I'm going to use this as the ultimate end of one of the arms. It's got an electronic open and close which I should be able to modify into an extended arm so I can control it without my hand being inside the claw. It also looks totally badass, and I'm really excited to try and incorporate it into the design.

The backpack idea has fallen through, because 1)I couldn't find either of the frame packs I thought were at my parents, and 2)Buying a new one is more expensive than I care to pay for a metal rectangle. To circumvent that issue, I've taken apart the base of a camp chair, and I'm using the cross braces and backrest to replicate the same basic principle. My next build day should consist of attaching the frame to the shoulder pads and constructing the stilts. I'll take lots of pictures.

Welcome Back!

2010-07-29T09:34:00.005-04:00

I've been absent for what seems like forever, and true to form, I quit about 10% of the way through my 365 project. Photography isn't really something I'm in love with, and even trying to be creative with it doesn't really make me feel much more excited about it. Some people really enjoy taking pictures of things. I'm not one of them, and that's ok.

However, I'm working on a new project and I want to share it with you as it progresses.

Since I was a little kid, I've loved Halloween. I think more than the candy, it has a lot to do with the ability to dress up in costumes and walk around and be perceived as normal. My mom is really creative when it comes to this kind of thing, and it was a ton of fun for her to help my brother and I make really awesome costumes. Of course, by help, I mean do it for us. Since I've been an adult, I've tried on a couple of occasions to make cool costumes, but for the most part, it's been a hassle. There's always some kind of obstacle in the way that I haven't wanted to expend the effort on hurdling. For example, one year, I really wanted to make a sick Wolverine costume, but the claws were next to impossible to do the way I wanted to, and too expensive for me to justify buying a really good set. So, instead I defaulted to some dumb thing or another, and carried on. One year I did make a really awesome Harry Potter themed costume, but that's basically just finding appropriate clothes. No real creativity is involved. Then, a few years ago, I bought a Bunny Suit, and I was that guy for a while. That was awesome, and really rejuvenated my enthusiasm for the holiday, but the suit has seen better days, and if I'm going to be doing a new costume, I'm going to put some effort into it with more than just my wallet.

Last year, my good friend Curtis built this cardboard Robot costume for some competitions around our town. He went "overboard" with it, and learned a lot about small electronics in the process. He did really well in the competitions, and everyone had a great time with it. This year, he decided to go a step further, and construct a new and improved robot out of sturdier materials, with much more intricate electronics involved. The other day I was at his house and he showed me the costume, and I became inspired.

I don't want to make a robot - I don't think stealing his idea or his thunder is really what kind of person I am. But I do want to take it in a new direction, and make some modifications to the process - and see what kind of craziness I can come up with on my own terms. Curtis has graciously allowed me to utilize any of his resources, including space - since Jen and I have a rather small apartment right now - so the two of us will be brewing largely together on our respective costumes.

Yesterday was day 1 for my costume, although Curtis is much further along in his own development. I'm not entirely sure what my end result will look like, but my inspiration comes from a few sources. First, this site has inspired a lot of what I think is cool. This guy is really a champ when it comes to this style of costume, and I think using his experience in not only the mechwarrior costume, but the other two he has made will allow me to shortcut a lot of the technical inefficiencies he's had over the years of production. I think his style is all there, but I also think my costume will generally be more reminiscent of this one:

On the downside, this guy kinda looks like a choad, and his costume looks cheap and fake. The foam pieces he used to flesh out the suit look exactly like painted foam, which bums me out, and functionally, it doesn't do anything. He just kinda stands there or walks around and looks intimidating. Meanwhile, anything he fights will kill him immediately since his entire body is exposed. Nice abs, though. I think his concept is sound, but we can build it better. We have the technology.

My concept is more robust, and probably bigger. That doesn't make it better, but it will be anyway. Originally, I had planned to make inverted knee legs (like on the mech in the first link) but Curtis pointed out how it takes a large amount of focus away from the costume when you see these really obvious legs, and I agree - so I decided to make my knees bend the right way and will be constructing "stilts" to give me additional height, along with devices to mask my legs.

The upper portion of the costume will consist of three main parts.
First, I've procured a set of football (American, not 'rest of the world-ian') shoulderpads in order to be able to build forward, back, and up simultaneously. In order to give the structure the right weight distribution, I'm planning to attach a pack frame to the rear of the shoulder pads and expand from that.

Second, the arms will be constructed in a manner that allows them to be permanently attached to the body, but at the same time disconnected. This will give them freedom of movement, but can allow any electrical systems to be powered in the main body, with wires being free to travel out as necessary. This connection consist of, but not be limited to, electrical conduit which gives practicality to the attachment as well as aesthetics.

The third portion of the upper body is the head. My initial plan is to use a welding mask, with the blackout screen removed, for the helmet, and modifying it to fit the theme of the final product. This was the first thing Curtis and I delved into, and so far it is a major success. The tricky part to this will be the power supply to any lighting in the helmet, but even this can be accomplished with the conduit system I'd be using for the arms. Any wires encased in this type of tubing would look entirely appropriate for the costume, and should be secure enough to not be rattled by moving about.

This weekend should bring time for some more construction, and I'll be sure to keep updating as we progress!

Optimist

2009-07-20T08:58:00.003-04:00

I just looked over the past few posts, and noticed the general trend of pessimism and negativity that they contain. I don't want to give the wrong impression.
I love my life. Man, it's pretty awesome. I've got to admit that when I look over the lives of the people I know and surround myself with, I wouldn't trade places with any of them. That's not to say that their lives are in any way worse than mine - I'm sure that in their eyes they're right where they want to be - or in some cases are at least trying to get their lives to that stage - but my point is that overall, which is really what counts, I'm happy.
I've been really lax on updating this thing lately, mostly because I only half care, but I don't think its worth writing bullshit if I don't actually feel like I have something to say. So if you're still RSSing this, or reading it some other way, then thanks! In addition to my disinterest in writing, I've been in the middle of moving for the last few weeks. Bret (my roommate from my previous apartment) and I found a house about 10 mins away from our old apartment that is so much nicer than the place we were at that we couldn't allow ourselves to not live there. We'll be joined by Zachary Tartell of Watertown, NY, who is a good friend of ours who is looking to take up the moderate societal upgrade that Syracuse promises. I'll be posting some pics of the new crib at some point in the near future, once we get our stuff all moved in.
Outside the move, not much has been going on outside the normal day-to-day. Unless you count the break-in, I suppose. For those of you not reading the Magic Blog (how many of you are there?), the story is this:
A few Tuesday nights ago, sometime between 11pm and 7am Wednesday, my car was broken into. The thief stole my iPod and a backpack which contained two Magic decks which were chock full of expensive and irreplaceable cards. I'm out approximately $2000. I'm not excited about it, and as it turns out, it's not covered by either my car nor my renter's insurance. This is YEARS of investment and trading and tournament wins and all kinds of work, gone in an instant.

After a week of letting the town's card dealers know, checking eBay constantly, getting the car fixed, buying a new iPod, etc., I get a phone call from a friend who says he's going to make my day. He forwards me a private message on mtgTheSource.com (the website I admin) which says:

Thru a google search I found the post that says "Bret Weed is coming" to some event about a Boston Roll call....I live in Syracuse and found a bag under my front porch with some merchandise in it, for playing wizard games...in one of the pockets I found a card with Bret Weed on it...the bag has broken glass in it, so I am assuming his car was broken into and this was taken...i would like to return it to him... my # is 315-XXX-XXXX...

Thank you
Amy

As I said above, Bret is my roommate. I was borrowing his bag at the time. This woman went out of her way to track down the owner of the bag she found, and managed to find them on a random website - which I happen to be intricately involved with. I called her, and she lived less than a block from my old apartment. She had the bag, with all the cards in it. The assumption is, the thief stole the bag, looked in it, saw nothing of value (to them), and ditched it on the way to wherever they were going. Since this thief threw it under a porch, it was protected from the rain, which persisted the entire week I was missing the cards. I was obviously floored at the generosity and integrity of this benefactor, and made sure to give her some token of my gratitude - although anything I could have given her wouldn't have been enough.

I hope the thief enjoys his new iPod, or the 20 bucks he'll get for it. I'm glad, for my own sake, that he was too stupid to realize that the real value was in the backpack he threw away.

I've often told my closest friends that while some people always claim "My life sucks," I can't say the same - my life doesn't suck, it's just a little annoying sometimes. This is a perfect example. Should my cards have disappeared forever, it would have SUCKED. As it stands, it sucked for a week, and then became altogether better. So I've got that going for me. Which is nice.

2009-06-11T07:49:00.003-04:00

I've battled with my weight my entire life. As far back as I can recall, I've been what I consider "a fat kid." The entire time I've thought that, the people I love, the people I've surrounded myself with, have been encouraging me to think differently. To think I'm normal, or at least, not fat. I've never believed them. I've always thought "you're only saying that because you don't know how else to make me feel better." I've always known that sure, I'm not on the extreme end of the scale, but I'm sure as hell not skinny, either.

I can remember very distinct points in time in my life, where weight has been an issue. I remember when I was in fifth grade, and a kid called me "fatso" on the playground. I tried to talk to my teacher about it, but they told me "you're not fat. You're healthy."

I remember in sixth grade, when I had to buy a pair of "Husky" jeans, because the regular ones didn't come in my size anymore. I'm not fat, I'm "husky."

I remember the first time I heard "You're not my type." I remember the first time I heard "I don't see you that way." I remember the first time I heard "What made you think you even had a chance?"

I'm not a depressed person. I'm not overly focused on my outward appearance. I'm not one of those people who needs the approval of everyone else, and kills themself to look the way the people in magazines look. But I'd be lying if I said that it didn't hurt me just a little when I see people all around me who treat themselves like shit, and somehow maintain that look. They never go to the gym. They eat like hell. And yet, they manage to have a 32 inch waist nonetheless. I realize its genetics. It still fucking hurts the fat kid trapped inside my somewhat overweight body. It still makes me feel like I've done something wrong.

So I'm doing something about it.

Not all prisons have bars

2009-05-28T13:55:00.004-04:00

Let's talk about work.

I'm 26 (holy shit, I'm 26). I've done very little with my life in terms of those things that people consider "experiences." I haven't gone on any vision quests, I haven't seen the world. I haven't jumped out of any airplanes, and I haven't gone backpacking through Europe. I spent my entire youth living out a plan that was set in front of me by my cultural sense of obligation from the time I was fourteen.

Get good grades in school. Learn, so that you're prepared for the next step. Get into a good school. Get good grades, so you'll be prepared for the next step. Get a good job. Get yourself a girl. Start a family. Go to work every day and work hard, so you'll be successful. Get that promotion so you can get more money to buy more things. He who dies with the most shit, wins.

I've been questioning that path in the back of my mind for the last decade, and I'm far too much of a coward to actually stray from it. The ramifications of that are staggering. If I don't have a job, I can't afford to live. I've too much responsibility to be able to just cut and run. So here I am, in an 8 by 8 cell, working every day to assure that the money I earn lines someone else's pockets.

I make a good wage. I went to a highly reputable school, and got a Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering. I spend my days working for the Electrical Utility doing High Voltage System planning. That sounds pretty awesome, right? At the least, it sounds like I have a real technical job that keeps me on my toes, since I'm responsible for keeping the lights on. In reality, I play on the internet most of the day, when I'm not in a meeting or my boss isn't looking, and then cram as much work as possible in at the last possible moment. It's a fucking HARD job to look busy all day. It's slowly burning me out, and I'm genuinely concerned that if I keep at it for the next twenty years, I'll go insane. Part of me thinks in the back of my mind that if I sap this place for all I can, I can get to the point where I can escape into another job, or another profession, or what have you. But that isn't how the system works.

By the time I graduated from college, I managed to rack up about 75 THOUSAND dollars in student loans. The collegiate process is such a racket in this country that I feel like I've been robbed over and over again, and will continue to get robbed until well into my 30s. Even having the reliable and generous income I do, I still feel broke every week. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I pay more out in student loan payments than anyone I know pays in rent, or car payments, or insurance. Many of them combined. It's absurd. Once I miraculously dig myself out from under that mountain of debt, I'll still be left with the reality of a family. The ten year payment plan seems fine before you start paying it, because once you're done, you're rich, right? Wrong. What you don't understand as an 18 year old is that you're likely to be about the right age to start dealing with kids when you finally get them paid off. Wonderful.

I'm scared as hell that I'm stuck. Every day I wake up thinking that there's no end in sight. All I really want to do is drop everything, and see the frigging world. There's so much out there that people don't get the opportunity to see. There's so much that people don't get to experience because they, like me, are stuck as mice in a maze, looking for that piece of cheese. Except there is no cheese, and the reality of the situation is that you're just smelling cheese essence that the fucking lab coats have pumped into the maze to get your ass in gear.

It's not like there are no options. As I said, I have to keep thinking that at some point, I'll break out of the cage. And by no means does my life completely suck. I have the fortune (and misfortune) of bearing witness to the steady decline of my friends due to their lives crumbling in front of them. I still have a job. I still have my health. I have an amazing girlfriend and a great relationship with her. My family is still together, and my friends are always there when I need them. So I grind it out - as much for all of them as for myself.

Recently my friend Alex posted a picture on facebook with descriptive squares, which you're supposed to tag with friends' names. Most likely to get you drunk, most likely to be arrested, etc. I was blown away when he tagged me as "Most Likely to Bail You Out." The picture associated with the square was the Superman Shield. It's amazing to me that even when I think my world is upside down, and I have no idea how I'll be able to stand another day in my self-imposed cage, that my friends still look to me as the stable one, the one they can depend on. And if that's my lot in life, then I guess I'm alright with it. It could be a lot worse.

More Bacon than the Pan Can Handle

2009-05-27T11:41:00.005-04:00

Yes, although I was writing out each day of my vacation, and how awesome they were, I quickly tired of the play-by-play, so I bailed on it. Deal.

The rest of the vacation was a great time. Although the weather was uncooperative, we found plenty to do to occupy our time, and made the best of what we could. There were a few breaks in the rain to catch some sun, and I managed to get a bit of color even without the beach days I was hoping for. I also got to rock some killer sushi, so that worked out as well.

While riding out the increment weather, I decided to take a trip to Seminole, and check out the new Terminator joint. For those of you completely in the dark, it's the one that came out last weekend, and although it hefted a fair margin of the box office, it still got crushed by Night at the Museum 2. I'm telling you guys, never underestimate the draw of American history at the box office. People LOVE stuff like this, and kids absolutely lap it up. I'm in the same boat, these movies are all gold in my book, but I wanted to wait on NatM2 until I can see it in IMAX.

Brief aside - Syracuse is home to the MOST (Museum of Science and Technology), which is in turn home to the Bristol Omnitheater. This is one of the first IMAX movie theaters in the region, which is great for the museum. Unfortunately, as its an older projector, it lacks the equipment needed to show feature-length films, so it's uncommon for the theater to show the big blockbuster movies. At the same time, it's unlikely they would be willing to pay for the reels to do so anyway, especially for movies like Spiderman or what have you, since they have no real educational value. It is a museum, after all. Still, they are proud to be showing NatM2 in IMAX, which is a great step in the right direction. I think should they open the gates to more of these kid-friendly movies, there could be real interest in it here, as the nearest feature IMAX theater is hours away. In a time when the museum needs the attention the most (no pun intended), they could really benefit from the draw these films could provide.

Anyway, on Terminator: Salvation, I've this to say - it was a movie. And really, that's the best I can do for it. While I did enjoy the film, it wasn't as revolutionary as T2, but it wasn't the trash heap that T3 was, either. I'm glad they've breathed new life into the franchise, and Christian Bale is easily the best John Connor we've seen, but there wasn't a lot to cling on to in the movie.

First of all, I went into Terminator with relatively high expectations for the cast, but pretty low expectations of the director and effects. I'll make no apologies about the fact that I have literally no respect for the directorial prowess of McG - and it only has a bit to do with the ridiculous moniker he's labelled himself with. Seriously, man. You're a professional. At least pretend you have some credibility. You're resume certainly isn't doing that for you, Mr. Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. At least Demi Moore looked hot in it. So, I went in expecting a weakly driven plot and some mediocre special effects, but looked to Bale et al to make up for it with badassery. What I got was a contrived story, with extremely cliched plot points, filled with really well done effects and direction, and mediocre performances.

Wait, what? Yes, I said it, McG actually has a worthwhile credit to his account after T:S. The movie looked great, with the exception of a few small CGI flaws here and there, but they were easily overlooked as the rest of the film was excellently shot, rendered, and toned. The actors' performances overall were fine, although there were plenty of "Batman Voice" moments for Bale, and there was a real slippage of accents for Sam Worthington (who played the actual lead role of Marcus Wright). It was quite obvious that while Bale has a mastery of dialect - I've seen him do a variety of accurate accents in other films - that Worthington hasn't quite gotten his American down yet. The Australian slips back through.

These quibbles aside, the real sticking point of the movie for me was the absolute deluge of cliches in the movie. It was near impossible for me to overlook the obvious foreshadowing points along the way (Your heart is sooo stroooong), and the characters' motivation - aside from survival - was completely absurd. Moon Bloodgood's character in particular left me wondering "why would she even care?" about a hundred times. By the end of the movie, I was simply no longer capable of believing that the characters gave a shit about each other at all, with the exception of John Connor trying to save Kyle Reese, in order to assure his own survival in the past-future(?). I'll leave the time travel paradoxes out of the issue, since it's always been a problem with the franchise, and if you really want to complain about that, you probably shouldn't be watching the movies.

And yet, even with all these issues, I did enjoy Terminator, in the sense that I was entertained for 130 minutes. After leaving the theater, I realized that I would have a difficult time really describing my opinion on the movie, since there wasn't much to it. It's another of those franchise films that feels like a plot mover - it's a means to facilitate the next sequel. Frankly, I've had enough of those movies at this point, and I'd like to get to some real story. There's no money in real endings, though, so I don't know why I would expect to see one.

All in all, it was a fine movie. As summer approaches, I wonder how many more "I liked it because I shut my head off" movies I'll be able to take. Hopefully just enough to get me through September, and into Oscar season.

This week, I'm hoping to catch Night at the Museum, and when it hits this weekend, Pixar's new one, Up. I'll let you know how it goes.

Sea Oats Obamacation - Day 2

2009-05-18T10:13:00.005-04:00

Much less to say about Sunday, because, well, we didn't really do a lot. After waking up around 9, I walked over to the other condo for coffee and the morning buzz, which was mostly about Steph's birthday. She's had a birthday every year we've been here, so it kind of goes hand in hand with the beginning of the week. When she and Weston went to explore a thrift store, Jack and Sandie walked to the Circle K across the street, and picked up decorations and such. They returned with a bag of water balloons and an inflatable whale. I don't get it either. We all hurt ourselves blowing them all up, and waited to get things started on Steph's return. When she got back, we sang Happy B'Day, and laughed about the decor.

We were visited by a group of local friends thereafter - Chris Olds, whom Jack went to high school with, and his wife, newborn son, and another friend of theirs, Andrea. We all spent a while lounging poolside, where I picked up a solid start on sunburn. I managed to put sunblock on the back of my neck and shoulders, but there's a line on my chest where the sunblock ended, and the sunburn starts. I've gotta keep an eye on it this week so it doesn't get any worse. The intention is to turn it into a tan, which is usually easy on my arms and legs and face, but my chest and back don't get enough sun to make that as easy a prospect. Sometimes I wish I had my Dad's complexion, because every summer he turns to leather.

Once we got sick of the pool, Brett and I came upstairs for some drinks and watched game 1 of the NHL Western Conference Finals, and saw the Redwings beat the Blackhawks 5-2. Both of us are Wings fans, so it was a happy afternoon. Once the game was over, we started considering dinner, which was BBQ again. After dinner, we all came back up for cake and Ice cream, which I chose to abstain from, and we all watched the new Dane Cook special. I'm not a big Dane Cook fan, but I think I only heard like 2 jokes I'm pretty sure he stole from other comedians, so it's a halfway decent special I guess.

After cake, Brett, Laura and I went for a night swim, and then came upstairs and crashed. A mellow day, certainly, but overall the exact day we're looking for here. Plenty of relaxation, plenty of sun, and no stress to be seen. Vacation.

Sea Oats Obamacation - Day 1

2009-05-17T09:04:00.004-04:00

Waking up at 4am is not fun. Even if you know you're planning to get on a plane to head to Tampa, Florida, you still hate the alarm clock with every ounce of your effort - which, on the tired side of 4am, isn't much. Still, you roll your ass out of bed and get your stuff ready so you can be sure you don't miss your flight. Unfortunately for Jen, she was my ride to the airport. She's even less excited at the prospect, since she won't be joining me. She's got all the bad parts, and none of the anticipation. Still, she's a great girlfriend, so she sucked it up and helped me out.

Flight 1 was uneventful. Slept the whole way to NYC. It was too early for me to even consider anything else. I did wake up for the landing, though, and it was awesome, since the entire airport was covered in a thick fog. I didn't see the ground until we hit it. It's landings like that that make you appreciate how good your pilots must be at their jobs, and how much technology there must be helping them out.

Once I got to New York, I really didn't have enough time to do or see anything, so I headed to see if any bars were serving yet. As it was only 7:30, they were not. Lame. So I boarded flight 2 to Tampa, and watched Travel Channel the whole way down. Jet Blue, baby. If I can manage it, I try to fly them everywhere. They really do have more leg room, and the TVs make the flights go so much smoother. Consider me a loyal customer.

Once arriving in Tampa and meeting everyone, we piled nine of us - Brett Gobe, Jack Collier and his wife Steph, her sister Sandie, Sarah Labombard, Chris Page, Laura Kroening, Weston Ruthven, and myself - into a seven passenger van and took off. First stop, as always, was this interesting Chinese food place called the Palace of the Orient (we just learned the name, although some of us have been going there for five years). They have passable food, but its a solid choice after a few hours in the air. We eat some MSG and drink some TsingTao beer, and head on to Sea Oats.

The place we stay is a condo complex literally on the beach in Reddington Shores, FL. We have two condos, which have between two and three bedrooms, and two bathrooms. They have balconies which are overlooking the Gulf, with an absolutely stunning view. There's a beachfront pool, and lots of space for BBQ. It's an excellent place for a vacation, but it's a little too tourist-y for my tastes, living there -wise.

Most days, we try to eat from groceries we purchase, because it's much cheaper than dinner out for a week. Brett and I were on shopping patrol for the first day, and we headed to Winn Dixie, where we picked up all the staples - lots of BBQ food, and a shit-ton of alcohol. There's a liquor store right next to the Winn Dixie, and I was responsible for buying the $100+ of liquor for day 1. We brought it all back to the Oats, and took in some sun before putting dinner together. By this time, we're all a little on the tipsy side, and exhausted from a long day. We came upstairs to play some Beirut (beer pong with quarters instead of balls, basically), and relaxed before finally making dinner around seven thirty. After dinner, I was pretty much drunk and spent, so I volunteered to be the puss and crash first. I passed out around 9, and was dead to the world until this morning, when I woke at 9am. The best part about going to bed at 9 is that when you sleep for 12 hours, you still wake up at a reasonable time.

Stay tuned for more highlights from the trip!

LOST finale - season 5

2009-05-14T11:20:00.006-04:00

I've been watching Lost since day one. It's been a pain in the ass every step of the way. I've never before experienced a television show that gave me so much to think about, and so much to be frustrated about. It's pretty annoying to be posed with a multitude of questions every week (well, like, once every three weeks - stupid-ass schedule) and then rather than be given the answers, we're just left with more questions.When the show was in its second season, that was the year I started working at my current job. I'd post pictures and clues from the lost fansites outside my cubicle, and people who were also fans would look to me for information on the goings-on in the show.

Then the writers' strike happened.

Lost was hit hard by that event. It's too bad, really, because it had a lot going for it before they pretty much trashed all of that momentum and destroyed much of their base of followers. People got real frustrated with the direction of the show, the characters they loved taking a back seat to characters they felt were irrelevant and distracting, and the endless stream of unanswered questions that were thrown at them every episode.

I think the producers of the show have done a remarkable job in taking all of that dissatisfaction and turning it into constructive criticism - allowing them to make changes to the show which brought the overall opinion of the show back into the black. Even if they continue to ask questions relentlessly, they've given us enough information to work with, and to form some hypotheses on where the show will be going. I truly believe JJ Abrams has demonstrated that he is a powerhouse - even when his show is in the death throes he manages to take what his audience is looking for, and reinvent his show to become a success once more. There aren't many people who have that ability.

So, as the seasons progressed, they got bad, then began the ascent into greatness again. This whole season has been excellent, and the finale had been hailed as a return to the greatness of season two's final episode. I went in cautiously optimistic. I was glad I didn't heighten my anticipation too much, I fear I would have been pretty disappointed.

While the episode (and I don't count the recap hour as part of the episode, btw) began strong, I feel it kind of petered off into nonsense before culminating in the traditional cliffhanger. I'm not convinced the writers really knew where they were going with things when they began to close out the season. I can't help but object to the constant stream of "We should blow the bomb... well, maybe not. NO! WE CAN'T! OK, let's do it." It's extremely wish-washy, and basically every character involved does it. I understand the moral dilemma present in the idea of detonating an H-Bomb, but let's decide what to do and then do it. The same is true for the relationships in the show. Let's assume Sawyer and Juliet have been together since a year after they got stuck in the 70s. That's a relationship of 2 years, dropped without a single tear. It's annoying to me that they would both be so complacent about that loss. Not to mention the fact that Kate's role in the show is strictly to piss me off and make trouble. I can't believe no one has killed that bitch yet. Especially Radzinsky, who seems to be willing to go to Machiavellian levels to get the Swan operable.

The whole John Locke question is one that I take particular disinterest in. I'm not excited at the prospect of him being "possessed" for the whole season, or that he's actually dead. From day one, he's been the most interesting character on the show, and I don't like the idea of him being controlled by some evil superbeing, at odds with the true controller of the island. Although I do like the concept of the "Clash of the Titans" style god-war, I'm not really into the idea of them acting in direct contact with the humans in order to manipulate their game.

The final shot of the episode - which I won't spoil - leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. I'm not happy with the ramifications of the event, and I think it means one of two things.

The attempt is successful. This means that no one has ever gone to the island, no one meets each other, and the entire show is completely invalidated. Why would they do this? There's no reason for them to hit a reset button with a year of the show left. It also completely invalidates the "present" timeline that has been running parallel to the "past" timeline in season 5. What difference does it make if Jacob is dead or not if you're resetting the time line from the 70s forward?
The attempt fails. What the hell was the point of dragging them through the should I/shouldn't I playground for the last few months? If the attempt fails, Faraday died in vain, and the crew is stuck in the past indefinitely. I can't see this being the case either, since there has to be a neat bow to wrap this show up in the end. It's unlikely that they would leave these characters stranded in the past, forced to relive the history of the island over again, or die in the gassing of the Dharma Initiative.

As neither of these seem likely, we can only surmise that the resolution of the event will be the failure to destroy the island, the failure to prevent the "incident," and the successful return of the stranded crew back to the present year. This would obviously be the "they" that are coming. I don't swallow that as easily as most people probably will. It's too contrived for this show. However, it's ultimately not my decision, and fortunately perhaps, the strike frustrated the conjecture out of me when it comes to the storyline of Lost. While I do enjoy predicting the next steps in the story, I certainly don't presume to guess where the ultimate direction of the show will go. So, even with my apathy on the finale this season, I'll be watching along with the rest of America in 2010 to find out what happens to our survivors of Oceanic Flight 815.

Family and Reboots

2009-05-12T08:33:00.009-04:00

Sunday was Mother's Day, which means a few things in my world.

I would be spending some amount of time with my family, which can be a good thing, or a not so good thing, depending on the mood of the players involved at the time, and what's going on in their lives. More on this in a moment. This time, it meant brunch at my Uncle's.
I would be spending some amount of time with my girlfriend's family, around dinner time. This is nice, as it allows me to interact with her on a level that is reserved for those we feel most comfortable with. I'm not completely at ease around them yet, as I've only been to a couple holiday events, but it's getting there. Consider it a work in progress.
I have about three hours to kill after leaving ma familia and before heading to Jen's. Jen is my girlfriend, by the way.

Before I get into the events of the day, let me give you some background on my family. We're an Italian family, straight out of the 1950s. My parents are still happily married after 35 years, as are my father's parents, who are both in their mid 80s. It's a picture straight out of Pleasantville, which made it an incredibly warm and welcoming environment to grow up in. Unless it wasn't. Like any family, there are times when we just do not get along. Most of these have to do with one of three things:

My Aunt being neurotic, and the rest of us calling her on it.
My father and his brother being on opposite sides of an argument
My brother. Period.

As much as I love my brother, he's the epitome of the black sheep. Covered head to toe in tattoos (not that I'm against that, being only slightly behind him on that road), living in a perpetual state of summer vacation. Still, he is one of the most compassionate people I know, when he can get out of his own way. He's seeing a girl now who brings that out of him, which I like a lot, so it's a bit easier for me to handle him for more than a few minutes at a time.

You've got to understand, we spent our childhood hating each other. Not disliking, HATING. We were frequently in need of forcible restraint to keep us from hurting each other physically. It was out of control, and I honestly don't understand how our parents dealt with it. It must have been exhausting for them to work all day and come home to deal with us. But, as we both got older, we managed to find some common ground, and now I can happily say that while we don't always see eye to eye, we've managed to find ways to accept each other. Sappy, I know.

The point is, Sunday was a good day. We all had brunch at my uncle's, and then sat and talked for a bit, before heading our separate ways.

Tony (my brother) and I decided to check out a matinee of the new Star Trek movie in the three hour window, while Jen went home and caught up on sleep. Apparently, girls aren't that interested in Star Trek. Who knew?

There's obviously been a lot said about the movie already, since we're days past the opening weekend. The word of mouth is overwhelmingly positive, some critics calling it "This year's Iron Man." I'm not sure what they mean by that - whether it means it's this year's "Geek Movie" to make a bunch of money, or if it means its the genre film that actually turns out to be good, who can tell? I know this much - I enjoyed it very much. While the film starts off slow, with the campy dialogue that we're all so familiar with from the original series and first few films, it quickly picks up steam. Once the plot really started moving, as Kirk begins his schooling at Star Fleet, the film won me over. I was hooked, and along for the ride. There were only a few complaints I had, and contrary to popular opinion, the lens flares weren't it.

I was disappointed by the "Three Years Later" that immediately followed Kirk's first meeting with Bones. I turned to my brother and said "I want to see the movie we just skipped." I'm concerned that now, since we've established these characters and the actors playing them, that the story in any subsequent movies will be forced to move forward, and we've lost the opportunity to show Kirk at Star Fleet Academy. It's too bad, because it has a real Ender's Game quality that has a lot of potential.
Eric Bana's character, Nero, doesn't really fit the mold of the dangerous villain. He's the captain of a mining ship, certainly, but even being pissed about his situation (no spoilers), it seems like he's harboring far more resentment than he really should be. He holds Spock responsible, but that just seems short sighted to me - it's not like he had any real control over the situation that caused his resentment. His anger seems misplaced. Maybe it's just Bana's acting that's the problem.

I don't want to nitpick too much though, because I really did like the film. I'm by no means a trekkie, really I've only seen some syndicated episodes of TNG and Voyager, along with watching the movies, more out of a sense of geek obligation than any real love for the material, but I think this cast, with JJ Abrams at the helm, could reasonably put out a number of movies and I'd be in line to see all of them. They've got a great chemistry, and I'd love to see more.

A little background (Part 2)

2009-05-11T11:19:00.002-04:00

Part 1

So there I was, in college, knee deep in other people's cultures for the first time. It was, for the second time, a right turn on the path of my musical life.

I was introduced to Thursday and Poison the Well early in my freshman year by some friends I made in the Pep Band. As fellow music geeks, they had taken a dissimilar but parallel path to mine throughout their musical taste progression. These two bands served as an inlet into the scene known by most as Hardcore, and it was there I truly bloomed as a musical being.

The hardcore scene allowed me to find a home in music, in a subgenre which rewarded obscurity, and which more or less resembled the tastes I had developed for myself prior to my introduction to the scene. It helped that at the time, my older brother had also discovered the genre, and had served as a liaison to meet many of the people in Syracuse (the closest "big" city to my hometown). Syracuse has been called home to many bands which have gone on to influence the Hardcore culture, which was another boon to the development of my interest in the scene. For all of college, and a few years after, I immersed myself in the music of this genre and allowed it to dictate my morals and my lifestyle, which was, on the whole, a very positive thing. However, after graduating, and getting the rest of my life underway, I found myself outgrowing Hardcore music, and generally losing interest in what its bands had to say. Most of this can be attributed to my change in lifestyle from the poor college kid, into the adult firmly implanted in the business world, with all the weights and responsibilities thereof. Its not that hardcore changed, as much as I changed, and hardcore stayed the same. Unfortunately, that meant that hardcore wasn't what I needed it to be anymore, and with that, I left much of that life behind. Even more unfortunately, that meant I left many of the friends I had made along with it behind, as well.

Without a real musical identity, I spent about a year completely devoid of musical interest. I went to no shows, I found no new music. However, I spent a lot of that year doing some real searching into the person I wanted to be - who I was as a person, without the influences of others to rely on. In doing so, I managed to realize that it wasn't any single one of these styles or genres which defined my musical taste, but rather they all combined, along with some smatterings of other phases I'd gone through on the way (ska, post rock, hippy, etc) which really defined my musical preference. It was possible for me to enjoy a wide array of music, if I simply refused to identify myself with a particular group of listeners. If I intentionally live my life outside the scope of any of the musical scenes, I can float at the edge of all of them.

In an attempt to reach out to those friends which I had set aside when I dropped out of the hardcore lifestyle (for all intents and purposes), I began to go to shows again, but quickly realized that I wasn't interested in the same type of show. On suggestions from a close friend, I checked out some bands like Baroness, Torche, Isis, Mastodon, etc. I fell in love. I realized that the combination of the ambiance of post rock bands like Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, etc, combined with the heavier presence I had come to enjoy through my youth combined to make something wonderful. I needed more. And this, my loyal readers, is where the Internet finally came into play. I dug. And dug. And found a multitude of bands I enjoyed. Then I used their styles to find more bands I enjoyed. And the blogs rolled in, and RapidShare and MediaFire worked their asses off. I discovered a world of music once again that I had no idea existed, and I loved it. But this time, I was a little more hesitant. I refused to become another cliche, and let the music I enjoy define me. I've become engrossed in the Doom/Drone/Stoner metal genres, and I feel like I've reached the culmination of a multitude of influences which have set me on the path to this style. I've narrowed my tastes to a point where I can see myself staying forever, but at the same time, I've left myself open to enjoy other forms of musical art. I've thrown a door wide open, but this time, left the other doors open as well. And it's a gratifying feeling - to know you've found a music you're passionate about in the same way as you saw your parents were in their youth. Something you'll be proud to pass on to your children to help them develop their own love of music. Maybe they'll learn to appreciate the music I listen to as a stepping stone to their own passion, much the way I believe I did with my parents. And if you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. Take the psychedelia from Floyd, mix it up with the sludgy riffage from Sabbath, and what you get sounds an awful lot like Mastodon. Much in the same way that I resemble an amalgamation of my parents, my taste represents the same mix of theirs.

Thank god my mom waited until after my impressionable youth to turn on American Idol.

A little background

2009-05-11T10:52:00.003-04:00

When I was a kid, growing up in the middle of upstate New York, it was the pre-internet boom. Sure, we had the beginnings of the net back then, but two things were essential to keep in mind:

I was much too young to actually understand the intricacies of the net, especially back then when it was much less user friendly, and
Dial up. That's right, LOW speed internet, with a shoddy connectivity. No streaming anything back then.

So that left me in the dark, as compared to today, when it came to musical interests.

From early on, I loved music in general, and it's been a big part of my life for as long as I can remember. From the beginning, I absorbed as much as I could, starting with the music my parents loved, and branching out from there. My dad was a classic rocker back in the 60's and70's, although he may not see it quite that way. He was big into bands like Zeppelin, Sabbath, and the like, with branching taste into more mainstream music like Boston and even the Beatles (although he insists he only liked them once they hit their psychedelic phase, around the White Album). My mother, on the other hand, was a huge Pink Floyd fan, and was the first person to introduce me to bands like Heart - which makes a lot of sense to me. Nowadays, she's just as likely to be listening to Clay Aiken, which breaks my heart, but what can you do? The point is, basically from the cradle, I've had parents who took their music seriously, and have (or, at least once had) a real passion for the art. I was fortunate to have their influence to prevent me from becoming a mindless acceptor, who allows the top 40 hits to dictate their musical tastes.

Things continued well as I grew older, as I became involved in band as early as allowed, and became a proficient Saxophone player. This gave me a new perspective on music, as it showed me what possibilities lie on the other side of the recording process. However, I never took it very seriously, and never pushed myself to take it anywhere. This would become a trend in my musical life, as I would go on to pick up a multitude of instruments, becoming passable at them all, but never truly mastering any of them. Such is life.

In high school, I began to step away from the tastes of my parents, and begin to develop my own musical tastes. Unfortunately, as I said earlier, I didn't have the methods available to me then that many kids do today, and was largely limited on the exposure I had to new music. I was confined by the radio, as it were, and found obscurity as well as I could - even then, the music snob - but unbeknownst to me, the music I was delving into was mostly out of availability, rather than a true love of the genres. I was listening to stuff like Slipknot, Limp Bizkit, Korn, Static X, Mudvayne, etc. It seems obvious now that that isn't what I really wanted to listen to, but to the 15 year old me, stuck in the middle of nowhere, it served as an ample soundtrack to my rebellion from my isolated and insular surroundings. When I started to dig deeper into that type of music, I found my interests developing into bands like Sevendust and Tool - bands with a bit more layers than those which were considered the mainstream - or at least the comparative mainstream.

I consider the first day I heard Rage Against the Machine to be one of the major turning points of my life. It was the first time I heard a band with something real to say. Something more than "I am full of angst," someone making music today who had a real message, a real motivator for making their music other than sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll. Sure, bands had come before with the same political fuel, but Rage managed to strike me at exactly the right time, with exactly the right sound. They changed the way I looked at music, and in turn, the way I looked at myself.

I devoured everything they had to offer, and continued to do so until graduating from high school, and setting my sights on college. It was there where I consider my eyes and ears to have been truly opened.

TBC...

Much more to come

2009-05-11T10:18:00.001-04:00

I'll be tweaking and toying with the site for a while, trying to maximize the amount of awesome that I can cram into it. If you see things bouncing around the page at all, that's probably why. Personalization is key. I want to feel like the site is mine (as much as one can on blogger), so I've got to get some work into it.

Also, if you decide you like the blog, and would like to share links, I'll probably be ok with doing that. Just drop me a line, and we'll see what we can do to help each other out.

I'll also be linking to a few blogs I follow, most of which will be music "preview" sites. Feel free to show them some love with some page impressions. I'd be grateful if they did the same for me, but who the hell am I, you know? Maybe someday, but not this day.

So it begins...

2009-05-11T09:53:00.001-04:00

I want to write, a lot. Not in the sense that I have a lot I want to get out there, but there are a lot of times I find myself wishing I had an outlet for my thoughts, and I'm just egotistical enough that I believe others could benefit from reading them. I've had avenues for this discourse in the past, such as Livejournal, etc. but the truth is, I don't really want to pander to that crowd (no offense) in the same manner I did before. So what does that mean for this blog? Well, I'm not certain what I'll be focused on - in fact, I'd be more prepared for unfocused thoughts than any specific subject matter - but I'd say you can expect whatever subject happens to be on my mind at the moment.

It's going to be a bumpy ride, but hopefully I can make it worth your time.

Please, for those of you who know me through the world of geek culture, don't expect much about Magic: the Gathering here. I'll still be writing those experiences at Saltcitymagic.blogspot.com. This is more for my general interest discussion. Movies, music, and more, as it were. I hope that doesn't steer you away, as I'm sure if you like what I write on Magic, you'll feel the same of "the life and times of an AdamNightmare."

So, with that, let the blogging begin, and welcome to Nightmares and Blogscapes (thanks, Mr. King!).