Cepheus.


Just finished up another window. My sister Cathy and I worked on this one as an anniversary present for my aunt and uncle. I have been using this pattern for about a year now. The constellation Cepheus in the Northern Autumn Sky i believe. It is part of the 2 piece pattern that includes the Little Dipper.

The constellation















I handed off the glass to Cathy for 2 weeks and she copper-foiled the piece.




















Soldering done









Finished Constellation

Gay Lawn Jockey

I have seen these statues in peoples yards over the years and have always liked them. I am sure that was because of their electric / illumination potential as opposed to their questionable historical background. I was always told [assumed?] the statue was a racist leftover of the deep south. There are now several sources [1] [2] online portraying the statue's history as a noble one tied to the underground railroad. However, I suspect those alternate histories are being spread by the lawn jockey industry. [more info]
A simple survey of their online catalogs still shows some very questionable material.

So several years ago i put out the word that I wanted one for a project someday. I thought I had a very unique idea for taking this racist symbol and turning it into something more entertaining / less offending. Well.... apparently I was not the first to stumble on to the idea as i spotted this rendition this weekend while camping.

A very nice job. My idea is still a little better. I want to place the statue at the edge of a pond and swap the lantern for a motorized disco ball. But without a lawn [ or my own gay bar..] I am not sure what i would quite do with it.












Racist symbol Lawn Jockey

+ chaps + disco ball

= gay icon Lawn Jacques.

Not too bad.

Toy Store!


In the process of fixing the Vanagon, i stopped by Glenwood Electronics on Hague street today. [An electronics components supplier here in town] What a place! Full of old push button switches and lights and old components! It was great just poking through the place. Back in the day, they probably did alot of business with all the manufacturers here in town. Now days.. probably notso much. I definitely plan to keep these guys on my list.

ICFF Weekend

Headed to NYC this weekend to meet up with my friends for the International Contemporary Furniture Fair [ ICFF]. Eric is in the middle of a class - so I was solo for the weekend.









We hitup a couple of showrooms Friday afternoon, including the Domus Store.

The store was having a sale special for the weekend - buy one white leather couch.....
- get a scruffy Chilean for free.

The sign said this one was named "Cristian" and
that he was fully house-trained.









The show itself was great this year. Some noteworthy items included the DutchTub. Looking a little out of PlaySkool or FisherPrice - this hottub included an external heating coil that you build a fire in. I thought it was pretty neat.







Also I spotted the Bocci display. I first spotted this guys in MocoLoCo. Thier chandeliers are awesome. I took a few pictures.





























We left the show to head over to Brooklyn for an open house at 14townhouses This is a new modernist take on the traditional city brownstone/row house.









The unit we toured was HUGE. I really liked the whole concept. My pictures really do not capture it fully. I was a bit taken aback at the prices [ $2 million and up ]









I do not believe the structures themselves were worth that. [ Some aspects of the construction were actually a little sloppy and cheap IMO] Maybe the land is the key.
















When we finished the tour and headed outside, we intercepted a protest parade of people in the neighborhood. As it turns out, they were trying to bring awareness that the state and local funds and attention were being used for some very high end development that did nothing for the current residents. Our $2million townhouse tour was a perfect example. While not a resident myself, I had to remind myself that this development was completely out of my financial reach as well.


I tried to take a picture of the parade marchers walking past the billboard for the development.








Heading back to Lower Manhattan, we stopped in on a few ICFF reception parties. Included of course was the Ingo Maurer showroom. I first saw his work in Berlin years ago and have always liked his flair for technology and whimsy. This picture is of a "blanket" of circuit boards and LED's overhead changing color and pattern. Someday I plan to accost him at a reception to figure out how to get started as a lighting designer.

Flux Capacitor


Everyone needs a flux capacitor in their house right? Or at least a Warp Core. I just finished up the Utility Room Project my roommate and i started back in November. The room was never really finished and looked pretty shoddy. My attempts at home networking and video did not help matters whatsoever.






Walking into the room - you were greeted by a giant mess of wires hanging from the gaping holes in the ceiling. Not Good.





phone and video wiring








I picked out a vanity cabinet from IKEA that I thought could serve as a home network panel. I figured I would route all the phone, Ethernet and video through the cabinet in some layout that did not look so bad. The ceiling was a mess from all the HVAC ducting and the likes - so i planned to put in a drop ceiling to conceal most of it and add some fluorescent lighting while i was at it.



The glass door on the network cabinet begged for something interesting inside it. I noticed that you could sorta see the indicator lights of the components inside when the lights were turned off. SO - always to make things a little more complicated... I got the idea for the Flux Capacitor. I figured that it was the most boring room in the house..




These are disposable LED blinkers we used in ballons this summer. I could not bear to throw them away.





I spent a day soldering them together with my new battery powered solder gun. It did not work well - so i ended up dragging out my 100 watt soldering iron to finish the job.




I wired two strings of the LED's up to a 3 volt bus i made from the old phone patch panel. One side of the bus is switched to the open/close of the network panel




Details of the door switch.











I strung the longer string above the translucent drop ceiling







The shorter string was placed in the back of the network panel









I eventually plan to put some rechargeable flashlights and hangers for them on the side of the cabinet along with a charger for all my rechargable batteries.



I have the final product as an AVi file [ 3.2 mb] You can download it by right clicking here The random shaking in the film is not seismic.. my Roommate had the hiccups if you listen carefully... *note to self - no Sangria before filming.

Almost Time...



The warm weather is coming and Chilipepper wants out of the garage! I am always tempted to get the van out early - but as usual it is in need of some maintenance. Some day i would like to go to EveryBus in North Carolina. But it is always just a little early of the warm weather up here in the North. After some consultation with my Vanagon people - it appears the van suffered from "Vanagon Syndrome". The fix is not difficult, I am just not sure if it is the sole ailment. So I will start poking around the engine warm up mechanisms as well. Oh yeah - the front wheel bearing started squeaking too.. so the big front end brake project I have been procrastinating on will also need to be done. Rotors, calipers, pads, hoses and bearings. I am ordering the parts now for my Memorial Day Maintenance weekend. Soon to be on the road again.. [ hopefully..]

Trip to Connecticut.

Eric and I headed to Connecticut this weekend for a surprise birthday party. Friday night we stopped in to Owego to stay with my sister and her family. We got a chance to sit down and get Kristin and my niece officially into blogdom.




Saturday we headed out for Connecticut. My college roommate's 40th birthday was this weekend and her family was throwing an surprise party for her. The party was fun and it was good to catch up with Kim and her family.







































On our trip home and Saturday, we stopped off in Scranton PA to visit with my Aunt Catherine. She just moved into a new retirement home at Marywood University. Very nice place. She really likes her new space.






While we were in Scranton, we stopped to take some pictures of buildings I have always liked. These pictures are on the New Jersey Central Railroad freight terminal. I do not know how long it has been empty - but it is an awesome building. I think it has some masonry / settling problems but still....

39 years!


Eric came over early this weekend to help me celebrate my 39th birthday. I do not feel 39. [ Or at least - what i imagined 39 would be like...] Friday we caught up with my friend Tony and his boyfriend Martin. We went to India House for Dinner.. Vindaloo!! Yum Yum. Saturday Eric, my friend Zahra and i spent part of the day bopping around town. We ended up going to a store called ReHouse that sells parts from demolished houses. I was getting ideas for the pending remodel of my bathrooms. I have this idea of using a double hung window as a vanity. Eric took me out for dinner at 2Vine here in Rochester. It was pretty good [ but a little loud..] Afterwards we headed to bar night at the Bachelor Forum to hang out with some friends. It was Country Western Night. I am not the biggest Country Music fan [ i do like Mark Willis and Chris Cagle]- but the hats are swell! Our friend Gerry [ who is always armed with a camera] caught us in pixels for the evening.



A very nice birthday indeed!

7009719!


Yea! In my mail today was a nice letter from a Patent Award company! Woo! Woo! US Patent # 7009719 Systems and Methods for Controlling an Image forming system based on Customer Replaceable Unit Status was granted to my coworker Keith and myself on March 7th! So I treated myself to this neat video from PBSonline.

Mardi Gras!


Eric and I went to a great Mardi Gras party with our friends Zahra and Jennie Saturday evening. Our friends Eric, David and Paul throw it every year. We lamed out on costumes last year - so Eric and I thought we would go as pirates. [Seemed kinda in the theme without the need for ruffles, tights or green/purple hats] Well- an hour at the costume shop and the pirate idea was completely forgotten. I has this idea Eric would look good as a police officer and we ran off on a costume tangent. Next thing - Eric decides I should be a sailor. So, in a nutshell - we ended up as half the Village People. Go figure. The party was swell. Though I was told the 3rd floor hot tub overflowed.We had alot of beads to give out - so I kept pointing at people yelling "Weapons Search!" and then Eric would frisk them. woo! woo! People found it entertaining enough to be searched twice.

Rotosphere?


I was looking online today at vintage neon websites. One site - dedicated to restored signs along route 66 in New Mexico
mentioned a Rotosphere. "The rotosphere consists of two vertically counter-rotating spiked hemispheres with the entire unit rotating horizontally above a pole...." The pictures seemed to resemble the neon sign Eric and I spotted in Orlando.
So I borrrowed the picture here to give an indication of what it may look like lit up.. The site is www.rt66nm.org/restogallery.html
if you want to check it out.