blake » DIY

Update

Runeshai — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 03:27:38 +0000

So…been a longass time since I posted. Figured some sort of update was in order, so here goes…

I’ve moved back to VT. For the holidays, but also for the foreseeable future. It’s vacation, then working, saving up, and if all goes as planned, film school starting in the Fall. I’ve taken a two-year detour from what was really my dream, and I’m back on track. So that’s good.

Before I left, I got to check out a MAKE IT! fair and was pretty impressed. I’d wanted to go last year in Vancouver but looked up the vendors that had websites and was pretty turned off. This year I just took the plunge and am sure glad I did. From Cocoa Nymph (awesome chocolates) to Thyrza Segal’s Plantscapes to Daughters of Bastards Warrior Wear (awesome chain mail jewelry, no website, sorry) there was plenty of awesome stuff to check out and to gawk at. Catalyst Reaction had some cool leather stuff and I picked up some great Christmas cards from Hug + Kiss Designs.

Other than that, not much else to report. T-day in Seattle with the bro, a week in NYC with an old friend, then getting settled in here, ready for Christmas, watching the last of my funds slip away.

Moved onto Season 2 of Fringe and giving Leverage a second chance. Finished Dexter Season 4 last night. I’m still traumatized. Fantastic show…they don’t pull any punches. Hoping to start in on Supernatural Season 2 soon. Being Human was a no-go for me; the emo vampire dude was waaay over the top annoying, I couldn’t even look at him. Watched Slither and Gremlins recently. Both were awesome. Definitely to-purchase. Great fun. Excited about Chuck’s Season 3 and Burn Notice’s continuation in January too. Workin’ away at my to-watch lists…

I’ve been on a pretty major Star Wars kick lately. Partly nostalgia (I found my first screenplay – a Star Wars fanfilm, almost 70 pages!), partly reading Death Troopers (fun!) and partly finally getting around to watching Star Wars Clone Wars from Cartoon Network. Pretty awesome series, I’m having a blast. You know it’s good when it gets you excited about watching the prequels. Yea. That’s serious.

Listening to lots of industrial and gothic, generally dark stuff lately…Rammstein mostly but Imperative Reaction, Assemblage 23, Zombie Girl a bit, I:Scintilla, Heimataerde, Icon of Coil and Birthday Massacre. Got Nightwish’s Dark Passion Play on in the background right now. Never a baddie :P. Awesome album.

Hope all’s well with everybody reading. And everybody not reading. And no I didn’t get you presents. Have great holidays! :)

DIY Steampunk Pocket Knife

Runeshai — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 16:22:40 +0000

Found this at Instructables the other day, posted it at my Curbly blog today. Enjoy!

DIY Lightbox

Runeshai — Fri, 15 May 2009 23:03:47 +0000

I wish I had teachers do cool, simple stuff like then when I was in school. Not only is it cheap and gets the job done, but it’s something the teacher took the effort and initiative to do outside of the classroom in order to teach more adequately the material to their students. In general, I think creative, crafty teachers are some of the best kind, and maybe it’s overkill to applaud them, but after the last year of making fruitless tuition payments, I applaud them whole-heartedly. Way to go, bigtreehouse!

The goal was to make a light box for my students to use that didn’t cost me an arm and a leg. Went to the second-hand store and found a florescent light… ($4.99 with 50% off) then noticed a suitcase/briefcase ($3.99 with 50% off). I got them both and started thinking of ways to put them together.

Instructables via Lifehacker.

YouTube Find: ThruYou

Runeshai — Tue, 05 May 2009 18:37:30 +0000

Coolness. I like music/video remixes that come up with something different than the original, and this video is no exception. Been thinking about doing some music type stuff on my own recently, actually. I used FruityLoops once for a high school class, and I had a training DVD for the app once a while back, maybe I still do. Anyway…here’s the video, called ‘ThruYou’, enjoy.

ThruYou via Geekologie.

Also, a couple more of my favorites, just for good measure.

O’Reilly Hacks Series

Runeshai — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 08:32:03 +0000

I discovered this while perusing filmmaking books on Amazon and thought it was a sweet idea. I really don’t know what O’Reilly’s reputation is, but I’ve heard the name and seen the label many a time over the years, so I can only imagine they’re doing something right. Anyway, the “Hacks” series sounded pretty sweet, so I wanted to pass it on. I know I’m going to go through the list and pillage their supply of books, adding it to my wishlist :P.

Open Source Cell Phone

Runeshai — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 07:32:19 +0000

I found this a while back and saved it to read later, but while cleaning out my list of “to-read” items, I rediscovered it and thought I’d post it. It seems pretty basic in concept, and after thinking about it, I’m actually a little surprised it didn’t come out before now (that I know of). One of the cooler parts about it is, following through with the open source ideology, the CAD plans are available for you to customize and work on for your own design. Manufacturing might be a bit of trouble if you’re not handy with molding plastic or metal or whatever, but it sure would be sweet for the people who can pull that off. I’d love to see the creations when they start coming out.

PVC Cello

Runeshai — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 05:58:13 +0000

This is awesome! I found this earlier on Instructables, the internet’s DIY heaven, and it blew me away. Sweet job, kid, want to teach me?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UonzUXzw998]

New Year’s Resolution

Runeshai — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 01:40:49 +0000

Well, it’s that time of year again, and though I’m not usually making New Year’s Resolutions around this year (in fact, resolution means image quality to me, not decision-making), but I was thinking about it today and had an idea. I’ve decided I’m going to aim to create something every month. One thing, completed, each month. Nothing too ambitious, since it can be anything from making a t-shirt (all of 10 minutes) to writing a short story or writing and recording a piece of music.

I really love making things, be they crafts or websites, stories or movies, and I want to find some way to pursue that love on a small scale, but dependably, so I don’t come to the end of another year wondering what I did with all that time, having nothing to show for another year gone. So that’s my goal; I’m going to make something each month, and it’ll be posted online in some form, depending on what it is (movies on YouTube, pictures on Flickr, crafts on…Flickr, etc.). I’m excited to get to try making something each month and trying new things.

That’s really another reason for this goal, is the trying of new things. I’ll try making some new food, try some new craft, try writing an idea that I just realized made sense to me, or something old that’s been percolating for years. It’s basically a chance for me to create an outlet for my ideas and creativity, and the by-product is to show the world (or my friends and family, anyway) through the internet. It’ll give me an outlet, a chance to branch out, and something to be proud of at the end of another year. I’ll have something to show that I made use of my time, that my year was worthwhile, and that I’m proud of it – to at least some degree. And heck, everything’s a learning experience, right? So I’m bound to learn something from this at some point or another. What are you going to do in the new year? Share in the comments section.