Archive for November, 2006

The Great Escape

Sunday, November 26th, 2006

Artie has learned to unlock the pet door. Note he checks to see if I’ve left, then he unlocks the top bolt and moves it up a bit, then nudges it fully open with his nose from the bottom. Patches gets to escape as well.

Garden Lawns and Garden Gnomes

Saturday, November 4th, 2006

Well, okay an Orc. Sort of.

Made an Animatronic Orc for Halloween. At first I sculpted something that looks like:
IMG_0177.JPG IMG_0178.JPG
I didn’t like how that turned out so I used a reference photo to base some of the features on. I was still going for a slightly cute yet creepy style though and the (unpainted) end result ended up looking like this:
Reference Photo IMG_0192.JPG.
You can see more pictures here.

I also decided enough was enough after over a year of my landlord not really moving on my backyard to just plant some seed myself. You can see some images from about a week after planting in my album:
projects/lawn/

It’s now grown out quite a bit and I’ve mowed it once already. I’ll apply some weed and feed soon and take some more pictures.

Mr Rogers getting funding for PBS

Saturday, November 4th, 2006

I don’t want this page to become a big list of videos I find on the internet, but this one really means a lot to me. In an earlier post I mentioned that Fred Rogers was one of my personal heroes. Well this is the major reason why.

You can feel him breakdown the gruff and impatient John O. Pastore until he sees the importance of PBS.

Also, in the Sony BetaMax Case he was a chief proponent of fair use. Without him, we might not have PBS or the fair use right to time shifting.

Some public stations, as well as commercial stations, program the “Neighborhood” at hours when some children cannot use it … I have always felt that with the advent of all of this new technology that allows people to tape the “Neighborhood” off-the-air, and I’m speaking for the “Neighborhood” because that’s what I produce, that they then become much more active in the programming of their family’s television life. Very frankly, I am opposed to people being programmed by others. My whole approach in broadcasting has always been “You are an important person just the way you are. You can make healthy decisions.” Maybe I’m going on too long, but I just feel that anything that allows a person to be more active in the control of his or her life, in a healthy way, is important.

—Frederick Rogers