Sleigh Bells Ring, are you panicking?

Friday, December 7th, 2007

I have way too much to do right now, but oddly enough, we're pretty much prepared for Christmas itself, which no doubt is thanks to my lovely and organized wife. Last night, Lisa and I attended her offices' Christmas Party, held at the Baltimore Train Museum! We got to dress up, and take pictures.

Here she is taking her picture as I stare at my camera.

I got her attention and she looked into my camera.

New roof on the museum!

Boiler pr0n!

I am so happy with this photo - does it not look like a painting?!

Buicks used to ride the rails in search of bootleggers and pirates.

Song in iTunes? "Love on a Farmboy's Wages" by XTC

New digs, pattern, and run awayyyy!

Monday, December 17th, 2007

So here's my new desk! We move into the new facilities at work in a month - we're all very excited.

Here's the rest of the Visual Media dept.

Here's the house for Christmas 2007! This is the first year that I did not have to go get more lights... but somehow, I didn't decorate the holly bush that sits under the front porch's column. We hate that bush and want to get rid of it though, so maybe it's okay that it didn't get decorated. So anyway, last night I walked across the street to take photos of the lights, and to take out the trash. I click a couple of pics from across the street, and notice a very big black dog staring me down, on the same side of the street my house is on (two doors down). As I say "greeeat" to myself, he starts tearing after me barking and growling. So I do the only sensible thing, and panic, heading for my door, thinking "am I really getting chased down by a dog? How surreal and hilarious is this?". Also I will admit, a little scary. WTF.

It was "funny" enough that I paused mid-run to take a pic of the dog. The flash only made him angrier, heh.

He actually chased me all the way to the door and then retreated off of the porch to the front yard, where he continued loudly barking and growling for about 15 minutes, while Lisa and I laughed, took pictures, and cracked jokes. Merry Christmas!

I also almost finished my latest model pattern, to be sold in Japan in Feb! Here's the torso section. Woo woo!

Song in iTunes? Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) by The Arcade Fire.

Merry Christmas!

Tuesday, December 25th, 2007

Merry Christmas from Coco, protector of the tree. You will note that the non-breakable ornaments are hung low.

My brother and his lovely family were in town for the weekend, so Maren got to strut her stuff.

She is already quite awesome - behold her "ROCK ON!" face and hand gestures. She rocks the video still.

Lisa has been making amazing food every day for the past week! It's just insane.

And she has done the holiday gauntlet while fighting a nasty cold!

We've also been watching an unhealthy amount of Twin Peaks. The owls are not what they seem.

Coco really does love that tree. It's her new favorite hangout.

I got my Revell Cylon Raider kit boxtop proof in the mail this past weekend. I did the model that was featured on the lid/sides! This is literally a dream come true - I have always wanted to be good enough to have a kit featured on a "real" model box lid, and I pulled it off!! Each year I find myself able to reach a new goal, and I feel truly fortunate for the people and opportunities that I have encountered.

Coming to a store near you - buy one and build it!

So while Anthony was in town, we decided to get the three boys together for a group portrait for our mom. This is the best we can do with "sincere posed family" stuff. Anthony had just gotten into town from BWI with his wife and two kids, Jonathan was up from Annapolis, and I had spent the day cleaning the house. Can you believe we're all related?

With our second shot, we decided to go with a posed reaction, so that I could comp in something funny behind us.

The one that works best is the Queen Alien, so I framed a print in addition to the posed pic. Our mom loved it.

A runner up - dinosaur.

And another runner up - the Rancor. I think Jonathan's reaction is the best!

Ouch.

Friday, December 28th, 2007

So I cut the ever-living fuck out of my finger on a broken piece of pottery this morning on my way out of the door to work. I taped the flap closed and drove woozily to the office. Got in, opener 'er back up, took some pics, and used the band-aids we have from the 1940s. Ready?

Also started gathering ref for a killer model I'm planning on for mid-next-year:

Yes, Virginia, it will have functional LCD screens on it!

So does any one here ever come across something they made ages ago? Indulge my trip down memory lane.

Here's a shard from Boba Fett's ship. Dig those crazy colors!

I built this X-Wing about 14 years ago - man, I have improved my skill sets!

Interestingly enough, my old rommate's girlfriend took a pic of me actually building it, back in the 'ol bachelor pad days:

And here's something even older - a firefly I made for school, as a kid. It had a flashlight inside, so the big red switch on the underside made it's ass glow!

Tour of the Smithsonian's unrestored aircraft, stored in hangars in Silver Hill MD... they have tons of German wonderweapons and things like the Pogo and Avrocar - it really jumpstarted my "build models realistically" work ethic:

This is one of four floormats I made for my old car, lol! I made floorcloths by gessoing the fronts and backs of thick duck cotton canvas, and then painted them to look like the old Kenner decals like you'd see inside the "hood" of the Lanspeeder toy. Sealed up with acrylic-based polyurethane. They were awesome, and everyone loved them!

This was a custom Simpsons action figure I made back in 1999 or 2000... it won first prize in some internet contest!

Hah! Found pics of my "workspace" in my parent's basement. What a dump we had. You can see the Theremin I built to the far right, Castin' Craft resin to the far left, and above my head, a plaster cast of a female torso. I had plans to make a full-scale figurehead (like you see on pirate ships):

My friend Shannon posed for this:

Shannon:

Clor shot of ragtag piece-o-crap model I made in 1992 or so. It was dark blue and had lights (duh!)

Another pic:

I was also kitbashing parts for my piece of shit car. Making it a "time machine". Here's one of the parts, falling apart because of a hot summer sun:

Enterprise D, lazily spinning over an AC duct in the living room of the crap-partment:

Time Machine car also had a wee Falcon I made (remember, this was all when Star Wars was still uncool - we're talking just before the Zahn books!):

Hey, art fag! Taking self-portraits and capturing X-Wings in the frame!

And finally, another Ragtag shot. I love how these photos all unintentionally look as crappy and mysetrious as most of the reference photography I struggle to ID parts from!

Song in iTunes - "Souvenir" by Brittle Stars (cover of the OMD classic)

Bye bye 2007!

Monday, December 31st, 2007

Well, another year has happened, and what a year it has been! I wouldn't change it for anything.

Well... except that whole Time Machine project. What a difficult birth it has turned out to be - I'm almost there!

Pretty ice crystals formed on the car last night.

Song in iTunes? "Swinging London" by the Magnetic Fields