holidays...

So it begins....

I've decided that I'm going to participate in the National Novel Writing Month contest. Its a great excuse to get the juices flowing and try to actually bang out one of these ideas that has been bouncing around my brain for years.
On day two and 2,918 words in. Only 47,082 and 27days to go.

Here is an early excerpt...unedited mind you...

The Major squinted at the small capsule now just 50 yards or so below him and the com-link crackled again.

“…this really weird sound, I have to go closer… something up with my electrical going bat-sh*t. The ... thing is glowing... I have to get a sample…. are you seeing any of this… John?”

“Reed back away! That’s an order! What’s gotten into you?”

Abernathy was breathing heavy now. Something was happening. His eyes glared not believing what he was seeing. It nearly felt like his corneas would rip if he looked back at the command screen. He did, just to be sure everything was being recorded and set to the Darwin.

“… John it getting hot… holy sh*t! Ah no..!" Reed’s link blinked out again.

The green glow intensified and the object moved. Abernathy hit the reverse thrust and looked up to see if the Darwin had cleared the short horizon of the gray moon. “Sh*t!”

The glow became hot and a part of the thing seemed to detach or literally flow out from the spot under Reed’s capsule. Like a snaking tendril the thing wrapped around the capsule and flashed like a massive electric shock. The com system and all the electric glowed hot around Abernathy and then winked out into darkness.
The green white light from Reed’s burning capsule lit the Majors face as he gaped out at the scene of amazing discovery and destruction.

Reed’s capsule engulfed in the electric blue flame and Abernathy watched as the exterior hull simply pulled back and away from the point of contact. The capsule melted away rolling back around Reed's floating body. His simple white jumpsuit made a single silent puffy discharge as his body exploded in the vacuum. The light expanded into a flash as the machine and man were completely atomized and Abernathy uttered a single bitter bleating cry as the light splashed against his front window of his capsule and the heat hit him and he lost all feeling.

The brief wink of light scattered across the long massive arm of Saturn’s ring. And the A I navigator of the Darwin signaled a priority distress across the open sea of emptiness in the direction of Mars Command.

October in Cambridge

Phone pix taken around Harvard and the Yard. Nice to have mild weather so far... makes the transition into the cold dark time a little easier.

Lego Firemen

Cool new lego fireman minifigs that came with the fire truck sets Justin and I recently built. I've decided to start a lego blog for the projects we've done together. That can be found here.

Graffitti

One of my favorites from the trip to Amsterdam. This was on a borded up shop window across the street from where we ate breakfast on the final day. Something very cool about the stencil even though it has been scribbled over.

Reminds me of a quote from Grant Morrison's The Invisibles.

"The graffitti on the walls, the crazy shit that the bums and the crackheads and the wild kids come out with. This is the underground data exchange: The Infranet. The city is the hardware and people are the software."

Giraffe and Zebra

The coolest thing, to me, about Amsterdam was the bicycle culture. Everywhere you went there was the sound of bikes rattling along the lanes, and the ringing bells shooing pedestrians. Conversations between couples, or familys and friends as they ride along together. It just had a great feeling as you walked around. Of course the friendly bell had a different effect when you realized that it was for you.

Dawn over the North Sea

Shot taken out my window as we decended into Schiphol International in Holland, on the morning of Sept 13th. The clouds are like a frozen sea to me, dimpled with vapour waves. I always liked the feeling as we decend into this false ground/ocean then pass through the white grey shapes into the overcast below.

Rescue Copter

Lego Recuse Copter. Justin put together just before I left for a long weekend trip. He's really getting good at following the pictoral directions without my help. This set was small enought that he could search for all the pieces he needed himself. I really like this helecopter. It looks just like the big Coast Guard Copters that roar past the bluffs by our house.

Six years ago....

I wont forget the look on Craig's face when he walked up to dispatch after the second plane hit. A disturbing combination of shock, fear, and bewilderment had taken hold of him. I looked down across the service drive and everyone in the waiting room was standing. The service writers had stopped working and had come around the counter and stood with the customers looking in at the tv in the corner of the waiting area. I felt my own sinking feeling as I realized that something big, no accident had happened.
As I recall Crystal had just told me, less than 4-5 days before that she was pregnant with Justin. We had big decisions to make, and big things to think about. The sinking feeling went right through my heart and into my shoes as I thought about the worrisome possible paths that life would stretch out before us in the coming years. I was concerned, right from the start, that whatever reaction we as a people had, might make for still darker days ahead. Hundreds of Billions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of Iraqui lives, thousands of Memorials to young American soldiers later... the overcast and darkness spawned from this day, still fills our sky.
I hope for a brighter American dawn. For Justin, and now baby Jennifer, and all of our sons and daughters.

Ive posted this shot before... it has a certain...weight.

No smoking please

Taken from my phone cam the morning of Sept.4. Preparations for student fire safety training.

Scrabble

Crystal has had the Scrabble bug lately. We've played 8 games over the last week or so... we've both won 4. She almost had a really good proper name.... almost.

Boxman...

Found on the back of a walk/dont walk lightbox in Cambridge. Reminds me of the Boxman or Dr.Boxhead from Kaiju Big Battle. Curious about the boxcutter/exacto blade in his hand. Box on box crime?

Lego trucks from the past

August evening Scusset beach

Taken on August 4th, 2007. A very nice hot, humid and hazy evening at Scusset beach. Lots of people still on the beach as the sun went down and the lifeguards went home. There is a girl skim boarding in the center of the bottom pic. Crystal is in 2 of them... talking on the phone to Amanda while walking up the beach. Cool summery feel.

Lego Police Station 381 cira '79

Found the directions to this set #381 from 1979 online and decided to build it for Justin. He helped out looking for pieces in our massive bucket but I ended up doing most of the construction myself after he went to bed. We have almost all of the pieces for the set, still in good condition. The only stuff I was short was one complete window setup and parts of another. But one is complete. There were also not enough of the blue cylinders used for lights... I had to substitute green for the lights next to the door. Justin was psyched. We've been playing with it for about a week now. I have some other old sets... to follow in later posts

Lego Cargo Ship

Justin and I built this cargo ship last week. His new Lego magazine came in with the brand new Maersk Container Ship in it and Justin decided we should build one out of our own stuff. So we did. He had a great time loading it up with stuff, mostly the small cars he had won at the Jugleplex food/fun day. I made the hatches detachable and later hinged. There is another shot without the yellow railings. I like it without, but once I found more of the railings we added them all the way down the deck.
This ship is now gone... a victim of the old lego set renaissance that followed. I found the instructions online for a number of my old sets and immediatly set to work rebuilding them. More on that in the next few posts.

taking on water...

Justin and I (with help from Shane) pulled the Whaler yesterday morning. Dad had been nervous about the bilge pump not working and the forcast for rain all day and for later this week. With he and Chris in France there was no one around (who doesn't have a job to go to...other than Goldilocks) so it came down to you know who. Rather than fight the crowds at 6-7pm on Sunday we grabbed Walter's truck and pulled it in the rain on Monday morning.
When we got there I was worried we wouldn't have enough water but the ramp is in pretty good shape at the club. Shane had no problem driving it out.
I floated the boat onto the trailer after getting a half-assed tow from the lauch driver. His seamanship was definitly in question (take the stern line off first...what?). Despite him spinning me the wrong way I was able to turn the beast with the small paddle on board and turn it right onto the trailer as the wind set us down toward the ramp.
Given the possible complications it was amazing the whole thing went as well as it did....
Still made it to work by noon....
Now hopefully we will spend some time on the water....once the new engine comes in.

Fearless Fosdick

An old metal sign that still hangs in the window of a barber shop in Cambridge. I used to get the Fearless Fosdick comments from teachers or older folks when I was growing up. I don't get that very often any more, in fact, not in a long time. The generation that knew Lil'Abner has moved along, maybe even passed along and soon it will dissapear completely. I get a chuckle every time I walk by this place.

"Get Wildroot Cream-Oil Charlie!"

drawing small

A doodle from a staff meeting. Seems my artistic expression only comes out on tiny, little peices of paper. Seems I'm more comfortable drawing small...

I'll have to post some of the coffee cup collection.

cellphone camera

Had a great day Saturday out on the whaler. Took this from my new cellphone cam (Razor). This is with full resolution, and I think it really looks great. I've noticed that on a few occasions (like this one) I've been less likely to take the Cannon along when I know I have this cam in the phone. I like the quality but I dont want to get in that habit.

He may ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston...

More Phone Cam fun.
Redline pics from July 3rd. about 330pm at the Harvard Station. The smoke let me know that the train was on fire, and my commute home just became hell. It took me another 4 hours to get home from the time I took the pics.
The Commuter Rail Engine was from last week when this train had "mechanical failure" in Halifax and we had to all load onto the next train to finish the trip to Kingston.

before the new age...

Sailing in New York harbor in the fall of '99. We filmed a commercial on board Rugosa from the Herreshoff Museum. Chris and I and his friend Chris Ruth (who took the photo)ran the boat while the film crew worked. A long day but good fun. Never thought I'd feel so strangley about this snapshot...

Crab Creek Sunset

Grace would be proud. I can't help but think of her and the beautiful colors of her Shelter Island sunsets. It was certainly one of her most favorite things. I think of her whenever the sun dips to the horizon over the creek.
Took this pic on the evening of July 6th from right at the edge of the creek.
This image is unaltered or cropped.

Railroad bridge in the fog

Father's Day 2007.
From Junet at the west end of the canal.
Bridges in fog... and the cold slip of the water past the bouys.

Floating Jelly

Floating Jelly
Taken at Cresent Beach on Shelter Island last Sunday. I like the light on the rocks under the water. The Jelly looks like its suspended in air, the water is so clear. Floating like some alien hovering over the landscape...sniffing our world with its tenticles. I've made this one into my desktop for the Powerbook. One of many quality pics from the week that we spent there.

Legos

The first car was a birthday gift that Justin and I built the morning of or around his birthday.
The rest were built in June. We had a great time building all of them but the Aquaraiders submarine was the tops. Justin was very patient and it took us most of a Saturday morning. He is really getting good at putting the pieces together and checking with the instructions. I love building with the boy...he shares his old man's passion for the plastic brick.

Morality...

broken fingers of Law

Another shot from the afternoon at the National Monument to the Forefathers. I wonder who took the fingers...

dark eyes ... and the thicket