brian.dunnington

kayaking Lower Green Gorge

2011-12-05T17:16:00.000-08:00

got out this past saturday for some cold-weather kayaking. this was my first time taking video while kayaking so it is not the most exciting video, but still gives a sense of how beautiful the scenery is.

new sport: si-yaking

2011-11-14T11:50:00.000-08:00

here i am inventing a new sport - sideways kayaking, or si-yaking for short. it is just like normal kayaking, but tilted 90° for more full-water contact.

si-yaking is often also paired with another fun sport: whitewater swimming =)

kayak roll practice

2011-07-11T10:58:00.000-07:00

been heading over to Deer Lake for some kayak rolling practice. yesterday I got my StickPod camera mount in the mail, so I decided to try it out:

mt. st. helens

2011-07-05T11:47:00.000-07:00

Didn't make the summit last year due to whiteout conditions, but returned this year with Chris, Andy, Conner, and Zack to try again. Windy, rainy, cloudy weather made for a long cold day, but everyone reached the summit and (hopefully) had a good time.

4 + 1 = 1

2011-05-24T22:04:00.000-07:00

4 chickens + 1 raccoon = 1 chicken =(

RIP Penny, Dominique, & Alfonso

Buckskin Gulch

2011-04-13T09:26:00.000-07:00

Along with our visit to Arizona last week, part of our trip was also geared around our hike of Buckskin Gulch. It is considered one of the longest slot canyons in the world, and I had been looking forward to doing this hike for some time. As the day got closer, the weather was looking worse and worse (and being in the bottom of a 400-foot deep, 5-foot wide canyon is not the place you want to be when a rain storm sets in), so I was very worried we would have to cancel our hike.

In the end however, the weather held out and we had a great time. The pictures really don't do it justice - it was one of the best trips I have ever been on.

Click on either image below for a full slideshow of all of the pictures.

Here is a short video showing a particularly narrow spot:

Rolling Huts

2011-02-12T14:00:00.000-08:00

We headed up to Winthrop last weekend to spend some time at the Rolling Huts and play in the snow. We did some snowshoeing and some ice skating, played some games, read some ghost stories, and just generally had a good time.

Click on either image below for a full slideshow of all of the pictures.

Copy/Paste Limitations in Windows Phone 7 Update

2011-01-26T18:04:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, the day after Steve Ballmer's keynote address at CES, Microsoft posted some information about their upcoming update for Windows Phone 7 that contained the following text (emphasis mine):

"Soon you’ll be able to copy text from emails, text messages, web pages, and Office Mobile documents, and paste it anywhere you can type."

Bummed, I tweeted that I was disappointed that the 'copy' portion of 'copy & paste' wouldn't work in third party controls (and later clarified that I was specifically referring to copying normal (non-editable) text such as that found in a Twitter stream, Facebook statuses, and most other apps - I assumed you would be able to copy from editable text inputs no matter what). I got a few replies telling my I was misinformed and that the WP7 UI team wouldn't add copy/paste some places but not others, even though a few other folks had the same concern. The question made it all the way to Microsoft's Charlie Kindel who said "of course C&P will work in Silverlight WP7 apps.". When pressed further, he added "It's really simple: There is no copy & paste API in WP7 update. Edit controls just get end user behavior automatically".

His specific use of 'Edit controls' along with the wording of the original update information page seemed to confirm that copying would be limited in third-party apps, but the blogosphere seemed to take it to mean that us doubters were wrong and there was nothing to worry about.

Fast-forward a few weeks and Chris Walsh and friends (of the ChevronWP7 unlocking tool) meet with MS to discuss the homebrew community and other issues surrounding WP7. As part of that, the devs received some developer phones that already had the upcoming update applied. In Chris' post, he provides a quick overview of the WP7 update and specifically calls out the copy/paste functionality. Sure enough, the 'pasting' part works as expected, and you can only copy from first-party apps and TextBoxes in third-party apps - just as I had suspected. Thus you still cannot copy a tweet from the Twitter app or a status update from Facebook, even though users will be expecting the ability to 'copy and paste', not 'copy from some places and paste'. MS went out of their way to add copy ability to native apps like email and the browser, but neglected to provide the ability for third-party apps to do the same. In fact, it is rumored that the copy function in the SMS (Messaging) app operates differently, presumably since the 'copy' functionality is not standardized at the OS level.

So, now that our suspicions are confirmed, Chris Walsh suggests that WP7 devs simply put all of their text into TextBox controls to solve the issue. I sincerely hope that devs DO NOT do this though. Beyond being fundamentally wrong (TextBoxes are for input, TextBlocks are for display), TextBoxes trigger the software keyboard and thus it will be popping up all over the place, even when the text is intentionally not supposed to be editable. As a end user, that user experience would drive me crazy.

So what would I do? I would hope that Microsoft bakes the 'copy' functionality into text display-only controls like TextBlock as well. If they don't want to automatically make all text selectable/copyable, perhaps a property on TextBlock that a dev can set to mark the text as copyable (or not)? That would remove the constant popping up of the software keyboard while still providing the behavior that user's would expect. Seeing as how there is not even an update for when this first update will roll out, I am not holding my breath for a second update to fix the copy & paste shortcomings to be released any time soon.

UPDATE: Chris Walsh responded to my concerns and posted a sample of using the IsReadOnly property on a TextBox to prevent the software keyboard from popping up. That was something I didn't think of and does indeed solve that issue. However, it doesn't help with having formatted text or having clickable links within a TextBox (think of a tweet with a link in it: the link is usually a different color and clickable while the plain text is not). Both of those are much harder to achieve when using a TextBox control. Chris said in a tweet that "devs shouldn't have to worry about it" and I agree completely - I just feel that recoding your app to shoehorn some functionality into a control that was designed for something else or having end users complain to you that copy & paste doesn't work for your app *is* something devs have to worry about. I respect Chris' opinion on the matter - I just have a different opinion.

great chicken coop fire of 2010

2010-11-28T13:59:00.000-08:00

before:

after:

soup box derby 2010

2010-09-20T18:22:00.001-07:00

Langley's Soup Box Derby was this past weekend, and after a few years of *intending* to participate, we finally got in gear and built our racer.

after scoring a couple of old (free!) BMX bikes to use as the base, an idea took shape. Michaleen and I spent friday afternoon and evening putting the contraption together, and, after an ill-fated attempt at some rear-wheel steering, had a complete (albeit untested) racer done at 10pm. with darkness upon us, we had to cancel any plans for a test run and just hope for the best at the race in the morning.

here it is in all of its glory: two bikes hooked together with some metal bits with a kayak strapped on top - the pinnacle of simplicity and elegance!

Michaleen suggested that if everything went horribly wrong and i couldnt stop the contraption, i could veer left and into puget sound, so we dediced the paddle was a necessity.

here is me with 3/4ths of the pit crew preparing for the first run.

each racer had to take a mandatory solo test run to make sure their machine was capable. since we have never tested out our contraption, i have to admit i was a bit nervous. after about 10 yards, i picked up some steam and suddenly had quite a bit of shaking and wobbling to contend with. i managed to keep the racer inbetween the curbs, but something was definitely wrong.

after the test run, we decided that the shaking and jerking was due to too much toe-out and some loose handlebar bolts. we neglected to bring any tools, but after a quick trip to the second-hand store, we had a make-shift tool make out of a socket bit (no ratchet) and decided that our problems were solved and we were going to go for it. here is Eden giving me some advice on how to improve my driving for the official runs.

we headed back up the hill and the official came over and offered some cautionary words. he was worried about the shaking and swerving, but i assured him we were sorted. even the little kids were making the run from the top of the hill so we couldnt wimp out now. in the first heat, i started of cautiously with the brakes slightly on just in case. as my competitior pulled ahead, i decided to just go for it. miraculously, the shakes were gone and i navigated straight and true to the finish a few yards behind.

in the second heat, i was feeling more confident and went for it as soon as the flag dropped. our well-tuned machine pulled away from the competition and cruised to victory.

in the end, we werent the fastest racer, but we werent even close to the slowest, so i was happy. for our outstanding effort, we 'earned' these trophies. actually, everybody who entered and even some people who didnt enter got a trophy. in the end, it was a really fun day and we are already dreaming up ideas for next years vehicle.

summer projects

2010-08-04T17:16:00.001-07:00

finally got a couple of summer projects wrapped up so i decided to share a few pictures.

first up is the chicken coop/chicken run. in just five short months, the chickens have grown from being small enough to hold in your hand to practically full grown.

the chickens just started laying eggs as well - first one chicken followed the next day by another. almost two weeks went by before the third started as well, and we are still waiting on the fourth. so far they have produced almost two dozen eggs though, and we are consistently getting three eggs every day now. if you have never had them, i cant recommend farm-raised fresh chicken eggs enough - they taste 100 times better than store-bought.

the chicken coop is attached to the garden shed, which is actually more like a covered storage area since it only has walls on three sides and most of those walls are just windows or fencing.

we got the steel casement windows from a guy here on the island who was saving them for an art project. he finally decided he wasnt going to get around to it, so we took them off his hands. the windows in the roof came from a local antique store, and all in all, i think it turned out really nice.

lastly, the vegetable garden. we didnt really know what we were doing, so we decided just to plant everything we wanted and see how it went. some of the plants should have been planted in the fall or started indoors, but we still had pretty good success. a few things didnt grow (i am looking at you, watermelon and butternut squash), but almost everything else did well.

the first thing to come up was the lettuce and though we ate some, it turned out to be very popular with the chickens. abbey even gets them to jump for the lettuce, which is pretty funny to watch. the chickens also love the broccoli leaves and fava beans, though we are saving most of the fava beans for ourselves (homemade pasta with fava beans and pancetta is my new favorite).

another surprise was the potatoes - we planted three varieties (german butterball, russian banana, and purple peruvian) and they did amazing. in just a few months, we have tons of big potatoes. the german butterball potatoes are so good - you gotta try them!

right now, the various summer squash plants are taking over the garden, but we are still waiting on some beans, leeks, jalapenos, and a few other things as well.

cracked frame with a happy ending

2010-07-28T18:17:00.000-07:00

before...

after...

Fire and Forget

2010-04-14T18:53:00.000-07:00

...or, 'How to Make One-Way Cross-Domain POST Requests with XmlHttpRequest'.

Most developers know about the same-origin policy when it comes to Ajax requests using XmlHttpRequest (XHR). Essentially, it means that an XHR request from the hosting domain cannot be made to any other domain. In fact, it is even more strict than other scripting and cookie policies in that it cant even be used across subdomains of the same domain.

However, I recently stumbled onto a loophole that proves quite interesting. If you run Fiddler or your favorite proxy and try this sample, you can clearly see that the request (from my domain) to another domain (yahoo.com*) is being made just fine. At first I thought it was some kind of browser bug so I tried a few others with the same result. A quick 'View Source' of the sample page will show that it is straight-up Javascript; no client libraries or other trickery to confuse the issue. It took me a minute, but then I realized what was going on.

Turns out the same-origin policy specifically disallows *reading responses* from other domains. Since the responses contain HTTP headers (which in turn could contain cookie information), that is the data that is marked as off-limits. However, the request is sent and processed on the server just as it normally would. The only difference is that the client (the Javascript making the XHR request) just can see the response that comes back.

"Great" I hear you say, "what good is it if we cant read the response?". Well, for plain-jane Ajax stuff where you are making requests to return JSON or HTML to update the page dynamically, it really isn’t useful at all. "And besides, we can already use JSONP and <iframes> and dynamic <script> tags to do cross-domain requests" you argue. True, but those techniques only allow GET requests – this cross-domain XHR request allows the full set of HTTP methods, including POST, so you can post form data using this technique.

And although the response is off-limits, we *can* get some indication of the result of the request. The .status property is not allowed, but the .statusText property is, sometimes, allowed. Why sometimes? I don’t know for sure, but in Firefox, if the request succeeds and returns a 200 OK response, the .statusText can be read and returns 'OK'. (Conversely, if a 404 response is generated, the .statusText property cannot even be read and throws an exception). So you can at least determine if your request made it to its destination and was successfully processed or not.

So what is it all good for? You can make fire-and-forget requests (a sort of web-based UDP protocol) where the responses don’t matter. Or you could have a backend system or API that only accepts data (think: analytics tracking service or notification service like notify.io). These might not be earth-shattering ideas, but I thought it was an interesting scenario to consider.

Anyway, maybe everybody already knew this except me and I am just years behind the times. But if not, maybe this will help someone out there who is looking for a creative solution to their problem.

* - Why yahoo.com? google.com doesn't allow POST requests and I didn’t want the 405 Method Not Allowed response to confuse people

chicks

2010-03-12T17:31:00.000-08:00

four new additions to the family recently

sledding @ Big Four Ice Caves

2010-02-03T09:24:00.000-08:00

i had been wanting to take everyone sledding this winter, and this past weekend we finally got the chance. the original plan was to head to Mt. Pilchuck and the Heather Lake trailhead, where they closed the road and set up a Winter Recreation Area just for sledding and snowshoeing. however, when we arrived, there was not a trace of snow anywhere. we followed the road 7 more miles to the Mt. Pilchuck trailhead and still not a patch of snow to be seen. hmmm - we had driven this far, we didnt want to go home empty-handed.

we head back down the hill and stopped at the Verlot Vistor Center to ask the rangers their advice on where to go. unfortunately, they told us what we already knew - there was no snow anywhere nearby. finally, one of them suggested we try the Big Four Ice Caves area - there might be a small bit of snow left there, but it was a bit of a hike in and no guarantees. it was better than driving home defeated, so we decided to give it a try.

the hike in was about a mile through a very pretty area. the start consisted of a wooden boardwalk across a beaver march, and then a crossing of the Stillaguamish River before leading to the ice caves. the surrounding snow was completely gone, but the actual ice caves themselves were still there. with the fog and the granite backdrop, it was quite an impressive sight.

we found on small place off to the side suitable for sledding. the snow was very hard, but we were able to carve out a couple of small chutes. the rides were short and bumpy, but everyone had a great time anyway.

although not at all how we inteded the trip to go, we had a great time in a beautiful place that we probably would not have even known was there otherwise. a truly fortuitous turn of events and a flexible attitude by everyone made for a great trip in the end.

snowshoeing @ skyline ridge

2010-01-20T16:55:00.000-08:00

this past weekend, we decided to take advantage of the winter weather and do some snowshoeing. we decided on a spot up at Stevens Pass that offered a short 3-mile round-trip trek with a lake at the top.

when we arrived, it was overcast, windy, and downright chilly. but we bundled up and headed out anyway. however, not too far into the trek, the sun came out and we had beautiful blue skies.

the trek was entirely uphill for the first half (in order to gain the ridge and reach the lake), but everyone trudged onward.

near the top, the trail forked and we initally took the right path. this lead to a beautiful view of the surrounding area.

after taking in the views, we retreated downhill several hundred yards and then took the left path to the lake. it was completely frozen over and snow covered with lots of tracks right across the middle of it.

a nearby small peak called out to be climbed, but we decided to eat our lunch instead and just enjoy the scenery and our accomplishment.

after a nice lunch, we turned around and headed down. the going down was much easier, minus the out-of-control sledders and frigid wind blasts.

everyone ended the day with a smile on their face, so i would have to say that it was a very nice trip.

tree house part III - roof, ladder, and railing

2009-12-20T12:58:00.000-08:00

wrapped up some work on the treehouse awhile ago, but never posted the pictures, so you here go:

finally replaced the aluminum extension ladder with a real ladder - very sturdy and nice

up the ladder...

we made the railing out of some fallen trees from around our property

here it is almost done

view from the yard

the treehouse is not quite done - still needs a handrail on the ladder and some window screens, but constructions is wrapped up for the winter.

treehouse part II - walls

2009-09-18T14:43:00.000-07:00

framing:

siding:

up next...the roof

evolution of a treehouse - part one

2009-09-06T18:25:00.000-07:00

step 1 - you might think we should start with the tree, but i didnt take any pictures of the trees before i started, so lets skip ahead.

step 2 - build bracketry. why use just wood when using metal means i get to weld something?

step 3 - integrate wood and metal

step 4 - attach supports to tree. the supports run up at a 45° angle to support the four main beams.

(i thought they turned out pretty nice, if i do say so myself)

step 5 - step back and get the big picture. those are some tall trees

step 6 - repeat process on second tree. here is a shot of one side complete and the second side going up

step 7 - install floor so you dont have to keep balancing on the small edge of the 2x6s.

step 8 - enjoy!

but the evolution is not complete - we have the support structure and floor in place, but the treehouse is missing the 'house' part (a 'treefloor' just doesnt have the same ring to it). check back later to see how it progresses.

mt. rainier summit climb

2009-06-16T16:57:00.000-07:00

june 5th-8th i headed to mt. rainier to attempt a summit climb. although it is a two day climb, it is really more like one really long day. on the first day, you hike about 4-5 miles from Paradise up to Camp Muir (@ 10,000 ft) and then that same night around midnight, you head out on the summit portion (another few miles and another 4,000 ft up).

the weather at Paradise when we left on Sunday morning was lousy, kind of misty and rainy and foggy, but at least it wasnt very cold.

we hiked about an hour at a time, and then took 10-15 minute breaks inbetween. here is the rest of my team taking a break about halfway up. from this point on, we got above the cloud cover and it was super sunny and hot. a few smart guys were hiking in short and t-shirts and that turned out to be the best idea of all.

here are a couple of shots looking across and up the mountain. you can see the huge crevasses that are opening up as the summer wears on.

only a few other peaks were tall enough to poke up above the cloud cover.

is that where we are headed?

we arrived at Camp Muir around 4 in the afternoon and a lots of other teams and people were already there, hanging out and waiting for their summit attempts.

i didnt get any more good pictures past Camp Muir because 1) most of the summit climb was in the dark, 2) once you are climbing, there is very little stopping and no chance to take pictures while you climb, 3) when we finally did reach the summit, my camera was frozen (along with our water, sunscreen, and pretty much everything else). the wind was blowing hard and it was really cold on the final climb, but it was really an amazing view from the top. and the trek down was pretty exciting too since we finally got to see the crevasses and icefalls that we had been threading around in the dark on the way up. (jumping over a two-foot wide bottomless crevasse seems somewhat more palatable when you cant see anything but the headlamp-illuminated snow directly in front of you). highly recommended!

landscaping part 4

2009-06-16T16:32:00.000-07:00

actually, this is parts 4 and 5 all rolled into one. when last we left the backyard, it was shaping up, but still had a long way to go.

the first project was to get the bark/mulch spread on the second large mound. turns out we have *way* too much mulch left over, so we are trying to find places to use it up. one of the places we decided to use some was next to the deck, behind the garage. in order to transition from the bedding to the walkway and yard, michaleen had the idea to use some of our found rocks to build a boulder wall. it turned out great, including the little nooks for plants:

we finally got the deck stained (not without some incident, but that is another story), so it was time to spruce it up a bit. we got some really nice adirondack chairs from a guy here on whidbey island who makes them from local wood - they are really comfortable. we also got some plants planted in our planters, including a tiny japanese maple, some native grasses, and some fresh herbs.

we also finally used up the last of the slate flagstone that has been sitting in the middle of the yard for a few months. we havent permanently laid the stones yet, but you can see the beginning of our circle patio:

with the mounds in and mulched, the walkways all laid out, the desk complete, and even some trees and plant going in, the last major thing to tackle was the grass. after waiting around for it to be delivered all stinking day, it finally arrived at around 5 pm. still, it only took a few hours and we went from a giant dirt patch to a really nice lawn:

while i was gone to mt. rainier, michaleen finished mulching the play area so now the bedding and grass (in the backyard at least) are complete.

landscaping: part three

2009-04-30T19:01:00.000-07:00

in case you missed the first two exciting installments, let's recap:

part I: Tractor Work
mowed some weeds, leveled some dirt, and just generally got an idea of what we were working with

part II: The Deck
it only took several months and was still only 90% complete. (but really, it is quite nice if i do say so myself)

so now we move on to the thrilling third installment in our 434-part series: Better Know a Landscape - the Fightin' Landscapers!

we had already started working on the lower area of the backyard and completed a couple of retaining walls around the play area. we went ahead and built a similar wall on the other side. We also cleared some brush and put some edging around the lower yard area.

we also spent some time working on the trails leading into the woods from the backyard. We built some steps down a particularly steep portion and use some of our patio stones to make a nice stepping stone pathway.

next up - the front yard. after getting kind of neglected while we worked hard on the back yard, we decided to (temporarily) turn our attention to the front yard. we needed a bunch of dirt to shape the backyard, and the front yard needed a big parking space dug out, so we figured we could get all the dirt we needed that way. we hired Scotty Dozy (that is not his real name, but that is what we called him) to do the job. he brought in a big excavator and a bulldozer and did most of the work in one day. with 4 truck loads of gravel to top it off, we finally had a nice smooth driveway.

that left us with the big pile of dirt that we needed for the back, so it was time to switch gears and focus on the backyard again. this time we brought back the mighty little track loader to do our bidding. load after load of dirt was moved and shaped into some contouring mounds surrounding a large circular yard area. we packed and raked the mounds smooth, and then proceeded to start covering them with 'local hogged fuel', which is kind of like really big mulch.

now it was time to move back to the deck and patio. we had to replace a few boards on the deck that we never did like (well, at least one of us was really concerned about them anyway). we also added some more stones to the patio/walkway to start wrapping it around to the side of the house. it is really turning out nice.

last year when we moved in, we planted a tree for Earth day, so in keeping with our new tradition, we headed to Bayview nursery to find another tree to plant this year. we ended up with two: a Japanese maple called Katsura and a zig-zaggy weeping birch.

we also have a bunch of plants that we got from the native plant sale to plant still, but for now they are doing just fine in some pots on the side of the house. (although we saw some more mature serviceberry trees at the nursery and i am excited to get those planted and growing).

after all of that, we still have a medium sized dirt pile left to deal with (although it was about 4 or 5 times this size when we started):

we have also been saving all of our big rocks that we come across - not sure what we are going to do with them yet, but we have a pile of them waiting nonetheless.

more hogged fuel is on the way this coming weekend so we can get the rest of the bedding areas covered, and then (maybe) we will be ready to get some sod and actually have a yard for summer.

Growl for Windows v2.0 Now Available

2009-03-17T15:26:00.000-07:00

a beta version of Growl for Windows is now available online at http://www.growlforwindows.com

there are also a few plug-ins (iTunes, Outlook, Visual Studio, Pandora) and a few additional displays available as well as some developer documentation and SDKs.

download it, give it a try, and post up any comments or suggestions in the discussion group: http://groups.google.com/group/growl-for-windows

mt. hood snowshoeing

2009-03-04T13:37:00.000-08:00

A few weekends back, Michaleen and I tried our hand at some snowshoeing down hear Mt. Hood. Neither of us had snowshoed before, but we decided to try an overnight trip using one of the huts from Cascade Huts. They have three 256 sq. ft. huts on the southeast side of Mt. Hood that you can rent out for the night.

Getting ready to head out

Some snowshoeing action - although we were headed in the wrong direction at this point. (Who knew there were two trails leading out of the Sno-Park?)

Very beautiful and peaceful - we only saw a few other people on the trails

The last long hill before the top

Views of Mt. Hood from near the hut

The final ridge leading to the hut

The hut comes into view

Our destination for the night

The hut had a propane stove and laterns and we melted some snow for a great salmon pasta dinner

Heading out from the hut the next morning

On the way back, we saw some strange footprints in the snow - must be Bigfoot!

We had expected some snow or even rain, but the weather was nice the entire time, right up until we returned to the truck and headed home at which point it started raining/snowing pretty hard.
All in all a very fun trip that I would recommend to anyone.

happy halloween

2008-10-31T15:22:00.000-07:00

growl for windows updated

2008-10-10T11:01:00.000-07:00

Version 1.2.1.1 contains a few minor but often requested features:

Growl now starts up in the system tray only (doesn't initially show the control form)

Most displays now support a simple stacking routine so multiple notifications dont show up on top of each other (all Webkit-based displays as well as the Simple display)

The Simple display's visual style has been updated (hopefully improved)

Download the new version here:
http://code.google.com/p/growl-for-windows/downloads/list

deck

2008-10-07T12:43:00.000-07:00

the back deck isnt quite finished, but it is close. click through the slideshow below to see the transformation.

here are some close-ups of the progress:

footings poured

because the septic tank is close to the house, we had to frame around the openings so we could cut out some access covers

here is the lower portion with the decking in process

decking all finished on the lower portion

the upper portion is all framed in

the decking going down on the upper portion

we have to finish the decking on the upper portion, and then tackle the steps and railings, but at least it is semi-functional at this point.

tractor work

2008-10-07T11:58:00.000-07:00

a couple of weeks back, we decided to start our landscaping in earnest. the first step was to get the 7-foot tall weeds mowed down so we could see what we were dealing with. We rented a tractor from the local rental place to do the job quickly: (you can only see a bit of it sticking up, but there is also several thousand pounds of broken up concrete in the back of my truck that came from removing the back steps so we could build the deck). after getting the tractor unstuck from the ditch, the mowing went pretty quickly. so quickly that we decided to do a little more 'tractoring'. i cleared the area across the ravine (including cutting down some trees that had fallen during previous windstorms). in the backyard, i was able to scrape back the edges of the yard up to theedge of the ravine and it added quite a bit of room for the yard. in the farthest north corner, i was also able to clear quite a large area that had been previously overgrown with brush and thistles. now that the areas are cleared, now it is time to have some one (professional) come in and level everything out so we can get started putting in the grass, plantings, walls, walkways, etc.

whistler trip

2008-07-16T11:41:00.001-07:00

new pictures from my trip up to Whister are up in the outdoors section.

whistler

2008-07-16T11:33:00.000-07:00

a couple of weeks ago, michaleen was going to wisconsin for a family get-together and eden was down in phoenix, so i had a week to kill. i decided to head up to Whistler to do some mountain biking. since i was going to be there for almost a week, i wanted to try to get in some other activities as well. after dropping michaleen off for the airport, i headed north to Canada.

after a little trouble getting across the border (apparently not having any hotel reservations or knowing anyone in canada made me seem suspicious), it was a nice drive up through Vancouver and along the Sea-to-Sky highway. they are doing a ton of road construction to prepare for the 2010 Olympics, but it went smoothly and i didnt get held up at all.

i had a list of three or four potential campsites near Whistler, and the first one i decided to try was the Cal-Cheak Provincial Park. it was almost deserted and i practically had the whole place to myself. i pitched camp and took a short hike around the area to check things out. there was a river running along the edge of the campsite with a cool suspension bridge that was real close to the water.

on wednesday morning, i woke up early and had a breakfast of scrambled eggs, mushrooms, and jalapenos, all rolled up in a tortilla. i set out for Whistler, which was only about 10 kilometers away. today i was going rafting, so i met up with the outfitters and we hopped on the old school bus for the drive to the put-in. we were rafting the Elaho river down to Squamish. shortly after we put in, we came to a spot where we could do some cliff jumping. the water was super cold (about 40 degrees) and you could see the waterfalls coming off of the glacier, carrying the melted snow and dumping right into the river. but, it sounded like fun anyway, so i took the plunge.

in what would become a common theme for this trip, i didnt get too many other photos because we were in the thick of the action most of the time. i did borrow one photo from the website of the place that was doing photography, and i got one picture of some of the scenery while we had a short lunch break.

although it wasnt the longest trip, it was fun and i really enjoyed seeing the area from the river's perspecitve. i headed back to my camp and had some beef filet grilled up on my coleman stove.

thursday morning i didnt get up quite so early, so my breakfast consisted of two granola bars instead. today i was doing the ziplines with a company called ZipTrek. they have two 'courses', the Bear and the Eagle, so i decided to do them both.

here we are, in all of our tourist glory, getting all roped up

the ziplines are up on Whistler mountain and cross back and forth over Fitzsimmons creek. there is an intricate maze of wooden platforms and walkways that zigzap through the old-growth trees.

it was a really fun experience, and it was fun to see how different people reacted. some people were definitely freaked out and one lady even asked if she could back out after we got up to the first big zip line (although she did end up sticking it out and finishing the course). there were lots of screams and death-grips on the harness, but i thought it was really fun and relaxing to whiz through the air.

in between the two courses, i had lunch at the Garibaldi Lift Company, which sits right next to the lower portion of the bike park. it was fun to watch the bikers come down off the mountain and get pumped up for the biking i would be doing the next few days.

originally i planned to do some alpine hiking on friday, but the Whistler gondola was not opening up for the season until the next day. there were a lot of options since Whistler in the summer is like an outdoor-adventure mecca, but i really came to ride so i decided to get in an extra day. it was nice to be able to ride the lifts up and bomb all the way back down with barely a pedal stroke. i hadnt ridden my downhill bike in quite awhile, so it was fun to get back in the groove and get more comfortable on it again.

one of the neat things about Whistler is that there are bears everywhere, and they are totally indifferent to people. from the lift, i would see bears on almost every other ride up. usually they were just eating some grass and minding their own business. one one run down, we came around the corner for a stop and there were two bear cubs about 20 feet off the trail, playing on a log and totally ignoring us.

we never did see mama bear, but since we were sure she was not far away, we moved on and left the little bears to play.

saturday and sunday were filled with more biking. i had signed up for the Richie Schley Freeride Camp, so i got to ride with some professional mountain bikers including Schley and Wade Simmons. we practiced cornering and jumping and drops, but mostly just rode tons of trails - some of which i wouldnt have dreamed i would have ridden normally. it was an incredible experience - the weather was awesome, the trails were perfect, and it was the best riding i had ever done. unfortunately, there was so much riding that it didnt leave any time for picture-taking. all i got was a shot of the lower bike park and the sign up at the start of A-Line (probably the signature trail at Whistler).

sunday night, i broke camp and headed home. this time the border crossing was a breeze - took about 15 seconds total. the trip was great and even with the rafting and ziplining and biking, i felt like there was so much more to do and i cant wait to go back!

Growl for Windows open-sourced

2008-07-10T17:27:00.000-07:00

after writing the NetGrowl component to send Growl-formatted notifications from within .NET code, i decided that i would try my hand at writing an entire Growl port for windows. i had seen Snarl and even written some code for the lead developer Chris so he could send & receive Growl-compatible notifications from his app. but what i wanted was not a 'Growl-like' app, but *Growl* on Windows.

anyway, i went through a couple of early revisions and released some alpha code. several people tried it out and said it really worked great for them. i made a few more changes to support receiving notifications from websites, but after that, development pretty much came to a stop as i got busy with other stuff. i received some emails from people asking how they could help continue the development, so i finally decided to put the code up on Google Code for anyone to contribute to.

The project and source code can be found here: http://code.google.com/p/growl-for-windows/ - it is BSD licensed, so feel free to use/modify/steal/do whatever you want with it

although this is alpha code, it has most of the original Growl features implemented, including:

Fully compatible with original Growl for Mac

API for local and network applications

Notification forwarding to Mac or Windows

Experimental support for WebKit-based display styles

Interface for creating custom display styles

Ability to receive notifications from web sites

or, for anybody that just wants to try it out, you can download the latest version from here: http://growl-for-windows.googlecode.com/files/GrowlForWindows_1_2_1.zip

mt. hood

2008-05-28T16:41:00.000-07:00

pictures from the mt. hood climb are up in the outdoors section.

mt. hood

2008-05-28T16:33:00.000-07:00

last weekend i went down to oregon to climb mt. hood. sunday night we started at 3am and got to ride the snowcat up to the top of the ski lift (since the lifts dont run at 3am in the morning). from there, we climbed from about 8,500ft up to the summit at just over 11,200ft. we summitted around 6:45am or so, too late too see the sunrise, but still got treated to some beautiful views. the weather was unseasonably warm (read: super hot), but the climb was fun and i had a great time. not too many pictures since we only stopped a couple of times for quick breaks and only spent 5 or 10 minutes on top, but you can see the sunny weather and other cascade mountains (adams, rainier, and st. helens to the north, jefferson and three sisters to the south). all in all, a great day (minus the sunburnt lips and neck).

new house

2008-04-17T14:03:00.001-07:00

well, it is finally official - we bought a new house. we dont have to be out of this one until the end of may, so we are hoping to move a little at a time instead of everything all at once.

trip to canada, eh

2008-04-14T12:41:00.003-07:00

trip length: 3 days
cities visited: 2 (Victoria, Vancouver)
modes of transportation used: 7 (float plane, walking, bus, helicopter, train, seabus, ferry)

skagit river kayak

2008-04-02T17:00:00.003-07:00

click on the picture below to read the full report.

skagit river kayak

2008-03-31T11:57:00.000-07:00

this past weekend i took a nice kayak trip down the lower Skagit river. between December and February, the middle portion of this trip is a very popular place to view bald eagles, but i was about a month late for that. the weather forecast was calling for snow showers all weekend, and on the drive to the put-in, it was a snowy, slushy mess. i was thinking this trip was off to a bad start, but as i got closer to the starting point, the weather cleared up a bit and things started looking up.

i started near the confulence of Copper Creek, about six miles or so above Marblemount. here i am, ready to get going...

...and my trusty Swifty is ready to go as well.

the plan was to kayak about 16 miles or so to Rockport and camp overnight, then continue the next day another 16 miles or so to Rasar State Park. i had my tent and sleeping bag and a dry set of clothes all packed up in dry bags as i set out for my first ever overnight kayak trip.

most of the whitewater on the skagit is above where i put in, so i figured i would have a nice leisurely float ahead of me. for the most part, that was the case, but there were a few bigger riffles here and there to keep me on my toes, and even the flat sections were flowing very rapidly, do i didnt even have to paddle much and still sped down the river.

although the snow had stopped, there was still quite a bit of snow in the area (although you cant really see it in these pictures). there was also a layer of fog up above the river, and the combination of the crystal clear river, crisp air, blanket of snow, and hanging fog made for a very peaceful and beautiful float.

because the water was flowing so quickly, i made very quick time to my camp spot at Rockport. i beached the kayak and set up the tent, happy to find that everything i had packed had stayed nice and dry.

as i fell asleep that night, i could hear the rain and ice falling outside. i wondered what the weather would hold for the second half of the trip, and the next morning, i found out. i awoke to a covering of slushy snow and snow still coming down.

i packed all of my gear and stuffed my soaking-wet tent into a plastic bag and set off. i had never kayaked in the falling snow before, and it was actually very peaceful. i had plenty of clothes on to keep me warm, and my gear was keeping my dry, so other than the occassional snowflake in the eye, it was nice to be out paddling in those conditions.

the river was still moving very quickly, and with the falling snow and glacier-cold water (the water temperature was hovering around 40 degrees), i was cautious to make sure i stayed up right and dry. eventually, the snow stopped, followed by a short spell of rain, and then the sun came out. during the last 8 miles or so, the river widened just a bit and the flow slowed down slightly, making me have to paddle a bit more than before. i passed through some really pretty sections though and was content to keep my slow pace as i made my way down the river.

the last mile or so, the wind came up a bit and slowed my progress a little more. my take-out spot (Rasar State Park) did not have an actual boat launch, just some sandy beaches a few hundred yards from the actual park. that would make spotting the take-out from the river a little tricky, but yesterday before i started out, i had stopped at the park and walked down to the beach to try to get an idea of what the area looked like and committed it to memory. as i floated farther down the river, i kept a watchful eye out for anything that looked familiar, but from the view from my kayak, quite a bit of the shoreline looked the same. i finally saw some sandy beaches that looked extra familiar and made the correct guess that i had reached my destination. after having to carry my kayak and gear about 200 yards up to the park, my trip was complete. even though i was late in the season, i had seen about 5 or 6 eagles, tons of ducks and geese, and even a solitary beaver hanging out on the shore as i floated by.

thanks a ton to michaleen and crew for driving way out of their way to shuttle my truck for me. all in all, it was a very memorable trip and an area that i would like to explore some more.

Growl from Windows/ASP.NET

2008-02-08T16:43:00.000-08:00

got a Mac and love getting Growl notifications from your favorite applications? ever wish you could get notifications from your Windows machines or servers as well? now you can! i whipped up a quick little library that can be used from almost any Windows application or Windows-based webserver.

to test it out, just follow these instructions:

1. first, make sure Growl is setup to listen for network notifications, and make sure to allow remote registrations. also, make sure your firewall will allow UDP traffic through port 9887.

2. browse to: http://www.growlforwindows.com/webgrowl

3. enter in your computer's ip address. leave the Port set to 9887. if you have set up a password in Growl for network notifications, enter that value as well.

4. type in your notification title and a short description and hit 'send'. you should receive a notification message on the computer running Growl.

------------------------

remote Growl notifications are just a specially constructed UDP packet. the WebGrowl component is just a c# class library that abstracts the UDP packet creation and sending, making it as easy to send notifications as:


    NetGrowl growl = new NetGrowl(ipAddress, port, applicationName, password);
    growl.Notify(notificationType, title, description, priority, sticky);

since WebGrowl is a c# class library, it can be used from ASP.NET or a Windows Forms application. the library was also written to be COM-friendly, so it can also be used from VB6 or other COM-aware languages.

(special thanks to Rui Carmo @ The Tao of Mac (http://the.taoofmac.com/space/Projects/netgrowl) for documenting the the Growl UDP packet format)

[download library]

christmas tree

2007-12-10T11:31:00.001-08:00

christmas ornaments

2007-12-10T11:29:00.001-08:00

spent some time last week making christmas ornaments for the tree. pretty amazing what you can make out of some glitter and beads.

potato chips

2007-12-10T11:22:00.000-08:00

we have been getting pretty crafty in the kitchen lately and made some really good food. this time however, we decided to try something a little more fun: homemade potato chips
the whole operation:

cooking away:

looking pretty tasty:

the final product:

we also made some baked sweet potato chips (no pictures) and i would say that all in all, they turned out really good.

thanksgiving

2007-11-30T11:20:00.000-08:00

just a nice shot of our thanksgiving spread

pumpkin carving

2007-10-22T12:17:00.000-07:00

here are some pictures from this past weekend's pumpkin carving session: pre-carving set up (notice the dremel for those advanced pumpkin carvers)

eden's masterpiece

rachelle (eden's friend)

michaleen

brian

whole scary lot of them

kayak & rack

2007-10-18T12:06:00.000-07:00

a few months ago, i got a new sea kayak but never put up a picture of it. i havent gotten to use it nearly as much i would have liked since i didnt have an easy way to transport it (at 17' long, i couldnt just throw it in the bed of my truck like i can with my swifty). but i finally got a good rack setup so i can haul the thing around.

vortex.offline licensed under BSD

2007-10-04T15:23:00.000-07:00

just a quick note for everyone that asked about licensing - to be perfectly honest, i didnt even think about the licensing when i first put the code up. the code was always intended to be free anyone to use and modify. to make it official, i have added a BSD-style license disclaimer to the javascript files.

download the updated code

here is the license's full text:


/* *************************************************
vortex offline library v0.2
copyright 2007 - vortex software - all rights reserved

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
are met:
1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
   documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
3. Neither the name of the project nor the names of its contributors
   may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
   without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE PROJECT AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND
ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE PROJECT OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
SUCH DAMAGE.
************************************************* */

vortex.offline demo app

2007-09-04T18:23:00.000-07:00

to coincide with the release of the vortex.offline library, i put together the obligatory sample feed reader application to demonstrate the usage. this is just a simplistic feed reader, but you can see some of the libraries important points, such as:

ability to automatically detect referenced resources such as images, scripts, and stylesheets (including nested @imported stylesheets)

automatic detection of network state with corresponding UI/feature changes (for example, when going offline, some features such as the 'add feed' link are removed since they dont apply offline)

auto syncing of events. this demo records the adding and removing of feeds and automatically plays them back when the network comes back online

use of the generic storage capabilities to store the feed data for offline viewing

graceful fallback if no offline support is available (google gears not installed or not allowed to run). try viewing the site in Safari to see the 'no offline support' version, or just deny Google Gears when prompted

[view demo]

the vortex_offline-debug.js file is fully commented and details the other configuration options and available features. you can download this entire sample application by grabbing the .zip file listed below:

[download vortex offline feed reader demo]

announcing the vortex.offline library (v0.1)

2007-09-04T18:19:00.000-07:00

with the release of Adobe's AIR and Microsoft's Silverlight combined with the continued advances in javascript libraries like dojo and Prototype, the line between desktop app and web app continues to get blurrier. one of the major disadvantages that web apps have had against traditional desktop applications is that web apps only work, well, when you are on the web.

with the release of Google Gears came the promise of web applications that could work offline just as well as they could online. i have been interested in this topic for some time, so i immediately started playing with this new tool and realized it was pretty slick. after using some of the better javascript libraries out there now though, it felt like the Gears api was a little 'raw'. i started working on a wrapper library to make development of offline applications even easier to get started with. i saw a post on Ajaxian a while back that talked about how the dojo framework (and specifically Brad Neuberg) were working on porting their offline storage solution to use Gears, and it was eerily similar to what i had been working on as well.

looking over the dojo implementation, it seemed as though Brad had already done most of the work i was working on as well. the only downside i had at that time was that my current client's project was implemented using Ext, not dojo. instead of having to include the entire dojo framework along with the Ext framework, i decided that my offline library could be used as a nice, small, library-independent add-on. i polished it up and now it is what you see here.

the library is self-contained in a single javascript file, vortex_offline.js. like dojo, it supports an offline module as well as a generic storage module. to start using it, it can be as simple as a single line of javascript:


vortex.offline.init("My Application Name");

that's it! behind the scenes, the code will scan the page to find all of the resources required (including images, css, other .js file, etc) and cache them using the Gears LocalServer object. the library exposes several events that you can hook into, such as when the network status changes. there is also a syncing system that lets you record actions while offline and replay them back when the network is connected again.

the library also contains a generic storage module that can be used independently of the offline module (although it is still obviously dependent on Gears behind the scenes). objects can be easily saved and retrieved using commands like:


vortex.storage.put(key, val);
vortex.storage.get(key);

under the covers, the objects are serialzied to json and stored in the local Gears database.

the debug version of the vortex_offline.js file included in the .zip is fully commented and shows the additional methods available for both modules. the minified version weighs in at just under 10k, including the json parser that you can swap out if you are already using another one. a sample application will be posted up shortly...

[download .zip file]

camping @ cooper lake

2007-08-20T10:22:00.000-07:00

a couple of weekends ago we went camping at cooper lake, north of cle elum. we had originally planned to go to wind river, but we didnt want to spend the whole weekend driving, so we found an alternate site that was a little closer to home. we tried to do some fishing, but didnt catch anything. the area was beautiful though, and we were able to kayak and read and just generally relax.

landcruiser and hiking

2007-06-18T12:31:00.000-07:00

quite a bit of progress on the landcruiser (might maybe possibly potentially drive it before summer is over) and some pictures from our otter falls hike.

otter falls

2007-06-18T12:18:00.000-07:00

this past weekend, michaleen, eden and i decided to do a hike up to otter falls (actually the snoqualmie lake trail #1002). it was only about an hour drive to the taylor river trailhead, and as predicted, it was raining. however, the rain was light so we decided it wasnt going to stop us.

the trail isnt very steep, but it involves a lot of stream crossings and, with all of the rain, some really muddy sections. eden quickly found a trusty (or so we thought) stick and some higher ground.

at about two miles in, we came to the marten creek bridge. the marten creek falls were amazingly pretty. the rocks, the trees, the sound of the rushing water - it was all very picturesque.

the rain was sort of off and on on the hike up. it hinted at raining harder a few times, but for the most part, it was just a constant drizzle. but the trail was so beautiful that the wet weather wasnt dampening anyone's fun.

along with the numerous stream crossings, we also passed several smaller waterfalls and lots of other cool things, like moss-covered trees that looked like gnarled green monsters. here were some mushrooms that eden found, as well as a tall tree that looked neat.

we forged on, crossing a few more streams before arriving at the cairns that marked the trail up to otter falls.

the falls were awesome and well worth the hike. i had been here once before (15 years ago), and it was just as pretty as i remembered. we had packed a picnic lunch, so we spread out our blanket and sat down to enjoy the food and the view.

the rain was picking up, as was the wind, so we ended up moving our picnic to a more sheltered spot. by this point, everyone was very wet and getting cold, so we cut our picnic short and headed back. the first two miles or so of the hike back were pretty good, but the rain was definitely starting to come down harder. by the time we got back to the marten creek bridge, it was a downpour. the trail turned into a constant stream of mud. i have to give everyone credit though - there was no complaining or sour moods. we put our heads down and made good time, all the while focusing on getting back to the dryness and warmth of the truck. we finally arrived back at the truck, soaked and cold, but in the end, everyone had a good time.

lunchtime visitor

2007-06-11T10:05:00.000-07:00

michaleen and eden were in the kitchen and i had just came in from the garage (working on the landcruiser), and look who came walking up our trail...

shady seals surround me

2007-05-25T06:15:00.000-07:00

double bluff

2007-05-21T13:35:00.000-07:00

while looking for some good hikes on the island, i came across double bluff. it was supposed to have a few miles of forested trails, but it turned out to be a cool place to hike along the beach instead. my first visit was kind of rushed since i was trying to hurry back, but michaleen and eden and i have made a couple of return trips to collect shells and play in the (very cold) water. it is fun to watch the clams squirting water up into the air like some kind of big erratic fountain and to see the (literally) millions of shells from clams, mussels, oysters, snails, crabs, barnacles, and all kinds of other interesting sea life. on the last trip, we also saw three big cruise ships go by, possibly on their way to alaska. those things are gigantic! maybe next time i will get a picture.

morning kayak

2007-04-19T10:43:00.000-07:00

just a little sample from my morning kayak today. see more here

morning kayak

2007-04-19T10:36:00.000-07:00

today was my second time out for a morning kayak on puget sound (in the saratoga passage, to be exact). last weekend was the langley 'welcome the whales' festival, so i have been really hoping to see a whale during my kayaking. today i didnt see a whale, but i did see a huge sea lion who was about 25 feet from my kayak in the middle of the sound. i thought it was just a big piece of driftwood at first, until i got closer and heard him breathing and blowing water out of its nose. he didnt seem to mind my presence too much, and after a little while, he dove his head under, flipped up his tail, and was gone. i wasnt able to grab a picture of him, but here are some pictures of the sound in the morning - very peaceful.

boats moored near langley

puget sound

seaside village of langley

goss lake woods

2007-03-21T16:50:00.000-07:00

having moved up here to whidbey island, it had been several months since i had ridden my bike and i had yet to get out and explore what the area had to offer. for christmas, i had received Kissing the Trail, a mountain biking book containing 'Greater Seattle Mountain Bike Adventures'. i was anxious to get out for a local ride, so i turned to the section on whidbey island to see what i could find. although there were only two local rides listed, the trails at Goss Lake Woods (map) were described as narrow and twisty, with minimal elevation gain - how could i pass that up? (by the way, that was their emphasis, not mine) =). after a short drive to the trailhead, i pedaled out into the slightly damp forest along a picturesque trail.

the ride started out on the easy-sounding frog lane, two kitties, and jane erye trails. the trails were wide and smooth, but there were enough fun rollercoasters to put a smile on my face and get my heart pumping. i turned north and looped along the west side of the trust lands, already feeling the effects of not riding in so long. the trails were still pretty tame, but the damp air and lush forest created a quiet stillness that was fun just to enjoy. plus, the guide book had promised that i was close to Blazing Saddles a 'very technical trail' with 'lots of ups and downs and tight turns in and out of the wrinkles of the forest floor'. so i pedalled onward, enjoying the fresh air and serene surroundings.

after a couple of deadends and one or two steep hills (hey! i thought there were no hills out here!), i ended up over on the east side of the preserve, up on top of a hill that opened into a grassy meadow surrounded by tall pine trees. it was a little windy in the open meadow, and it felt as if i could have just as easily been on a windswept hillside in a remote part of new zealand. i hadnt found the technical trails that i was looking for, but the ride was turning out to be really good just the same. i did one more short loop and then started to head back to the trailhead. on the ride back, i noticed a tiny trail heading off to the right into a thick stand of trees. i turned onto the trail and almost immediately found myself surrounded by the dark forest and moss-covered trees. the trail looked like it wasnt used nearly as much as the others, and the fallen trees and roots made for a fun ride and challenging ride.

the trail linked me up with another network of trails that turned out to be exactly what i was after. the trails of flying squirrel, sleepy hollow, and stryx varia were incredible - twisty and narrow, zigzagging over roots and squeezing between the towering trees with just enough ups and downs to keep the momentum up and my tires rolling quickly. i felt like i was in my own personal mountain biking heaven (not to mention that i didnt see another person or track on the entire ride).

i ended up on some truly single track (about 6" wide, with forest vegetation obscuring the trail in most places) before finally cruising back on the lazily named lulu lane. i arrived back at my truck with mud in my teeth and a grin on my face - exactly what i had been looking forward to.

thumpity-thump-thump

2007-01-17T11:43:00.000-08:00

there must have been some magic in that old silk hat they found

snow!

2007-01-11T07:47:00.000-08:00

woke up yesterday morning to some fresh snow. it snowed off and on for the better part of the day, so it ended up accumulating about an inch and a half or so. we definitely wouldnt have gotten this in phoenix.

waking up on whidbey

2006-12-23T09:35:00.000-08:00

well, we have arrived on whidbey island. it was three days of driving nearly 1600 miles. it started off poorly when the uhaul truck had brake problems before we even left the lot. and then more problems again before we left phoenix (supposedly loose wiring in the dash). and the radio didnt work, and neither did the windshield wipers (luckily we had good weather for the whole trip, even through portland and seattle). when we pulled up to the new house, there were two service trucks in the driveway because the gas furnace was not working. it was a toasty 42 degrees in the house when we arrived. but, they got the heat fixed and the truck did make it without leaving us stranded. and although i was sure we wouldnt be so lucky, all of our stuff survived the trip mostly unscathed. we still have stacks of boxes to go through and unpack, but we are making progress. we have already tried the local chinese place and the local pizza place (twice). i guess we are no longer arizonans and officially washingtonians.

old house sold, new house rented

2006-11-20T13:44:00.000-08:00

well, my house finally sold. it was a quick and easy closing, so that part was nice. the worst part was moving out - not the house (since i dont have hardly any possessions), but the garage, since it was filled with hundreds of landcruiser parts of all shapes and sizes. i actually missed out on all of the fun of the move since i was out of the state at the time, but michaleen and her girls saved the day by handling it all for me. i owe them big time.

anyway, now that i am out of my old house, it was time to turn the attention to finding a new place up on whidbey island. since we arent sure what our long-term plan is, we decided that renting a place for now was the best idea. we found a great place that is on 5 treed acres on top of a hill, with great views of the puget sound, mainland, and cascade mountains. you can see the view in a couple of these pictures.

this last picture is of the house we are renting. we have only seen the outside and peeked in a few windows, so we dont even know what the inside looks like yet. guess it will be fun to find out when we arrive up there next month.

Flagstaff Adventure Race III

2006-10-30T10:37:00.000-08:00

it was a beautiful day to race up in flagstaff - the weather was great, the leaves were changing colors, and mark put together a fun race for the series finale. team Sierra Adventure Sports was hoping to do well following their 1st place division finish at the last race. alas, it was not our day and we finished 3rd (out of only three teams in our division) and only a couple places up from being last overall.

however, since we did well in the previous two races of the season, our 3rd place finish was enough to keep us in the lead in the points series, so i am happy to announce that team Sierra Adventure Sports takes 1st place in the 3-person division for the 1st annual Flagstaff Mountain Racing Series. we even got a little trohpy and some cool prizes for our achievement. as rick said later, "we raced against monster, and we were the ones who came home with the trophy" (even if that statement is slightly misleading).

Desert Rage - San Diego 2006

2006-10-24T10:46:00.000-07:00

this past weekend was Desert Rage - San Diego, the third race in the Desert Rage series and the first one i had done outside of arizona. the event took place on lake hodges, and although i had high hopes of spotting Hodgee, he was nowhere to be seen that day. as for the race, it was 11+ miles of kayaking, about 9 miles of trekking, and 13-ish miles of mountain biking for a grand total of almost 34 miles. i finished 4th in the solo division, which wasnt all that great of a finish, but i was still pretty happy with the outcome.

you can check out the full results and a bunch of pictures on the sierra adventure sports website.

is the end of the world near?

2006-10-17T09:59:00.000-07:00

i did something the other day that i never thought i would do. i couldn't conceive of a reason why i would ever even consider doing it. but i did it - i changed my homepage from google *gasp*!

in the name of full disclosure, i only changed it in firefox (google still reigns in IE), and i am not yet convinced it will be a permanent change. but it has been almost a week and i havent gone back yet.

so, what wonder of modern technological achievement could have swayed me from the almighty google? a small little site that most people probably have never even heard of: netvibes.com. aside from being a snazzy web 2.0 site that are so popular with the kids these days, netvibes is actually a pretty cool little app. in its simplest form, it is really just a personalized 'portal', not all that different than what you could get from yahoo or google. but it has a lot of nifty little features that the big guys dont have like easy feed reading, email monitoring, calendaring, etc. and best of all, their API is available so even if you dont find a module that does what you want, you can just add your own.

but the coolest thing about netvibes.com is the interface. of course, it is all ajax-y as you would expect, but it actually uses the technology to make the app *better*, not just fancier. in the limited amount of time i have been playing with it, the app has been responsive and fast and very intuitive. i have been toying around with the idea of a website like this for sometime now, and i guess the highest praise i can give netvibes is that it is the real incarnation of the site i had envisioned in my mind.

so check it out for yourself - who knows, maybe it will change your world too.

Gilmore Adventure Race 2006

2006-10-12T18:54:00.000-07:00

Team Sierra Adventure Sports takes 2nd in the male 3-person category at the 2006 Gilmore Adventure Race! It was a long hard course, but everyone had a great time. Read Rick's full write-up at Adventure Race Reports.

house & landcruiser updates

2006-08-30T13:21:00.000-07:00

the home improvement projects are finally wrapping up and the end is in sight. spent most of monday wrapping up the exterior landscaping and, with a lot of help from michaleen, things look great! my house has never looked so good (if i do say so myself). here is just a teaser picture - i will try to post up a whole batch later on. also, the landcruiser is making progress. the body work is nearly done, and it is almost time for painting. go here to check out the latest pictures.

Flagstaff Adventure Race II

2006-08-30T12:38:00.000-07:00

last saturday was the second race of the first annual Mountain Racing Sports Flagstaff Adventure Racing 3-race Series. team Sierra Adventure Sports finished 1st in the 3-person division (6th overall) in the first race on May 20th and was looking to do well again in the second race of the year. we ended up with an additional racer for this race, making us the only 3-person team with 4 people. we gained time with some strategic puzzle-picking and rick's usual spot-on navigation. we also made up some ground on the bike leg, barely edgeing out in front of the guys from Gilmore Adventure Racing. at a blind-folded rock-climbing mystery event, we put some more distance between us (it helped that Carter just happens to own his own rock climbing wall). in the final ride-n-tie section, we knew that team Gilmore Adventure Racing was right behind us and closing the gap.

we were all beat, but determined to stay out in front. in the end, it was a sprint to the finish, but we edged them out by a mere 7 seconds! it was good enough for a 2nd place finish in our division, 5th overall.

check out some race photos at http://www.sierraadventuresports.com/sierrahome2gallery.htm and see the official results here: http://www.mtnracingsports.com/results.htm

cellar door - finally done

2006-08-07T15:48:00.000-07:00

i dont know how many of you were lucky enough to get to see the 'interesting' cellar door that was in the house when i first moved in. for those that werent so lucky, imagine a giant trap door in the middle of my dining room, that was first tiled over, and then re-cut out so it could still open. between scratching up the wall, weighing about 100 pounds, and just being incovenient, i knew it had to go. i ripped it out and then was left with the dilemna of how to construct something better. i figured out a ladder-type access that would take up less than half the space, and not interfere with anything else in the room. i did the initial construction a while back, but never got around to finishing it. well, it is finally done! i was a little worried about what it would end up looking like, but i think it turned out pretty nice. here are a couple of pictures so you dont have to use your imagination.

new carpet

2006-07-26T19:46:00.000-07:00

spent last week ripping out the old carpet in my bedroom and office, painting the walls, and getting new carpet installed. turned out pretty good i think.

brickfest montage clip 2 - psycho

2006-06-22T15:41:00.000-07:00

here is my second attempt at a montage clip for the brickfest montage. it is not technically perfect, but i had a lot of fun making it, and hopefully it is recognizable even though the movie is over 40 years old.

Download the movie

here are some of the things that i wished i had improved upon:

animation ended up a little herky-jerky because i had to slow it down a bit to match up with the audio
the zoom/pan was much faster than in the real movie, but again i had to match up my animation with the audio
the set was so tight that i had to use some extra legos to move the knife-wielder, and then forgot to mask them out, so they are visible in a few shots
the lighting is very close to the original, but not exact. the knife-wielder should have been more shadowy
the 'scream' mouth. i didnt have any appropriate mini-fig heads, so i had to draw the mouth in photoshop. not my best work, but better than the version i originally did

i was generally happy with the water effect for the shower, although it is not quite as obvious after the compression.

anyway, let me know what you think.

new stuff

2006-06-16T14:33:00.000-07:00

lots of new stuff in the lego movies section, including: a new lego movie clip from The Blair With Project; a study in facial animation; and a sneek peek at my upcoming feature. read more about it here: Lego Movies also, the Big Sky Breakdown adventure race has been cancelled. read more about it here: Big Sky Breakdown cancelled

study 4 - mouth animation

2006-06-16T14:01:00.000-07:00

although i have not yet finished my first film, i have still been experimenting with different animation techniques. for this test, i wanted to play with animating the lego figure's face to give more expression and the illusion of actually speaking. a great example of this technique is the Rapunzel short by Jay Silver (download here) - notice how the facial expressions really convey the minifig's emotions.

anyway, i was feeling a little lazy and didnt want to shoot an entire scene just for this test, so i decided to use some existing footage from my upcoming film. i used the corresponding dialog from the scene as well (so this is a little sneak-peak at the final film, although the final cut will NOT use the actual mouth animations).

next up, i downloaded a nifty program called Papagayo (http://www.lostmarble.com/papagayo/index.shtml) that is essentially a lip-synching program that lets you line up 'phonemes' (mouth shapes) with your sound. you type in your dialog, and it shows you the corresponding mouth shapes. turns out there are only a handful of different shapes required for most sounds in the english language (long O, L, B, U, etc). you can also add your sound files and adjust the timing. once you have all of of the timing figured out, it is just a matter of editing the frames.

so i opened up photoshop and created my 5 necessary mouth shapes. this was not too hard, since i took a copy of the original lego mouth and just edited it to the different shapes. then, using the timing specified by papagayo, i had to hand-edit the appropriate frames with the new mouth shapes. save everything and render.

the final result can be viewed here: mouth animation test

lessons learned:

adding mouth animations can make a big difference, especially on close-ups that would otherwise have little or no other animation to give the impression of speaking (moving hands/arms, etc)

getting the timing correct is important. my clip ended up being slightly out of sync because i didnt spend too much time getting it right in papagayo. the brain easily picks up on it when the mouth is not matching the sound

people dont convey all of their meaning with just their words. adding in facial expressions (moving eyebrows, squinting eyes, etc) would make the illusion much more realistic. i will save that one for another study.

big sky breakdown - cancelled!

2006-06-16T13:57:00.000-07:00

on the eve of our big training trip up in the White Mountains, brad found out at the last minute that the Big Sky Breakdown in montana had been cancelled. their website still says 'Registration is now open', and apparently brad was the first person to hear the news. the organizers said that they had already had a fair amount of teams commit to doing it, but they had started planning too late and the course was still up in the air. they didnt want to put on their first race without it being top notch.

anyway, it is a bummer to not be doing it. but maybe something else will pop up.

brickfest montage clip

2006-06-02T16:22:00.000-07:00

every year there is this big convention type thing related to legos that is called Brickfest (http://www.brickfest.com/). as part of Brickfest, Brickfilms usually sponsors an animation contest that goes along with the theme of Brickfest. many animators participate, and some of the best lego movies of the year come from competitions like this.

this year at Brickfest, they decided to add another component as well. before the public viewing of the animation competition entries, the organizers wanted to show a 3 minute montage of clips from famouse movies, all re-created in lego. the rules were simple: pick a famous scene from a famous movie, use the original audio track, animate the whole thing with legos, and make it all less than about 30 seconds long. it sounded pretty fun, so i decided to try my hand at it. click the image below to see my lego re-enactment of The Blair Witch Project.

Watch the clip

AjaxDelegate

2006-05-26T17:13:00.000-07:00

By now, everyone and their dogs have jumped on to the AJAX bandwagon in order to make their web applications faster and enhance the user experience. (What? Your dog doesn't code? Hmmmm.) Like most programmers, I am lazy and didn't like writing my AJAX code over and over, so I went in search of a solid AJAX library. While there are lots of AJAX libraries out there with tons of bells and whistles, I wanted something simple and yet flexible. I also saw a lot of implementations of AutoComplete boxes and various other common AJAX scenarios, but I wanted an AJAX library that I could re-use, no matter what the project called for.

Design Requirements

Simple to use.
Must be flexible enough to handle any AJAX scenario.
Must be able to pass parameters to the XmlHttpRequest's callback function
Must be completely self-contained with no global variables, to ensure compatibility with unknown scripts.

Using the code

Using the code couldn't be easier. First, make sure to link in the AjaxDelegate.js file into your HTML page. Then, create two new JavaScript methods, one that will be called to kick off the AJAX event, and the other that will server as the callback when the AJAX call has completed. In the sample below, I created the getDefinition and setDefinition functions, and wired up the the getDefinition function to the onchange event of a SELECT tag.

function getDefinition(term, textareaID, borderStyle, 
        borderWidth, borderColor)
{
    if(term != "")
    {
        var url = "lookupDefinition.aspx?term=" + term
        var ajax = new AjaxDelegate(url, setDefinition, 
                       textareaID, borderStyle, borderWidth, borderColor);
        ajax.Fetch();
    }
}

function setDefinition(url, response, textareaID, 
         borderStyle, borderWidth, borderColor)
{
    var word = eval(response);

    var textarea = document.getElementById(textareaID);
    textarea.value = word.definition;
    textarea.style.borderStyle = borderStyle;
    textarea.style.borderWidth = borderWidth + 'px';
    textarea.style.borderColor = borderColor;
}

Under the Hood

When the onchange event fires, the getDefinition function is called. Within that function, a new AjaxDelegate object is created. The first parameter is the URL of the page that will do the behind-the-scenes processing. The second parameter is the name of the callback function that will get executed when the asynchronous call completes. After that, you can pass any number of additional arguments to the AjaxDelegate constructor. The neat part here is that all of these additional arguments will be available to the callback function when the call completes. Finally, make sure to call the Fetch() method to kick off the processing.

This example is making a simple GET request, but if you set the contents of the .formData property, the underlying function will make a POST request and pass the data to the url specified. This example also uses the responseText as the return value, returning a structured JavaScript object. You could also return plain text, JSON, or any other formatted data you like. Alternatively, you can force the AjaxDelegate to use the responseXML by setting the .isXML property before calling the Fetch() method.

When the remote page has finished processing, the function specified as the callback will be called. Remember, all of the arguments that were originally passed in are available to the callback function, along with the response from the HTTP request. At this point, you can do pretty much whatever you want to do with the returned data. (In this case, I actually returned a JavaScript object and used the eval() function to parse it). I will admit the the example is overly-simplistic and not very useful, but the point is to demonstrate the concept.

Although this is a simple little library, hopefully its flexibility will be useful to other programmers. By using a delegate pattern similar to the .NET Framework, it is incredibly easy to create JavaScript callback functions that take additional parameters. And since the code is self-contained, there is no need to have an XmlHttpRequest object with global scope that may conflict with the usage of other libraries or unknown scripts.

Download the AjaxDelegate library

big sky breakdown

2006-05-25T11:09:00.000-07:00

so, i have done more than 10 adventure races over the past three years, including 4 just this year so far. but all of these have been of the 'sprint' type, which does not mean you have to sprint during them, but they are fairly short, taking 3 to 8 hours to cover 15 to 30 miles. the most recent Desert Rage at Roosevelt Lake was a little longer, taking me nearly 12 full hours to complete, but still considered a sprint. i have thought about doing a couple 24-hour events, but so far everything has fell through.

but what got me (and probably most people) interested in adventure racing in the first place was the Eco-Challenge. this expedition-type race was much more than a few hours out in the desert. teams had to cover literally hundreds of miles over all kinds of terrain, day and night. strategy and determination became exponentially more important than just being 'fast'.

but most mortal people will never race in the Eco-Challenge. so what is a budding adventure racer to do? enter the Big Sky Breakdown (www.bigskybreakdown.com) - an expedition-type race in montana. the course promises to take racers on a 250-mile course that should take 3 to 4 days to complete. a couple of friends that i met through adventure racing (brad and yvonee of teams Tubac, Start Slow and Taper, and Plan B) have been doing Rogaine's and other 24-hour events and got the idea that they were ready to step up to something bigger. when they asked me if i would be interested, i jumped at the chance. having raced with them several times before, i knew that they shared my outlook on things, namely:

stay friends

have fun

finish the race

worry about going fast

... in that order.

the race is at the end of july (27-30), so we only have two months to get all of our gear in order and prepare physically for the event. the race directors have already said that the events will include:

trekking (hiking)

mountain biking

river kayaking

tough orienteering/navigation

rappelling and Tyrolean traverse

the site goes into more detail about each event, and they also have a blog where they give peeks into the course and other aspects of the race. take a look at their site and see if it is something you would consider doing.

new site

2006-05-25T10:41:00.000-07:00

well, here it is - my new site. most of this information was available before in various places, but now it is all under one roof. feel free to browse around and see what i have been up to.

project update - scene 4 is done

2006-05-25T09:08:00.000-07:00

after another (slightly shorter) hiatus, production has started up again. after a doing a couple of test takes of the next scene a couple of weeks ago, i finally got around to filming the final version. filming went OK, although i had to shoot the entire scene three times before i was happy with it. i still had a noticable light change halfway through the scene, but it was nothing a little post-processing in photoshop couldnt cure. anyway, here is a teaser frame from the latest scene.

Removing the Flash border in IE (ActiveX content)

2006-05-09T20:44:00.000-07:00

if you have visited a website lately that uses Flash, perhaps you have noticed a thick gray border around the Flash movies that you could have sworn wasnt there before. it isnt there in Firefox or Safari or Opera, only in IE. well, no, you arent losing your mind - it really *didnt* used to be there.

back in february (2006), Microsoft released an update to IE that causes this change. the change was a patch released in response to a lawsuit brought against Microsoft by Eolas, who claimed they held a patent on embedding content in the browser using 'plug-ins'. after a victorious judgement for Eolas, Microsoft decided to just change the behavior of IE instead of pay the judgement (something to the tune of $500 million dollars - you can read more about it at http://www.digitalproducer.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=38506)

so now unsuspecting users who use Windows Update will get the patch and perhaps wonder what the heck happened. Microsoft announced the change (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/912945/en-us) and even provided a work-around to the ensuing problem (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/workshop/author/dhtml/overview/activating_activex.asp). Seems as though even they knew this change was a bonehead move and developers would immediately be wanting to get around it. The solution Microsoft offered up was essentially to remove the OBJECT and EMBED tags from your HTML and instead dynamically write them out using JavaScript.

for their part, Macromedia (err...Adobe) knew that this change would reflect badly on them, even though they were innocent bystanders as well. they proposed their own solution(http://www.adobe.com/devnet/activecontent/), which was essentially the same solution as Microsoft, but geared a little more toward Flash developers.

while both of these solutions work, they are more than a little bit crude. a nifty little utility called SWFObject (formerly FlashObject - http://blog.deconcept.com/swfobject/) can be used to avoid the problem, and provides some other features like Flash-plugin detection. still, at the heart of this solution is still dynamically writing out your HTML via JavaScript.

i decided that a new approach was needed. i set the following requirements for any solution:

OBJECT and EMBED tags should be in regular HTML and work as normal
minimize changes required for developers to implement the solution
be cross-browser compatible
still allow Flash content for users who have turned off JavaScript

the solution i came up with is actually quite simple. it involves simply wrapping the normal OBJECT and EMBED tags in a NOSCRIPT tag like this:

<noscript id="ActiveContent">
  <object attributes...etc>
    <embed attributes...etc>
  </object>
</noscript>

in addition, a small chunk of javascript is included in an external .js file that performs the magic:

var flashContainer = document.getElementById("FlashMovie");
var flashMovie = document.createElement("div");
flashMovie.innerHTML = decode(flashContainer.innerHTML);
flashContainer.parentNode.insertBefore(flashMovie, flashContainer);
function decode(input)
{
  var output = input;
  output = output.replace(/</g, "<");   output = output.replace(/>/g, ">");
  return output;
}

essentially, all it does is read in the contents of the NOSCRIPT tag, and then write them back out in a new, dynamically added DIV tag. The 'decode' function is necessary because Firefox automatically escapes the contents of the NOSCRIPT tag (i dont know why and could not find any documentation about it - other HTML tags do not exhibit this behavior). some of you might cringe at the use of innerHTML, but in this case, it fits the bill perfectly and is still way better than using document.write and concatenating the HTML string together.

this solution fufills all of the initial design goals:

the OBJECT and EMBED tags remain in the HTML source, full editable like normal
the changes simply require wrapping the intial code in a NOSCRIPT tag and linking in the external .js file, minimizing tedious changes for developers
the technique works across all various current-generation browsers
unlike the Microsoft and Adobe solutions, this solution still displays the Flash content if the user has JavaScript turned off since it naturally fails back to the NOSCRIPT content anyway (of course, the original problem of the border still exists, but no functionality is lost and this is a small segment of the population)

the code here is very simple but could easily be extended to automatically handle multiple different Flash objects on the same or multiple pages (document.getElementByTagNames looking for OBJECT would be a good start, then just traversing the DOM tree to get the elements you needed). come to think of it, you could probably get by without the NOSCRIPT altogether and just find the OBJECT content and re-write it out dynamically while nulling out the original innerHTML.

hopefully this will help those of you who have been frustrated by this recent 'feature' released by Microsoft.

Dam-to-Dam kayak race

2006-05-07T08:43:00.000-07:00

paddled in the Tempe Town Lake Dam-To-Dam kayak race yesterday (http://www.damtodamevents.com/index.html). this was the second year of the event, and my second time participating in it. last year i did it solo in the recreational division. this year, i talked michaleen into doing it with me and we competed in the tandem kayak class. thanks to rick eastman for letting us borrow his two-man kayak for the event. we even came home with a first place finish (nevermind the fact that we were the only entry in our division) =)

Desert Rage II - Roosevelt Lake

2006-04-30T08:42:00.000-07:00

the Desert Rage II adventure race was yesterday at Roosevelt Lake. rick promised that the race would be really tough, and he didnt disappoint. after the 4am dark start, we had a tough climb on the bike, followed by a crazy bike/hike down an old stream bed that is part of the Arizona Trail. most of the 'trail' was either big boulders in the streambed, or overgrown brush on either bank. after the bushwack, there were several miles of killer climbs up some rocky powerline roads. every team had to hike some of these sections. then there was a superfast descent back down to the road and then back to the TA. next up was a 9 mile paddle on Roosevelt Lake. with the new format of the final orienteering/trekking section, even the fastest teams were out right up until the cut-off time. i raced as a solo and finished with a time of 11 hours 25 minutes - good enough for a first place in the solo division =)

the race report and full results are posted on the Sierra Adventure Sports website: http://www.sierraadventuresports.com/sierrahome2results.htm

mountain biking at south mountain

2006-04-21T08:41:00.000-07:00

too nice of a day to sit inside, so i headed to south mountain for a ride. being *way* out of shape, the ride (hike) up national was long and hard. but it was all worth it for the awesome descent down. even took the camera along, but only took this one single picture.

project update

2006-01-11T17:24:00.000-08:00

i know it has been like 6 months since i posted last, but i was gone for 2 of those months. right before i left for my bike trip, i talked with josh and decided to do a film based sort of on the show '24' (his countdown timer was the inspiration).

well, i started off with a lot of enthusiam, but the process is a bit tedious. i tried to write the whole script, but found i worked much better when i just sort of winged it. i finally got the first scene filmed after shooting it about 10 times (kept having lighting trouble and flicker). once i got the lighting issues worked out, i was pretty happy with it. i shot the second scene in one take, so that helped the progress quite a bit.

at that point, i was out of storyline again. although originally supposed to be based on 24, the movie is really now more of just a crime-fighting spoof (half Hong Kong Fooey, half Police Squad). i decided to work on the soundtrack while i thought more about the rest of the story. i put a lot of work into the soundtrack, and i am pretty happy with it so far. i had to go back and re-do some of the early stuff because the later stuff was much better and made the early stuff sound crappy.

i merged the soundtrack with the scenes so far (and wrote a nifty program to help preview and adjust timing as well), and it is turning out pretty good. nothing earth-shattering, but i am happy with it. i hope to shoot a few more scenes in the near future, and maybe even wrap it up by the end of the month...

Molly Red Ale - my first brew!

2005-11-09T08:51:00.000-08:00

That Malty Molly

She blew into my life during Octoberfest and while our back-and-forth only lasted a month, I feel like I have known her all my life. Molly's the type of red-head that does not take things seriously, but when it comes to making beer, she believes that additives and ales don't mix.

When I think back on this full-bodied lass, all that I can say is that she was dying to get out...and I just couldn't keep her contained.

study 3: sound

2005-07-05T01:18:00.000-07:00

well, i am not following my original plan at all as far as what aspects of stop-motion animation i would explore next, but i am having fun, so who cares. today i decided to try experimenting with sound in my films. specifically, i wanted to try sound effects, foley (background sound), and soundtrack music.

first stop - brickfilms.com. their 'resources' section lead me to an awesome free sound editing/mixing program called Audacity. it can do all kinds of cool stuff (most of which is way over my head), but the main thing it can do is edit and mix multiple audio tracks.

ok, next stop - findsounds.com. josh turned me on to this site where there are tons and tons of free sound effects available. but wait, what sounds do i need? hmm, i just realized i have no movie to work from, nor any idea what type of movie i will even be making. oh well, lets just get some good generic sound effects and go from there. i got a door bell, knocking on a door, a door opening, and a door closing. that should work into a plot somehow. wait, i need foley sounds. what better background sound than some birds chirping (to be specific, these were house finches, at least according to the site. i had my choice of warblers, swallows, red-throated loons, white-eyed vireos, and many more, but nothing could beat some good old-fashioned house finches).

before i even attempted to integrate any of these sounds into a movie, i fired up Audacity and played around with it. it was a little confusing at first because i didnt know how to adjust the time of the sounds, but once i found the 'Time Shift' tool, it was a piece of cake. so i put the birds chirping on a loop, added the doorbell sound, followed by the door knocking sound. a little pause, the door opens, and after a little longer pause, the door slams shut. cool. but what about the soundtrack? i opened up my folder of mp3s to look for something instrumental. none of my crappy punk music was gonna cut it, but i did find a nice christmas piece that would do the trick (Sleigh Ride by Manheim Steamroller, in case you care). i added that track to the project and now i had something to work with. except a movie...

since i already had the sounds all layed out in somewhat of a decent timing, i decided i would film my movie to the soundtrack. so i built a quick set, fired up MonkeyJam, and had a little movie in no time. i quickly realized however that my poor movie timing combined with my poor audio timing was resulting in two pieces that did not join up nicely at all. bleah. well, reshooting the movie seemed like too much work, so i decided to just adjust the soundtrack in Audacity. it couldnt have been easier. i just left my little MonkeyJam preview window open and stepped through the frames. every time a key frame came up that required synching with a sound, i made note of the frame, divided by 15 (fps) and then put my sound at that point in the mix. mental note: in the future when making real movies, shoot the movie first, then add in the sound track. (this only underscores how impressive that thriller video was to sync up all of the animation with an exisiting soundtrack).

once i had the soundtrack looking good, i exported it as a .WAV file. then i opened up Axogon Composer and added my video track and my audio track and rendered them together. i ran the output through VirtualDub to compress the whole thing, and presto! - i had my first movie with sound.

anyway, here is 'a christmas suprise' for your viewing pleasure.

study 2: new camera

2005-06-25T17:59:00.000-07:00

after seeing josh's movies and making a few of my own, i am totally hooked on this stop-motion animation stuff. i decided that if i am gonna become a world-renowned lego animator, then i better improve my studio a bit. i bought a new logitech quickcam pro 4000 camera and a couple of cheap desk lamps from target (one with a fancy clip-thingy for a base). the logitech camera seems to be the camera of choice for a lot of folks on brickfilms.com, and i see why. the quaility of the picture is great, and it has built in zoom and pan functionality. (it has a built-in microphone as well, but that will have to wait for another day).

anyway, this second study was supposed to be focusing on moving multiple figures at the same time, varying their speed, working on my timing. however, i mostly just ended up playing with my camera. i made two movies during this test, the first is just a collection of random studies that i did (two people, car driving, flower growing, guy rolling on the ground, and a guy levitating); the second doesnt even have any animation, it just tests the zoomming and panning of the camera. nothing special, but notice that the image quality is getting better. i still need to work on my lighting setup (i still have hotspots and glare and some shadows), but it is an improvement.

check them out:

video one - random studies

video two - zoom/pan test

study 1: software test

2005-06-23T01:03:00.000-07:00

for my first venture into stop-motion animation, i figured i would do a few simple software tests to familiarize myself with all of the tools needed to create the final product. really, i only tested the video capture software (MonkeyJam), the compositing software (Axogon Composer), and the encoding software (VirtualDub using the Xvid codec). (other software dealing with sound effects and audio will have to wait until i get to that point in my testing).

josh loaned me a couple of webcams to get me up and running, and thanks to a couple of great tutorials on brickfilms.com, i was creating my first movie in no time. this first movie consists of two parts: the first is a simple walking scene to try out the video capture, and the second is an even more simplistic scene that was filmed solely to be the base used to try out features in Axogon.

here are the results of my first ever attempt at stop-motion animation. pretty unimpressive, to be sure. but even with this simple test, i have learned several things:

webcams are not the greatest cameras in the world. focusing and getting the colors right and trying not to end up with grainy images will be a challenge.

lighting is *super* important. i played around with a couple of (less than optimal) set ups, including using some white paper as backgrounds. it seems like the light needs to be plentiful, but not direct. legos are suprisingly shiny and reflective.

patience is a virtue. ok, so i didnt learn this tonight, but it was proven to me over and over again. in my first clip, i just wanted mr. lego to walk about five inches across the screen, but at 24 frames per second, that translates to *a lot* of frames.

my timing needs work. i originally recorded the walking scene at 15fps, but the poor little lego guy was going so slow, i felt bad for him. by speeding him up to 24fps, he seemed to be moving at a realistic pace (as realistic as an inanimate lego guy trying to walk on his own can be).

Axogon Composer is cool! lightsaber effects on my first day!?!? that was awesome.

this hobby has the potential to be very addicting. although you are moving the pieces in such small increments and all that work translates into a few choppy seconds of video, it is suprisingly fun.

studies in stopmotion

2005-06-20T18:35:00.000-07:00

upcoming studies include:

software test
test the video capture ability of my camera as well as familiarize myself with the MonkeyJam software. dont expect the results of this test to be my best work.
multiple figure test
test moving multiple figures at various speeds at the same time. also, practice personal interactions (handshakes, hugs, fights, dancing, etc)
advanced movement test
i am gonna try to make my lego guy flip, fly, swim, and do various other cool acrobatics
camera angles test
close-ups, extreme close-ups, ground-level, birds-eye views. also, zooming and panning motion shots
lighting test
what is required to make the shot look the best? lights, backgrounds, etc. can i duplicate an indoor setting? outdoor? nightime? what about lights in the scene?
sound effect test
add some simple sound effects that sync up with the video. also add multiple concurrent sound effects
soundtrack test
practice sampling portions of songs, fading in/out, and meshing with on-screen sound
cgi background test
building an entire lego world is much easier when i can do it virtually. i will attempt to digitally add backgrounds and scenery to the shot scenes to make them look like they belong somewhere
post-production test
it wont quite be 'star wars', but this is where the special effects come in. laser blasts, explosions, you name it. i will also experiment with digital facial expressions
compression/codec test
what codecs provide the best file size/video quality. which are most widely available to end users?

welcome to dangeresque.films

2005-06-17T17:33:00.000-07:00

this is the official launch of the Dangeresque Films website. this website will document my attempt to create original stop-motion animation films. the fun part is that i have almost no idea what i am doing, so this website will chroncile my bumbling attempts as i try to learn the software involved, master the stop-motion techniques, research film-making topics such as lighting and camera angles, and finally produce my first film. the excitement is all most too much to bear.