Aeronautic Primates and Other Delights

Fighting is stupid

Sun, 11 Oct 2015 21:49:29 GMT

On Thursday I broke one of my personal rules for continued sanity and got into a heated debate on the Internet. It was pointless and mainly fueled by the fact that all involved parties were/are extremely passionate about the subject of contention (Festivids), but held strikingly different viewpoints on what that entailed.

The reason I don't get into fights on the Internet (or really, arguments at all) is that I spend the next two weeks living in an echo of the debate, considering how I could have responded better or more cuttingly or more kindly or when I could have extricated myself earlier.

To speed the process, I declared a Festivids-free weekend. Both the roommate and the spouse were instructed to gently flick me if I started talking about Festivids and to escalate the response if I didn't relent. Only one flick happened, thankfully.

Instead, I spent the weekend doing some LEGO scale-building experiments, playing through LEGO Dimensions (which is becoming a $$$ suck), and rewatching Grey's Anatomy with jmtorres. Last night, echan and I went to the Pasadena Symphony for Dvorak's "From the New World", which was lovely and fun. It's nice to expand your horizons sometimes.

I am very much looking forward to Festivids and I hope the rest of you are as well.

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Lego Fail: A Lesson in Blind Enthusiasm

Thu, 09 Apr 2015 04:56:55 GMT

I've spent the last two weeks working studiously on an ambitious project. I found a digital model file for a 2'4"-foot-long LEGO replica of the Normandy SR-2 from Mass Effect 2. I've been completely stoked about this ever since I found the file online several months ago.

I spent a couple hundred dollars on parts, building what I could while I waited for my orders to come in. I dealt with the frustrations of working with the LEGO Digital Designer's auto-generated instructions that would occasionally hang pieces in mid-air at step 100 only to come back to the connecting pieces at step 700.

However, the whole thing became a lesson in not jumping into the deep end of the pool without checking that it's filled with water first.

Throughout the building process, I ran into little idiosyncrasies that indicated to me that perhaps the designer had only put the model together conceptually and never practically. I was convinced of this when I put together the super-cool looking model stand and found it collapsed under any sort of weight.

I soldiered on, figuring I could design a sturdier stand later. After a lot of hard work and some ingenuity, I managed to create all of the individual elements of the ship. However, I was unable to connect them together. There were two or three major structural flaws in the backend of the ship that fed into each other. The designer had created a working (hollow) shuttle bay with hangar door. He'd also hinged the back part of the roof so you could see the little model bridge. Further, two of the key pieces that helped attach the front, bottom, and rear sides did so by a bare thread, disrupted by the slightest pressure (like, say, the pressure of attaching Lego bricks to each other).

I found the page where I acquired the digital model file again and found that, yes, the design was entirely theoretical, he knew of the issues with the model stand, and he'd never practically put the whole thing together because the pieces cost too much. I'd somehow missed all of this when reading through the first time.

To say that this has been a frustrating experience is... understatement. One of the joys of LEGO is watching strangely attached pieces somehow become something recognizable and whole. Here I got as far as recognizable.

I've stowed everything I've built into drawers for the time being. I'm going to refocus on my vidding until I don't have any further deadlines to worry about. Then I'll review and revise the design, eliminate some of the structural weak points, and complete the model. Maybe. I'm not actually terribly confident in my ability to do so.

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Busy busy busy!

Tue, 23 Dec 2014 00:47:07 GMT

So. Dreamwidth. I should catch you up. And stuff.

echan and I celebrated our five-year wedding anniversary on December 13th with a trip to Legoland. We stayed on the pirate-themed floor in a pirate-themed room. With bunk beds! Which I did not fit into well. The park itself was pretty cool. As an amusement park, it's so-so. As a display of the wonders of LEGO craftsmanship, it is a modern marvel. Miniland USA and Star Wars Miniland are very, very awesome. They also had miniature golf! I bought... many many many many LEGOs. I'm using them for purposes related to the last item in this post.

Speaking of echan, ze bought me an awesome thing for the holidays: Borderlands 2 replica Loot Chest. I'm using it store LEGOs.

Been side-watching Gilmore Girls with jmtorres (wherein she watches it and I pop in and watch it with her when I'm around). It's a fun show, but it's getting increasingly less happy-place as we get into the sixth season.

[redacted Festivids discussion]

Went to the Kings/Coyotes games on Saturday with niqaeli. Had a great time. I'm not into sports, really, but I enjoy a good game every now and again.

I have jury duty next month. I am... ambivalent.

I'm currently prepping to play Dungeons and Dragons with brokenallbroken, airawyn, rhi_silverflame, lizbetann, and diannelamerc. Our first session is January 3rd and I am... slightly obsessive. I don't want to get caught off-guard, basically. I did build a pretty cool dice tower out of LEGOs though.

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