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2009
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y unit lost the Deployable Comm Capabilities Van (DCCV),
but I got pulled for it anyway for the G20.
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Pittsburgh, PA - September 19th, 2009
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Too bad it's pretty difficult to make AGR (full time) slots, because the civilian in charge of the van would definitely like to hire me on
so that he could finally get a real technician to maintain his equipment. That, and I'd really like to move to Colorado Springs... it's
considerably less sucky than Cheyenne. In the meantime, it will remain a pipe dream for the next few years, until reality sets in.
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Cheyenne, WY - Aug 26th, 2009
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few springs ago, I helped my dad with a large train layout, working primarily on some hills, and a massive ravine and
stone bridge crossing it. On the left is a recent pic of the result.
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The ravine is all styrofoam and I'm rather proud of how it turned out. I think it's quite beautiful! I made some hills
elsewhere that didn't turn out quite as stunning. As for the bridge, I think it turned out pretty decent, though it took an awful lot of time.
I made it out of Linka, which I first found when searching for an easy way to mass produce walls. I convinced
my dad to buy the molds and this bridge is the first real project I took on using them.
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I started with a wooden frame that I calculated and my dad cut entirely. Any measurement errors would cause stress points
which would crack the pieces, so it all had to be planned carefully. Due to the solid wooden frame, you could actually
stand on the bridge... it's about as solid as a set of stairs (aside from the fragile hydrocal pieces). Next came
the casting of all the pieces which was certainly the most time consuming phase, given that the bridge is composed of
hundreds of little bits. I then glued all the pieces to the columns (which took quite some time as well, both gluing
them together and then to the columns) and screwed them in. I was pleasantly surprised that all my measurements worked
out (I kept double checking, as the measuring and construction was critical, due to the fragile nature of the hydrocal
pieces). Next, I glued inside corner trim under the bridge so that it would look decent if you were to peek underneath (pic 1).
Then came the arches, which went in smooth, thanks to careful construction (pic 2). And finally, after connecting the
arches, it was time for the final paint job (pic 3). I had been testing paint solutions all the while and came up with
a multi-coat/color application inspired by the tutorials at Hirst Arts.
Quite a task, all in all (taking several weeks), but it looks quite nice methinks.
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Cheyenne, WY - February 14th, 2009
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he folks at 1and1.com dropped my domains after years of having them parked (their loss). Nobody swooped in on them this time (somebody please firebomb Netster for taking teentreasury.com from me).
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I re-registered opticfox.com at Dynadot and am letting coastaldragon.com go for now. Since Dynadot offers $1/month hosting, I figure I'd give it a try and have moved the Illuzion Zone over from geocities.
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