Author: Bill

Holiday Madness

Sorry for the long gap in posting. Like many people, I find my life gets all turned around and upside-down at some point in mid-December each year, only to finally sort itself out sometime in January. Between holiday activities and sickness, I just haven’t had a chance to blog in weeks. But I’ll try to do a better job in the new year.

I haven’t built anything original in way too long. Right now the room where the LEGO is kept (which is supposed to be an office) has turned into a kind of closet where everything in the house that was otherwise in the way has been crammed. And the chair I used to use for building broke, and needs to be replaced. But hopefully I’ll dig myself a big enough hole among the mess to start work again soon. This was a good Christmas for LEGO though.

I bought myself a Mindstorms NXT kit, which surprisingly, I find intimidating. I’ve been programming computers since I was 10 and obviously working with LEGO even longer, but somehow combining the two is a challenge. I built the basic robot according to the directions, and now I need to start experimenting with the programming side. I’ve always taken the attitude with new LEGO sets that you have to build it once according to LEGO’s instructions, and only after you’ve done that is it OK to design one’s own creations using that set. I’m going to apply that same rule to Mindstorms, and though I’d like to experiment with programming using NQC or BrickOS or whatever alternative environment works with the NXT, I think I should play with the software it comes with for a while first to get the hang of the basics. What do you think?

I also got some LEGO sets from my mom. Every year she asks me what to get me for my birthday and Christmas, and every time I answer the same. Luckily she usually believes me, as you may have seen when my birthday came through in August. She got me 4895 Motion Power (which she also got me for my birthday, but that’s OK because it’s just more good parts for my collection) and 4896 Roaring Roadsters (which I had also recently purchased for myself, but again, twice the goodness!). Both excellent sets, and gifts that I totally appreciate!!

Oh, and I also took apart the Garden Gnome and washed the bricks. I also made an MLCAD version, in case I want to bulid it again (or maybe even sell it as a kit? I keep toying with that idea).

I was thinking I need something new and dramatic to bring into work and put on my desk. Maybe something Space. Any suggestions?

LEGO Studio in a Trailer?

I came across this article (thanks to BayLUG member David Simmons, via email) detailing how one family has coped with the stresses the LEGO hobby places on storage and work space in their home – buy a trailer and move the collection out there! That’s one way to solve the problem. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go measure the slab in our back yard…

Interview with LEGO CEO

I know this was posted a couple of weeks ago but I only just now saw it for the first time. There’s an interview on TODAYonline with Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, the CEO of LEGO, around his recent trip to Singapore. He touches on a very important point for LEGO fans – is LEGO going to be obsolete like a typewriter, or a booming industry like books? Both have been challenged by newer technologies and media, but the typewriter industry is dead while books are selling better than ever. Can LEGO pull it off? What do you think?

Via The Unofficial LEGO Builder’s Guide Blog (Allan Bedford).[tags]lego,ceo,interview[/tags]

Great Train Expo, Pleasanton, November 2006

I spent much of Thanksgiving weekend at the Great Train Expo in Pleasanton, CA, at the BayLTC layout.BayLTC Pleasanton train show layout Click the photo to see the rest of my pics on Flickr, or check out the slideshow.

As usual, my primary contribution was in the downtown area, where I lined both sides of one street (mostly) with my models, including the Blackburn Hotel and Luigi’s Italian restaurant. I didn’t build anything new for this show, as I really haven’t had the time to build lately and my LEGO work space is currently a big, big mess. Hopefully I can get that cleaned up soon and get back to work![tags]lego,trains,trainshow,pleasanton[/tags]

LEGO At Work

I brought in some LEGO models to show off in my office at Oracle.Me with LEGO Click the image to view the photoset on Flickr or view a slideshow.

On display is my DC-3 and some office buildings which were featured in the BayLUG "downtown" store window display at the LEGO store recently.

My coworkers have enjoyed the display a lot. All the comments I have had have been positive. I’m surprised to see that most of them think that the models are from kits, rather than my own design, and once I explain that they are generally very impressed.

My plan is to periodically rotate the display, most likely in sync with the BayLUG show schedule. Have you ever brought LEGO to work? What was your coworkers’ reaction?
[tags]lego,office,atwork[/tags]

BrickFest PDX 2007

I’m very excited by the recent announcement that BrickFest PDX 2007 will be held next spring (March 30 – April 1) in Portland, OR. I missed the last one (in 2004) and after attending the big BrickFest in Washington, D.C. I’m very excited about all things BrickFest. I’m definitely planning to go, and hoping some of the other BayLUG members will take part as well. It’s unlikely we’d do anything as organized as schlep an entire train layout up there the way we did for the BricksWest 2003 convention, but hopefully we can make our presence felt in some way…

Mark your calendars now! Will I see you there?

Track Layout Geometry

Three years ago (on November 21, 2003) I wrote a page on my old site about
Track Layout Geometry showing some of the interesting things you can do with LEGO train track, for example, this method for running track on the 22.5° diagonal:

diagonal-22-turn

I was browsing my favorite blogs today and noticed that the page got mentioned on Mike Walsh’s blog (link removed, as his site has apparently been compromised). That prompted me to take another look at it, and I decided it really would be better to put it here on the Brickpile site. So I moved that page to this site, and changed the page on the old site to redirect to it with a 5-second delay using JavaScript. Thanks for the link Mike (and sorry for changing it out from under you)!

Trick or Treat

In honor of Hallowe’en I present this vignette.
Trick or Treat

This was actually first mentioned in an earlier blog entry about the October 2006 BayLUG meeting. I entered it into the club building contest which had a theme of “harvest.” Get it? Harvest of souls? I know, it’s macabre and tasteless. Sorry, but my mind just works that way sometimes.

Anyway, it features two kids innocently trick-or-treating. There’s a girl dressed as a doctor and a boy dressed as a policeman. But no medical skills or law enforcement training can stop the Grim Reaper!!

View all the pics by clicking the above image, or click to view the photos on Flickr (slideshow) or on Brickshelf.
[tags]lego,vignette,halloween,death,grimreaper,trickortreat,house[/tags]