The owner of LEGO, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, visited Brickworld today and I got to meet him!
Bill Ward
Brickworld 2009 photos
Well, we’re halfway through Brickworld here in Chicago! Time flies so fast…. but tomorrow the big excitement begins as the doors open to the public. If you’re in the area, come on down and see the exhibits! I even have a free pass I can give to one lucky person.
I’ve taken hundreds of photos and uploaded them to Flickr. They’re organized into several sets:
In Chicago for BrickWorld
I arrived late tonight (2am local time) in Chicago after a quite pleasant, if quite full, flight from San Francisco. Our flight was about 1/2 hour late, but that’s no big deal. Got a taxi from the airport and arrived at the hotel, checked in, showered, and am now waiting for my hair to dry so I can go to bed.
Look ma, I’m on the radio
Listen to me being interviewed on the radio! Well, podcast really.
Maker Faire 2009
Oops, I forgot to blog about Maker Faire! Maker Faire happened on May 30-31, and here it is almost three weeks later and I haven’t posted anything!
Ignite: Hillel Cooperman – “The Secret Underground World of Lego”
Hillel Cooperman gave an “Ignite” presentation on the adult LEGO community recently. You can see it here on Youtube:
Special BayLUG meeting for WIRED interview & photo shoot
Yesterday, we had a special meeting of BayLUG members so that a reporter and photographer from WIRED could come and take pictures of some of our models and talk to us. About a half-dozen members showed up at the Museum of American Heritage (MoAH) in Palo Alto and set up an assortment of models that we’re bringing to Maker Faire next weekend.
Frisco Bucking Bronco
When I heard that LEGO was opening a store in Frisco, TX I asked my friend Sylvia who lives there if she could stop by the grand opening and try to score one of these bucking bronco sets.
Steve Barile on TV
Portland’s KATU Channel 2 recently featured Steve Barile (organizer of BrickFest) on a TV interview.
Little Australian Houses?
One of my pictures has been used by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on their Web site to illustrate a radio story about the relative merits of buying versus renting a home. You can see it on the ABC News homepage as a small thumbnail on the right hand side, and if you click the “Best of abc.net.au” link it takes you to a “best of” page where that story is featured with a larger version of the image at the top of the page. Here’s the photo they used (from their Web server):
Guest Speaker at a High School
A couple of weeks ago, I was a guest speaker at Cypress High School in Santa Cruz, CA. A friend of mine is a math teacher there and she invited me in to give a LEGO presentation. I decided to focus my talk on the art of lettering in LEGO, so I brought along my LOVE and LEGO Robert Indiana style sculptures, and the Blackburn Hotel. I also built some lettering out of LEGO parts as a study of different ways to model the alphabet. I came up with a set of five clear baseplates with the letters A through Z, each letter in a different style:
Bricks by the Bay Facebook event created
Bricks by the Bay now has an event on Facebook. Please RSVP there if you’re a Facebook user, and join our Facebook group. (If you want to be my Facebook friend, visit my public profile.)
Emerald Night is Here!
I came home this afternoon (Wednesday April 22) to find a nice box on my back porch… just finished building it at about 2:30 AM and here it is!
Light Box
Yesterday I built this light box using the instructions on Strobist (thanks to Masoko Tanga, linked from The Brothers Brick). I elected to leave the “floor” intact since it helps keep the posterboard backdrop in place. The sides and top are made from tissue paper that I found among my Christmas wrapping paper supplies.
BrickWorld here I come
I just made my flight and hotel reservations and signed up for BrickWorld (in Chicago, June 18-21)! Hope to see you there…
BayLUG Meeting, April 4, 2009
Today we had a meeting of Bay Area LEGO Users Group at Johannes’s church in San Leandro.
BrickFest Photo Roundup
Man, did I take a lot of photos at BrickFest last weekend! I uploaded them all to Flickr from the hotel, but I’m still going through to add titles and descriptions. I also shot almost 3 hours of video which I haven’t even looked at yet.
Emerald Night Video
Last night at BrickFest, the new 10194 Emerald Night train set was officially announced. For the announcement, they played this video on the big screen…
First Day’s Pics from BrickFest
I’d better hurry or I’ll miss out on the special Pick-A-Brick they’re doing at the convention right now!
I’m off to BrickFest!
I’m heading up to Portland today for BrickFest.
One of the top 48?
So, I was scanning through the #lego Twitter search results and came across this one: 48 of the Coolest, Stylish and Creative Lego Creations.
BayLTC at TCA 2009
This past weekend (March 21-22), the Bay Area LEGO Train Club did a show as a part of the Nor-Cal Division of Train Collectors Association Cal-Stewart Meet. We set it up Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, and then the show was open to TCA members all weekend, but only open to the public on Sunday March 22.
LEGO Luxury Motor Yacht
A few months back I was sorting through bins of LEGO and came across an item that has bugged me since I first bought set 7994, LEGO City Harbor.