Events – Page 15 – Bill Ward's Brickpile

Home from BrickCon

I got home late last night after returning from BrickCon and slept in until noon.

What a weekend! I finished uploading all my pictures from the show finally. I took 446 pictures in all, which I think is a personal record. I still need to go through them and rotate the vertical ones, though. What I usually do for events like this is make a separate photoset with what I think was the best pictures from the event, but that’s probably going to take at least a week.

I also took a bunch of video footage. I did several interviews on behalf of James Wadsworth for LAML Radio, and once I send them to him hopefully he’ll find some clever use for them as well as other “B-reel” footage I got. LAML Radio, for those who aren’t familiar, is a LEGO-oriented podcast. It mostly consists of interviews and LEGO news, and is usually quite interesting and a great way to get motivated to build something if I’m otherwise not feeling creative. If you use iTunes, you can find it easily there, and/or just subscribe to it in your blog reader.

Anyway, if I didn’t see you at BrickCon this year, hopefully you’ll be able to make it next year.

BrickCon 2008 so far

BrickCon is going very well so far. There are tons of great models on display, many great deals to be had on LEGO, and some amazing news.

I took a lot of photos yesterday and they’re all up on my Flickr account. The biggest news was the unveiling of a new castle set, the 10193 Medieval Village. I made a video of it and posted it on YouTube (but had to wait until 12 noon today so that BrickJournal.com could have an exclusive 3-hour early announcement). I also created a special photoset for just those pictures so you don’t have to dig through all the images in my BrickCon set to find them.

Great Train Expo San Jose 2008, Day 2

Today was the second and final day of the Great Train Expo at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds. I was there with the Bay Area LEGO Train Club. I had taken some pictures yesterday, but today I was much more prolific and uploaded almost 80 new pictures which I added to the existing photoset. Click the picture or check out the slideshow to see all the pics.

Great Train Expo San Jose 2008, Day 1

The Bay Area LEGO Train Club is taking part in the Great Train Expo at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds this weekend, September 27-28.

Sorry about the lighting – I didn’t get around to taking any pictures until after they had shut off the main lights, so I had to use a flash. I plan to take more tomorrow.

We have a 25×25 foot layout with downtown, train yard, farm, and other LEGO models on display. If you have a chance to stop by and see the show, please be sure to say hi. I’m planning to be there all day.

Haunted House at Valley Fair LEGO Store

Every six weeks or so, we (BayLUG) change out our display window at the Valley Fair Mall LEGO store. This time, we replaced the Hollywood diorama with a haunted house in honor of Halloween. It will be on display there through November. The entire display is the brainchild of Kenny Paul, a member of BayLUG and designer of excellent houses and other buildings. Check the photos for all the great little details he’s included. My favorite part is the way two of the windows look like angry eyes glaring out at the street. It reminds me of that otherwise forgettable movie Monster House from a few years back. Click the photo to see all the pictures on Flickr or view them as a slideshow.

September 2008 BayLUG Meeting in San Leandro

On Saturday, September 6, we had a meeting of the Bay Area LEGO Users’ Group at Johannes’s church (Bay Area Family Church) in San Leandro, CA.

Several members brought their latest creations and/or items for sale, and Johannes had a huge display of Star Wars models and classic LEGO car sets. I brought a number of my newer models, including a new motor yacht that I haven’t quite finished (you’ll see detailed pictures in this blog when I get it done).

Click the image for more pictures, or view them as a slideshow.

BrickCon here I come

I just bought my plane tickets (on Virgin America, natch) and am looking forward to my second brick convention this year! I’ll be arriving at Seattle airport at 11:35am on Friday 10/3 and leaving Sunday evening. I have a room at the Hampton Inn (official hotel for the con). Question is, how do I get there from the airport? I would rather not rent a car…

Home from BrickFair, thinking about BrickCon

I made it home safely from BrickFair last night around midnight – another pleasant Virgin America experience. I can’t say enough good about that airline. The employees actually smile! When was the last time you saw that?

Anyway, the next LEGO convention is BrickCon in Seattle in October. Virgin America flies to Seattle too. :) I had other plans that weekend but I’m seriously thinking about changing them…

BrickFair 2008, Day 3

I’m writing this during the closing ceremonies. I have packed all of my models into a box, and have my suitcases beside me. “I’m leavin’ on a jet plane….” The final door prize raffle is going on now.

This afternoon I got a chance to take part in a fun event, a live Skypecast for LAML Radio Podcast. Six of us met in a hotel room on the 22nd floor, and gathered around a laptop and listened to James interview his guests live, and then joined in for a live discussion. There were a number of technical difficulties, as seems to always happen with Skypecasts, but I think it worked out OK. I’m looking forward to hearing how I sound on the podcast when it is published.

BrickFair 2008, Day 2

Well, the first of two public days is over, and the hotel was absolutely swarmed with people. They raised over $8000 for the SladeChild Foundation charity, which is great news.

After the public cleared out, there was a game of Bingo, a few awards were handed out, and three games were announced: a chess tournament, a speed build of the new Taj Mahal set, an Agents Turbocar Chase set build-off, and a chess tournament. Participation in the games was by raffle, and sadly I didn’t make it into any of them, so I just wandered around, taking photos and chatting with people.

I took over 200 photos today, and they’re all up on Flickr. Hopefully soon I’ll have a chance to sort through them and pick out the best ones, which I’ll put into a new set. Also, some of them probably require some editing, to rotate the images or fix color balance, exposure, etc. I have RAW images of each photo so I may be replacing some of the photos if they’re worth the effort.

Now, it’s time for bed and I have to also get my things partially packed to go home tomorrow…