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.
My Coast Guard helicopter featured in YouTube video
A photo of one of my creations was (very) briefly featured in this video:
LEGO Ads found via Twitter
A collection of LEGO ads with some very clever pictures. I recently subscribed to the RSS feed (in Google Reader) for a search for “#lego” on Twitter. This is a great technique to follow “hashtags” that I learned on Amy Gharan’s blog.
The check’s in the mail
Well, checks that is. Two of them. One to the IRS and one to the California Franchise Tax Board (which oversees California income taxes).
LEGO, Robert Indiana Style
Inspired by my LEGO version of Robert Indiana’s "LOVE" sculpture, I made another one that spells "LEGO," incorporating different colors for the interior of each letter.
LEGO Hearts
Heart sculptures I made several years ago for my wife on Valentine’s Day, but never posted pictures of online until now.
Robert Indiana “LOVE” Sculpture
A LEGO version of Robert Indiana’s iconic "LOVE" sculpture from 1970. Best known for its regular appearance on postage stamps, the original sculpture is on permanent display in Philadelphia and copies are in many cities around the world. Built for the BayLUG "All You Build Is Love" challenge from the February 2009 meeting (which, not to brag, it won).
Desert Road Trip
Flickr user jedimasterwagner has made a great little desert diorama, featuring my Shasta Teardrop travel trailer, a Jeep by Mike Psiaki, and a cactus based on an idea that Flickr user brickpoor brought back from BrickWorld.
New Flickr Group: LEGO Antigravity
I had a hare-brained idea the other night, to create a Flickr group for antigravity-based vehicles. You know, Jetsons cars, Blade Runner spinners, Star Wars speeders, stuff like that. I’ve really enjoyed the LugNuts group that Lino runs, but wanted something like that with a more science-fiction bent. So I created the LEGO Antigravity group, and pimped it on the LugNuts and Sci-LUG forums. I added a few of my own aircars to it and invited a few other MOCs that seemed on-topic to join. Check it out!
January BayLUG meeting
Each year for the past several years, Bay Area LEGO Users’ Group has been invited to hold a meeting at the home of one of our members, Dave Porter, at his house in Woodside, CA. He has a huge LEGO display in his house every year, and we get to see it in person before he takes it down each February.