Gears of Winter

This device has sort of a steampunk look to it.

Frog

Cosplay photo shoot

This weekend I did a cosplay photo shoot with Shay (above left), Maddy (above right), and Sahara (below). Shay and Maddy are cosplaying Alois and Claude from Black Butler and Sahara is Rukia from Bleach.




I've done several photo shoots with these models and I really enjoy working with them.

Esplanade

Walking along the esplanade in downtown Portland I found this vantage point.

Two Leaves as a Hungry Mouse

Second in the series of "leaf transformation" photos. This photo has been post-processed, but the shadow is real. Click the photo to see it larger.

Arc de Triomphe

I'm going to do a series of autumn leaf photos like this, where the leaf or its shadow resembles something else. I spotted this on the way to work. The shadow was naturally like that when I saw it, but for the photo I repositioned the leaf onto a different part of the sidewalk that made a better background.

I took this photo with the Canon S90 as a 3-exposure HDR. I post-processed in Lightroom. But I did nothing to change the shape of the shadow.

Red Rose Challenge

Loveless cosplay

Model: nekovamp13. There's something about her facial expressions that I really like. It's like she knows something you don't. It's a very engaging quality.

Sahara and Shay

On Saturday I went to Esther Short Park in Vancouver, Washington to do photo shoots with people I met at Kumoricon. It was raining hard, but still a lot of fun. Sahara and Shay are fantastic models to work with. They are really fun and they inspire me to work harder and try to do more.

Cross Crusade 2010 at Alpenrose

Cyclocross racing series Cross Crusade had its first race of the series at Alpenrose. They announced that there were 1,506 competitors, a new world record.

See my full Cross Crusade 2010 photo set on Flickr.

Kumoricon 2010 convention report

My convention report on Kumoricon 2010 is up at JLHLS.

Gregor Torrence also got some great photos at the rave. He even has the last 9 photos in 3D, so if you have any red/blue 3D glasses lying around, get them out and look at his Kumoricon 2010 rave photo set.

Sunset over Portland

Mt. Tabor Soapbox Derby

Full photo set

The short version

"Here's a hanky, now go get killed." -- Lisa, summarizing medieval chivalry.

Reclaim the Commons

Solved

Her (referring to a dress that didn't fit): I fixed the "hunchback problem!"

Me: What, you found a bell tower?

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Spy story

Barista: I have a message for you

Me: This is like a spy movie

Barista: What is?

Me: Someone in a shop saying they have a message for me. What's the message?

Barista: Meet at farm house at 12:10

Me: It's still like a spy movie

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Oregon Brewers Festival

At the Oregon Brewers Festival, I saw someone wearing this excellent cat shirt, which is a parody of the wolf shirt.

Downtown Superhero

Changing the Blade MSR

Today I changed the swashplate configuration on the Blade MSR from the stock configuration to the outer setting that increases the cyclic travel. I was hesitant to do this at first because I thought it could make the helicopter too hard to control. Actually it isn't any harder to control (as long as you use good judgement and don't do anything crazy). But it does make flying outdoors in slight wind a lot easier. I'd recommend making this change once you are used to the helicopter and feel comfortable flying it.

Alter Egos: Power Struggle!

I went to take photos at the Alter Egos: Power Struggle! Heroes vs. Villains pub crawl. This event was by Alter Egos Society and the idea was to come as a super hero or super villain of your own design, not one from a comic book or movie. I started out at Shanghai Tunnel in southwest Portland, the starting point for the villains, then walked up to Silver Dollar Pizza to see the heroes, then finally ended in the Park Blocks where the two groups collided.

• My Flickr set from Alter Egos: Power Struggle! (46 photos)
  

Sakuracon 2010 Cosplay

Sakuracon 2010

Sakuracon 2010 is here.

Links to more Sakuracon photos:

Cosplay photo set

Dance photo set

Hearing Voices

Last night I was playing a game on the Xbox 360 when I suddenly started hearing a weird voice that sounded like it was coming from the wall. I couldn't quite understand what it said but it was just a few words, like "(something) (something) back." The game did have sound effects and music going on, but this voice didn't fit at all, and it was talking at the same time as some of the conversation in the game. I was so surprised to hear the voice when I was alone in the house that I sat bolt upright on the couch and looked around.

My first thought was that maybe it was a glitch in the game. Maybe a bug had triggered a sound file to play at the wrong time. But that didn't really make sense because the voice was so unlike all the other voices in the game, and it didn't even sound like it was coming from the game at all. I wondered if I just imagined it -- it was getting to be pretty late, maybe I had started to drift off to sleep without realizing it. I kept playing.

A few minutes later I heard the strange voice again, saying "(something) exit." Again it didn't fit with the game at all, and now I was really starting to wonder what was going on. I couldn't come up with a theory that fit. Someone was hiding in my closet and mumbling? The TV was picking up another signal from somewhere else? It was a ghost? I was hallucinating?

Another few minutes passed and the voice clearly said "Newline. Exit."

Wait a minute, I thought, what kind of a ghost or intruder says "newline?" That must have something to do with the computer. I went over to the computer and discovered the answer to the mystery.

Hours earlier I had set up the computer to send its system audio to the stereo. I had forgotten to turn this back off. I had also forgotten to turn off the stereo and the computer. And one of my cats was sitting on top of the keyboard, pressing keys that were activating various menus. Somehow the random keys the cat had pressed had turned on text-to-speech audio options, and then every few minutes when the cat walked on the keyboard and typed some more, the computer would "say" various things and send it all through the stereo.

I was amazed by how the weird series of events required to create the "ghost" had all come together: the computer and stereo left on, the application that sends system audio to the stereo left running, the cat on the keyboard pressing just the right keys, other noises making it hard to tell where the voice was coming from, and me alone in the house, not looking in the direction of the computer.

Or maybe the cat was doing it on purpose, and the next time this happens the voice will say "give me more leftover salmon."

Cherry Blossoms

Cherry blossoms in Washington Park, Portland, Oregon.

Sweet F.A. fashion show

Last night was the Sweet F.A. fashion show by Doom Town Productions at the Fez Ballroom.

• Slide show
• Photo set

Skateboarding at Portland International Raceway

Today was opening day at PIR, with some special activities. The day started at 7am with a nature walk, where we saw a coyote lurking in the tall grass.



Then at 8:30 the track was opened to pedestrians and non-motorized vehicles. So I got out my skateboard and took two laps around the track. Both of these laps were longboard pumping the whole way (that is, my feet did not touch the ground at any time during the lap). My best skateboard lap time was 13 minutes, 4 seconds. The course is a 1.94 mile lap.



The PIR track is quite good for longboard pumping. The track is flat and the pavement is smooth.


Later in the day the track was available to motor vehicles, so I also drove 3 laps (not at racing speeds, though).

Hell's Belles at Dante's

Last night I went to see Hell's Belles at Dante's in Portland. They're an all-female AC/DC tribute band. This was my first time seeing them, and the show was fun, energetic, and musically impressive.



My Hell's Belles photoset on Flickr

Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside

I went to The Woods last night to see Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside. (Flickr photoset)

I really enjoyed the concert. Sallie's sound is hard to describe, but it's kind of like a folk-pop sound with a hint of Billie Holiday and a touch of bluegrass.

Perfectly Balanced

Today we saw this out the window. It started a discussion about how the (actual) sky looked "fake." We have gotten so used to seeing manipulations, special effects, Photoshopped pictures, and all manner of fakery, that an unusual-looking real event seems like it must be some sort of a con. Like it is the last straw that proves we are really living in a manufactured reality like in The Truman Show.

But this was a lenticular cloud over Mt. Hood. It stayed perfectly lined up like that for a few minutes, then it was gone.

Awareness

This is my first photo for Project 10-50.

The Ten

People online have been discussing whether 2010 should be pronounced "twenty ten" or "two thousand ten." I think we should go for short and snappy, and just call it "The Ten." Kind of like "The O.C."

Snowstorm

I took this photo at night during a snow storm. I processed it in Lightroom and tried to make it look more like a drawing.