remodeling is noisy

And it's happening next door. At 6:45 a.m.

I was amused yesterday, when they started after 7, and complained loudly about their wives/lack of decent lunches before take hammers and whatnot to the walls of the apartment on the other side of my bedroom wall. This morning, however, their banter was minimal, and they seem to be using quite a few circular saws and attempting to carve a hole in my actual wall. OK, they are probably not really going to make a hole, but my wall is certainly shivering in fear. So, here I am, at work, before 9! 9 in the morning! Quelle horreur!

Anyway, my brain hasn't quite caught up to the awakeness-level of my body, and I've been meaning to post some more of last Sunday's projects. So here you go.

Drawings!

Boy do I love my new pen attachment. I took some of my favorite photos, turned them into drawings, and plotted them with my Craft Robo. I quite like most of the results:

This image:

Became this drawing:

And this image:

Became this drawing:

I really need to take some daylight photos of the drawings. And done! The set is here. Or get a better camera.

I also finished turning my failed knitted hat into at...er...thing. I'm not sure what it is, or what I'll use it for. But I do know it's done!

Just as soon as my living room is clean, it is daylight and I am at home, I'll be posting about the saga of my new couch. So, in other words, May.

one fish. two fish. red fish. blue fish.

I have decided to attempt to keep something more complex than a plant alive. I know, I know my track record with plants is not exactly stellar. But! A few of them have lasted for almost a year now, and I feel it's time to move forward to slightly higher life-forms. After all, if I can run several computers on multiple OS's as well as a handful of mobile devices, how hard can keeping a fish alive be?

It seems pretty hard.

It's not that I didn't research, make sure I got appropriately sized containers, food and water purifiers. I did those things. I even managed to identify the cause of my second fish's death (fin rot) and attempt to treat it. Alas, it was too late. Newton and Leibniz have both gone down the drain, their rivalry unresolved. Although, Newton outlived Leibniz slightly, so I suppose he wins. As always. (I was rooting for Leibniz to come out on top this time.)

So back to the pet store I went. I suppose it is selfish of me to keep buying new fish and then having the die. Ah well. I just finished a bagel with lox, and that's much the same thing. I have named my new fish Euclid, as his container is decorated with various geometric symbols. He is far more lively than either of my previous two, and I have high hopes for his continued existence. He will play games with me!

I've also been up to making things, as always. I bought some sticky backed vinyl and a pen holder for my cutter. I've made quite a few stickers for my room and various laptops. There are plans for more, although I need to improve my placement technique.

I've also made portraits of my parents, although those were sent home and I have no pictures.

The Pearl art store a few blocks from my apartment has closed, a tragic event. But also an opportunity, for before it went, it sold off all its inventory at 75% off. Of course, I bought plenty. I am now the proud owner of a new mitre saw (my last was stolen with my other architecture tools when I graduated), lots of rubber cement, paint, brushes, material for my cutter and various other tools. I also found what I think is a tea rack on the curb. I sanded and painted it and it now holds many of my new supplies.



I'm having some thoughts about the design of this blog as well...it may be changing.

old projects and new

I've been, er, busy for past few weeks. My unusual amount of productivity is catching up with me in the form of mild exhaustion, but before I fall asleep and an impenetrable forest of nettles grows around me which can only cleared by the laser cutter of my dreams, I thought I would share with the internet all my progress.

I've updated my portfolio website with my new professional, independent and craft projects from the past year. I even managed to dig out the source code for my project browser and updated that too. Yay data visualization!

When I was at home for the holidays I finally managed to photograph the remains of my childhood projects that were littering my old room and basement. Behold, the flickr set of my childhood:

I'm trying to get my mother to fire the large bust and mail it to me. I've been wanting to display that thing since I made it in 10th grade.

And, drum roll, I have made an etsy store! A keen observer may have noticed the link I added to the right a couple days ago. I am now selling three whole different types of things! Someone should buy one! Possibly you?

Etsy Buy Handmade jftesser

In any case, please wish my fledging entrepreneurial venture luck.

new years memes

I had a small New Year's party to ring in 2010. The theme of the evening was memes, specifically those of the internet and pop culture varieties. I turned some of the more well know memes of the last decade into vectors and cut them on my new Craft ROBO, which, by the way, is about the awesomest thing ever. Check out the flickr set below:

wallpapers of 2009

I've turned my photo based vector wallpaper into a set, so I can have OSX leisurely rotate through it while I read my greader and sew lots of xmas-present-related projects. Photos of those will be coming as soon as they've been received by their new owners.

screwdriver

I got bored while my work computer was (and still is) installing Windows updates, so I took some pictures of the screen through the transulscent handle of a screwdriver which was laying on my desk. I think they look fairly pretty.

the new hotness

That's what my friend in college called her new computer, and it's what I think every time I buy a new piece of electronics. And, boy, is my new baby hot. I am typing this on a brand new 27" i7 iMac. Holy crap, is it pretty. And fast. And big.

So big that none of my old wall paper will fit. So, in honor of my newest child/computer's ridiculous resolution I have made a new wallpaper. It's based off a picture I took in the Met this summer:



And, with help from my good friends Photoshop and Illustrator, turned into this: