KLM House Score!!

January 4, 2020 / Matt Talley / 1 Comment

Just to reiterate, I don’t collect comic books or coins or baseball cards or vintage motorcycles – I collect KLM Dutch houses. It is not a widely held hobby, is full of esoterica, and REAL nerdy folk. If you want a favor from me or to tug at my heart strings, a KLM house will just about do it. If it is a special edition… Well, that will get you favors!

I just scored an ashtray version of KLM house #20 – the Edam Museum. It is one of the non-gin filled houses made for the middle-eastern routes and are much less common than their corked counterparts. My new house was produced by Royal Goedewaagen in Gouda in 1970 and is only one of the 15 types of houses made in the ashtray version – the others being:
1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 14, 15, 17, 21, 22, 23 ,25, 26, 27.

It is in great condition. I bought it from an individual and did not pay retail/collector’s price for it, which is rare for me. I seem to always pay retail for stuff… I am stoked. It will live beside my standard 1980’s version that is still full of gin. STOKED!!

My current hit list for houses is:

House #s: 48, 87, 95, 97, 99, and 100

Any ashtry versions of: 1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 14, 15, 17, 21, 22, 23 ,25, 26, 27

Any special editions like:

The Cunucu house
Royal Palace Het Loo
Frans Hals Museum
Royal Palace Amsterdam
The Weigh House Gouda
House ter Kleef
Hall of Knights
Royal Theater Carré
Royal Concertgebouw
Maritime Museum Amsterdam

Film Friday – 3D Printing a Pen Case

November 30, 2018 / Matt Talley / Leave a comment

Being a pen geek and needing to practice on some new 3D design software I need for my new J-O-B (another post about that later), I decided to build some small parts that held my interest, one of them being a pen case for my Kaweco Lilliput pens and my Fisher Space Pens that would fit in one of the tin boxes that the Kawecos come in. I spent a little time in CREO and used an over-worked and not well loved/cleaned 3D printer (not my personal printer) with some REALLY old PLA, which you can see by the gaps and gobs in the printed pieces – not perfect, but they will do. I spent about 40 minutes drawing the two versions and spent maybe $4.00 in electricity and material. At the end of it all, I know where all the needed tools are in CREO, I have a new pen case, and I have leveled up in my nerdiness.

Doing a little recording

October 26, 2018 / Matt Talley / Leave a comment

I am working on a recording a few songs and clips – mostly for background music on my own YouTube vids. It is going OK as I feel that I am set up pretty well – I have Apple Logic Pro X and Garage Band, a focite audio interface, 3 mics, a couple of amps, and 7-8 instruments that I can sort of get by on. I have no delusions of even adequacy as a musician, but recording the songs has made me take a few momentary flight of fantasy: What if I were a recording artist…….

Artist name: Snugnutz, which is double entendre that references my life as a working enginerd AND is mildly, yet socially acceptable, provocative. It will always be displayed in a proper Tag Font.

Genre: I will call it thrash hillbilly trance EDM nerdcore. With a focus on clog dancing goths in any and all supporting music video projects.

Album titles:

Yes, there IS rum in my coffee cup
Don’t Tell my Wife about the New Motorcycle
Just Nerdy Enough
You can do anything you want on your last muther fuckin’ day!

Possible song titles:

Torqued

Bottomed out

Mitutoyo

Pipe Threadin’

Huffin’ Sawdust

Reamed

Splinters Suck

Tailings

Higher than Elon

No Capes!

Simple Math

Comic Books and Hand Lotion

Strap Wrench

Not Safety Glasses

Tap Magic

Donut Fridays

Medium Shop Pimpn’

Lathe Loving

My Mom Says I Am Smart

Locktight

Moonshine Bubbles

Tail Stock

6061 HRc60

Thread Cutter

DRO

OG Anvil Rebound

Gots Both My Thumbs

Friction Weld

Jeeps and Mudholes

Tight Collet

Arcade SME

Dust Co-lector

Mid-week Update

March 28, 2018 / Matt Talley / Leave a comment

So, this week has been crazy at work and at home. On the home-front, there were birthdays, shopping, it is Income Tax time, we have 3-4 guys showing up every morning at 7:00 with tools in hand to work in and on the attic.

My shop is full. I can’t even get to my table saw and my bench is stacked 5′ high with insulation. I need a little shop time to keep me sane or at least saner… So, I took a little me time and signed up for some classes for spring and early summer where I will get use other folks shops and build/make stuff:

Canoe Paddle Making
Claw and Ball Foot Carving
A 10-Week Letter Press Workshop
Woodcarving Figures
Spoon Carving
Block Printing
Industrial Sewing: canvas and leather

Film Friday – 3D Printing Projects

February 22, 2018 / Matt Talley / Leave a comment

I have been doing some medium-serious designing, borrowing, appropriating, and just plain stealing some 3D designs and printing useful stuff this winter in between shop time, my J-O-B, building projects, and remodel projects. The video below details the printing and use of a couple of safety razor cases, SD card holders, and GoPro Session4 case.

Film Friday – An Update and a Little Ranting

February 9, 2018 / Matt Talley / Leave a comment

A quick update about why I have not posted here on my blog or been on YouTube for a few weeks and how I have been spending my time: Roadtrippin’, some slight ranting, obscene gestures, naughty words, snowboarding, beer, some boats, a little 3D printing, and a sneak peak at the Jeep’s homecoming after 12 weeks in the body shop are all to follow.

YouTube Partnership Program Rule Change Rant

January 22, 2018 / Matt Talley / Leave a comment

So, I am going to rant for just a bit, bear with me…

-Mounts Soapbox –

“Ahem… I set a goal to be a better filmmaker, content provider, and maker five months ago. Part of that goal was to reach the 10,000 view threshold to monetize my YouTube account. I did not plan to quit my J-O-B, or be internet famous, I just wanted to use it as a milestone for progress toward the goal and I nailed it on January 4^th! 10,000 views!! I was so stoked that I woke my wife up way too late one night to tell her. My account was under review for 2 weeks and I was finally officially monetized for two days – two WHOLE days – before BAM!! I was demonetized with a huge group of small and smaller content providers. Son of a…

While this was a while in coming, it looks like the process/decision was sped up when a guy with 15+ million subscribers named Logan Paul posted a video of a suicide victim. 1^st, what a fucking privileged asshat. WTF is wrong with people?! He should be forever ashamed, and spend a great deal of his YouTube revenue on suicide prevention and advocacy. What should’ve happened following the public and advertiser outrage was YouTube suspending or deleting his channel, but that dude generates SERIOUS ad revenue, so… What happened instead was that YouTube took him off the top-tier ad group and YouTube punished the SHIT out of the small folks by demonetizing channels with less than 4000 hours of watch-time AND less than1000 subscribers to ‘protect their core values’? Makes zero sense and this guy will continue to post and earn $$$ even at the lower tier.

OK, fine, fuck’em. I was not doing this for some mythical pot of gold. This setback is just going to make me dig deeper. I am 10% to the new threshold and I will keep slogging on. Keep making and doing. Post better and better content. This will make me leaner, stronger, bigger, better, more… A better speaker, better filmmaker, I will get lighting and sound for my videos dialed, have awesome content, and be a better person from it all. Success doesn’t teach half as much as adversity.

To all effected by the YouTube demonetization BS: Don’t quit! Keep slogging on. Keep making and doing. You too will be all the better for it. Send me your channel and I will follow you and help with the watch hour threshold. As I said, I had just hit the monetization before all of this and we will get there again. It will take some hard work but, we can all help each other out.”

– Dismount Soapbox –

Film Friday – Double Feature

January 19, 2018 / Matt Talley / Leave a comment

I had a found (fly-away issue) DJI Phantom 3Pro sent to me as a gift by an awesome buddy – a SERIOUSLY awesome friend! I took a look and decided to rebuild the thing and see if I could get it back in the air. Here is that process:

From my second You Tube Channel – the one I use to share vacation videos and miscellaneous stuff – I present for your viewing pleasure: Snowboarding at Loveland and Winterpark in Colorado with great friends on MLK weekend 2018

As always, PLEASE hit the subscribe button if you like my content on YouTube. Thank you!

Film Friday – A Tour of a Kayak Museum in Portland

September 1, 2017 / Matt Talley / Leave a comment

Going Full Nerd Now – Star Wars & Conspiricy Theory

December 19, 2016 / Matt Talley / 2 Comments

As a new Star Wars Movie (Rogue One) has just come out, I have been psyching myself up for it, re-watching previous films, reading up on minor characters and such. Since I was fully emerged in it and Christmas is coming up, I went onto Amazon to buy a few action figures to round out the toy chest I keep for my friend’s kids when they visit. It is full of blocks, Transformers, matchbox cars, Lincoln logs, Barbies, Army Men, Cowboys & Indians, and action figures. There are actually three tubs as I am apparently living vicariously through other children.

Anywho… I am buying an action figure set of Sith characters (no one ever buys enough bad guys) and BAM! who is in the set: Jar Jar Mother Fucking Binks. OH MY GOD! It all makes sense!!!! About a year ago (2015) and REDDIT user named Lumpawarroo proposed a theory that Jar Jar was THE Phantom Menace and really a dark Sith Lord. I skimmed over it, laughed because I hate Jar Jar and have thought George Lucas was high when he wrote him into the script. I then read the post and comments a couple times, nodded with a smile, and passed it along to my fellow nerdy friends so that could laugh too. It was all fun and games until I saw this “official” toy set from Disney, with Pope & Smoke blessing from Lucas Film. My feeble mind is blown!

There are a number of videos that go into the minute details of this Gungan betrayal as well: Here, Here, and Here. This means that Jar Jar and Senator Palpatine were co-conspirators in the Sith Plot. Jar Jar’s bumbling fool act was just an elaborate staged production to deceive people – ALL people. This means his actions in Episode I&II are to facilitate Palpatine’s plans and are not those of an unwitting idiot that Forest-Gumped his way into a bad situation. They are the actions of an ally, a friend, a co-conspiritor, a partner…
Which makes sense now: Palpatine and Jar Jar are from the same world, which means they have possibly known each other for a very long time. Remember how scared the other Gungans were of him when he showed up at their city in Episode I?! They may have skipped together in Grade School and swapped spit behind the bleachers…

Please stop laughing now. This shit is for real. I admit to being a full-on nerd, but I am Functionally Nerdy: I have a pretty wife and a good job, and can interact socially with non-nerdy folk just fine. Jar Jar Mother Fucking Binks…

Project built for my truck – the one I sold 2+ years ago…

February 26, 2016 / Matt Talley / Leave a comment

So this post is a little bit delayed. It has been sitting in my draft folder for almost three years. It may be time to publish it…

My 2011 Nissan truck had a very cool really system for holding gear in the back of the truck: an extruded aluminum track along the side rails and two in the bottom of the bed. They made sliding tie points for use on the rails that were great for some stuff, but I needed more to really strap a load down when hauling brush and debris to the dump. I looked at buying more from Nissan, but they wanted >$200 for the set of 4. No thank you! I did what any engineer would do: Designed my own and went into the machine shop and made a few prototypes out of aluminum scrap that was laying about.

I made one version with an offset bend for the side walls and the other with a 90 degree bend for use on the bed floor rails. I might change the latter a little as I found that while a standard small ratchet strap or rope had no effect on it, if I used a large ratcheting load strap, I could bend it.

I also found that the rails were the exact same dimension as commercial uni-strut (standardized formed metal structural system used in electrical, plumbing and HVAC installations for structural support). Parts are available at all the Big-Box home stores and I was able to pick up a bag of 10 threaded nut plates for ~$8.00 and 1/4″ hex-head bolts of various lengths for another $5.00. The prototypes worked so well that I made more and with my hold down solution and the OEM tie points, I could haul anything I really wanted and make sure it was securely fastened: Refrigerators, lumber, yard trimmings, fire wood, trash, you name it.

I added the side walls of a wooden shipping crate to my new truck bed system, bolted directly to the side rails using the uni-strut nut plates and then strapped over the whole load with 2″ straps. I found the installation took me 15 minutes from start to finish and it made dump and material runs super simple. It was even faster to remove and store in the garage so I didn’t drive around town like I worked for Sanford & Son.

I sold the truck in December of 2013, but I kept the OEM Nissan tie points as well as the ones I made. I will use them on my next truck, or possibly my next trailer. I will just install uni-strut on the sides and on the deck and I will make it that much more useful.

I NEED a Lister Diesel Engine

September 5, 2015 / Matt Talley / 2 Comments

I have a big ol’ crush in Lister single-cylinder diesel engines. These stationary work horses were made from 1926 to about 1985 and were used for pumping water, power generation, inboard flat-water boat engines, and all manner of other uses. They came in 1.5-12 horsepower and would/will burn Diesel, paraffin, kerosene (as a mix), waste motor oil (WMO) fresh or waste veggie oil (WVO), bio Diesel, etc… They were and are so reliable that many of the originals are still running today after 90+ years of just regular maintenance.

After the parent company stopped making them, Indian firms started making clones for Asian and Southeast Asian use due to their inherent long life, simplicity, and ease of maintenance. These are called Listeriods, and they are fairly plentiful, but the quality swings widely.

Why do I want or need a Lister? Reasons. Why did I need a Millennium Falcon in the second grade? Why did I need all those Legos? I just did. Just like I just need a small Lister (or two) in my garage to tinker with and run various other machines that I just need as well.

I have been thwarted in my attempt while living in the US due to EPA regulations making importation verboten. There are some, both original and clones, around, but they command top dollar as they are VERY popular with the off-grid/prepper folks. I like “The Grid” just fine. I am not building a bunker, planning for any sort of societal collapse or EMP weapon defense, I just need a Lister.

I have found a couple here in France, but either the owner has been unwilling to sell or the logistics in getting it have proved difficult – hauling it 30 vertical feet up and 2km down a mountain path sort of daunting. I still haven’t given up. We know a British couple that have been here long term and the husband is a classic car/truck guy – he has a 1962 Unimog fire truck as a daily driver… I spoke to him this weekend about my need and he might know a guy who knows a guy sort of thing. I have my fingers crossed.

Enjoy a few videos of Listers in action below:

10/7/2015 Update

So, I found an engine here in France that was the right size and type, with an outstanding price tag – basically free. But, there is NO way I can bring it back to the US with me. We are bringing home Wine and other stuff that are customs red flags and they are going to go through our shipment container with a microscope. I think I might have a way to get an Indian import once we are back in Seattle, so I will deal with it there.

The Bees in Our Back Garden – 2015

August 24, 2015 / Matt Talley / Leave a comment

The lavender is in full bloom in our backyard. Last year I counted five different types of bees that visited it during the late summer. So far, I have counted seven different types, but I think one might be a type of yellow jacket. I looked online, but it is inconclusive. I went full-nerd and ordered a couple of books: Bees of the World by Mitchner and Bees of N. America (Princeton Guide). I will take some more pictures and see how many types I can find every couple of weeks. As a side note: I often wonder given my nerdiness how I have both managed to procreate with the female of our species and how I have a wife that is so damn adorable…

Apple, why wont you just take my MONEY?!?!?

August 19, 2014 / Matt Talley / Leave a comment

Statement displayed of the MacRumors website today:

“Apple’s “iWatch” is a smart watch project that Apple is reportedly aiming to launch with a special event in October of this year. Expect a ‘fashionable’ device running iOS with biometrics and other features providing integration with other iOS devices.”

I have been waiting for FIVE years for an iWatch. I held off buying the nano with a Lunatic band/case, because the iWatch was “coming out in the Fall…” every Fall comes and goes and my hunger grows for this bit of techie opulence. I never jump on board when stuff first comes out. I always wait until the 2nd or 3rd Gen, but I NEED an iWatch. Need….. Apple, please just take my money and the damn thing to me already.

9/9/2014 UPDATE:
Oh Apple you sly dog… you snuck my new watch out a month early. I need the stainless bezel, the stainless & black rubber bands. I pray the things it is waterproof – that is all I need before I drink the Kool-Aid. As soon as I get my grubby hands on it I will be drafting up and machining a pocket watch bezel cover, just because I am that nerdy. Let it begin, Let it begin…

9/22/2014 Update:

OK, I have come down from my initial Apple-Crack rush and have had time to look at the facts as they stand today…. Apple wants me to buy a watch that is not a stand alone device, I have to carry my phone for it to be “optimized.” It has a 24hr-ish battery life, is not waterproof, costs $379.00 minimum and probably $450+ for the Stainless model with Stainless band, has ANOTHER new type of plug, and is new tech… Dammit, I should have bought the Nano with the Lunatic case and beat the shit out of it for the last three years. I think that instead of becoming an “early adoptee,” I will keep my Seiko 5 for the foreseeable future. It is Stainless, Shockproof, has a Day/Date display, NEVER needs a battery, glows in the dark, has 12 and 24hr indications, and keeps time just fine with a proven 23 jewel movement. Stupid apple. Stupid me for drinking the Kool-Aid…

I hate my internet provider…

June 11, 2014 / Matt Talley / Leave a comment

Our internet provider here in France is a company called SFR.

I hate them.

My access has been down for over ten days. I call everyday. Have had French colleagues call in case I am missing something and am given a new reason for the outage every single day: cut fiber line, bad modem, crossed lines at central hub, etc…

I stayed home from a J-O-B meeting today because I was specifically told that a “senior technician” would call me between 8-12. No call! rassin…frassin’… I called them and flipped out of a customer service rep in French when she asked me why it had taken so long to call them about the issue. She transferred me to her boss who started our conversation with “what lights are visible on your modem?” I flipped my shit!

After giving him a passionate history of the issue, making him shush when he tried to interrupt, and explaining how to telnet into their SFR modem as the administrator, he seemed to finally listen.

After checking the account history, and prior notes, he started apologizing profusely. It seems that no work order HAD EVER BEEN WRITTEN?!?!? Son of a bitch!!!!

They gave me 5 days before the issue will be resolved.

I!HATE!THEM!

UPDATE:

France TelComm came by on the 17th – almost three weeks after it went down – and finally got our network up. They disconnected someone else’s on the street in the process…

Insert unhappy face and wet cat noise here.

Fountain Pen Experiment

March 6, 2014 / Matt Talley / Leave a comment

Have you ever seen a guy whip out a Montblanc Meisterstück 149 and flourish his writing hand a little before jotting his name down? Did he look at you with a winking smile after he lifted pen from paper? He was a douche bag.

I do love writing with a fountain pen. I don’t care if people look at it or like it or not. I use it to write with, sign checks, jot down notes, scribble, draw, doodle, ~~formulate my plans for world domination~~, etc… I like how it feels to write with, I like my penmanship better when using one, I like the look of my letters and I like brown indelible ink – try getting that in a fvcking ball point from a plastic pack.

I have carried and used a cheap blue plastic LAMY Safari as my everyday writer since 2007. I picked it up in a Thalia book shop in Hamburg and promised myself that if I wrote with it until I wore out the nib or until it stopped working forever, then I would “deserve” an expensive pen. I don’t mean a gold pen or a flashy pen, but one that writes like an angel whispers, doesn’t clog every other time, won’t leak all over my hand during a meeting (I used to have a Pilot that was cursed). That sort of performance and reliability does not come cheap and is not found at Target.

Well, that day has come! I went to refill my blue friend a couple days ago and found that the threads for the barrel had broken off at the base and the pen wouldn’t go back together. It was kinda sad for me sad as it has been a constant companion for 6 years, but I rallied, pulled the broken in F-nib off and put it on a Stainless Safari that Stamps-With-Foot gave me for our either our 2nd Anniversary or Valentine’s the same year. That pen is now my daily writer and I will keep using it until a Sheaffer Roaring Twenties, Porsche Design TecFlex, or a a Montblanc Chopin happens to fall into my pocket. That last sentence was a hint for my Pretty wife…

“New” Midcentury Modern bookcase in the bedroom – left undone

December 17, 2013 / Matt Talley / Leave a comment

We are a house of books. Every room of our home – including the kitchen and bathroom – has books living there; on the shelf, tucked into a nook, behind a cabinet door… It feels like there will be a raid from Ray Bradbury’s Firemen at any time. Years ago we shared a home where a huge pile sat at the end of the bed, there were mounds in the living room, and stacks on the kitchen table. It drove my wife insane. Taking a lesson from that, I have tried very hard in the ensuing years to not do that again by building of buying bookcases and shelves aplenty – happy wife, happy life.

To that end, we have a bookshelf that has now lived three distinct lives: it started its existence as a staircase bookcase in our first rental house in Washington State. It was the very first thing I built when we moved back to the US and my wife was amazed at my woodworking ability – she had never seen me really do anything beyond fix a chair or hang a picture. She was super impressed with the recessed dados and the router work. I removed it from our rental and cut it down in size when we bought our house in Seattle, putting it in my wife’s basement sewing room for pattern and costume book storage. I just couldn’t stand to see the work put into it go to waste. It now lives on our bedroom wall, after being cut down once again. It has been painted to match our bedroom furniture and I sheathed the outside in 3/4″ birch recycled from existing shelves with edge banding. Both will eventually be stained and finished to match our headboard – giving it a mid-century modern look. Reusing original pieces and re-purposing the parts of existing furniture makes my heart happy. It offers about 14 feet of shelf space and keeps Stamps-With-Foot’s Harry Potter and Twilight out of the living-room – sure make fun…. He who is without literary sin cast the first stone…

It was one of the MANY projects that I just did not get finished before our move to France. The bookshelf is completely usable and when Last I saw it, my mother had filled it with James A. Mitchener, Deddie McComber, and biographies galore. It will keep until we get back to Seattle in a few years.

Organization: a fine line between obsession and useful

October 5, 2013 / Matt Talley / Leave a comment

Tools rolls are awesome at organizing and keeping what you need readily at hand, they make moving them safely from place to place a breeze, and you know I instantly when an item is missing.

I have a tool roll problem. I have rolls for wrenches & auger bits, rolls for bike tools, my carving chisels live in a new canvas roll, assorted lathe chisels, carving knives, bench chisels, mortise chisels, road-side emergency tools in my truck, computer cables, and even my fountain pens live in a snazzy canvas roll.

If you add the 3 parachute nail bags full of screws and nails and bolts, I have an entire shipping crate full of lumpy canvas bundles that we are moving to France: it makes the OCD part of my brain giddy.

Camping in the Plague-free 14th Century

September 3, 2013 / Matt Talley / Leave a comment

Stamps-With-Foot and I spent part of the recent holiday weekend camping in a south-western Washington hay field pretending with a wink and a smile that it was 1340.

We have some friends that are big into the SCA and asked us to come along. At the mention of playing dress up, my wife was all in. I spent most of my time cooking and washing dishes and I made it over to Merchant’s Row for a few purchases. I got way too involved in construction techniques of the different tents and campers (kind of want my own Gypsy Vardo) and camping accouterments and MAY have made a pest of myself at one booth deciphering the geometry of the tent fly. There are times when I am too nerdy for my own good.

Anyway, we had a nice time away from a house full of boxes and projects. It was great to see our friends and it made my wife happy to get to dress me up in pretend pleasant clothes.

I have now been to THE Shaolin Temple – My 12 year-old self would be SOOOO jealous!!

April 23, 2013 / Matt Talley / Leave a comment

On a recent trip to China we were north of Beijing driving from one city to another for meetings and we passed a sign in English that said “Shaolin Temple X-kilometers.” THE Shaolin Temple. You know, the home of Kung Fu and the setting for all the bad chop-suey martial arts movies that filled the Saturday mornings of my pre-pubescent youth – after cartoons and The Three Stooges aired. My co-workers were shocked that I “knew” about Shaolin (??) and made it a point for us to stop by after the meeting was over the next day so I could take it all in.

It was a huge and sprawling complex with thousands of students and visitors – very cool. Some pictures are below, but my favorite is of one of the tree trunks. The divots are from student’s fingers. They will wake up early each morning and strike the trees to toughen their digits. Some of those trees are over a hundred years old and are peppered in small round pock marks.

12th Night in Portland – 2013

March 6, 2013 / Matt Talley / Leave a comment

A few weeks ago we drove down to Portland so that I could to do some off-site work for my J-O-B and took an extra day (on or dime) to both visit friends and attend an evening of the SCA’s 12th Night celebration – Being married to a trained costume designer means that one goes to these sorts of evenings. Our friends have closets (yes, I meant to be plural – as in 4 closets) filled with period costumes and accessories. My wife dressed me in a couple of different outfits until she was certain that I looked the part and then I went and waited downstairs for a couple of hours while the ladies prepped and primped like a good little puppy.

I agreed to this foray for three reasons:

Happy wife, happy life…
There was booze promised to me.
There was to be a “huge” vendor area where all sorts of cool stuff like swords, and bows, and armor, and axes and like items would be sold and traded.

Now, the mention/rumor of armor and swords takes be back to being a 9-year old at my very first Renaissance Faire (the REAL Penn and Teller performed that year). I wanted a “real” sword and a chain mail hood so bad that I would have licked the bottom of a Port-a-John seat for them at the time. My son is now enamored with the same period of history, I live vicariously through him and thought that he would get a real kick out of the pictures of armor and swords

I was a little disappointed: no swords, one real armor dealer and sales area was lined with stalls that catered to the ladies fabric, buttons, capes, cloaks, furry hats, jewelry, etc…), but I did end up getting a few good pictures to send to The Ruminator and we ended up watching the fencing melee/tournament. Helmets, steel swords, shields, daggers, very cool. He would have been all in!

The rest of the event was good and the detail of some of the costumes was amazing. Some of those folks put months and months of work hand sewing outfits just for that one night. Our evening ended with a game of Cards Against Humanity – I won – and we stumbled home just after 1:00AM.

The Alaska Airlines iPhone App is the Shiz-nit!

June 1, 2012 / Matt Talley / Leave a comment

I have been out of touch and away from my blog for a month or so: lots of travel including a 48hr trip to Ireland, a climbing vacation with the boys, a couple short trips to SoCal, and 5 days in the English countryside on a tour of round-a-bouts and concrete cows…

In the process of racking up a large hump of air-miles I have flown on 11 different airlines and I can say without a doubt that Alaska Airlines has been the carrier that has provided the fasted check-in, slickest and most useful App, and all my flights were somewhat on-time. The Alaska App was the clincher. I checked in on the way to the airport, chose my seat, fast-tracked through security, and the QR bar code on my iPhone was scanned at the gate for my boarding pass. From Taxi to assigned seat in the aircraft it took me a total of 23 minutes! Really, I timed it. Now, I still had to remove my shoes (fvck you very much asshat shoe-bombing terrorists!!) and take my laptop out of my bag, but that is just par for the course. If every flight check-in and trip to the gate was this great, then I wouldn’t complain at all about air travel.

Left Out in the Rain

April 16, 2012 / Matt Talley / Leave a comment

Stamps-With-Foot and I worked furiously in the warm sunshine on Sunday in our yard and on the final bits of the kitchen cabinets that needed to be done. Our last tasks for the day were building cabinet drawers and priming the two base cabinets. I had my ubiquitous notebook out, to the side of where we were working, checking off tasks and referring to measurements & notes as we went. We cleaned up the tools and paint around 6:30, changed, had dinner at a local Thai place and ventured out to our new Trader Joe’s for a little grocery shopping.

I was getting ready this morning for a trip to Boeing and started looking for my notebook because I needed a phone number in it. It then hit me like a baseball bat… My notebook… got left outside… overnight!… in the Rain!! FVCK!!!! I popped out the back door like my butt was on fire, my bathrobe flapping and losing a flip-flop in the dash. Damn… It was sitting on the side of the wheel barrow and had swollen to an inch thick. I walked back to the house, with my head hung down and blotted off what water I could and checked the pages – a light of hope. I use a waterproof, indelible ink in my fountain pens, so there was only a little loss of information or smeared blotches (in spots where I used a cheap pen) where detailed notes and drawings used to be. I could have been SO MUCH worse.

While most folks would have to live with a swollen book, most folks don’t have an awesome steel and iron 1920’s book press sitting in their home office… I blotted the pages again as best I could, separated the wettest ones with wax paper sheets, and put it in the press with cardboard and a towel plotter to get out as much water as possible. I left it there for 8 hours or so and removed it before the pages started to stick together. I then carefully opened every page, sat it on its end with the covers far apart, pages fanned open, on the kitchen tile floor in front of the heater vent. Everything should be just fine… I say that with hope in my heart and my fingers crossed.

I will let it dry for a day or two and then press it again for another 24 hours or so. I might take the opportunity to press a design or my name into the cover – I update when it come out of the press.

UPDATE 4-22-12: Took the notebook out of the press and it is nice and flat. While waiting for it finish pressing I made an embossing stamp out of a scrap piece of popular. My carving chisels were taken in a recent theft, so I used a dremel tool with the diamond carver bit to scratch a simple test piece. It is a stylized version of the Arabic word IQRA. I have more or less adopted it as my own hallmark and use it to stamp my furniture, cabinets, it is on my stationary, and I have a smaller version that I use as a wax seal here and there. I decided it was fine time to mark my notebooks as well.

The Things They Carried…

March 26, 2012 / Matt Talley / Leave a comment

You don’t really own anything you can’t carry on your back at a dead run.
– Daniel Keys Moran

In 2004 there was a Flickr thread entitled “What’s in your bag?” that immediately captured a voyeuristic nerve with the denizens of the Web and since then about a gamillion people have posted pictures of all the crap they carry with them through their daily lives. You can see it all: packs, purses, pencil cases, hello kitty, descriptions, puppies (!?!), the entire Moleskine collection, pens, sunglasses, pistols, retainers, pocket knives, Apple products, and enough bike inner tubes to encircle the earth 12 times. Hours of my life have been lost peeping into other peoples lives through the contents of their purse/messenger bag/pockets. The phenomena has been around long enough now that there are subsets of bags and contents: Camera equipment, writers, hipsters, journalists, students, bike messengers, everyday carry (EDC), diaper bags, etc…

I came in after a recent craptastic day and started emptying my pockets and satchel. It seems I carry what professional organizers call “a lot of shit.” I was amazed to see, all stacked in one spot, how many different individual items I tote around all day. I took a picture and added it to the growing online show & tell/confessional.

Starbucks gum
2 dollar coins and a quarter
16GB USB with former puppy’s tag attached
Steel LAMY fountain pen – medium nib, brown ink
Moleskine work notebook – filled with sketches and task lists
iPad with case – pic shot from city wall in Essaouira, Morocco
iPhone, no case – pic of driftwood carving found at beach near the house
Truck/car/house keys with old dog tag
Silver bracelets (copies of John Wayne’s – google it)
Wedding ring – milled from and aircraft bearing
Kershaw – Ken Onion pocket knife
Eddie Bauer slim wallet and money clip – that’s right, big money: one WHOLE dollar
Milt Sparks knock-off IWB holster
Magazine loaded with 7 Gold Dots
Para Ordnance Black Watch .45 – some custom work
Ray-Ban birth control glasses
Bag: heavily modified US Army OD green map satchel

I sometimes carry a small flashlight in my satchel, a couple of other Moleskines, a roll of fountain pens, a spare magazine, sunglasses, my ORCA card, a kindle, a cheapo Bic lighter, and a small folding knife on my keychain. I forgot the light this morning and I flew recently and haven’t put the TSA-offending Victorinox back on my keys.

What do you carry with you during your day? Below are a representational photos of the phenomena including mine.

Elementary…

March 6, 2012 / Matt Talley / Leave a comment

Sherlock Holmes has become an everyday occurrence in my life. Last year my wife and I read a few of the Laurie King/Mary Russell books. She got The House of Silk and The Sherlockian for Christmas. I have started re-reading all the original Doyle stories and last, but not least… Sherlock Holmes is now a draftsman at my J-O-B. No really, I work with a man who’s actual real legal name, given at birth, is Sherlock Holmes. I wanted to hire the guy from the milli-second that I saw the heading of his resume, but he is actually a fantastic draftsman and a great asset.

Anyway, I have been and will be spending more than a little time in London and England in general this year and on my most recent trip I happened to find myself on Baker Street in London. Well, far be it from me to miss a weird travel opportunity. The wife and I walked down to the Sherlock Holmes “Museum” near the Baker Street tube stop and took the tour. We enjoyed the aside in our busy day and hammed it a photo-op. Stamps-With-Foot makes a pretty little Watson…

MIA – last seen with paint on new pants and sawdust in eye

December 1, 2011 / Matt Talley / Leave a comment

I realized yesterday that haven’t posted anything for almost a month: no astute observations, not one pointed remark, no weird OCD-driven lists, no pictures of adventures at home and afield…. Nothing. Hmmmm. I have just been REALLY busy!! It started with painting the living room, the kitched paint was next, we expanded into wiring a hot tub, I decided to finish up a furniture project, the breakfast table “needed” to be cut down, fancied up, and refinished. I am heavy into finishing my incredibly overbuilt and way too complicated kitchen cabinets, Halloween came, there was Thanksgiving prep, I had to put the garden to sleep for the winter, blow all the water out of the yard irrigation system, clean the gutters (4th time this year – grumble, grumble… hate neighbor’s tree… grumble, grumble…). On top of it all, my J-O-B was INSANE: lots of late nights, weekends, travel, OT, pressure, stress, etc…

There is some proof of all the work that we have been doing – I have semi-updated the pictures on my project page, but remember that most were shot with an iPhone in crap conditions. None of this pics are going to get me into National Geographic!

It hasn’t been all work though: I have been able to go to the range with my cuddly .45s and punch holes in some zombies a good bit – fine, fine stress relief. I mentioned Halloween – Stamps-With-Foot and I outdid ourselves again this year at our local Halloween party. We went as Wednesday and Pugsly Adams – a big hit at the festivities. I went as a pimp to work – think Will Ferrel in The Other Guys movie: grill, blond ‘fro, leopard coat/fedora, purple faux croc high-heeled side-zippered boots, a pimp cane, crunk cup, loads of bling, coke nails – I had it down. A my fellow engi-nerds let me down though… Not one other costume in my group – not even a funny t-shirt!! Sales had some good ones this year, HR was all in, the fiber optics group brought game, but Engineering sucked it! How is it all those people with big brains, imagination, and vast amounts of reasoning ability could not come up with something?! There are WOW players, Trekkies, SGA initiates, one D&D uber-geek, and every single one of them (including the female members of our team) have slave-girl Leia dreams…. They let me down, but I soldiered on and even gave a new-hire tour and orientation in my pimp-o-rific attire. I will not forget or forgive their breach of the nerd code! Philistines.

Speaking of my J-O-B, the long hours, travel, all the late meals out, and my general lack of physical motivation has gifted me with 20 extra pounds of fat compared to this time last year. In essence, it is my own fault – my bikes are all sitting there waiting on me to love them, I have a sweet pair of new running kicks, A gym membership that we pay for every month, and a dusty yoga mat. I HAVE to dig deep, put away work and get my butt moving or I will be the size of Jabba the Hutt in no time and the Wife is not into Slave Girl Leia…

I think that brings it all up to date for the most part. I will try to be more diligent about keeping up when life starts swirling around me.

Steamcon III

October 17, 2011 / Matt Talley / 1 Comment

Stamps-With-Foot and I went to the 3rd annual Steamcon this past weekend with our hearts open and expecting to be impressed. Last year we had a ball at their western/adventurer themed event: Great costumes, a cool retail section with memorable window shopping, and lots and lots of people having a great time. This year, the theme was a “20000 Leagues Under the Sea” affair. We had HUGE hopes for some very cool costumes/props and had been looking forward to going all year.

“Expectation is often better than realization…” I am not sure what it was, but this year’s show just didn’t have the same spark. Some of the costumes were terrific, but there seemed to be fewer original ones. Don’t get me wrong, we saw some classy dresses, finely tailored suits, mechanical hands, harpoons, gvns, hats, Leather roller derby gear, big wrenches, a pet shoulder dragon, and a goldfish tank on a leash. Some serious thought and skill went into these outfits. There were just fewer kinds of them this year than there were last year. It also seemed like the event goers this year were more subdued.

The convention was held at a larger and more spacious venue, which would normally be great, but it took away from some of the intimacy of the gathering as compared to last year. We were somewhat disappointed with the retail space/offerings. It seemed to be a rehash of last year, with each vendors efforts doubled at another booth. While I appreciate the entrepreneurial sprit, some of the items for sale were not made to withstand the test of time: if one uses hot-glue on an artistic/functional creation, shit will fall off and it will be neither the latter nor the former any longer. I will say that the art displays were terrific and we picked up a couple of small things for Le Maison du Talley.

I am holding out hope for Steamcon IV. I know some people that are discussing an awesome vendor booth and Victorian Monsters is the theme – rich material for the creative set. The Steampunk crowd has a high relative population of former Goths, so I am figuring that black capes & cloaks with high collars will be coming out of hope chests everywhere. Wooden crosses and silver bullets for the initiated. More lace, bite marks, wolf references, mad scientists, mummy’s, parasols, and meerschaum pipes will be seen. Vampire hunter kits will be produced, there should be some terrific League of Extraordinary Gentleman inspired regalia and maybe the show will find a home that is equal parts convenient for participants, has the perfect ambiance, and room for running amuck.

Old books make me light-headed and giddy

October 12, 2011 / Matt Talley / 1 Comment

This past Saturday Stamps-With-Foot and I met downtown at the Seattle Center for the 14th annual Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair. It has been marked on my calendar for a couple of months because I am a giant bookworm. Handling old books makes me feel all funny in a certain place in my lower abdominal region… so not attending wasn’t in the cards. The first booth we visited was one that sold sheets of illuminated volumes on vellum. There were thousands of sheets ranging in size from 3″X4″ to full folio size (~15″X17″). The hand drawn figures, uncial script, and the shinning gold accents from the 14th century made me a little dizzy and it was REALLY hard for me to not grab two armfulls and run screaming “I am John Galt!!” from the hall. Really, it crossed my mind, and only the realization of what it would mean for me when my cellmates in jail asked “What you in here for?” kept me from acting on that totally logical bibliophile impulse.

I looked over at my little wife and she had a huge smile on her face and was carefully holding a sheet from a French Book of Days bound in 1480-ish, looking at it like it held the answer to world peace. She glanced over and mouthed, “I want to have sex with it.” And THAT, ladies and gents, is why we are married.

After the first booth, the rest of the show was a little bit of a let down, but there were some truly rare and beautiful volumes – I think that I have turned Stamps-With-Foot into a collector of miniature books. We bought a couple of moderns, and looked longingly at the vellum as we left the show after a couple hours of browsing, talking to vendors, and groping hand bound book spines.

An iPad worthy of Gene Rodenberry

September 23, 2011 / Matt Talley / 1 Comment

Someday I will have a phaser and a tricorder, but for now my iPad is a real close second. This baby let’s me get stuff done! The third morning that she (my white lovely has to be a girl as she is smooth, helpful, and sexy) came to live with me I hopped on first thing that morning while in my bath robe and with a cup of coffee in my hand. I got my daily news fix, sent seven e-mails to customers, corrected a drawing on my work machine via remote access, looked to see if my bus was on time, checked that week’s weather forecast, looked at the traffic on the bridge, made a quick Skype call, and for good measure updated a spreadsheet – all before that first cup of coffee was gone.

Below are the apps that I have loaded and that I have found most useful. Before loading anything, I had tried all out on others’ iPads or used the iPhone version. This is not an end all, be all review/recommendation, just a list of what I use and find really helpful. note: I am not a big gamer, but I have a couple that I will resort to on long flights.

Pages: Word processing that I import and export Word files from.

Numbers: I can edit any spread sheet I have in it – home or work.

Currency: Great when I am haggling over prices at the Souks in Morocco, buying a hoodie in Belfast, or for filling out my J-O-B’s crazy over-complicated expense report forms…

Kindle: Knowledge is power. If my Kindle dies, I have a back up and if Stamps-With-Foot is reading the same book that I want to read on my Kindle, then I can access it on the Kindle App and we can both read the same book at the same time.

Word Press: For updating my ego blog during lunch or while flying from here to yonder

Convert Units: How many rods are in a league?

NPR: My day starts with coffee, NPR, and cereal

Photo Studio HD: Nice compact foto editor

Notes Plus: Hand writing recognition that lets me organize all my meeting notes and doodles – I doodle a lot, it helps me organize my ideas into something workable.

Skype: Awesome. I can talk to my wife and see her face from ½ around the globe.

Jump: Remote desktop access. Probably the most powerful App in my arsenal. It helps me get a huge amount of shit done!

One Edit: Batch photo conversion, resizing, and renaming

Ukulele Tabs: For my Bad-ass Koa axe!

Zombie Gunship: Because shooting Zombies and saving civilians from behind a 105 in a C130 is just good clean fun.

Angry Birds: I have no excuse – it is addictive

Hulu+ : I hate to miss an episode of Archer

Netflix: Loved Netflix more two months ago before they screwed with billing, but I will still watch a movie lying in bed

Drop Box: Absolutely the best thing I have found to move and back up files on my iPad.

One Bus Away: Up to date/minute bus information for Seattle

eWallet: A really handy and secure password safe that I first used in 2002 on my Handspring Palm Pilot.

My Kindle no longer has library cooties.

September 21, 2011 / Matt Talley / Leave a comment

Finally! Amazon has followed through with their promise and I can now check out books from the library on my Kindle! Oh, the cash I will now save… I have been longing for this to happen since the day I chose the Kindle over the Nook (and spent the next month worrying that i had made the wrong decision) and mostly-patiently waiting since Amazon’s initial announcement that this was in the works back in June. I have a shelf full of books that are in line waiting for my attention, but I am planning to surf over to the SPL site tomorrow at lunch and upload a book just because I can.

On a side note – though still kindle related – I recently turned 103 and for my birthday, my lovely wife presented my with an iPad2, on which I immediately loaded the Kindle app. It doesn’t have the battery life that I am now used to and my head would feel like it were clamped in a vise if I spent an 8 hour flight reading a book on it, as I prefer reading on the eInk of my Kindle2, but it will do in a pinch.

Driven Outside

Category: nerdy