Tag: nerdy

KLM House Score!!

/ 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!!

Business in the front…
…AND PARTY IN THE BACK!!

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 – Canoe Paddle Build Part I

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Earlier this year, while we were finishing the attic, I took a weekend and built a cherry and ash laminated canoe paddle at the Camp Beach Center For Wooden Boats shop – as my own wood shop was in full use for the attic/storage. It was a little bit of a rush build and after paddling with it once, I decided to rebuild and reform it into a better performing paddle. This video will take you through all the steps of the initial build and the refit. The next video in in this series will show the finish steps and some on-water testing.

Film Friday – 3D Printing a Pen Case

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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

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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:

  1. Yes, there IS rum in my coffee cup
  2. Don’t Tell my Wife about the New Motorcycle
  3. Just Nerdy Enough
  4. 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

 

Film Friday – BEES!!

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My wife bought me a package bee hive box kit for Christmas last year, which reinforces the fact that I have a wife that is kind and considerate and pretty damn adorable.

Anywho, I thought that installing a new hive would be a terrific opportunity to document all the steps to install bees into a new hive box.  I went with a nuc hive instead of packaged bees and a new queen. That is for a later video. The whole process of bringing a new hive into the apiary also allowed me to show all the steps in prepping the pre-built hive boxes/parts and I was able to build and showcase a couple of steel hive stands that I have been thinking about and designing in my head for years.  I will also make a video on the design and build of the hive boxes and parts, but that will have to wait until this winter.

I love bees and I love being a beekeeper. The honey isn’t bad either…

Film Friday – 3D Printing a Sweet Settlers of Catan Robber

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I have been 3D printing a lot lately. I found a SWEET robber piece for The Settlers of Catan on Thingiverse (link listed below) and decided to slice and print it out for our game. It worked really well and I have been printing 1 every few days to give to friends and folks that we play Settlers with. I recorded the whole print and what it looked like before any clean up.

The Thingy for the Settlers of Catan Twister Robber:
https://makerware.thingiverse.com/thi…

Mid-week Update

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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:

  1. Canoe Paddle Making
  2. Claw and Ball Foot Carving
  3. A 10-Week Letter Press Workshop
  4. Woodcarving Figures
  5. Spoon Carving
  6. Block Printing
  7. Industrial Sewing: canvas and leather

The Jeep Rebuild After Paint

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As you know, I got the Jeep back from paint about a month ago and it has been sitting on the lift in the garage – letting the paint cure. I am not 100% happy with the paint… It took 4 tries for them to get the hood and fenders right and there are little spots and dings on the tailgate. There is also some mess just above the nerf bars and a run on the rear fender that makes me twitch, but they will be covered by some trim and the fender flairs, so… I included the Jeep’s homecoming in a video here, but skip to 5:09 as I spent way too much time blabbing about other non-Jeep related crap in the 1st part of the Video.

Anyway, I have been collecting small cardboard boxes full of goodies since last October for the after-paint re-fit. That installation process begins this coming weekend. I am giddy with anticipation.

The part additions and changes from Morris, Amazon, ARB, and Northridge4X4 include:

Duel Battery tray
Halogen headlight Lamp Conversion Kit (wanted LEDs, but don’t want to pay $600+ for headlight!!)
Black Rugged Ridge Fender Flare Kit
Stainless Fender Flair Hardware
Front Side Amber Marker Lights
New Wiper Blades
New thick rubber floor mats
BestTop Bikini Top (uses existing soft top channel) for the 2 months of sun in Seattle this summer
Rugged Ridge LED Tail Lights
Front Parking Lamp/Lens
Black Factor 55 FlatLink Winch Cable Shackle
Burnt Orange Jeep Fender Decals
New Frame to Cowl Weather Seal
Black Powder Coated Stainless Steel Side Mirrors
New Winch Cover
Warn Winch bumper with D-Rings
Black Vinyl Spare Tire Cover
New Aviation-Style Light Switches for front spots and reverse lights
Stainless Steel License Plate Holder (I had it powder coated black)
Second set of D-rings (Powder Coated Burnt Orange to match Jeep Logo)
Hi-Lift Jack Rebuild Kit (sandblasting and repainting origional)
Bronze Door Hinge Bushings (sourced at McMaster-Carr)
Warrior Pipe ½ doors (because I can)
ARB Recovery Tools Bag to organize my off-road gear
ARB Compact Onboard Air Compressor (Got a SMOKING Deal at the ARB booth at a recent Jeep Swap Meet!!)

Getting new bar covers made as well

Film Friday – 3D Printing Projects

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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

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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

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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 4th!  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. 1st, 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

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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!

2018 News Year’s Resolutions:

/ Matt Talley / 3 Comments

A year ago, to the day, I said that I would do a bunch of stuff in 2017.  I did OK, but not great. I could blame it on my old man hip, the surgery, or the recovery time, but mostly not getting stuff on the list done was all me. All my own laziness, stuborness, or my A+ skill level of procrastination. These are the promises I made to myself that I kept:

Take a pottery class
Take a Blacksmithing class at the Pratt
Read 1 book every 2 weeks – minimum
Play my uke, banjo, and guitar with others
Give lots of $$ to Heifer and MFS
Make movies and post: Adventure, craftsmanship, and family.
Make Stuff!!
Ride my skateboard because I am not too old or too fat
Road trip in WA more
Take my wife on vacation
Plant a spring garden
Fix up the front and back yards

The following is what I am committing myself to do in 2018:

  1. Organize my chaos in the shop and basement.
  2. Sell, donate, recycle, or throw away shit that I do not use.
  3. Use my planner and notebooks as tools not as something that I “have” to use.
  4. Eat my veggies.  Seriously.  Salads in my future.
  5. Take my desk at home back and make it a conducive writing space.
  6. Cut WAY back on sugar and carb intake!
  7. Lose weight – back to 175! and put on 5-7lbs of muscle
  8. Go to the gym 3-4 time a week – minimum.
  9. Box more at the gym and at home
  10. Write more: Blog posts, REAL letters, Thank you notes, fiction, and non-fiction
  11. Take more great pictures
  12. Fly my drones more
  13. Take at least a 45 minute lunch at least 4 days a week at work
  14. Show up to yoga at least once a week
  15. Take another pottery class
  16. Finish my CJ-7 Jeep restoration
  17. Look into getting back into the judo dojo
  18. Sign up and compete in the Gambler 500 car race
  19. Sign up for a letterpress class at SVC Downtown
  20. Take another blacksmithing class at The Pratt
  21. Read 1 book every 2 weeks!
  22. Learn how to play the mandolin and banjo better!
  23. Play my uke, banjo, and guitar with others
  24. Build a skin-on-frame canoe for two
  25. Road and mountain bike
  26. Take the puppies to Lincoln Park for a walk at least once a week
  27. Ride the living shit out of my Single -Speed
  28. Bike to work at least 5 times this year (12 miles each way)
  29. Volunteer more at the Center for Wooden Boats
  30. Pay off all credit cards
  31. Go sailing in Puget Sound
  32. Turn some amazing and useful stuff on my lathe
  33. Give lots of $$ to Heifer and MFS
  34. Make at least 1 movie a week for YouTube and post: Adventure and craftsmanship
  35. Monetize my YouTube account and increase my presence and standing in that community
  36. Lessen my Twitter and social media activity…
  37. See my kids and grandchildren more
  38. Be involved in politics more: financally and with a time commitment
  39. Work on my Genealogy database and organize all my info.
  40. Finish the house remodel –  even if I have to pay a contractor to do it (…shudder…)
  41. Finish the garage/shop/GROP build
  42. Make.More.Stuff!!
  43. Ride my snowboard and skateboard because I am not too old or too fat
  44. Road trip in WA and on West Coast more
  45. Have two hives of healthy, happy bees
  46. Kayak lots!
  47. See my friends more
  48. Take my wife on vacation
  49. Plant a spring garden and have a really bountiful fall harvest
  50. Have an awesome Griswald-like Christmas light display!

I am printing this list out and pasting copies in my notebook, work planner, in the shop, at my desk at work, on the fridge, and in the basement above my warranty voiding workbench.

Garage sidewalk now poured with a side of cat-related drama

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The sidewalk to the garage is finally poured – 8 weeks after I put the forms in…   To recap, it is 20’X4′ and 4″ deep.  I used 3500PSI with fiber added and lots of steel, because I hate cracking sidewalks. I paid a guy working on the house next door give me a hand with the wheel barrow concrete moving and to move-hold the other side of the scree board.  It took two hours from the minute the truck rolled up until I was cleaning up my tools and I saved >$1500 doing it myself, even with the cost of material, delivery and a couple of new tools.

I was super happy with the results when I went inside at 5:30. When I went back out to check on it at 9:30, the cat had walked up one side all the way to the garage, walked across, and back down the other side. I now have cat prints in my “perfect” sidewalk until the end of days…

I am not anthropomorphizing, she did it as a “Fuck You bald monkey!” because I would not let her in the house. It was too dry to re-float. This morning, to add insult, the hate-cat dropped a giant turd in the middle of the thing up by the garage door.  I said such dirty words!  This is the last straw!

Who would like an overweight white fluffy cat that is passive aggressive and shits on the things I love? I will throw in 2 bags of food, a carrier, shot records, box of band-aids, half eaten mouse, and 3 cat-nip impregnated toys. It is an awesome deal! Won’t last! Act now before someone else snatches her up!

Forging and Fabricating

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I can do and make bunches of stuff: Everything from joinery to electronics, from wood turning to machining, from bookbinding to electrical, from carving to heavy machine operation, but there are certain things that I have never really been able to do in the world of hand-craft, mostly due to lack of exposure or instruction. Chiefly among these things are/were forging/blacksmithing and metal shaping. The latter composed of shaping and bending sheet metal into forms and objects.

I decided this year to work on those deficits and have been taking some forging and fabrication classes at The Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle. A couple nights a week, I leave work and hammer, shape, weld, grind, and make stuff out of steel. I have been at it for 5 weeks and am really please with both The Pratt and all that I am learning. I have also learned that while I have dipped my toe in these waters, that there is a ocean of knowledge out there. I do not have any want to be a full-time blacksmith or fabricator, but I want to keep learning, so I can add some of the techniques and pieces to stuff that I already build and add to my repertoire of ability and understanding. Below are some of the pieces that I have made, tools I am using, and some stuff that I am working on. I am putting together a little video as well.

More G-Mail Woes.

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A Little rant:  

My G-mail that is linked to my site stopped working due to some sort of host/server issue last week-ish.  I use a G-Mail proxy through my domain and I called and chatted and e-mailed for days before a resolution was found.  After the server issue was fixed, I then had a Tucows registration issue and I had to prove that I was me and that I owned my site.  I have had limited access for a few days and just now got full access back.  Very frustrating and time consuming.  Looks to be all fixed now, but I hope I didn’t piss off too many folks by not answering their mail.  I am wading through it all today and tonight.

Sometimes tech makes life harder and I long for a small A-frame cabin in the woods near water, a pantry full of good coffee, my wife reading with the puppies on the couch, a fully stocked shop, lots of firewood, a source of independent wealth, and no wireless connection.

Dreams..

Film Friday – Hammer fix

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We are well on our way to becoming a doomed and disposable society. Example: After trying in vain to buy a handle replacement locally for my broken framing hammer, I had to buy one online and have it shipped to Seattle from the East Coast. I didn’t need the fancy matching OEM handle. Most any would have worked with a little shaping using a rasp and file. Neither Home Depot nor Lowes sells replacement handles for hammers or hatchets anymore – just handles for garden tools. I had four people try to sell me a new hammer while searching though. Apparently, just spending $80+ is easier than fixing a tool with a replaceable part designed into it. Lazy mother f….. Son of a …

The hammer holds no special value or spot in my heart or personal history. It wasn’t smuggled into the US 300 years ago by a ancestor who built and defended his home with it… Nope, just a framing hammer that someone gave me once. It had already been used and abused for years before it fell into my hands. The point was/is the thing is mine. A tool that I use to make stuff with. A tool that is MADE to have the handle replaced and somehow there are not enough people with the skill and drive to do such a simple task to keep them stocked on the shelves of multiple large national chain building supply stores. I stand by my statement that the movie Idiocracy is a documentary filmed by time travelers.

The whole replacement cost me $12 for the handle and shipping + 20 minutes of my time. A lot better deal than $80+ for a new hammer. As an added bonus, I get to rant a little and make a slide show 🙂

Boat Lust

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So, you may or may not know this about me, but even though I currently own a couple of small boats, I have MAD Boat Lust.  I am a member of the Center for Wooden Boats, I get Wooden Boat Magazine & Small Craft Adviser Magazine every month, go to the Lake Union, Seattle, Portland, and Port Townsend boat shows every year…  I follow four sets of Blue Water sailors on YouTube, am trying to con my wife into taking a sailing vacation (I am getting a hard NO! on that one currently), and almost bought a used 22′ lead keel sailboat last summer for “my son.”  I tried to sell it as his “learner Boat” and play up the father/son bonding time angle with it and my wife saw right through it.  To date, however, I have not come home to tell my with that “We” just purchased an Amel 55 blue water sailboat, a 47′ diesel powered Cabin Cruiser, a Chris-Craft in need of some “light repair”, or a Hans Christian 33 kept in Bristol Fashion that “I” am planning to live on since said purchase would leave me homeless, devoid of my puppies, and divorced.

If my son, The Ruminator, lived in Seattle I wouldn’t mind a swing keel Columbia 22 or a Catalina 22 to gunk hole around the Sound in with him.  A Catalina 270 LE would make my heart go pitter-patter as well, but I am a realist (-ish) and very aware of my current budget and available storage space.   A sailboat that I would only use a few times a year and have to pay moorage on, would make me very unpopular at home.  But, if someone has a 19′ WW Potter taking up space in their life that needs a new home, I would be game…

While what I WANT is a sweet little sailboat, what I NEED is a small outboard that that sits on a trailer in or beside the garage, that I can pop over to Blake or Vashion Island on, run up the Duwamish River a little piece, do a little salmon fishing on with my son or friends, haul a crab pot or three in season, find a secluded weekend beach for summer camping, etc…   It needs to have a cuddy cabin to get out of the shifty weather here in Puget Sound, some storage space to keep gear dry, needs to be light enough to be pulled behind the jeep when fully loaded, and fast enough to handle the tidal flow in the PNW.

Buying a finished boat, even used, like a Ranger Tug 21, a C-Dory 19, or a Boston Whaler 21′ Cuddy are WAY out of my price range, I have been perusing Craigslist for a 16′ -21′ hardtops, but the ones I have found are either gold plated & upholstered in unicorn foreskin or needs to be sunk.  So, in due course, I have been thinking about building the boat of need mentioned above.  I know, I know… I have a shit ton of projects already with the shop and house, but I won’t start the boat until Stamps-With-Foot agrees that the house is good and all the little projects at home are squared away.  Happy wife, happy life.

To digress a bit, my current home-built boat want is a Devlin Boats Dunlin 22 Cruiser with all the bells and whistles, but that too would be spendy, require me to quit my J-O-B to obsess over the details properly, I would have to rent out boathouse space for the duration of the build, have the time to build it, and would probably cause my sweet bride to up my life insurance just before “accidentally” pushing me into a wood chipper.

dunlin22side-1024x721 dunlin22top-1024x841

 

 

 

 

Back in reality, I am looking hard at building a couple of boats, including a Devlin Noddy 18.  It is something realistic to build over the fall and winter, in the space I have available in the F-Bomb Garage, and within my current budget.  Powered by a 4 stroke 50HP Honda or Yamaha, with homey little extras like: a sardine wood stove in the cabin, a crab pot winch arm on the stern, and lots of LED lights.  noddy16plan-devlin-boats_2017Devlin Boat Works in just south of us in Olympia and in addition to being a design house, they are a boat works and build all manner of craft there at any given time.  I sent a couple of e-mails and made some calls about the possibility of going down this summer if they have a Noddy or similar hull under construction.  We will see if it can be arranged.

I will have to wait just lust a little while longer to satiate my boat lust…

Update: May 2017

Nope.  Devlin is off the list.  I can’t find anyone on the boat forums that has built the Noddy AND I have not had a single phone call or e-mail replied to.  I don’t need to do business with someone who I have to beg to take my money.

A open letter to GoPro:

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Dear GoPro,

I am afraid that our relationship isn’t working out. It is not me, it is you – most definitely you. I have been a loyal fan-boy for years, but 2016 has undone us. Let me explain:

I have 4 GoPro cameras, 2 originals, one Hero Session and one Hero 4 Black. There must be $400 worth of mounts and accessories in my video equipment cabinet and mounted to almost everything I own. I was the first in line for the KARMA Drone, and I own a few shares of your stock. Hell, I was at your booth/jam box at NAMM 2 years ago and gushed to the staff there like teeny-bobber. I was at the 2016 NAB show when you guys won the “Best Of” award. Trust me, that I was all in and committed to making it work between us.

I can’t say enough great things about the cameras I own. I love them and use them while biking, boarding, cart racing, 4-wheeling, diving, running, working in the shop, etc… I am happy that the engineers, programmers, and employees in the SF Bay Area can go to work and do cool stuff, get paid a living wage, and work on tech that millions of people use every day. So why are we breaking up???

I mentioned that I own stock. Have you seen those numbers lately?! Hmmm… Screwing up the Amazon relationship before Christmas and not having production capacity did not help after the KARMA fiasco. Did your Contracts Team not even flip through “The Wal-Mart Effect” before negotiations started? Yes, I am somewhat irritated at losing money because a great product line is managed like a PTA bake sale. Additionally, I have had a DJI Phantom 3 Pro for a year or more and it has never once fallen out of the sky. I had the KARMA for 3 days before I had to climb 30 into a pine tree to retrieve it after it fell out of the sky. Camera was OK after the fall, but I sent the drone back for a full refund. One of the smarter things I did in 2016.

The final straw though is GoPro Studio. Holy sweet baby Jesus, I wish I had all the HOURS of my life that have been lost due to crashes, auto-overwrites, searching web forums for patches, and completely re-processing almost half videos I have made in the last 10 months. A recent attempt to make a film out of a Christmas snowboard trip made me want to beat my computer with a hammer for even associating with GoPro Studio. I know, I know it is “free” software… Bundled software with a $500 camera and an $800 drone is not free. As of the writing of this post, the last update to Studio was in October of 2015 – that was 15 months ago, eons of time for software.  I finally had to drink the Kool-Aid and use my wife’s Mac Book to edit the film in iMovie. I made a killer little film in like 50 minutes. The software didn’t glitch, hang, or overwrite my project. It was easy to use even the first time and it just worked. As a note, iMovie is “free” as well…

To be clear, I do not see any of this as a production, software, or engineering failure. It is an issue with program & senior management. Hire professionals that understand product launch logistics, QA/QC, beta test management, vendor & supplier relationships, and the impact all of this has on your business and investors.

In closing, I am sorry that you made me do this on such a public forum. I am sorry that I can no longer support the hard work of your engineering team and production staff by purchasing your products. Spend some time on you, work on who you are and who you want to be, and get some professional help. Maybe someday we can sit down at the table again, but I am going to need my space for now.

Christmas Vacation 2016

/ Matt Talley / Leave a comment

Christmas vacation this year was pretty good. I got great stuff Christmas morning, my mom stayed over Christmas Eve, and Stamps-With-Foot made a yummy Honey-baked ham for dinner on Christmas Day. I took the week between Christmas and New Year’s off from my J-O-B. The time was spent just hanging out with The Ruminator, finding a little adventure in the mountains, and getting some stuff done around the house and garage. My vacation this year looked like this:

Up at 6:00 Christmas morning and made coffee.
I got an XBox One and Battlefield 1 for I could play with my 40-year old adolescent friends online.
Got lots of other great stuff!
Worked a little in the basement on Boxing Day (the 26th).
My son, The Ruminator, flew in the day after Christmas.
Second Christmas morning with son on the 27th.
I put him to work that afternoon moving stuff in the garage and basement.
Pulled 4 circuits worth of wire in the garage.
Hung 3/4 of crown molding in the dining room.
Hired a carpenter to help with the finish of the crown molding and window install in dining room.
Hung pocket door and built last wall for bathroom downstairs with carpenter.
Installed structure in attic for chandelier installation.
Went to see Rogue One.
Loved it.
Snowboarding trip to Crystal Mountain in the Jeep.
The Ruminator rode really well
I am a fat old guy, but can still ride.
Owners rented the cabin we had reserved to someone else – insert grumpy face
Drove home.
Snuggled with wife.
Up early and drove to Snoqualmie for 2nd day of riding.
Glorious day in the mountains!
Watch a movie all together for New Year’s Eve.
Had family over on the 1st for long lunch.
Tried to edit snowboarding trip film.
Failed.
GoPro Studio sucks balls!
Serious online gaming session.
Brunch at Easy Street.
Got The Ruminator’s cracked iPhone glass fixed.
Picked up new kitchen floor tiles at Lowe’s special order desk.
Dinner with Nana.
Dropped off Ruminator at Airport.
Teared up in Jeep on the way to work.
Worked late first full day back to work in 2017 – an inauspicious start.

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Going Full Nerd Now – Star Wars & Conspiricy Theory

/ 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!

jar-jar

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…

Birthday list – 2016

/ Matt Talley / Leave a comment

In about 4 weeks I will celebrate the 14th anniversary of my 29th year.  I want cake (moist yellow cake with chocolate butter-cream frosting), snuggling, two fingers of a great scotch after lunch, lots of tiny cups of coffee all day, a nice glass of wine with a steak for dinner, laughter, and a few well thought out gifts. I will not be working that day and I plan to pamper myself with a haircut and a strait-razor shave.

Below is my birthday wish list for my wife, family and children.
Gifts that Keep giving:

  1. Heifer International:
  2. Doctors Without Borders/MSF
  3. Go give blood and send me a post card
  4. Habitat for Humanity
  5. Diabetes Research

Books:
Campaign Furniture by Chris Schwartz
Theodore Roosevelt: A Strenous Life
I could stand a Kindle Paperwhite
A volume on handplanes or a tome on traditional woodworking
Bees of the World by Mitchner
A Lost Art Press volume of The Essential Woodworker
Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow
James Krenov’s Cabinet Maker’s Notebook
Two Classic books on Shaker Furniture: here and here.

Stuff:
Forging class at the Pratt starting in October
Letters from my kids – written on actual paper.
A 3-Day Rally School Course
A bottle of Pre-Shave Oil from The Art of Shaving – Lavender
A couple of thoughtful cards
The iWatch 2. Simple black – the cheapest one
German Wheat Beer is always welcome
Zombie shooting targets
An Ash Pack Basket (Sling-style harness)
Amber 2ga. Plugs (bonus points if they have insect inclusions)
2ga. Dark Jade plugs
The AKcooltools Stainless/bronze Clamptite and the lg roll of stainless .041 wire
24 Provence lavender plants for my front yard
Tiffany blue silk tie and matching pocket square
These new bad-ass cufflinks
A Global Sashimi knife
Classic Cartoon DVDs (Wanrner Bros., Tex Avery, Bugs, Tom&Jerry, Loony Toons, Road Runner, etc…)
Christopher Ward Quartz Trident with black rubber strap

Booze:
A fine Anejo Tequila
Hakushu 12 Whisky
A bottle of Fronsac or Canon-Fronsac (Château Lafond, Château La Vieille Cure, La Dalphine…)
Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey
Porto (Cálem 2011 Vintage, Ramos Pinto, or a Taylor’s)
Glenfiddich 21

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

/ 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.

Truck tie loops

Truck Tie Downs 2012-3 (2)

Truck Tie Downs 2012-3 (1)

Truck Tie Downs 2012-3 (3)

Truck Tie Downs 2012-3 (4)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

What I Want Thursday – Febuary 2016 Edition

/ Matt Talley / Leave a comment

Below are the things that I really want and that are present for me today:

More time with my children and family.
I want to stick to my diet and workout schedule and not fall off the wagon and back into the cookie/café Mocha/lethargic/big-belly/back-hurting abyss.
For the house remodel to be done
For my Garage build to be 100% and my new lift and tools installed and waiting for me.
Growler or two from West Seattle Brewing Co.
Letters – written on actual paper – from my kids.
A longboard skateboard
I could stand a new Kindle
A handsome tweed vest – or two
Brown Redwing Engineer’s boots
Huge antique pattern lathe found in a barn or a PM4224 with all the add-ons.
A pair of 1/2 round and a pair of Snipe Bill molding planes
A 1.75 – 3Hp SawStop Table Saw
One fine compound sliding miter saw
>8″ joiner/planer
A Grizzly G0752 Benchtop Lathe and G0801 Vertical Mill

Getting a new garage in 2016!!!

/ Matt Talley / Leave a comment

Woohoo!!  It looks like we are a go for a new garage and some needed updates to our heat, plumbing, and wiring at the house.  I am meeting our builder this weekend and passing him a check (two checks actually, one is for the City of Seattle permit office…) and I will have a real garage and wood-shop by spring.  I will have room for a big lathe, cabinet saws, wood storage , my joiners workbench, room to assemble projects/furniture, a real dust collection system, and all my planes/saws/chisels/hand tools on one side.  On the other side of the shop will be a mini-machine/fabrication shop with a two post lift, lathe, end mill, welder, mobile paint booth, and work table…

I cannot tell you how stoked I am!  Seriously, I am all giddy about it.  I plan to make cool stuff, descend into super-nerdy, and will be voiding the shit out of warranties!

Here are the prelim drawings that are being submitted and a lay out of the shop floor.

Garage floor 3 Garage Floor 1 copy Garage floor 2 copy

Update:

Drawings sent to the city. Cross your fingers and pray with me that Planning is having a good day/week/month and these babies get a stamp.

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