Sunday, December 21, 2008

Sunday Paper Reading

Sunday is a good reading day as there is hardly anything on tv. Went out earlier to one of the closing Circuit Cities. Found 2.00 ink for my printer. The normal price is about twenty. Found a square Nano case for a gift also two dollars.

No bulk Exacto blades at Michaels. The tempature before going to lunch eighty degrees, afterwards sixty-five all in the span of thirty minutes.

Luminaria is tonight. We celebrate the season with paper bag lanterns. Very festive. I plan on doing a look back in 2008 podcast as there will be people out tonight. I have an open house to venture to as well.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Rox of Spazhouse vs Black Friday

http://www.needcoffee.com/2008/12/18/rox-black-friday/


Many thanks to Widget Walls for his wonderful sound editing for this report. Thanks to Silent Burt, my sister who drove us to this crazy insanity that is known as Black Friday.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

The Problem with Blogger

Blogger was not uploading any of the photos yesterday. And it seems that they are not loading today.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

The Spazhouse Research Library

So I am nearing completion to the Spazhouse Research Library. It it may be nothing like Jay Walker's library, which is amazing and I have thought using his library as a goal. http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-10/ff_walker?currentPage=all

I may not have Sputnick, but I have some neat items in my library to be proud of. I continued a Steampunk influence for the Art Lab and Library.

I utilized a font from the HP Lovecraft Society for the Ex Libris stencil on the floors. It is called Roman Black.



Here are some various views of the Library. The metal sheeting on the walls is to cover the T1-11 paneling that the former owners put up. I hated the idea of ripping down the paneling because it is such a pain. I tried painting it, that worked for a bit and I stumbled on the idea to hang old offset aluminum printing plates. This reflects a lot of light were the light source is very minimal. The book cases I collected from various antique shops. For years I used the old stand by, milk crates, but they never achieve the look of a library, just someone who needs to flee with their stuff in the middle of the night.

More to come Blogger seems a bit sluggish

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Cold Today

Just to let you know that it is indeed a cold day.

That is all.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

A Book review on Fuel for the Boiler a Steampunk Cookbook

I have a book review on a very clever Steampunk Cookbook called the Fuel for the Boiler by Elizabeth Stockton.

http://www.needcoffee.com/2008/11/15/steampunk-cookbook-fuel-boiler-review/#more-8543

Friday, November 14, 2008

New Weekend Justice Pod cast & And a short visit on The Unique Geek

Yours truly is on these podcasts for the week. If you scour in their archives I was also on the extended lengthy pre Halloween Pod cast.

I am also touting The Unique Geek Pod cast. I show up briefly due to a lull in combat in our Thursday D&D game.

http://www.needcoffee.com/

http://www.theuniquegeek.com/

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

A Pumpkin's last journey


So Halloween is over. I saw this very distinguished pumpkin waiting transportation to take him on his last journey. Thanksgiving seems to be a side note when you see the mega-holiday of Christmas looming over our heads.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

My Secret Lair


On the Unique Geek Forum site: http://groups.google.com/group/theuniquegeek. There is a post about villain lairs. Well your truly has one as well. It is my house of Spaz, or Spazhouse. In the listing of lairs there is one section that is missing should be called hiding in plain site. My house is hidden from the prying eyes of the Google satellite. From the street it looks like an ordinary small house. But my house has two camphor trees and a sweetgum standing sentry.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Troll Dolls and Bicycles


My Sister gave me this 10 inch troll woman from Norway. They bring good luck to the owner. I have had her for a good number of years. I like the fact that Norwegians believe in trolls. They know you can't see them but that does not mean they do not exists.

We had a cool bike event this evening. Not quite critical mass but fun any way. There were also some neat bike movies for the event.

Checkout the www.needcoffee.com The latest Weekend Justice has me on it. Check it out.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Little Hot


I thought I would post a toy picture a day since I received a great 18 inch Hellboy Figure. I have had great luck using toys as subject matter

Since I was food shopping I thought I would take toy and camera with me. I shot a few images. I like this one the best.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

More Steampunk influenced Kitchen images






As I have said I am happy with the way the floors came out. The paint job on the some of the appliances are nice as well. There was some over spray left on some walls. I could not find masking tape at the time.

Well here are some photos I took this morning as the light hit the kitchen nicely.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Steampunk Inspired kitchen




So after days of ripping up linoleum and tar. I sanded. Since my kitchen is small I did not see the need to rent a sander. I own a belt sander and it woks well. As I have said earlier, I never remove anything while I am working. So wood dust went everywhere. I vacced and sanded in turns. I started with an 40 grit, to remove left over tar and paint. There was paint as well as linoleum. Then I went to an 80 then 120.

When it came to coating the floors I like Minwax Polycrylic waterbased poly. Clean up is a snap and you can apply a new coat in a number of hours. So I used a plan of coating the floor at night and then sand an re-apply the next evening.

There was some water damage, so there is some color change in the floor as well as some of the planks have some gouging near the sink. I think this adds character since now I am thinking to create a Steampunk inspired kitchen. Not necessarily gear and such but in color scheme. There was a BBC America show I enjoyed called House Invaders. The house would just add bits and pieces to revamp an area. In the previous images the cabinet doors are metallic green. This time I thought a gold copper mix would look nice. I like the over all green color on the walls and the Brown in the ceiling so I left that alone and just concentrated on painting the doors the cover to the water heater, shelves, clock, and fridge. I am overall happy with the results.

I did spend some money on a clean up helper. I asked a friend of mine if his daughter would like to make some money. My sister's family moved away so I had to look outside of the family for help.

Anferny, you dodged that bullet.

Anyway, since I neglected to move dinner wear out I spent a lot of time washing and Lizzie (The helper) dusted all the upstairs books and washed horizontal surfaces. Thanks Lizzie.

Anyway I will post other photos later that shows the full kitchen.

Uncovering Hardwood floors





Like all home improvement projects that I have ever worked on it always starts out as my thought that the project would be easy. One morning on a whim I was contemplating the flooring in my kitchen. I had placed down peel and stick a few years ago and of course they never last and you can never really clean them once you trash them. I have noticed that the kitchen floor seemed thicker than the hallway. So I took a flashlight and chisel and discovered hardwood floors! From the hallway into the kitchen the linoleum pulled up quickly. I thought wow this should be pretty easy. Take an evening rip up the floors, then sand, and polyeurithane. what could be so difficult?

Well the three layers of linoleum and the tar holding the ancient layer to the pine floor. One night turned to three or four with a heat gun and chisel. I had to heat the tar to near melting and then scrape it off. Then I would use a large scraper if I could het a foothold on section.

Yeah and I forgot, I never remove stuff out of a work area. I left all my dishes and what not, in the kitchen while I worked. The photos shows removal of the flooring.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Steampunk Dahon Folding Bike



As a person who does not own a car but loves to travel. This was a great buy. I have taken it on trains and buses. For more information on my biking experience check out my interview here: http://bikejax.blogspot.com/2008/05/roxanne-living-free-car-free-in.html


Well Iam also a fan of the Steampunk movement. I am a big fan of Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and everything Dickensian. Though my taste are ecclectic I like the idea that DIY Steampunk movement is about creating one of a kind items. For more information about Steampunk: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/08/style/08punk.php

I don't live the total steampunk life as I like to look of mordernism as well. So I am ecclectic punk.

For a project to show off at Dragon Con, The largest Sci-Fi Media event in the U.S. takes place in Atlanta, Ga every Labor Day weekend I decided to pimp my ride. I took my bike with me last your to zip from hotel to hotel with great success.

So I embarked some cosmetic changes to the bike. The thing about a folding bike is that weight ratio. With the bike packed into its bike bag and panniers and some luggage it weighs about 45lbs. Above 50lbs you have to pay for your luggage. So I decided to go a creative route of faux painting and some metal work. The paint I used were enamels that one uses for high quality model painting. Testors works well.

At one point I was thinking of adding tentacles for a more Lovecraftian look but really gave more thought to Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues under the Sea and Around the World in Eighty Days. But I did add a stylized Cthulhu monster ead near the seat post.

The letters that spell the name Dahon is called Black Letter and can be found on the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society's Font CD. These were cut out of Aluminum printing plates that we had no use for at work. In the Victorian era aluminum was at a premium and it is easy to cut.

I utilized line tape that was prevalent in layout before the advent of desktop publishing. I was trying out a wood type look on the fenders. The Panniers or Saddlebags I recolored those, as there were a faded grey to a nice hunter green. A few cog embellishments and a really nice Brooks Touring saddle added to the over all effect. In the end I decided to call the Bike a Dahon Passepartout. Passepartout was the manservant to Philias Fogg from Around the World in Eighty Days. This would be the prefect bike to take on their travels as they raced around the world.


Please excuse the jumble of photos as I am still new to the placement of items on Blogger. The Second The Second Photo is a stock photo of a Dahon Boardwalk that I started with.










Steampunk Case for my iTouch





I am not sure what to make of blogging but, I thought I could show some of you Steampunk afficiandos my iTouch Babbage case. Sorry I do not have any work in progress images.

I used Basswood for the case with salvaged Italian leather and parts from an old cigar box.

The typeface for the the name Babbage is called Black Letter. You can find this type face on the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society's Font CD on their website: http://www.cthulhulives.org/toc.html.

24 Days until Dragon Con 08!

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Day Light Savings Time

Even when you get nough sleep for day light savings, you always feel like you are hung over.