Thrashing and Agile crafting

Am totally thrashing on crafting now. I've got intense urges to draw (with reasonable results), perhaps in feverish anticipation of the Inkling I plan to buy the second they go on sale. I've also got a half-skinned Zergling plush to finish, a Frankenturret plush to rev, a Frankenturret model to do final touches on, a Settlers of Catan quilt to limp along with, and a Halloween costume to plan. ... So instead I've found myself playing Mass Effect the last couple nights to chill. And any time I do pick up a craft, all I can think of is the other things I should be working on (or worse yet the nigglings of new ideas).

Despite this, I have been making minor progress. The weekends have been clobbered recently with socializing (parents in town! friends hanging out!) which leaves me only the evenings to squeeze in an hour or two of something (given how often Adam and I eat out and how much time that takes up... who would have guessed hanging out with your S.O. would consume so much time!)

I dislike the concept of Agile software development as I've actually encountered it so far. I think the ideas are nice and reasonable enough, but the way it has evolved at work is very displeasing... But! Let that not sully the entire Agile idea. I feel my recent (ongoing & diverse) Portal 2 projects sort of embody some of the basic ideas... Recently I was under the impression I could make a cute Frankenturret plushie that met the following requirements :

low complexity

machine sewable

durable

no non-snuggable parts

cute

small-ish

These are all things I'm bad at and need practice with. Which means it shouldn't be surprising that the first results look like shit:

The scale is too small to be reasonably machine sewable... I've no experience with fleece (though I must say it is awesome!) and I've stared too long at frankenturret details to easily abbreviate it. So much failure... But the point is iteration! I can't just expect it to be perfect on the first go. I've got to rev my designs, put forward due diligence to get each rev as close to the "done" state as possible, but not obsessively dwell or grind to a halt if it doesn't turn out the way I like it. Try again! Am giving up on the machine sewable portion rule (at least for the head) but hope to hold onto my other goals. If anyone has any ideas, I'd be very open to them!! The 'less is more' design concept for 'cute' is a struggle I seem never to be able to win.

At least I have my stalwart Catan quilt to stand by. It lives on the empty stereo box now and is mainly Duck's perch in the den. I'm down to 5 tiles to edge and then it's playable!!


The darkening days has it's pros to counter the obvious cons. The season of coding approaches. I'm excited to be getting back to the Tichu project soon. Coding while the sun is up is ridiculous... but now it's well into dark by the time I get home... which means my time will have yet another contender. Along those lines, I was at work until 10-something tonight. Working on a KnockoutJS demo for our project as it shifts into the wondrous realm of JavaScript. Holy poop- Knockout is flipping awesome. Seriously! I've no doubt I'll be doing the Tichu client with it.

Portal 2 : Frankenturret replica round 3 (4?)

Pre-mature posting, yes, but I wanted to get something out this week at least...

May I present the (almost) finished round 3 of the Portal 2 Frankenturret! (It's more done then it looks- I have all the corners and edging cast and ready to go)




Despite one minor hiccup, I'm extremely happier with this one. Itterating on a project can lead to better results! Who knew!

Some quick facts about this puppy (a more in-depth post when I finish it off):

Better / newer cast pieces. Remember to sand. And sand some more. At all stages. And then dremel the sucker after you cast it. And then sand some more.

That's a sawed off tick-tack case for the body there. Always knew those suckers would be useful!!

The neck and leg joints/extensions are parts from my forever-useful ripped up type-writer (it was dead when I got it! and electric! and I would never think of harming my working non-electric one). That sucker is just a parts heaven. Not only is the metal/pivots from there, the springs at the end of everything are from there too.

Hot glue will look tacky. Doesn't matter how hard you try to be neat about it. Tacky. But what else can I use!?!

Tool dip & solder & thought-out electronics are not tacky. Yeah.



Working on it Monday was really invigorating. Makes me want to do a couple more projects in the same vein. There's just something about it... I think it's a mix of how wonderful Portal 2 is as a game and how simple the designs are. They do a fantastic job of humanizing these little robots. Or, at least... animalizing them? There was a YouTube comment that- dare I confess- I liked which pointed out that the Frankenturret is basically like a pet hermit crab.



It's not just me who's head-over-heals for these puppies... There are a number of (more) awesome projects out there then just mine. A couple links :

The much linked to papercraft one. I've not given it a go yet (paper's not really my medium) but I will at some point...

Not all replicas need to be very detailed to still be cute. I'm thinking of making a plush version based on this guy's clay model (already received approval to do so)

The number of people who humanize the turrets in fan art is kinda' surprising. Also, the fan art in general can be kinda' awesome.

This little future over-lord is pretty sweet, even if he is the original turret model

One could even adopt a frankenturret style of fashion

In closing, here's a video of me fidgeting with the work so far... I don't think you realize how fun flicking those little spring-legs is!

Sickness & Sanding

Alas. I've been sick all week, which hindered my attempt for regular blog posts... I should have stayed home longer on Tuesday because of it (my going into work this week has lead to my saddest, most incoherent series of SVN checkins ever). But because I forged (floundered) ahead through work on Tuesday I deemed myself healthy enough to attend the very first TechShop class I had ever signed up for.

I am now certified for the vacuum forming machine in the SF location. Woot. Now I just have to shell out the rediculous $$ required for a membership in order to get into the building (day passes are $50! Month passes are $125!) It was an interesting class, and fun. Pricey, but whatever. I was the only one who was A: a total noob B: a girl C: brought their own parts to test vacuum forming. I brought several of my clay and resin pieces from the Portal 2 project to mold- got to use 2 sheets and now I have just enough parts to assemble 1 Frankenturret from the plastic bits... need to paint & cut them out however... blah

My sickness-clouded brain really isn't up for anything complicated... but I have been able to attempt casting and sanding of results... so it's not like I've *just* been laying on the couch with a vacant gaze and drooling... although there has definitely been a lot of that. And tissues... I've gone through, like, 3 boxes of tissues...

The sanding never stops... it's starting to get at me. Blah. See, I made a mold of the full (collapsed) turret form and now I've got to cast it several times and cut the shapes out from the whole. Loooots of dremel work. Kicken' up a looot of dust. Maybe that's why I'm sick? Will probably pull together my Frankenturret v3 this weekend from the new molds. I've been thinking for some crazy reason that I want to turn it into a planter... I've yet to have anything die on me... I've got a Edamame seedling in a tiny bottle, so I guess that's a good test of how long it'll take to die... It's so cute! The bottle is maybe 3" high?

Gardening && !Zen

First off-- Gardening. I mentioned that I had started trying to grow things.... well, originally I was doing it wrong. I was using a spray bottle and misting my pots... and nothing was growing... once I switch to actually, you know, pouring water on the plants some of them started to grow! Wow! My first round of Edamame and Cucumbers have been growing for a couple days now (despite planting them, like, 3 weeks ago)

In the mean time, I've been distracted / mutated my interest into terrariums... but I don't have any moss or small plants... so I've bastardized the thought by trying to grow my vegetable seeds in glass bottles*...

The basil has started poking out already (5 days in) and I can see the cucumber seed turning green just below the surface (yay glass walls?) Adam points out that this wont work in the end... I'm fine if the plants just don't die... I doubt they'll seed/produce (it'd be SO cool if they did!) but I don't think they'll fall over, wilt, and die just because they're in bottles... but maybe they will...

Current vegetable selection is : Cucumber, Edamame, Basil, Parsley, Pole Beans, and Snow Peas. So far the parsley is the only one that flat out failed to grow... Edamame is AWESOME** and the best grower and the cucumber will desperately need to be transplanted to a larger container soon...

Trying to make the most of this happy 3 day weekend. Golly I like my weekends... There's some good and some bad so far though (and it's not even over yet!)

The Bad : I'm trying to do another rev of my frankenturret project. Going to Maker Faire inspired me to try and "finish" stuff better... so I made another set of corners and head and made a mold out of them (requiring an $$ batch of new supplies... ) but it hasn't gone anywhere... realizing I wasted a good portion of a day making shitty molds and casting pieces I can't use really took the wind out of my sails.... Overall my real negative take-away from this is that I don't like trying polish/finish a piece. It just takes too much work! I tried to find the piece/zen in really focusing on something and... it just made me frustrated. Blah.

The Good : Throwing money at craft supplies makes me happy! I got some white pigment and not only does it make the resin super awesome white, it also thins the resin and extends the workable time and makes it *much* easier to cast! Yay! I also got new bits for the dremel a co-worker is lending me and it's super fun! Also, I spent a good portion of Saturday at Coffee Bar warming up my Python again and working on the Tichu game. I really like the idea I've got right now on how to handle game flow... still a long way off from completion...

There was a parade that went right in front of our house! (well, okay, the staging area did) and Adam has been super nice and making me/bringing me delicious foods. Even Duck, the cat, has been somewhat tolerable this weekend. We've been bonding over our love of the deck while I work with the plants and he watches birds.



...and now I'm off to a memorial day B.B.Q.! Maybe I'll swim in the ocean?!?


* side note 1 : OMG! I've started drinking vanilla flavored frappuccinos at work! They are insanely delicious!! How did I not know about this before? Also, the plastic label peels off super easily and the bottle left behind is rather cute... I'd drink several a day if Adam didn't point out how ridiculously unhealthy/sugared they are... sigh... limiting myself to one every other day now...

** side note 2 : no, really, Edamame is AWESOME! It just SHOOTS up out of the dirt! Pow! The packet said growing inside wasn't recommended but that's how I started it anyway. The poor thing definitely didn't have enough light, hence the sideways growing. I moved it out to the porch the other day and I think it's already starting to zig bad upwards...

The Portal 2 : Frankenturret Project

While watching Adam play Portal 2 I was so struck by the sight of the frankenturrets that I swore right then and there to make one. I started on the project the very next day.... this was... what... 2 weeks ago? Only now finished a full version.


Photo taken with Adam's iPhone. Better pictures and complete blog post for my art blog later.

This is rev 2... Rev 1 had better parts I think but was glued to wood and had a paper center... Now that I've recently acquired (on loan) a dremel I will definitely be making a better rev 3.... Also, next time I wont be using finger nail polish as my paint...

Has single pivot heads (will have 2 pivot ones next rev) and 2 pivot legs with springs on one of the joints (will use less tension in the springs next time). Makes a satisfying clicking sound when you fidget with them... Only stays in the "extended" leg pose when on carpet/high friction surfaces... Also, don't get me started on the body... this is actually rev 2.75 or whatever given how many times I tried to figure out how to fill the internal space.... All the white pieces are resin casts...




The below is a video of me fidgeting with the piece...


In the end it's really more of a "inspired by" look rather then a true-to-the-original replica. Good practice for me at least on following through and finishing something.

Anyone particularly interested recieving a copy of one? Any feedback on the overal look? (other then how stupid the inside looks? Advice on how to fill that space? Have tried paper and clay and neither worked out great...)