Beware of This and That

Pier to Nowhere

August 19th, 2009 ryan

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Boredom set in and the motivation to carve a structure from once living biomass overcame the stagnant nature that pervades once the surge stops pulsing. OR, we built a damn porch in the middle of nowhere.

Highlight of my week was the repurposing of an old parachute, the typical use of which is to drop palettes of 1000 lbs or less. It was damn near blasphemous to cannibalize the thing, seams stretching as ribs to support the silk that was reprogrammed to catch sun and not air.

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Pier to nowhere. Bisected just in case we have to cut the thing in half for easy transportation.

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My vote for arranging the excess fabric at a tight right angle was shot down in favor of a more boudoir approach. wtf.

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Business as usual out here. Pondering a 250cc dirt bike so screw around with, there’s a vendor on base that rumored to have a hookup in town. Old hat at people saturation, the kind where the same group of 8 guys are within 6 feet 12 hours a day at work then another 10 as their bunk butts up to yours. No room for that on a bike, not to mention this place is like a giant bowl of brown flour begging to be tore up. Well, tore up with 250cc of gas powered um, angst.

Bringing the tv out here was a wise choice, been holing up in my fabric cave for hours a day and falling in to whatever media I came out here with, something I was never really able to capitalize on at home.

  1. Still rocking Red Faction by way of a mandatory completionist obsession, tiny dots on the map starkly contrasting eye  sores of oppression my sledge hammer wielding hero simply can’t ignore. The actual story missions are keeping my interest alongside the fully destructible buildings. A couple of bandwidth hurdles lay between me and what’s next in queue, namely Shadow Complex and the rest of the Fallout 3 DLC.
  2. Reading a lot of Gibson, military history, and various comic collections (100 Girls, Authority, The Boys, Transmet). Just purchased a mini DVI to HDMI adapter so I can upgrade from the blackbook’s 13″ to the flat screen’s 20. I have collection of ebooks that spans dimensions and time, in fact it’s so overbearing its organization supersedes any usable content. Dammit.
  3. No projects yet, the price point of entry for PEGGY is still a thorn in my side as will be its eventual transport back to the states. For some reason I imagine FedEx looking at the wired up circuit board and promptly having me cuffed. Which sucks because it’s been at the top of my Project List for, well, over a year. Typing two sentences has just convinced me to take the plunge regardless. Damn near therapeutic.

Here’s me and the chute’s apex. Prior to cinching back the whole deck was enveloped, someone with an IR thermometer measured 125. It was sweat tastic. Tiny beads of sawdust laced success.

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PotD – Suspended

August 9th, 2009 ryan

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Started Red Faction last night, because I really need another outlet -virtual or otherwise- in which I wander a dusty, barren landscape.

So. Video Games.

Gave up on finishing the repetitive exercise that was Afro Samurai. Every once in a while Samuel L. Jackson’s character would bust out some kung-fu flavored dialogue and my interest would be refueled but for the most part the game strikes me as little more than a notch in the board of mediums that the franchise has populated. I have the comics and anime in the media buffer, perhaps they’ll prompt a revisit.

Cleared the first town in Red Faction at one go, the above gaming configuration a testament to accidental ergonomic perfection. At nights when major components are hidden away power plugs and HDMI cables encircle, either above in parallel lines or below tucked beneath sheets and springs.

I’m enjoying the change of scenery but between Crackdown, Prototype, and now Red Faction I feel as though a break from the sandbox styled run-around-and-carjack-vehicles formula is on the horizon. Pity as I had slotted time out here for GTA IV.

If I can truck my xbox down to the tent (where the satt internet link dwells) I can fill up with the last Fallout 3 DLC and, you know, wander a different wasteland for a while.

I started a new campaign in War 3 as well.

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Updates

Been throwing pics up here and there. To be honest the landscape in this isolated pocket of Makeshift Democracy fails to inspire. More like international summer camp than a Foreign Country.

I have developed a thing for the MRAPs, though.

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Shot an updated version of My Day, Yesterday on a whim, should be up at flickr in the next couple of days.

Not much else to report. All the down time has me churning through media or sweating my ass off in the gym. Days of the week have failed to hold significance and 84 hour work weeks only measure is a biweekly pay stub. Scheduling has at least stabilized to where web classes are feasible so perhaps I’ll have something to show for 3 months in this dust pit other than a chunk of change.