Two holidays in a row, I’ve gone back to work more tired than I left. No matter how productive I’ve been, I can’t shake the feeling that my level of productivity was just way too low. It’s not like I haven’t enjoyed myself. March Break with the kids was excellent. We had some decent weather, one last snow, we got outside and did activities and made art and crafts and watched movies and played games and generally just had a great time. But this break, in spite of the fact…
We needed a very particular DSLR camera mount for our workbench – so we designed a custom one in Autodesk Fusion 360 and printed it out ourselves! I wish we had this when we were doing the PiGRRL Zero Unboxing video! Would have made shooting it way easier. You can find the STL file for the DSLR camera mount on Thingiverse right here!
There is no reason, in 2018, not to make a video game. The kids and I made their mom a pretty awesome Christmas present that I haven’t taken the time to tell you about until now. It turns out that it’s a story that’s longer in the making than I realized. Some years back I made a bold claim, as I’m known to do from time to time. It was made on this blog, publicly, in an attempt to keep myself honest. 2012 is the year I make a video…
We’re getting into electronics! When the Raspberry Pi Zero W came out, the kids and I tried to set up a Raspberry Pi to play games. As a console attached to the TV it never quite worked the way we wanted. The kids like the idea of the Game Boy Advance I’ve got kicking around the house, but there aren’t a lot of games for it that strike their fancy. So instead, we’re going to build our own handheld! We ordered the PiGRRL Zero parts kit from Adafruit, plus a…
It is about ninety seconds before the children need to be out the door to go to school. I find myself in conversation with my eldest. “Where’s the item that you take to school every single day?” I ask. “In the room that’s a mess because of my sister and I and the animals,” she replies. “Okay. Grab it please, we need to get you out the door.” “No. There’s a reason I won’t,” she says, voice rising. “In fact, I’m upset about it, as you can tell by the…
Nick, #cretindaddy over at DadLabs, sent us something in the mail. What could it be? SOMETHING FANTASTIC IS WHAT. Follow DadLabs! https://dadlabs.com/ https://www.instagram.com/dadlabs/ https://twitter.com/dadlabs https://www.youtube.com/user/DadLabs https://www.facebook.com/thedadlabs/
“You know what the most annoying thing you do is?” I admit, I wasn’t quite prepared for that question from Sprints. “I mean, when you put it that way – no, not really,” I laughed. “But go ahead.” She looked me straight in the eye, laid down her fork, and said, “You tell us you love us, like, all the time.” It’s true, I admit it. I’m pretty relentless with the affection. But she’s my Sprints. The Artist Formerly Known as Little Fish. The one who, for a brief time,…
I’ve told people not to ever throw out unfinished creative work. Completed creative work that you really hate, sure. The experience of creation and evaluation is more valuable than the product, in that case. But unfinished work? The beginning of something? Getting rid of that is like cutting out the warmup before a race. Why not go into a massive undertaking, like, say, to write a novel, already having stretched your muscles? 2016 in general was a massive undertaking, full of significant changes. Many of those changes were achievements of one sort…
The kids and I have been doing videos about working on our Star Wars movie. I think it’s high time to tell that story. In April 2013, NJ and I had been dating for about two years. I had effectively moved in, and I had been interacting with the kids for about 18 months, but still hadn’t fully shifted into “parent” mode. It was very much NJ and the kids, and me. We had just brought Leo to live with us a matter of weeks earlier. Our little fstar waramily…
“Knock knock,” I said. “Who’s there?” Whistler had told knock-knock jokes at me through the bathroom door for five minutes earlier. Clearly, she wasn’t done. Only this time, I was on the outside of the door, butting in on her quiet moment. “Sock delivery,” I said. That wasn’t a joke. I really did have an armful of socks. She was strong enough to carry her own laundry upstairs, but wasn’t quite strong enough yet that she could do so without spilling socks all over the stairs. “Sock delivery who?” “Sock…
A null result doesn’t mean a failed experiment I came into Rogue One: A Star Wars Story already a little bit salty. A child of the ‘90s, I have bitterly complained that I already knew the story of stealing the Death Star plans. In fact, I did it – I played that video game and the several that came after it, embodying the mercenary-cum-Rebel-hero Kyle Katarn, working with his partner Jan Ors to get the schematics to the Rebellion and then disrupt the Dark Trooper project. The game was Dark…
