Ah, Spring!

My neighbour, Marnie, has a crabapple tree on her front lawn.

I grew up with one of these on the old Greybishop family patch, and while gorgeous in the Spring, it's possibly the worst Fall yard rake/driveway scrape you can imagine.

I've taken a few shots to give you a sense of just how glorious these trees are before they fruit.






I don't know what they're called, but I'm told they're a weed.
Don't care. I think they're purty.


And finally, the flower I have the most success in cultivating.

The END of the Purple Hatch. And the beginning of something BETTER!

As of today, May 13 2008, Greybishop's Board is TWO years old!

To celebrate, I'm making a MAJOR change.

1 year, 8 months, 19 days ago, I opened a free forum called "The Purple Hatch". Actually, at first it didn't even have a name and we just called it "The Forum". Eventually we named it and it's been a cyber home to a great group of people ever since.

Well, as of today, I'm shutting it down.

Okay, okay. I'm upgrading it to a new forum with Personal Messaging, the ability to post pictures, links, quote posts easily, custom smilies, avatars and a much easier to follow thread set up. On top of all that, no more annoying pop-ups or irritating women asking you to type your message and let them say it.

Didn't mean to scare you.

Well yeah, I did, but just a little.

This version of the Purple Hatch will remain open for a little while, say two weeks or a month and then it will be wiped clean and only a pointer to the new site will remain.

Each of the members will receive an e-mail from me with sign up information for the new site.

You will all have the opportunity to create your own profile with a signature and an avatar and you will have a say in the addition of new smilies, new topics and new features. You will also have the ability to send and receive e-mail and private messages from other members or to opt out of those options.

I've had my Super Beta Team testing the features and functions of the new site and we've got many of the bugs worked out and a set of decent instructions for everyone to use that will help explain all the new toys.

The only (very small) inconvenience is that I have to individually activate each account as you guys sign up for the service, so please be patient for the next day or two while I play catch up and get everyone activated.

The new site is ready to go now, and even if your account isn't activated yet you can go ahead and look around a bit at the rules and instructions.

The activation is a one time only delay and after that you will be free to post and chat just as you do here, only with a lot more fun stuff to enhance the experience.

As usual, there are rules and I ask everyone to spend a minute or two reading the Do's and Do Not's as well as the short instructions on the new features. I'll be happy to help if your having trouble with any of the new stuff, but don't be surprised if it takes me a while to get to your help request if you ask a question in the next few days.

Oh, I suppose you'd like a link now?

http://95106.forums.motigo.com/

The Purple Hatch is no more.
Long live The Purple Hatch II!!!!

Another Amazing Find by Sawsee!

Again, I'm going to offer apologies to my good buddy Sawsee and cross post something he has on his blog.

You and I will never have the opportunity to leave the gravity well of this planet. As unfortunate as that reality is, there is little any of us can do about it. Even if "Space Tourism" becomes a reality, the simple fact is that the low Earth orbit achieved by such a venture would still be inside the gravity well of our home planet. The astronauts who travelled to the moon are the only humans to come close to leaving that gravity well, but since Luna is trapped in orbit around Earth, they did not accomplish the feat either.

One day, humans will visit Mars and that will be the first time we will truly slip the surly bonds.

For the vast, vast majority of humans, even low Earth orbit is beyond our reach.

The stars are not beyond the reach of human thought, however. Between now and November 1, 2008 there exists a unique opportunity to send 500 words of your thoughts soaring beyond the gravity well of this tiny planet.

That amazing opportunity comes courtesy of the Kepler Spacecraft. When Kepler launches, it will carry with it a DVD copy of messages from people like us. People who will likely never have another opportunity to speak to the stars and to the future.

I encourage you all to click here and send your thoughts to the stars and that unknowable future.

There may never be another chance.

As you might have guessed, I already put my 500 cents on board. They even give you a chance to download a nifty certificate to show that you participated:



When this message is found and translated, I will be long dead, long dust. Those reading it will be as different from I as I am from the first humans who harnessed fire, perhaps even more so.

Yet for all our differences, we share something; the longing to know.

The longing to know what is over the rise, across the water, past the moon, beyond the stars.

For this reason we commit this craft to the cold void of space, in the hope of finding other planets like our own and perhaps to one day make contact with beings like ourselves.

It is even remotely possible that this message is reaching just such a being and not the long distant progeny of the third planet of the star we call Sol.

I wish I could offer this greeting in person, whoever you are, wherever you come from.

In a small way this message and the ones with it offer a measure of immortality. Not for myself, nor even those I know, but for the entire race. By the time this message is retrieved and translated, not only will I be long dead and long dust, but the civilization that I know shall also be long past extinct.

I offer my tiny voice from the past to an unimaginable future.

If the technology exists to find this archive on this tiny craft in the vastness of space, I envy just how much more is known and knowable now. As of the writing of this message, we have not found a world that could reasonably be expected to cradle life like our own. We are barely able to send members of our species as far as our local satellite, let alone far enough to find and retrieve this craft at the distance it is now.

I envy a future free of those limitations.

With a limit on the number of words each person can send, the messages on this craft are too short to say much.

Why go to the trouble of sending so few words across the ages?

If that long dead ancestor of mine struggling to harness the power of fire had been able to send a short message across the centuries, the text of that message, the heft of those ancient words would mean more to me than all the artifacts dug by all the archeologists in history. I would treasure them beyond all things.

As it is, we scrabble in the dirt, piecing together a picture of what that long dead ancestor did with his life and by extension what might have been important to him and what he might have thought.

This archive and the messages it holds are our precious gift to you. These voices you have found in the cosmic wilderness offer you something more than just guesses about our thoughts, our hopes, our lives.

Listen to the voices. Treasure them.

They offer you the opportunity to know.

James Richardson, Homo sapiens, Sol III.

And they said my video gaming would go nowhere.

This has to be the coolest thing I've seen all month, and I've seen some cool stuff this month!

From Eurekalert.org:

Gamers have devoted countless years of collective brainpower to rescuing princesses or protecting the planet against alien invasions. This week researchers at the University of Washington will try to harness those finely honed skills to make medical discoveries, perhaps even finding a cure for HIV.

A new game, named Foldit, turns protein folding into a competitive sport. Introductory levels teach the rules, which are the same laws of physics by which protein strands curl and twist into three-dimensional shapes – key for biological mysteries ranging from Alzheimer's to vaccines.


Foldit's logo invites people around the world to "solve puzzles for science. "

After about 20 minutes of training, people feel like they're playing a video game but are actually mouse-clicking in the name of medical science. The free program is at http://fold.it/.

The game was developed by doctoral student Seth Cooper and postdoctoral researcher Adrien Treuille, both in computer science and engineering, working with Zoran Popovic, a UW associate professor of computer science and engineering; David Baker, a UW professor of biochemistry and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator; and David Salesin, a UW professor of computer science and engineering. Professional game designers provided advice during the game's creation.

"We're hopefully going to change the way science is done, and who it's done by," said Popovic, who presented the project today at the Games for Health meeting in Baltimore. "Our ultimate goal is to have ordinary people play the game and eventually be candidates for winning the Nobel Prize."

Proteins, of which there are more than 100,000 different kinds in the human body, form every cell, make up the immune system and set the speed of chemical reactions. We know many proteins' genetic sequence, but don't know how they fold up into complex shapes whose nooks and crannies play crucial biological roles.


The Foldit homepage, http://fold.it.

Computer simulators calculate all possible protein shapes, but this is a mathematical problem so huge that all the computers in the world would take centuries to solve it. In 2005, Baker developed a project named Rosetta@home that taps into volunteers' computer time all around the world. But even 200,000 volunteers aren't enough.

"There are too many possibilities for the computer to go through every possible one," Baker said. "An approach like Rosetta@home does well on small proteins, but as the protein gets bigger and bigger it gets harder and harder, and the computers often fail.

"People, using their intuition, might be able to home in on the right answer much more quickly."

Rosetta@home and Foldit both use the Rosetta protein-folding software. Foldit is the first protein-folding project that asks volunteers for something other than unused processor cycles on their computers or Playstation machines. Foldit also differs from recent human-computer interactive games that use humans' ability to recognize images or interpret text. Instead, Foldit capitalizes on people's natural 3-D problem-solving skills.

The intuitive skills that make someone good at playing Foldit are not necessarily the ones that make a top biologist. Baker says his 13-year-old son is faster at folding proteins than he is. Others may be even faster.

"I imagine that there's a 12-year-old in Indonesia who can see all this in their head," Baker says.

Eventually, the researchers hope to advance science by discovering protein-folding prodigies who have natural abilities to see proteins in 3-D.

"Some people are just able to look at the game and in less than two minutes, get to the top score," said Popovic. "They can't even explain what they're doing, but somehow they're able to do it."


David Baker's user page. Foldit includes tools to create online profiles, chat with other members and form teams of players who have complementary skills.

The game looks like a 21st-century version of Tetris, with multicolored geometric snakes filling the screen. A team that includes a half-dozen UW graduate and undergraduate students spent more than a year figuring out how to make the game both accurate and engaging. They faced some special challenges that commercial game developers don't encounter.

"We don't know what the best result is, so we can't help people or hint people toward that goal," Popovic explained. The team also couldn't arbitrarily decide to make one move worth 1,000 bonus points, since the score corresponds to the energy needed to hold the protein in that shape.

Almost 1,000 players have tested the system in recent weeks, playing informal challenges using proteins with known shapes. Starting this week, however, the developers will open the game to the public and offer proteins of unknown shapes. Also starting this week, Foldit gamers will face off against research groups around the world in a major protein-structure competition held every two years.

Beginning in the fall, Foldit problems will expand to involve creating new proteins that we might wish existed – enzymes that could break up toxic waste, for example, or that would absorb carbon dioxide from the air. Computers alone cannot design a protein from scratch. The game lets the computer help out when it's a simple optimization problem – the same way that computer solitaire sometimes moves the cards to clean up the table – letting the player concentrate on interesting moves.

Eventually, the researchers hope to present a medical nemesis, such as HIV or malaria, and challenge players to devise a protein with just the right shape to lock into the virus and deactivate it. Winning protein designs will be synthesized in Baker's lab and tested in petri dishes. High-scoring players will be credited in scientific publications the way that top Rosetta@home contributors already are credited for their computer time.

"Long-term, I'm hoping that we can get a significant fraction of the world's population engaged in solving critical problems in world health, and doing it collaboratively and successfully through the game," Baker said. "We're trying to use the brain power of people all around the world to advance biomedical research."

Foldit includes elements of multiplayer games in which people can team up, chat with other players and create online profiles. Over time the researchers will analyze people's moves to see how the top players solve puzzles. This information will be fed back into the game's design so the game's tools and format can evolve.

The research is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Microsoft Corp. and Adobe Systems Inc., and through fellowships at Nvidia Corp. and Intel Corp.

The game can be played on Macintosh and Windows computers.

Happy Mother's Day Ladies!

Some cyber-flowers for all the Mom's out there.

I hope somebody got y'all breakfast in bed today!

And the Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth...

And if you try to steal it from us, we'll hack into it and use it to nab your sorry ass.

From LoHud.com:

WHITE PLAINS - Smile, you're busted.

A tech-savvy White Plains woman whose apartment was burglarized solved the crime herself after she was able to log on to her stolen laptop, photograph one of the suspects with it and get photos of another, police said.

Edmon Shahikian, 23, of 13 Cobbling Rock Road, Katonah, and Ian Frias, 20, of 1609 E. 174th St., the Bronx, were picked up at their homes Wednesday night after the victim turned the pictures over to police. The police said they recovered most of the $5,000 worth of electronics stolen in the burglary.

"Our victim did a phenomenal job," said Lt. Eric Fischer, commander of the Detective Division. "She knew her computer, and she let us know as soon as she obtained the information. We rolled on it immediately, and the result is the arrest of two burglary suspects and the recovery of most of the stolen property."

The burglary was reported April 27, when three roommates returned to their Ridgeview Avenue apartment about 10 p.m. to discover that it had been ransacked.

Among the items taken were two laptops, two flat-screen televisions, two iPods, gaming consoles, DVDs and computer games. Police found no sign of force.

On Tuesday, police said, one of the victims, who works at The Apple Store in The Westchester mall, received a call from a friend asking her if she was online.

The victim said no, and was told by the friend that his computer showed her as being logged onto the Internet.

At that point, police said, the victim signed onto another computer and used the "Back to My Mac" program to determine that her stolen MacIntosh laptop indeed was signed onto the Web and that someone was using it to shop online. She then activated the stolen computer's camera, allowing her to "see" what was in front of the laptop.

At first, police said, she saw only an empty chair. But a short time later, they said, she was able to photograph a man, Shahikian, sitting in front of her stolen laptop. The victim then was able to find photos of Frias using the computer after it had been stolen, police said.

Fischer said the victim did not know either man but showed the photos to one of her roommates, who recognized them as having attended a get-together at the apartment a few weeks before the burglary.

Police said Shahikian and Frias apparently are friends of a friend of the victims.

The computer-savvy victim contacted police, gave them the tell-tale photos, and the arrests were made a short time later.

Shahikian and Frias are charged with second-degree burglary and fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, both felonies.

Bail and court information were unavailable.

Frias and Shahikian were arrested last year on charges of criminal possession of marijuana, a felony, after police recovered 3 pounds of marijuana worth about $7,500 in a Jeep they were in. The dispositions of their cases were not immediately available.

Ah, sweet geek justice.

Platypus. An animal weird enough to blog about.

A great article from USAToday.com:

SYDNEY, Australia — Scientists said they have mapped the genetic makeup of the platypus — one of nature's strangest animals with a bill like a duck's, a mammal's fur and snake-like venom.

The researchers, whose analysis of the platypus genome was published Thursday in the journal Nature, said it could help explain how mammals, including humans, evolved from reptiles millions of years ago.

The platypus is classed as a mammal because it has fur and feeds its young with milk. It flaps a beaver-like tail. But it also has bird and reptile features — a duck-like bill and webbed feet, and lives mostly underwater. Males have venom-filled spurs on their heels.

"At first glance, the platypus appears as if it was the result of an evolutionary accident," said Francis S. Collins, director of the U.S. National Human Genome Research Institute, which funded the study.

"But as weird as this animal looks, its genome sequence is priceless for understanding how mammalian biological processes evolved," Collins said in a statement.

The research showed the animal's multifaceted features are reflected in its DNA with a mix of genes that crosses different classifications of animals, said Jenny Graves, an Australian National University genomics expert who co-wrote the paper.

"What we found was the genome, just like the animal, is an amazing amalgam of reptilian and mammal characteristics with quite a few unique platypus characteristics as well," she told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Scientists believe all mammals evolved from reptiles, and the animals that became platypuses and those that became humans shared an evolutionary path until about 165 million years ago when the platypus branched off. Unlike other evolving mammals, the platypus retained characteristics of snakes and lizards, including the pain-causing poison that males can use to ward off mating rivals, Graves said.

More than 100 scientists from the United States, Australia, Japan and other nations took part in the research, using DNA collected from a female platypus named Glennie.

Their work adds to the growing list of animals whose genetic makeup has been unraveled.

By comparing platypus genes to those of humans and other mammals, scientists hope to fill in gaps in knowledge about mammals' evolution and better identify certain species' specific traits.

Des Cooper, an evolutionary biologist at the University of New South Wales who did not take part in the research, said it represented a big step forward in the world's knowledge of mammals.

"Platypuses are often thought of as primitive because they lay eggs," Cooper said. "This paper demonstrates there is a mixture of characters, which they share with other mammals, and of highly specialized attributes."

Graves said the research contained some surprises, such as the conclusion that genes which determine sex in a platypus are similar to those of a bird, not a mammal. Researchers also found genes that indicate platypuses — which rely on electrosensory receptors in their bills to navigate as they rummage with closed eyes in waterways — may also be able to smell underwater.

Unique to Australia, the platypus has confounded observers for centuries. Aboriginal legend explained it as the offspring of a duck and an amorous water rat. When the British Museum received its first specimen in 1798, zoologist George Shaw was so dubious he tried to cut the pelt with scissors to make sure the bill had not been stitched on by a taxidermist.

Platypuses live in the wild along most of Australia's east coast. Their numbers are not accurately known because they are notoriously shy. Hunted for years for their pelts, they have been protected since the early 1900s and are not considered to be endangered, though scientists say their habitat is vulnerable to human development.


Thanks to Lady-in-Gray for the head's up!

I have no words.

From dailymail.co.uk:

A male orangutan, clinging precariously to overhanging branches, flails the water with a pole, trying desperately to spear a passing fish.

It is the first time one has been seen using a tool to hunt.



The extraordinary image, a world exclusive, was taken in Borneo on the island of Kaja, where apes are rehabilitated into the wild after being rescued from zoos, private homes or even butchers' shops.

"Orang hutan" means "forest man" in one of Indonesia's many languages and our long-armed cousins do indeed show a remarkable ability to mimic our behaviour.

This individual had seen locals fishing with spears on the Gohong River.

Although the method required too much skill for him to master, he was later able to improvise by using the pole to catch fish already trapped in the locals' fishing lines.

The image is part of a series taken for a new book, The Thinkers Of The Jungle, which also includes the first photograph of an orangutan swimming.

Thinkers Of The Jungle, by Gerd Schuster, Willie Smits and Jay Ullal, is published by Ullmann Publishing on May 5.

In an extraordinary coincedence, Sawsee has just posted an article about elephants that paint portraits of themselves at his blog. Another example of our animal friends adapting and exceeding the limits we assumed they had.

Awesome.

Now, we just have to organize an airlift of typewriters to Borneo...

That's right. It tasted like chicken.

From timesonline.co.uk:

For all its appearance as a ferocious predator, Tyrannosaurus Rex was just an overgrown chicken, researchers have found.

Analysis of protein preserved within a fossil bone has provided molecular evidence to support the theory that dinosaurs evolved into birds.

Similarities between bone structure and the discovery of feather-like remains on dinosaur fossils have previously been cited, but scientists have now found the first molecular link.

Collagen preserved within a T. Rex bone was broken down and analysed with a mass spectrometer for its amino acid content, which could then be compared to other species. Researchers then compared the molecular profile of chickens and ostriches to that of T. Rex and found a close match. They now hope to carry out further tests to establish which type of bird is most closely linked to the predator.

“We determined that T. Rex grouped with birds – ostrich and chicken – better than any other organism that we studied,” John Asara, from the American Beth Israel Deaconess Medical School in Boston, said.

“We also show that it groups better with birds than modern reptiles, such as alligators and green anole lizards. Is it an overgrown chicken? Maybe it is.”

The study, reported in the journal Science, strengthens and expands initial findings last year that linked the dinosaur to birds. “We have now done robust calculations and have a very, very high confidence in this relationship,” Dr Asara added.

The collagen extracted from the 68-million-year-old fossil was analysed alongside traces extracted from a 500,000-year-old bone from a mastodon – a prehistoric woolly mammoth-like creature that lived in North America.

The samples are the oldest and second-oldest examples of preserved animal protein, and the extract from the mastodon confirmed the assumption that the animals were most closely related to modern-day elephants.

Researchers are confident that they have opened up a new field of study that should enable the animal family tree to be drawn more accurately and to solve riddles that cannot be answered by just observing body shapes.

“These results match predictions made from skeletal anatomy, providing the first molecular evidence for the evolutionary relationships of a nonavian dinosaur,” Chris Organ, of Harvard University in the US, said.

Members of the team added in a statement that the protein analysis was “putting more meat on the theory that dinosaurs’ closest living relatives are modern-day birds”.

They said: “Analysis of a shred of 68-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus Rex protein – along with the proteins of 21 modern species – confirms that dinosaurs share common ancestry with chickens, ostriches and, to a lesser extent, alligators.”

I think we're gonna need a bigger BBQ.

50,000

50,000 hits in less than 2 years.

I think that's pretty good.

Now, if I could only figure out who hit 50,000.

I know the I.P. Address, but it's not very helpful.

If it was you, let me know!

Ask and ye shall receive. From the desktop of LOSTBean:

The famous among us.

Just in time for the second part of Season Four of LOST, there is some news.

This link will take you to USAToday and the results of a contest they ran for LOST fans. Basically, fans were asked to submit their theory of what the hell is going on in the show, in 200 words or less. The best ones were published on the net (and in print) for other fans to grade. Along with the fans, Cuse and Lindelof grade and critique the submissions.

That first submission, the one that's titled "It's alive" is actually the Purple Hatch's very own Wesb and a condensed version of his "Three Kings" theory.

For more on the "Three Kings" I highly recommend giving Wes's interview that I conducted a few months ago, here.

Congratulations Wesb!

Badgers and bears...

In the mail today I found another lovely gift, this time it's a hand carved badger, courtesy Lady-in-Gray. He sits here alongside the white bear she sent a while back.

So...whatcha been up to GB?

I imagine that one or two of you have been wondering why I've been such an infrequent poster over the last little while, but it's really no mystery.

I've been working on my Talent by the Tower project for this summer.

To that end, I've done a couple of things that I can share and several that I can tell you about.

The first is promo. I just got these back from the printer.



This is actually the two sides of a single sheet, the left side is the back, the right the front.

In person, there's no "green/red" colour on the tower, but for whatever reason my scanner picked up the green/red elements in the printer's ink. They're just black ink on yellow paper.

They're going to be handed out at a local art show this weekend. I figured that anyone making the trek to an indoor art show in the spring will likely be interested in making the trek to an outdoor art show in the summer.

I've also been meeting and talking with artists, musicians and the local business community to drum up support and participants. All in all, things are about where they should be.

Finally I just finished putting together the beginnings of the website for the show. It's still a bit rough (the tower picture will be better once I get some time to tweek it in paintshop) but it gets the idea across. I plan to add art and artist bios as they become available.

As always, feedback is most welcome!

Credit goes to Sawsee on this...

I normally try to avoid poaching from other blogs, but I think Sawsee will forgive me this one time.

He just posted a talk from TED labs about the new worldwide telescope that blew me away.

I highly recommend a visit to Sawsee's blog and a click on "Microsoft produces the worldwide telescope" link.

Beyond that, check out the Worldwide Telescope homepage. Play the short video "The magic of WorldWide Telescope" to see kids reacting to the Worldwide Telescope. The looks on their faces tell the story.

I can't wait until it's released to the public!

Thanks again to Sawsee for the great find!

Talk about being of two minds!

I absolutely LOVE the fact that this story reports that a 13 year old kid managed to correct a gross miscaluculation by NASA.

I absolutely HATE the fact that his corrections show that the real odds are WAY more frightening than NASA's mistaken ones were...

From yahoo.ca:

A 13-year-old German schoolboy corrected NASA's estimates on the chances of an asteroid colliding with Earth, a German newspaper reported Tuesday, after spotting the boffins had miscalculated.

Nico Marquardt used telescopic findings from the Institute of Astrophysics in Potsdam (AIP) to calculate that there was a 1 in 450 chance that the Apophis asteroid will collide with Earth, the Potsdamer Neuerster Nachrichten reported.

NASA had previously estimated the chances at only 1 in 45,000 but told its sister organisation, the European Space Agency (ESA), that the young whizzkid had got it right.

The schoolboy took into consideration the risk of Apophis running into one or more of the 40,000 satellites orbiting Earth during its path close to the planet on April 13 2029.

Those satellites travel at 3.07 kilometres a second (1.9 miles), at up to 35,880 kilometres above earth -- and the Apophis asteroid will pass by earth at a distance of 32,500 kilometres.

If the asteroid strikes a satellite in 2029, that will change its trajectory making it hit earth on its next orbit in 2036.

Both NASA and Marquardt agree that if the asteroid does collide with earth, it will create a ball of iron and iridium 320 metres (1049 feet) wide and weighing 200 billion tonnes, which will crash into the Atlantic Ocean.

The shockwaves from that would create huge tsunami waves, destroying both coastlines and inland areas, whilst creating a thick cloud of dust that would darken the skies indefinitely.

The 13-year old made his discovery as part of a regional science competition for which he submitted a project entitled: "Apophis -- The Killer Astroid."

I have said it before and I'll say it again:
Stargate fans KNEW that Apophis was trouble.

Gifts in the mail...

Every so often, I go to my post office to pick up my mail and get a surprise.

Today was one of those days. Good thing too. This morning I learned that my travel mug holds EXACTLY the same amount of liquid that a full roll of paper towels is able to absorb. I also learned just how much force it takes to break a shoelace as you rush to work...

So, cheering me up is a gift from LB, a little Spiderman magnetized doodler. It came in a nifty little Spiderman tote, which didn't want it's picture taken...

Talent by the Tower.

Here we have my first run at advertising for "Talent by the Tower".

I plan to put the title/artist of the donated art after "Enter to Win" but since I don't yet know what will be donated, I've left it blank.

Any thoughts?

Test etches.

After several disappointing efforts with the custom stencils I purchased, a simpler but more time consuming system of printing on standard adhesive labels and cutting out individual stencils seems to have produced better results.

Look what came in the mail today...

One etching kit.
Included were the sample stencil (that'd be the hearts), the two liquids, a cream that makes the etching appear silver-ish and my custom stencil with the 6 standard chess symbols in "white" and "black". They even sent two Q-tips.

The only (small) stumbling block is that a hairdryer is required to dry the stencils to the glass once you apply the adhesive and before you apply the etching liquid. Of course, yours truly doesn't own a hairdryer...

On a quiet Tuesday...

I spent a couple of hours rearranging my glass display case to accomodate my complete figure project. It might look simple, but it was a real pain in the ass!



Last time I posted one of these pix, it was noted that I had a lot fewer Readin' Buddy Bears in the display case and now I have even fewer. They haven't sold as well as I'd hoped, but I have given several to charities and fundraisers for local events, so they've been a success that way. I still have more than the three in the case though, should anyone out there be interested in one...

And again, the WHOLE thing.

All 96 figures, displayed by set.

Marvel at the Bottom, Star Wars in the Middle and DC on Top.

Villains on the Left, Heroes on the Right.

I've included a Greybishop to give you a better idea of the scale.

Flash off:


Flash on:

The WHOLE Thing.

All 96 figures, displayed by set.

Marvel at the Bottom, Star Wars in the Middle and DC on Top.

Villains on the Left, Heroes on the Right.

I've included a quarter on each row (the bottom row has U.S. Quarters, the rest Canadian) to give you a better idea of the scale.

Flash off:


Flash on:

Chess, Anyone? Part III

The final set in the project, The Marvel Comics Chess Set, complete.

Flash off:


Flash on:

Marvel Heroes, Complete.

The Marvel Heroes side, complete.

Flash off:


Flash on:

Marvel Heroes Pawns, Complete.

Marvel Heroes Pawns, complete.

From Left to Right:
Captain America
Wolverine
Dr. Strange
Scarlett Witch
The Submariner
Nightcrawler
Hawkeye
Colossus

Flash off:


Flash on:

Marvel Villains Pawns, roll call.

I finished this row a while back but forgot to do a roll call for those who might not recognize all the players.

Marvel Villain Pawns, from Left to Right:
Electro
Mole Man
Ultron
The Vulture
Mysterio
Venom
The Scorpion
Green Goblin

Flash off:


Flash on:

ONE!!!

That's right! The very last one. Finished. Complete. Done.

Sorta.

Here we have Dr. Strange, Marvel Heroes Pawn AND the final figure in the Marvel Heroes Pawn row AND the final figure in the Marvel Heroes Set AND the final figure in the Marvel Chess set AND the FINAL FIGURE OF THE WHOLE FRIGGIN' PROJECT!!!


That's it. All done. Of course, each figure will get a final once over before being permanently sealed into it's own little glass jar. Things like Wonder Woman's lasso, The Riddler's question mark shaped cane and such will be done as a final step. I also developed a better technique for highlighting hair, so certain figures will get a bit more attention on that front, but for the most part, I'm finished!

Chess, Anyone? Part II

The DC Chess Set, complete.

DC Heroes, complete.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the DC Heroes Side, complete.

Note the switch of Green Lantern to Knight, demoting Green Arrow to a Pawn.

Flash off:


Flash on:

DC Heroes Pawns, complete.

The DC Heroes Pawn row, complete.

From Left to Right:

Green Arrow (Sharp eyed observers will note he's been demoted)
Robin
Nightwing
Wonder Girl
The Huntress
Wildfire
Jayna
Zan

Flash off:


Flash on:

Two.

Another figure complete, this time Nightwing, representing THREE milestones. He's a DC Heroes Pawn AND the final Pawn in the DC Heroes Set AND the final figure in the DC Heroes Set AND the final figure in the DC Chess Set.



ONE figure left to go!