jwgh: (interroscarf)
[Poll #925685]

Defend your position in the comments!

(Tik-Tok's a robot, obviously. But what happens if he's sprinkled with the Powder of Life?)

Important Breaking News: Project Gutenberg has 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' available for free onliine, which allowed me to find this possibly relevant excerpt:
"Oh, I see," said the Tin Woodman. "But, after all, brains are not the best things in the world."
"Have you any?" inquired the Scarecrow.
"No, my head is quite empty," answered the Woodman. "But once I had brains, and a heart also; so, having tried them both, I should much rather have a heart."
jwgh: (robot)
I was poking through my closet looking for my dress shoes (so far I have found one of them) and I came across a grocery bag filled with what turned out to be a bunch of the 'Work is for Suckers' tee shirts I made last year to celebrate a bunch of a.r.k. people coming to town for an ARKPLE (a.r.k. party-like event).

The shirts are all white tee shirts. On them is a drawing I made of a bunch of robots holding picket signs which, taken as a group, say 'WORK IS FOR SUCKERS/ARKPLE 2005'. (I like to think that they are taking a stand against the increased incursion of automation into the workplace, but that may just be me.)

I don't really know what to do with them, so I thought I'd give them away. If you want one, email me at livejournal at jwgh.org. They are available in the following sizes:

- Medium
- Large
- Extra Large

I think these are all men's sizes, but I'm not totally sure as the shirt tags don't seem to indicate one way or another. I have two shirts in each size.

If you don't live in Rhode Island, or don't see me regularly, let me know your address and I'll mail you one.

As long as supplies last!
jwgh: (Default)
I went to Massachusetts to celebrate my nephew Ezra's second birthday (which is actually not until this Thursday) and give him the stuffed robot and all.Here are pictures! )
jwgh: (Default)
A while ago, [livejournal.com profile] cgoldfish strongly hinted that she would like me to make her a hat from Weekend Knitting which I had previously made for a friend's newborn baby. The book had the pattern sized for adults, too, so this seemed doable ...

Not long after her birthday we went to A Stitch Above and she picked out a couple of new merino colors for use on the main part of the pattern. I had worked on a couple of alternative designs from the ones given in the book (which had hearts and stars) and she picked the one of those that she liked also.

From there it was pretty easy to knit the hat up ... although I did make a mistake at the end which was almost disasterous, but I managed to recover. Anyway, here are some pictures of the hat by itself and modeled by Marvin the Paranoid Android and the meerkat. I confess to thinking that the Marvin picture is almost unspeakably cute.

pictures! )

Anyway, I'm really happy with how it came out, and I look forward to giving the finished product to [livejournal.com profile] cgoldfish the next time I see her.

Tomorrow I go to Massachusetts where I will give my nephew his birthday stuffed robot. (He's turning two on Thursday.)
jwgh: (Default)
Assembling the robot took me a little longer than expected, but it's done!

Marvin the Paranoid Knitted Doll

There was actually a picture of the original knitted Marvin on the laptop screen, but it wasn't very visible in the photo, so I photoshopped it in again to allow a better comparison.

The pattern I used is this one from miss_cute_boots in punk_knitters (but note that the pattern for the back contains an important error at the end), and if you want to see a bigger picture of the official knit marvin that you can buy in stores, here's a nice big one from Amazon.
jwgh: (robot)
After last night's RISA 'songwriters in the round' thingie, I had a discussion with Chris and Bridget about the theme for next month in which I said that I didn't see what the big problem was with having robots as a theme, since I myself have written two songs about robots and I could pretty easily think of two other songs, not written by me, that are about robots: 'Yoshimi vs. the Pink Robots' and 'Iron Man'.

This led to a brief debate as to whether 'Iron Man' is about a robot or not. I say that he is, at least for the purposes of a songwriting contest, because he's made of steel and goes around killing all humans and all. Chris wasn't so sure, though, noting that while he was turned to steel (in the great magnetic field) it wasn't like he was manufactured; if you disassembled him you wouldn't find circuit boards or anything.

(Later, I thought of They Might Be Giant's 'Robot Parade', which I really should have thought of immediately.)

So what do you think? Should 'Iron Man' be considered a song about robots or not? Also, are there other songs about robots (other than ones I have written and the three mentioned above) out there?

Let the debate begin!

Robot!

Sep. 10th, 2005 08:50 pm
jwgh: (Default)
At [livejournal.com profile] cgoldfish's birthday party last night, everyone collaborated to decorate a robot. Today I asked her if I could take some pictures of it in its new lair. She agreed, so here are some robot pictures!

After that a bunch of us went minigolfing and I took a few more pictures.

It was a very nice day!

Shortly I will go to West Side Arts to see Chris Monti and some other folks play music.

Par! ty!

Sep. 10th, 2005 01:35 am
jwgh: (Default)
[livejournal.com profile] cgoldfish's party was excellent. Thanks, everyone, for being great.

I stupidly neglected to bring a camera, but other people brought theirs, so hopefully the pictures will make their way around ...

[livejournal.com profile] christychristy couldn't make it to the party, which was sad, but her idea of having everyone collaborate on making a robot was a big success, so, thanks! Also, I wore the 'Imaginary Internet Man' shirt she made for me, which was the occasion for a few comments.

I did indeed perform Watching Killer Robots Eat Your Head a couple of times. It was easier the second time. [livejournal.com profile] cgoldfish also requested that I sing "Pumpkin, Mrs. Farnsworth", so I did. Interested parties will hear a recording at this location.

Good night!
jwgh: (Default)
I now declare the papier-mâché portion of the project done. Now it's time to wait for the last layer to dry, and then I can start painting it silver.

Here's a front view )

and a back view )

Have you been helped, friend citizen? )

It lists a little to the right, but I think that is likely to change after decorations are affixed to it, so I'm not doing anything about that right now. I attached a couple of rulers to the bottom to make it more stable, a strategy which seems to be working OK.

Incidentally, if anyone has any use for a half-bucket of wallpaper paste, I may be able to help you out with that.
jwgh: (Default)
I have received some indications that people aren't quite sure what I am talking about regarding the 'assemble-a-robot-at-[livejournal.com profile] cgoldfish's-party' idea, so I thought I would talk about it a little more.

Here is a picture of Mr. Papier-Mache Boxhead Robot as he currently is:

Yup!

Ignore for the moment that I need to slap a lot more papier mache onto him and paint him silver (which is the current plan); just look at him. Isn't he missing a little something? Shouldn't he have eyes? Perhaps an interesting arrangement of gears or lights on his chest? Some interesting-looking wires or pipes or something going down the side of his little cubical head? Circuity-looking diagrams written on him? Damn straight.

I'll bring to the party one papier mache robot, painted a (hopefully) uniform color of silver or light grey. Then over the course of the party everyone who wants to can decorate the heck out of it.

Decorate it with what? I'll bring some stuff, notably some sharpies of various colors (for the drawing of interesting stuff on the robot) and a hot glue gun or two (for the sticking of decorative items onto the robot). I'll also bring some items that can be stuck on him. I hope that you will too!

So, what might you bring? You probably will have better ideas than these yourselves, but here are some things I thought of:

- Small bicycle pieces, especially reflectors (for eyes and other decorations?)
- Television antennae and the like (robots have antennae, don't they?)
- Silverware, maybe? (Robot is currently handless and cannot pick things up or destroy all humans or anything!)
- Gears from an old windup alarm clock?
- Metallic or other colored yarn or shoelaces to simulate wires?

Here are another couple of pictures of the robot-in-progress:

pictures! )
jwgh: (Default)
The torso is now inflated, and I have the pictures to prove it. I threw a couple of DVDs into some of the pictures in an attempt to give some sort of sense of scale. If anyone wants to see it (or have custody of it) that should be arranged ...

Here is what remains to be done with Mr. Creepy Inflated Male Torso before Carrie' birthday party a week from Friday:

* A head should be designed and affixed to it. I was thinking that a simple rectangular box could be fine, since it's supposed to be a robot and all.

* Are there any other adjustments that should be made before the papier mache is put on? I was thinking about making the shoulders boxier for instance. Suggestions are welcomed.

* After that, it will be enveloped in papier mache and allowed to dry. This probably has to happen several times. Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?

* It should be painted. Black? Silver? Both? Opinions?

* Stuff that would be used to decorate it at the party should be collected. I'm thinking that a hot glue gun is a necessity, as would be washers of various random sizes and sharpies and such. Perhaps spray paint?

All suggestions are welcomed, and if anyone wants to take custody of the torso for a few days and work some magic on it that's for sure pretty awesome, yes.

The pictures follow. They're pretty big.

big pictures )
jwgh: (Default)
I am trying to inflate an inflatable male torso so I can take pictures of it.

More soon. I hope.
jwgh: (Default)
Carrie's birthday this year is Friday September 9. I imagine she'll be posting a couple of public announcements closer to the date, but I wanted to do a little private planning. (This is posted so that Carrie can't read it.)

The overall plan is simple enough: Friday evening there will be a party in the courtyard of Carrie's apartment building (this is where the pie party was earlier this year). Do we want to do something special, and if so what? [livejournal.com profile] christychristy suggested that it would be neat if attendees could bring bits and pieces to make a (decorative) robot for Carrie's apartment. This seems awesome but might be tricky to put into practice. Does anyone have any thoughts? (One possibility, also thought of by Christy, is to get a little mannequin from the mannequin store, cover it in papier mache, and then paint it or attach items to it.)

The following day, Saturday, September 10 the plan is to go mini-golfing, probably in the afternoon. Carrie's favorite mini golf place is in Attleboro someplace; she couldn't remember its name but that will be figured out by the day itself.

Feel free to tell other people about this, and I'll see you around.
jwgh: (Default)
Last weekend's secret project went well.

[livejournal.com profile] cgoldfish wants to make the computer room in her apartment robot-themed, so she suggested to a few people, including me, that we might want to make robot pictures for her.

So on Saturday I did some test sketches to see what I wanted to do, and on Sunday I dug out my art supplies and did a charcoal (well, mostly; there are a couple of pastels in there and a little pencil) of a robot.

At some point I had said to Carrie that I would draw a picture of a robot cab driver, but when I was doing the sketches I realized that I was going to have a lot of trouble drawing a recognizable cab, so I fooled around with some other ideas and eventually came up with this.

robot )

I brought it over on Sunday and [livejournal.com profile] cgoldfish seemed to quite like it. Huzzah!

Charcoal is fun, and so are robots.
jwgh: (Default)
DANGER! HIGH VOLTAGE!
PICTURES! )
WARNING! NOT SAFE FOR CHILDREN!

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Jacob Haller

June 2024

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