00432 And the drift goes on ...

Booooooom!'s (that just doesn't do it for me grammatically) "Little Drifters" season got me inspired to go out an pooh stick 'till I could pooh stick no more.

Don't know if I tried to hard this time (it's not like if I strain enough, they come out better), but at least it got me doing something a little more different.

They still sink when I sit on them.

00431 Little drifters

Booooooom! are (is) doing just what I'd hoped someone would do. It's invited people to make little boats, launch them, photograph them and sent in the images. Love the way Jeff has woven in the community approach to all this.

Here's the entrance guidelines.

They're also being published in the Vancouver Sun when they're good and ready, so I'll keep 'em peeled for that.

Booooooom! rules!

But also invites others to rule with it

00430 You can laugh now

I'll be the one who's laughing when the apocalypse comes and I gaze out from my space ship and watch you all as you burn:

I just need to get this shrinking ray working and then we're all stations go

00429 Plane to see

I give them away to children in the vain hope that they will last more than a minute



Which they never do

00428 The beautiful losers

Another triumph of ugly practicality and haste over grace, design and poise.

00427 Exit?

Could it be any worse?

I hope so, then there'll be more and better.

00426 The P3-55

beaut, in't she?

'course she was an early model that never went into production

because she was tiny and made of sticks!







you muppet

00425 The purpose of being

... is revealed in the musings of man

I spend an hour or so on some of these and they never turn out as well as when I just throw them together

I just can't predict how they'll turn out and no one else can either

or so I thought

Little do I know that data is collected on their performance and general aesthetics and combined to create meta-stats which are held in secret vaults deep underground.

They float, they sink.

The wind moves them, or they drift to and fro' at the whim of the tide.

All of this is recorded.

Teams of scientists work in shifts for decades on these raw figures to try to fathom the infinite depths of man's effect on his environment in the hope that one day these trivial musings might provide some clue as to why we are here and how the decisions we make form patterns in the ether which point to the existence of a higher power.

hang on ... so how do I know all this?

what was all that stuff about "little do I know"?

oh ... I see ... I made it all up




that is such a let-down

00424 Box

Don't touch the coins!

His head will go on fire!

Told ya

And while he luminesces, his friend gazes into pools of ever-changing colour:

the fool

00423 Anything but plane

... that's what I told the barman in Herm as he stiffed me £2.80 for four packets of salt and vinegars.

Still, at least I didn't get plane, I GOT ROCKET!

With a light balsamic glaze and parmesan shavings

00422 They fly! They fly!

... but only if you throw them

and then they are broken.


There's butterfly wings:

And then there's Shelly:

As you can see, I've included a visual parts list for anyone who wants to waste hours of their lives, mocking God's greatest gift by wielding the mighty weapons of futility and trivia as I have done so effectively for many years. It's a battle of the righteous against the pointless. For my part, my loyalties lie firmly with the latter and I find very easy to fight and win.

It's especially nice if you brought beer.

JOIN ME! JOIN ME NOW!!

but not if you can't be bothered

00421 And in her place ...

Like a scarlet harlot, rising up from the parts of her forebear:

She's on loan - well, at least her body is. Frame courtesy of Andy.

It's almost like adultery, but in metal.

(and without the sex)

00420 She's going away

There might have been tears if I wasn't a harder man.

I love her, but I smothered her in plastic and buried her in a box and sent her away.

WHAT KIND OF A MONSTER AM I?!?!?!?!?!

I told her we'd never be apart

sniff

Actually, I told her I'd send her off for a respray.

00419 See plain

Sea plane:

also on this beach:

winners and losers

At last over-design triumphs over beautiful simplicity. I've been waiting so long for practicality and common sense to take a back seat.

00418 Going nowhere

Sometimes you want to go somewhere and you just don't know how to make it happen

Other times you don't want to go somewhere but someone makes it happen anyway.

Then there are even some times where you don't get anywhere and then someone says "hey come over here, there's like this little door in the next room", but when you get there you discover it's just the door that leads into the room and the only door in the room next door is the one you came in through.

And then, oh, hang on, I'm not going anywhere with this am I?

00417 Rooved

When it's hot you need shade.

But it'll make you a loser.

Although to be fair (as Matthias pointed out) the winner had God on his side:

00416 the balloon cloud

Imagine if you will the clichéd image of the sullen man being pursued by his own private storm cloud.

Now ...

We met Paddy at a friend's house. He had just come from his daughter's 7th Birthday party and announced that all he could think of was seven-year-old girl's party stuff, as if it weren't what he would want to do given the choice.

Five minutes later (he hadn't moved since he told us about the party), we saw that he had been standing underneath a pink balloon all the time, just as if he was being haunted by an all-consuming and inescapable girl's party vibe.

No camera, and so - drawing.

I had a wide on.

This is a crop.

00415 Headlight

he's going to LIVE!

but not really

i tried to steal a brain from the village nearby, but I kind of chickened out and it probably wouldn't have fitted anyway

meanwhile the queue for the boxes is growing:

patience, my pretties

surely no one actually talks like that

00414 L' M' UUUUT!

'course he might have said something else. It's hard to hear when they're so tiny.

00413 All shapes and sizes, but always two wheels

A recent surge of interest in cycling has been brewing in my shed and legs.

First of all there's this holiday to Jersey which makes me want to clean the steed:

There's nothing like silvery chains and sprokets to make you feel new again.


Then it's off for three (ish) days of cycling, CYCLING and fine wines (the upper case is for tall bike riders).

Next up, the respray and leather goodies.

00412 Paper

That sinking feeling:

It's only a matter of time before you're going to have to ask "What would McGyver do?"

00411 Track it

Make is running an article calling for readers of their blog to chime in with what things they are tracking and how.
Naturally it immediately makes me think "what can I make to help me track stuff?". And so begins another loose end waiting to be tied up. I've got some really cheap seven segment displays arriving in the post today, I've got microprocessors hanging around. The world is my data filled oyster, waiting to be analysed.

How awesome.

How terribly geek.

00410 Make it

If you don't love Make, then you should.

And if you still don't, then have some of my love for it. I've got plenty.

And this is just one of the gazillion reasons why.

It's not a sexual thing, ok?

Here, have another hug, just to get you going:

No? OK, suit yourself, then.

00409 Mini plane

Mini planes are go:



That one was, like, an hour in the making.

I've seriously got to re-evaluate the use of my time.

00408 Hug?

Sometimes you just feel down and the only way you're going to get out of that nose dive is if someone is there for you. I mean, really there for you. You know, someone who'll just come straight out and say "I love you man".

Other times you just want them to piss off.

Usually if you have a hangover.

00407 I don't know jack

Nobody knows jack.

Until you're staring down the barrel:

Now you too know jack.

Fear it.

(unless you are more than 2" in height, in which case don't worry)

00406 Spring sticks

With the advent of Spring and it's clement environs comes the inception of the usual stickery (pooh stylie):

More fiddlings imminent.

00405 It's all in the mind

It's all rattling around in there and if you stick a tube in my ear and look down it, you'll see loads of drawings.

Eventually it seeps out through my hands. Bit by bit.

So this is really just a list of manual secretions:

Coffee table becomes dining table
Ottoman becomes coffee table and cushion
Moulded stuff around USB flash drive
Decoupage
Glass shark in a box
Rocket with wood and copper pipe
Wood, glass and plastic mix table
Jar full of heads
Glass cast in resin
Frames with lights behind pointing at the wall
Rockets out of valves
Tea light holders - mdf
Light socket stuff - frames, lights
Glass game boards with photocopied sheets underneath the glass
Picture frame - metaframe
Solar stone polisher
Wind powered stone polisher
Beambots
Robot/beambots for sand drawing
Bone breadsticks
"Daisy chain" breadsticks
Sparebot bookends
Cable drum beach relief kit
Balloon and parachte camera rig - balloon popped with pin via microcontroller

If I get run over tomorrow I can only hope that someone out there will continue the good work.

00404 Error - Pooh Stick not found

Oh, no, wait, there it is:

She's made from stuff found in the water lanes, as well as a bench.

Mostly just the stuff.