Busy weekend (as usual)

Was at the Potomac Mills LEGO outlet all weekend. Worked on an NXT and did some train stuff. What fun!

More in abit - there's a lot of neat things tht happened!

BrickJournal in Asia

In yacking on a discussion board, I found out that LEGO Shop at Home doesn't get to Asia.

This is an upsetting thing to the Asian AFOLs, and I can understand that - one of the possibilities of marketing BrickJournal is through Shop at Home. How will the Journal get to Asia?

Definitely a question to ponder, especially since Asia is a place I would like to see articles from.

And I built some other stuff too..

Earlier in teh week, I got really antsy about building and I had an idea in mind from playing with the Robo X-Pod - the teeny slope parts (chicklets) really were handy for building a chest section.

So after this:


I did this:



then this:



and finally this:



You can find all this in this folder.

Kinda nice to be building again:-)

NXTMessenger

I made an NXT messenger! It carries a note pad and pen.  I set it to distance using the ultrasound, but it could be programmed for directions, so it could pass notes from one point to another.

Pictures are here after moderation.

So much going on...

I'm findingout that there's is a LOT going on in the community.

But most is overseas.

Right now, there's an event in Billund. In the past six months, there have been many events in Europe, including LEGOWorld, 1000steineland, LEGOFest Turismo, the list goes on. Wow.

One of the really neat things about working on BrickJournal is that I get a truly global sense of what is going on. There are some darker places I can't see, most notably Japan and teh Far East, but for the most part, the community has something going on at any given time.

I'll be going to a few events in the coming weeks - off to DC, then Orlando, then to Munich, Germany. Munich will be my first international event, and I am really ecited about it.

The event is Bricking Bavaria, and the aircraft carrier in BrickJournal will be displayed there! There's a lot of other things coming too, and also all the people in Germany. I'm really looking forward to meeting Rene from 1000steine amd Malle and Jan.

All of this is part of my effort to learn about the community - what better way than to go to where the community is?

Doing busy work...

While BrickJournal is a lot of fun, it's also a lot of work - the publication is the result of around twenty people writing, three people editing, more photographers and two designers.

This doesn't take into account the time beforhand finding articles and writers. There is a growing stable of writers, but looking for ideas is an ongoing thing that happens behind the scenes. And it's not as easy as it appears.

Take for example the aircraft carrier story - that took about a day to track down an e-mail to send an inquiry, as Brickshelf does not keep  account information. I ended up doing a google search by account and hoped the person kept the same account elsewhere...which took me to 1000steine.com - he is a German builder.

That's the typical story hunt for me, and this is a very regular thing. And challenging! What's nice is that people are coming forward with ideas now, and it's welcomed.

Back to building....

So it's sorta quiet for me for the moment and I am building again...which is nice. There's something to be said about putting together something in your hands as opposed to on the computer, which is what I do the majority of the time.

I don't quite understand why I am building what I am building now, though - I built some micro mecha. Pictures will be coming soon, as I still haven't quite finished them.

The challenge of micro is always appealing to me - doing the most with the least number of parts engages my design sense.

It's also akin to origami - you have one piece of square paper to make anything. And if you are good enough, you can make a swan with all the feathers folded and legs and feet....but if you're really good, you can make a swan in less than ten folds. Origami is more capturing the essence of a subject, not making a blueprint.

Example:

Here are examples of angels:




The first angel is by MisaQa and the second is done by David Winkler. Both are great builders, but are very different in style.

MisaQa uses an origamic approach - only necessary detail is used, so there are no faces on her angels. Very simple and also playful to a certain extent, because of the pose and color choices she made.

David went the other direction almost entirely, with a large sculpture that has no color but intricate detail. The lack of color is compensated by the detail and is a beautiful sculpture in the classic sense. It's also an almost perfect rendition of a real subject.

Is one better than another? I wouldn't phrase the question that way - I see beauty in both. My style leans toward a 'designer/origamic' approach than an 'artistic/sculpture' approach, but there's a lot to admire in Davis sculpture.

The trick is to apply what I observe in both in my building. Micro or otherwise.