Foam Totem Gallery

n+14th Annual 4th of July

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:36:29 -0800

Happy Little Twin Trees!

Whale Spout (Poz)
Best Seat in the House (Jay)
Anemone of the State (rv)
Blackfly (Caitlin)
Gelid (Poz)
Twiggy (Kita)
Stream and Road (Owen)
Road and Stream (Owen)
Bouquet (Kita)
Glory (Iwan)
Happy Robot (Poz)
Iwan's Painting Reinterpreted (Jay)
Eggy weggy (Deb)
Arcadia (Kita)
Whorls (Dawn)
Starry Night (Shelley)
Flower Study (Kita)
Bouquet 2 (Kita)
Stars and Stripes (Caitlin)
Birches (Iwan)
Canopy (Dawn)
Lone Pine (Rock)
Chalet (Rock)
Recursion (Jay)
Aurora (Kita)
Pigments (Rock)
Night Watchers (Iwan)
The Art School at Twin Trees

Iwan perfecting his technique.
Dawn gets whorly.
Lots of paint.
Happy Little Twin Trees
Fireworks at Lake George
Off to The Land

Mom and the dock.
Rock avoids the sun, but not the camera.

From the dock.
Otter
St. Williams on Long Point
Baby otter

Chiana likes all laps.

Camp at 7am
Camp at 7am
We were celebrating 4th of July, you know.

Thanks, Camp!

Prodoti/Healey Wedding

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 07:14:43 -0800

Annie and Matt tie the knot!

Guests begin to arrive...
These revelers look so exuberant because it's about 300 degrees and 215% humidity.
Milling towards the ceremony.
The front of the main house, where the ceremony will take place.
What in the world?!

Cool!
Matt isn't preoccupied. Nope. Not a bit.
"I do"
"Are you sure?"
This is Civil War cannon...
...which Annie seems excited to set off.

Please stand behind the muzzle.
Matt's Dad talks a bit about the cannon.
BIG BADA BOOM!
Bagpipes were played for the processions of the ceremony, and again after the cannon.
People moving up towards the house for the reception.

The party tent. What is that little stand to the right?
Sushi bar!

Yes, it was HOT out.
Iwan was chipping golf balls into the valet parking and teaching some 6 year olds how to putt.
From the tee-off back towards the house.

Blah blah blah City of Heroes blah blah blah. I'm sorry.
Annie and her longtime friend Michelle.
A great photo of the group.

(Too bad this wasn't in focus.)
Somber applause for... what?
Sam toasted the happy couple.
The wedding rings.
Dance Dance Immolation

(Again with the horrible focus.)
Lt. Axt in the officer's canteen for gin and tonics. (circa 1910) Quite.
Actually this was brunch the next morning. The smooth jazz trio in the corner only edged into full-scale tragedy when they added vocals.
Blurry even without the Bloody Mary.

NYC skyline on the way to JFK

Pat's Birthday with Yurts

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 16:01:41 -0800

Pat rented a little Yurt-village in the Santa Cruz mountains for his birthday.

"Performance" yurt Had a hardwood floor for dancing and a dressing room with some fun costumes in it.
Pat by the hot tub. Mmmmm hot tub.
Sleeping yurt on left (which had a loft), shower building in middle, dining yurt on right.
Pat with yurts. The yurts were made by Pacific Yurts.
The kitchen area
The dining area with not-quite-dead-yet Mike reclined.
The dining yurt from the door.
Heated by wood stove.
Yurt at night. You can't see it, but the plexiglass dome on the top glowed as well. UFO landing.

2008 Colony St

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 07:55:28 -0800

My new digs in Mountain View.

Welcome to 2008 Colony St! We have a front yard (which is tended by a gardening service). Regrettably, they don't tend to my car.
The front of the house from the other side.
Walk with me up to the house. The main front door is to the right. On the left is another door, which goes to my room. The house used to be have a "mother-in-law" apt thing going on.
Stepping into the front door and looking straight ahead. There is an entry to a hall on the right. The furnishings are Pat and Kat's stuff. My stuff hasn't made it to the place yet due to exceptional laziness.
Looking to the left from the front door. The door to my room is the closed door to the right. The kitchen is where Kat is. My room and the Kitchen open into...
the Dining Room. Straight ahead are patio doors which open onto the Family room. To the right is a doorway into the computer room.
Opening the door to my room and peering in, you see a small bathroom. The majority of the room is to the left.
Looking left towards the front of the house in my room. The windows don't open as they are painted shut. The door to the front porch is not visible but is on the left side. There is a closet around the corner on the right.
My bathroom.
The tiki towel is on the shower.
Stepping out of my room, and turning left, you can look in to the kitchen.
It's quite large. This is taken from just inside the doorway.
To the right is the fridge and the stove. The opening on the right goes to a big pantry.
Stepping in to the kitchen and turning around you can see what has effectively become the liquor cabinet.
Turning to the left and peering into the pantry, which has the washer and dryer. Actually, multiple washers and dryers. Kat had nice ones and the landlords haven't yet removed their old ones. This room is bigger than it looks.
Stepping out of the kitchen and back into the dining room, you can look into the family room. This was obviously an exterior at one point; the doors are sliding glass and there's a step down into the room itself.
Just stepping in, you can see that there's a skylight overhead. You can also see the stupidly large TV I ended up getting. Still not sure if I'm going to keep it at this point.
Turning more right, you can see our current furnishings. I really need to get my couches. That window on the right actually opens into the computer room.
And this is the view out the window on the left side of the previous picture. The short tree in the middle is a lemon tree.
Turning left, and out the back door to the back yard. The door across the way is an entry to our one-car garage.
Turning right, once out the door. The back yard is up to us to take care of (no gardening service).
Turning further to the right.
This is to the left when you walk out the back door. I planted these last weekend instead of moving my stuff.
The flowers on the other side of the fence were already there.
Stepping through the gate and looking back at the house. The windows on the right are into the pantry. The windows and door are in the family room.
Our garage. No interior shots, but it's nice and dry inside. Has some shelves.
This is the entire length of the back yard. I'm standing just outside of the fence. You can see the flowers I planted on the left. The door is at the end of the black carpets.
Gaze in awe at my planting prowess
Back into the family room door and looking just off to the left is that once-exterior-but-is-now-interior window. Kat's using her computer and Pat is communing with the server farm.
Walking back to the dining room and looking in to the computer room.
And now inside the computer room looking into the family room (on the left). My computer on left, Pat's in middle, Kat on right. IKEA everywhere.
The server closet. Fashion by IKEA.
Have you ever wondered what Foam Totem looks like? Well, there it is. Second shelf from the bottom, lying on its side with that small black box next to it. Various UPSes, a music server, network and KVM switches, ancient tape backupsand lots of cabling make up the rest.
Walk with me now out of that room and back to the front room. This is taken from the fireplace towards the far end of the room. The front door is out of the frame on the right at the far end of the room. We're going to go down that hallway.
Stepping into the hall and turning right, you catch a glimpse of one of the two cats (not Kats). This is an insane kitten named Mystic. She's bolted into this room because it's closed off from the cats all the time.
This cat-free zone is the guest room.
Turning 180 degrees, and looking down the hallway (and evicting Mystic from the guest room). There's a bathroom on the right, a closet next, Pat and Kat's room straight ahead, and the computer room through the hall on the left.
This is a much larger and quite nice bathroom.
With a full vanity.
Look! A commode!
And finally, our last stop on the tour, Pat and Kat's room.
There's a window hiding behind those velvet drapes. Not much of a view there, though.
And that's 2008 Colony St.

RPI Walking Tour 2004

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 20:14:50 -0800

A walking tour of the RPI campus during the 2004 winter break.

The main walk from the Frosh dorms now has stairs. No more deathtrap in the winter.
The Commons appears largely the same, though the mailbox area seemed different. I can't actually remember how the mailboxes were done while I was there.
Bray Hall. This (and Cary, and maybe the rest) has been changed to be coed. The bathrooms were moved to the middle of the hall, the lounges to the old bathroom location, and the old lounges are now split into rooms, I think.
The new, big, fancy freshman dorm was built in the muddy space between Bray and Cary Halls. The exterior reflects the style of the Quad. It also conveniently blocks the ugly dorms from street view.
Bray 104 is now a bathroom.
The upperclass dorms appear unchanged.
No classic towers of beer or soda cans in dirm windows as far as I could see, but there was some propaganda.
The Armory now sports a fancy exercise addition. It looks like a big health club.
Great Ceasar's Ghost, what have they done to the Union! They enclosed the balcony (like the Pub), and added the lobby. This they did on the "front" side as well. I wonder if they could have found materials or a style which conflicted more with the original Union.
This is the Rathskeller. Holy Crap. No booths, just tables. The floors and ceilings redone in white. Not cozy at all. I wonder if it's used by anyone except for dining any more? (There's no one in these pics since they were taken on winter break.)
Also the Rath. The game room and bowling alley are still there, though smaller. Mother's now resides in the pool table half of the old game room. There are a couple TV sets with news on them in the Rath. The big screen is still hanging, but I couldn't see a projector for it.
The McNeil room seemed largely unchanged except for one thing that I didn't remember...
... did these giant columns always have the big flanges at the top?
The piano got its own room. Also, the stairwells were closed in and they feel very tight now. Overall, the Union seems much smaller and cramped. I think they've reduced the amount of public space considerably, but I could have a faulty memory.
This is taken from in front of the piano room. I thought that this was open public space before. Now a few offices and a lot of walls.
GM Week retrospective.
Thought Snuffy would be amused by this.
West Hell getting some work done.
The Pittsburgh building has had a growth of some kind. I wonder if that two story tall window is Shirly Jackson's office? Of course the view is of West Hall, so I doubt it.
Some things don't change.
LAN Party?! OMG LOL!
Apparently, the Lally building has been coopted by the IT guys.
Cool class gift from 1992. A (working) clock in the Sage quad.
The Crinitoid had already been removed before I arrived. The concrete pad was there and was occasionally topped with some geurilla student art project. But Ricky is back now, trying to cut you as you walk by.
"Six Random Lines Excentric" reflects the spirit of Rensselaer. What more can be said?
The eyesore which is the CII remains, including the MC Escher stairs. JEC is unchanged.
There is now a cable TV club.
There's a bench between in CC and JEC where an oversize Johnson is sitting. I had to get a photo.
How is it the iEar studios hasn't dissolved yet? Still in the sub-basement of the CC. Still frantic about their keys.
Liquid nitrogen and dishes still in the right spot.
This is the still-impressively-ugly CII lobby. Down in the lower left corner, you can see the filled bolt-holes for the amazing computerized directory which was installed when the building opened. All it ever did is say "Searching Database...". In the future, all computerized directories are replaced with what you see between the elevator doors.
"ONE WORD CHANGES EVERYTHING" The Beatles would have that word be "Love". Somehow, I'm thinking that isn't what RPI^H^H^HRensselaer had in mind.
This is a new giant building placed between the Players' and School 14. Its front on 15th street looks just like the Quad does (as you see on the left of the picture). But you can also see that it's a lot more than that.
It's the "Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies". It was also the only locked public building on the entire campus.
You can almost make out here the "wizard's cap" which is inside and above the door. I don't know if that's their symbol or if they were abstract Christmas Trees.
School 14, if you remember, was bought by RPI. The space between Scool 14 and the new CBIS building used to have a road. It's gone now.
The Science Center is unchanged, even internally.
An addition to the MRC.
The VCC still has "terminals" in it. Though these are full-on computers too. I saw a dead VT100 in the Science Center, but was too lazy to look in Amos Eaton for an APL terminal.
The printout bins are gone, but not the 1970s mural.
Troy is looking better. That's the Troy Savings bank Music Hall in the upper left. Incidentally, Troy Savings Bank is gone as an entity. It was bought out by another bank. The Music Hall, though, was spun off a number of years ago as a separate entity.
The repaired Approach.
The Approach from the bottom.
There is the GIANT HOLE below the library and the MRC extension. Apparently, they are replacing the hill with the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, cleverly known as EMPAC. It looks like it will replace the West Hall music studios as well as be an architectural gewgaw.

Brianna's Wedding

Wed, 17 May 2006 20:05:11 -0700