It is still very common to encounter RSS feeds that have simple XML parsing errors. This usually occurs when the RSS feed is created using a templating system instead of an XML library. The most common error that I've seen is a bare ampersand '&'...
I recently posted a short animation on my Instagram feed and several friends asked me how I made it. In this video, I give an overview of the process. I created almost all of it on my iPad mini. I used Procreate for the animation, and...
This is my talk on my creative process that I presented to about 20 people at the Art Container at Playland at 43rd on Feb 8, 2020. The talk covers some of the tools I use to maintain focus and to stay inspired as I...
I'm happy to announce that I have a new art show called Sunset In Motion and it is currently at the Art Container at Playland at 43rd Avenue. It features several art pieces that I developed over the last 8 months. The show is open...
I was creating a machine in SketchUp Make 2015 that had parts that were mirror images of each other. So I would create the parts and group them together into a group or component. Then I copied the component and flipped it using Flip Along...
I recently implemented some Lambda functions and API Gateways using swagger definitions from a colleague. But when I tried to test the gateways, I was always getting the message "Execution failed due to configuration error: Invalid permissions on Lambda function". This had me stumped because...
Back in the late 1970's I inherited a Super 8 film camera from my granddad. He used it for home movies and I ended up make a few home movies with it as well. But one feature of the camera that caught my eye was...
I've always been intrigued about bats flying around at twilight and catching insects. We see them every evening on our fishing trips to lakes in Northern California. On one trip I decided to see if I could film them with the help of night vision...
Here is the very first time I attempted to cast for herring in San Francisco Bay and cook them. I only caught one, but I was pretty excited nonetheless! A fellow angler gave me a few more and I was able to have a couple...
My first automata. It's based on Paul Spooner's 'San Francisco and the San Andreas Fault' which is pictured in Rodney Peppé's automata book on page 133. The trickiest part I think was making the springs. I used Darice memory wire. 3.5 minutes ...
I print my own railroad backdrops from images that I google. Here I show roughly how I do it. My railroad is based on scenery in Northern California, so I google well known landmarks around the Bay Area for photos. I make heavy use of the...
When I built the floor to ceiling canyon on the HO-scale Redwoods and Railroad in 1997, I had some friends come over and help apply the plaster. To make the canyon, I roughed out the shape of the hills and valleys using strips of cardboard....
One of my favorite pastimes is to go fishing early in the morning at the beach at Crissy Field. I try to go at least twice a week before work during the spring and summer. One day I noticed a bunch of plastic litter up above...
In this 4 minute video I show how I built a ferry slip headwork for my Redwoods and Pacific Railroad. Even though the tracks of the ferry slip end at a wall I wanted something more than just a backdrop to indicate the structure. I...
Railroad equipment rarely looks brand new in real life, so I like to weather my trains to give them that well worn look. In this video, my daughter and I weather a couple of Bachmann Pacific Fruit Express (PFE) Reefers. In real life, the PFE...
Those annoying mice! A mouse ate all my HO-scale pumpkins, so I painted some more and fixed up the pumpkin patch. 3.5 minutes. Enjoy! ...
When I planned the Redwoods and Pacific, I purposely built in many bridges. My favorite so far is this deck truss bridge. [caption id="attachment_511" align="aligncenter" width="300"] NWP #179 crosses Island Mountain bridge on the Redwoods and Pacific RR[/caption] The bridge sits at the far end of a...
A long time ago I won a Details Associates beet car at a PCR door raffle and it was only last year that I decided to put it together. [caption id="attachment_504" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Sugar Beet Gondola built from Detail Associates kit[/caption] It’s a wonderful kit, but it...
This is my favorite forecast. We posted it on our refrigerator many moons ago, but it works most of the time, especially out here in the Sunset district. I do remember growing up how dreary the fog could be, especially day after day if it happened during...
It's a total bummer that the Giants are on a really bad losing streak, but I still like to watch. We went to yesterday's game (Mets 8 Giants 2). I'm ever the optimist, my glass is always more than half full. There were plenty of little...