John Burridge

For Mark's birthday we wen to Mount Saint Helens, which is a little over five hours away by car.  The first day was rainy, which was a nice change from all the 90 degree weather we've been having.  The second day was cloudy, but without the rain and warmer.  The last day was clear and warm.

One of the rewards I give myself is working with Blender to create 3D images.  Lately, I've managed to use InkScape to create 2D patterns which I then import into Blender extrude into 3D shapes.  

Importing from InkScape works fairly well with angular objects, but curved objects tend to generate objects with a broken manifold or with a missing facet that shows the insides of solid objects.   When an object isn't manifold, I have to go in and edit objects on a vertex and face levels.

Blender can use Boolean Logic to create complex shapes by combining or subtracting simple objects.  My favorite function is the difference function, followed by intersection function.  

One of the latest designs I've worked on are a Moroccan tile design created by interweaving five pointed stars.  Since the symmetry is pentagonal, the golden mean shows up frequently. Interweave designs require careful focus during the InkScape design process to get the over-under pattern correct.  

The other design is a labyrinth.  After looking at ancient and classical labyrinth mosaics, I worked on something similar.  After following some false trails (heh), I found that creating a roughed-out design on paper was more efficient than trying to make paths work in InkScape. 

I managed to create a labyrinth and get it into Blender.  Then I extruded it into something a person could walk through.  Or possibly a stove element.  

Revisiting the labyrinth, I managed -- with a whole lot of difficulty -- to grab just the top vertices of the extruded labyrinth, then scale them down so that instead of a disk shape, I had a cone shape.  From there, playing with a sphere gave me... Tron's lightcycle helmet, I think.

Oh well.  I'm hoping that I can create some interesting objects by sending the Blender Items to Shapeways, a 3D printing company.

We took a boat tour of Crater Lake.  The boat went "an astonishing 13 miles and hour," which provided a nice cool breeze.  All the tickets for stopping off at Wizard Island had been sold, so we did the two hour tour of various features instead (and saved a bundle of money: those tickets aren't cheap).  

One of the  interesting features is Phantom Ship.  It's part of an old lava dike that forms a spur climbing the rim of the caldera.  I want to say it's two football fields long, but it might be only one; it's about nine stories high.  

What I liked about it was that it really did look like a ship, it had trees growing on it, and it had cool basalt formations.  Also, it's easy for a boat to get close to, so you can see finer details than most of the other geologic features of the tour.


If I were going to hide a sword that a Once-And-Future King might need to find, I would hide it on the Phantom Ship in Crater Lake.

Actually, if I were an Evil Genius and I needed to hide my secret lair, it would be at the bottom of Crater Lake, and it would be powered by one of the lake's hot spots.

I'm not sure where I'd put the monorail, though.

When I visit national parks, I like to take detail shots of the buildings.  Somewhere deep inside, I want to duplicate what I see and install it where I live.  

These are details of curtains hanging in the Crater Lake Lodge.  Mark thinks the lodge is too much like a bar, and prefers the lodge at Yellowstone, which is more lodge-like.  I will admit that the Crater Lake Lodge has a slicker, smooth, and intentionally distressed look to it - which comes from extensive remodeling and refurbishing.  The Crater Lake Lodge is more open and restful.  

I like the pattern of these curtains because they look like the local desert paintbrush flowers which grow on the slopes of Crater Lake.  I like the orthagonal geometry of the design.  I mostly like the colors, and I can't decide if I'd replace the purple stems with green ones, or if that would be too Christmasy and pedestrian.



These door pulls are attractive and sturdy; I've always liked door latches like these.  It's the Visitor Information building at the Crater Lake headquarters.  I like the arrowhead, which is the National Park Service logo; but you don't need to know in order to enjoy looking at.  

I thought when I took a picture of the Administration Building that the sign on it was larger.  I was more interested in the architectural lines than the typeface, apparently.

[UPDATE:  After Googling around, I found more font examples on the signs for the Science Center and for the North and East Entrances of the Park.  I looked around the Department of the Interior's website, but this particular typeface isn't coming up.]

Sunday during our trip to Crater Lake, we stopped at a visitor information site.  I liked the architecture there; it was designed to handle the ten months of snow which lingers at the high elevation of the lake.    



Of course, I had to take a close-up of one of the signs because I really liked the typeface.  The serifs make the signs easier to read, and the drop-down stems on the R's, the M's and the N's make this type face feel like a more laid-back copperplate.

Curious, I visited the National Park Service's typeface page:  http://www.nps.gov/hfc/services/identity/typefaces.cfm, but neither typeface listed there is what this sign is using.  It's not a part of their signage page, either.

Looks like a mystery to solve!

We're back from Crater Lake.  It was nice and cool, if a little smokey from forest fires.   I'm going through pictures, and this is one.


More later.

Ten years ago today, Mark and I had a wedding ceremony.  We couldn't legally be married in the state of Oregon at the time.

We had a website here:  http://markandjohn.blogspot.com/

We got married in our landladies' back yard.  We had friends and family make banners a few days before; the banners showed the banner maker's relationship with one or both of us.

For our wedding, everyone lined  up on either side of the gravel alley by the house, holding their banners, and we walked with our families between the banners.  Everyone followed us through the yard gate, and hung banners everywhere.

I tried my best, and failed, not to go into a bridal daze; thankfully Mark was there to ground me. We traded vows and rings, and then had chocolate cake (they were supposed to have otters on it, but everyone thought they were weasels).  The comment at the time was "Only gay men could eat chocolate cake in white tuxedos and not get them dirty."

There's more pictures here:  Wedding Photos

I can hardly believe it's been ten years; and five years of living together before that.  Yes, there've been some bumps along the way -- but I'm still in love with Mark and I like to think that I'm as good for Mark as he is good for me.

Happy Anniversary, Honey; here's to ten more wonderful years.