Last night, I made a soda can stove. Melissa has been reading about various people’s methods of cooking for the Pacific Crest Trail. We talked about the soda can stove, and I decided to make one. It’s pretty easily done, as long as one is careful to follow the building guide, and maintain strict tolerances during construction. That is, measure twice, cut once. 
It took about 45 minutes to make, from start to successful flaming operation.
So after building it, I of course had to test it out! We ended up cooking dinner with it. It will boil a cup of water in about 4 minutes. Faster than the “real” stove in the house. Wow. It took about 1 oz of fuel to boil ~7 cups of water for our ramen and udon noodle dinner.
I considered rewriting the build instructions here, but rather than do that, I’ll direct you to the instructions I used. They’re on this website.
Photography, Things I made
soda can stove, Things I made
Last November, I went to Portland, OR for some MySQL training for work (High Performance stuff). The training was great. I took the Amtrak Coast Starlight down from Seattle. The ride was pleasant. At one point, the train stopped, and I looked out and saw that there was a loco next to us. Since the opportunity presented itself, I went down to the lower level of the car, and opened the window. I quickly shot the Amtrak around the curve ahead, and this GP39 sitting on the rails.
Quite a sight to see!
Trainspotting details:
This GP39E originally belonged to Union Pacific, and had the road number of 753. It started life as a GP-35, and was rebuilt by GE’s Electro-Motive Division (EMD) and by request of BNSF into the GP39E.
The full size image can be seen at my flickr photostream. Prints are also available. 
Photography
Today, we went to the model train show for the 4th division[1] of the pacific northwest regional chapter of the national model railroaders association[2]. Whew, a mouthful. This group puts on a show every year at the pacific science center in Seattle. This year, I ended up going at the same time as the Flickr Meetup group, to which I had tentatively rsvp’d a maybe.
This morning, I woke up in a crappy mood due to a few things. The most major of those being nightmare dreams. Probably due to stress over work. Yuck. So it’s been a hit-and-miss day for me relating to that.
Still, I got some nice shots of the trains at the science enter, and they can be seen in my flickr account.
Footnotes:
[1]: 4th Division PNR Website
[2]: NMRA Website
Photography, Ramblings
I’ve got my ticket. I’m going. Awesome. At 9:57AM, I realized, “Hey, this is ticket day. You better get over to tickets.burningman.com, and buy a ticket!” And so I did. And I clicked refresh. And ten o’clock came ’round, and I clicked refresh again. I scrolled to the bottom of the page, and clicked the buy ticket link. Then I got to sit in line. About 2500th in line. It took about two hours to get to the purchasing step. Whew, I made it.
Ramblings
Looking at this blog, I see that I’ve posted roughly twice a year. That’s a woefully poor showing. There’s so much more going on that I’d share. I find it hard to share my thoughts with others in verbal or written ways. To reach in, and coherently spit out a concept doesn’t often come across well for me. I feel that I confuse my words. That I don’t get the message out. That I speak too quickly, and don’t say enough.
I’m trying to change that. I want to be better at putting down my thoughts into stories. To tell others about my experiences, my thoughts, and my feelings on things. So, I’m going to write at least one good entry per week here. We’ll see how well it goes.
I’ve been thinking about Burning Man a lot lately. I’m going to go for the first time this year. Eagerly, I seek out the experiences that this adventure will bring. New things to see, new things to do. People to meet and talk to that one often doesn’t have the chance to in this Real Life we all live in. To see and do absurd things.
I’m preparing my things for the adventure. I’m considering what camera gear I want to bring; how I want to record the journey for myself, and how I want to participate there.
I expect that a great deal of it will be catch as catch can. That’s for the best. Don’t over plan. Don’t over think it. Do it. Live it.
And hopefully when I get back, write about it.
Ramblings
So, for me this is an interesting question because I often am the one behind the camera. I’ve been the one on the asking side of the fence. I worry about the reaction people have to being asked. So often, I see someone who has an interesting face, a detailed face of age, a youthful face of beauty, all kinds of faces that I think would make excellent images.
One sad example is the old man on the bus who hit me one time (unrelated to photography). He’s 97 years old, and has a great deal of visual impact. He dresses well, wears a derby hat with a feather, his hand bears an ornate gold ring, and he has a pretty cool cane. On morning, I was sleeping on my way to the office. I was in the window seat, right hand side of the bus. The first thing I know is that I’m getting jabbed in the shoulder with a cane. He would make a great subject, if he weren’t so out of touch.
But I rarely ask. Partly because I empathize with those who don’t want their picture taken, and partly due to an avoideance of rejection. Ironically, most everyone I’ve asked has been positive about it. I tend to always give out a biz card, and offer them a copy of their picture if they email me. Fewer than two hands full of people have taken me up on the offer.
I, myself, don’t have a problem with people taking my picture. I’m cool with it, especially since I’m interested in making photographs of other people.
Ramblings