by the book

To the right is an alternate design for the Barrington Cape that includes expanding the front dormer of the Dutch Colonial to the full width, shutters all around and continuing the new overhang around the gable ends.

This is a Bristol Bungalow and we are trying to add an in-law, mudroom, country kitchen and master suite. Here is my first pass at this small version of how to extend the existing house. We have decided to increase to width to 16’ and push the second floor dormer to align with below.

At the same time my design for this Barrington Ranch is coming together. Hope to add a second floor with 2-3 bedrooms and bath then remodel the kitchen and (desperately) add a new entry with mudroom. Stay tuned.

another nail

Finally, some confirmation it’s not just me about the Jounal. Today, investors have lowered Belo stock to junk status. This newspaper continues to die because of alienating their readers with sob stories about criminals and complete reprints of Taliban Times style BIASED reporting. Thanks Buddy for the financial info. If I remember correctly, a few weeks ago the largest shareholder of the Taliban Times sold their stock because of a feud over who controls the style of the reporting.

I have officially been on reduced subscription ($8 per month) since the beginning of the year and always hated writing the $57 quarterly check for the daily delivery. Now I read a second hand copy the next day for nothing. All this from someone who has read & delivered this company’s newspaper for over 30 years.

In fact, the federally required printing chart was in yesterday’s paper and it states 161K weekly subscribers at $220 per year with 221K papers printed daily.

The Journal was our state’s (1M residents) only newspaper that mattered. A smart man could turn it around by buying the company, firing every local writer and hiring a boatload of investigators to keep the pressure on the how our elected leadership works over business to pass special interest laws. RI General Assembly #1 business rule: Everything is a deal, no deal too small. Rule #2: Don't talk if you can nod, don't nod if you can wink.

new technique

Part of my services, in addition to drafting, is offering 3D modeling for architects, builders and homeowners. I’ve have created hundreds of models over the last 10 years but there was always a 'professional' limit to what I would offer to clients. However, an interactive program I have been starting to use allows me to put portions of the model on existing photos and I've posted some results. On this job we started with a photo of an Existing Un-build Lot and here is the proposed new house in pink.

Here are some samples from the largest job I’ve ever modeled, for a mansion north of Boston, and we used it to produce these color samples for the homeowner. Image #1 (rear), Image #2 (side) and the Front Entry Tower. , or porte cochere to the people that can afford them. Imagine the pressure of picking a paint color for a 8 Million dollar house.

This image is from a large addition in Wellesley with lots of stonework.

Lastly, I have been working on a second floor addition for a local Cape and came up with this design. This fantastic design tool has been on my computer for years but I’ve never been asked to do such work. Maybe I can turn that around. These samples show the range of projects that are consistantly coming in and out of my office.

time for a new one

New, free music available from The Staggering Statistics. Check out their new album, I'm Thinking About Changing, at http://www.staggeringstatistics.com/

Did you see the recently released, limited edition White Stripes Lomographics Camera's? If not, check out http://www.whitestripes.com/lomography/lomography.html and YES I was one of the first 333 people and awaiting my free Rob Jones poster. Some of his posters go for big bucks on ebay.

I've been selling a couple of items on ebay and most of my items are shipping overseas. Me thinks this has something to do with the declining value of the dollar?

lying vs. image

I'm wondering if there is anything less you can do to win a Nobel Peace Prize? Besides the American Media making it a crime against mankind to disagree with any points of a partisan movie, a UK court has found 11 inaccuracies that must be pointed out before socialist teachers spoon feed the lies to our kids. Let this roll around your mind while advocates continue to push for higher taxes to fix our non-problem.

• The film claims that melting snows on Mount Kilimanjaro evidence global warming. The Government's expert was forced to concede that this is not correct.
• The film suggests that evidence from ice cores proves that rising CO2 causes temperature increases over 650,000 years. The Court found that the film was misleading: over that period the rises in CO2 lagged behind the temperature rises by 800-2000 years.
• The film uses emotive images of Hurricane Katrina and suggests that this has been caused by global warming. The Government's expert had to accept that it was "not possible" to attribute one-off events to global warming.
• The film shows the drying up of Lake Chad and claims that this was caused by global warming. The Government's expert had to accept that this was not the case.
• The film claims that a study showed that polar bears had drowned due to disappearing arctic ice. It turned out that Mr Gore had misread the study: in fact four polar bears drowned and this was because of a particularly violent storm.
• The film threatens that global warming could stop the Gulf Stream throwing Europe into an ice age: the Claimant's evidence was that this was a scientific impossibility.
• The film blames global warming for species losses including coral reef bleaching. The Government could not find any evidence to support this claim.
• The film suggests that the Greenland ice covering could melt causing sea levels to rise dangerously. The evidence is that Greenland will not melt for millennia.
• The film suggests that the Antarctic ice covering is melting, the evidence was that it is in fact increasing.
• The film suggests that sea levels could rise by 7m causing the displacement of millions of people. In fact the evidence is that sea levels are expected to rise by about 40cm over the next hundred years and that there is no such threat of massive migration.
• The film claims that rising sea levels has caused the evacuation of certain Pacific islands to New Zealand. The Government are unable to substantiate this and the Court observed that this appears to be a false claim...

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starting slow

Of Montreal has released a new, limited single on Polyvinyl to promote the new tour that I missed this past weekend in Boston. However, after seeing an invitation to write the band on their myspace page, I sent a letter and got this band signed photo that looks great.

Recently we visited Florida for a perfect vacation: two days softball, one day Disney and two days at Universal. I hooked up with a team from Woonsocket and had a blast. Besides being thrown in the 4-hole and pitching for a new team, all while battling 95 degree weather, I was the cream in the oreo and definitely will consider playing with them again.

Chunklet has a limited edition book with bonus disk full of unreleased Melvins material and the limited Les Savy Fav vinyl LP.

Here is a very cool Space Station Image from about 185 miles above the Earth.

If you order the new Ramrods single from Cass, he will e-mail you about purchasing a super limited version of The Decks release, which is not listed on the site. Recently, three more releases went out of print on Cass.

Taking note from my successful Of Montreal request, I recently asked The Muldoons to sign one of their LP covers for me. Not only did they do that, but Hunter and Shane threw in a super limited color version of the vinyl, a cd version (not available anywhere) and limited pick. Very cool.

the bush-clinton way

This new version picks up where the first blog left off (after a break for the summer) and hopefully you will find great items to purchase and some smart-ass comments to piss you off. The title is a direct call to arms to fight what you are being fed by your politicians: more government will solve your problems. When you realize that "dependency is slavery" you will stop this corrupt bush-clinton-bush-clinton trap we have set for ourselves. No more Bush, Not another Clinton.