Playin' With LEGOs

Over the weekend, I did something I haven't done in a while - I broke out the LEGOs! And this is what took shape:

A LEGO Sako-style sniper rifle!

It's about 42 inches long, with a 23 inch barrel . . .

A removable bipod . . . 

And a scope that you can actually look through! (The field of view isn't great, but you work with what you have)

And for fun, I added an action that really cycles rounds!

It was a lot of fun to make something out of LEGOs again - and it was nice to know that I haven't completely lost my touch over the years :-)

~Mac

RitzBurgers!

I was having leftovers today and I found a hamburger in the fridge. Unfortunately, there were no buns or even bread to put the burger on, and in my opinion, leftover burgers definitely require condiments even more than new burgers. I was debating what to do when my eye fell on the box of Ritz crackers sitting on the table. After some quick thinking, I came up with:

:DRUMROLL:

THE RITZBURGER!

I just tore up the burger into smaller pieces, put a pickle slice (or a dab of relish) and ketchup on the bottom Ritz, put dijon mustard on the top Ritz, and slapped them on either side of the burger piece. They turned out great! :-)

~Mac

Balancing Act

Random creative art object:

"Balancing Act"

by Mac, 2011

shoes, bar clamps, wood

Now if only I had a big enough name; it would be worth millions then!

~Mac

What's New

Well, I haven't really had anything to blog about lately, but I have gotten several new things recently, so I thought I'd post about some of them. First up, I traded my old amp for a like new, Dunlop CryBaby wah pedal!

It's a limited edition, pepto pink model! :-) Maybe I'll post a video of me playing it and my new map sometime in here.

Also, we have three to four more inches of snow. This has been a crazy year for snow! My brothers also just blasted an invading deer with their full auto airsoft guns.

L8r.

~Mac

Another Selection from the Vault!

Here is another piece of my old writing that I dug up! For the record this is a fictional account, and I anonymized the character names.

Poor Mommy!

One day "Derek" went to the kitchen to look at Mommy. Finding no one there, he noticed cake preparations for "Alex's" birthday. he got them down on the floor. He then proceeded to make a mess out of the kitchen. He splattered Jell-O all over the walls, then smeared the floor with cake batter. When Mommy came in, "Derek" said, "Look, I did a super job!" Poor Mommy!

~Mac

A Man and a Half!

My brother and sister got me a really fun and unusual gift this past week . . .

Yes. It's a kilt. But not just ANY kilt. This is a digital camo SPORT KILT! How great is that!?!? :-)

After I got it, I had to think of an outfit to wear with it. After consulting various fashion-conscious family members, I decided to wear a white shirt and sport coat with it. Since I don't have the right combat boots to go with it, I had to settle for shoes and long socks. I think the overall effect is nice!

Now I want some accessories to go with it - like a camo beret, or a sporran, or those long socks with a dagger to stick inside them!

These were taken before I left for choir practice. THAT was fun - wearing a kilt to choir practice :-)

Sport Kilt's website says "A man in a kilt is a man and a half!" and so far people who have seen me in it seem to agree. Hmm, I wonder if I should bring it to the next CP! function I attend?

~Mac

New Music Gear!

Well, I got a new amp today!

It's a Vox VT20+. It's a 30 watt amp with an 8" speaker, and man can it get loud! It sounds amazing too! It has 33 different amp models and oodles of sweet-sounding effects :-)

^ The secret to the VT20+'s amazing sound and feel: it's a real deal tube amp! There is the tube glowing with happiness :-)

^ Gotta love those retro "chicken-head" knobs! :-)

I played it for about one and a half hours after I got it and I almost forgot about studying! It's gonna be a great addition to the gear stash.

~Mac

Snow Day! Part Two

Our second snow day involved different activities than the first day, mostly because the snow had lost its "stickiness" and was more icy. We did a good bit of sledding down the sides of the steep ravines in our woods, and towards the end of the day I turned to snow sculpture. We built one half of a chess set and I built a Carcassonne man! :-) (For all of you who haven't heard of Carcassonne: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcassonne_(board_game))

For the chess set, I basically looked for chunks of snow that looked roughly like the shapes I wanted to make and then "chiseled" it into its finished form with a hand trowel.

^ Here is one of the knights (horses) I built for the chess set.

^ The King!

^The full chess set! Back left to right: rook, knight, bishop, king, queen, bishop, knight, rook. The front row is obviously all pawns.

^ The Carcassonne man under construction. (I made him out of a biggish single snowball)

^ The finished product! :-)

~Mac

Snow Day! Part One

We got our first biggish snow of the new year this week! Here are some pictures from the happy day:

^ Our almost-famous ten foot high snowman complete with hat, pipe and grin! (that's an eight foot stepladder standing next to it btw)

^ The "dartboard" my sister and I made with a decent group on it.

^The battleground in the front yard: two snowforts with snowmen in between for attackers to take cover behind!

~Mac

1:11:11 1/11/11

Our family likes to celebrate all kinds of occasions, some a bit stranger than others. Some of the unique celebrations take place for dates and times where all the numbers match, and one such event occured this afternoon!

^My sister and some of my brothers use military time.

I think the whole thing is really some kind of strategy to get more dessert per year than we would otherwise have, but regardless of the motives behind it, I heartily endorse such celebrations! I hope everyone else had a wonderful 1:11:11 1/11/11 too!

~Mac

Random Happenings and Accomplishments

I was thinking about doing a "remembering 2010, goals for 2011" post but after reading everyone else's excellent posts on that topic, I don't think I can compete. So I will list some of the things that I have done over New Years:

1) I attended a New Year's Eve Gala with the family. We went to our friends' church and used their fellowship hall for a dance! There were about 60 people there. We danced line and circle dances, a polka, and the broomstick waltz. Nothing like ringing in the new year with three plus hours of dancing! :-)

2) New Year's Day we had our unit celebration for our homeschool curriculum. Each student picked an ancient culture to represent, gave a presentation based on the culture, and made a food of the culture - my favorite part :-D

^ My sister's AMAZING phyllo spinach triangles from Greece!

^ Leek soup from Egypt.

^ Greek salad! :-)

^ My laden plate (clockwise from top): Greek salad, chicken couscous from Israel, noodles from China, flat bread from India, squash from North America

45 minutes later . . .

what a great curriculum huh? :-)

3) January 2nd I sang a duet for the offertory for our church as part of a wonderful New Years service :-)

4) I went to a book study Monday night. A group of about 12 guys are going through Crazy Love by Francis Chan. A challenging and thought-provoking book!

5) Random accomplishments:
* I made my bed completely by feel in the dark Saturday night
* I tied my tie while singing a hymn during choir rehearsal Sunday (good thing I can tie ties without a mirror!)
* My brother and I made two batches of "mookies" (man cookies) Monday afternoon. We taped ourselves doing it and made it into an impromptu cooking show/MythBusters episode.

My Most Favoritest Job Ever!

I love recording, producing, and engineering music, ESPECIALLY when I get paid to do it! A few weeks ago I got a project from a young singer-songwriter. Her dad decided to give her the Christmas present of recording one of her songs at higher quality and with other instruments. My name came up and I got the job! I recorded her acoustic guitar and vocal tracks last week and have finished the tracking of the other instruments. Now I'm in the mixing stage, and I'll hopefully be done by next week! Hopefully this will give me some more contacts and good reviews ;-)

~Mac

Rockin' Christmas Evening

Last week, we got to see the most rockin' Christmas concert ever - The Trans-Siberian Orchestra! Three hours of music, lights, lasers, fire, etc. 'Twas quite epic! :-)

^ Just a sample of the amazing light and video show

^ Lights, video, orchestra and vocal choir

^ One of my favorite parts - LASERS!

^ Yes, they did light the stage on fire - and we could feel the heat from our "nosebleed" (high up and far away) seats! They also beat-synced the fire on several occasions.

~Mac

THE Vacation

Over this past weekend, I had the privilege of attending a CollegePlus! gathering in Ohio.

(For those of you who don't know, CP! is a Christian accelerated distance learning program that helps students earn their degrees faster and cheaper than traditional college. http://www.collegeplus.org/)

This was my second CP! get together event, and each one leaves me refreshed and encouraged. While I have had the privilege of interacting with many of these people online for some time, we had never actually met till this past week. It is such a blessing to get to know other students who share many of the same beliefs and outlooks on life, and to interact with them through activities, service projects and other events. I made some new friends, and really strengthened and deepened existing friendships. The trip was such a blessing for me, and for all of those who attended!

~Mac

Dancing the Night Away

This past Thursday, my family and I attended a Civil War era dance at a friend's house with about six other families. I was not sure I wanted to go, because I had never danced before :O but I decided to go, and it's a good thing I did, because I had a BLAST! They taught us to line dance, circle dance, polka, and waltz. I discovered that I actually had a left foot AND a right foot! :O Now I can't wait for another dance, which will probably happen around Christmas! Till then, I'm gonna have to practice to keep up the muscle memory. And if any of you guys/gentlemen/young men have a chance to learn to dance, DO IT! :-D

~Mac