ALIENS

I used a piece of wire and some card stock and a crummy wig I found on amazon.

How? Aliens.

If you know anyone involved in any sort of domestic abuse, please refer them to Laura’s House. Men, women, children, and the elderly can be caught up in domestic abuse. Laura’s House is there to help.

Also for my school work, we were encouraged to explore printing our series of work. I took my “out of focus” series, and turned it into a photo book called Subfocus. I used Blurb.com to create my book. You can preview the whole thing here http://www.blurb.com/books/2781810

A couple of weeks ago, I found myself bored while cleaning my garage. I wanted to build something. It had been too long since I built something new. I remembered seeing Igor Chak’s  infamous space invader couch online, and I thought I would see what it would take to build such a thing. I had stacks of wood just lying around, and started to just slap some wood together to get a rough idea. I wasn’t seriously trying to build anything, but as time progressed I felt like the ideas were coming together on how to build the thing. Without any plans or any clear idea on how to build it, I somehow managed to build a decent looking couch on a whim. Design credit of the couch goes to the amazing  Igor Chak.

Heh, that almost looks like my coffee table in clip #2 in front of that truck. I would need a giant Pelican case to prevent the kind of abuse Fedex does. They rolled my package end over end on its side up my driveway.

I got the letter saying they denied my claim but it contained no tracking number for my table. Now I am wondering when I will get my smashed table back. I called them 3 times to find out when I can get my package back, and all 3 times they “cannot supply the information requested” so they redirect me to a person who can. Except they are always not in the office and I have to leave a voicemail. When will I get my smashed table back so I can possibly salvage some things?

*Update*
Looks like Conan is getting in on things too…

*Update 2*
Called yet again and got forwarded to my claims representative, just to be forwarded to their voice mail. I called again to ask if there was anyone else I could talk to instead. I had asked where my package is, and they began to state that it was delivered quite a while ago, and stated an address that was clearly not mine. I interrupted to say “Whoa, umm, that is not my address.” to which they replied I’m sorry but I cannot help you, you will need to speak to your representative. Ugh…

Do not trust FedEx with your deliveries. I had shipped out a NES coffee table to someone who bought one, and upon receiving it, they ignored the “This side up” stickers and delivered it on it’s side. They also had stacked a large and very heavy box on top of it, tweaking the table inside. There were minor damages, some splitting and chipped paint. I had him ship the damaged table back to me and I got to work making him a new one.

A few weeks later I completed a brand spanking new table and shipped it off to him. This time I was not messing around. I painted in HUGE letters on every side of the crate “THIS SIDE UP,” and “FRAGILE.”

And guess what? Here is a picture of the lousy FedEx guy unloading the improperly stored crate from his truck.

Luckily the table was not damaged. Probably because I was forced to overbuild this one beyond all necessity.

A few days pass. I return home from school and I see that the original damaged table had made it back to my house for repairs. But what’s this? You mean you morons could not even fake that you shipped it correctly? For God’s sake, even if you shipped it with the wrong side up, at least fake it and put it facing the right way up at the delivery site!

The crate was in complete shambles, barely even holding itself together. The heads of some screws were even broken off!  This is a testament to how brutally they have treated this crate. It honestly looks as if they put it on it’s side, and rolled it end over end up my driveway.  Sadly, the contents were in even worse shape than the crate itself. The NES table was destroyed, damaged so badly that it is not even worth repairing.

THREE TIMES they shipped my packages on the wrong side. Prior to shipping I had even called the corporate office to verify that they will not have any trouble shipping a package with the weight and dimensions of these crates. They reassured me that it is no problem.

So now I am stuck in insurance limbo. They had told me that they will have a truck come out and pick up the damaged remains of what once was my coffee table on monday. I just had to provide the original item, original foam encasement packing material, and original packaging. It was impossible for me to crate it back up in the condition it was upon receiving it. The crate is better now than it was when I got it.

They had me specify where the table will be located so they can pick it up. It was sitting in plain view from the street on my driveway. They documented its location. They then asked me for a contact number in case the driver cannot find it. I supplied them with my number.

So then Monday comes around. I sat around all day and no FedEx truck came to pick it up. So I called them and told them I had to leave the house, and the package is there for them whenever they need it. I came home late that night to find it still there.

The next morning I went out and could not be home. When I returned home mid day, I find a door tag on my door saying “This is our second time out to  pick up this package and we missed you.” Strange. I never even got a “First missed pickup door tag.” Did the first driver see the crate and just say “Fuck that, I’m not moving that big hunk of junk?”

So then I called them and told them there is no way they could have missed this package twice. They said they would send out another truck the same day, with barely any apology. I sit around the house waiting for the truck to come, but it never arrives. At 7 oclock I head out to the gym, only to come back and still seeing my sad little crate sitting on my driveway.

Is this how your delivery company should treat their customers? Did I cut off a FedEx truck on the freeway and now they have beef with me?

Down with FedEx.

Congratulations Ashley on your new baby boy, Jaiden. Born June 6th.

Now I need to make a nerdy couch...

As you can probably tell, I like pixel art and photography. I came up with this because it mixes nerdiness, pixel art, photography, and vintage books. The old book covers are fabric and add character to the whole project. The off center book with a tree on it offsets all the plain books. I will leave the inside of that book photo free. Other books offer interesting inside covers in which I need to go through my photos and find ones that will contrast or compliment the inside covers.

And someone actually gave me money. #beardlife4eva

I have decided to put up another one of my coffee tables up for auction. Originally I was going to have it featured in the IAM8BIT art show, but I have lost contact with the owner and I presume he lost interest since he stopped returning emails. Bummer. Anyway the table is up forauction on eBay here.

Also I am looking to maybe start doing some things on etsy.com, a site dedicated to selling hand made arty items. My seller name is mattcyborgelt, so keep an eye out if/when I put something up.

I have a few projects on the forefront of my mind. Some are retro decorations for around the house. Another is a new coffee table, but it might be some time before I can get to it. The other is nerdy in another fashion: astronomy. I recently bought a Zhumell z10 telescope. The thing is pretty nice but the fact that it is not motorized makes it astro-photography disabled. For the price on the Black Friday deal, I could not pass it up. I calculated a few things out, bought a cheap high torque 12v DC motor, and found a nice set of hobby gears. Next up is assembly. I will document the process, and if this works out well I will post the project on here, and maybe make a few of these motorized units for those Zhumell or Meade Lightbridge owners out there.

In the meantime heres a rough shot of the moon through my telescope.

And the new youtube video of it.