MAKE is an awesome magazine published quarterly by O’Reilly. Each issue focuses on DIY culture and contains dozens of projects that you are encouraged to build yourself. I have been a fan since Volume 3, when they featured plans for a potato cannon. So, when Mark Frauenfelder spotted this humble blog post and asked if I […]

Take a quick look around the web and it becomes obvious – users really do create the best content. The articles of wikipedia, the videos of youtube and the LOLcats of the cheezburger network- all examples of platforms based entirely on user generated content.Now think about your students, faculty and staff. Given the opportunity, what […]

We just got back from a week of backpacking with our 14 month old. Living in the Pacific Northwest, there are so many wondrous places to go that we had a difficult time deciding. However, the Three Sisters is one of our favorites. It has a bit of everything from alpine streams to obsidian lava […]

Anyone want to join in on a brew project? My good friend Jamie picked up a full size Bourbon barrel. Now the plan is to fill it with Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Ale (clone) and let it oak age for a year. If you haven’t tried Rasputin, you really should – it’s a smooth, delicious […]

Last week I met a bunch of friends to hike/climb Mt. Olympus. This is one of the least climbed peaks in northwest; simply due to it’s remote location. It was a two day hike in and another two out. Before we could even start, there was a several hour drive to drop off our cars […]

My mother is a woman of many talents. This weekend, we received a very special quilt that she has been working on for our unborn daughter. It is based on the classic Sunbonnet Sue pattern – where each square depicts a playful girl with a big bonnet. However, in this quilt, our Sue working on […]

PCC’s lead web designer Gabriel Nagmay has spearheaded their college’s revolution in how it delivers its stories and gauges success. Today, from tweeting and blogging to RSS feeds and Google Analytics, Nagmay has led the college into a new era. Hear about the tools and techniques Gabriel used for PCC. Learn how to maximize your […]

At Portland Community College we have a huge student body, a gigantic amount of Web content, and a tiny little Web team trying to manage it all. Over the years, we have built a collection of custom Web apps to help us out. These work well, but take time and massive resources to maintain. All […]

I just got back from spending 8 great days on the Wonderland Trail. Scott, Bryan and I completed the full loop around Mt Rainier from August 20 – 27, 2010. I wrote a short journal each day. My plan is to post those soon, but for now here are a few highlights from the trip:

This weekend, I constructed a trellis for some new grapes in the garden.  It is locked onto the garden beds and seems to be fairly secure. The top cross bars are scraps of new wood, but the posts are twice-recycled. All the details are listed below: This wood started as a pallet. Then, we notched […]