Alan Irwin’s Blog

This was the last day of symposium, and I don’t really have many photos to throw at you all. This shot is of Alain Mailland demonstrating how he creates one of his amazing pod-like pieces.
On this final day, I bought a few more things at the trade show. During the symposium, a large conference [...]

This is from the Opening Ceremonies of the AAW’s 2007 Symposium. They announced that over 1600 people are registered for this event, making it the “second largest of its kind” (whatever that means). I think that you can see from this picture that the vast majority of members are: white, male, and over 50 (hey, [...]

Right now, I’m in Portland, OR attending the American Association of Woodturner’s (AAW) 2007 Symposium. Since 2001, I’ve tried to go every year, and only missed last year’s. It’s 3 days of demonstrations and instructions by the finest woodturners in the world. It’s both educational and inspirational.
I arrived in Portland today (June 28) for the [...]

I just came across this site about paper airplanes. It has the coolest bit of 3D animation showing how to fold several of these planes. The one shown here is called the XT Nakamura.
I haven’t tried a single one of them myself: I just keep watching the animation over and over again and again and…

This last weekend I attended the Alternate Press Expo (APE) in San Francisco. If anyone out there is unfamiliar with my geek credentials, let my report on this event be your first exposure to that side of my personality.
APE is “the largest gathering of alternative and self-published comics in the country”. You won’t find the [...]