Benj, Melinda, Jason, Kaitlin, and Samantha: December 2008

Snow Day

Benj's Opus

If you haven't been following along on the blog then you might not know that I decided to take on a project to make a Nintendo 64 into a handheld unit. Why? Who knows? It took a lot of time and Melinda was probably about to murderlize me for having my junk spread out to work on it. But anyway, it's not the prettiest thing in the world but it is fully functional. Here are some pictures.

Murdock Christmas Tree Game

I am not sure if my Grandma and Grandpa Murdock created this game or if it was passed down to them as well, but I have fond memories of playing this game every Christmas. When my grandparents where alive we would all sit around their huge table, laugh and play, admire each others creativity, and hope to be the winner. It was the same every time. Grandma would gather the most random toiletry items you could imagine that appeared to have been stored away for years. It was not uncommon to come away the winner with a bar of Ivory soap or a comb, but that only added to the charm. I thought I would share my beloved family tradition with you!

Items needed:

1 piece of paper for every person
Crayons or markers
2 dice
Random miscellaneous toiletries

The Goal: Draw the best, most creative Christmas tree you can before everyone else.
How to Play: Everyone gets a piece of paper and takes turns rolling 2 dice in order to create a Christmas tree picture. The goal is to roll the numbers 1-6 in order. Each number corresponds with a specific item that can be drawn. Your first turn your goal is roll a #1. If you roll that number you can then draw your Christmas tree stand. Continue each turn until you have rolled 1-6 and finished drawing your picture. You have to go in numerical order. The numbers represent:

Christmas tree stand
Trunk
Tree
Decorations ( must roll a 4 three times and have at least 3 ornaments)
Presents ( must roll a 5 three times and have at least 3 presents)
Family ( must roll a 6 three time and have at least 3 family members)

1 1 =snake eyes and you have to start all over

The first person to have a completed picture and yell Merry Christmas wins!

After almost 27 years of playing this game my tree has embarrassingly not changed much and is still horrible. We played last night and here are some examples. I added Jason's tree and our good friend Gabe's tree ( I hope you do not mind Gabe) because they were by far the best. Enjoy!

Update!

School was canceled again today!!!! We have only had about an inch of snow total all week, but it sure has been fun having Benj home.

Snow day!

Snow in Portland from Benjamin Lloyd on Vimeo.

Benj has had 4 days off of work this week so far because of snow! We think they should just call it a week and cancel school tomorrow too. Got to love Oregon and snow. :-)

Update

I'm almost done with my N64 portable project. It doesn't look like much right now but I think I have everything worked out, I just need to build a case for it all. I'm thinking about using acrylic but I've never had much luck with cutting acrylic. Here are the pics.

Update: Bryan, you wanted proof so here's the progress. I'm just working on finishing the case and I just found out that it doesn't handle having two inputs for the 1st player controller so I have to make a switch that enables handheld mode or plugin mode. Other than that everything is done and working except finishing the sides on the case. It's not the prettiest thing in the world but fully functional.

Pioneer Woman has some new Actions!

Pioneer Woman just added some great new actions on her website for you to download for free! Check out what they can do for your pictures.

Here is Jason's picture SOOC (straight out of the camera). When I fist saw it I thought it turned out really well. The lighting is great and the focus is good. Then I ran a couple of actions and played around with some settings in Photoshop. I love how vibrant the colors look and the nice highlights in his hair and eyes. The changes are subtle, but sure make a difference.

I think this is my new favorite picture of him. I think I might have the stinking cutest kid around :-).

Oxbow Park

We have been having wonderful weather lately here in Portland. Saturday was beautiful so we decided to get outside and enjoy the sunshine. We drove to Oxbow Park. It was really cold, but Jason had a wonderful time throwing rocks into the river and Benj and I had fun taking some pictures.
I love my little boy!
My handsome husband!

Jason LOVES to throw rocks.... of all sizes.....

Project N64

So, I'm really excited about this project and it's coming along nicely. I've finally started practicing soldering and I have been learning a lot and felt more comfortable with it. I was lucky enough to inherit an N64 and as luck would have it our portable DVD just died. The logical next step. . . a portable Nintendo 64. I've already gotten the power worked out so that I am on just one power source. The next step will be to start making some things smaller so they will fit in a case. It may not end up being the most portable thing in the world but I'm sure I will have bragging rights for my creation.

O Tannenbaum

So it's not like we're the only people in the world to have a Christmas tree but we are pretty excited. Our tiny apartment didn't fit one last year and it is nice to have a little Christmas cheer on a cold and rainy day in Portland.