(part 1). Since I last worked on the desk, I realized I had to figure out how to attach the horizontal braces to the legs. I hadn’t really done much carpentry before so the obvious choice – lap joints – didn’t occur to me and it too my sister suggesting them before I realized it was the obvious choice. Anyhow, here’s how that looks in CAD:

I’ve been meaning to build myself a computer desk to replace the one I currently use. The features I need it to have are:

• Shelf for speakers and other electronics (speakers, amp, server, printer, networking gear) – currently speakers are being used as supports for the shelf =(
• Easy mounting of Ergotron flexible monitor arms (for when I upgrade to them from my static triple monitor stand)
• Easy-to-hide cable management (sufficient to be able to run that inside the nooks and crannies of the desk)
• Able to fit through standard doorways (roughly 34 inches)
• High enough that my legs will fit comfortable while maintaining proper posture for computer usage
• Relatively modular so that disassembly isn’t too difficult if I have to break it down in order to move
• Possible to build with the tools I have available.

So far I’ve just been planning it out in a 3D model (partly to practice my CAD skills and partly so that I can tally up how much lumber I’ll need). Here’s what I have so far:

Mariah’s multicolor pen broke. I didn’t have any prior experience doing 3D modeling so I figured I’d take the opportunity to start learning CAD (I needed to anyhow if I ever hope to get any use out of a 3D printer). My goal was to get a new pen machined in aluminum but it seems like that might be prohibitively expensive given that it’s a one-off design with some fiddly parts.

Here’s the original pen:

I was curious if there were any perceptible benefits of shooting in raw. I know it’s a pretty well covered topic but I had some time on my hands and wanted an excuse to play with lightroom. Here’s the rundown of the experiment I did to test the question. I shot a photo in raw. I made sure it started out with an over-exposed portion. I cropped it to just the part I wanted to observe. I exported it from lightroom so that I would have an jpeg copy. I then preformed the same operations on the raw copy and the jpeg copy:

I’d played Coup before, so this wasn’t entirely new. I hadn’t seen the kickstarter edition of Coup or Reformation yet, though. The kickstarter editions includes alternative art for each of the characters. I think when I get my copy of Coup, I’ll need to make sure that I get one with the alternative art since they did such a good job. I’d play with it mixed in so that there is one of each of the three illustrations for each class.

I like the rather quick nature of the game, and I suspect that the Reformation expansion continues with that trend. It seems like a mix of the best components of Love Letter and the Resistance.