Yes, that is the Steampunk Strat in the hands of Nathaniel Johnstone of Abney Park on stage at SteampoweredCon 2008.

Sigh.

I made her but I could not give her what she needed as I have not the musical talent.  I'm glad she found a good home and I expect we'll all be hearing great things from her in the future.

In fact, I understand she's already laid down some mad trackz on AP's newest album project.

See ya 'round Lady Strat!

[Thanks to Kathryn Hedges for the photo!]

This year's theme was The Wizard of Oz.  I hacked up a rear projection TV that I got off of Craigslist to be the Great and Powerful Oz.  The original intent was to use the then working TV to present the image from a camera.  Unfortunately, the moment I started tweaking the gain controls to get a bright and colorful image the high voltage supply popped!

No worries though as I was able to strip out the interior entirely and utilize a presentation projector I borrowed from work.

Click through for more pics and a video . . .

Back from a morning of shopping in Seattle.  Got Hungarian Paprika, Madras Curry, Bacon Band-aids and a pair of vintage drafting sets at the Seattle Antique Market.  This town is really growing on me!

One of the crappy things about contextual advertizing on the web is that you can't always stay on top of what's presented on your site. 

Know that we here at the Steampunk Workshop will always Vote for Love and we sincerly hope the good people of California will do the same tomorrow!

Yours,

Jake von Slatt.

Update #2: Clearly the Goog got A LOT of mail on this one - here is their response.  And California: not cool, man. Not. Cool.

Only a few more days until the Steam Powered - The California Steampunk Convention!! 

It's been a big week for me already and it's only Monday!  Yesterday I got the propane torches and sound system working on our primary prop for All Hallows E'en.  We're doing "The Wizard of Oz" and I get to be "The Great and Powerful!"  I know you are anxious to see the rig, so I'll try and get some video up tomorrow.  Friday is going to be a blast!  Mwhahahahaa!

Then Saturday morning, likely sometime around 4AM, a car will arrive to whisk me off to the airport and the first California Steampunk Convention.  I'm really excited about this because I'm going to get to see so many of the people I met at Maker Faire again!

I'm also going to get to meet some folks in person for the very first time  including Ann and Jeff VanderMeer the editors of the Steampunk anthology. 

Jeff and I really seem to have hit it off and have been plotting and planning ever since we met online back in April.  A little earlier today we received some sensational news! The details are still in the works, but we will almost certainly have an exciting announcement for you on Saturday at Steam Powered!

Tomorrow is the Yankee Steam-Up!  From the New England Wireless and Steam Museum website:

The Original Yankee Steam-Up
For model makers, Machinists, Engineers & Historians
Saturday October 4, 2008
9:00AM-4:00PM
1300 Frenchtown Road, East Greenwich, RI 02818
Steam & Compressed Air for Models.
Licensed Boilers & Licensed Engineers.
New Englands Largest Steam-Up Boiler.
Giant Working Steam Engines & Hot Air & IC.
Admission, $15.00         Children under 12 $5.00
All Steam-Up Proceeds go to Upkeep of the Museum
Free Parking         Food on Grounds

I'll be heading down in the morning, click through for pictures from my visit last year . . .

In 1978 James Burke produced and narrated a series on the history of science called Connections. It's a wonderful series and I highly recommend you get a hold of all three seasons.

But right now, watch this video about technology traps.  You'll get the idea after the first ten minutes but feel free to seek out and watch the whole thing.

When the infrastructure in the city breaks down it would seem that the smartest thing to do is flee.  But that is not an option for many and anyway you have to see disaster coming to get out ahead of the swarm of humanity with the same idea. 

And where will you go?  When you get there, what will you do? Will you even know when to leave?

The apocalypse will come by inches, you won't know it's upon you until long after it's too late.  But if you have a copy of this book you may not notice it at all because you'll by comfortable, well fed and in a position to help those around you.

Scott Kellogg and Stacy Pettigrew of Austin's Rizome Collective have put together this book, Toolbox for Sustainable City Living on sustainable living, permaculture, aquaculture, energy production, bioremediation and many other subjects all designed with city dwellers in mind.  Subjects such as gardening, alternative energy and fuels are only touched upon as there are many resources already available.  However the information on Aquaculture and particularly bioremediation of contaminated land (brownfields) is extensive and unique.

The Apocalypse will be slow and boring - pay attention and prepare and you might not even notice it.

This book arrived in the post just as I was leaving for vacation so I was actually able to read it over a period of just 3 days - a rare thing for me!  Ms. Sedia draws a detailed picture of an ancient city ruled by a tripartite balance of power between the Mechanics, the Alchemists, and the Duke in concert with the ancient race of watcher Gargoyles.  Her style of prose is direct and sparse, yet she evokes sounds, smells and qualities of light that brought the city alive for me.

Mattie, the protagonist, is an Automaton, a clockwork artificial intelligence - for this is a world where mechanics and alchemy have advanced to the level of magic.  Mattie is recently emancipated from her Mechanic creator and is starting a new career as an Alchemist, a pursuit to which she is dedicated and at which she is very skilled. Yet she is not fully accepted even by her peers in the Alchemist's Guild.

Throughout the book Mattie seemed very familiar to me and after some contemplation I think I understand why.  Mattie's situation reminded me strongly of how women in engineering and IT were often treated at some of the more dysfunctional companies where I've worked. I suspect that many women pursuing careers in technology will feel an immediate kinship with Mattie!

But not all of the Mechanics are bad and not all of the Alchemists are wholly good.  This is neither a Utopian nor a Dystopian city, but it is a whopping good tale!

More from the same house I found the radios a couple of weeks ago!  Here we have a classic Heathkit Shortwave Receiver, A Heathkit SWR meter (used for measuring antenna efficiency on transmitters) an RCA RadioPhone transmitter and a Timex Sinclair 1500.  My first computer was a TS-1000, the 1500 is basically the same machine with a chiklet style keyboard.

I wonder what the story is here?  Likely its a little sad, someone is finally getting around to clearing out 'Dad's' old hobby junk.

So I got vanity plates for my kit car that read STMPNK but when I did a search on that term I just got unkind and disemvowled Boingboing comments so I acquired the domain stmpnk.com and I've been dropping crumbs around the net like this to boost its position on the page.