Blog of Josh Hall

I’m visualizing a software for organizing digital photographs. it should be able to take feeds from multiple sources, like a home network of phones,pcs, and macs. the UI (user interface) has a 3d globe on it, and you can spin the glob around to see all the places photos were taken by reading their geotagged data. There should be a slider to limit the display of photos during a specific time range. Maybe some check boxes to select which feeds are available.

Digital photograph storage and organization is such a mess, and an exponentially growing mess at that. iPhoto makes great strides, but its not on the PC and there’s no really good way to bring multiple devices together. With filtering and face recognition, it would be easy to find “that one picture with me and you when we were at the baseball game years ago”. Rather than just scrolling through hundreds of thumbnails.

I am God’s. I exist to serve His purpose for which He has designed and equipped me. These are constants and anything else is penultimate.

I have been a believer my entire self-aware existence. This is a curse and a blessing. I am blessed because I’ve been on a steady path seeking His plan my entire life. I am cursed because that steady path is often lukewarm and lonely.

I’ve often envied the testimonies of drug addicts and faithless. I’ve been star-struck by the teenager who goes to church while their parents stay home. These are the bold. These are the ones that burn with passion.

I live dangerously as comfortably numb. Too set in my ways to stray from Christ and yet too worldly to put my trust in Him fully. I do believe I am called to live in this world, but that only makes it harder to lead others, such as my children, to an even higher calling.

I could walk away from it all and dedicate myself to prayer and solitude without outside temptation, but faith without works is dead. I could study all the teachings of ancient faith and be filled, but lack relational ministry to all non-believers. I could raise my children in the path that they should go, but risk hypocrisy in my own trials. This is my omnipresent dilemma of an omnipresent God.

I settle. Sometimes by reasoning and sometimes out of frustration. I do not have the answers to the exam of life, and I sometimes lack the mental fortitude to believe my half-attempts will ever be reviewed.

Father, help me seek your purpose instead of inserting my own. Lead me so that I, too, may lead. Turn my focus away from those that judge my actions or lack thereof, for if they would seek your purpose, they would lift me up in spiritual community, and have that be returned 10 fold.

I actually get anxiety about this question sometimes.  My butt is more comfortable in a booth.  I can get more control over my leg room in a chair.  I don’t have to worry about people walking behind me in a booth.  Juliette can fit better at a table.  Why aren’t there booths outside?  Which server/section is busier?  Which is further from the bathroom?

During the month of August, the Knit the Bridge project yarn bombed the Andy Warhol bridge in Pittsburgh.  I was in love with the project for many reasons.  First, I love the yarn bombing phenom.  My other favorite pittsburgh yarn bomb is the Mr. Roger’s cardigan.  Second, I loved the scale and ambition.  This was an awesome feat of project management to get the volunteers and local officials all on board with the vision and carry it all out on time without issues.  Kudos to the team.

Kallie had mentioned that I hadn’t built anything new in a while, so I was searching for some inspiration.  I was sorting through some parts and I came across the yellow 1x4x3 fence.  I had just walked by the yarned bridge and the inspiration hit me right away.  Scale was going to be a problem.  Of course, I wouldn’t realize that until I bough ~400 of those 1x4x3 fence parts…but that’s beside the point.  I had started this mini version just to get some techniques down in the mean time.  I had emailed Steel City LUG member, Julia, who had contributed a panel for the knit the bridge project, and she gave me a link to the details about how many panels there were.  She also suggested I have LUG members contribute panels to the bridge.  I loved that idea!  Once I had the structure complete, I started having friends and family put on pieces, with the intention of having the public contribute to a larger scale version with the 1x4x3 fence when the LUG displays at the Future Tenant Art Gallery, September  19 – 21st.  This is about the point I realized, if I were to do a minifig scale model of the bridge with a 1:1 panel ratio…it would end up being about 17 feet long.  DOH!  That’s not reasonable, certainly for something without a home.  So, I’m settling for this build.  Stop in at the gallery, and if there’s still space left, you’re welcome to add a panel!

Thanks for all the overwhelming appreciation for the model!  if you have the time, I’d love your help to have the Cathedral of Learning become an official LEGO set by voting for it on Cuusoo!

In the press:  http://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/Best-of-the-Burgh-Blogs/The-412/September-2013/Knit-the-Bridge-Gets-Lego-Tribute/

LEGO baseball and stand

To celebrate the 1st birthday of Steel City LUG, we had a big party which included taking down our Dig Into Reading display, a parts draft, raffle prizes, and some awards to members.  This was the trophy for Rookie of The Year.

I had done the sphere a while back, but the idea of changing the color for just the threading came after looking at other LEGO baseball creations and thinking they could be done better.  The ones I saw were brick built and just looked too blocky, in my opinion.  As far as I could search, I don’t see anyone else that has done this.

Originally, the awards were supposed to be much smaller than this… In my mind, it was fine, but once I actually built it, I did the math and realized I blew the part count guidelines significantly.  Oh well…It was a well deserved award.

It’s a total of 156 parts and it’s really easy to build the 6 sides that get put together with 8 1×1 with 5 studs.   Instructions are here.

LEGO baseball and stand

30 Reasons You Need to Move to Pittsburgh.

As if you needed any more reasons.  This is a pretty comprehensive list of all the cool things any visitors should check out if they have the time.  I’m saving it here, because people come and ask me what they should see while they’re here, and I never think of anything.