last night in Arcata

so much anxiety, so much disorientation, so much fucking stuff packed tightly into our car...

I don't really exist. I feel numb. I don't comprehend our situation.

-- tomorrow we leave

tow-bar for the car

I installed the tow-bar on Cassy (our '93 Toyota Corolla) so that she can be pulled by the truck.

Sqrl said she looked like "ghetto Cassy" without her bumper

Here is the bracket itself

And here's the complete rig

beach day

We went to the beach today. Patrick's Point -- North of Trinidad. It was a crisp, cool, sunny day. We found a lot of good driftwood. I found a ton of cool rocks. Since we leave in about a week, this is possibly one of our last trips to the beach here in Humboldt.

strangeness amongst the driftwood


and sea anemone friends

LED lights in the truck

I finished my LED re-wire in the truck. I removed the old cab light (incandecent) and installed my own six-LED array.

Then there's the light in the back, since we sleep back there.



... and the push-button switch that turns it on


All LEDs are 5 mm, 30 deg, 3.3 volt, 20 mA. The front light (with 6 bulbs in two serial legs) uses 480 mW, while the rear light (with 12 bulbs in four serial legs) uses 960 mW. Since a 12-volt car battery can deliver 1200 watt-hours, the big light (12 bulb) could be run for about 1200 hours before draining the battery.

new pieces

been doing a bunch lately... here's two


This one's my favorite -- "NO fencing" -- just silly... I like it




This one is Sqrl's least favorite. She said "I don't like that one. It's..."
"raunchy?" I said
"yeah, raunchy."

thank you FreewayBlogger

via VideoStumble, I learned about a person called FreewayBlogger. He demonstrates how to use freeways (highways) as a place for effective public communication. This really inspired me to get back into the Pedestrian Propaganda Project (PPP).

Something like a year ago, I went around my school campus (Humboldt State University), and posted signs. They were very small (about 3x4 inches), were printed on re-used paper, and were glued up with starch-paste (in keeping with our beliefs in sustainability). I put them in spaces that would recieve a lot of traffic, and yet would not draw a lot of attention. It was my first run at the propaganda thing, and I only had four different pieces in the PPP. Well lately I have been designing more PPP pieces (thanks to my new daily creativity contract with myself) and the time is approaching to go out into the world again.

See, we are moving in two weeks to Philadelphia. And though Arcata has been a wonderful little place to live, I feel very removed from the "real world". I have been thinking on how to make use of the PPP as best as possible. I considered actually making metal (enameled) signs just like the city uses. But I really prefer the frugal approach -- hence my previous run of little paper posters. Then I come accross the FreewayBlogger, and that really gets me back into my own mode and reminds me how effective the "good old fashioned" methods are. I think that I even want to try some freeway-blogging myself. But I am going to at least get back into my posters. This is all quite exciting.