It's picture time!

It's time to clean out the memory card of the digital camera, so here are a few random shots from the last six months worth of travel and trouble.

From Penguicon: Proof that geeks do, in fact, have more fun. Especially when playing with the Chaos Machine, a collection giant-sized structural pieces with tracks and chutes for marbles. Plus gates, switches, conveyors, bells that go *ding*, and all kinds of twiddly bits.



Deep in the belly of the beast, surrounded by the constant, comforting whir and clatter of hundreds of cheerful bright yellow marbles pursuing their individual destinies through the myriad branching paths. Click. Whirrrr. *Bounce!* Ding ding ding. Whirr click. Click.


Yes, I said *bounce*.

Rubber trampolines add interest. They also add some additional chaos to the contraption from time to time. The authoritative *PLONK!* of marbles landing in the plastic bucket at the bottom of the picture added a nice, if irregular, bass beat to the music of the Machine.


It is rumored that some people vanished into the depths of the Machine and were never seen again. I narrowly escaped this fate, but kept being drawn back to it like the proverbial moth to a flame.

My most notable contribution to The Machine, a three-level switchback descending one of the towers by means of hinged, weight-activated drop gates, is pictured below.













On a recent trip to Canada, I spotted the Canadian Leader emerging mysteriously from a fogbank as I crossed the Blue Water Bridge. Traffic on the bridge was slow enough that taking a picture was not a danger. In fact, the massive oreboat churned its way under the bridge, close enough that I could read its nameplate, before I made it across.


Sadly, the vessel to which I referred in an earlier post seems not to be as seaworthy as it first seemed.










Although it's scarcely visible in the picture, that white blob is some kind of giant crane or heron that has taken up residence near Swampview Manor.

Next photoexpedition: Rails to Plainville!