Tag Archives: VA

Real World Pokemon Go

UPDATE 08/14/2016: Old Towne Manassas has about 30 3D Pokemon hidden.  Some of which include some Glow in the Dark JigglyPuff and Clefairy!!

Update 08/12/2016: New batch ready to be hidden:

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NOTE:
THIS IS THE PAGE I WILL BE UPDATING AS I PLACE MORE OUT IN THE WORLD.
CHECK BACK SOON

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Like most people I have been playing Pokemon Go.  It’s been a blast and Sarah, Andrew, and I have all had some great adventures in our quest to “Catch Em’ All”.  We certainly met some great people and possibly some new friends in areas that we didn’t normally visit.  Ventured out and increased our step count by leaps and bounds.

But I was missing out on something.

Catching pokemon on the phone is great, but one of the cool things about being out in these cool areas is seeing the sights, which you can’t do while staring at your phone waiting for the next Squirtle to pop up. After you catch him he is now confined to living inside your virtual Pokeball inside your phone.  When your phone turns off, he becomes Schrodinger’s Squirtle!!

But what if you could catch that Pokemon and have something to show for it afterwards?

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As an avid fan of 3D printing, I frequent Reddit’s sub for the hobby.  About a month ago one of the guys posted that he was hiding these small, easy to print, pokemon at different locations in his home town.  He said the kids loved it and he liked seeing people find real world creatures.  Many other folks also mentioned wanting to do the same.  Since I didn’t see anyone covering the VA/Manassas area (my home town) I decided to take up the charge and fired up the print machine!

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I have been printing these for about 2 weeks now and hidden close to 100 models around Manassas VA.  Mostly around Old Towne and occasionally at some of the parks.  (Hint, a great place to look is at the Ben Lomand Historic Site)

Since posting about it on Facebook, it’s been shared in a number of places, so I thought I would create a post here, on my site, so that I can continue to provide updates on when I stash some and where you can potentially find some.

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Updates will be provided on the top of the page so they will be easier to find.

Some of the other runs of prints:

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Project Nerd Prints

I have attended a lot of conventions.  One of the things I love to check out is the Artist Alley.  This is where the various comic/fantasy/painter artists hang out and have tables and do sketches.  You can walk by and visit with them, browse their artwork and even have them do a sketch for you.

From an photography artist, this made me a little jealous.  I love the idea of sitting in a booth or table and doing on the spot artwork for people, or having elaborate mat-boards for people to browse through.  But as we all have learned, I am still in the early stages of drawing, and I don’t really have some printed artwork that I can display…….

or do I?

Castle in a Panic (P365-173)I went through some of my older photos and noticed a theme.  I have a lot of nerdy prints that I have taken over the years.  Some of these would look cool hung up in a study or in your geeky nerd cave.  So I have decided to compile them all into one place, and then offer them up “Project Nerd Prints”.

If I am at a convention I will try and have some of these printed out and available, as well as having the ability to do on the spot portraits.  This is coupled with my working on sketching.

If you think of something that would be a good Nerd Print, please pass the suggestion on and I will see what I can do.  Please feel free to browse the full gallery over at Flickr and some of the selected works below.

These Times they are a’changin

So in the last month or so a huge shake up happened here, and I am not just talking about the earthquake that it VA a few days ago, although that was just weird.  For the last few months I have been growing increasingly dis-satisfied with my job.  It was supposed to be my dream job and gateway to bigger better things.  Turns out it was kind of a bait and switch, (Not the fault of those who got me the job, it just changed drastically after I got there.) and was not what I wanted.  Add on that the horrible commute time and we have what My wife and I like to call, “Not paying enough to put up with the crap”.  A friend of me saw some of my lamenting tweets and asked if I would be interested in hopping ship.  Long story made short, I am now working back in Chantilly/Herndon area!  

This also means that I am not in the DC proper area which means that I need to find some other things to take pictures of.  Since I am working right next to Dulles, I may try and get over for some airport/plane pictures so keep an eye out for that.

And, of course, we are in the midst of getting ready for DragonCon, so there has been a ton or prep work going on to get costumes and such ready.  This year I will only be doing Two costumes! (I know, crazy eh?).

The first is my pride and joy of the year, Giovani Auditori from Assassin’s creed II.  Giovani is Ezio’s father.  The reason I say it’s a Giovani costume and not an Ezio is that I purchased it from Museum Replicas and they based their design off the Lineage prequel that Ubisoft created before the game.  There are quite a few differences between the in game costume and the movie one.

The Second is a very low key costume.  Matty Roth, the amature photo-journalist.  It’s from the comic DMZ and is a way for me to be in costume and still have the camera on me to take pictures of folks.

We leave for DC on Wed. of next week.  Expect lots of pictures and lots of twitter activity!