Hello again, and welcome to the latest issue of the Awsome Blog! This is the first time I have taken more than a month to post an update. I hate it, too, but the winds of change are blowing, and evidence of that can be seen at my domain, SockNinja.net. Soon I will have a site there that will be much cooler than this one, and will have some more regularly updated features to go along with my news updates. Anyway, enough empty promises of the future. On to the features!

It's a new year! Happy New Year everyone! Since this is the beginning of a new year it is the time for everyone to make a resolution. This year your resolution should be to work for at least three months at Building 8. Click here to get the work application. I know you might think that it's lame to work as a volunteer doing construction in Southern California, but actually, I have a lot of fun. I have become good friends with everyone here and we have a great time hanging out after hours. During work hours we work like dogs (sometimes) and learn a bunch of cool stuff. Since coming to Building 8, I have learned how to drive a forklift, scissorlift, boom lift, and order picker, as well as how to cut through steel with an oxyacetylene torch, and many other things. This is an awsome experience that will stay with you for the rest of your life.

This issues lead photo is of Joseph H., a.k.a. Bruce Lee. Joseph got the nickname Bruce Lee when he was here several months ago because of the striking resemblance between the two. (Get it? Bruce Lee? Striking resemblance? Ha ha ha. I kill myself. With my bare hands! Haiya! Man, I'm on a roll.) Anyway, Joseph is checking out the steel studs that have been installed on the south wall of the building. Behind him (on the west wall) the windows have all been knocked out, helping the building seem larger on the inside. Of course, despite how large the area in the photo looks, less than 10 percent of the building is shown in this picture. It is a huge building.

Joseph returned for the Winter Training 2007 and stayed a week afterwards to work on the project a little more. It's too bad he couldn't stay longer, but we were glad to have him back.

Our next photo is of Josiah G. wearing the respirator he got from the chemical research lab he used to work for. I snapped this photo in celebration of how stupid his hair looks when he wears that mask.

I'm sure you all noticed this, but the pictures (besides the lead photo) have all been shrunk a little. This is for formatting. I found that it was too difficult to work with the larger photos and I actually had to write extra to get the format to look ok, and even then it still breaks down in a browser wider than mine (1500+ pixels wide). I know this makes it harder to see the picture, but you can still enlarge it by clicking on it.

The last photo this week is of Zach W. hanging his head in shame and disbelief at having impaled one of our huge sliding doors on the forks of his Skytrak Telehandler. Let this be a lesson to you Zach. Watch where you're going next time.

This scene gave me the idea to try some experimental photography. A friend of mine told me about a photography technique called HDR, or High Dynamic Range imaging. I had heard enough about it to give it a whirl, so here is my attempt at HDR. If you compare these two photos, the one here and my HDR attempt, you can see that while the inside of the building is a little darker and about the same in both photos, Zach is really bright in the normal photo. His white shirt almost completely blends in with the cream-colored wall behind him. In the HDR photo, we can see Zach in clear, normal lighting. If you really want to know how this worked, read the Wikipedia article on HDR, but basically I took a really bright (high exposure) photo and overlayed it on top of a much darker photo to get a balance between the two. My problems were that I used only two photos. For this I could have probably gotten much better results with three. Also, Zach moved a little bit between the shots, so he looks a little blurry in the HDR.

Meanwhile, here is the first Awsome Blog video! Starring in this video are (in order of appearance) Aaron F. and Stephen D. Just as a note, the video is 27.1 MB and in Quicktime format. Click here to watch it. (Right click to save). Notice that this video is hosted at SockNinja.net! This was filmed with my Panasonic camera. I must say, I am very pleased with the video I have gotten from this camera. Look forward to more great footage in the future.

The news on Building 8 this issue is the order has been placed for most of the steel to be fabricated for the project. I'm told that by the end of February we will be up to our ears in steel. Orders for HVAC and Electrical will go out soon, as well. Due to the influx of construction materials, Building 7 has been cleared out and spruced up with some huge shelves for holding heavy pallets to maximize storage space. Building 7 has been granted an extension on it's execution. Actually, on that subject, I heard straight from the top that since there is so much land available for use as parking, the sentence on Building 7 may be commuted. Instead, the Building would go through a retrofit similar to the one Building 8 is getting and it would continue to live as a warehouse for storing the many books Living Stream Ministry publishes and ships worldwide. Note that this possibility is very remote, but it is there nonetheless.

Speaking of remote possibilities, there is one that is even more unlikely than Building 7 surviving the project. Some of you who are have been following the project have heard about the two huge beams that will span the center podium area to allow for the columns nearest the front to be removed. To accomplish this, a huge section of the roof must be removed. This entails use of a crane, and cutting through several inches of steel and roofing tar. When I asked what our options for this are, I was told "Bad and worse. The saw that always gunks up or the magnesium rod that sets everything on fire." Anyway, this will be an immense undertaking and no one is looking forward to it. Because of this, there is perhaps a one percent chance that it will not happen at all.