Everyone interested in the Building 8 project will be happy to know that the first structural strut has been installed. It was put up on Friday, March 7. Here you can see it clearly as the only red piece of steel up. It is an eight-inch tube (meaning that it is a square tube eight inches wide), and it weighs approximately 2,000 pounds. On Monday, March 17, this strut (not a beam) was joined by another six-inch tube that runs diagonally from the center of the first tube to the southeast corner of the building, and a four-inch tube that runs diagonally from the center of the second tube to the south end of the first tube. I know that's really confusing, but you can see what I'm talking about by going to my new Building 8 Steel photo album on Google Picassa.

Installing the second and third tubes was a lot of fun for me. When installing the second eight-inch tube I had to get out of my lift, straddle the strut and scoot on my behind about six feet down to the end of the tube to put a retaining bolt through it once it was in the air. Six inches is plenty wide enough for me to have simply walked the distance, but at 17 feet in the air, I didn't feel like taking chances. I even wore a safety harness. Unfortunately, further acrobatics were not necessary since we got better and better at installing these pieces, so I was never really in a position to need it.

The third, smaller tube was a really tight fit, and I had to pound it in with a 10-pound sledgehammer. I actually bent the half-inch thick tube walls with my pounding. Don't worry, the damage done was not enough to result in a loss of structural integrity. It was only just enough for me to say I'm strong enough to bend steel.

Both the following Tuesday and Wednesday saw increasingly large amounts of steel installed, and by that Thursday, all the steel that could be put up had been. Since then the priority has shifted over to ductwork, but four new pieces of steel went up this last week. As soon as we get our welder back (he went on vacation) and we get caught up on ductwork, we will be back into installing structural steel.

Our first rebar arrived! It's was pretty interesting to see the unloading process. Since the rebar was so long, it was quite flexible despite being up to an inch thick. Here is an interesting photo of Phil D., our project leader, and Doug C. unloading one of the biggest bundles of rebar. This bundle is 50 feet long and made up of #8 rebar, meaning it is eight eighths of an inch thick. We also got some #7 rebar, and some smaller sections of smaller size rebar. Some pieces were already cut and bent into the shape for structural footings, which will go around the base of each column just below ground level. This video is kind of a large file, but I think you all will enjoy it. This shows some of the finesse required to unload rebar. Click here to see it. (Right click to save, Quicktime format, 101 MB.)

On Saturday, March 8, I was taught to weld. I have wanted to learn for a while, now, so having someone finally teach me was very exciting. I picked up really quickly according to my instructor, Mike B. of Oklahoma. Mike is a pipe welder who is certified in several states, now including California. Right now he is our only full-time welder, though several others have passed through and worked on a weekend or for a couple of days during the week. So, yeah, now I can weld, though only at an amateur level. The funny thing is, on Thursday, March 13, I was told to take some of the structural steel plates and tack weld them onto one of the columns for the real welders to finish welding later. I guess the project leaders were more impressed with my welds than they initially let on. But still, I am only doing tiny welds that will not affect the structure of the building at all (which is good).

In other news, I got some new games. I know I should be focusing on other things, but these were too good to pass up. The first is No More Heroes. No More Heroes blew me away with it's perfect fighting system. I absolutely love this game. I highly recommend it to anyone with a Wii over the age of 17. Any younger than that and I recommend you get your parents' permission first. Click here to see my full review on NintendoPlayers.com. This review is partly responsible for the delay in writing a new post.

I also got Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. Now a game where you play the part of an attorney in court may sound really boring, especially to the people who happen to be courtroom attorneys, but the Ace Attorney series is actually one of my favorite series' ever. Unlike real court law, the cases go down much like an episode of Matlock or Perry Mason, if anyone remembers those. In each case, a murder is committed, and you play the part of the defending attorney. In order to get your client off the hook, you have to find out who really did it. In every mystery you go through, you have to investigate the scene of the crime, and interrogate everyone related to the case. Again, it doesn't sound like your average video game, since there is no shooting or even any action, really, and it isn't. This game is more about the plot and the character interaction than anything else, so the game is very funny most of the time, and very suspenseful at others. Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney is the fourth game in the series, beginning with Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. This series is available for the DS, and I highly recommend it to anyone, even if you don't own a DS. This series is worth owning a DS for.

The last game I got just recently is Super Smash Bros. Brawl. This is the ultimate Nintendo fighting game. Featuring the favorite characters from nearly every one of Nintendo's franchises as well as two characters from other companies, this game was the most anticipated release of 2007, and then it got pushed back to being the most anticipated release of 2008. The extremely influential Japanese magazine Famitsu gave this game a perfect 40 out of 40, making it the seventh game in history to receive this score. I also highly recommend this game to everyone, since it is a most excellent game. If anyone has this game already, you can play me over the internet sometimes. Here is my friend code for anyone interested in a match: 0645-5568-2602. I warn you, I am pretty good with Mr. Game & Watch. A dense hail of two-dimensional sausages awaits all challengers.