The Sock Ninja has packed up and moved! The Awsome Blog is now hosted at SockNinja.net. Click here to see the latest post at my snazzy new blog there.

Come one, come all! This is the Awsome Blog for the month of November, 2008. In this issue: a return trip to Big Bear, a balancing act and Mark inhales the belongings of less fortunate Californians. But first, I'd like to thank all the people who gave me a present for my birthday this month. You guys are wonderful. I really appreciate it. For everyone else, I think it's time you sat down and thought real hard about what's really important in life. (Hint: me.)

Here in the lead photo for this month is a view of the mountains around Big Bear City, California. I went up there for a christian conference for college-age kids on November 7-9. The conference itself was interesting, even though I ended up sleeping through a couple of the meetings. Mostly I just enjoyed being up in the mountains. I got to go for a nice hike through the woods, and we finally saw some snow. It was pretty heavy for a bit, but it quickly degenerated into sleet and then fizzled out completely.

On the weekend after my trip to Big Bear, the wildfires blazed up not far from where I live in Anaheim. Though the area I was in was in no danger, we had to keep all the windows and doors shut to keep out the powerful smell of ash that was carried over by the strong winds. Shortly after lunch on Saturday, November 15, I glanced out my window and saw this sight. Smoke from the fires had formed a thick, orange cloud that hovered ominously over the city of Anaheim. A few hours later I took this photo of the sun shining through this cloud. Even though it's only 3:45, the colors produced by the sunlight passing through the smoke made it seem like the sun was setting three hours early. I like this picture because it is so misleading. Even though the sun is so high it feels like evening. For days after this huge cloud dispersed, the smell of still ash lingered. At work the following Monday, Stephen D. pointed out that we were actually breathing in the remains of someone's personal property. Some wealthy Californians had thier homes burned in the wildfires and the burned homes traveled over to us where we began inhaling them and sometimes choking on them and caughing them back up. It was a bizarre realization.

This month we finished assembling the last mechanical platform. Ironically we finally figured out the easiest possible way to put these together and put this method to use only on this platform. I kind of wish we had to build another one since it's so easy now. Besides, I only get to do my balancing act on top of the unfinished platforms. Here you see me carrying all my nuts, bolts and tools in buckets as I walk down one of the beams I just finished installing. Since these beams are actually quite wide, balancing on them is not a problem. By now I can balance on a pipe two inches in diameter, so this is actually very easy. What makes it tricky is the fact that I am 11 feet above the concrete floor instead of just a few inches off the ground. When I balance on these things on the ground I can practically run along them, but once they are up this high the mind starts playing tricks on you. The way to beat these tricks is to focus on the end of the beam and simply walk normally towards it. As you get more used to walking along the beams you can start to focus on other things and let your feet find the beam in front of you. I am almost to this point, but I still need more practice. Before this platform gets finished (like the one in the background of the picture) I'll be up here a lot practicing. Picture taken by Stephen D.

The really big news this month is the installation of the two huge beams that will hold up the center of the building above the podium. For those of you who have not heard, there will be four columns near the podium that will be removed to allow for a much larger area of unobstructed seating. In order to make this possible, two beams 90 feet long and over 24,000 pounds each were ordered up for the purpose of transfering the weight of the ceiling above those columns to the surrounding columns. It was a huge deal when these beams arrived back in July, and it's an even bigger deal for them to finally be in place. In this picture the second beam is approaching its final resting place while most of the crew simply watches from a safe distance. My job during this process was to stand on the roof and make sure the crane did not damage the ceiling. Because I was up out of the way I didn't get many good shots, but by leaning through the windows into the building and holding my camera way out I was able to snap this one. Nearly everyone else there had a camera, though, so I should be able to get some really dramatic pictures for my photo album. Check back later for it to be updated.

The last thing to happen to me this month was a visit from a college friend of mine, Charlie Y. of New Orleans, LA. Charlie and I have been buddies since he started college. I can't remember how or when we met, or even if we started school at the same time. It seems like a really long time ago, now. Wow, that was five years ago, I think. Anyway, Charlie's step-mom lives in Laguna Beach, CA, so he came out to visit her, and I got to go stay with them for a night and hang out with Charlie for the first time since he graduated from college seven months ago. It was great to see him and great to have a face-to-face conversation for a change.

To all my Mississippi readers, I will be visiting my home there arriving on December 14 and staying into early January. I'll be looking forward to seeing all of you, but as a warning I may spend a bunch of time just laying around doing nothing. Doing construction all the time makes you really want to not do anything physical. That doesn't rule out watching movies and playing video games, but I may not be really excited about ultimate frisbee if you all are still playing that regularly. Anyway, See you all soon.

Gather 'round, my minions! This is the Awsome Blog for the Month of October, 2008. In this issue, the first of six new columns is installed, the Snorkel rides again and Mark takes on the role of a New York City undercover cop. But first, a first look at the inside walls to be of Building 8.

Here we see three rows of structural x-bracing made of red, six-inch tube steel. Each pair of X's is 17 feet tall and 50 feet long. All this was added for extra support during an earthquake. These X's will be concealed between layers of drywall, which will be held up by the steel framing studs filling the gaps in the X's. Over the last two and a half months, a crew has been working hard putting these studs up all around the building. The drywall installation phase is still a long ways off, but there are still several other things that need to happen to these walls before they are ready for that. Besides, we will still be moving things around with heavy equipment inside the building for months to come, so having fragile drywall everywhere would only complicate things. By not putting it up until we are absolutely ready for it we are avoiding a large amount of drywall repair that would inevitably be necessary after all the construction workers do their worst to it.

Here is some really big news: Yesterday, Friday, October 31, we installed the first of six new columns that will be supporting the two huge beams that will hold up the ceiling after the four columns nearest the podium are removed. It was quite an ordeal to get it into place, and I played a very significant role in it. If you look between the columns at the top, there is a series of steel plates there holding the two columns together. This gusset consists of two plates of 3/4 inch steel and three plates of 1/2 inch steel. Assembled it looks like a small section of an i-beam with an extra line running horizontally through the middle. My job was to actually put this together. After I fine-tuned the shape of each piece with a grinder, I centered each piece up where it went and had one of the welders tack weld it in place. I have to make something like that for each of the new columns. as of now, I still have three more to make. It should be noted that each of these assemblies is actually heavier than a PlayStation 3. Shocking, isn't it?

Ah, the Snorkel. This is still my favorite out of all the lifts at Building 8. It's very old, but it's 65 foot boom and box rotation capability make it the most ideal lift for working over a large area moving from one tight spot to another. It's actually pretty easy to drive, but most people consider riding in it to be gambling with your life. I guess after running it day in and day out for more than a month last year made me pretty good at it. It's really just a matter of getting your sea legs and learning to be gentle with the controls. Anyway, hanging the steel x-bracing that goes around the newest platform required the use of the Snorkel lift, so here's a picture of me in the Snorkel pulling away after successfully inserting another piece. On the other side of the x is the Skytrak, just released from holding the piece. It is driven by Larry T., of Anaheim, CA. After doing this so much over the last several months, Larry and I have perfected our sign language. Since he can't see exactly where a piece of steel goes, he relies on me for hand signals to direct him into the exact spot. After learning some of the industry standard hand signals, we learned how each other worked and how to read the intentions of the other without killing the engines of our machines and walking over to each other to talk. The real irony is that now that we have gotten good at this, we only have two more months of this work to go. We are hoping to have all the structural steel installed by the end of the year. This photo was supplied by Rick R. of Houston.

Some of you may have heard about the new movie Max Payne that came out earlier this month. In case you didn't know, this movie is based loosely on a video game by the same name and its sequel. The games Max Payne and Max Payne 2: the Fall of Max Payne are pretty old, so it was easy to get them on the cheap, and several of the Building 8 workers began putting a good portion of their free time towards these games with the goal of finishing both before seeing the movie. Due to technical difficulties with Apple Boot Camp, I was unable to get the game installed with enough time left to finish even the first game before seeing the movie, but the plots were different enough for it to not matter. The movie was ok, but there is supposed to be a sequel that will either validate or totally negate the first one. Either way, it isn't really worth seeing by itself. Wait for the sequel and try to see them back to back. The games, on the other hand, were worth every penny we spent. Hours of joy have come from them, especially from Max Payne 2. There are so many opportunities to do silly things that aren't really a part of the game that you could really just play through the same portion of the game dozens of times just to try to kill enemies in the funniest way possible. In Max Payne, you play as New York DEA detective Max Payne who goes undercover to break up a drug ring. However, his only contact in the DEA is killed and the mafia finds out that he's a cop, so he has to shoot his way to the bottom of this conspiracy filled mystery. His only allies in his quest are his guns, his grenades and bullet time. I highly recommend these games to everyone. You are sure to enjoy them.

It's been really slow around Building 8 this month, but preparations are being made for some really newsworthy stuff next month. Among those items are a shift in our schedule that has us starting work at 8:00 (as opposed to 8:30). Lunch break will be shortened from an hour to only 30 minutes, and work will end for the day at 4:30 instead of 5:30. This will be nice in that we get more time after work to goof off, but sucks because now I'll have to get up at 5:30 instead of 6. There was some other stuff planned, but it's so late now I forget what all that was. Be sure to check back next month to find out what I forgot.

Hello all my loyal fans! I'm so happy to have you all join me. This is the Awsome Blog for the month of September, 2008. This month, carelessness leads to bloodshed, a photo of the man with the longest first name ever, and Mark puts the Raging Boll to the test! Is he a genius director, or a complete nutcase? We'll find out, but first, this is our official Building 8 mascot!

This is The Dugg, a Southern alligator lizard. He is approximately 17 inches long and eats up to 15 crickets a week. He was found several months ago inside Building 5, and we have been keeping him in what was once a lamp post cover. We threw in some sand, some rocks and an upturned lid for a water bowl. We are currently buying crickets for him weekly at a nearby PetSmart for 10 cents each. We also occasionally throw in something that we catch around the building. Usually this would be a black widow spider, because they are far easier to catch than crickets. Buying food could eventually get pricey, though, and catching enough food is not feasible, so we are looking into preparing a dwelling place for the crickets and just buying in bulk. We could then raise the crickets ourselves and save a bunch of money that way. The primary value in keeping The Dugg is in watching him feed. I will be filming these sessions in the future in hopes of putting together a video of the highlights. Words fail to describe the hilarity of the event, so keep checking back here for that update, possibly in the next issue.

Before reading any further, stop and watch this video. The following segment will explain afterwards. Click here if it isn't loading on this page.

You all remember the square steel tubes we've been installing all over the building, right? Well, to install them, a steel plate is welded to a column where the tube steel goes, and the tube slides into place with the plate fitting into a gap in the end of the tube. This gap is cut out with a torch, leaving a surface unsuitable for welding, so it must be properly ground out before the tube is installed. This was my job. Because the tubes were lying on the ground while I worked on them, the grinder was doing it's work about 10 inches off the ground, or just over the top of my boot. Before I start explaining exactly how this happened, I must explain that this is a Makita seven inch angle grinder. The motor in this grinder spins an abrasive grinding disc at about 6000 RPM's, and the grinder itself weighs 15 and a half pounds. While I was grinding inside the gap of the tube steel, the blade suddenly caught on something. All the rotational speed in the disc was immediately turned into directional speed and the whole grinder flew backwards out of my grip. Thankfully, the blade I had on the grinder at the time was the thicker grinding wheel rather than the much thinner cutting wheel. The cutting wheel would have almost certainly dug into the bone and broken off leaving chunks of it still inside my leg. As it was, this blade merely bounced off my shin, carved out a gash two and a half inches long, half an inch wide and an eighth of an inch deep. I was fortunate that it was so small.

The impact of the grinder was so painful that it immobilized my right leg momentarily. To my credit, I did not audibly respond to the stimulus. As soon as I was able to stand I walked the length of the building twice, limping a little at first, but as I acclimated the pain I regained my normal gait. I headed out to the machine shop by the south end of the building to bandage it up, and there found my good friend Stephen D. He showed me the shop's stash of rubbing alcohol and we decided that this was too good an opportunity to miss. He got my camera and filmed the video you just watched. Good times were had by all. The cut is almost done healing. I'd say another week and it will only be a scar that, due to the severity of the injury, will surely last me the rest of my life.

Here he is ladies and gentlemen! The man with the longest first name ever! Written, his name appears to be Bill, but spoken by the man himself it is actually pronounced something like Baaaayeeeeeeeel. If this was short for William, it is theorized that it would take the better part of a morning for Bill to introduce himself with his full name. Bill is from Austin, TX as I mentioned last issue. He has been a heavy equipment operator for years doing everything from tractors to cranes. It is my understanding that most of his work has been in construction, but may have branched out into other areas at times. He is very handy with pretty much any kind of tool you might see around a construction site. He even knows welding and brazing. He's a great guy to have around, so it's too bad he had to return to Texas. He will only be able to work at Building 8 a few weeks at a time, returning home for a couple of months after each stint. He left around the middle of this month, and will probably be returning sometime in November.

I'd now like to take the opportunity now to stick up for a man who receives an unnecessarily hard rap from the public. Dr. Uwe Boll is a movie director known primarily for his adaptations of video games into movies. Most of these movies have been decried as being among the worst films ever. I can assure you that after seeing two of Boll's movies and Stephen Seagal's Attack Force, I can say with confidence that Boll has a long way to go before he even nears the bottom. In fact, after all the negative things I'd heard about his movies, I was pleasantly surprised by Blood Rayne, one of his more well known video game adaptations. Blood Rayne was admittedly B-grade, but the story was decent and the action was good. Some of the minor character acting was pretty bad, and some of the dialogue was very cliche, but you can't really blame a director for those. At least not when English is his second language and the budget was only $30 million. I actually recommend seeing this movie. Don't expect to be blown away, but you should be able to enjoy it. Postal, probably Boll's best adaptation, is easily one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. I must warn you that it is extremely irreverent of even the touchiest subjects and is extremely vulgar at times, but I don't remember the last time I laughed so hard at a movie. Boll makes fun of everything he can from the Tickle Me Elmo craze to the 9/11 attacks to even himself. I still need to see his other movies before saying that they are also good, and when I do I will surely report back with the results.

This month instead of reading comics to fill my free time, I mostly watched movies. I don't even remember what most of them were, but I think the total number was about 15. That might be more movies than I've ever watched in a single month in my entire life. I don't think I'll try that again any time soon, but maybe I'll break that record in the future. Anyway, among the movies I watched this month were The Fifth Element (this was my first time seeing the first half), Ghostbusters (this was my first time seeing the second half) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which I'd never seen before at all. I know these are all movies I should have seen a long time ago, but I didn't watch much of anything when I was a kid, so I'm trying to catch up. Feel free to recommend something for me to watch.

Howdy, y'all, and welcome to the Awsome Blog for the month of August, 2008. This month, Mark's got some hot pants and Building 8 gets some big new toys. But first, this OSHA safety reminder!

Hard hats: use 'em or lose 'em. Doug C., our long time foreman and heavy equipment operator, was operating the Kubota excavator without a hard hat. Technically, this is fine, since the operator's cage on the excavator is much stronger than any hard hat, but while not paying attention, Doug's hard hat slipped from it's resting place next to the cab and into the hydraulics that control the side-to-side movement of the boom, where it was immediately crushed. Doug thought his hard hat was missing for almost two whole days before I pointed it out to him. I don't think he's replaced it yet, but his head is probably hard enough to not really need it anyway.

So these are my new hot pants. Notice the hole on the left knee. While I was torch cutting on Tuesday, August 19, a spark landed in the frayed cotton strands around a tiny hole on my knee. It immediately ignited, and blazed for maybe half a minute before I noticed it and put it out. I wasn't injured at all, but my knee looks a little funny since a bunch of hair was singed off. Of course, this hasn't stopped me from wearing these pants to work. On the contrary, I wore these pants for the rest of that week. I consider the hole to be a sort of 'clear badge of courage.' Besides, this is the third time an article of clothing has caught on fire while I was wearing it. I'm almost used to it by now. It's just the risk that comes with the job. You know what they say, when you play with fire... uh... you're bound to light up at some point I guess. It's something like that, anyway.

Moving right along to other news, check out this beast! This is the first of two rental machines to arrive at Building 8 in August. This is a Case 821E. It is a wheel loader, so called for having a front end loader with four equal-sized wheels. The bucket on this thing holds almost four and a half cubic yards of material, lifts more than 20,000 pounds, and weighs almost twice that. The tires are about five feet tall, and the floor of the cab is about eye level for me. It has been jokingly suggested that this would be capable of flipping an F-350 like a pancake. This was not well received by the Building 8 bigwigs, however, probably due to the fact that our leader, Phil D. owns a very nice and shiny black turbo diesel F-350. Here it is shown filling in the area that used to be the concrete ramps that led down to the loading docks. All the concrete was ripped out and now the area is being filled back with dirt to be sealed with new concrete later. Nothing we had already would really be able to handle the job, so we got this thing. All it has to do is dump some dirt and then pack it down by driving over it. It seems pretty simple until you realize that it has enough power to make even seasoned heavy equipment operators nervous.

On Monday, August 25, I was given the task of jackhammering out the loading docks on the north end of the east wall. These loading docks are in some places just a slab of concrete a few inches thick, and that comes out easy enough, but in other places, the concrete is several feet deep. Breaking that up with only a 60-pound jackhammer seemed like a fruitless endeavor. I basically spent the entire day on it and got almost nowhere. So, to speed things up a little, this Case backhoe was brought in. This particular unit was chosen because it had the option of working with a hydraulic jackhammer attachment instead of the usual scoop bucket. The jackhammer alone is almost as tall as I am, and did more work in an hour than I did in an entire day. This is an amazing machine to watch at work.

Here to operate these machines is Bill D., of Austin, Texas. Bill was here briefly before, but had to leave for a while. Now he's back, and should be staying with us for a long time. You can sort of see him in the cabs of both of the new Case machines above. This month's issue all came together at the last minute, so I forgot to take a good picture of him. I'll be sure to have one for next time.

That's all for this month. Almost nothing really interesting happened, which is partly why this post is so short. The other reason, of course, is procrastination. I was actually so bored this month that I went to onemanga.com and started reading all the manga that were completed and under 15 chapters. About 80% were romantic comedies, (something you'll probably never see in an American comic book) and of those, about 80% were unreadably bad. Fictional women can be so dumb sometimes. If a guy is a jerk, you should stop talking to him, and you should absolutely not tell him your secrets. Apparently this is something fictional women can't figure out. Anyway, a few of these manga were really good. If you're bored, email me about it and I'll recommend a few. See you all next time.