From the Shorpy Archive: Gen. Custer's Dog

What a great shot! That must have been a short exposure....the dog isn't even blurry!

I'm in mapping hell

"I'm an actor, not a cartographer!"

Neb "Dr. McCoy" Frye

I'm trying to get a topographical map generated so my Civil Engineer dad can do the road grade plan for the new Renaissance Faire site in Belfair, WA. No, Mason County does not have any decent topos of the very rural area. The site was leased from Pope Resources, a logging company, and they certainly never needed detailed plans of the site.

The screenshot on the left is a lovely topo I've managed to generate using about 65 different types of software that I've downloaded in the last month. Unfortunately, it's intended for use in a mobile GPS unit, so I have a .mp (polish) or .img (Garmin) file. They look lovely, but are pretty useless for AutoCad. I need a .dxf file. If there's software out there that can convert the above file types to .dxf, I haven't been able to find them. I can finds scores of them that will take a CAD file and covert it the other way, which is somewhat less than helpful.

I've sent The Draftsman (my brother) a .dxf of these contours that I generated with DemTopo, but it won't have the road on it.

Why does any of this matter? It matters because this site needs to have the Road Grade plan submitted in the next couple of days or the County, who have been very passive/aggressive about this project, will revoke the permits for the project.

No pressure or anything.

Lure Rifftrax to Seattle!

Upcoming Events by Eventful

Klondike update

This just in re. the Klondike Bar contest, from the director:

Hello everyone!

We need your vote every day to stay up on top! We need to move up on the TOP rated video list, so far we are on the second page!!

I hope you all have sent a message to your friends and family to vote by now!

Sunday June 15, is the cutoff date for this judging period, we have a good chance of being chosen June 23! I have only seen one video that comes close to ours in quality (the old truck which is leading us by the way) it really does not show the product very much and is too long for a commercial.

Anyway, we need to give it our best shot, have your friends and family put some comments under the video as well!

One more thing, I have just uploaded the video to another category “Did you see that” (thumbnail of John on the train) so if they approve it tomorrow (Friday) it should be on top for “most recent video” through the weekend!! Make sure you vote for BOTH videos when going on the site and please let your friends and family know to vote for both as well.

NOTE: The more important one at this point is the one under the “Laugh” category (with Melissa waving) because it has the most votes right now. When anyone types in “EXPRESS” in the search function both videos will show up.

http://klondikecontest.com

Everyone really needs to get involved, lets win this thing!

Thank you for all your effort,

Dave

What would YOU do for a Klondike Bar?

How about voting on this little "commercial" that I worked on last week? Starring Gordon as "the miner"! All you have to do is sign up at the Klondike site, then vote for our "Klondike Express" entry in the contest.
I'm totally biased, but I think it's one of the best entries so far, so I have no qualms about begging for votes. I believe you can vote once a day, so help us pay down our mortgage win!

Tribute to Uncle Dennis

My uncle Dennis passed away a couple of days ago. He was my mom's little brother. He never married, but did a lot of traveling, genealogy work, and was a happy presence in our lives at holidays and other gatherings. He'd fought a fight with cancer a few years ago, and it was coming back to haunt him. He was doing all right, and then just dropped like a stone the other day. Kind of a shock.

My sister put this slideshow together in his honor, and I think she did a great job:

Viking Fest Parade: report

Pictures are finally up on the official site (they start here). Report here.