MBTi Is More a Formula than a Set of Scales

I used to think that the 4 letters in the Myers Briggs Type Indicator were 4 scales and people fell to one side or the other, and some fell more to one side than others who fell toward the same side. In other words, each letter was like a slider and every person fell somewhere along the line.

The problem with this model is that when I would compare two people who seemed to be very similar, like an ISTJ and an ISTP, they didn't really seem all that similar. One would cower at the sight of a spider while the other was booking reservations to go fling themselves from a plane with only a thin layer of silk protecting them from imminent death.

The scale paradigm also meant that when you'd talk to people about their personality type, they'd feel like they had the option to sit on the fence, right in the middle of two ends of the scale. You could hang around the person for 10 minutes and tell right away that they were an extravert or an introvert, but because they could think of times when they had been an introvert as well as times when they had behaved in an extraverted fashion, they decided that meant they were both. (It doesn't. We all have times when we're introverting and times when we're extraverting. That doesn't mean we're on the fence in the middle. It just means that we're human.)

I had heard people talk about functions before, but I couldn't really follow what they were talking about. It wasn't until I watched several of DaveSuperPowers videos on YouTube that it all finally started to click. An introverted sensor is a very different animal than an extraverted sensor. The introverted sensor likes to collect details, data, facts. They store them up in their brain and, if you give them reason to get started, will talk your ears right off of your head about all those little boring bits of details until you're ready to shove a pillow over your own face till the pain stops. The extraverted sensor, on the other hand, likes to collect experiences. The old Mountain Dew commercials ("Been there. Done that.") epitomized the idea of collecting sensory experiences.

The more I learned about functions the more I came to realize that the 4 letters that describe a person's type are really not a series of scales, but a formula that describes the person's primary, secondary (and so on) functions. So an ISTJ and an ISTP are both S's, but they're two different kinds of S's: introverted sensor (Si) vs. extraverted sensor (Se). An ISTP (second function: Se) will have more in common with an ESTP (first function: Se) than an ISTJ (Se isn't among any of the ISTJ's functions).

Here's how the formula works. You start with the last letter of the set of four, the J or the P. This will tell you how a person behaves when they are extraverting. (We all have times when we extravert, even if our primary function is introverted.)

The INTJ (and any other person whose type ends with a J) will tend to be action oriented when they are extraverting. They will either be an extraverted thinker (Te) or an extraverted feeler (Fe). Te's are the people you call when something needs to get done yesterday. They are very practical, can-do people who will probably get to work even before you've finished telling them what needs to be done. An Fe is similar, except that they're not going to focus on things but on people. When people think "extravert" what they're often really thinking about is an extraverted feeler - someone who is people oriented.

The ESFP, on the other hand, (and any other person whose type ends with a P) will tend to be input oriented when they are extraverting. They will either be an extraverted sensor (Se) or an extraverted intuitive (Ne).  I mentioned Se's earlier. They're the "been there, done that" people who live in the now and seek sensory input. Ne's also seek input, but it tends to revolve around ideas. They love to brainstorm ways that things can be done differently or be improved upon.

Once you have figured out how a person tends to behave when they are extraverting, you know one of their top functions. When they extravert, they are either Te, Fe, Se or Ne. But just as everyone has times when they are extraverting, we all also have times when we are introverting. We're not looking out or dealing with the outside world, but we're inside our own head, thoughts, feelings, or ideas. If our first function is extraverted, then our second function will be introverted. But if our first function is introverted, then our second function will be extraverted. Everyone has one extraverted function and one introverted function for their top two functions.

Functions are something that we come to develop over time. When we're young, our primary function is the one that works the best for us, so we spend most of our time in that. But as we grow up we find that we have to learn to deal with the outside world (if we're introverts) or deal with our inner life (if we're extraverts). So we start to learn more about being in our secondary function. It's often not until we're adults that we begin to explore our third or fourth functions. If you've ever met a person who is in their 30s or 40s and they've said, "I used to be such and such a type, but now I'm more of this totally other type," that's because they're learning to use functions that they hadn't developed before. It doesn't mean that their personality has changed. Rather, they've reached a point in their life where they feel comfortable, perhaps even bored by, their primary and secondary functions and they're ready to stretch their wings a little into their third and fourth functions.

To find the third and fourth functions, you simply do some flip flopping. So if the second function was extraverted sensing (as in the ISFP example above), then the third function will also be a perceiving function (S/E), but it will be in the opposite attitude (I/E). So the other perceiving function in this case is intuition, and the opposite attitude is introvertion. So the ISFP's third function is introverted intuitive (Ni). Likewise, the fourth function is just the flip flop of the first function. So in this case the first function is Fi, the fourth function will be Te.

When using the scale method of MBTi, it's nearly impossible to figure out where you are, or where others are, on the scale. One day a person might be very secluded and thoughtful. The next day they might be the life of the party. As our circumstances vary, so do our behaviors. But there's a consistent pattern in there, and if you're start to look at the patterns, you'll see the functions emerge.

The New Myspace

I've only been using the new Myspace for a few days now, but I really like it. It's what I think Myspace was supposed to have been since the beginning - a means for musicians and bands to connect with their fans. I still haven't worked out all the in's and out's of the new site, but I thought I'd write up a bit of what I know to help others get started.

First you'll need to sign up for the service. If you've never tried Myspace before, then click on the blue "Join" button. But if you already have a Myspace account, or if you have a Facebook or Twitter account that you'd like to sign in with, select the gray "Sign In" button.

In the future, you'll be able to sign in with your username and password in the section to the right. But for now, assuming that you already have an old Myspace account, click on the dark gray bar to the left that's labeled "with Classic Myspace." (The "my" in front of that represents the old Myspace.)

To say that the new design is a study in subtlety is probably an understatement. Navigation and layout are a leap from anything else you've probably tried. In fact, I can't think of any other websites that operate like the new Myspace. The closest I can come is a newspaper or magazine on a handheld device (like an iPad). Don't think vertical. Everything is horizontal. And if you don't think to scroll right, you're missing out on a fair bit of content. That said, there are all sorts of things hidden in plain sight. I think that once I get used to it, I'm really going to like it. But right now it takes some time to figure out how to do what I want to do. Of course, once I've figured something out, it seems like it should have been obvious to me before.

The dark bar at the bottom of every Myspace page is your anchor. It tells you where you are on the site. It appears to be broken into three main sections:

1 - The lighter dark gray to the far left includes my personalized version of Myspace. When the blue bar is under the word Myspace, then I'm viewing the content that I've indicated I want to see (by "connecting" with artists.) When the blue bar is under my name, then I'm viewing my own profile. The two icons to the right of my name are for notifications and messages. The blue bar doesn't move to be under them (for whatever reason) and both of these work like toggles. Click once and you'll see notifications or messages. Click a second time and they're gone. Click - on. Click - off.

2 - The next section is a darker gray... or is that black? It starts with the word Discover and this is where you'll find the content that Myspace is going to push out to you. I don't know yet if they try to tailor it to each person or if everyone gets the same news there. While you're on the discover page, scroll right. This is a good chance to see how much content hides to the right of the screen. You can also search for content by clicking on the magnifying glass icon. (Again, the blue bar will sit under the word Discover, but the icon is just a toggle - on and off.)

The search page is a little bit trippy at first. It's a blank page with the words "Search Myspace" and "Start typing...". And that's it. But start typing and Myspace will start searching (before you even hit the "return" key.) In the example above, I searched for "Colorado" in hopes of finding local musicians. Unfortunately Myspace doesn't seem to organize bands based on where they're located yet. (If there is a way to search by location, please let me know.) So what I get instead is any song/album/band name that has Colorado in it. To start a new search, just double click on your old search term and start typing a new one.

3 - The third part of the navigation bar at the right is the music player. It's pretty straight forward, but there's one button I'd like to highlight. Any time you see the icon with two interlocked circles (anywhere on the site), it's a call for interaction. You can use it to connect with a band/musician. To connect appears to be similar to "follow" or "like." Myspace will show you updates related to those that you've connected with, and they'll hopefully also show related content based on what you've connected with in the past. But you can also use this button to do other things, such as add the currently playing song to a music mix or send it in a message to a friend.

This should be enough to get you started listening to great music. So pull up a band and get the player running so you have something to listen to while you do a few touch ups on your profile page.

To update your profile, click on your name to the lower left of the nav bar. Now look for a little pencil icon way up in the upper right hand corner of that page. (It took me several minutes to find that little bitty icon. *sigh* It's a perfect example of "Impossible till you know where to look.") Once you know where to find the icon, updating your profile is fairly straight forward.

You'll note that not every musician or band has a profile yet. If you're on an artist's page and you're viewing music, click on the name of the band/artist to see their profile page. If nothing happens and you find yourself still looking at a list of songs, then that artist has not moved their profile over from Myspace Classic to the new Myspace yet. Patience, young padawan. Come, they will. The new Myspace is, as the name implies, new. Not everyone is here yet. But it's a wonderful way to listen to music by your favorite artists, and to share it with all of your friends who aren't here yet, but will be coming soon. So spread the word. Get folks to check out the all new Myspace. The more the merrier. I think this is going to be a lovely place to hang out.

Home is a Private Place?

I grew up as an Air Force brat, so we moved around every 3 or 4 years and I got to see various parts of the country (mostly mid-west, east and west. My dad wasn't stationed in the south until after I'd gone off to college.). Eventually patterns of behavior became clear to me. Easterners do this. Coloradoans are this way. In Michigan, people expect this. I don't know how accurate my viewpoint was, but it was true for my experiences at least.

When I moved to San Francisco from Detroit, one of the biggest differences in how people interacted had to do with the home. In Detroit, when you wanted to hang with friends, you generally grabbed a six pack and headed over to another person's house where you'd sit around playing Euchre and drinking beer. You might go out and do something together outside of the home, but more often than not, hanging out meant hanging out in someone's dining room or living room. Not so in San Francisco. Not only did people hug you there All. The. Time. till it drove you nuts. But they also rarely invited you over to their place. Instead "hanging out" meant meeting up in a café or club or restaurant. (And having a pot luck meant everyone stopping by a restaurant or grocery store on their way to the event to pick up some pre-made grub.)

I just assumed that these were regional differences influenced by the cultural differences of the two cities. The Detroit area is made up primarily of middle class families who don't have the money to pay for a latte every time they get together with someone. San Francisco (even back in the mid to late 90s) was full of single, 20-something professionals who loved nothing better than to pay other people to make overpriced drinks for them. But this morning I hit upon this paragraph in Ty Grigg's post on pastoral visitations:

Home is a private space.  It is not a cultural norm to have neighbors or even friends over to our homes for dinner.  If we want to be with people, we go out.  The restaurant has replaced the space that home once occupied in society.  Typically, for younger generations (40’s and under), a visit will be at a coffee shop or to grab lunch.  In our suburban isolation, the home is too much of an intimate, sacred space for most non-family members to enter.

Ty makes it sound like this is just the norm in America these days. He's writing from Long Grove, Illinois, which I would think would be culturally closer to Michigan than California. 

So I'm wondering, do you believe this is true? Has "Home" has become a private space? Is it no longer a cultural norm that we would invite friends and neighbors into our homes? What do you think? 

Tofu "Meat" Loaf

I make meat loaf for the rest of the fam occasionally and I usually come up with some simple alternative for me, like fried sliced tofu or maybe a Qrunch burger. But today I decided to find a tofu "meat" load recipe to try out. I discovered this recipe from midgelet and really liked it. I would have just pinned it (a la Pinterest) but there are no pictures so it's a no go in Pinterability. (OK, that's a totally lame Meg-word. I openly and fully admit it. But I'm leaving it there. So deal with it.) I'm posting the recipe here so that I can find it easily again, and I'm adjusting it a bit closer to what I actually did.

Ingredients

---

• 1 container of tofu ( firm )
• 1/3 cup ketchup
• 1/3 cup soy sauce or tamari
• 2 Tbs mustard
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• squirt of garlic paste
• 1/2 of a smallish onion, chopped fine-ish
• 1 cup or so of puffed millet (or some other puffed grain... or a couple slices of mashed bread)

Directions

---

• Mix everything up. Smash it into a bread tin. Cook it for about 30 - 40 minutes at 350 F until it looks toasty. 

Rememberies

As I move my content from Multiply (a site that I loved dearly and that I'm very sad to see go), I've found a silver lining. Moving posts and photos and videos and recipes reminds me of things that I'd forgotten about. Some of these events seem so recent, and yet when I look at their date stamp, I realized they happened 5 or more years ago. Some of these things seem like they happened ages ago, and yet they're stamped only a year or two previous. How could I have forgotten so quickly?

I'm still not done moving all of my posts from being "imported" to being "published," but I'm working on it. While I'm setting everything up, I'm rethinking my tags/labels, pondering what my new personalized theme should be (though I do miss the sunflower. I may just have to find a way to work that in.), and worrying (a little bit) about what great little tidbits I have on my Multiply site that I might miss as I transfer. 

I came across a very short post over there today. It's one of those things that I worry about leaving behind because it's so precious. Here's the post. It's a quote from one of my daughters (made on July 21st, 2009):

"Mom, while you were out I noted that the animals are not interested in Tabasco sauce." -- Anna


That's my girl. :-) 

That's not what it means to be an extravert!

I've said it before and I'll say it again, extraversion does not revolve around liking to be with people. There are many extraverts in the world who can tire out an introvert in a New York minute and it has nothing to do with the former being more social than the latter.

+The Wall Street Journal had an article in last weekend's paper entitled, "All I Want for Christmas Is... A Little Space." I got as far as the second paragraph and then threw it down in disgust, grabbed my laptop and started pounding out these words. Here's what the author, Sophia Dembling, wrote in that second paragraph,

"Extroverts love being around lots of people and lots of fuss. They need it for their well being. We introverts love being alone with our thoughts in a quiet room, and we need it for our well-being. It's a matter of energy. Extroverts gain it around other people; introverts are drained of it."

I'll admit that when people use the terms extravert (which they also often misspell, by the way. Jung spelled it with an "a" not an "o") and introvert, the above definition is increasingly the screwed up way that the terms are being defined. And I understand that language is dynamic and change happens. So fine, whatever, screw up the words however you prefer. But the more you screw them up, the less you'll really understand who the extraverts are and who the introverts are and why the person that drains the snot out of you is a very clear extravert even though they spend most of their time alone.

Let me start off by saying that there are four kinds of extraverts and four kinds of introverts. One type of extravert, the extraverted feeler (also written as Fe), is indeed energized by being around people. They want everyone to be happy all the time. They're party people. They'll walk up to a complete stranger and invite them to hang out for awhile. Being with people stokes their fires like you wouldn't believe. But there are 3 other types of extraverts who might be alright with the idea of being around people, but that's just not what makes their clocks tick. Extraverted thinkers (Te) love to accomplish things. They're consumate list makers who live to check things off that list. If being around people is on their list then sure, let's go hang with people. The pleasure there is not that the Te is with people, but that the Te can then check one more thing off their list. There are also extraverted sensors and extraverted intuitives. If you'd like to find out more about them, click on the "four kinds of extraverts" link above.

My point is that not every extravert is a people person. And not every introvert isn't. An introvert's primary function will be introverted (Fi, Ti, Si, or Ni), but their secondary function will be extraverted, and if that secondary function is Fe, then it's quite likely that that person is going to come across as being a people person, even though they're an introvert at heart. It's also quite likely that if you are an introvert, and being around another person drains you, it's not necessarily because they're peopling you to death. It could be. Don't get me wrong, I've definitely been peopled beyond my breaking point. But I've also been idea-ed beyond my breaking point (by an Ne) and activity-ed beyond my breaking point (by an Se) and tasked beyond my breaking point (by a Te... though I have to admit that because my secondary function is Te, sometimes I'm my own worst enemy when it comes to over tasking myself).

I encourage you to get to know yourself better in terms of understanding your own type. And I believe there's value in knowing and better understanding the types of those around you as well. But if you misuse the terms extravert and introvert, then it's quite likely that you'll end up mistyping yourself and others and the whole personality types thing will be a meaningless pile of horse dukey for you. I'm sure you've met people before that say, "Those personality tests don't work. That's all just a bunch of hooey." They're right on... if you're going to use the words to mean whatever the heck you want them to mean. In that case, you might as well not even bother.

Integrating Google+ with Blogger

Google products still aren't integrated as well as Multiply was, but it's getting better all the time. And every once in awhile there's a feature that Google has that Multiply didn't - such as being able to tag someone in a post. (On Multiply you could tag a photo, but you couldn't tag a person in any other kind of post.)

Rumor has it that we can now mention people by name in Blogger with the same kind of tagging system that's used in Google+. So, here goes: +Meirav M.   (note to self: "i before e, Except after c, Or when sounded as "a," As in neighbour and weigh"... or when spelling a transliterated Hebrew name.)

Woot! That was easy. When you type a @ or + and then start adding letters after it, Google pops up names of folks in your circles that start with that letter. It works slightly less well when your friends' names defy popular spelling customs.

OK, Meirav, how did it come through on your end? Did you get a regular notification? Did clicking on it bring you to this post? Curious minds want to know.

The Old Firehouse is in the Old Firehouse

For the month of November, the Old Firehouse that I made of Lego bricks was housed in the Albany County Public Library up in Laramie along with some other buildings, streets and other Lego bling provided by Stuart, another CoWLUG member.

For the month of December, you can view the Old Firehouse in the Old Firehouse Bookstore in Old Town, Fort Collins. I may go in at some point this week and bling it out with some Christmas accoutrements. It's right out in the open so you can peer in from the sides (not so interesting) or back (a smidge more interesting) or peek in the windows (would be more interesting if I added lights. I'm considering that).

Reaching Picasa's Photo Storage Limit

I've finally reached Picasa's photo storage limit. I knew the day would come because the amount of content I have on Multiply far and away exceeds Picasa's basic limit of 1 gig, but I thought I'd bump up against the limit and see what they say so I could tell everyone moving their stuff to Google products about it. Here's the message I just received as I was transferring an album of photos from Multiply to PIcasa (Google's photo product):

Whoops! You're out of space. You are currently using 100% of your 1 GB quota for photos. Upgrade storage

Photos are stored in your Picasa Web Albums account and are included in your 1 GB free quota for photos. Additional storage you purchase is shared between several Google products and is in addition to your free quota. Learn more

I had already decided that I would upgrade once I hit the limit. I checked out prices previously and they're comparable to what I've already been paying here in Multiplyland. Do I clicked on the "Upgrade storage" link. The first thing that greeted me was a review of the upgrade options. I had forgotten that Picasa's storage limit is lower than the other products'. Here's the Free plan:

Free

5 GB of Drive (0% used)
10 GB of Gmail (21% used)
1 GB of Picasa (99% used)

So, essentially, because I'd reached 100% (or nearly) in one of those areas, I have to upgrade to add more data to that area. I assume I could keep adding in the other areas without upgrading. But I want to transfer my photos, so I look through the rest of the options.

25 GB

$2.49 / Month

25 GB for Drive and Picasa

Bonus: Your Gmail storage will be upgraded to  25 GB.

There's also a 100 gig option for $5/month. But I don't think I'll need that much space. So I opt for the 25 gig option. It looks like you can't pay on a yearly basis. So I'll be paying $2.49 a month until I cancel. Here's the note on the site: "You will be automatically charged $2.49 USD every month starting October 16, 2012 until you cancel your subscription."

Checkout is done through Google Wallet, which is yet another Google product. I'd signed up for it earlier (in order to buy some Lego's for the Old Firehouse that I was making) so it defaulted directly to that. I don't know if you'd be given other options if you haven't already added this service. Feel free to add that info to the comments if you find out the answer on that one. 

Now that I've purchased my storage, it shows me what my current plan is, it shows the next plan up, which I'd seen before, which is 100 gig. And then it shows a plan I hadn't seen before (for 200 gig) and it shows one more option which apparently goes up into several Terabytes. Yowza! 

I was able to start uploading photos to my Picasa storage again right away. There was no lag time. I haven't received an email update on my purchase yet, though. Hmmm, I even refreshed a couple of times and checked my spam folder. So all in all I'd say that the process was pretty painless, pretty cheap, but I'm a little dismayed that an alert email wasn't sent right away to confirm my purchase (even though I know it went through since I have photos uploading right now.) I also don't know what happens if I don't pay up some month. Do I lose all my content? Some? How do they decide what would stay and what I'd lose? I'll be on the alert for answers to these questions. 

Saint Joseph's Church in Fort Collins

This is the building I'm hoping to do in Lego next.

This album is also a test to see if it's possible to still upload photos to Multiply.

Toxic Itch - Walking It Out

I've had seasonal allergies since college. My nose gets runny, my eyes and nose itch, and I tend to sneeze a lot in the mornings. It's miserable, but at least my allergies knew their place and didn't cross those symptom boundaries... until last year. Last year was the beginning of the all over, take me out of the game, body itch.

It often started with my scalp. Late last summer I worried several times that I'd gotten head lice. You wouldn't believe how much mayonnaise I smeared all over my head. (Mayonnaise is a non-toxic way to soffocate lice as well as many of their eggs. You coat your head with it, wrap your hair with a towel/rag/something, and sleep in it. When you wash it out in the morning, you'll wash the lice and their eggs out as well.) But after having a couple different people look through my scalp and not find anything, and given that the itching seemed to be fairly occasional and not limited to my neck and behind my ears (which is where lice like to hang out) I finally decided something else was going on. Besides, lice didn't explain the occasional hand itching or even the all over body itching that sometimes happened.

My hands were the other frequent victims of intense itching. I never saw welts or bumps, but they'd itch like they were very, very dry. They didn't look particularly dry, though. And putting lotion on them didn't seem to make any difference in terms of whether or not they itched.

And then there was the all over body itch. Sometimes when I was gardening or doing housework, I'd start to itch all over so badly that I'd have to run cold water over my hands to get them to feel better and then I'd lie down until the itching all over the rest of my body stopped. I tried benadryl, zyrtec and some generic allergy medicines but nothing seemed to help.

That's when I finally decided to see a doctor about it. She just shrugged and said, "Well, you'll need to stay out of the wind." So I tried, but noticed that wind or no, the itching continued. Eventually I started to see a pattern to when the itching occurred. If I did anything that caused me to sweat a bit, I'd itch. If I was embarrassed or surprised and I flushed, I itched. I started to wonder if there were toxins in my system and they were coming out when I sweated. Some time in February I came across an article online that said that muscles can store toxins unless they're flushed out through exercise. I started to wonder if that was my problem. When the itching began, I stopped doing anything that would bring it on, meaning that I stopped doing yard work, I stopped gardening, I cleaned the house even less frequently than I already was. I did whatever it took to not itch and that mostly meant not moving around too much. Even running errands would sometimes set it off - just from carrying bags from the store to the car and loading it up. I decided that had to change.

I decided that I'd just have to deal with the itch. I started walking the dog once in awhile, and by March I was walking her daily, in the hope that I could get rid of the itchiness. In the beginning I'd force myself to go at least 5 minutes past the point of utter itchination. Since I was walking in pretty cold weather, it helped a lot that I could take off my hat, mittens or jacket since the cool air seemed to help stop the itching while still allowing my body to remove the toxins. The more often I walked, the longer I was able to walk each time before being hit with the itchies. By mid-April or early May, the toxins must have been out of my system because I stopped itching for several months. But I knew that I couldn't stop walking or the toxins would just build up again.

I've been walking (nearly) every day now since last March. I've had two incidents (one at the end of September and one in early October) where I started to itch again. It was only my hands one time and my head another time, so it still wasn't nearly as bad as last year. It's an easy and cheap solution to a problem that was threatening to change my life. Now that it's the fall again and I'm mostly itch free during the time of year when it was the absolute worst last time, I decided that I need to write about my experience and hope that my story will help others that are experiencing unexplained, hiveless itching.

Photos of Brickcon 2012 - Saturday

Here's a slideshow of the photos I took yesterday.

Brickcon 2012 photos from Friday

These are the photos that I took yesterday of the exhibit hall and one of the competitions.

Scale: Actual, Lego Sized, and Wee Itty Bitty

One of the hardest parts of working on my MOC (My Own Creation) was shifting my brain to think at a Lego scale. I kept thinking of a (2 x 4 Lego) brick as comparable to a(n actual) brick. But if I had built at that scale, there's no way I could have fit my model into my carry-on luggage yesterday. I can't even count the number of times I did a Homer (hit myself on the head and cried, "Doh!") when I realized I was misthinking scale Yet Again. A 1x1 Lego brick (that means there's only one stud on top), is approximately one foot across in scale and just over one foot tall.

I finally managed to wrap my brain about the difference in size and then I had a new shift in thinking that I had to cram into my brain. If I were recreating the Old Firehouse in popsicle sticks or paper maché or some other medium, I might be able to replicate some of the intricate details. But with Lego bricks, which aren't maleable or customizable beyond a certain point, my mantra really has to be to *approximate* the original building, giving a nod to the reality of the architecture. 

Then a guy named Steve posted a note in the Brickon Facebook group that they were putting together a micro-Brickcon in honor of Brickcon's 10th anniversary. That's when I decided that I should do a micro version of my Old Firehouse. Although standards seem to vary on micro builds, I suppose you could say the scale is something along the lines of every 20 ft x 20 ft area in real life is equivalent to a postage stamp's size in Lego bricks. It's a major shrinkage. It was much easier making a micro version of the Old Firehouse than the larger version, but that's in large part because there's simply no way to include much detail. That's when I decided that a regular Lego model of an actual building is essentially a nod to the original. You can't get all the detail, but you find a way to represent as much as possible. When you shrink something down to a micro size, that's when you're not just giving a nod to the original building, but you're giving a nod to the idea of a nod. The micro building is a vague, but recognizable representation of the original. 

Here's a photo of me in front of the Old Firehouse in Fort Collins. In my left hand is my Lego model of the building. In my right hand is the micro version of the same building. (Thank you, Penny, for taking the photo.) 

Here's a closeup of the micro version sitting behind the regular Lego scale version. I was able to keep basics such as color in the general areas where the color would go, and windows in the general area where windows would go. But details such as number of windows, arches over windows or doors, some bricks sticking out further than others, etc. is all lost to scaling. 

I did manage to fit my MOCs into a carry on suitcase. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to do it. I took the base plates off and bagged the parts that had been attached (bookshelves, minifigs, tables and counters). I took the roof pieces off as well as the tower. And then I turned the MOC on it's side (so the front of the building was facing down into the suitcase - which it's not doing here in this photo just yet). I stuffed clothes and food inside and around the edges. 

When I arrived in Seattle for Brickcon, I was pleased to see that most of the building was still holding its shape. I spent and hour this morning, however, picking up chunks of pieces that had fallen off and thinking, "Now where in the world does THIS go?" You would think that pieces would fall off in ___ shape and you'd think there'd be a _____ shaped gap left in the model. You'd then put the pieces in place a viola! your MOC is good as new. But I swear some pieces rearranged themselves or perhaps even reproduced themselves because there were some pieces that I never did figure out how to put back in and other pieces that I know I didn't have in certain places before. But the finished product looks basically the same so I'm rolling with it. 

I printed photos of the Old Firehouse so that people could compare the MOC to the original. 

This is my MOC on display in the architecture section of the Exhibition. It's looks rather barren right now. The table is ginormous but there's not currently enough models to fill it up. Hopefully someone has a few more tucked away in their back pocket to help round out the table a bit. The Exhibition starts tomorrow morning and will continue through till Sunday afternoon - October 6-7.

"We can rebuild it...we have the technology"

When you build a Lego set, all of the pieces that you need come in the box, along with step by step directions that help you build the set from the bottom to the top... in that order. When you're building your own creation from scratch, however, you start with a whole mess of pieces (or, like me, you keep ordering more and more from Bricklink) and you get half way through when suddenly you realize something is missing right smack in the middle of what you've already built. It's at times like that when you have to take a deep breath, carefully tear your beautiful creation apart, and insert the required pieces.

There are often times when I've been building and realized that I didn't have the pieces that I needed. So I ordered some bricks online, but I kept building with temporaries in certain spots because I often don't really know what I need until I get to that part of the build. If I kept waiting till new pieces arrived, this project might take all year. So I insert place holders and keep moving on. 

I had to tear apart my MOC (My Own Creation) recently to insert some orange pieces. On the Old Firehouse in Old Town, there's a spot above the windows of the Happy Lucky Tea Shop where the paneling is orange, then white, then orange. I wasn't able to order enough orange pieces to follow that pattern on my MOC, so I decided to at least keep the idea and just flip the colors. I had plenty of white pieces, but the orange pieces (with a part called a "door rail") were spread among about 20 different shops in the U.S. with a couple here and a couple there. To order them all, I'd have spent probably $100 just in shipping. So I found the two shops with the most, bought as many as I could, and went with a white, orange, white pattern. But it meant that I had to tear my MOC apart (see above photo) so pull out the place holding white pieces and insert the new orange ones. 

It's at times like this that the following mantra keeps running through my head, "We can rebuild it... we have the technology." I might not be working on the Six Million Dollar Man, but when I bust apart my creation and pieces go flying everywhere, I just have to keep reminding myself, if I built it before, I can rebuild it again. I do try to preserve as much as I can in large chunks, or like is shown in the photo, just kinda move pieces out of the way without removing them entirely. But that's not always possible. 

I also added a cowgirl to the bookshop today. She's standing at the checkout counter ready to buy a Halloween related book (with a red spider on it). That's the cash register on the right. The blurry white box in the front of the photo is the "free books" box in front of the store. (And you can just see the shadowy bike handle on the right.)

I've pretty much finished the front of the Old Firehouse. If you look in the windows of the tower at the top you can see some pieces at a slant. There are still windows there that are waiting for some pieces to arrive in the mail that will secure them into place. And I'm short a few roof pieces that I'm also hoping will arrive in the mail soon. (I actually need to go look and make sure I ordered those pieces. If not, I think it's too late to go Bricklinking now. Brickcon starts in 4 days! I'll have to go look for a set at the store that has the pieces I need. Or *gasp* dig through Nathan's bricks to see if he has what I need.)

I built a few bookshelves in the Old Firehouse Book Store and still need to do some work on the teacup and teapot shelf in Happy Lucky's. Once I get that all finished, I'll post some photos here of the inside detail work. The higher I build, the harder it is to work on the inside. That's just one more thing that would have gone in order if I'd been following directions. But making something from scratch is all about doing and then taking apart and doing over.

Meg's MOC Update - The Devil is in the Details

Nearing the top of the building!

I promised in my last post that I'd focus in on some of the details in the Old Firehouse that I'm trying to replicate in my MOC. Because the building was created in two stages, the two sides are rather different from each other - despite having a few similarities. The older/left side of the building has details that are all created through the placement of brick or the addition of red sandstone. There are several points where the brick juts out just a bit here or there to add texture. Unfortunately, since a 1 x 1 brick is equivalent to a foot across, and these bricks on the building jut out an inch or less, I have a hard time showing that detail in my MOC. Sometimes I did capture it because I thought it was an important and noticeable detail of the building. Other times I had to add the affect some other way (change in color, change in brick type).

Notice the white stone, then brick that sticks out.

The white at the bottom is the stone, the orange is the unpainted brick that sticks out. 

The area above the downstairs windows - where Happy Lucky's Teahouse is - is what I focused on today. The more I look at the photos I have, the more detail I see. And since this is the "newer" (1901) part of the building, for some reason they used a lot more wood detailing, which means the details become finer and harder to emulate in brick.

If you start at the dangling holiday lights and work your way up, you start with a really thin colored line. (I don't even know what to call that color of paint that they used. It's like a cross between salmon and skin tone. Ugh. For my MOC, I'm just calling everything that color - orange. That way I have three main colors, red/white/orange. And since it's paint, it can always change. But since the red sand stone is actually rather orangish, I'm going with orange. Alright, back to the details...

Colored line... white line... colored line.. bigger white line but not so big that you could show the distinction in brick... colored line with squares of white sticking out on it, colored line, white line, colored line, brickish line, red sandstone. Pull hair out now! 

Here's how I tried to recreate that back and forthing of color. I couldn't really show the ins and outs of it, though, because each forward or backward of wood detailing is too small to catch with Lego bricks. So I used some door rails to show a bit of jutting out action, but I had no orange door rails so they're all white. (I did order some, but I wasn't able to find a store with enough that I could go orange/white/orange like I should. So instead I'm going to make it white/orange/white and stick my tongue out at anyone that points out the difference.) For those that don't know (and I didn't until my son told me about them) a door rail is a plate (that's a very thin Lego piece. Three plates equal the height of one brick.) that has been modified by having a bit of a rail stuck off the side of it. So when I put the plate into place, the "door rail" sticks out past the rest of the Lego bricks.

You only get a sense of the white jutting out bit by the shadow showing up between the white squares. 

Oh, and then there's the windows. Oi Vey! The windows! Bricks help us, there is no such thing as a window that's three studs across in Lego-land. What's with that? So despite the fact that there should be 4 evenly sized windows across the top bit here, I had to go with a 2 stud window, two 4 stud windows and another 2 stud window instead. It breaks my heart to be that far off. I could leave the spaces and scrap the windows like I did for the two large windows below them. (They do make windows that would fit those spaces, but they're all currently located in Europe and I don't have time for two little plastic windows to get onto a boat and float over here.) I don't know. Maybe that's what I'll do yet. But for now, we have 2 - 4 - 4 - 2. And a wincing motion every time I look at it.

Here's a picture of the front of the building so you can compare the windows and share my pain.

I found this photo on the web and it has been such a help. There's currently an awning over those four, evenly spaced windows. So having this photo that showed me how it was all supposed to look under the awning has been a huge boon.  ... Well, it would be a huge boon if it meant that I could see there are evenly spaced windows under there, find Lego windows that would fit, and then fit them into place. Instead, I wish Lego made a brown awning with Happy Lucky Teahouse printed on it to cover the four evenly spaced windows that I haven't been able to reproduce. *takes a moment to cry into her hanky*

I have a week and a half for new bricks to arrive before we leave for Brickcon. At that point, what's not built is going to remain not built. So I at least need to get enough done that I'm not going to be mortally embarrassed in front of all those MOC masters.

I sorta forgot that the turret sort of thing at the top has more than just one side to it. I quickly ordered some windows for the sides today. Hopefully I have enough red brick to finish this off. (I should. I still have piles of the stuff. And lots of other stuff that I ordered "just in case" and I haven't needed. Then again, some "just in case" stuff turned out to be very handy. I envy the Lego builders who work in Lego filled workshops where anything they might ever need is at their finger tips.)

I'm still not sure how much I'm going to do on the inside of the building. I'm realizing that once I put the floor for the second story in, you can't really see much inside on the first floor. So even though I have some book shelves in there, I'm not sure how much I should fill them out. I need some little lights for the inside of my building. (I did order one. We'll see how it works.)

Meg's MOC Update - FC Old Firehouse

I spent 7 hours working on my MOC on Friday. It was a welcome break from all the other things I had been up to this past week (which involved way too many meetings. Rob was joking by Wednesday night that I should print a picture of myself and post it somewhere around the house so the kids wouldn't forget what I look like. Granted, I only had two evening meetings when the kids would even notice that I was gone, but I had several during the day time. I was feeling meeting-ed out by Friday, to say the least.)

My focus on Friday was to rebuild the front of the building to make it sturdier, and then I tried to build as much as I possibly could in order to figure out what pieces I was missing and would need to buy through Bricklink.com. The four windows to the right, with the orange line with white squares below them, really need to sit higher than they do. But I didn't have the windows that need to fit into place below these. In fact, when I went to order windows that would fit, I found that they're only available in Europe. So I instead ordered some pieces to make a window frame without using a pre-made Lego window.

I have just under three weeks to finish this MOC before Brickcon. I was able to get enough pieces in place (plus a few as place holders) that I could measure the approximate height of the finished building (about 14 inches) and was able to register it for the exhibition.  (Mine was the 285th MOC to be registered. I wonder how many total will be in the event when all is said and done?) 

My biggest concern at this point is that I won't have enough time to order parts that I need. Many Bricklink shops have a very fast turnaround time. (A few orders have come in as quickly as 3 days!!!!) But there are a few that take quite a bit longer.  I think I've been able to approximate features well enough so far that my MOC resembles the actual building and people will make the connection. (Of course, no one at Brickcon will have any clue what building I'm modeling this after, so it's neither here nor there for those folks. But I'd like to have this go on display at the book store (that's located in the west side of the Old Firehouse) and later in the library (if they'll have it) and folks there will definitely know if I got it close or not. So I want to get it right the first time.) But the very top part of the building (not just the tower but the gingerbread along the top) will take a lot more creativity to approximate well. Nathan is my go-to resource when I don't have any clue which pieces will work in a certain situation, but some times even he is stumped. (I have yet to figure out what the name of the piece is that would make a reasonable fire hose pole, so I haven't been able to order it. And though Nathan has a piece that will work, I've made a point of ordering my own Lego bricks on not using any of his.) 

I should have several packages arriving this week with needed pieces. I'll try to finish the building as best I can so I can make any last minute orders this week and hopefully be completely done with ordering pieces by next weekend. I've also realized that I need to be thinking about the inside of the building. Since the beginning I've been trying to figure out what time period this building is going to be in. I really wanted to do something early 1900s that would include a horse drawn fire wagon as shown in old photos. But if you look at the photo above, you'll notice that the entranceways in both the old and newer parts of the building were bricked shut! That wouldn't look good in a MOC!!!  So despite having ordered Lego horses and people and even little fire hats, I've decided against going with the early 1900s. That leaves late 1900s and early 2000s to work with. And the real bummer at this point is paint! Grrrrr. Paint. They've pained SOME of the brick "brick red" and the rest they've left unpainted at all (and the bricks are actually rather orange-ish). So I'm trying to mimic that paint/not paint job in the colors of the bricks I'm using. But there are some areas where it's really questionable which way I should go. I just keep reminding myself, "approximation is the goal."

By next weekend I should have a nearly finished model. At that point I'll try to zoom in on some of the specifics in the building and how I addressed them in Lego brick. I'm also thinking of taking the Old Firehouse down to the Old Firehouse and showing the MOC off to the folks who work at the bookstore and the tea shop. I'd really like to get a photo of myself holding my MOC while standing in front of the building.  :-)

Meet Maeby

We've been talking for a few years now about getting a second pooch. Our red heeler, Laika, is about 12 this year. (She's a pound puppy, so we're not entirely sure how old she is. But we've had her since 2002 (as I originally announced in this blog. That was before my Multiply days.) so she's at least 11 since she wasn't a puppy when we got her.

Naomi has wanted a corgi of some sort (meaning "a corgi mix"). We've been open to a few other working dogs though. We fostered Daisy, a heeler/whippet mix, but she was a bit too lively for most of the family. Then we tried a puppy from Petfinders that was listed as a Corgi/Heeler mix and was mostly likely a Pit Bull or Pit Bull mix. She was a real sweetheart, but since I didn't know what breed she was, I figured we really had no idea how large she would get and I wasn't up for a large or overly-protective dog. (We fostered a pit bull over the winter holiday and though she was also a snuggler, I felt like I couldn't walk near my own kids at night for fear of being snapped at.)

So we've been keeping our eyes an ears open for a Corgi mix. My sister found a little girl in Wyoming that looked promising. Naomi was a little worried about growing attached again, only to lose the dog. But I talked her and Anna in to going up to Wyoming with me. We visited Oreo and another Corgi/Terrier mix that nearly licked us to death. His name was, appropriately, Dash. The girls liked Oreo so we brought her home with us. We dithered about with names for several days until we finally settled on Maeby, the character in Arrested Development. The name fits our pooch really well. She's a very cautious, easily scared little gal. She huddled on a little doggie bed under our dining room table the first day we brought her home and we're still working on getting her used to going in and out of the door to the house. But she snuggles every night with Naomi and she jumps for joy when I come home after being out running errands. She plays with Bo and I even caught her playing in the back yard with Laika once, though Laika vehemently denies that anything of the sort ever happened. Even Tibbs has chased her around, though I suspect he meant it more as an aggressive move than the fun play time that Maeby took it as.

I'm thinking of fashioning a little jacket/cape for her to wear that discourages strangers from trying to pet her. That still freaks her out too much. But given that she's too afraid to go anywhere on a leash, I don't think I need to be in any hurry about that. I hope she'll become more social in time. But the reality of that happening? Well, it's probably a maybe.

My First MOC as an Adult

Last year, Nathan and I attended Brickcon in Seattle. I was amazed by the variety and detail in the MOCs that were on display there. (MOC means My Own Creation and refers to individually made creations as opposed to completed kits sold by Lego.) I was so inspired, in fact, that I've decided to make my own MOC to take to this year's Brickcon.

I wasn't sure what building to attempt. I had been tossing around various possibilities, all older buildings downtown, when I came across a sign for a fundraiser to help the victims of the High Park Fire this summer. They used the Old Firehouse as their attention grabbing image and it immediately struck me that the Old Firehouse would be an appropriate building to begin with. It's old (The older (left) half was started in 1881 and finished in 1882. The addition (right half) was added in 1901.), it honors the fire fighters who helped to control the High Park Fire this summer, and it would definitely be a challenge for me and something I could be proud of if I pulled it off.

Lego Container, Computer with Pics, and MOC in progress

Step one was measuring the dimensions of the building. I contacted the city to see if there were any blueprints lying around. If there are, no one knows where they are. So I ended up taking an early morning walk with the dog and a tape measure. I was able to get the dimensions along the base of the building, but I'll be guessing/approximating for the rest of the building. But as I've started work on this project, I've learned that approximating is really the name of the game.

I made an initial order through Bricklink and when it arrived I started building out the base of the building. I discovered two things right off the bat, I had ordered bricks that were way too big! and I needed a bigger baseplate. Scale has been a bear to get into my head, for some reason. I'll imagine a section of the building with such and such bricks, then when I get right down to putting them together I realize that I way over planned. (A 1 x 1 Lego brick is equivalent in scale to 1 foot across and 1.2 feet in height.) I immediately had to reorder skinnier bricks so that my wall wasn't the thickness of the Alamo. (Didn't the Alamo have thick walls? Or am I thinking of some other famous old building?) I've basically gone through this same routine several times, ordering a bunch of bricks thinking they'll work best for such and such part of the building only to put them together and find that they don't at all create the effect I thought they would. Needless to say, I'm learning quite a bit about Bricklink through this process. And I'm spending way more money than this project really should cost. But I keep reminding myself that I'm a beginner and I can use the leftover bricks in my next project (hopefully). I've started keeping track of which shops sent the bricks in a timely manner and without an exorbitant shipping fee and which to avoid. But sometimes you have to go with whoever has the pieces you need.

I finally got fed up with waiting to get started and I just dived right in. I think I'm going to redo what I have so far, but at least I've gotten my first arch in and started to see how what I need for the next stage up (above the arch). You can see in the photo to the left that the bottom row is white (representing the white sandstone they used as the foundation), except where it isn't. The red pieces are standing in for white pieces that I ordered ages ago that still haven't arrived (because the gal invoice me about a week to a week and a half after I made the order!). Then you'll note there's orange on the left, but not on the right. That's another total oopsie. It turns out the building was originally all the same color of orange-ish brick with some orange sandstone as decoration. But at some point someone painted some of the brick, turning it closer to red, or maroon perhaps. So this starts all sorts of debates in my head - am I aiming to make this building as it looked originally? (If so, I probably wouldn't build the eastern addition.) Or should I build it as it is today (but then will I have to add the awnings?!!). Yada yada yada. The point being that I started out doing the brick red and the painted brick red. But then I realized that the brick at the bottom matches the brick higher up, but I had planned on doing that in orange. So, to be consistent, the unpainted brick at the bottom really should be orange. Back to bricklink I go.

I think I've finally decided that I'm going to do the building (mostly) as it is today. That, however, means that now I need to fill out the bookstore and the tea shop on the inside. So I've been researching how to make bookshelves in Lego (and I've been ordering more bricks through bricklink) and since I've got most of the basic structure worked out (at least at the base) I'm starting to realize that if I'm doing this in today's style, I need to add in the windows where the fire engine used to go in and out, and I'm also trying to figure out the doorways (which have lots of extra glass around them).

My mantra to myself is that I'm just trying to create something that echoes the Old Firehouse. There's no way I can get all the details right. Part of building with Lego means working with the limitations of Lego as well. It's a steep learning curve, but Nathan is my advisor and patience is my guide.

Still Testing Stuff

The Great Multiply Migration of 2012 is still in process. As a result, I'm still trying to figure out the features of here, there and assorted other wheres. Sometimes even when someone tells you about a feature, you don't really grok it until you've done it yourself. So I'm just gonna do a whole bunch of whatever in this post and see how it works to do it.  I'll write about it as I go so this won't just be a testing post, but also a learning post and hopefully a help to others.

Insert Photo(s) into Blog Post: Click on the scenery image button above. (It's just to the right of Link and left of the movie icon.) Add photos using the options along the left hand side. I've already made posts where I added photos using the upload feature. So this time I'm going to try loading something from a URL. I'm wondering if the photo will be brought over here, or if the image will still link back to the original URL.

Hmmm, I added the photo yes, it does hotlink the photo rather than pulling it into Blogger. It looks like it will also provide a link, if you click on the photo, back to the original page.  (But when I tried clicking on the photo in preview mode, it didn't do anything. So maybe I'm wrong about that.) I also discovered that when you move the photo around, it wants to snap to the top of a paragraph.

You can have a part of your post indent itself. This is handy if you're quoting someone (and that's what the icon shows is quotes). I suppose if you post a lot of poetry, or quote other folks a lot, this might be useful. And when you hit return, it pops you back out to the original margin.

Tags: To tag your post, use the "labels" section on the right hand side when composing.

Schedule your post: You can schedule when your post will publish using the scheduling section to the right. It's pretty straightforward.

Permalink and Location tagging: You can set up a permanent link for your post. I don't really get the advantage of that. Is it presumed that the link will change a lot otherwise? You can also geotag your post. This might be handy if you travel a lot and are writing about your experiences. ... I suppose.

Comments: You can allow or not allow comments on a post - on a per post basis. Ditto for Backlinks (which is when someone links back to your post from another post... I think.)

Privacy: Just looked again at privacy settings. They're horrible. You're either all the way on or all the way hidden. There's no per post setting of access. And folks have to have a google account to view your blog if you set it to private.     I guess that makes sense, since there's no other way for them to know if you're the person in question or not. And I suppose that does line up with how Multiply worked. But I don't know everyone's email addresses! I wonder if knowing their Google username is enough. I wish you could set privacy based on G+ circles. That would be so much easier.

OK, enough of that for now. Post comments, questions, complaints below.