D-I-Y Weekend

GAME TIME:  Saturday morning we all drove down to Des Moines, WA, and the campus of Highline Community College. Our reason for the journey: Attending a "Super Smash" tournament.

I'll let CJ tell you a bit more about it.

On November 21st, 2015, I went with my older brother Ken to "Northwest Majors: Drop Zone 2015", a(n) (presumably) annual Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament at Highline Community College in Des Moines. In the tournament, Ken and I decided upon the team name "Top Gun," named me "Iceman," and Ken was "Maverick." The team's name and our names in the tournament are references to "Top Gun," an iconic 1986 action film.

In the tournament, Top Gun did not perform very well. At the start of the tournament, Top Gun lost to Gucci Flip Flops, and in the Losers' Bracket, Team Three Star launched Top Gun straight out of the tournament. At home, I was able to watch the finals on twitch.tv, an online streaming service.

I feel like Ken and I need more training to work more as a team and practice on our own. It seemed like the game was the life of many of the people there, whereas we'd only practiced together for 45 minutes.

Even though we lost, I am interested in being in a tournament again some day. 

I'm not going to lie, I didn't find competitive video gaming a very interesting spectator sport. However, it was something CJ was really enthused about doing, so we were happy to take him so he could have the experience.

BOXING DAY: We worked around the house a lot this weekend. We raked and gathered leaves, cleaned out the garden for one last time, and nearly finished a new roof over our entryway/front porch. 

We also spent a few hours working on some sets and props for the drama production CJ's a part of.

One of the things we constructed is something called an acting box. We'd never heard of one before CJ's drama teacher mentioned the need for a couple. Turns out it's an 18-by-18 inch cube that is used for everything from a seat to a mini stage on the stage. It needs to be sturdy, lightweight, and constructed in a way that a person could sit or stand on any of its sides.

Naturally, we turned to the magic of the Internet to find specs about how to construct one. The plans we found that we liked best were from the Instructables site. They suggested using dense foam insulation board, cutting it into square of the desired size, stacking and gluing them together to make your cube, and then covering the foam with thin paneling.

So that's what we did.

And we're happy to report that it worked!

Now, we just need to cover the whole thing in muslin and paint it black. Neat-o!