Do Not Hold Doors

Blog.BryantReyes

noreply@blogger.com (Bryant Reyes) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 06:23:00 +0000

This site has moved over to Blog.BryantReyes now powered by Wordpress and hosted on my site. I will fix the feed soon...

BryantReyes.com has also gone through a redesign (scant content at the moment). I like the design this iteration much better though.

Sadly this will be the last post on DNHD.Blogspot.com... but be sure to visit the other sites...thanks!

.com

noreply@blogger.com (Bryant Reyes) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 23:42:00 +0000

small tease for the homepage to my upcoming website....

Summer Time

noreply@blogger.com (Bryant Reyes) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:57:00 +0000

So I decided that July 18th would be my last day of work...summer will officially commence then

A month and a half of vacation time doesn't seem too bad to me and I have a lot of things that I want to do with that time. This could very well be my last vacation (not counting all the holidays) for a long time so doing something is of top priority. Here's a short list:

Take lots of pictures - This is also may be the last time I'll be living in Brooklyn for a while and want a way to document and keep some kind of memory of what my neighborhood and my city is/was like and it'll give me an excuse to just walk around looking at things for no reason.
Build a personal website - I've been wanting to start a photo gallery and do some other stuff online so I finally decided to do it. I'm gonna have to learn some things along the way but it should fun. Here's a preliminary logo:
Get some sort of scholarship - Knowing that there are many opportunities for one out there I've never applied for one...mostly because of the essays and letter of recommendations involved. So, I'm going to take my time and start and finish one of those annoying reflective essays and see what comes of it.
Look for and apply for study-abroad - My school has this really cool study abroad program that's only about a month long to the Netherlands. Being in engineering means you don't usually have any leeway in terms of your schedule but this program actually seems to fit in. It's also really interesting as its goal is to show students the different ways Americans and Europeans handle issues pertaining to traffic, the environment and green building...

We'll see how much, if any, of this stuff I actually get done before school starts up again. Tot ziens!

Six Months Later

noreply@blogger.com (Bryant Reyes) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:08:00 +0000

Well, it has been almost six months since my last post here when I chided myself for neglecting this blog..but ohhhwell. I've always been horrible when it comes to writing...I seem to always procrastinate no matter what the situation is. I'm just glad I somehow seem to be a little better when writing on technical matters, things just blurt out easier without the need for me to go on a three-hour Wikipedia tour.

I guess that's one of the things I didn't realize before going into this co-op (internship); there is a lot of writing that happens before anything actually gets done. There are proposals to clients outlining our past achievements, our expertise within the field and a price is put on the work we can do. Then most projects require some sort of feasibility study to research and report to the client what solutions there are, what we think the best option is and what that option would mean to their budget and future plans. Once the client decides to go ahead with a project there needs to be specifications drawn and written up that illustrate and explain exactly what it is we need for that particular project. These specifications go on to contractors who "bid" on the project, the client and the engineer then get together with the contractors to decide, based on many factors, which contractor gets the job. After all this is done, is when the actual construction can begin (if the city approves of everything, all permits are done and there isn't any community NIMBY-ism). So for the most part, my co-op has consisted of me writing a lot of first drafts of all these parts with a couple of site visits and some interny things for me to do too.

Anyway, sorry for this exciting post but just felt like explaining a little of what it is I actually do with CDM. I've really enjoyed my time working with them and still have another month or so left on my co-op before summer vacation and the fall semester start. The entire experience has given me a good idea of what it means to have to drive to work everyday, deal with traffic and the shame that comes with a larger carbon footprint, not to mention the gas prices. I guess I'm just a city boy who's too used to taking the train wherever he needs to go...though I like it bettter that way.

Negligence

noreply@blogger.com (Bryant Reyes) — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 14:06:00 +0000

Negligence, why does it happen...well I can make up elaborate stories about why it happens but mostly it happens because your being a douche. In my case, I'm a douche who neglected his blog :..( But I'm back, mostly due to some spare time at work...

Let me start by talking a little bit about last semester and its goings ons...
It went by pretty fast even though while it's happening you never think it's going to end and then it does and you start feeling like there is so much more that you could have done to make it more worthwhile. Last semester I gave myself more responsibility than I've had and I think I came out alright and unscathed. I also landed myself a sweet co-op with a really good engineering company in New York (outside the city) and now I'm sitting in my cubicle typing this out....yes I know that I'm leaving out most of the deets but I've never been very good with them anyway.

I wanna talk about some of the books/graphic novels I've been reading recently but I'll do that at a later time...

Custom

noreply@blogger.com (Bryant Reyes) — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 04:14:00 +0000

So one of the things I wanted by the end of this summer was a usable electric guitar. I've had many many problems with my old one and therefore wanted a new one just to start over. So I looked and looked, but there weren't any guitars that I really fell in love with. Now, there were many with which I messed around and had wild nights with but none that could hold my attention. What is a lonely lover to do?...well, take the sci-fi route and create the love of your life of course. The Reyes Lovecaster model was born....

I started with my old guitar as the piece of wood to use, it's a circa 80's Fernandes what I think to be a Revolver model but I'm not sure. Here's the only picture I have of it before the work done on it. Original
Then I started to look at some designs I liked. Probably the biggest influence on the design of the guitar is the Ibanez Paul Gilbert Model here. I knew I wanted it white but I went through a lot of design choices on what I actually wanted to put on the white. The first being a design reminiscent of EVH's signature guitars but with less lines and making it red and black on white. Second was the way too cheesy Japanese Kanji symbol for love, then I decided I wanted to write "Amore Vincit Omnia" meaning Love Conquers All in Latin, but I figured that would be too much of a hassle to actually paint on to the guitar. Then I decided on what is on the guitar now which is the simple thin black line through the volume knob.
After deciding on the design it was time to figure out how to actually go about repainting a guitar. The three biggest helps were:
Project Guitar, Ibanez Project and Brad Sucks
What I learned from these sites was that it wasn't going to be easy. I borrowed a sander and went to work, it took me about five hours the first day to get about a quarter of the back of the guitar striped of paint...it was going to take a while. I spent about 2-3 weeks sanding the guitar down working every couple of days until I got it down to where I wanted it. I had ordered Krylon paint, including the primer, color and an acrylic clear coat. To get that factory finish top coat on a guitar you apparently need a shite load of paint. I went through 6 spray cans of acrylic clear coat paint and the finish on the body is still not what it could be (though nobody has to know). My favorite part of the guitar is definitely the headstock check it out.
Next came installing the new hardware and pickups I bought to really make it an all new guitar. The hardest part of this was selecting the pickups and I ended up going with the Seymour Duncan SL59-1 Little '59 for the neck, a DiMarzio Blue Velvet DP170 S (the "S" means it's reverse wound and will cancel hum in the 2 and 4 positions) for the middle, and a Seymour Duncan TB-4 JB Model pickup for the bridge. This gave me an H-S-H configuration and since I wanted more sounds out of it I put in a push/pull knob and can change it to an S-S-S configuration by pulling the volume knob. I'm pretty happy with this configuration for now, with the help of my Vox AD30VT I get a lot of different sounds out of it so it's great for someone like me who is more of a hobbyist than a serious musician.

I guess that's it, that's my tale and I guess in the big scheme of things I enjoyed the experience and I came out of it with a one of a kind guitar and more soldering, sanding and painting experience than I ever wanted. I'm gonna go play now................

Millions

noreply@blogger.com (Bryant Reyes) — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 02:50:00 +0000

I read this article today in the NY Times about the wealthy in Silicon Valley. They talk about how, to keep their status as millionaires, they have to work 60-70 hour weeks and still don't even consider themselves wealthy.
I, like any good American, have always wanted to be wealthy...or rather at least financially secure. I think it's ingrained in us from an early age that success in life amounts to having that huge house in the suburbs, 2.5 children, money in the bank for the kids education and a retirement in Florida, but what is the actual cost of all these things. Is it worth working your ass off as you watch life pass you by? Though one things that is respectable is the fact that these people really enjoy their jobs and find fulfillment in that, there's a lot to be said for that. At the end of the day though, I would rather enjoy the finer things in life along with my wife, the kids, the dog, the house....but those millions do smell soo good.

Check Out

noreply@blogger.com (Bryant Reyes) — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 08:26:00 +0000

I wanted to start off by pointing to all of the links I've put up of some of my favorite sites on the interwebs. I will probably add more as I go on but right now I like these. Let us get into it:

Engadget
This is probably the first blog I ever read and I still follow it religously till this day. It's the definitive source for breaking news on technology and gadgets...obsessing over shiny objects would be a lot harder without it.

Rocketboom
Another first, this was the first vlog/podcast/vidcast/any other names for it I ever saw. Always entertaining for those 5 minutes when you should really be doing something else. Amanda Congdon was awesome but I love (very creepily) Joanne Colan.

The Show with Ze Frank
The best ~1300 minutes I ever spent on the interenet were spent watching Ze give his thoughts on the world and stick a towel between his but cheeks...wait scratch the last one. The smartest most hilarious guy on the internet or I guess was since his internship with the LoA ended...I miss you Ze!

Revision3
Revision3 is a video casting site with great shows for all us freaks and geeks. There're so many shows that there's bound to be something for everyone, but to start off you should watch Diggnation, The Totally Rad Show and back episodes of Geekdrome...awsomeness will surely ensue.

Apparently Nothing,Deceptive Media
I'll group these together because they're both photoblogging sites...oh and I will hopefully be posting some of my pictures on here soon.
I love photography and these are two of my favorite photographers some others that I didn't include are Jon Swainson, 61803, and A Little Piece of the World. Google em, they won't disappoint.

Ask a Ninja
NINJAS > PIRATES nuf said

The 1up Show
I don't get to play nearly as many video games as I'd like to anymore (being sociable gets in the way) that's why i watch this show. It has really good production values and keeps me in the video game know which is the least I can do to keep my nerd cred up.

Wine Library TV
I'm at the ripe old age of 18 and as such am under the legal drinking age of 21, so taking a sip of wine would never pass through my head....uhhm...yea Seriously though, wine is something that I enjoy but don't really know anything about and so I watch this show to get my learning on. It also helps that the host is as crazy as they come and very entertaining to watch. So old man habits: Smoking Cigars:Check, Drinking Wine:Check, Getting Prostate Cancer:Ch..uhhm I hope not :P

Apple
I'm currently running an Apple MacBook Pro 15.4" (2GHz Core Duo, 2GB RAM) and it's easily the best computer I've ever used. Now, I'm not an Apple evangelist (I've never even owned an iPod) but running Mac OSX is an orgasmic experience especially when compared to the disgust one gets when running Windows...but like I said, I'm not an Apple evangelist..heh

Hope this post wasn't too long and boring but it was fun, so I'll keep doing it...
~stay tuned for more~

...testing...

noreply@blogger.com (Bryant Reyes) — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 02:15:00 +0000

First post ever on my blog. It will be just a test post...sorry to all the adoring fans...

TESTING...1...2...3...