Podcast: Building a career out of LEGO bricks with Warren Elsmore

Warren Elsmore wrote a book! It’s called Brick City and Warren describes it as “a celebration of the worlds’ architecture, recreated solely using the celebrated toy of the century, LEGO bricks.”
In our podcast with him, we discussed:

  • Is this an instruction book or an idea book?
  • Who is the target audience?
  • What was the book writing process like?
  • How and when can people buy this book?
  • And many more LEGO-rich topics…

Brick City will be in bookstores in several different countries on May 6th, and it is already available for pre-order on Amazon – check Warren’s Brick City page for links. Warren’s website also has more information on his large scale models and his commission-based work.

Podcast trivia: Warren was briefly a Guinness World Record holder for “Largest LEGO Mosaic” from the 2012 LEGO Show, with a mosaic measuring at 143.9 square meters (1607 square feet).

Listen now >

Please pray for a truly special young lady and her family

From my friend and ICS community member Chris Byrne:

My 17 year old daughter Grace, a senior honors student in high school who is dual enrolled at the University of Georgia, was running with friends after school last Friday.  When crossing the street, she was struck by an SUV.  She is now in the intensive care unit of a local hospital being treated for severe brain trauma.  Grace is a multi-sport athlete at her school with varsity letters in Tennis and Cross Country, and was the MVP of the Junior Varsity Soccer Team.  She turned to tennis as a sport after breaking her foot too many times playing soccer.  She has also completed two half-marathons, the most recent in October (the picture of her is after that race).  The outpouring of love and concern for her from our community in Athens has been unbelievable because she has touched so many lives and made such a difference in her young life.

graceathhalf

Our family firmly believes in the power of prayer and are asking people to pray for our beloved daughter and her sister.  Specifically we are asking that people carry a walnut, which represents her head and when people see or touch the walnut to say a little prayer that her head be basked in a healing light.  Her friends have started a Twitter hashtag of #Walnuts4Grace

Happy birthday Danielle

Danielle Elgort

Danielle Perri Elgort 1996-2003

A change of seasons

Starting on January 7th, 2013 and going through June, 2013 I will be an instructor in the Computer Technology program at Vancouver’s Clark College. The four classes are:

Winter 2013 Quarter

  • Introduction to Programming and Problem Solving (CTEC 121)
  • HTML Essentials (CTEC 122 – two classes)
  • Introduction to PHP (CTEC 127)

Spring 2013 Quarter

  • Introduction to Programming and Problem Solving (CTEC 121)
  • HTML Essentials (CTEC 122 – two classes)
  • Advanced PHP (CTEC 127)

Teaching is something that I have always been interested in doing career-wise and, this opportunity provides me with an opportunity to give it a try. Over the last couple of weeks I have been guest lecturing and so far so good. The students are amazing and it’s a huge departure from the “enterprise” world that I came from. They offer a totally different perspective that I am welcoming with open arms.

At Elguji we are hard at work on IdeaJam 2.0 which is going to be a groundbreaking release. We have learned a lot about running a micro-ISV both in the on-premises world and the world of cloud computing. There are some amazing things you will be seeing from Elguji in 2013. We recently launched V1.3 of our popular IQJam product.

I will be at Connect 2013 with Gayle and will be delivering three sessions:

  • Apps, Apps, and More Apps: Meet the Very Best Open Source Apps from OpenNTF (with Niklas Heidloff)
  • Meet the Java Application Server You Already Own – Domino (with Serdar Basegmez)
  • How We Built CollaborationToday.info in a Matter of Weeks (with Per Henrik Lausten)

2013 is shaping up to be another amazing year and I would like to thank Gayle, my family and friends for their support.

Joy to the world

 

Happy birthday Danielle

Danielle Elgort

Danielle Perri Elgort 1996-2003

Domino Designer 9.0

Yeap it’s true, Domino Designer 9.0 has arrived. That is our dog “Domino Designer” (yes we named our dog that back in 2002). Domino has finally surpassed Lotus product version numbers with this birthday.

While Domino Designer has moved on from developing Notes/Domino doggie apps for his customer base, he now is heavily involved in the development of DogOS for the local cat community. Most of his work is still under NDA however, his PR agency says that his next app does not include the word “social“. He did indicate that he is using NoBiscuitSQL as the backend database technology. He has enlisted the assistance of his sister Bella Luna to help with the UX work.

Domino is currently looking for angel investors as he has found that his social security and 401(k) have dwindled away with the recent US debt crisis follies.

Domino Designer at Cannon Beach, Oregon

Happy birthday Domino Designer!

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 1,383 other followers