Studio711.com – Ben Martens

Patreon

The Internet has enabled anyone to become a content creator. Quality content isn’t common, but there are more than a few people producing incredible content. The trick has been for these Internet shows to get enough money to support their high production values. Enter a website called Patreon.com. Patreon provides an easy way for viewers to give money to the people producing the content. Some content producers balk at this and view it as begging for money. I think the opposite is true: if Internet content gives me value, I want to give them money so they can keep doing what they are doing. We both benefit from the relationship.

The general format is that users say they will give $X for each episode but they can also set a monthly limit. So I might say that I’ll give you $1 per episode but I’ll limit it to $2/month. If you make three episodes in one month, you won’t get any money from me for that third one. So when you see total donation amounts per episode, remember that’s only guaranteed for the first episode of the month. It will probably drop down a bit for any episodes after that.

It has been quite successful for a couple of my favorite shows.

I’m hoping that some of the other web content I enjoy moves to this model so I can help support them and keep them “on the air.” The whole idea is a throwback to the middle ages when the wealthy would pay musicians and artists. The difference is that now we can crowdfund these and make it all happen with a tiny amount of money from a large number of people. I’d much rather give money directly to these independent creators than the huge chunk of money that goes to the cable company every month.

benmartens May 5, 2014 Commentary

Wacom Tablet

Every time we move offices at work, people set things outside their offices as last-chance giveaways before throwing them in the trash. The last time this happened, I was surprised to see a Wacom tablet! For those who don’t know, Wacom makes high quality drawing devices that hook up to your computer. In the days of modern tablets and touch screens, this is less important, but they are still used by artists as the primary way of doing art on the computer. I’m no artist, but I’ve always wanted to play with one. I double checked that it was really a freebie and then brought it home.

I don’t know how often this will get used but it has already come in handy to mark up a proposal from a tree-removal guy for our yard project.

benmartens May 2, 2014 Gadgets

Carnival

On Saturday, we headed down to one of the cruise terminals in Seattle for a party thrown by my organization at work. (There are about 4000 people in this org.) They rented out the building and had it set up like a carnival. Elijah loved watching all the people and seeing the decorations. There was a play area for kids which kept him occupied while we chatted with some of my co-workers. Tyla and I both enjoyed sampling all the foods they had, and I’ll never pass up free Mac And Jacks. Elijah’s favorite part might have been the shuttle ride from the parking lot to the party. He loves watching big buses and this was his first time to ride in one.

benmartens April 29, 2014 Family

Mariners

Tim called us last week and asked if we wanted some free tickets to the game on Sunday. Yes please! Elijah suited up in a variety of Mariners gear that he has acquired and we headed off to the game. We wondered how he would do but he did excellent! Our seats were in the 300 level so we wimped out and took the elevator. On the way up the elevator operator gave Elijah his first baseball card and on the way down a policeman gave him a Junior Policeman sticker. Unfortunately we underestimated how cold it would be with the strong wind blowing and seats in the shade so we didn’t stay for the whole game. We left in the top half of the 7th with the Mariners down 5-2 and they ended up coming back to win it 6-5. It would have been fun to see that, but we came home with a happy baby so I’d say the trip was a success.

benmartens April 28, 2014 Family

Custom Photo Latch Toy

Elijah loves playing with anything that has a latch or a knob. We also want to teach him about his relatives. I decided to combine the two into a homemade toy.

I started with a piece of 1” thick, 12” wide common board. I cut two pieces about a foot long. Out of the top one, I cut out four holes that would match the pictures. I thought I’d use the scroll saw that Tim lent me, but I had to cut a pretty big hole to start the blade and I wasn’t very good with the scroll saw. I decided to go with a jig saw instead but that still required big holes in the corners to start the saw. It wasn’t ideal but it worked.

I laminated the photos (as you can see there are quite a few bubbles in the lamination which was another mistake) and then I glued the two boards together with the photos in between. I used the table saw to trim up the four sides of the glue together boards, routered the edges with a roundover bit and then sanded it all down. Everything got two coats of polyurethane and then I attached the hinges and latches. Voila!

As with just about every project I do, there are so many things I could do better the second time around, but Elijah loves it as it is.

benmartens April 25, 2014 Family, Projects, Woodworking

Portland Beer

I already wrote an article about our weekend trip to Portland, but our dinner deserves it’s own post. Tyla mentioned she was hungry for pizza so I headed to Yelp to find a place with good pizza that was also very family friendly. Hopworks Brewery showed up and I thought it could be the perfect dinner as long as Tyla didn’t mind celebrating our anniversary at a brewery. She was game so we went for it.

Absolutely incredible. This was one of the best restaurant experiences I’ve ever had. First of all, there were plenty of kids around and they even offered us a seat next to a play area (which we declined since Elijah isn’t really old enough to enjoy it yet.) Even though it was 6pm on a Saturday night, we were seated after only a 5-10 minute wait. Tyla enjoyed her pizza and I loved my habanero burger. The service was excellent and my 12 beer sampler platter was fantastic! Hopworks specializes in organic beer. That’s not normally something I filter my selection by, but whether it was organic or not, there were some delicious beers in the rotation. If I had to choose a winner, it would be the Velvet ESB. I’ll be on the hunt to find it locally.

Portland produces a lot of fantastic beer. I don’t know where Hopworks officially ranks on that scale, but they are tops in my book. More research is needed though.

benmartens April 23, 2014 Travel

Night Vision Camera

I’ve done quite a bit of DIY security work on our house and it’s built up into a system that I’m proud of. I haven’t blogged about it for obvious reasons, but one of the pieces is a bunch of security cameras. I recently added one more camera by the garage and it’s so cool that I had to share some info about it. The camera itself is the same model that I use most other places, but the difference is that I added an IR LED light that is supposed to be good for 200-300ft. This means that at night, the entire front of my house is now lit up light the mid-day sun, and best of all, it’s invisible to the naked eye. Here’s a screenshot with and without the IR light.

 

I know these screenshots are small, but when someone walks in front of my house or comes out of the path in the woods, I can see tons of detail and it’s all automatically recorded to my server.

If you’re ever interested in some DIY security at your house, let me know. I’m happy to chat about this and share what I’ve learned. It drives me nuts that I can’t blog more about it, but I really don’t feel like sharing the details of it (though even knowing probably wouldn’t help a thief too much if I did everything correctly.)

benmartens April 22, 2014 Home Improvement