Mastodawn

I've started posting about some of my craft and toymaking projects. https://toddviola.com/project/teepee

Teepee

There are lots of easy teepee projects on the Internet. I used the project from Snip, Burn, Solder, Shred as my starting point. The book suggests using a 4-foot wide canvas drop cloth from Home Depot for the panels, which worked great. It's a nice, soft canvas that's already a good width in one dimension, with finished edges to reduce the amount of sewing needed. I used a commercial stencil pattern, and regular craft store acrylic paints, to decorate the edges of the fabric.

toddviola.com

Todd Viola Dec 24, 2023

Monsieur Ralph Dec 23, 2023

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should return to their home towns to fix their parents’ mobile phone, email and computer problems.

Todd Viola Dec 10, 2023

Watching #DoctorWho last night, my first reaction to the bi-generation concept wasn't good, but the idea is growing on me. Thinking that the Doctor, through the Fourteenth, needs time and space to heal isn't wrong. Hoping that Fifteen marks the return of a more jolly Doctor.

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Todd Viola Feb 26, 2023

Both seats were broken — not good enough for the truck — but between them I had enough parts to make one, functioning theater chair. That chair has traveled with me to five different states in 39 years. I just recovered it with new, red vinyl that's a pretty good match for the original. #memories #furniture #restoration

Todd Viola Feb 26, 2023

I was walking home from school one day in 1983, and as I rounded the corner onto Fifth Street, I saw workers loading rows of fold-down seats from the demolished Earle Theater onto a truck. They were being saved to be reused, and I asked one of the men if I could have one. He told me to wait while he went inside the building. He emerged carrying a pair of seats, still bolted together. They were too heavy for me, so I got a friend to help me carry them to my house. #NewCastleDelaware #memories

Todd Viola Feb 26, 2023

According to notes my mother wrote on the boxes, these 126mm slides were taken by my brother in 1977-78, using the little point-and-click camera that we had. All of these are within about a block of the house where we grew up. It's fascinating for me, and very affecting, to see the landscape of my childhood preserved from the viewpoint of a child. #BelieveInFilm #NewCastleDelaware #delaware

Todd Viola Feb 25, 2023

Kevin Hearne Feb 24, 2023

I just got an email from a former student of mine from 2003 who said my class was the only part of high school that didn’t suck (which made me sad she had such a rough time). And then I ran across this dedication in a book I just picked up. So I am thinking about how teaching is often a thankless job—especially lately and especially in Florida—and wanted to say to anyone who’s teaching:
1) sometimes kids thank you later
2) thanks for helping kids through the rough time they’re all having now

Todd Viola Feb 24, 2023

I was asked by my son's high school crew coach to make a spirit award trophy from an old oar blade. Nice to use up some wood from my scrap bin on a quick, 24-hour project. #maker #rowing #arlingtonva

Todd Viola Feb 24, 2023

Looking through my old D&D stuff, I remember how much energy I devoted to fitting my TSR modules into one world along with adventures from Dragon Magazine and my own homebrew creations. I was determined to have a big, coherent campaign map. This week, I decided to redraw the map from my old campaign in the style of lordofmaps.com. Here's my original hex-grid map from 1983-84, and today's version. I adjusted some of the land masses so that they make more geographic sense. #dnd #dndmap #rpgmap

Todd Viola Nov 8, 2022

I have no idea what's going to happen with Twitter or Mastodon, but it has been fascinating to watch so many people move and test a new platform, in real time. Whatever happens, I hope that this moment of awareness and consideration for new models that are less concentrated, more distributed, and open source will yield benefits for us all. #OpenSource #fediverse #Twitter