Between the Lines

2022 Portland Adult Soapbox Derby Course Marshal Again

Look out Portland! I will be the bullhorn & radio abusing course marshall again in top of the action-packed course section 4 aka “blood alley” at the 2022 Portland Soapbox Adult Derby Saturday, August 20th. #pdxsoapboxderby Read more →

Daylight Savings Time

There are two things harder to reset than a clock with daylight savings time than a microwave, and that’s kids and dogs. My dog Coho a six month old 75 pound Silver Labrador is whining with his leash at 4 pm now, instead of 5 pm. Not even my microwave clock is this tough to reset forward an hour. Read more →

Metapup in the Metaverse

Coho my 5-month-oldlver labrador puppy wanted to go to the park for a walk, and I have a busy work day. Oculus Quest 2 + dog = problem solved! Thanks, Technology! #metaversedog #VR #metapup #woofVR I'm kidding, of course , I didn’t really send him to the virtual dog park, I just put the Oculus on his head as he was very iinterested in seeing and sniffing it in my home office. Read more →

Bizarre Day

One of those bizarre days, unusually hot weather, wildfire smoke filled skies, and I just joined a Zoom meeting - and found I was already in there. Is this a Black Mirror episode? Did I cross some sort of time space continuum or portal? Read more →

Shaan's Throwback Thursday – Way Way Back

I only ever had about 3 photos from my childhood until two weeks ago when a bag of photos and hand drawings was rescued as it was being hauled to the dump. I wont go into all the details, but I will share few things that blew my minds and made me laugh, smile, and be so grateful for my brother finding these and rescuing them. As you see above in the photo, I have always been character in the... Read more →

Who Drove it Better?

Something fun on a Monday morning. I'm in the middle of moving to another home, but had a loud laugh seeing a car in the Milwaukie area of Portland Oregon. The car going through the intersection looked like my sons plastic play car, from when he was 4 years old! I sure needed that laugh since moving has been a two stage move, and a super stressful time, but end of this week I will be in my house in... Read more →

May the Fourth be With You

Flashback to Autodesk University 2015, what a great event, and so memorable having a fun group of Star Wars Stormtroopers with me. I took them for gelato, skinny jean shopping, dancing, looking at cars, to an Autodesk Inventor class, and then they had to take a break before the AU party. Back in the large event days, restroom lines effected everyone. Read more →

I'm here live, I'm not a cat

Yesterday, a viral video posted by a US district court in Texas had me laughing so hard that I shared it with many in Twitter, Facebook, Slack, and texts. Now I will share it here for a fun Wednesday laugh, and show you how you too can inject some fun into a meeting. Be sure to reset your camera before the next person uses your computer and ends up like the lawyer in the YouTube video with a cat filter... Read more →

Generatively Designed Pumpkin

Thanks to Autodesk’s Zack Kron for this Halloween fun! Read more →

Throwback Thursday – Email Cloggage in the 90s

How a one person stopped all email communication by accident as a new employee in the 90s. The Great Email Cloggage Incident of 1998 Back in the 1990’s email was a rare and new communication tool and the technology behind it was archaic compared to today. Imagine there was just a single server back then handing all of the email for a large company. The email was managed using then Lotus Notes on what was a state of the art... Read more →

Poor Mervin Learns an Important Construction Safety Lesson

An Autodesk colleague Justin Taylor spent time teaching his 6 year old son the importance of construction site safety using a small tomato named “Mervin”. “I combined work and home schooling with my 6 year son today – the topic this lunch time was safety on the construction site. I showed him: The importance of proper site planning The importance of PPE How to capture an incident on a phone And how useful kitchen roll is for cleaning up accidents” Read more →

Throwback Thursday 1975 Drafting Standards Point 8

Awhile back I found these in my old CAD and Drafting standards boxes and thought I would share another on this Throwback Thursday. The following was from a Drafting Standards Manual from Ralph M. Parsons Company in 1975 and were titled the Basic Dozen.. Although the illustrations and terminology may be way out of date, the wisdom is still true to this day. Point 8 Avoid EXCESSIVE fabrication details Read more →

It Wasn't Itsy Bitsy

I'm a bit nervous leaving my house again knowing that my security system cameras may send me spooky videos. A couple months ago I was in San Francisco in a meeting when my phone buzzed with an alert from my security system, so I took a look. I was a bit shocked and surprised to see a big spider climbing over my camera. It continued to send me spider selfies for the next few days leaving me a bit nervous... Read more →

Throwback Thursday 1975 Basic Drafting Rule 2 Don't Repeat Identical Details

This is from an old Ralph M. Parsons engineering and drafting manual from 1975. It is about drafting but many of the principles still apply to drawings from 3D models today. I will post more in the future. Enjoy! Read more →

National Engineers Week

Sharing this funny graphic from one of my favorite comedians and Autodesk University presenter who understands our engineer world, Don McMillan. https://www.youtube.com/user/donmcmillancomedy/videos Read more →

Rats in Autodesk Portland Office

Well, this is Portland Oregon and yes we are weird or uniquely creative including the placement of small toy ponies attached to old city horse hitching rings and yarn or knit bombings of local statues. In the Autodesk Portland office some of the weird fun culture crept in to our new Portland office in the East stairwell. In this stairwell there are crevices in the brick where there old janky spooky stairs were mounted and then removed to put nice... Read more →

Smelly Glitter Bomb for Surprise Package For Thieves Designed Using Autodesk Fusion 360

I have always said that we at Autodesk have the most awesome and creative customers in the world, and to that point I submit another fine example. Having personally been a victim of a package thief that stole my package from my doorstep and made off with my new yoga mat, I would rather have boobytrapped my stolen package like Mark Rober and Sean Hodgins did. These two are in my top admired people doing good things and should be... Read more →

Don't Be Kanye with Security

It’s always good to provide reminders to be mindful of security, especially in this day of technology where much our life and data is contained on our phone and laptops. So, last week Kanye was meeting (crazy rambling meeting) with the US President and broke out his phone and many of us noticed that he used all 0’s for his passcode to unlock his phone. It’s bad enough he unlocked his phone within view of cameras beaming the view to... Read more →

Remember that Time in Vegas?

Autodesk University 2015, oh yeah, May the Fourth Be With You! A popular and fun May 4th pun on the Star Wars “May the Force Be With You.” Autodesk product sessions, networking, tattoos, gelato, dancing, singing, and fun. What happens at Autodesk University Las Vegas, doesn't stay in Vegas. Conference bathroom lines aren’t fun for anyone. Skinny Jeans??? #NOPE In honor of May The Fourth several Autodesk offices have Star Wars playing in common areas including the shiny new Autodesk... Read more →

Not a Billionaire

When they said Bitcoin price was doubling almost daily and all the hype, I thought they said “Bitmoji” so I got involved in Bitmoji. Now I am still broke, but have an accurate and sweet Bitmoji to show for it… Read more →

Throwback Thursday VR

Back in the 80s and 90s with the Autodesk Cyberspace Developers Kit. Read more →

When Technology Goes Bad but So Good

I seen this image on Twitter yesterday and it made me laugh out loud so I thought I would share on this Friday. Most smartphones have a panoramic photo mode where the phone stiches photos together into one wide panoramic photo after you pan the camera. Well technology is not always perfect but in this case it was so perfectly weird that it was better than just a panoramic photos with a cat waking through. Seen on @YouHadOneJ0B As the... Read more →

Mr. Hurley's Neighborhood is Under Attack

I use the popular mobile app for Nextdoor to keep up to date on what is going on in my neighborhood. In my SW Portland neighborhood we put the Weird in Portland. This week after many coyote sightings and other reports, someone posted a funny sarcastic warning about “pygmy wolves”. There is never a dull moment or something not funny in Mr. Hurley’s Neighborhood. It's become clear to me that SW Portland is suffering from a major infestation of pigmy... Read more →

Happy Halloween

Today in the Autodesk Lake Oswego Oregon (aka Portland) office we have costumes, food, and a pumpkin contest. I think already found my current creative pumpkin “I'm Here for the Boos” complete with a tap and pours wine. Some cleverly costumed colleagues, including me. Do you see Scooby Doo? What else would you expect from a potluck lunch and costumes. Brains made from red velvet cake and frosting. Steam Punk’in One of the scariest things to be feared in an... Read more →

AutoCAD Family Feud at Autodesk University 2016

Survey Says, Autodesk University 2016 will be a lot of Fun! I am really looking forward to this fun event at Autodesk University this year. I get to go against my good friend, colleague, and fellow Portlandia resident Lynn Allen which will be a lot of fun at my expense. Luckily I am not against Robert Green and his perfect hair. I hope you will register at booth 2449 and join my team. If you can’t make it to AU... Read more →