A little while back a publisher found gmiller.net and reached out to me regarding my large collection of urban exploration photos. The publisher, Fonthill Media / Arcadia, have a series of books showcasing abandoned buildings around the United States. Due to … Continue reading →

A friend asked me to make an animation cycle of a cartoon cat. I used Blender to model, rig, and animate the cat. Inside Blender, I used their freestyle line/edge drawing system to get a nice cartoon cell-shaded effect. My … Continue reading →

Recently I applied to work for the Dots game company, and part of the interview process is to recreate their classic DOTs game in the Unity game engine. I had no problem doing that, so with my extra time I also … Continue reading →

While talking with one of my friends who also enjoy’s playing Pinball machines, I brought up how odd it is that Nintendo’s Mario had not one, but two physical pinball machines during the golden 8-bit and 16-bit era of video games: … Continue reading →

As mentioned previously, I’ve been working on a Sonic The Hedgehog pinball machine designed to 90’s specifications. The original project goal was just to make some Blender Renders – as real as I could. Ultimately got sucked into making a complete … Continue reading →

For a recent project, I designed and modeled a 90’s era Sonic The Hedgehog pinball machine. I rendered it in Blender, but I also made it a functional game in Unity. Part of my design / project goal was to … Continue reading →

Continuing with my theme of food, after the burger render and the sushi render, I feel proud about what I believe is my best work yet: a Cajun/Creole Sea Food render. To challenge myself, I once again imagined the most … Continue reading →

Like my Sushi project, I wanted to do another in my series of food renders. The subreddit r/blender has a monthly contest and while I was modeling this project, the current contest subject was photorealism. I figure the contest fit my food theme, … Continue reading →

Sometimes I try to challenge my self and in this case I tried to imagine one of the more difficult things I could model and render in Blender. I came up with Sushi. Furthermore, I decided that modeling and rendering … Continue reading →

While developing my Worms World Party TI-89 remake, I realized that after 18 years of development experience that I wasn’t as intimidated by the C language as much as I previously thought. I decided to see what else I could … Continue reading →

Joking around, my friend and I were talking about “Bredtangle Pizzas” that were rectangular pizza’s often sold in schools in the USA. We were tired from work, at the end of the day, and starting to get silly. We came … Continue reading →

At my job my coworkers and I started “After Work Learn Club,” where our designers, engineers, VFX artists and video Editors as well as anyone who’s interested can hang out, get some drinks, and share their knowledge. Once a week, … Continue reading →

Several years ago I wrote about a code project I made for my Texas Instruments TI-89 Graphing Calculator. It was a Worms World Party fan clone. Well, despite the fact that I made that project a decade ago when I … Continue reading →

While Lenovo introduced the most-bestest mobile headset based on Google Daydream, the Mirage Solo. Oculus also made an all-in-one mobile headset, but I’m not a fan – so I’ll be brief. I already went into detail about the different between … Continue reading →

Now typically I loathe mobile VR, including Oculus’ recent offering of the Oculus GO. My primary gripe is always the same: lack of positional tracking. For those who landed on this article from Google, and might not know what that … Continue reading →

Another day, another controller review. Lol. My first “smartphone” as we would know them today, was an early Android HTC Hero, probably around Android Cupcake or so. For a long time I’ve been of the mind that Android is unusable, and I … Continue reading →

To get to the point: I think the HTC Vive is the best VR headset on the market, all things considered. Well, as of mid 2018 anyway. I first fell in love with the Vive when my office got one. … Continue reading →

In a previous post I reviewed the Poseidon-Z keyboard. I loved that keyboard, and thought I would be using it for some time to come. That is, of course, until a spill happened. Unfortunately mechanical keyboards are much more susceptible to … Continue reading →

I remember waiting for the purchase link to drop, refreshing the page on the announced date. The original dev kits cost around $300, so I was expecting to pay $350, or maybe $400. But when the $600 price tag was announced, I … Continue reading →

The Retro Fighters NES Controller was a total impulse buy. I was at my local Brooklyn Microcenter to pick up a hard drive and some plastic for my 3D printer. I happened to notice this, and I’m not sure why, … Continue reading →

My roomate’s brother showed me this artist a couple years ago and Big Wild instantly sky rocketed to the top of my favorite artists / most often plays list.              

Love the colorful sound of Point Point!

I love the feeling of the electronic soundscape that Hermitude puts out. I was able to see these guys live at electric zoo a few years back. Soo good.              

My coworker showed me this guy, and the song in below is by far my favorite.

Kinda cheese sounding electronic music in a way, but soooo catchy. I flove it.      

A year or so a go I went on a Pandora-binge and saved my favorite songs from it. Chet Faker came up a few times:      

Usually I’m pretty lazy about Halloween, as I haven’t dressed up in years. But still being new to NYC I kinda wanted to go out this year and see everyone in costume. I had some friends going to the parade… … Continue reading →

I peeped this building when trawling Google maps for NYC graffiti yards. It had the tell-tale signs of an abandonment from the graffiti visible in Satellite view. I eventually made my way out there a few weeks ago whilst graff hunting, … Continue reading →

After moving to Brooklyn from California I immediately started tuning into the graffiti scene. I found that the slap-game was a lot stronger than in Cali. I also found that artists in the city tended to be bombers more than … Continue reading →

The New York Farmers Colony has an interesting, sordid history. It began as a poor house, before social security systems were in place. People unable to care for themselves were sent there to do farm labor. The produce of the farm … Continue reading →

After exploring under the freeway, I decided to check out a building that had some graffiti on it. It lead me to a path that went off into the woods. Eventually it turned into a tunnel which lead to a … Continue reading →

I had never been to New Jersey before nor had my roommate so we decided to get lunch in Jersey City. We took the PATH train from the World Trade Center station. It was fun to see the Jersey subway … Continue reading →

I was browsing Reddit the other day and someone drew a spiral clock: https://www.reddit.com/r/drawing/comments/44kfdd/quick_drawing_i_did_a_while_ago_i_like_time/ I liked the idea, so I decided to implement one in Javascript with an HTML5 canvas. Check out the demo here: http://gmiller.net/assets/spiral_clock/ I used GULP with … Continue reading →

My last post was a power plant and I’m pretty sure this place is too, though I couldn’t find any history on it. This was a really cool, completely unplanned and unexpected explore. Last week I met someone named Bobby Hicks … Continue reading →

My 101st Urban Ex post.. w00t! Time flies, I wonder what lies in my next hundred spots? 😀 This abandoned Power Plant was nick named the Gates of Hell by explorers before me. I don’t know why, it seemed lovely … Continue reading →

Huawei Mate S: Apple’s 3D touch technology competitor? The Huawei Mate S is the world’s first non-iPhone to sport the 3D touch technology. While 3D touch is its selling point, it’s also the smartphone’s biggest flaw. Apple’s pressure-sensitive display is … Continue reading →

Recently I’ve been learning about lock picking, both from my coworkers as well as a friend I met here in the city. I purchased a clear lock to practice picking: Several years ago I read the average digital camera’s resolution … Continue reading →

The days after a major NYC snow storm I found myself once again Urban Exploring a giant sprawling complex of abandoned buildings. This time, I went to the sub-section called “The Quad.” The area has 4 pairs of large wings, … Continue reading →

I was browsing DX as usual when something interesting caught my eye: a DIY oscilloscope kit. Previously I considered buying a $140 digital oscilloscope, but decided to pass when I saw the device had poor reviews. I still wanted one, even if it was … Continue reading →

I LOVE This device! I originally got to try a Theta M15 camera at the 2015 San Mateo Maker Faire. We gathered around and took a group shot. It was cool, but it’s impressiveness hadn’t sunken in on me yet. Recently … Continue reading →

I recently came up on a CreoPop 3D Pen. I’ve since had a chance to play with it, and here’s my critical review. I have to mention that, I am a huge fan of 3D printers – however, 3D Printer … Continue reading →

Sometimes when you’ve done something for awhile, you start to think you’ve seen everything. I’ve been exploring abandoned things and drain tunnels for a few years now. But nothing could have prepared me for my most recent adventure: a giant … Continue reading →

The other day I went out with another awesome explorer I met online. We drove an hour away from the city to this magical land of abandoned buildings. This sprawling complex was huge and full of old medical / psychiatric buildings. We … Continue reading →

My coworkers gave me the challenge of 3d printing something Medieval related. I decided to make a Catapult with the added challenge of making it really fire. I designed the catapult as a series of pieces that could be printed separately and … Continue reading →

Early on in my adventures I did some silos back in the Bay Area. When I moved to NYC I quickly learned of silos over on the east coast that were similar in age and style to the Bay Area’s … Continue reading →

This was a gigantic warehouse – basically two in one. In was comprised of two separate buildings, joined with a large gate connecting them. In the middle was a creepy cage – see the thumbnail and pics below. While exploring … Continue reading →

Not to far away from Smells house, I was able to find this mostly empty warehouse, but it was coated with wall to wall graffiti.

This warehouse was built in 1886 – that’s, like, 100 years before I was born. Interestingly, the construction was made primarily out of wood. In place of steel i-beams there were wooden support beams. It’s pretty creepy to think that this … Continue reading →

While heading to another urban ex spot, I noticed this bus lot on the way. The walls seemed like legal walls, and the gate was wide open and inviting, so I spent a few moments flicking and grabbing panos of … Continue reading →

Over the years I’ve been introduced to and have met up with several bay area graffiti writers. When given then chance I always try to get a canvas. I’ve never really documented my collection anywhere before until now. Below are … Continue reading →

Last weekend I finally got into my first ‘real’ spot in NYC: an Abandoned subway station! It felt good to finally do some real exploring. The spot was tricky to get to – I had to climb a fence, and … Continue reading →

After settling in for a couple weeks I was feeling the itch to go out and flick some graffiti. Living in Brooklyn, there’s a whole new world of spots and yards to explore and I was eager to get started. … Continue reading →

Every now and then fans of gmiller.net reach out to me. (Feel free to do so!) One fan hooked me up with this spot, and I’m thankful. I had never seen or heard of this spot prior – it’s completely … Continue reading →

For lack of a better than, I’m calling this spot ‘The Far Side,’ due to the fact that it’s technically the far side of a spot we had done earlier. We had never gone far enough to find this place … Continue reading →

Before moving to NYC, we decided to check off some San Jose spots. These were all separate spots, only related by walking proximity. The train bridge had a Girafa one-flow on it. I wonder what large giraffes lived down there … Continue reading →

Like the HYSU Tunnel, this area seems to be named after the Chiefs. We did find some sweet Musks in here too!

Though I’ve seen crawdads swimming around while lurking creeks, this is the first time I’ve actually seen them walking around outside of the water. I pet one and he adorably put his claws up. I’m not sure it’s wise to … Continue reading →

We had a lead on this spot previously and it turned out to be a different abandoned school in a semi-nearby area. Discouraged, we went home empty handed. It was good news when we found the actual location and hit … Continue reading →

This spot snuck an extra tunnel up upon us. The side we entered from appeared to have two parallel tunnels. When we got to the otherside, we were surprised to find a third tunnel entrance. After knocking out the two … Continue reading →

The name of this place is a play on the Manhattan Highline which is an abandoned strech of raised train tracks that the city turned into a park. This was never made into a park, but the local writers have … Continue reading →

I took a vacation to New York for one week. After knocking down all the major tourist attractions, such as the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, and etc. I set aside a day for exploring the local graffiti scene. … Continue reading →

Over the past few weeks we hit up a couple DIY skate parks (and one professional). I grouped the shots from all three in this album.

Several years ago my exploring buddy and I got ourselves into one of the most memorable adventures: a giant Asterisk shaped building with over 400 rooms. Well, there was actually two of them, and at the time the second one was … Continue reading →

I actually did a very similar spot to these years ago, so I kinda knew what to expect. An Instagrammer I followed alluded to the benefits of checking if maintenance doors are open. We figured out where the spot probably … Continue reading →

I recently started a new job, so I decided it was time for a new hat themed for my work. I wrote about the last time I made a propeller hat, but instead of using dyes and paints this time I … Continue reading →

This school, I believe, is over 100 years old. It left a beautiful building behind filled with graffiti. With four floors and a basement level, it took over three hours to explore completely. Keep an eye out for the giant ballroom … Continue reading →

Check www.classetta.com for a quick demo. Part of being a programmer is knowing and working in many different languages. While most languages follow the same basic principals, their verbiage can vary. For example, to find the first instance of a sub-string … Continue reading →

When I started working at Google I came on board as a contractor – not as a Noogler (A New Googler). Unfortunately that meant I wasn’t entitled to certain Googler / Noogler perks. For instance, all Nooglers are given a … Continue reading →

Much much earlier in my adventures I had visited and climbed some cranes. That was one of my most cherished exploring memories so I was ecstatic to find some more easily accessible, easily climbable cranes! Well, truth be-told I only … Continue reading →

I’m not sure if this warehouse is actually abandoned. It’s really neat and clean inside. I decided to poke my head in through a hole and saw a sweet CCTV door and a urinal with a CCTV face draw on. … Continue reading →

The architecture and the environment this spot is located at reminded me of the Tag Cathedral. There was a small shed next to it with some machines and a basic CCTV handstyle on the roof. Outside there were some rather … Continue reading →

Not sure what the original purpose of this building was, but it does have a large walk-in safe on the first floor. It does look like it was fancy inside for it’s time, and being three stories would have lots … Continue reading →

This large gym has been abandoned for some time. In addition to large, open, sporting area, there’s also three stories to explore. Interestingly, the stories go downward instead of upward. Although you enter the building on the first floor (maybe … Continue reading →

This bit of undeveloped land under a freeway is closed off with a layer of graffiti-covered shipping containers. Of all the spots I’ve visited, this place probably had the highest density of used hypodermic needles yet. Disgusting. It was also … Continue reading →

Not much at this spot, but I liked the atmosphere under this creek bridge.

Went looking for this spot specifically for the Pac-Man inspired “Rack-Man” piece by Baer. To our delight, there was two more baer piece here, including an epic collab with Gyer.

While on the hunt for a specific spot we had a giant list of unchecked east bay creeks to work through. Here are some highlights of mixed creeks.  

Named this spot after the self-titled Musk piece here. Unfortunately I was late to the game on this one and the bottom half of musk was lost…

I’ve known about this spots location and have been wanting to check it out for awhile. The outside is easy to check out, and probably familiar to people who walk their dogs on the beach. But what’s inside is whats … Continue reading →

As I’ve written about before: persistence pays off. We originally just wanted to scope out what was under the road, but after seeing what looked promising we headed back to the car to pick up boots so we could walk … Continue reading →

This tunnel at one time was an epic underground art gallery, but I was late to the game on this one and missed it. The city came through and buffed the whole thing – apparently this creek is extremely dangerous … Continue reading →

The word on the street is the HYSU crew (Have You Seen Us?) claimed a creek tunnel to themselves as their personal showcase for HYSU graff. They’ll even paint over anyone else who dares bomb the tunnel – Girafa learned … Continue reading →

While in the area, decided to check some south bay creeks off the bottomless list. Turns out, one of the stops we checked @bayareawanderer had already been to – and was home to a girafa I had yet to capture … Continue reading →

On Jan 01 2015 I started a campaign on Instagram to post the 150 girafa peices @bayareawanderer and I had found over the course of our adventures. For the next six months I updated Instagram daily under the #150girafas tag. … Continue reading →

I was kinda shocked when I saw this sitting on the shelf. I have seen pictures of a device like this on the Internet for years. I never thought it was actually made for consumers, it seemed more like a … Continue reading →

At my previous job we had an internal mailing list where people would post stuff for sale, like a mini craigslist. In a huge corporation you can sort through hundreds of posts a day. Being a thrifty-geek I ended up … Continue reading →

One of my hobbies is finding the perfect keyboard. In my mind, that’s an open-ended goal. Nothing is perfect, so there will always be something better. As such, I find myself changing out keyboards every few months when something exciting … Continue reading →

A few months ago I picked up this antique lock for a few bucks from my favorite flea market. I didn’t actually need a lock, but I loved it’s charm. After having it sit on my desk for a few … Continue reading →

I’ve written about the Lytro Light-field camera I was given for Christmas previously, but this time I’m rendering it instead of reviewing it. Although the geometry for the camera and it’s box are pretty simple, I decided to render this … Continue reading →

Last time I posted about 3d modeling and printing Pig Pen and mentioned that Mago would be coming up next. As a reminder, here’s the painting of Pig Pen and Mago: About half the modeling was done in Blender, and … Continue reading →

Pig Pen is an artist holding down the graffiti scene for the South Bay. I first started noticing him all over when I did some dedicated creek-lurking, and train-track wandering days in San Jose. Pig Pen often posts artwork on … Continue reading →

Yup, another bay area graffiti 3D print. I’ll be hammering these out over the next few weeks, so get used to them! Maska paints a mask around town, sometimes a roller piece: Sometimes a trippy one: And one of my … Continue reading →

Continuing with my series of graffiti 3D prints, next up is Plantrees. For those that don’t know, he paints a tree! Of varying styles of course, sometimes it’s really complicated: Sometimes it’s really simple: And sometimes it’s juuuusst right (for … Continue reading →

Sometimes when I’m tired or feeling down I find it hard to be creative or motivated to do anything. I typically call this apathetic feeling, “no soul.” I was feeling this way shortly after I had purchased my Intuous Pro. … Continue reading →

This was a short stretch of graffiti along a freeway. It had an older Phaze from 2011 so it had to be done. It was also nice to see some EAO including Payntr and Depht.

These aren’t really “houses,” but for lack of a better term these two houses were sitting on top of a small hill. After a short ascent we flicked some Oracles and others.

This spot consisted of a giant circle of trapezoid walls, some of which had doors. The circle was maybe 1 or 2 miles in diameter. We walked the circle flicking the graff as it came, including a few Oracles, Doner, … Continue reading →

On the way to our next location we made a quick pit stop at this hobo-camp bridge. Parking was scarce to the driver didn’t even get out of the car as we ran down to snap some quick pics. Unfortunately, … Continue reading →

We decided to do a tank-hunting day, and we checked out a handful of tanks in tucked away in the north bay hills. For this album, I combined the best shots of the day from our cameras.

I recently picked up and reviewed a Wii U. Of course, I had to render it was well, continuing with the theme of the 3DS XL and the Nintendo 64! As usual, the model was made and rendered in Blender … Continue reading →

I was looking at the interesting topology of the knife sitting on my table. I decided to see how well I could model it… Of course I used Blender and rendered in Cycles! For reference, here’s how the actual knife … Continue reading →

My exploring buddy goes by the handle @bayareawanderer on Instagram. Over the past year he’s been compiling footage of the urban exploration and graffiti yards we’ve visited. He finally made a video, and it came out wonderful. Check it out!

The Apple iPhone 4S was actually my first review in the technology review section. It’s not surprising – I have had that phone forever. I was very impressed with the longevity of the 4S. It lasted me slightly over 3 … Continue reading →

This is my third Wacom product review. A while back I reviewed the Graphire drawing tablet, then the Wacom CintiQ 21UX. If you remember my Graphire review – it wasn’t exactly glowing. It was the first drawing tablet I ever … Continue reading →

A couple years ago I picked up a Nintendo 3DS XL. It was the first Nintendo console I had owned since the N64, and it made me fall in love with video games again. Review Here. I’ve wanted a Wii … Continue reading →

As I’ve written about before, I enjoy gambling on cheap technology. Most of the time I’m pleasantly surprised with the quality, and at a minimum I would say I at least break even. But nothing can excuse this product. No … Continue reading →

About 5 or 6 years ago I saw one of these in a blister pack hanging on the shelves at Fry’s Electronics. Instead of blue trim it was orange, and instead of $40 I think it was $70. At the … Continue reading →

Swampy is an interesting character – both the art and the artist himself. Legend has it that he hops freight trains and paints his Swamp-Donkey character all around north and South America. In this interview he stated that he he … Continue reading →

When we found out about this place we were expecting a warehouse. But what we got was totally better: a slick ex-office building from a Silicon Valley company. The inside wasn’t just a big empty square, it was a maze … Continue reading →

The locals call it the Slaughter House, but I call it the S-laughter House. Either way it is neither a slaughter house or a place to find comedy. It most likely was some kind of grain processing facility based on … Continue reading →

Not the bat cave, but close enough. My friend told me he saw bats here last time and we made it over half way through and I was getting skeptical. Finally I noticed a dark, awkwardly flying, creature soaring low … Continue reading →

Sometimes I’m in the mood to gamble on some cheap technology. I don’t necessarily care about the cutting edge tech – sometimes it fun to see what you can get for a few bucks. Enter a $36 projector from amazon.com. … Continue reading →

I’m really enjoying making my favorite bay area graffiti characters in 3d  and printing them out, so here’s the next in the series: snort! When I posted this one on instagram I tagged the original artist, snortydeegs, with the picture. … Continue reading →

Though I don’t paint graffiti myself, I’ve been known to doodle pieces in in my art books and school notebooks. While I enjoy working with physical mediums, my skills are definitely sharper in the digital realm. The other day I … Continue reading →

While I was working on the Oracle figurine I got inspired to make one for CCTV – another local graffiti artist. CCTV is an interesting artist, because his work has a very unique style for the graffiti world. He paints … Continue reading →

Recently I got a 3D printer, and one of my first test prints was an Oracle Head:   If you’re unfamiliar with Oracle, he is a prolific graffiti writer from the Bay Area. He draws variations of his iconic character: … Continue reading →

I’ve been craving Nintendo a lot recently, playing a bunch of NES and Super NES on emulators (of course, using their real controllers). So after I modeled my 3DS XL, I thought I’d model my N64 which I had lying … Continue reading →

My Nintendo 3DS is one of my favorite consoles. I decided to do some more hard surface modeling and make a Nintendo 3DS XL. The pictures below represent the default Blue 3DS XL, but I made textures for many of … Continue reading →

I made a passing comment about how cool light field cameras are to a friend. To my shock and surprise, I was gifted one for Christmas! If you’re unfamiliar with Light Field cameras, here’s the basic jist: instead of focusing … Continue reading →

I previous reviewed the first consumer Oculus rift, and alluded to making a demo for it. Well, I did in fact make the Jerry’s Place demo for my first Oculus. Not too long after, the DK2 was released. After trying … Continue reading →

I really want to live this thing. I really do. But… but…. As I mentioned previously, I’m a sucker for nostalgia. When I heard there was a consumer available portable NES, I had to own one. Here’s what you get with … Continue reading →

I’m very strongly affected by nostalgia. I find it hard to throw away things from my past, no matter how insignificant – as long as there’s a memory attached, it’s hard to part with. Of course, I’m not quite a … Continue reading →

I have ridden the train by this yard many times in the past. It’s always looked pretty decent, and after shooting it at less than 50MPH, I can say that it was decent. While exploring this area my buddy and … Continue reading →

This is a special kind of graffiti yard – one that only feature’s a single artist. I guess in that case, it’s not much of a graffiti yard in the traditional sense. But I feel like it can hold it’s … Continue reading →

Recently I went to the Sea of Dreams new years concert to see Pretty Lights. I had a choice of going on the 30th, or the 31st. On the 30th, tickets were cheaper, and Glitch Mobb opened – bad ass. … Continue reading →

Once again I visited Pretty Lights, this time at the Sea of Dreams new years show. Though, it was a two day festival I went the day before new years eve, as tickets were cheaper, plus Glitch Mob opened! Speaking … Continue reading →

Thumbnail slightly related! About 10 days ago everyone was talking about the Rainpocalypse – a storm the meteorologists had predicted to be particularly nasty. While it didn’t exactly have the death toll everyone was expecting, it did rain hard and … Continue reading →

When I first got my Texas Instruments TI-89 I fell in love with the device. Of course, this was years ago before smartphones or tablets. Sure, PalmOS existed back then, but there was something special about the TI graphing calculators. … Continue reading →

Sometimes when I look around the room I noticed hard surface objects that I think would be fun to model and render, or quick to model and render. Seeing this flashlight on my desk I decided it would be both … Continue reading →

I recently when though my entire archive of graffiti photos, and separated out one of each Girafa I have visited. I’m three away from having visited 150 still-running Girafa peices! While this blog post might be a bit early, I … Continue reading →

I’ve wanted a 3D printer for years… almost four years if I recall correctly. The day has finally come. My coworker gave me a heads-up that her friend was selling her Ultimaker original. I made an offer and took home … Continue reading →

I’ve always loved music, and being a creator I’ve always tried to create music. While I tend to be good at art and engineering, I’ve never felt confident in my ability to make music. A few years back I decided … Continue reading →

A long time a go I wrote a paint-bucket style painting application. Just for fun I decided to make a special mode where the paint bucket would randomly change colors at various times, or change color every time I pushed … Continue reading →

I’m posting this a little late after the fact, but a few weeks ago Girafa held a show at the Seeing Things Gallery in San Jose. As far as I’m aware, this was the first time he did a public … Continue reading →

A while back I posted about some mystery covered bunkers, that had been covered with a heavy thick netting by the city for some reason. Well, word on the street had it that the netting was removed. We had to … Continue reading →

A few months ago, Girafa tempted his followers with an Instagram post, asking WHERE’S GALDO?   Girafa hid a “Galdo,” character in some creek, using his new style of combining classic toons with his iconic Giraffe. In this case, Where’s … Continue reading →

Even though I’m not the best musician, I’ve always enjoyed experimenting with music. Since I’ve been learning electronics recently I got excited when I realized that it would now be easy to build MIDI capable hardware! I bought a MIDI … Continue reading →

TL;DR: I made a plotter that uses rotations to draw, and it’s hypnotic to watch. So recently I imagined an interesting way for a robot to draw images. Typically drawing robots (sometimes called “plotters”) use two axes, one for horizontal … Continue reading →

If you’ve ever used these things, you know how evil they are: So I was browsing sparkfun.com and found that they had a new style of helping hands, that seemed… much helpier. In case you didn’t check the link, they … Continue reading →

A little while ago my cars key broke off in it’s ignition. You might have seen the video I posted about hot wiring my car. Well, all was going good until I had to drive at night. With my car … Continue reading →

Recently the tip of my key broke off in my 91 Toyota Corolla’s ignition cylinder. After finding out it would be $400 to repair, I decided to have a go at it myself. If I broke the ignition, that would … Continue reading →

We actually found this spot when we stopped by to flick the GATs / Attica mural outside. When I realized where we were, we had to peep the inside. Unfortunately we were late to the party on this one. Prior … Continue reading →

This alley is reminiscent of some of the San Francisco Mission alleys. The most notable feature besides the graffiti, though, is the number of prostitutes we saw strolling around, ducking behind cars when cops came through. Besides the ladies, this … Continue reading →

This was a graffiti coated underpass with unusual sidewalks. Though the sidewalks were built neatly, complete with arched tunnels, neither end of the sidewalks go anywhere. It’s actually somewhat difficult to access them. They can’t even be used by chance, … Continue reading →

I recently moved into my friends one bedroom apartment. For the first month we shared the master bedroom, but you know, privacy is nice and all. A few years ago I had done a simpler project where I put up … Continue reading →

Since I’m new to electronics I thought I would document some of my successful experiments. Both so others can learn from my progress and so I can have a reference to revisit in the future in case I run into … Continue reading →

Recently I decided to level up at electronics engineering. When I went to the 2014 San Mateo Maker’s Fair I picked up an Arduino UNO, not really knowing what to expect. After doing some of the basic tutorials I decided … Continue reading →

We were driving along the freeway when I spotted a large GATS on a building facing the road. We got off at the next exit and hunted it down. This appears to be an abandoned motel consisting of two different … Continue reading →

The Story I love going to the flea market – over the years I’ve found many items money can’t buy. On a recent trip my friend and I discovered a music kiosk store display for only $10. I was intrigued, … Continue reading →

When I made this beat, I felt like it would be something that Tech N9ne from Strange Music would rap on / produce. I like it, it’s catchy.

This was a beat I made with an experiment music program I’m writing. I need to finish up this one and extrapolate it into a more complex song, so for now it’s just a loop that I’m proud of.  

A little while back my exploring buddy was interviewed for an article about urban exploration and graffiti hunting. The reporter chose a picture of me for the front page of the East Bay Express! I’m also mentioned a few times … Continue reading →

I waited a while to post this article because I was trying to find the build-in-progress pictures. I finally found them, but unfortunately they don’t show as much as I’d like. Anyway,I built this briefcase PC a few years ago. … Continue reading →

If you already peeped my Wacom Graphire article, you’d know that my main problem with graphics tablets was trying to coordinate my hand to draw while looking at a screen instead of the drawing surface. The other problem was the … Continue reading →

I don’t expect too many people to find this post by searching for Graphire reviews, I know the hardware is pretty outdated these days. But I just got a Wacom CintiQ (review coming next!) so I wanted to write a … Continue reading →

My current job gave me the choice between a Mac or a PC, but strongly encouraged Macs. I didn’t care though, I was super excited to try out Macs. I love my iPhone, and I’ve always been a fan of … Continue reading →

This TotT article will focus on rain boots. While flashlights are indispensable for tunnels, respirators are indispensable for abandoned buildings, creeks are insufferable without rain boots. It’s funny, because I’ve heard from more than one person that we’re “lucky” to … Continue reading →

I happened upon this building during a near-by adventure and noticed it was abandoned. Later, when driving by I noticed hand-styles in the windows. IT HAD TO BE DONE. Unfortunately it was locked super-tight when we arrived to check it … Continue reading →

By the time we reached this creek, it had already been a long day and our feet were killing us. But one more to go, and a few hours of day light left. Time to kill it. Luckily it payed … Continue reading →

We almost walked the length of this creek twice – from surface streets – before we actually entered. This urban-canal is far from being a nature stroll, it’s concrete for it’s entire length, and well fenced off. Eventually we gave … Continue reading →

We found a group of interconnected creeks, with the main line running north-south, while a few creeks split off to the east. This is the first creek, with many stops along the way, of the creek system.

After a full day of exploring, our final stop was a GATS show in SF. Though the goodies for sale were waaay too expensive, the art was great. My favorite by far, though, were the 3D GATS masks. It’s always … Continue reading →

This beach spot is popular with locals, but there’s not too much graff to see. Still worth a peep.

This was a revisit to Mountaintop Fun, because we had heard that Musk visited since our last trip. We had to come back and capture the new mummies.

This train bridge passes over a very busy bay area freeway. I had driven under it a million times, occasionally wondering what was up there. Surprised it took me so long..

I had no idea of this tunnels existence with the exception of one sexy piece by Beavis – the letters are made of people in an orgy. After having visited, this tunnel is one of my favorites, just for it’s … Continue reading →

I finally met up with one of the other epic photographers from Flickr and Instagram. The first spot we hit up that day was the Lions Den. I had seen pictures, but finally I had a location too.

This is a pretty common hiking trail that is getting rather popular these days. Along the way there’s multiple bunkers to check out, and the treat on top is a large complex of amazing graffiti from the likes of GATS, … Continue reading →

The Temple of doom has been a target in my sights for along time. It started with a picture I found on the internet of a very distinct Girafa roller – I had to find it. I eventually found a … Continue reading →

There’s a short stretch of train tracks that run past my house. When I drive over them, they never looked particularly interesting, but they had to be done. I was shocked at what I found lurking near by – I … Continue reading →

Girafa recently painted a mural at a local San Jose vape shop, Stay Vaped. Besides the mural, there were also some stickers available for purchase. I think it’s amusing that the stickers say Stay Vaped. People who are unfamiliar with … Continue reading →

We started this spot by following a long freeway wall, which eventually merged into a creek with a handful of underpasses. Though each underpass could be considered a spot in it’s own right, I combined them into one creek for … Continue reading →

Sometimes it’s really difficult to track down a certain graffiti piece. I had only seen one or two shots of this CCTV on the Internet. But it’s not surprising why. When I arrived at the location, I was shocked about … Continue reading →

This creek has a Spanish name that may throw you off the first time you try to read it, so I call it tongue twister creek. We decided to pick a creek this day and walk as much of it … Continue reading →

The easiest way to get to this creek bridge is by ducking through an office buildings parking lot, climbing a fence, and dropping down into the creek. Of course, keep an eye for the cop or the security that likes … Continue reading →

When I met up with Musk to purchase a piece from him, he had this comic book to show me. I didn’t get to keep a copy, but he let me snap some photos. Now I present to the world: … Continue reading →

This has actually been one of my longest clients. I just recently re-built his site from scratch last year. But I think it’s the forth total make-over it’s had since the beginning. This site has definitely grown with me. Someday … Continue reading →

My friend and I want to kick start of my ideas. Ocelotent.com is our site, just a quick wordpress theme. http://ocelotent.com/

Sandy Stec, who I’ve written about a couple times before asked me to make her a separate site for her comedy tour, Leaving Milpitas. If you’re unaware, Milipitas is a really boring suburb in the bay area. It also smells … Continue reading →

A friend of a friend needed a new website for his autobody shop in SF. Check out citytechsf.com

Sandy  Stec is a radio personality and stand up comedian. You should definitely check her out. Anyway, my friend noticed I was getting better at making websites and offered her my services when she mentioned wanted a new website. After … Continue reading →

My ex-coworker for Cisco was an active member in a wild-west style quick-draw gun club. They have a cool set up in Los Banos, CA, where you can pack a revolver with wax slugs and fire at quick-draw targets. In … Continue reading →

This is a fun story you’ll wanna read… woot.com is known for it’s “bag of crap,” which was a mystery-surprise bag. woot.com usually sells cool stuff, but occasionally they end up with junk they cant sell – either because it’s left … Continue reading →

I had a roommate who was a lawn-care expert. Besides just cutting the lawn, he knew everything about planting, weeding, watering, and generally caring for lawns. He asked me to make him a website, so I threw this together. Nothing … Continue reading →

I needed a car, but I didn’t exactly have a lot of fluid cash to spend. I came up with a plan. I noticed that a local used-car dealership didn’t have a website. Without asking I whipped up a demo … Continue reading →

Check out http://lolfiction.com/ This was a major fun project. I had just finished my first full stack web project, and for the first time in my life I wrote PHP, MySQL, CSS, AJAX in addition to HTML. I was new to … Continue reading →

Please excuse the obnoxious green background. Although I was young both in my design ability and my web-dev ability when I made this site, I did not chose the background color! But I’ll get to that in a moment. This … Continue reading →

As I wrote about earlier, I recently got an Oculus Rift. Because the current version isn’t consumer-ready, it’s marketed as a developer prototype. As such, Oculus currently includes a 6 month free trial of the Unity game engine so developers can … Continue reading →

During my childhood, The Adventures of Lolo was one of my favorite Nintendo (NES) games. It was a basic top-down puzzle game that had a really good balance of puzzle elements and cute graphics. At times it was also very difficult, … Continue reading →

Click here to check out the project! A couple years ago I had a housemate named Rachad. He was a big fan of the California State Lotto, and he asked me to help him buy lotto tickets. I threw together … Continue reading →

Important: All the comic artwork below is not my property and is copyright by Paws, Inc. and Jim Davis. I do not claim any copyright what-so-ever, and only wrote the code to randomly assemble the art. Please visit http://garfield.com/ and support the … Continue reading →

Click here to check out the project! Recaptcha used to be really cool. Not only was it the de facto standard for human verification on the web, but it also had a noble goal. Google, who was always thirsty for … Continue reading →

My friend recently reminded me of this Troll project, so I decided to upload it. Back in high school I made a prequel-satire of Microsoft word, including a Clippy parody. Warning: if you run this, you will need to end … Continue reading →

I love to share music. I’ve always thought about make a radio-DJ style mix of some of my favorite tracks. When I recently met someone who was looking for music, I decided to put something together. Overall it came out … Continue reading →

As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, I used to work at Swirls, a frozen yogurt, smoothie and sandwich shop. Some days we had a lot of time to kill, so I spent a good hour making this sign: (Click … Continue reading →

The Star 101.3 Radio DJ and stand up comedian, Sandy Stec contacted me about making her website among other things. One of those side projects was this poster for the stand up comedy show, “Leaving Milpitas.” After circumstances hit her … Continue reading →

For a college art class, we were given the assignment to play with tiling and repeating patterns. Pretty much everyone did the assignment without giving it much thought: they made sure the left edge would match the right edge, and … Continue reading →

This was another old piece of work I recently rediscovered. Like the Box in the Jack, I originally doodled bits of this project on paper and colorized them in Photoshop. It all started with this guy: (Click for full size) … Continue reading →

This was an old, old, old project that I just found on my computer and decided to upload. Being an introvert myself, I often feel like the odd one out, like the opposite of everyone. I was doodling and came … Continue reading →

I was commissioned to make a short intro film / commercial for a product that Fast Draw Supply was selling. It’s a pretty cool product. It’s a laser in the form factor of a bullet. It can be loaded into … Continue reading →

Many years ago I briefly went through a skateboarding phase. It didn’t last long, but something stuck with me for several years after: an innovative seen from “Girl: Yeah Right!,” where the skaters painted their boards green, and then used … Continue reading →

If you want to be more like Mario or Luigi, you don’t need a Fire Flower, because this project is for you. My friends and I were working on fixing up a FIAT x19 I had picked up for $100 … Continue reading →

As I wrote about earlier, I recently got an Oculus Rift. Because the current version isn’t consumer-ready, it’s marketed as a developer prototype. As such, Oculus currently includes a 6 month free trial of the Unity game engine so developers … Continue reading →

I decided I’d like to brush up on my 3D modeling skills so I found a fun project for that: recreating a Lego Set. This is actually a rip-off of Lego, called “Enlighten,” but all the pieces that came with … Continue reading →

I’m the type of person who can listen to the same song a million times and never get tired of it. Maybe that’s because I have shit memory, or just a high tolerance for the tedious built up from years … Continue reading →

After many years enjoying Bonobo’s music, I finally got the privilege to see him live. My favorite album from Bonobo by far is Black Sands, though he does have a newer album out now: The Northern Borders. I was worried … Continue reading →

I modeled this Nabi Jr Android Tablet for my work. This model was originally intended to be displayed in an OpenGL live viewer. However, I took some time to throw-on and dial-in some materials for the renders below. Check this … Continue reading →

When I first started modeling for Google I was in awe of the cameras my coworkers were able to model. Before long I found myself assigned to model this Samsung Smart Camera WB250F. I was intimidated, but it was nowhere … Continue reading →

I modeled this Toshiba Encore Tablet for my work at Google. This model was originally intended to be displayed in an OpenGL live viewer. However, I took some time to throw-on and dial-in some materials for the renders below.

I modeled this Samsung Gusto 2 for my work at Google. This model was originally intended to be displayed in an OpenGL live viewer. However, I took some time to throw-on and dial-in some materials for the renders below. Check … Continue reading →

I modeled this Blue Nikon S33 camera for my work. This model was originally intended to be displayed in an OpenGL live viewer. However, I took some time to throw-on and dial-in some materials for the renders below. Check a … Continue reading →

Another monitor I modeled for my work at Google. This time a Vizio m471a2. This model was originally intended to be displayed in an OpenGL live viewer. However, I took some time to throw-on and dial-in some materials for the … Continue reading →

Another camera I modeled for my work at Google. This time a Nikon CoolPix 3700. This model was originally intended to be displayed in an OpenGL live viewer. However, I took some time to throw-on and dial-in some materials for … Continue reading →

Another monitor I modeled for my work at Google. This time an Asus 215. This model was originally intended to be displayed in an OpenGL live viewer. However, I took some time to throw-on and dial-in some materials for the … Continue reading →

I was asked to render another BenQ Monitor for my work at Google. This time a BenQ xl2411z. This model was originally intended to be displayed in an OpenGL live viewer. However, I took some time to throw-on and dial-in some … Continue reading →

I was asked to render another Benq Monitor for my work at Google. This time a Benq RL2455HM. This model was originally intended to be displayed in an OpenGL live viewer. However, I took some time to throw-on and dial-in … Continue reading →

I was asked to render an Acer Iconia Tab 8 for my work at Google. It was a fairly simple model, and I think it came out pretty well. True to life. This model was originally intended to be displayed … Continue reading →

I am currently obsessed with Pretty Lights… I play them almost daily. The good thing is that PL has a wide discography to pick from, that goes through a handful of different styles while remaining soulful and fresh. Via Wikipedia: Derek … Continue reading →

Gramatik is a musician my friend and I discovered through the Pretty Lights label. Pretty Lights, is also another of one favorite musicians. His style is typically hip-hop instrumentals, but more recently he’s gotten into dub-step. Via Facebook: Hi. I’m … Continue reading →

I discovered Blockhead when his music video for “The Music Scene,” went viral a couple years ago. The music video (see below), is a MUST WATCH in full screen high-def. After grooving to the video, I decided to check out what … Continue reading →

Ever since I was a child, I was a fan of the Sitar. Originally the song “Thunderball vs. Liftoff – Welcome Back Cooper” introduced me to Thunderball, and like many other artists I found that through the Buddha Bar series. … Continue reading →

Like the Wikipedia description says, I too discovered them through the Buddha Bar compilation series. Via Wikipedia: Mo’ Horizons is a duo of DJs from Hannover, Germany. Their music can be described as a mixture of downtempo, acid-jazz, nu jazz, … Continue reading →

A friend of my from UCSC introduced me to this group. The particular song was “Dizzy Blonde” (see below). I joked it sounded like a Nintendo Entertainment System (8-bit NES), that had a uncannily good guitar synth. Not all their … Continue reading →

St. Germain has a real soulful groove, that can be hard to shake. Via. Wikipedia: St. Germain is the stage name of Ludovic Navarre, a French musician. His style has been described as being a combination of house and nu … Continue reading →

The Herbaliser originally hooked me with their instrumental beats I heard jammin’ on monkeyradio.org. Via Wikipedia: The Herbaliser is a jazz rap band formed by Jake Wherry and Ollie Teeba (Born Oliver Lawrence Trattles) in London, England during the early … Continue reading →

Karsh Kale was introduced to me many years ago by some of my High School friends. Been a fan ever since. Via Wikipedia: Karsh Kale (pronounced Kursh Kah-lay) is an Indian American musician, producer and composer, and is considered one … Continue reading →

I discovered Quantic 4 or 5 years ago, when my musical taste first started shifting into down-tempo / trip-hop / lounge / esoteric electronica / whatever you want to call it. One of my all-time favorite musicians, Bonobo has been … Continue reading →

Back Story If you read my Nintendo 3DS XL article, you’d know I’m a fan of 3D things. In fact, when I got my first paycheck from my old job at Cisco, I immediately splurged on a bunch of hardware … Continue reading →

I had a large credit on Deal Extreme so I decided to spend it on this Mini Android PC that came packed with the Mini Wireless Keyboard. Basically it’s a Android device that plugs into HDMI and is powered by … Continue reading →

I picked this guy up from Deal Extreme as part of package deal with the Android Mini PC, although it is sold separately. At first I was skeptical because I don’t like rechargeable things. I would much rather have one … Continue reading →

I remember the first time I saw a 3DS; a few years ago I was wandering around Frys, and came across one on demo. I was blown away – how could I have not known this marvelous device existed? I’ve … Continue reading →

For the past three years my old tablet was an iPad 1. Suddenly I find tablets appearing out of thin air all around me. I already reviewed the Asus MeMO, and the Asus Nexus 7. Next up comes the Barnes … Continue reading →

You may have read my recent ASUS MeMO Pad review. Well I’m no longer in possession of that device, and thankfully replaced it with an ASUS Nexus 7. My friend found a deal on the 2013 Nexus that involved trading … Continue reading →

Recently I came across a good deal on an ASUS MeMO pad, so I took it. Now, I wasn’t in the market for a tablet as I already had an iPad 1 that fell out of use. At this point … Continue reading →

You might think it’s weird to review a 2 year old phone – 2 years after it was released. Especially since 2 generations of the phone have been released afterward. But I think it’s a fair and interesting idea to … Continue reading →

My next TotT article will focus on flashlights. Small-to-Medium LED Flashlights During our first few outings, we inevitably found ourselves needing flashlights. We headed to the local hardware store and picked up a couple cheap LED based flashlights, and they … Continue reading →

This spot has been on the top of the to-do list for quite some time. It took us embarrassingly long to actually find it, however. In fact, we found many other creek spots during our exhaustive hunt. Besides the obvious … Continue reading →

We had some time to kill, so we went for a lovely stroll on the beach.

Word has it that this used to be a famous lock company. Now the building is home to art and the occasional squatter. The building is absolutely beautiful inside, I wish I could buy it.

This tubular tunnel exists straight out to a beach. Oracle was there to lead the way.

Believe it or not, these buildings involved hiking to the top of a mountain. I’m surprised at the quality selection up here. Great art and great views!

None of these creeks were really special enough to warrant a post of their own, but they are very close geographically.

Though only one car was enterable, this was a neat little train. It seems to have been parked here for along time… and the track it’s on just disintegrates into nothing.

This yard was hard to get to – no easy parking, and the only ways to get to it are pretty treacherous. I’m surprised at how well painted this place is, since it’s somewhat remote and difficult to get to. … Continue reading →

This was a set of four total, voluminous, long tunnels set in two parallel pairs. The first two were surprisingly empty, but then again they were annoying to get to – the mud was like super glue. The latter two … Continue reading →

We got a tip to check out the “Time Tunnel,” but when we got there we actually found two tunnels. Not too much to see inside these ones, but thought I’d post it for the sake of the legend of … Continue reading →

Persistence prevails yet again. After finishing up a spot, we decided to walk the creek to it’s end, just to see what’s there. After a long walk we came across this bonus yard we didn’t know existed. It’s pretty small, … Continue reading →

One thing I preach is persistence. Though we had already found what we were looking for in the area, I suggested we walk the extra 500 feet to see if there was anything around the corner. Sure enough we stumbled … Continue reading →

Like many graffiti yards, this spot has found a home under a major freeway. Strangely, though, all the artwork is covered with a thick layer of dust. To make things more confusing, the nearby spots don’t seem to be affected. … Continue reading →

I really enjoyed this spot. It’s a nice setting change from your typical urban ex, tucked away in the forest. Of course, it’s down sides were pretty gross. We heard rats(?) running in the ceiling above us, and some places … Continue reading →

This was another lake runoff, but for a lake that still exists! The artist IMP seemed to cover this spot well, so I called it the IMPY Dam.

This was once a damn and a run off spillway for a lake which no longer exists. Since the lake has been filled in, this defunct infrastructure has now become home to some graffiti. When I found out about this … Continue reading →

This tunnel was actually attached to a creek we covered earlier but we didn’t go far enough to find it. It’s got a great line up, so luckily we found it later.

I’m not sure if this yard has proper name, but considering it’s essentially a giant wall, I entitled it as such. There’s a handful of burners out here.

Not to be confused with the writer named Lush, this warehouse is literally Lush with overgrowth and art. It’s uncommon to see a warehouse with a dirt floor, so this makes an interesting subject.

With four floors, 6 halls, 14 rooms per hall, this building had over 336 rooms. It’s shaped like a giant Asterisk, and is one hell of an urban exploration. The icing on the cake is the huge amount of classic, … Continue reading →

For lack of a better name, I clearly titled this one after the piece that sticks out to me most. A rare, classic, Girafa. But that’s not all that’s there, you’ll also find a couple Musks, a couple Oracles, a … Continue reading →

While we were in the area, we stopped by for a quick revisit of the Interrogation Hotel. Not too much had changed, but there was a nice crispy new Oracle there, as well as a Galaxe among others.

Out in the middle of nowhere, a train crosses three tunnels. Of course this makes for fertile painting ground…

Apparently this land was once owned by a gravel company. The company excavated several giant craters in the middle of nowhere, before shutting down their operation. The locals have named this one “The Pits.” It’s now become an oasis of … Continue reading →

This was a recently closed Family Fun Center, that featured MiniGolf, Go Karts, an Arcade among other attractions. I actually grew up in the area and was a patron many times, so this was a rather odd urban exploration.

Apparently this graffiti yard is where Burning man stores it’s sculptures the rest of the year. You can’t go in this warehouse, but that’s alright because the best work is all outside. While we were there, we also visited a … Continue reading →

Named after the Bay Area writer, Jurne, this warehouse was a spectacular showcase of his work. Apparently he discovered the place and kept it on the DL, continuously updating it with some of his best work. Though I had been … Continue reading →

Got up bright and early, and hit this creek up literally at the break of dawn. Though it was mostly whack, there were some nice gems to be found.

This warehouse was mostly bare, unlike the Liquidators Jungle. However, it had a small office complex with a large Uter featured out front. I find it hard to believe this place isn’t completely coated.

What happens when a large furniture retailer goes belly up? You end up with a gigantic warehouse still completely stocked. This place was a jungle inside, with a maze of furniture, broken glass, and of course, black mold. Good thing … Continue reading →

This mini yard has become somewhat infamous due to it’s West Oakland sign painted by the popular artist GATS. Thought there’s not much to see, I had to make the pilgrimage and capture this mini yard.

To distinguish this arched tunnel, I call it the “Chandelier Tunnel.” About half way through this looonng tunnel, is a Chandelier someone has mounted on the ceiling. There was a lot of well done graffiti here, but without a proper … Continue reading →

This is a set of various tunnels and bridges along an east bay creek. It features a set of two parallel tunnels that were rather long. Unfortunately it was too dark to properly photograph and many of our shots came … Continue reading →

My exploring buddy and I refer to this beautifully arched tunnel as the “Roar Arch,” for obvious reasons. Though it’s not super long, this tunnel is a nice adventure.

We pinpointed a tunnel that goes under a major freeway and decided to check it out. Little did we know, upon arrival we would discover a huge freeway sound wall completely painted.

The other day my friend and I were filming. We were using two cameras, a proper point-and-shoot camera that also had the ability to record in 720P, as well as an iPhone 5S. Mounting the regular camera on a tripod … Continue reading →

We discovered this stretch of tracks as we were following a lead to a classic Girafa Neck-bone piece.

This was a similar bunker to those from the hills we visited earlier, but this one was miles away and strangely covered in some kind of woven spread. Perhaps the city wanted to hide these, so they covered them with … Continue reading →

Discovered this place by accident when crawling Google Satellite looking for The Cranes. The story goes, the owner purchased the property and began building a mansion using lava rock imported from Hawaii. Supposedly the stones were cursed and caused the … Continue reading →

This place was on my to-visit list for waaay too long. I had seen pictures of these tanks online, but no matter how many hours I pour into scouring google satellite, I just couldn’t find them. Luckily my friend came … Continue reading →

This was an exciting day, hitting up nearly every WW2 era bunker in a cluster up in the San Francisco Bay’s hills. Some of them have been buffed, and some of them remained home to some of our favorite graffiti … Continue reading →

This was a quick little yard I found. It features a handful of Musks, a large CCTV piece, among others.

Earlier in the year, I had visited the Oakland Halls of Fame, which was a tribute to the late Bay Area graffiti writer, Dream. This is another of such tribute on Alemany in San Francisco. I first discovered this spot … Continue reading →

The Silos was one of my all time favorite adventures, perhaps because of it’s grand scale. The building is a set of two towers, approximately 10-12 stories tall. The first floor of the main tower is a dark maze of … Continue reading →

This abandoned Bay Area warehouse has been dubbed the “Tag Cathedral,” by locals. It features wall-to-wall graffiti that spans several years, making this quite a reputable yard. We had been wanting to find this place for a awhile so it … Continue reading →

I was visiting a local Japanese dollar store (technically a $1.50 store) and some Oil Pastels caught my eye. When I was a child, I once saw Oil Pastels as a sort of forbidden-crayon, since my parents would not let … Continue reading →

Several years ago I purchased an LCD projector from Craigslist. Those were good times. Then the bulb started dying, and my friend wanted to trade the projector for a broken PSP and a stun-gun tazer. I don’t regret the trade … Continue reading →

Rest in Peace, Kickit. Kickit is one of the artists featured at this set of geographically close tunnels and underpasses.

Many years ago I worked at Jamba Juice. I was getting bored with the day to day grind and managed to convince my stores General Manager and the District Manager to let my build a a prize-wheel. The idea was … Continue reading →

We weren’t planing on finding this place, but it was a nice bonus surprise to stumble on.

Last time we visited this homemade skatepark, it was winter and the park was flooded. We revisited this summer after learning that Girafa had put up some new work there.

One tunnel seems to be a naturally formed cave, which is followed by a gap of open skies and a second, man made concrete tunnel. The latter tunnel is coated with decent graffiti, though the piece that we were looking … Continue reading →

Not to be confused with the Spongebob Yard, this is an entirely different location also tucked away in the coastal hills. It’s prominent piece features a new-style Girafa that merges into a Spongebob.

This spot is tucked away deep in the California coastal mountains. It features an abandoned train bridge, train tunnel and even a swimming pool dated August 1915.

Trains come and go, and train yards aren’t exactly secrete spots, so I used the real name for this place. Chances are if you show up, all the art will be somewhere else on earth.

We found the point-of-entry for this dark damp tunnel on a previous adventure and decided we needed to do it one day. After psyching ourselves up for what doom may lay in this underground tunnel, we proceeded in. This was … Continue reading →

We had to pass through this area to get to another spot, so we snapped the things that had changed since last time, including a few interesting pieces we missed. We had been looking exhaustively for this brick Girafa, and … Continue reading →

They say if you visit this graffiti yard at the right time of day, it smells like oven fresh cookies from one of the nearby buildings. It didn’t smell that good when we visited, but it did have a delicious … Continue reading →

This drain water creek spans about 3 to 4 miles. Since it requires rain boots, it’s a tedious walk round trip, but worth it for some of the amazing graffiti down there including Charles crew and Maska.

These rusting, graffiti coated tanks are now sitting empty on a hill side. Well, not completely empty – they do have a lot of dusty, rusty air inside. Though we snapped some shots of the inside from the exterior piping, … Continue reading →

The first time we found this location, it was boarded up too tightly. We were able to snap some pics of the inside from a hole in the exterior, but that’s not good enough! This trip was from a revisit, … Continue reading →

This is one of my favorite graffiti creeks of all time. There are some really nice pieces and the atmosphere was pleasant. But the Adventure Time piece sticks out to me, as I am a fan of the show.

The Waterway is a huge concrete water channel tucked away in the hills. Though it was completely dry, I’d love to see it in action, perhaps a revisit during the winter is in order. I can’t imagine why this big … Continue reading →

For lack of a better name, I called this graffiti yard the Maska Train Tunnel after one of my favorite artists featured there.

We spotted this graffiti coated concrete creek from satellite view, and decided to check it out.

Whether intentional or not, this train had some sort of stair case which gave the place a very cozy, picturesque feeling. If I lived in the area, I’d spend more time down there. While we were there, a couple fish … Continue reading →

I actually liked this SJ bridge. The bridge had just a mild creek under it, with stepping stones set up by homeless across it. It was very zen like, the air was cool, and the homeless had a fire going … Continue reading →

Tired of San Jose bridges yet? Here’s another.

We weren’t planning on this spot, but happened to walk by it. This is a graffiti covered skatepark located somewhere in SJ.

I wonder why the engineers of this bridge chose such an unusual design. The bridge didn’t seem too much bigger than anything I’ve seen before, but the poles were just too many! Not too much graffiti to see here…

This was a house, probably once associated with the near by train tracks. Perhaps an old station. We didn’t have our masks with us today, and the inside smelled musty. Better safe that sorry, we didn’t enter this one, but … Continue reading →

We walked along a stretch of southern bay area commuter tracks.

Once again we find ourselves under a major freeway, though this San Jose bridge was much less impressive.

These were two bridges right in a row, so close they could almost be the same bridge. Mostly whack stuff, but it is what it is.

This train yard seemed to specialize in car carrying cargo trains. We explored the yard itself and the nearby surrounding tracks. We found a couple of Girafas, including one we didn’t even know existed!

Random shots from around San Jose that don’t fit anywhere else.

This was a large bridge accommodating a rather busy multilane freeway in the bay area. There was a large homeless camp set up here as well.

This SJ Bridge surprised us with a Musk!

Nothing too notable about this random bridge in SJ.

This bridge in the SJ set of bridges was very open and spacious underneath.

We were taking a shortcut through an open field with tall grass, when we discovered this train bridge we had no idea existed. It doesn’t really go over an active creek, but maybe it once did. This was a delightful … Continue reading →

Just a bridge near a Lowes.

A cartoon house painted under this SJ bridge really stood out to me.

Not much to see under this bridge under the lightrail.

Another SJ bridge, this one was divided into compartments underneath that individuals seemed to have set up as their homes. There was some kinda chill-out party going on down there when we arrived, but they didn’t mind us photographing the … Continue reading →

This is the first in a series of San Jose tunnels and bridges. This dark tunnel was actually one of a pair of parallel tunnels. Unfortunately, the other side was full of water and we were unable to explore it. … Continue reading →

Though you would typically find backyard fences painted along side train tracks, these fences were in a proper community suburb. Some outstanding work here, a must see album!

Due to the diminishing light during our first trip to this epic alleyway, we had planned on visiting again to take more thorough photos. This was the second trip since we were in the area.

This alley in the mission had a nice Plantrees set.

Yet another astonishing alley coated in graffiti in the Mission.

Freespace is/was an experimental community project in San Francisco. The idea was to rent a previously industrial / commercial building in SF and turn it into “free space” for the community to come and relax, create, study, cook, or generally … Continue reading →

We spooked a couple of graffiti writers as we approached this destination. Sorry guys. They must have been keeping an eye on us from a distance, because after we left we saw them return to their craft.

This forgotten industrial area shores up against a beautiful waterfront view. Even the graffiti want’s to swimming!

This was an interesting yard. It as a multistory section of retaining walls holding up a cliff next to a major Bay Area freeway. Each story was made of several concave divisions that became shelters to homeless as well as … Continue reading →

This was a cozy little yard under a major Bay Area road, featuring CCTV, Jist, among others.

After months of searching, we finally nailed down this location on the map. We had seen pics of the awesome Girafa, Musk, CCTV, and Phase rollers down here. This spot seems to remain elusive for many writers, as the quality … Continue reading →

We decided to walk a several mile stretch of Caltrain tracks, in the hunt for Girafa. Many bay area folks became Girafa fans from riding Caltain, even if they previously weren’t into graffiti. This set has our journey down this … Continue reading →

Someone told me the name of this place is called the Walls of Fame. I’d hardly call them walls, but whatever works. We discovered this place by accident when we were checking out the near by area. It was a … Continue reading →

My most recent song. This one came out of nowhere. I was opening old unfinished projects, and found this one I had completely forgotten about. I tweaked it and polished it a little, and it was done. Since I had … Continue reading →

This beat has a pretty dark, gloomy, malevolent feeling to it. Hopefully it can inspire one to push-thru.

Enthum.. anthem… idk.

For lack of a better name, this upbeat song sounds good for riding down the street in glory.

This has a very gangsta-pad in the background, so I called it turn-cold after “Warren G’s about to make some bodies turn cold.”

One of my friends wanted to start up a clothing brand, called Sideways 1. With the idea that is for anyone who ride’s sideways, such as Skateboards, Surfers, Snowboarders, Wakeb-oarders and Mountain Boarders – all the things you ride sideways. … Continue reading →

This was an experimental beat that I think came out well enough to be worth a listen. For lack of a better name and to reference the fact that I was just messing around, it’s named Da Fuq.

This has a very warm-n-cozy electronic feeling.

Never came up with a good name for this one. This is a favorite of many, as it has a pretty catchy hook.

I made this beat many years ago. I wish it was mixed and mastered better to sound a little less “cartoony.” I still have the original files, maybe I’ll update it someday. My friend gave it a name, when he … Continue reading →

I woke up from a particularly visual dream, with this song in my head. Having nothing better to do, I decided to recreate something similar to what I head in my dream. It’s hard, because dreams fade quickly, but at … Continue reading →

This beat packs a punch. Kickin-ass with a southern rap twist.

This is a pretty old beat of mine, so it’s not as polished as I’d like it to be. Never the less, the bassline on this one makes me thinking of the cliche creeping music, thus the name.

A Few bits shy of a Byte was named after electronic 8-bitish style synth lead, and the fact that I wish I could take the song to the next level.

I named this song after my friends old website. It’s a good beat for ‘entropy.’

Someone told me the horns in this song make them think it’s a 50 Cent beat. Thus, I named it Half Dolla.

I can’t say enough good things about Bonobo. Like many, many, many of my favorite musicians I first heard him through monkeyradio.org. Though the stuff on monkey radio, at the time, was his older stuff. At that time his newest … Continue reading →

Zero 7 has some amazing sounds… give them a listen! Via Wikipedia: Zero 7 is a British musical duo consisting of Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker. The group members began their musical careers as studio engineers and in 1997 formed … Continue reading →

I discovered the Thievery Corporation many years ago, and they definitely left an impact.  There was a time when they were all I played. Each of their albums has it’s own style, all in the down-tempo, chill out, dub and … Continue reading →

Another chill artist found at monkeyradio.org. Via Wikipedia: Sounds From The Ground (SFTG) is an English electronic music duo formed in 1995. Both members Nick Woolfson and Elliot Jones met through their involvement with the underground music scene in London. … Continue reading →

Ronald Jenkees became a YouTube sensation about 5 years ago. He has a quirky yet lovable & humble personality, which shines through his videos. He claims to be a self-taught musician, which isn’t to surprising if you watch him play. … Continue reading →

It’s hard to pick just a few favorite songs from Ratatat. I was introduced to them from a friend, and been listening since. Via Wikipedia: Ratatat (pronounced rat-ə-tat) is a New York City experimental electronic rock duo consisting of Mike … Continue reading →

Grouse is a very ambient, down tempo chillout artists I also discovered through monkeyradio.org. We Want To Be Loved  

DJ Shadow has been a favorite local musician of mine since I first heard his work many years ago. He’s from San Francisco, and proud of it. He once scored a film called Dary Days, which told the story of … Continue reading →

I discovered DJ Krush on monkeyradio.org, which is where I discovered a bunch of my favorite artists. Via Wikipedia: Hideaki Ishi (石 英明 Ishi Hideaki?, born 1962 in Tokyo, Japan), better known by his stage nameDJ Krush, is an alternative hip hop producer andDJ. He is … Continue reading →

BOC has been around for quite a while, yet their music still sounds fresh. If you’ve never heard them before, perhaps you’ll recognize some of their sounds from Salad Fingers? Via Wikipedia: Boards of Canada (commonly abbreviated BoC) are a Scottishelectronic music duo consisting … Continue reading →

Bluetech is an amazing electronic artist. Typically when I think of “ambient” I think of some lame, slow, airy music. Bluetech’s music is often ambient, but still retains a crispy edge, you just got to love. Via Wikipedia: Bluetech is Evan … Continue reading →

Amon Tobin is one of those artists that’s hit-or-miss for me. However, when it’s a ‘hit’ it’s pretty dope, so I have him as one of my favorite artists. Via Wikipedia: Amon Adonai Santos de Araújo Tobin (born February 7, 1972), … Continue reading →

We found this alley towards the end of our day. Light was low, so many photos came out grainy and we couldn’t fully finish shooting. We will cover this area fully, later on.

The back of this public storage center has unofficial become a place to paint. One of the best Girafa’s out there is hidden, fading, in this yard.

Girafa peaks over the roof tops, in this mini yard in the dog patch.

This yard is visible from the Caltrain tracks, lurking in the shade from the streets passing above.

This underpass tunnel built in 1928 has become a decent yard.

This dilapidated structure was once a busy round house for Bay Area trains. It now has become an art gallery of sorts.

Random graffiti in an open space in the Bayshore area.

Being next to a waste processing facility meant this tunnel had bad breath. Never the less, we held our noses and snapped the work out here.

For lack of a better name, I named this yard based of the fact that it runs a long a cliff. It made getting good shots of the work difficult, because there wasn’t a lot of room to move backwards. … Continue reading →

This public storage company commissioned the Bay Area’s finest to grace their walls with the “Oakland Hall of Fame.” The overall theme was a tribute to the legendary Bay Area writer, Dream, who passed away. RIP. Some stunning work here.

Another stretch of train tracks tucked away in the East Bay.

For lack of a better name, I called this amazing yard after an epic Spongebog Squarepants parody mural located there. Truly an in-person must-see.

This gallery isn’t from any particular day or yard, but rather a collection of random photos that don’t really fit elsewhere.

On our way home, we spotted this nice wall off Market st. It was dark, but we had to snap a few pics.

This storefront had some colorful artwork on it!

All parking lots should look like this one we found in the Mission. The artwork is from some of the most prominent writers in the area, and executed with style and grace.

This was the first of several alleys in the Mission we visited. This alley was mostly commissioned work.

Epic is the only word to describe the magnitude of this graffiti alley. This set also includes some smaller walls in the nearby area.

Running parallel to Valencia St in San Francisco is an alley of well done graffiti. This set also includes a couple near by perpendicular walls.

For lack of a better name, I called this yard and near-by alley the Burger Yard, after the multi-story burger painted here. Lots of delicious graff here.

This local business embraced the graffiti community, by commissioning some interesting artwork for their storefront and side wall. They’re called Pizza Zone, but do they sell Pizzones?

This collection covers many spots along Haight st, from the Fillmore to Ashbury there were some nice pieces all along the way.

This is a mural with various artists in SF.

Though commissioned, these pieces in the heart of the Tenderloin are breathtaking.

For lack of a better name, I named this graffiti alley after one of it’s featured artists: Plantrees.

If the furniture is trying to escape this building… I’d hate to see what’s going on inside. The furniture was part of an art installation in 1997, via 1am: This multi-disciplinary sculptural mural involves seemingly animated furniture; tables, chairs, lamps, … Continue reading →

The late comic artist, Vaughn Bode has had a tremendous impact on the graffiti scene for several years. Many graffiti artists mimic his characters in their street art. I’m sure this wall will be a familiar site for many San … Continue reading →

Bay Area Sports was the theme for this commissioned wall. Unfortunately we weren’t able to document it too well, as the business owners shoo’d us away quickly. I wonder if that Plantrees was part of the commission, or if Plantrees … Continue reading →

For lack of a better name, I call this San Francisco alley,  Apex Alley after one of the featured artists there.

I shouldn’t even bother to upload this one… but I did. This mini yard is under a busy street in the East Bay. It’s pretty much all whack down there though.

This stretch of East Bay train tracks started out pretty whack. Luckily towards the end, the graffiti ramped up and included several epic pieces, including 3 separate pieces from one of my favorite writers: Maska.

I spotted a Girafa from a freeway exit near my work. Later, we planned a trip down to this drainage ditch that has become a mini graffiti yard. Not too much to see, but go sharks!

During WW2, this luxury resort hotel was purchased by the government and turned into a secret spying operation. The building was wired and used to interrogate Japanese Americans. Now it sits rotting in the sun, along with a couple vehicles.

This classic style train bridge was homed to a Swampy, a Gats, a Musk, a few Girafa Sigs as well as many other interesting writers.

The door to this creepy building was propped open, so we were expecting that someone might be inside. At first things were chill, but as we proceeded into a darker area, we heard some crashing banging noises. We ran out, … Continue reading →

The other day I finally got around to upgrading my Geocaching account to premium. I wasn’t really planning on doing so, but my caching buddy had recently, and I wanted to be on the same page as him once we … Continue reading →

For my first TotT Urban Ex article, I’m going to discuss the importance of P100 respirator masks. Going in abandoned buildings, drainage tunnels, and other places where air quality is questionable, poses several hazards. First, there’s the lead paint. Many abandoned … Continue reading →

This was a wonderful urban ex adventure – an abandoned, mostly intact hospital! Hospitals are creepy enough when they are still in operation, so combing the still air, urban decay and casual graffiti makes exploring an abandoned hospital exhilarating.

Another unusual location for urban ex was this freeway overpass / on ramp. It was build with a hollow enclosure underneath it, with a door leading in. Perhaps the city planned on using this for storage at some point? The … Continue reading →

The San Francisco Bay Area is such an amazingly fertile location for Urban Exploration. This decaying train station is a unique type of exploration, departing from abandoned buildings, warehouses and tunnels. It was once grand station, and still maintains much … Continue reading →

The Navy once occupied this classical Californian building, using it as their Officers Club. Judging by the amount of hypodermic needles we found, it’s now the heroin club. As we tip-toed through disease traps, we found a rather epic piece … Continue reading →

Twinkie the Kid was our main clue that this building once stood as a Cafeteria, or a large dining commons. Today the building bares little resemblance to a cafeteria and looks more like an abandoned recycling center. We found boxes … Continue reading →

Here we have a series of 6-8 rather large, college style school buildings. These buildings all share basically the same architectural floor plan, though half of them were mirrored. Despite being about 6 separate buildings we entered, all the interiors … Continue reading →

This place is known as the Kitchen Temple, named after it’s eccentric builder, one of the Kitchen brothers. You can find out more of it’s history with this thorough article. We weren’t able to get inside, because it was boarded … Continue reading →

This was a gigantic drainage pipe, more than big enough to comfortably walk in – if you don’t forget your boots. We thought it would be try, so we had to awkwardly walk along the steep banked edges of the … Continue reading →

This tunnel is located south of the Bay Area so it has a different set of artists than I’m familiar with.

This skatepark was built and painted by locals. It features a piece by my favorite Graffiti artist – Girafa, as well as some pieces from other well known locals such as Kick-It (R.I.P.). We visited this park at the wrong … Continue reading →

Near the Cranes, there was a bunch of miscellaneous industrial buildings. Obviously we had to check it out. We actually found a surprising piece by one of our favorite artists – GATS – hidden out there on a rusty old … Continue reading →

This was one of my favorite adventures – getting to play on some gigantic abandoned cranes! It’s not often you get to climb up into these beasts, so I seized the opportunity when we drove past them on the freeway. … Continue reading →

This random house we found whilst hiking back from The Ruins. It was pretty small inside, so not a lot to shoot, but it was a fun little side stop. I just wish one of us had taken a picture … Continue reading →

The Ruins are the remains of a century old factory in the bay area. Due to it’s classic construction style, the ruins feel unlike any other urban ex in the Bay Area. You could almost convince yourself that you’ve left … Continue reading →

We saw these decorated trains off in the distance, whilst on another adventure. We decided to check it out, and it was worth it.

The Swamp is yet another storm drain canal, that get’s it’s name from the swampy like conditions you walk through. It has become a great graffiti yard for all the locals, but has to be the place I’ve seen the … Continue reading →

This was a quick stop on the way home from some other adventure. It was a bridge tucked away in an east bay nature trail. It had some of my favorite graffiti artists, such as Plantrees and Snort.

I heard about a warehouse with a well known graffiti artist on the outside, named GATS. We were in the area, so we swung by. We weren’t able to get inside this trip, (although we did in a latter trip), … Continue reading →

For my second canal trip, I went to this amazing drain system that had some of the best graffiti I’ve seen in the entire Bay Area. Much respect to these artists, both for their work, and for respecting each others … Continue reading →

This is a weird little storm drain oddity. A local storm drain was split into three separate channels, that the Bay Area’s best graffiti artists decided to turn into a rather epic street-art gallery.

Combat City is an abandoned training center located in the middle of a forest, in an abandoned army post! What makes combat city so creepy, is that it’s an entire town built in the middle of the woods, that was … Continue reading →

On our way to another adventure we discovered this disproportionately tall tank in the hills. It seems to be out of use, as you can actually climb inside it. It was covered in graffiti so it made for some interesting … Continue reading →

The brick yards are the remains of a demolished brick factory … that was made of bricks! Not much is left, but this used to house a piece by my favorite graffiti artist – Girafa. Luckily, there is still a … Continue reading →

The Secret Sidewalk is no secret to the locals, but I’ll be keeping it’s location secret. It is a defunct water aqueduct, that had a closed top. Due to it’s unique closed-top style, you could walk on this aqueduct as if … Continue reading →

We revisited the church we found earlier, and set out to find a second church nearby. The second church is built in the same style, though interestingly it’s floor plan was mirrored.

The first time we visited this location, there was a band filming a music video there, so we didn’t want to spent too much time disturbing them. Worse, the camera I had been using decided that instead of telling me … Continue reading →

(Not Alcatraz!) The title says it all – this was one of the most wonderful, frightening, out-of-this-world explorations we had done to-date. To make things more intense, there was slight rain going on this day – and dripping water echoing … Continue reading →

Due to a technical malfunction, and limited light during our first visit to the Workshops, we planed a second visit so we could document them better. This time we got a much better selection of pictures, and we also went … Continue reading →

For some reason, when we saw this building at a distance we dubbed it “The Factory,” though it really is more of a warehouse. At any rate, the building has a wonderful industrial design / feeling, and a handful of … Continue reading →

SUPER CREEPY, is the only way to describe this mini-adventure. Inside the no-name brand gas station was very dark. The air felt still, luckily we couldn’t smell it through our respirators. We were hoping the convenience store part would be … Continue reading →

This warehouse was vast, but mostly empty inside. We had to toss our back pack in and crawl under a narrow gap to get inside, but it wasn’t too difficult. Inside there wasn’t much graffiti, but the peices that were … Continue reading →

This epic building had a giant satellite dish on the roof, hence the nickname. Inside was an amazing gallery of the Bay Area’s best graffiti artists, including Girafa, Plantrees, Musk, Swampy, 7SEAS, RODI and many more! Entering this one was … Continue reading →

This once was a place people used to plan our their vacation destinations. Now it has become a vacation destination for urban-exers. Inside we found a Molotov cocktail, as well as some amusing graffiti written on several of the buildings … Continue reading →

This was a little cluster of abandoned workshops. Some of them still had project cars left sitting to rot, while others had all kinds of power tools, slowly rusting away. There was also some break rooms, and one room we … Continue reading →

The dining commons were our first stop, but shortly after we entered this huge complex of creepy communal dorm-style apartments. They were full of interesting artifacts left over from the 90s, and still mostly furnished. We found a colorful room … Continue reading →

Near a large apartment complex we found the communities dining commons. We hadn’t entered the apartments (yet), but this was an interesting location. It was very dark inside, and the main room was covered in inches of pidgeon crap – … Continue reading →

Whilst exploring we saw some local musicians pull up and duck behind some plywood boards covering a large building. We asked if they would mind us following them in. Once we were given the go-ahead we found an epic Olympic … Continue reading →

This is a rather uncommon urban exploration local – a church! This church has definitely seen better days … better say your prayers for it. Another church very similar to this one was near by in the area, but we … Continue reading →

This is a huge sprawling complex of abandoned barracks. We painstakingly entered dozens of them. It seems as if a local group of air-soft teams has been using this complex for their war simulation. There were tons of plastic BBs … Continue reading →

Though this apartment complex was officially abandoned, a few of the rooms had intact windows and locked doors. We even saw someone sneak up the steps and disappear into one of the rooms. Not so abandoned after all. There was … Continue reading →

This giant, college sized school building was a fascinating exploration, full of all kinds of interesting art. Although we found an entry point at the ground level, we circled the building and ended up finding a staircase to the roof. … Continue reading →

This was a complex of fire-damaged barracks. The buildings were super unstable, so we had to be careful while placing every footstep. In one of the first areas we entered, the top story was completely sinking into the first story … Continue reading →

This is a super creepy abandoned department store. It has several street facing shops, a cafeteria, a giant warehouse (backroom), and a large open-space department store. We didn’t realized until after we reviewed the photos later on, that the doors … Continue reading →

I had known there was at least two standing Ghost Towns in the bay area, and the Mecury Mining Town was the other after Drawbridge, CA. We decided to make this our next trip. This town once served as the … Continue reading →

These abandoned, decaying barracks have been rotting away in the East bay for years. We decided to check them out on the way home from The Bulb. I happened upon these several years ago, when I was alone on a solo … Continue reading →

While researching Drawbridge I caught word of an epic homeless community that lived on a peninsula called “The Bulb.” The wheels were in motion and soon I found myself on this sociological oddity of a land mass. Continue reading →

This was my third trip to Drawbridge, CA. Between my first outing and this one, I visited it once more.I didn’t document it very well that trip, so I omitted that adventure on this blog. Although we didn’t get a … Continue reading →

I planned this trip shortly after I discovered the location through social media. There were doubts whether or not it would be worth the effort, but over all it payed off and was a very fun early adventure. A handful … Continue reading →

Back in June 2010, I made my first trip out to the famous Drawbridge, CA; a ghost town sinking into the marshlands of the South Bay. Continue reading →

At some point in my adventures though “World Music,” and “Chillout Lounge,” music I discovered the Gotan Project. They have a great tango atmosphere. Via Wikipedia: Gotan Project is a musical group based in Paris, consisting of musicians Eduardo Makaroff … Continue reading →

Not to be confused with the President John Kennedy, Jon Kennedy drops the H and also dope beats. He’s style is sometimes similar to classic Bonobo and he has even remixed/collabed with Bonobo before. Via Wikipedia: Jon Kennedy is a … Continue reading →

I made this game for the same business I made the Swirls Website for. Although this wasn’t part of the job, I made it for fun to get back into programming.

The idea was to make a touch-screen compatible game for customers to pass time with, while waiting in line or for their order to be prepared.
Continue reading →

Space Shoot Out was my first major game for the TI-89 Graphing Calculator. Written in C++.

This is a generic overhead shoot-em-up, which was a very popular genre on calculators for the time. Continue reading →

There was an advanced Mario game for the TI-89 calculator, but the name was changed to “Space Monkey Quest.” It featured Mario graphics, except coins became bananas.

This bothered me, so I set out to clone the entire first Super Mario Bros. for TI-89. Continue reading →

On ticalc.org I found a Worms clone for TI-89. My friends and I spent a huge amount of time playing it to/from school those days. It was limited in its terrain, weapon set, and physics in general. I decided to clone all of Worms World Party for the calculator. Continue reading →

This was my first major windows C++ program as well as my first full-on dive into OpenGL graphics. I made this during the end of high school, to compete with the jippii.co.uk 2d minigolf game.
Continue reading →

Originally I wanted to make a 2d game engine, with really detailed physics, and a game that involved solving physics related puzzles. Ultimately I started working on other projects, but this remains as a fun toy. Continue reading →

I went totally creative on naming this one =P. I was inspired by a screen saver that slowly disintegrates your desktop into a random mess. I decided to recreate this effect, but LIVE. You can actually still use the computer while it disintegrates. Continue reading →

This time I built a simple multitouch system using some wiimote hacking techniques. The idea was to make a future new-media art piece that would allow any number of viewers to change it as they desire. The artist creates a world, instead of a static piece. This ended up being the final in my ART 12 class. Continue reading →

The Suicide Box was a final project in my Art 13 (3d concepts) class. Although the class had nothing to do with Stereoscopics I decided to test my engineering ability on this one. This was a fun one to build and definitely a fun one to play with. Continue reading →

Another one for my Art 13 class. This is like a 3d poly mesh of a n64 controller… except in real life. Made from modeling wire and lots and lots of painful twisting. This was interesting piece to make. Continue reading →

For this project I recreated an interesting tag from the graffiti artist “Cope 2.”

This was for my Color class so I chose a vibrant and detailed tag. I hand painted it on the side of a 40 ounce malt-liquor bottle. (Mickeys I believe!) Continue reading →

For my ART-74 class, the goal was to mash-up one or more things that normally don’t go together.

I chose to mash up some random animals of various scales. The Popular Science cover was just for fun. Continue reading →

Again for ART-74, this project was assigned as a photoshop triptych displaying a common theme and hidden message. I chose to do the past, present and possible future of our planet based on it’s Oil driven economy. Continue reading →

To learn the fundamentals of electricity, circuit design and micro computing we were given a robot kit in my Art-74 class. When calibrated properly the robot shall automatically seek light.

I named him (it’s a he) ALF-1, or, Autonomous Light Follower One. Continue reading →

This was a simple project that involved cutting and bending a square piece of sheet metal into an abstract sculpture. We got to chose the cut, the bend and the colors. Continue reading →

For this Render I decided to try an additional challenge. None of the textures in this scene are from image files! All the textures and bump maps (normal maps) are procedurally generated inside Blender! I had to come up with … Continue reading →

On the popular social media site Reddit, the /r/blender subreddit has a themed contest every month. This is the first month I entered, as I liked it’s theme: surrealism. About 7 or 8 years ago I originally created this doodle … Continue reading →

Ashens is one of my favorite YouTube channels. The other day I was watching his review of Garbage Pail Kids, something I had seen around on the Internet and wanted to learn more about. He mentioned that there was a … Continue reading →

Someday I would like to 3D model all of my favorite Graffiti characters that I’ve discovered around the Bay Area. Of course, I had to start with my favorite, and the one that brought me closer to the Graffiti game … Continue reading →