Laser Engraved Settlers of Catan Board

One of my favorite lasered works to date is an interlocking Settlers of Catan board game I made for my brother.  Adapted from a design I found on Thingiverse, this set is made from 1/4" poplar and has recessed number tokens and interlocking hexes and ports.

Opening the Time Capsule

Written December 31, 1999

Hi, I am Glenn Nicholson Langton.

I am in 7th grade now and just came back from a vacation in Hawaii with my family and Uncle Art and Grandma Owl.  I am really excited about the new millennium, century, score, decade, year, month, week, day, hour, minute, second, and so on.  I will spend my time talking about the new millennium 2000!  I think the millennium will bring many new inventions and interesting things but I also think it will bring more sin and sad times.  Only the Lord knows what it will bring.  I am 12 years old, my brother Ryan is 15, I like food with cheese and buttery tastes, my favorite color is green (that is why the card is green), when I grow up I want to have a big house, a solar car, and I want to be a marine paratrooper who flys planes and does chemistry work (I do not know if this can be done).  I really like science and enjoy reading Boys Life, National Geographic World, and Tintin books.  I was the one who was interested in doing the time capsule.

In light of the Y2K, projections and reflections for the millennium and century. By: Ryan Langton

I think the new millennium will bring many changes in our way of life just as the previous one has.  These changes will affect some of the same areas of our lives as the previous changes have, including: transportation, science, technology, food, culture, and commerce.  With the right use, I think many new products can be put to work in a way that will benefit mankind. On the other hand, without guidance from our Lord Jesus Christ (meaning if man doesn't include him in the picture) I don't see a very bright future.  Personally, I have a hope for the future in Jesus Christ. I still wonder how anyone can live day by day without the hope of Jesus' return.  This is certainly something I look forward to in the future.  Earth is generally a nice place to live (at least for me), but heaven will be a whole lot better.

Until then, see ya later alligator!

What will the new century bring?  By: Stephen Langton

1. Loss of Privacy
2. A greater understanding of genetic code
3. Fewer story tellers and more listeners
4. Writing on paper will be less and less
5. New diseases will appear
6. God's word will continue to be shown to be true

By: Jeralynn Langton

A time capsule - what an interesting idea.  Four of us - thanks to God, will have time and eternity with our Savior, Jesus Christ. Our family will spend eternity together! For now, we will enjoy being a family here and supporting each other as we use the skills and talents God has give us.

What does the future hold?  We can't be sure and that's a good thing. I think:

1) Stephen and I will like to camp even after Ryan and Glenn have moved out.
2) Stephen and I will live on Blackhawk St. for many, many years
3) Stephen and I will one day again own a dog
4) Stephen and I will one day manage the Bantles apartments in Burbank
5) Jeralynn will learn basic computer skills
6) Jeralynn will have organized a Girl Scout Troop #671 reunion by the time the capsule is opened
7) Ryan will pursue his love for herpetology and be a research writer
8) Glenn will change his major in college a couple of times before focusing in on something
9) LA will have an earthquake equal to that of 1994
10) California will have a homosexual governor
11) Vacations in space will be an option
12) Ways to test for deafness and operations to correct it will be done in the womb
13) There will be a mega vitamin that takes care of all nutritional and caloric needs
14) There will be no need for telephone wires
15) The butterfly population will suffer near extinction
16) Clothes will be laundered with super sonic sound to clean them
17) Most of the world will eat products made to "look like food" but it's really nutrients from the sea
18) People will be able to have an electronic chip implanted near the ear to be able to receive radio waves and "tune in" to their favorite stations
19) Doll faces and G.I. Joe figures will be made to look like the child who is the owner
20) Cloud seeding will be perfected and used world-wide to help eliminate droughts
21) Cars will be programmed to take the owner on a pre-determined route w/o driver controls on special rails

List of items in the capsule:

A shoe horn

WWJD bracelet

Leather bookmark

Four letters

Bag of postage stamps

Pen with ether bulb

Boys' Life magazine

Clothes pin

Peppermint candy

Three SoBe caps

Broken watch

DARE key chain

Four pogs

Cereal box magnet

1/2 a walnut shell (for making a toy boat)

Typewriter spacing ruler

Shell necklace

Four short biographies in a paper towel tube

Family Christmas photo from Hawaii

Four glass beads and a bird tag in a plastic container

Plastic heart with words: Grandma Bantle "Symbol of Spreading Love"

Boys and Guns

Boys like guns. It might be the loud report and smell of burning gunpowder, or the ability to shatter clay pigeons flying through the air, or possibly it's that guns are tools that demand a great deal of respect. For me, it's probably a combination of all these things and more.

As a kid, I was always jealous that my brother had a BB gun, and I would frequently ask to borrow it.  I ended up shooting it more than he did and would invite my friends over to shoot aluminum cans and targets taped to stacks of newspapers.  My parents wisely laid out rules for our use of the BB gun so that we would develop safe gun handling habits.  Later in Boy Scouts, I was exposed to rifle and shotgun shooting.  This presented new challenges, with moving targets and targets at much greater distances.  Naturally, I moved on to hand guns after this.  I later inherited my grandfather's .22 Winchester 68 from my uncle and began to learn about proper gun cleaning and maintenance.

I'm not a gun expert by any means, nor do I own many firearms or go shooting often, but I enjoy the hobby and am always willing to learn to shoot guns I'm less familiar with.  Firearms might seem dangerous, and indeed they can be if mistreated, but by exercising proper safety, shooting can be enjoyed by anyone.

Why you might see my brother climbing trees

The following is an anecdote written by my brother Ryan, seen below with his Triton Cockatoo, Cupid.

Well, I decided to go with the real short crew/buzz cut for the balance of the summer. So I did. When I got to school, the scarlet macaw I had to feed basically thought I was a completely different person and hissed and tried to bite at me through the cage. I was also not wearing my normal EATM uniform because it was a work day.

Then, when I got home, I approached Cupid's cage just like I usually do to say 'hello'. Her crest went up and she headed to the back of the cage. I thought she was just being a bit nervous, but she was actually totally spooked out. So, when I opened the cage door, she hit the floor in no time flat and flapped out onto the ground. I didn't want to scare her more, so I didn't grab her, but then she flat took off--from the ground! She went up over the backyard fence and out of sight. I headed out to go look for her and couldn't find her anywhere. I figured she couldn't have gone far because she barely made it over the fence and swooped low once she did and I hadn't seen her fly up anywhere so I was totally baffled. And, naturally, since she probably could see me from wherever she was hiding, she didn't call out like she usually does because she didn't want me to know where she was! So, I headed back inside and took a nap.

I awoke to a knock at the front door from my neighbor across the street. She had seen Cupid and wanted to let me know. So I went out with her and she showed me the shrub she was sitting on. So, I walked back inside to get some cashews. When I came around the corner again and looked at Cupid again (from like 50 yards) she could tell I was after her and flew up into a tall pine tree across the street. I went over and located her with the neighbor and her husband, children and children's friends and then proceeded to ponder the situation. I realized that she was spooked by my appearance and, because that was aversive to her, she would not fancy my chasing her up a tree unless she knew I had friendly intentions. So, I went back to my house with the kids stationed on the grass at the base of the tree to keep an eye on her (four 7 & 8 year old girls). I changed into my regular EATM uniform (which is normally what she sees me in when I come home) and found a hat to put on. I came back out with my ladder and bamboo retrieval pole and then proceeded to call her name, whistle my tune to her and get her attention. She signaled that she knew it was me then by doing her head bob and making happy noises.

So, I told the kids to keep an eye on her in case she spooked again and set the ladder up to get to the first branch of the pine tree. I had to do a bit of scouting out of this particular tree beforehand. Kind of hard to describe. If you saw it you would understand. Anyway, this whole time the kids are calling Cupid's name and saying, "Wow, this is just like Animal Rescue on Animal Planet" and asking me why I cut my hair, that I should wear a wig and how I was going to climb down. So, I did my best to answer their questions as I scaled the tree--bamboo pole in hand. I had to reach way way out, but Cupid did recognize me and walked on to the pole without much coaxing and got to my hand. I tossed the pole down to the kids (much to their delight) and then proceeded to climb down the tree--one handed.

After making it back on the ground, I was met with cheers from the kids and sat down on the grass with them to show them Cupid up close and answer another bunch of questions and listen to their stories. Meanwhile, two friends from the zoo drove by and stopped in the middle of the road to see what I was up to, so I walked over with Cupid and the kids to say 'hi'. While in the middle of the street, another car coming the other way had a recent EATM graduate who also stopped to see what was up and her boyfriend hopped in the shotgun seat right afterwards (she was coming to pick him up). After that I excused myself saying that Cupid should probably go home now since she had had quite an adventure.

Something similar to this happens at least once a week. I am convinced that before I move out I will have climbed every tree within a quarter mile of Cupid's cage. No joke.

Here I am with my brother's bird