Jim Van Verth

@cthulhim.bsky.social

240 Followers 355 Following

Woodworker, musician, co-author of Essential Math for Games, host of The Vintage Gamer, occasional gad about town. Formerly: GPU Engineer for the Skia 2D graphics library; game developer for Red Storm Entertainment and Insomniac Games. He/him.

Two powered tools sitting on a workbench. The one on the left is a strobe tuner. The one on the right is a small portable oscillating sander. On top of the sander is a long piece of wood, with some sort of template glued to it.
Cover of Radiohead's OK Computer.
A black and white dog eating from a metal food bowl. Behind her is her crate with a pile of dog-related items on top. To her right is her favorite soft bed.
Closeup of a black and white dog, showing where a snake bit her on the nose (it’s not very visible but it’s there).
“Betsy Ross” American flag (13 stars in blue field, arranged in circle) being flown in front of a garage, but upside down to indicate distress.
Brown dog lying on the grass in the sun.
A person wearing a plaid shirt and glasses looking at a dog poking her head through some staircase bannisters.
A large bush of poison ivy. All one plant, it fills the frame.
Oak-sided box with pine lid and bottom. The sides and front of the box are carved with traditional New England patterns.
A piece of oak with a carving on it, looking like three interleaving rainbows with “Swiss cheese” decoration under the arches and an abstract flower pattern in between.
In the foreground, a tray with 8 chocolate chip cookies on it. In the background left, a plate with many more cookies on it. In the right background, a platter spilling over with even *more* cookies.
An pie resting on a cooling rack. It’s filling is chocolate with pecans.
Black and white dog smooshing her face between couch cushions.
A shot from "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly". Blondie is writing the name of the grave where the treasure can be found prior to the three-way showdown. Angel Eyes and Tuco are in the background.
Cover of "The Eagle of the Ninth", by Rosemary Sutcliff. Shows the top of a Roman Imperial Eagle against a dark reddish sky, which is irrelevant to the joke.
A menorah with two candles lit.
Two chairs, similar in style with minor differences. The one on the left is made from light-colored wood and unpainted. The one on the right is darker brown and treated with oil and wax.
Turkey thighs stuffed with sausage dressing.
Picture of a pumpkin pie with a broken top.
A shot from the film "The Taqwacores", showing the main cast -- a group of Islamic punk rockers -- including a man with no shirt and a trilby, a man with a red mohawk, a woman in a burqa, and our somewhat square protagonist in the center. They are walking towards the camera in the midst of a conversation.
Cover of “How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive” by John Muir. Has a line-drawn VW Beetle head-on with a very 60s (and somewhat stoned looking) smiley face behind the wheel.
A small (fake) graveyard with a variety of headstones.
A river valley with high cliff walls.
Picture of cliff faces from the valley floor in Zion National Park.
Two people walking on some crumbling rock clearly marked “Do not enter. Dangerous overlook.”
Deep in the canyon a thousand rivulets run As if time was not, as if there were none. The light is the light of a dreamy gray moon, Not the light of the sun of the midday of June. But the voice of the river is merry and loud As it carries the heart of the canyon along. It leaps and it sings, and it dances and thrills, And its music is more than the clattering of mills. -John Muir
Picture of railroad tanker cars marked with “Phosphoric acid.”
Cherry stick chair. It has a broad base with roughly semi-circular arms, and six sticks coming up as a backrest topped with a trapezoidal comb.
A wooden chair outside of a house. It is a Windsor-style chair with a large hoop and bamboo (or bobbin) legs and spindles. It has been painted with a undercoat of red, and then a top coat of black. The seat is worn through in places, showing the red undercoat.
Picture of a pumpkin growing on a vine.
Cast of Neon Genesis Evangelion, with their Evangelions behind them.
Photo of a projected slide. Text reads: “Welcome to the Hugo Awards” and “Seattle WorldCon 2025.” Five diverse cartoon people are also pictured in futuristic costumes.
A cartoon of Porky Pine, a gruff (prickly, even) but sentimental porcupine from the Pogo comic strip. He is holding a guitar and carrying some flowers.
A loopback Windsor chair with bobbin/bamboo style legs and spindles. The seat is made of pine, the rest is made of red and white oak. It's resting on a gravel driveway which is irrelevant but still part of the picture.
BG Stats 2 x 2. The Captain Is Dead; The Captain Is Dead: Episode 2 – Adrift; Harmonies; Ascension: Deckbuilding Game.
Two chairs, partially complete. Once has seven back sticks, the other six. The one with six has its seat partially carved.
A black-and-white pit bull named Rosa, looking apprehensive.
BG Stats 3 x 3. Just One; Ascension: Deckbuilding Game; Wiz-War (eighth edition); Treasure Island; Würfel Bohnanza; Hues and Cues; The Crew: Mission Deep Sea; Castle Combo; Fromage.
A six-stick Welsh-style chair, made of cherry, roughly assembled with legs, seat and arms.
A dog peering through a crease in a couch, and looking pitifully hopeful.
Window blinds with a shadow from the screen. Raindrops have filled holes in the screen, making it look like pixels projected onto the window blinds.
A workbench with parts for chairs on it. To the left side are two large boards that will be used for seats. In the middle are eight long octagonal pieces that will be used for legs. To the left are less thick pieces, some octagonal, some square, that will be used for the stretchers between the legs.
A base for a modular barrister bookcase resting on top of a workbench. The main part of the base is four legs connected by two long and two short rails with mortise and tenon joinery. All are made of red oak, stained to a reddish brown. On top is a piece of popular, unfinished, nailed to the red oak, that acts as a guide for the module that fits on top.
Picture of the world’s dirtiest snowman.
Birds clustered around the base of a feeder, eating seeds on the snowy ground. A couple of birds are on the feeder itself.
Top: Marguerite Kenner writes: '*long, drawn out sigh* Merrily on we go.' Bottom: Frog and Toad Bot writes: '"Here we go," said Frog.'
Picture of hockey game: Carolina Hurricanes vs Chicago Blackhawks.
Some pieces of wood resting on top of some brown paper. They are stained reddish brown. Near them is a brush, a stained yogurt cup, a stirring stick, and some dropper bottles containing dye.
Cover of the Beatles’ Blue Album, with them looking down the same staircase as the Red Album but six years later.
Four legs and four boards connected together to make what looks like a very short table base, resting on a workbench.
A piece of wood clamped in a vise. The top has been shaped into a tenon, but some fool has cut halfway into it, making it weak.
Two boards aligned along their ends, one has lines and hashmarks, the other has lines that line up with the first.
Four pieces of wood, two long and two short, each with pencil marks on their ends. One of them has a long dark knot at its end.
A board clamped into a vice with a vertical saw cut through it to make it slightly thinner. Some measuring and marking tools are on the bench next to it.
Three bookshelves full of board games. The middle one is something you’d find at a Target. The outer two are homemade from pine.