Schuyler

@mrtowne

Historian & Anthropologist of security technologies, once great lockpicker, now just a great dad. Impossible to overstate how much I think about locks...

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Schuyler@mrtowne· 20h

Hands got a break, kids got fed and bathed, returned to the attempt and popped it!!! Still don't really have the feel, but my tools work, and now I'm ready for repetition. Woohoo!!

Squire lever padlock held in a green vise with the shackle open, a small metal wire is protruding from the keyhole.

Schuyler@mrtowne· 1d

Alright, getting good response from the levers with this tool. I had been trying to make piano wire work a couple months ago, but the round wire and loose tolerances of the Squire led to the wire slipping between levers constantly. Found this square extruded wire, which is doing way better.

Square wire picking tool. Looks like an L with one end bent back on itself at 90 degrees. One end, near the bent bit, has a good amount of tape applied to make it wider and round.

Picture of a small spool of wire, text on the label reads:
Mcmaster-Carr
purchase order: 0703STOWNE
line: 1
part number 4253k23
Flat bend-and-stay multipurpose 304 stainless steel wire, matte finish, 1/4 lb. spool 0.05" thick, 30 feet long
ordered: 1
shipped: 1

Schuyler@mrtowne· 1d

First one down! Perhaps completely unsurprisingly, the nice pro tool just works! Was having a very hard time differentiating the levers, so I did pull it open to see how things were sitting, popped quick after that. Going to do it about 100 more times tonight, but now to start making my own pick!

A freshly picked lever lock with 2-in-1 tool jutting out of it

Schuyler@mrtowne· 1d

Here we go! (The kiddos are watching Danny Go! And the table is dominated by their craft projects)

Two lever locks sit in two vices on a cluttered marbletable, one green, one silver, a 2-in-1 tool sits in the foreground, the legs of two children are in background

Schuyler@mrtowne· 17d

What's your sign?

A long, thin piece of paper that has been cut out by hand to be this shape is taped over another obscured piece of paper on a greenish wall. The text on the paper was printed by a computer and reads "DO NOT throw urine!"

Schuyler@mrtowne· 29d

Happy birthday ♡ My wife's cousin reached out last night, completely out of the blue, about a project that would blend our disciplines and I am bursting with joy about it.

Text exchange:
Me: My heart is pounding out of my chest!
Me: More to come! [A crying laughing emoji has been appended to this message]
Cousin-in-law: I will cite you so hard in this thing [a loving smiley face has been appended to this message]

Schuyler@mrtowne· Jul 8

My oldest kiddo wants to learn to skateboard, so I'm gonna go on that journey with her. Stoked to get my board today and even happier to have @mxmorgan.com's incredible art between the trucks.

A girl in a blue princess dress styled after Elsa in the movie Frozen, holds a skateboard upright, showing off art between the trucks. They're is a red dog/wolf attacking an ICE officer and the text "STOP" appears above the image and "I.C.E. below. The girl stands in a fairly messy kids room with pink flowers, stuffed animals, and an orange and white soccer ball scattered around.

A close up on the underside of a skateboard with a graphic between the trucks that reads "STOP" above an image of a red wolf attacking an ICE officer with the text "I.C.E" below. A green and pink roller skate carrying bag sits on the floor in the background.

Schuyler@mrtowne· Jul 5

Yo, let's just watch some Kasso instead

Pedro Delfino, a skateboarder, attempts the "grasshopper" obstacle course in Kasso Long Beach. 8 huge, angled platforms, decreasing in size sit jutting out of water, Pedro has just landed on platform 1, a large crowd cheers him on

Schuyler@mrtowne· Jun 27

Yessssssss. Get some!!! Wearing mine right at this moment:

Schuyler@mrtowne· Jun 26

Me as well, but it really resonated with me for some reason. I read it in one sitting which was rare for me. I still think about Santiago waking the boy by gently holding his foot. That image stuck with me for 30+ years to the point that I included it in a passage of a book I was writing:

Black text on a white background:

"Sunny?" Joy asked weakly, holding her breath and trying to stop crying.
"I think you slept through your alarm." She said again.
"O.K." Joy said, "But why are you holding my foot?" She was trying to calm down and breathe normally. Between the gut-wrenching dream and the terror of someone in her room, Joy was feeling very awake.
"It's from Old Man and the Sea." Sunny said.
"What?"
"It's how Santiago woke up the boy to go fishing." Sunny added.
"Grabbed his foot?" Joy asked.
"Held it until he woke up. They didn't say a word to each other," Sunny said and after a moment added, "I always thought it was kind of sweet."
Joy pulled her foot back under the covers, "It's not. It's creepy as hell."
Sunny winced, "I've never actually done it before."
"OK, well, probably don't do it again?" Joy was relaxing. There was something about Sunny's generally odd demeanor that made this whole situation feel less weird. Not much less weird, but still, Joy was beginning to calm down.
"Yeah, probably not." Sunny agreed.

Schuyler@mrtowne· Jun 10

And, of course, the tragicomic reality of the whole macabre enterprise.

An absolutely stunning balloon art rendition of Goya's Saturn Devouring His Son by redditor "DJDrummer"

Schuyler@mrtowne· May 31

This is Hot Dog and Pickle. Two of my 4 year old's many raccoons. They are sisters.

Two stuffed raccoons being buds, laying facing the camera on a pillow

Schuyler@mrtowne· May 15

Nicer pic of some of the favs. The big guy on the right is a powderproof, which means I should probably weigh in on the works lock discourse at some point. Anyhow, I'm in heaven. @sempf.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy

A large (and in the author's opinion, nicely displayed) collection of locks, including high security cutaway, time locks, salesman samples, large cuttings from full safes with mechanisms intact, and a charming cutaway Yale & Towne door closer. All are displayed atop a dresser with an angled wall intruding from the left and a good amount of natural light.

Schuyler@mrtowne· May 14

PART of box _ONE_

Corbin Emhart salesman sample case with cutaway lock, interlocking pin system in acrylic, and two additional emhart cylinders

Schlage Primus salesman sample case with cutaway lock, pin system in acrylic, and several additional cylinders

A pile of many many cutaway locks including Kabas, Medecos, Abloys, ASSAs, and even a Schlage f-series

Schuyler@mrtowne· May 14

Two cut out (and cutaway) mechanisms from safes. One is a Hall's powder proof (~1850), another is a bog standard 4 wheel (~1885), and the final is a letter dial safe from an unknown maker (~1880). They are arrayed around 3 home depot boxes filled with other extraordinary locks

Schuyler@mrtowne· May 1

Portrait of the ambien artist

Fancy greeting card of a woman kissing her own reflection in the bathroom mirror. Text reads: "I BELIEVE IN YOU"

Schuyler@mrtowne· Apr 24

Off to the library, happy Free Friday, and thanks to bsky for introducing me to the wonderful world of @moxiest.art bsky.app/profile/moxi...

Happy Schuyler wearing a white jacket and green bag over a trans color "find out" molotov shirt by mox

My (sadly discontinued) mox syndicate kicks with rainbow under jeans that have a small red heart stiched onto them

Schuyler@mrtowne· Apr 20

I JUST GOT INTO THE PHONE Bawling at the pictures he took in the last months of his life. I've only had one really good cry since he passed. Feels really nice, honestly. This one of my mother and her cat is particularly nice.

An older blonde woman in a yellow sweater sits in a cozy recliner with a content white and gray cat asleep on the top of the headrest. She looks back at him and pets his paw.

Schuyler@mrtowne· Apr 9

I also grabbed this one and can't wait to have a good excuse to use it.

Schuyler@mrtowne· Apr 9

HAPPY SUIT DAY THIS TOOK ME AN HOUR I'M GETTING SO OLD AND BAD AT COMPUTER

Schuyler@mrtowne· Apr 6

"With the void, full powers" being a thing Camus wrote in reflection of a friend's art exhibition.

"avec le vide, les pleins pouvoirs" written by hand on a notecard by Camus

Schuyler@mrtowne· Mar 28

Madam C. J. Walker, cruising with the top down on the streets of Indianapolis in 1911. A hundred and fifteen years before some stupid fucking racist cops ripped another happy, proud black woman from her convertible and knocked her teeth out.

Why won't it fucking stop.

Schuyler@mrtowne· Mar 15

Are you the reason I have this video saved on my phone? I searched my likes but couldn't figure it out :P

Schuyler@mrtowne· Mar 1

Schuyler@mrtowne· Feb 26

It was such a dope wedding, and Jesse was a huge part of it. I don't have all our pictures handy (I have some good ones of Jesse DJing!) but I always keep this one of my wife and me in 2 of 100+ masks my mother made. When "Animal" by miike snow came on everyone grabbed their masks and went nuts.

Mr. & Mrs. Towne on their wedding day. They are holding hands on a porch, her in a white wedding dress and a hand made paper craft orange fox mask, he is in a wrinkled blue suit and a hand made paper and faux fur bear mask.

Schuyler@mrtowne· Feb 17

YEAH BABY

A pack of raspberry-filled Paczki donuts, cropped in quite a bit to try to hide some of the chaos on and around my stove

Schuyler@mrtowne· Feb 16

Just in case the rest of you aren't catching up on women's curling Round Robin play through the middle of the night because it's the only time you get a chance to... the entire 8th end of JPN v KOR is AHHHHMAZING. I want to send every shot, but I think this is a good representation:

Schuyler@mrtowne· Jan 28

Lot of people calling out Rep. Omar being ready to hit her attacker, (good!) but I was moved by a softer moment. Unsure what was being said, but as this member of her security team was intensely checking her over, there was a point where she touched his face gently as though to reassure/calm him.

Rep. Ilhan Omar touching the face of her security guard.

Schuyler@mrtowne· Jan 20

God damn it. Didn't realize this was a thing. Same vibe, a pile of gross ai narrative speculation about my approach to live punctuated by enough actual facts about my life to feel like the speculation in between might be true. Really unsettling.

Screenshot from Grokipedia:
"Prior to focusing on anthropology, Towne trained in theatre arts and worked as a professional actor, which informed his interdisciplinary approach to performance and cultural analysis."

Schuyler@mrtowne· Jan 2

This is a very good game and I guess this year I'm ready to share some very loud and very unpopular opinions: