CaptainOrange

Normally I prefer not to follow through and, if I do, I like to make sure it isn't in any timely manner. Nobody is perfect. I've been off work during the last week. Too much time on my hands means more creating and blog posting. Here is the set up for my creative process. You can see the 1st generation of the tripod mount in action--on top of a jar of whole wheat spaghetti. My iPhone 5 was mounted there while recording the video below. The setup Like me, this video isn't for everyone. It will likely be very boring. However, if you would like to see 12 minutes or less on how easy Shapelock is to use (no I don't own stock) or just how I go about doing one of my DIYs, this is the video for you. I will also accept "loves the soothing sound of Mike's voice" :) I'll put a few highlights for casual observers: "Finished" 36s is a description of parts for the project 3:44 shows some of the shaping process 5:23 is a knife safety mess...

Wendy suggested I record the kids debating this week. She wants to debrief them to enhance their skill development rate. To me, it just means sore arms as I hold my phone steady for 15 minutes at a time. So, in this case, Wendy really is the "mother of invention." And she has encouraged me to combine my love of four things: Shapelock , my iPhone, photography and creating It took me a while, but I eventually realized that I didn't need two rare-earth magnets to hold my phone in place. Now I just have a stainless steel disk on my phone attached with a really awesome two-faced tape. No the tape doesn't dry out. Yes, it's easy to remove. I suppose if you were a bit of a wimp or using a phone case already, you could just mount the disk to it. I like my phone sleek and scratchy. Going with a shorter bolt next time Parts:  Disk, Magnet and housing from Lee Valley 4" bolt - 1/4" threads Spiffy long nut - 1/4" threads Shapelock. I don't...

I spent the entire day preparing a dinner for some of Wendy's work friends. It was also cleaning day and one of the invitees has cat allergies (needed to do an extra good job of vacuuming the furniture). The first thing I did was get a really good playlist going in iTunes. I prepped some materials for my dessert. I decided on a Greek style, which is to say it has no crust and is only a little sweet. I made a honey glaze and topped it with heart-shaped strawberries marinaded in lemon and sugar and a few mint leaves that are growing on our windowsill. Above is the salad that I made. It is an awesome recipe that Jodi introduced us to this winter. Celery, walnuts, parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, lemon juice and olive oil. It's hearty, crunchy and zesty. Veggie lasagne was the main course. It's a modified version of a recipe from the Looneyspoons cook book (mine has a bunch of great mushrooms and fresh tomato). Apparently, it is out of pr...

Click Pic for full album Wendy tells me it has been a month since my last post. What can I say? I've been busy. I've been posting images online, but just mentioning them in Google+. I find it a much faster way to get things out than feel the pressure of creating a post about whatever it is. Okay, that's a bad excuse. I've been trying to do more writing lately... hmmm. Since my trip to Canmore with Dave, I've been doing some work for Summer Players, helping to get their current show ready. It's called A Grand Night for Singing (and it finished in town, though you could catch it this weekend in Rosthern ). It's fun and full of singing. 'Nuff said. I also... Dirty and Hazy Shot pictures in the fog... Shot some absolutely crazy pictures of wasps, spiders -- plus other odds and ends... Mike-meta The list goes on. The point being, I have not been idle. Were you concerned? But today, I want to show you my latest creations. In addition ...

One of the gifts I got last Christmas (though it may have just been an early birthday present) was a tangle of wires, resistors, LEDs and this thing that looks like a giant Triscuit cracker. It was from Brad and Jodi and at the time, it seemed like more than I could handle. I put it in a drawer and forgot about it. Brad and Jodi were visiting this week. We always like to tackle an interesting project. I'd say that this was good luck. I know Brad would say good planning. Below is the beginnings of everything needed for a great project. Coffee, a schematic or two, parts, tools and (of course) balloons! The ingredients of FUN As it currently rests, the the assembly looks pretty much as below... Let's hope we were being graded on function over form WTF? I know. This looks strange, even for me. It's a flash trigger with breadboard and a few extras thrown in for good measure. It was ordered from this site for anyone intrepid enough to want to make their own. The ...

Sometime last year, Dad went to turn on his Playstation 3 and was greeted by the infamous Yellow Light Of Death. It's tough to find a good description of what the YLOD is, but this forum thread is somewhat comprehensive. Essentially, the PS3 does nothing but show a single LED. Apparently there are a number of possible causes. Dad had just bought a new game it was stuck in the Blue-Ray player and no amount of coaxing was getting it out. With a repair price of about $150CAD (+ shipping) Dad simply bought a new Playstation ($300). tiny ribbon cables galore I had some spare time a couple of weeks back and Dad had found a suitable heat-gun to attempt the, by now, common "re-flow" repair. We watched this very good YouTube video (which is in two parts ) and took the plunge. If it failed I was planning to at least crack the Blue-Ray drive to get the game which was M.I.A. Death by a million screws. One of the biggest challenges in this process is remembering where a...

I'm not sure what it might say about me, but I am now growing mushrooms in my basement. That may be overly optimistic. I've got mushroom spawn, which may in time become mushrooms growing in my basement. The girls helped me collect some sawdust. I didn't sterilize it which may come back to haunt me. Sterilizing is supposed to help get rid of "competing organisms." I always say a little competition is a good thing. We'll see. We mixed the saw-dust with used coffee grounds (for nitrogen I guess) and the spawn. We stuffed this into an old log we had in the back yard and a couple of soy-milk containers. I'm misting these three candidates daily. There are a few other pics if you follow the link below ***edit*** This just in... Here be mushrooms!!! I added a new picture to the gallery below 30/03/10 ********** Mushrooms

I watched " I am Legend (imdb)" again last night, so the above quote comes from Bob Marley, through Will Smith, me, and onto you... With Christmas guests all but a memory and my famous post-birthday-blues (2006 post) setting in, I've embarked on a number of projects to keep myself busy. Todays tidbit is on my grow-table. In the fall of 2008 a theatre friend gave us a grow-table that her father had made for her 30 or more years ago. It had been sitting unused for more than a decade and she was trying to find a good home for it. Mission accomplished. We used it to start our garden seedlings last spring, but I thought I would try a few things earlier this year. I grabbed some soil, perlite, and plant food and got busy. In November, garlic was really cheap. It made sense at the time to buy one of those big bags with a dozen bulbs of garlic in it. By making a lot of pizza I managed to get through most of it, but some of the bulbs began sprouting towards Christmas. ...

Perhaps there is a school you can attend that will teach you how to find perfect gifts for your friends. I haven't been there, but I know someone who should be lecturing. From the hands of the man who brought me lock-picks, Swiss army knives and countless... Liquid Metal ... dangerous (previous blog entry) Prince Rupert's Drops ... adventures !(another old post) I give you Shape Lock , which is a brand name for something more generally known as "friendly plastics" or polycaprolactone (wikipedia). We had loads of fun with it the first day, but had to keep it on a shelf for a few days to allow me to speak directly to other humans. Even then concentration was difficult. My mind raced constantly thinking of cool uses for this stuff. Eventually, when the Christmas hubbub was dying down, I settled on a project that I've wanted to attempt for a long time -- making a custom attachment for my Gorilla Pod . Before we go any further, if at any time you find yo...

Our microwave oven stopped working on Wednesday. Actually, it continued to work, but the door wouldn´t open. Something inside the door-latch mechanism seemed to be jammed or broken. I was more than a little perturbed. After all it´s only a little more than a year old. I´m not sure about you, but I am a heavy user of the microwave. It´s primary purpose in my life is to warm the many forgotten mugs of coffee that I perpetually leave around the house. That´s enough of a blow in itself. Of course there are other tasks for which it is suited and, short of baking bread, it is part of virtually every meal I make. Wendy began to get alarmed with how panicked I was becoming over the loss of this small appliance. I felt thrust back into a dark age of wood ovens and feudal servitude. I don´t mind daydreaming about such things, but not over a cold cup of coffee -- especially when the weather has been so dreary again. Rain about 4 or 5 days running and a high temperature today of 14 C. That´s ...

Being injured sucks. We've talked about this before. My elbow is still nagging me but, I have started a slow program of push-ups again. As well, you may have noticed that the spreadsheet up top has a couple of new times for the Arts Tower. Neither of them are PB's but both are very strong and I am encouraged by how good I feel at the top. Today I ran to campus (20min), stumped heavily up the first 8 floors of Arts (40sec) and then ran home (20min). My computer is back. Against what they told me were the odds, the data on my harddrive was indeed lost. Soooo, I have lost about 3 months of pictures. Ouch. That really hurts. You may recall that my ambitious photo campaign has been to assist my pathetic memory. Loosing 3 months is a blow that will certainly result in more regular back-ups. I do have all of the last 4-5 weeks of photos that I accumulated while my computer was in the shop. This is the one that I want to share with you today. So... you shake it. Yeah, you kn...

You likely recall that I got Rock Band last January (I considered it a birthday gift from the Universe). I intended to post about my first repair, but perhaps I forgot. I won't bore you with the details other than to say that an integral component in the guitar stopped working. As it turns out, there was a broken spring involved. After 12 or so screws that stood in my way, the repair itself was fairly simple. I feel great when I repair these things because it saves both me and the companies involved money (Well, technically the warranty wasn't expired -- the first time, but who cares, it was fun) I don't have to be without the controller for 4 weeks No one has to pick up the tab for thousands of miles of shipping I (hopefully) learn a bit about the electronics involved So, I refashioned  the existing spring -- simply stretching it out a bit further and making a new loop so it could reattach to where it had fallen from. The repair lasted about 4 months only to surfa...