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...

Whether it be in the garden or in the kitchen, I've taken my share of food pictures. From now on, in my house, food will take pictures of you :) Almost. I've been curious about the Pringles macro lens  hack for awhile now. Working on my last project with Brad got me enthused about giving it a try. So I got the parts together and went for it. I was surprised at how quickly it went. I'm pretty experienced with my Dremmel (and a craft vise was key to maintaining finger integrity) so I was able to finish it off in only about 20 minutes while I was working in the kitchen making supper. This is the side that connects to the camera. I originally tried using the super glue, but it couldn't withstand the force that a heavy old lens in the end of tube exerted. Fortunate for me that James had some metal epoxy on hand and we soon made a permanent fix. To the left you can see the lens. It's mounted backwards on purpose :) This is how it looks. I choose this flavour of ...

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 ...

The clothes-line that I installed this spring was a great success. There was a certain art to finding enough sun this year, but we managed to run our 70s era dryer only a precious few times during the summer and fall. You might have noticed that it's gotten rather cold outside. Cold enough that hanging our laundry on our spiffy new outdoor line has become impossible. Happy Days of Summer... Sniff Now that we've gotten used to not running the clothes dryer, I just had to find a way to continue the energy savings during the winter. We already had a stand model that we've used off and on since we were married. It looked like this thing on the right. Well... almost. Ours was rusted in several places, two of the bars had fallen off due to failed welds and the piece that bridges the lower middle part had mysteriously gone missing. So, yeah... it falls down a lot--especially when you have two cats. Clothes don't dry too well on a concrete floor. a clever disguise Afte...

My sister-in-law was visiting this summer. You may remember that I posted some great pictures of her children as part of my summer update . The visit was not without its tribulations. Teela: There is a bad smell in your basement Me: Yeah, it's your room. The one with the toddler and the baby sleeping in it. Teela: My baby doesn't smell like THAT! Me: If the diaper fits... Note the suspicious looking pipe... Sewer, diapers -- it's all the same right? Two days after the above conversation, we found water on the floor of the guest room. Me: Are we sure this is water? Teela: #$@! We quickly packed our guests off to Liz's house and I tore apart our beloved and oft used guest room. I ripped open the sodden drywall to discover some mold and quite a bit of trouble. The biggest problem was that there was no sign of where the water was coming from. A plumber arrived and promptly chipped a hole in our floor. Plumber's Gift Culprit. I imagine you can te...

One of the big events that we had planned for our visit was a trip out to what we like to call the Gutoski land holdings. A number of years back, Gus' father, Tom, managed to get a sweet deal on a hundred acre wood of his very own. Greta just wouldn't shut up about how great it was. Wendy was so excited about it that I couldn't sleep the night before. That last bit is entirely fabricated and only and excuse to segue into my next story. I called my nephew, David, up and asked him to give me a midnight tour of the University of Waterloo campus. He was nervous that he couldn't live up to my expectations from some of our previous adventures. "Can Bri come, too?" he asked. Naturally I didn't mind if his girlfriend was there. I don't know Bri well, but she puts up with David's weirdness, so she gets a BIG benefit of the doubt. I went over to their apartment to pick them up. Bri gave me a hug. Strange. After a struggle to find parking near campus, we ha...

Even when what's old is new I'm still behind the times. I watched a news piece on CBC a couple of years ago which talked about how clothes lines (and the installation there of) were booming. When we moved into our current house--8 years ago, for those counting--there was some existing infrastructure for having a clothes line, but it was incomplete and with me running the dayhome at the time it didn't seem like the most attractive idea on the planet. I took the pulleys and used them on the play structure so the kids could haul water, bricks and their lunches up to the top of the fort. only the finest materials Yesterday, with some deck screws, concrete, an auger, a little new lumber and the existing pulleys--stolen back from the fort--I built the family a state of the art clothes dryer. I just need to paint some fancy alpha-numeric. I'm thinking of "Z-3000" or something to jazz it up. Location, location... It's highly customized, as you can see. Thi...

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. ...