Our good friend over the past few years is moving on to a different position in Wasilla. (Huh, that city is in the news a lot lately.) So Cena put together a collection of pictures of him and his friends. Please, family – be aware that these were taken over a period of years but really only cover a few nights. Things are not always this crazy around here.
August 2008
Monthly Archive
Today seemed like it was going to be a good day. It was partly sunny, a Friday before a long weekend, and my site was getting some mad traffic because of Palin’s candidacy. I couldn’t get in touch with Earl to help me haul the restroom partitions we have prepped to move to the concessions building so i decided to start wo work on trimming out the windows. I needed to get my table saw to rip boards though so i headed home.
I saw an ambulance on the side of the road and across the street from our house. Police cars, EMT’s and even a POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS tape were over there. I’ll skip all the details but just say that i ended up taking the afternoon off, was questioned by the police about my neighbor (and friend) and former neighbor (and friend). We bought flowers and put them over there after the EMT’s, police, tow truck, and fire department left.
Out of respect for the victim, the offender, the witnesses, and their friends and family i won’t say much more. There will be some tough weeks ahead.
The Petersburg Pilot had this news posted in a rare between-issues update.
Police received a call reporting the death of two people not far out the road at 10:39 this morning. Police Chief Dale Stone stated that an investigation is currently underway.
“What we are investigating is the death of two adults, one male and one female, at a residence out the road. The death appears to be caused by gunshot wound,” he said.
Although police were quick to gather information at the scene, Chief Stone said he is not yet comfortable to release any further information.
“We have not positively identified the bodies. We have a lot of indicators that give us reason to believe we know who they are, but we don’t have a comfort level right now to release names,” he said.
Well it looks like the world is looking for images of Sarah Palin today. And i have a few. Look at this…
I better make sure my images are watermarked…
McCain has selected Alaska’s Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. This is pretty exciting. Three years ago she was mayor of a town of under 10,000 people. She was appointed to a position by previous Governor Frank Murkowski (who when elected as governor appointed his daughter to his Senate seat.) But she resigned siting ethics issues in the state administration. Not long after the FBI is raiding state sentator’s offices and has a case against Stevens. The US House of Representatives is investigating Representative Young right now too. She ran for governor against an incumbent and won. She has a proven track record of reducing government – a claim that republicans support but seem to rarely follow through with.
I think that she will draw a significant number of Clinton’s rabid supporters. Any that support Hillary because of her gender will be drawn to Palin. If McCain is elected she would be the first female Vice President. Vice Presidents that later run for President almost always end up with the party nomination (*cough* Quayle *cough*) so it isn’t impossible to imagine Palin as President in 2017. She would still be more than 20 years younger than McCain is right now. In fact, McCain is old enough that it is possible that Palin might end up President without having to even run. For the women voting for women she’s a win.
Realistically, most voters are not thinking about the vice presidental canidates as future presidents. They might just look at her and vote because there would be a pretty face in Washington. Palin was in Vogue magazine. I heard someone that attended a union meeting that Palin spoke at during her run for governor that he overheard a number of peers that said “she’s hot, i’m voting for her.” So for the men voting with out too much thought she’s a win.
She’s also really a pretty good governor. I posted before that i thought Palin is a good Republican. She falls in party lines for the most part but also seems willling to follow the law as decided by the other two branches of government. Her position on gay rights is an excellent example. She reduced taxes in Wasilla. Read her lips! She sold the jet that Murkowski bought despite legislative efforts to stop the purchase and just flies on Alaska Airlines like the rest of us. So for those voting purely on ability and ethics and not party affiliation she’s a win.
McCain just sealed the deal with Alaska. We’re no longer a swing state. Obama may as well move their 5 offices out and put those people where they might have an impact. Alaska will definitely give the electoral votes to McCain-Palin.
So the lesson is? Want a good shot at becoming president? Be a great mayor of a tiny town (and be attractive and female). My previous post about Sarah Palin ended with “I’m not a member of any political party but she’s one more Conservative that will have my vote next time around.”
One of my least popular Instructables has been an entry for the “Fridge Magnet Challenge” on how to reuse cheap fridge magnets. The contest was over a year ago and my Instructable only has 2,600 views. (Compared to the cart-bike with 66,000 views, Kevin’s and my t-shirt printing press with 49,000 views, or my geek wallet with 198,000 views.) I didn’t even rank as a runner-up in the magnet contest.
I’ve been very happy with the exposure that the Instructables site has given my projects. My first project for the site ended up in Popular Photography magazine. It looks like i’ll have two projects in the upcoming book. I’ve had my stuff in Australian and Italian magazines. Of course, i’ve won a number of t-shirts and a few other prizes but to date none have ever brought me any direct money. (Not that i do it for money but some cash wouldn’r hurt!)
Then I got an email from someone at HowCast. They would like to pay me $50 to use “my” idea for a video. They also are offering 50% of the ad revenue generated if i embed the video on zieak.com or in my Instructable. It sounds like they will do all the production but will “work with” me.
Since this project has been one of my bigger flops i’m willing to sell off my idea for a few bucks. Maybe I’ll stop waiting around for worthy contests to create and post my ideas now.
Shot this at Julianne’s birthday dinner at her place on Monday. Last night was Josh’s birthday dinner at the Beachcomber. Fortunately tonight we have no birthday parties. Time for the recliners to get some much needed attention.
I’m a patch collector. It comes from my scouting days. I saw this “badge” on a blog i stumbled upon and i really like the idea of a graphic that gives embroidery a nod. Maybe my next site template will make the whole page look like a scout uniform, merit bage sash, or patch blanket. Hmmm…
Anyway, i also like the purpose of the badge. I think carbon credits can be a cash cow for some enterprising young people. If i only knew some.
It seems that i might end up with two projects in the Instructables book. I didn’t even enter this one in the book contest so this one has been selected purely by the editors and not because of popularity.
Hi Ryan,
It looks like we are considering a second instructable of yours, the “Stool made from bike parts and crutches” project. If you haven’t sent back the agreement yet, I can resend another one with both of the instructables in it, or just send you a new one for this one. Let me know what works best for you.
Thanks,
Terry
I decided a few days ago that on Sunday i would go to the landfill and pay $5 to do some salvaging. I had to go to the pool a few times to let a plumber in to work on the boiler and then see the results of his inspection. After doing that i headed to the dump. One of the first things that i saw was this bicycle.
I’m not sure why someone cut two bike frames and then duct taped them together. You would think that if they had the tools to cut steel and aluminum that they also could have drilled through and bolted the pieces together. I ignored the bike until a while later when i decided to collect all the aluminum that i could find to try and make my $5 back. I got $.40 a pound for aluminum when i went to Juneau and sold scrap. If i could find 12 and a half pounds of aluminum i could call the trip a wash. Here is most of the scrap that i came up with.
I didn’t want to work too hard for the scrap. Another guy was there cutting cords and pulling aluminum wheels off of scrap vehicles so i pulled the things that take a bit of work with a relatively low payoff. For instance, there are 6 bicycle rims there. I brought a pair of bolt cutters and snipped the spokes where they cross (so i have to make half as many cuts as there are spokes). I had to remove some tires too. That’s quite a bit of work for perhaps a pound of metal (I have not weighed any so i don’t know how much to expect.
The bicycle frame is also aluminum but the fork and the crankset have to be removed. Some of the brake parts will also be scrapped. You can see the rear triangle of a GT bike frame that i pulled from the duct taped bike. The straight pieces were from a window frame. The most weight comes from the other big pieces – cast aluminum from a chop saw. They require some cleaning too.
I came across two Razor scooters and chucked them in the back of my car. Turns out that the front “fork” on both of them was bent so i ended up taking them apart for the aluminum. The deck, upright pipe and handlebars were fairly easy to remove from the steel hingebetween the deck and upright.
I got a bit of assorted stuff like the the shovel. I have found useable tools almost every trip i have ever made to the dump. I don’t have any of this type of shovel so it will be nice to have it as an option. A commercial door closer – no idea what i’ll use that for… yet. The metal Christmas tree bowl is holding some parts for a garage door. I might need those when i enclose our carport. The “0″ “REG” and “1″ things are spiral bound and flip to use for showing the price of things on display. They are made of plastic so shouldn’t have even been in the metal pile. The tin box says Dremel on it but i’ll find something else to store in it since i like my Dremel case. I found four brand new “Property of the United States” metal signs. Three of them say “All persons are prohibited under penalty of the Law from committing damage.” And one sign says “All persons are prohibited under penalty of the Law from committing trespass.” Also in the picture are two wheels i pulled from another scooter.
The first thing i loaded in the car were these metal signs that i pulled off of an old cigarette dispensing rack for Old Gold regular and king size. I didn’t bring drill bits with me so i couldn’t remove the one rivet holding the “Don’t run short… buy a carton” piece off so i used my bolt cutters to trim away as much of the display as possible. The “Remember… courtesy is our policy!” was on the back side that would have faced the employee. On either side were the smaller ads for Kent cigarettes.
I also picked up a chair. I cut the arms off of it on the spot with my new cordless reciprocating saw. I’ll reupholster it somehow and it will end up either deck furniture, an office chair or the aluminum base will fetch a few dollars.
One last thing that i picked up – a display rack for Astroturf door mats. It’s on casters so i’ll definitely be keeping the base because i love to be able to roll things around. Right now i’m using it to store my collection of aluminum scrap.
This was also in the metal pile – a giant sheet of sponge. The deck boards are 2×6s. Ollie liked lying on it.
I stopped by the bike shop during lunch the other day and there were 8 skateboards on the ground outside. At least 4 of the kids bought stuff.