November 2009
Monthly Archive
Just got this email from Phil…
The first ever Beard Team USA National Beard and Moustache Championships will take place on Saturday, May 36, 2010, in Bend, Oregon.
Bend was selected from over 25 communities, resorts, and hotels — ranging from Las Vegas to Peoria — submitting bids to host the championships. Bend has pledged full community support for this extraordinary event.
Located on the Deschutes River in Central Oregon, Bend offers fly-fishing, rafting, golf, canoeing, mountain biking, hiking, and possibly even late season skiing and snowboarding at nearby Mount Bachelor. Did I mention beer? Bend is the home of seven microbreweries including the famous Deschutes Brewery practically next door to the Les Schwab Amphitheater where the competiton will take place.
There will be competition in four separate categories designed to include everyone. The winner in each category will walk away with a cool $1000. So that everyone gets a shot at the cash, the fifth $1000 prize will go to a contestant selected at random.
Here are the categories:
1. Best moustache. Beards are allowed in this category but the contestants will be judged on their moustaches only;
2. Best partial beard. Includes goatees, van dykes, sideburns, musketeers, etc.;
3. Best full beard. Styling aids are permitted;
4. Freestyle. Anything goes. Anything. Be creative.
The date?? It’s May 36. Purists will insist that it is actually June 5, but since I have been promising for months that the Nats will be in May, I am sticking with May 36 for now.
The championships will take place in conjunction with the 8th Annual Balloons over Bend hot air balloon festival.
Stay tuned for information on registration, lodging options, transportation from the airport in Portland, and everything else you will need to know.
For now all members of Beard Team USA are asked to:
1. Make plans to be in Bend on June 5th;
2. Tell everyone they know about the BTUSA Nationals;
3. Keep growing their beards and moustaches for America.
Looks like the freestyle division is going to allow props and dyes… That should make things really interesting!
I started trying to figure out how i could support the threshold of the new door. I checked my supply of metal and found a 4 foot long piece of angle aluminum that already was predrilled at one foot intervals. Perfect. I thought this would be a really easy fix.
But the access to under the threshold was kind of blocked by the front steps. And Yeti threw up some bile right where i needed to be. Thanks Yeti.
So i lifted up on the top step and it wasn’t even nailed down! The bottom step was nailed the the wall in four places so wasn’t too difficult to remove.
I measured the distance that i needed to span – 15 inches. So i was aiming for about 7.5 inches from deck to first step tread and also 7.5 inches to the top step tread.
First i used a layer of 6×6 treated beams to build the foundation. I cut some treated fence boards leftover from the backyard fence. and used them to raise the height of the 6×6s. You can see that i decided to do a curve for part of the step. Originally i planned on doing two curved steps but then decided to square up the ends of the bottom step and make the top step rectangular.
After i had the five bases constructed and spaced at 16 inches on center i used 2×10 treated lumber to construct the first step. I used a long flexible piece of Azek trim to trace the curve that i would cut. I used nails tacked into the deck boards (that were not yet nailed down) to guide the piece.
I started to use my jigsaw to fut the curves but it wasn’t sharp or powerful enough. So i switched to my sawzall which i had to use to complete the cuts through the 6×6s.
You can see a bit of wiring between two of the 6×6s. That went to one of the light switches next to the front door and controlled the lights in the carport. But there also is a light switch in the carport. The lights i have in there are motion activated so the switch isn’t very necessary – certainly not the one by the front door. So i trimmed the wires (the breaker was off throughout) and shortened everything up and put the wire nuts in a (mostly) weatherproof box.
I knew i wanted the full width of the board to start the bottom step. I also could have just ensured that the step ends landed on the 6×6s. Only 5 inches or so sticks beyond the 6×6 on either end of the bottom step.
The rest was pretty straightforward. I cut boards to length and ripped them as needed on my table saw.
I ran a plastic board through my table saw to trim out underneath both steps and fastened it with galvanized nails.
At about 6:15 i wrapped up the project. i spent under $35 on materials. my stash of treated wood is severely depleted and i’m running dangerously low on the white plastic material too.
On the afternoon of Thanksgiving i decided to take the plunge and replace my front door. I popped off the trim around the inside and outside, removed the long screws from the hinge and jamb and the door just about fell out. There was no insulation between the door and the wall.
Here’s a photo that shows the old door from the outside.
Seth and Kahn arrived about a half hour into the project and we had our Thanksgiving steaks so i took a break from the door. Friday i got spray insulation in and trimmed the interior. today i worked on the outside.
I messed up three things. First, i ordered a door for a wall based on 2×6 construction. Well, there are parts of my house framed with 2×6 but this isn’t one of them. So the door frame would have to stick beyond the wall on the inside or extend outside further. I chose outside.
The door came with some wood blocking to make sure the kickplate stayed secure. I didn’t remove those and so the door sits about a half inch higher than it needs to. I still need to support below the kickplate so it is more stable.
When putting in the lock hardware i carved out the part of the door to receive the plate that surrounds the latch. Once i read further into the instructions i found out that i could have just removed the plate.
Here you can see the gap between the outside trim and the wall sheeting.
You can also see two switches – one was for the light mounted just above and to the right of the door. The other leads to the motion sensing lights in the carport. There is another switch in the carport for those lights so i intend to circumvent this switch entirely. The one for the light at the door i changed to motion activated.
To easily attach trim to frame in the door i cut a number of 6 inch long 2×4s and mounted them at 16 inch intervals behind the existing trim.
I then used some small galvanized nails to attach MDF boards that are almost 6 inches wide and have been primed on three sides.
The other side of the door took a little more time because of the wiring but i changed out the light fixture with a more modern one and installed a motion detecting switch to help with hands free light and making sure the light goes out when not needed.
I need to now run some of the MDF through my table saw so that it can be slipped in behind the facade trim to complete the boxing of the door.
So aside from the last few trim pieces i also need to brace the kickplate and wire in a doorbell chime inside the house (once i have one to install)
If you look at the last two pictures you can see the cabinet lighting that i’m working on in the background,
I know that there are creepy people everywhere. And that online you should be careful everywhere but check this out…
I was looking at my “recent activity on Flickr and saw this entry…
I went to his profile. They have not uploaded any images and have no friends. Strange. Why have a Flickr account? Then i clicked to see their favorites. They have well over 100 pictures that are favorites and every single one is a picture of a woman. Some look mighty young. One or two look ancient. The vast majority are young women.
He could have easily been just saving the images to his computer – but he has them bookmarked online. I made the image available only to my contacts.
I’ll be watching…
Amazon does not make it easy to keep on top of the feedback left for sellers. I have wanted an RSS feed to keep me up to date with my number of feedback ratings and my overall score and I finally sat down and figured out how to grab that information.
1. Set up an account on Feed43.
2. Create a new feed.
3. Under “Step 1. Specify source page address (URL)” type:
http://www.amazon.com/shops/YOUR_USERNAME
Then click on the “reload” button.
4. Under “Step 2. Define extraction rules” and in the “Global Search Pattern:” field copy and paste:
Feedback Rating
{%}
In the “Item (repeatable) Search Pattern” field copy and paste:
{%}{*}{%}{*}{%}
Then click on the “extract” button.
5. Scroll to “Step 3. Define output format” and give your feed a title like “My Amazon Feedback” use the URL from step one as your “Feed Link” and add a description to our feed. Under “RSS item properties” for the item title template use something like:
Current feedback
Item content template should be:
{%3} ratings giving {%4}% positive feedback or {%2} stars.
Check the box to merge and then click the “preview” button.
6. At the bottom is a link to your feed URL. Mine is here. Under “Optional features” further down the page you can rename your feed to something a little more user friendly.
7. Use in your favorite feed reader. Continue with these instructions to add your feed to your Google homepage.
8. Go to iGoogle.com and log in. Then click on “Add stuff” near the top right of the page.
9. Do a search for gadgets using “customrss” as the search term. Click on the “Add it now” button for the CustomRSS gadget.
10. Click on “Back to iGoogle home” near the top left.
11. Select “Edit Settings” from the drop down list when you click on the triangle at the top of the CustomRSS gadget.
12. Change the “FEED URL” to the URL from step 6.
13. Rename the “Custom Gadget Title” as you see fit.
14. Change the “# of items” to 1.
15. “Link Action” should be set to “Show description.”
16. Uncheck “show date” and feel free to mess with any other settings. Then click the “Save” button.
17. Enjoy your new gadget that shows you your Amazon feedback!
Almost ten years ago i bought my first house. For an additional $2,500 i also bought a bit of furniture; a queen size bed with oak frame, oak dresser and vanity, two recliners, a couch, an oak hutch and a dining room set. Right now the bedroom set is part of the apartment. The hutch is holding my DVD collection in the living room and the recliners are there too. The couch is long gone. It was an awful floral pattern. Honestly, none of the furniture is really “me” – except perhaps the dark green recliner. Here’s the dining room set.
The center comes out to make the table small and circular.
I want a new table – something a bit more unique and personal. Something much more – me. I mulled over possibilities. Pepper suggested a few large boards would be adequate so i considered buying some rough cut lumber. Then i saw this instructable about a table made from scrap lumber. I like the natural wood, the variety of materials, and the recycled nature of it. Two weeks ago i took a load of some wood and metal to the dump. I then salvaged and collected some great wood from the burn pile there.
There were two large pallets made from red oak. I removed the decking and bottom boards to get to the 3″x4″ pieces that were 5′6″ long. Each pallet had three of them. I also grabbed a few 2×12 pine boards, a few 1×12 pine boards and one 1×12 oak plank. All were longer than 6 feet. I took them home and put them in the carport and stacked them with stickers – small pieces of wood that allows air to flow around the pieces. A week later i cut them all to 5′6″ and i began to mill them all to about 3″ widths with my table saw. I added in a few red cedar pieces that i salvaged from the front porch which gave me this collection of 25 pieces.
The size is 5′6″ by about 3′6″. I arranged the boards in a somewhat random pattern with two large oak pieces on the outside. I measured to the center and drilled a hole through every board with countersunk holes on the outside boards. Then i ran a piece of threaded rod through with washers and nylon lock nuts. With the table on one side i then marked a spot about 9 inches in from each end and countersunk and drilled through. Each board was used to guide the hole in the next board and i removed them when they were drilled. Then i started with one board with three threaded rods and washers and nuts and stacked each board into place. After they were all on, i put on two more washers and tightened down the nuts a bit. I put the table down and used a socket wrench on either end of each of the rods to take out all the gaps between the boards. I cut off the threaded rod that protruded beyond the edge of the side boards.
The table is essentially solid wood three inches thick. Because of variance when i drilled the holes the top needs to be planed and sanded down. So this past weekend i bought a $300 belt sander. They only had the floor model available and i found out after using it for a while that someone had removed an adjusting screw from the side of the sander – the screw that prevents the belt from drifting to one side. I knew i should have asked for a discount before taking the floor model.
It will take a while to sand down even after i get the adjustment screw. That gives me some time to figure out a good system for legs.
I’m a dork. I hate when some words are overused. Right now i feel like the most overused word on the internet is “epic.” I also dislike when people use the word “hubby” instead of “husband.” I imagine you might have your own pet peeves. Maybe you wish people would write “haha” instead of “lol” or something else. Well, there is an easily cusomized Greasemonkey script that will do that for you.
Here is a headline from Yahoo’s homepage today:
Yes, their trek may have been epic – but just like the TV show Alias used “insane” in almost every single episode (and 24 seems to come quite close) i feel the need to thin it down. Here it is after i installed and customized the Replace Text On Webpages script.
Ahhhh… much better! I was only concerned that it might change words that have “epic” in the middle such as “depict” but a check on the very neat morewords.com list for epic has a blank line where the words should be and all the other words that contain it are unchanged.
By changing the end of the url of the morewords link you can find all kinds of neat stuff. Like words that contain fun. Which gives birth to sentences like “i put the fun in antifungal” or “he puts the rape in cameraperson” – you get the picture.
I think it would be really neat to have a checking account with this bank.
It is time for me to start to think of gift ideas for Christmas and my birthday. Other than my Kaboodle wishlist here are some thoughts…
I have put some of my plaques and awards up on my walls over the past few days. You know, getting moved into my new office. What? Oh – well, when i say new i mean the office i have been in for the last three years. Settling in for the long haul!
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