Saturday, March 28, 2009

Car Restoration: Awesome 3-D Scanner & Printer

I saw this posted on the Cadillac & LaSalle forum, but it deserves a post from me too. I knew this stuff existed, but I had no idea it was so advanced. Apparently, you can get a 3-D scanner for about $3k. They didn't say how much the printer is, but it is one of the coolest things I have ever seen. Give the video a watch if you want to see the next big thing in making stuff. After this, matter converters can only be a short time away.

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Saturday, March 21, 2009

Random Thoughts: Cleaning

I've never been one to part with things lightly. It's the Yankee Thrift in me. If it were up to me, I would never replace anything until it was no longer functioning and beyond repair. Sadly, I have become somewhat of a pawn of industry. It's hard to fight the giant, inexpensive TVs, even though my 16-year-old 13" TV still functions with a converter box. Besides, it has become like an old friend. I've been with my TV longer than I've been with my wife. How do you give up on that kind of friendship?

I've also got my old stereo which I got when I was still in high school. Should I get rid of that just because I haven't used it in almost a decade and I never even hooked it up when we bought our house? And my scanner... Just because I have a new all-in-one device that replaces my printer and scanner in a better, smaller package, should I dump that? You never know when an aspiring comic artist is going to need a scanner.

Well, whatever I have to do to force myself to get rid of this stuff is what I have to do. I can't afford the space. Although, as I write this, I'm considering keeping the stereo receiver for the garage and the TV would fit just perfectly on top of that. All I would have to do is get rid of Erin's mini-stereo that I rescued from the junk pile. Can you believe she was going to get rid of it just because you have to shove the CD tray closed while repeatedly hitting play to get it to work???

UPDATE: As funny-but-not-joking as I am being in this post, I just found the remote for a TV that died about 4 years ago. It was covered with tape because the battery door broke. I can't even fathom why I wanted to keep that.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Random Thoughts: I'm exhausted but I can't sleep.

If I were smart, I would be productive. There are those dishes from dinner that I left until tomorrow morning, but I don't want to wake my daughter and/or wife. I could clean the office, but my eyes are so tired that I don't want to turn on the light. I could go work in the garage since it's not that bright in there, but it's too cold out there. I could do anything worthwhile, but that would rob me of my opportunity to make excuses.

Really, I just want to sleep. I was watching TV and dozed off at 9:30, but I woke up. When I turned the TV off, my brain turned on. I really need to go to bed, but I can just feel that I will be staring at the ceiling for a while. Maybe I'll just go have some warm milk. Yeah, right. Who ever decided to drink warm milk in the first place? Alhough, come to think about it, milk comes out warm. I guess the real question should be, who ever decided to drink cold milk in the first place? Enough about milk.

I bought a bucket today at Home Depot. I had a couple bags of sand in my truck bed which split open. Instead of waiting until I got home to fill the bucket, I did it in the parking lot at work. I was very careful to take corners slowly so the bucket wouldn't fall over. Careful, that is, until I got to my driveway. The bucket dumped out in the bed. Fortunately, I have a 2-year-old and a small orange beach shovel. She was working too slowly, so I decided to help by scooping up handfuls and dumping them into the bucket. I didn't consider two things. First, leaning over the tailgate of the truck puts my face about a foot away from the top of the bucket. Second, Laura was very meticulously scooping up a shovel-full, dumping it in the bucket and packing it down. Sadly, when a 2-year-old packs the sand down, she apparently throws a bit of sand back up with each pat. She got me square in the right eye. I couldn't close my eye, but I couldn't keep it open. I couldn't get it out because I had sand all over my hands from helping. All I could do was pull my phone out and call Erin to get her to come out of the house so I could blindly stumble my way to the bathroom sink and mirror. My eye still hurts. It's all scratched and irritated. Considering how much different stuff I do which could result in crap in my eyes, I should really consider investing in an eye wash. I can't imagine they're too expensive.

In still other news, I am almost done hooking up the air compressor in my garage. I managed to misplace the 90 degree elbows I had bought, so I got one of those today too. All I have to do is cut a couple pieces of PVC and wire up the outlet. Except, that will only get me to the stage where I can plug in the compressor. I started looking at what I need to actually use the compressor. Small compressors come in a nice little plug-and-play package. You get the compressor, regulator, shut-off, usually some hose and some beginner-level tools. With a big compressor, you get a big compressor. I briefly looked into what I needed today. I got a good deal for the compressor when I bought it. What I didn't realize is that I am probably going to have to go out and spend another $50 to $100 just to get it minimally working. That doesn't even could what I would have to do to get it set up optimally with multiple drops, hard lines, filters, and other miscellaneous parts and pieces. It will be nice when I have it working, but it looks like it will be a while still.

It sucks because I am going to have to get started on my list of nice-weather projects soon. I may forget about my annual maple tree pruning. The power company already did a minor pruning. Actually, that made me feel good to see that professional tree pruners couldn't find much to do when pruning my tree.  It means I must have done something right when pruning. I already did the fruit trees. I should probably thin the blueberry bushes. I know I should thin the raspberries. I also need to put in the other grape vine post and prune the vine too. I have to finish my office closet desk project. That literally just needs to be finished. After that, I have two major indoor projects. I am going to install wood floors in the last carpeted bedroom. Also, I need to do a partial renovation in the main bathroom. I just decided that I am going to do whatever I can to bring some natural light into that bathroom. I know it meets code, but having a bathroom which is central to the house with no windows is just idiotic. Right now, I'm thinking a solar tube is the bare minimum. I may also revisit the idea of installing glass blocks up near the ceiling. That would let light in from the master bathroom while being unobtrusive and still isolating sights and smells to their origination point. I have to investigate their sound insulation qualities though.

Well, according to my word counter, this is already approaching 1000 words. Also, it's 11:30 so I should probably give sleep another try. I just hope I don't wake up at 5 like I have every other morning for the past week. Stupid daylight savings time. I guess one good thing is that it's almost spring. I saw a blooming dandelion yesterday. So what if its an annoying weed and it was sprouting between a joint of some curbing along side a parking lot. It's still spring-like, damnit!

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Random Thoughts: Fire hazard

I have an RSS feed for the US Consumer Product Safety Commission - Recall feed. I regularly see recalls like this:

Candles Recalled Due to Fire Hazard

Seriously, do people not know that lit candles are firehazards, in and of themselves? Isn't it obvious to everyone that fire is hot?