Cameron's school is putting on a play about bugs and each student had to pick a bug that they wanted to be. Cameron chose the dragonfly, so I threw together this costume using cardboard, pipe insulation, and zip-ties. What do you think?
I have made my own beer. It feels like the first time man made fire or something. It's awesome. I'm sure had I bought the exact same beer from the store, I'd think it was nothing special, but when you make it yourself it's just great
I had been thinking about getting into homebrewing for at least six months, but it wasn't until my lovely wife surprised me (and my bro-in-law) by taking advantage of a LivingSocial deal and signing us up for a homebrew class put on by a local brewery. As soon as the class was over I went straight to the brew shop and picked up a complete kit, complete with ingredients for an Amber Ale. I started the brew a few days later and it went off without a hitch. The only problem I had was getting a good boil going on the glass-top stove, so I ended up moving the kettle out to the grill to finish it off. I let it sit in the primary fermenter for two weeks.
When I cracked it open to bottle it, I gave it a little taste-test and I wasn't exactly enthusiastic about the result. A little Internet research reassured me that it would be better with more time and carbonation.
About four days later, my dad was in town but just for one night, so I popped open one of the bottles so we could sample. I was super-worried it would taste like garbage, but thankfully it was really good! All of my time and effort hadn't gone to waste.
All in all it's been fun, I'm happy with the outcome, and I'm ready to start another batch!
I replaced the 160Gb hard drive in my Mac Mini with 250Gb drive that was previously in my laptop. I had always heard that this was a pain to do on the Mini, but it really wasn't bad at all.
My son, Cameron, who's about six and a half now has been using an old HP Pavilion that we bought back in 2006. Its been through multiple upgrades over the past few years, but it finally kicked the bucket a few weeks ago -- something with the onboard graphics. You could only use it for about 20 seconds before the screen would become distorted and unusable. I thought, enough with the upgrades, its time for a new computer!
This was an unexpected expense, so I was on a budget. That meant no new Apple computer or big box Windows pc. With those two out of the picture, there was only one option left -- a Newegg build with Ubuntu. Besides, you're never too young for Linux, right?
Here's my parts list:
Parts I salvaged from the HP:
Total cost: $206 shipped
You may have noticed that listed the power supply twice. That's because I ordered a MicroATX power supply to use in the MicroATX case, but it turned out that the case uses a normally sized power supply. Doh!
I threw all the parts together and then booted it up with an Ubuntu 10.10 dvd. All of the hardware was immediately recognized, including the wireless card which I was pleasantly surprised by. Then, a few keystrokes and about 20 minutes later, I had a brand new computer -- fully functioning and ready to go. I opted to include the third-party packages during the install, so once it was done I just installed Chrome and set up a few extras for my son, like bookmarks for Lego.com, Nickjr.com, and a Lego Star Wars desktop background. This was definitely my easiest Ubuntu install to date.
Once he came home from school, I told him that after he finished his homework, I had a surprise for him. He finished his math and spelling in record time, so I took him upstairs and showed him his sweet new Linux box. ;) He was really excited, especially when he saw the Lego Star Wars background.
I'm starting to do more woodworking so I decided that I needed a better place to work. So I built myself a workbench! It was really easy and I only spent about $65 total, including the cost of the vice. Overall I'm very pleased with how it turned out.
I built another laptop stand -- this one's for Brendan. This time I used a pre-stain and did more sanding in between coats of polyurethane. I think the finish came out much, much better this time.
I had originally planned to spend the weekend building a web app in the Rails Rumble, but since that didn't happen I decided to build something non-software-related instead. So I built a stand for my laptop. I've got a couple of ideas for different designs so this was just sort of a prototype. Its not like I need a really awesome laptop stand or anything. I just like building stuff.
I have many loves: my boys, my wife, my dogs, my mac, the internet, cars, gadgets, and most recently, my house.
