The Web Playroom

Okay, there are things that you can miss in life...or a day...or a month...or for a while, and things will be just the same...maybe even better. But, if you miss out on watching/hearing THIS VIDEO, then I'm not sure how it will affect you. But (listen to me now), you will not be the same as you will be if you DO watch/listen to it. I'm betting that there is something for just about everyone that will change you when you listen to this one. You will have a slightly skewed vision of the world; maybe you will have an elevated mood for a while (or forever). You might even get elected to some office (or leave one that you've already been elected to), but I really shouldn't speculate on that one.

I'm just suggesting here that you check this out. Let me know here by commenting if you think you might be different after you watch/listen to it. Or if you are not. And why. Or why not.

Comments welcomed. (I am pretty sure I am different.)

International Day of World Peace

The 2010 celebration of this International Day of World Peace has come and by the time I'm typing this text, almost gone.

Tonight, at our house, we watched via TiVo the David Letterman interview with ex-president Clinton the other night about his Clinton Global Initiative. I personally think that if we in this time (all over this place called "Earth") are ever going to dig ourselves out of the whole series of holes we've gotten ourselves into (including the persistent lack of world peace), it will have to be with a whole-world, concerted effort of the sort that this organization supports and urges. The interview on the David Letterman Show makes it almost okay to watch that one show of his.
Parts 1 to 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUr7VxRLKy0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2noZoAWIxFI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EWvcLRkrWM

As Clinton says in the interview, this may well be his most important post-presidential contribution to the world at large. Only time will tell.

Bending plastic for fun and use

I ran across this interesting how-to video today. Having a pile of scrap Lexan, my ears perked up. Making covers for keyers and other projects interests me, as well as short stands to support a ham radio transceiver while leaving room for a Morse paddle or notepad beneath it. Now, I just have to find an old hair dryer and some plaster of Paris to try it out.
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/05/bending_plexiglas.html

More technical information on the material can be found at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrylic_glass
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexan

Wonder where the yellow went?

If you have old plastic-cased computers/monitors/printers/cassette recorders/etc. that used to be white and now are some drenched yellow color, this detailed solution may be for you. If you are in the U.S., like I am, you will have to find the appropriate similar products. But the fellow gives enough details that it does not sound like it will be too difficult to do so.

If you find U.S. products, please comment, so any future readers will know what worked.

Hot knives!

The mind boggles! The imagination soars. Pulses race. Then the truth is known about this subject.

A MAKE blog post shows how to convert an old soldering iron to cut plastic with X-ACTO blades.

Be calm, my beating heart! Oh. Well, then, that settles something I've needed for some time for projects out in the workshop.

Flash! goes the light in my shop!

The deed is done on the 12'x12' workshop electrification project. 18 yards of 10-12" deep trench, finished by a tin can to dump all the dirt out. An electrician friend did the electrical parts. We have lunch once or twice weekly and he rides to ham club with me every month. WHAT A PAL!

Everything that can hurt does hurt...a lot. As I told one correspondent: these hands are used to throw Frisbees and type on keyboards...not smash shovels into hard, dry dirt, swing grubbing hoe/picks for hours on end (with rests about every ten minutes...I am getting on in years) and using leather-palm gloves to use tin cans to scrape and toss all the dirt in the trench. Two Aleve tabs and prolly an early-to-bed for me. The hands will get over the cramping, trembling and bruising in a few days. All is well.