bed time story

this is my project. this is it. take my time. im gonna enjoy this. i spent 25 bux on wood and connectors. really well spent. now i go to work. im stressing the wood. im drilling holes. im sanding. im sanding. im sanding. i stain. i varnish. i install. it looks fab. love the dark, antequitated and aged look that the new oldness brings. not done. just the footboard complete. spent another $75 on wood for the head and side boards. just got to start the process over.

soldering iron: 45 or 30 watt?

first off, america has certain qualities. we like to supersize. cars. food. houses. tv's. bigger is better. so how can radio shack sell 2 soldering irons of equal quality and features, with the exception of wattage, for the same price. 30 or 45 watts. are you kiddin me. im american. im walkin out that store with 45 watts of soldering iron incinerating smack down pwnage. but rewind for a sec. lets go to when i was pondering why they are the same price. so i ask mr radio shack. 'dude. you gonna sell out of 45 watters fo shizzle. you stupid? u in america. not some dumb kountry. we buy big then we go home. now what? do somethin.' then he kind of told me that for my project i dont need the extra wattage. so i left with the 30 watt version. oh well. i thought i was american.
so that brings me here to my current project. i have a couple soldering projects under my belt and am feeling comfortable with it. so i bring in my laptop one day after leaving it in the sunny and balmy -20F weather. i was all sweaty from the outdoors shirtless beach volleyball game that afternoon (kidding, if it was true, i would have lost both of my nips fo sho). anyway, gonna charge up the ol turion powered hp when i notice the cord on the charger. ugh...i see metal. no good. after pluggin in the charger to the wall, i stress the cable a bit by gently moving it back and forth. sparks. great. yes, im gonna get to use my iron again! a lil flux and iron later i got dis. now, its ghetto. but it charges up this badboy enough to get my blog on. btw, electrical tape not only is good for wires, but because it is black, you can use it to reattach the plastic casing that you broke removing it to get to the broken wire.

"the trinity? the trinity that cracked the irs d-base?"

"yeah"
"i always thought you were a guy."
"most guys do."

they have to start young, i guess. she is trying to figure out how to use the ipod connector as a way of hacking into the d-base.

who needs a blown speaker, anyway?

so, whilest steve was in town, we last minute like removed his stock radio from his chrysler. and when we reinstalled the new radio, everything was nice but the sound sucked. the front speakers sounded like they were eating ruffles (with super extra ridge crunch) instead of playing music. rears were fine. this was probably due to the age of the speakers (9 years) and that they were in doors that were opened and closed (who knew that would happen?) so we inspected the speakers by removing the speaker panel and the foam connecting the speaker woofer to the surround was completely seperated. this was the cause of the crunchy chip chomp characteristic (aka cccc). result? remove the speaker. problem solved. chrylers have tweeters up front so at least the highs will be up there. mids and lows come from the back. golly, its almost set up like a professionals ride. so then i got the idea, since my neon was doin the same thing (dodge, chrysler...same), i figured itd be just as easy to do mine the same way. ...well, its not. he had bose speakers, which apparantly get sweet and easy grills to remove to inspect speakers....i get a door panel. you ever remove these things? yeah, i done it before. you always end up scratchin the door or your self and broken clips are the norm. so there i am, with a screwdriver and a chizzel pulling with all my strength (towards myself...from a safety stand point michael stolarek would have had a heart attack)...popping clips and thinking that someone should have come up with a better way to put a door panel on a car (hello? weve been doing cars for over a century now!) anyway, cut to the end...i survive without a scratch, and im able to disco my front speakers. hooray for tweeters and rears. put back on the door panel...broke clip. good. couldnt do without that.

repaired, reinforced the rockband drum set pedal

so ive been away. not blogging. but i feel the need to show off. i have been working on projects. here goes...over the next couple posts i will relate what my time has been spent on. first on the list was my rockband drum set. i broke the pedal. heel stomping was the wrong thing to do during faith no more's epic. so now it is repaired with some scrap i had in the garage. was rather easy. 3/8" wood that was 2" wide. i used a nuts and bolts to secure the wood to the original pedal. predrilled and secured. sanded with 150 and 320 grit for extra smoothness. only wish i had had 3" wide wood. the 2" width is slim, and new users would prolly be able to work with it, but it takes some getting used to not let your foot fall to the left or right. the only other improvements would be to fill in the holes so that your heel cant feel them, then to put some sort of etch (like the letter 'J' or something) into the wood and stain it real pretty like. you know, for that professional drummer look.