Blues Name Generator

My friend Ryan recently posted a hilarious list of rules for writing the blues. Rule number 19 says

Make your own Blues name Starter Kit:

1. Name of physical infirmity (Blind, Cripple, Lame, etc.);
2. First name (see above) plus name of fruit (Lemon, Lime, Kiwi, etc.);
3. Last name of President (Jefferson, Johnson, Fillmore, etc.);

Examples: Blind Lime Jefferson, Jakeleg Lemon Johnson, or Cripple Kiwi Fillmore, etc. (Well, maybe not “Kiwi.”)

So I took it at face value and built my own Blues name generator. So far my favorite that it’s come up with is “SARS Mango McKinley or Albino Pineapple Polk”. Let me know what it comes up with for you

Click here for my Blues Name Generator

Blogging made easy with Word 2007

I really love blogging but one of the biggest headaches is dealing with the online text editors. I’ve found that the editor built into WordPress is one of the best out there but even it is a bit quirky. Spell Check works in Firefox but not Internet Explorer. Keyboard shortcuts for formatting are hit and miss. Adding a picture is a major hassle…First you have to compress the image, and then you have to upload the picture and add it to the text of the blog. Resizing the image and laying it out in line with the text is next to impossible without switching to the raw code and editing the HTML by hand. I love coding web sites but when I want to blog I just want to blog. I want a true what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) editor.

Enter Microsoft Word 2007. Imagine using all the document creation tools you’re familiar with in Word as the editor for your blog. Word 2007 can directly upload to most blog servers. I don’t mean typing in Word and then cutting and pasting into a new blog post on your server. I mean typing in Word, formatting in Word, adding pictures in Word and then clicking Publish in Word and having it show up on your server. Word 2007 can upload directly to the following blogs; Windows Live Spaces, Blogger (blogspot), SharePoint blog, Community Server, TypePad, WordPress, and most others if you have an API for your blog. You can even define an alternate location for images if you don’t want them hosted on the same server as your blog.

To begin, open Word 2007 and click on the new “Office Button” located in the top left corner of Word and choose publish>blog and bang out a post. Insert any images and format everything the way you want it (there are lots of online tutorials for using Word). You could type your post and then click publish>blog but switching to blog mode first will eliminate the page breaks and margins. It will also limit your image and page formatting to things that can be recreated in HTML.

The first time you enter blogging mode you will be prompted for your account information. If you have more than one blog don’t worry, Word can handle this.

Simply select your blog provider and click next

Enter the URL for your blog in the space provided (mine is eventhorizons.wordpress.com), enter your username and password, check “Remember Password” if you want to be able to publish without entering this information next time. Click “Picture Options” if you want to define another web server to host you images on.

As soon as you switch to blog mode you can access to the blog toolbar.

This has some great features.

Publish

Clicking this button will post your entry to your blog and upload all your images. You can choose to Publish or Publish as Draft. I always select draft so that I can check it one last time online before I make it public.

Home Page

This simply opens your default browser to your blogs home page

Insert Category

Clicking this button adds a category dropdown to your post. You can select from any of the categories that you’ve previously defined on your server or enter a new one. Click it again to add a second or third category to the posting.

Open Existing

This is really cool. Clicking here will give you a list of all of your posts. Even post that you did not create with Word show up. Using this tool you can open previous post in Word and edit them.

Manage Accounts

This menu lets you edit your account settings or setup additional blogs to manage. If multiple blogs are configured you can select one to be the default.

When you create a post there is a dropdown to select your account (if it is different from the default).

You can also title your post

Double clicking a picture pulls up the picture toolbar which has a number of great features including cropping, borders, edge effects (soft edges, glow, drop shadows, bevels, reflections, and 3-D rotations), brightness, contrast and compression. Compression is one of the most useful…By default Word will upload compressed JPEGS of all your images…no more need to edit your pictures before blogging and no more 3MB pictures on your blog!

Picture with shadow and reflection

Picture with 3-D rotation, soft edges, and bevel.

There are about 40 presents as well as full control over all the options for an almost infinite amount of combinations.

Hope this saves you some time on future blog posts (course now you need to buy Office 2007!)

 

How not to save $3.52

We’ve been working hard these past few weeks on some projects to get the house ready for baby number two (I’ll do some project write-ups on them soon). As we were cleaning out a closet we came across some stuff that just made Monique laugh. It seems I’m infected with a disease that causes me considerable pain whenever I buy something that I could just make in the shop. The disease usually progresses like this:

1. Monique mentions something that we need around the house that Wal-Mart sells for $29.95
2. I tell Monique that I can build it in “about” 30 minutes for “around” $10.00
3. I go to Lowes and spend $19.00 on materials and $79.95 on a new tool I need for the project but I don’t count the tool because “I’ll use in on all kinds of stuff…”
4. I spend 5 hours in the shop working on the item
5. I head back to Lowes and spend $7.43 on stuff I didn’t realize I would need
6. 3 more hours in the shop working
7. 24 hours later the paint and/or glue is dry and I proudly show off the results of my 8 hour effort to save us $3.52
8. Monique heads to Wal-Mart to buy the real item because mine doesn’t quite work

Luckily, Monique was well aware of this aliment long before she agreed to marry me and many times my affliction does pay off. I love that our furniture came from my hands and I love spending time in the shop working on projects for my family. But there have been some real moments of “why didn’t I just buy this…” Below are a few examples.

A while back Monique wanted some crown molding style shelves.

My Version

Not too bad right? I think they look great too. Only problem is that it took about an hour and a half to build and another hour to sand and paint. Twenty-four hours for the paint to dry and about $16.00 in materials and paint supplies…After building 5 of them we found this at Wal-Mart:

Store Version

So we bought 2 of them for $12 each….oh well.

When it came time to mount my surround sound speakers I never thought to price speaker mounts at the store. I spent almost $20 on materials and the better part of a day cutting, grinding, welding, and painting to create this monstrosity:

My Version

A few months later I’m at Fry’s and I see these for $18.99 a pair…they are about a tenth of the size…you can’t even see them behind the speakers.

Store Version

When we first moved into this house I installed a laminate wood floor in the office. Part of the installation requires the use of spacers around the edge to create expansion room. I spent two hours cutting over a hundred 3/16″ thick spacers…

My Version

By the time I did the next room I discovered that of course they make a plastic spacer that cost like $5.00 for a hundred…

Store Version

 

But the real prize belongs to the time Monique asked for an aerobic step like this:

Store Version

But of course 2 hours later I deliver this 20 pound shin mangling embarrassment:

My Version

Aquarium Stand

I’ve been wanting to write up a few older projects for a while now. The only draw back is a lack of pictures during the process…all I have are the completed shots. Hopefully its still useful or interesting. A few years ago I was commissioned to design and build a fully integrated aquarium system. The requirements were for a fresh water system that could easily be converted to salt water without changing any equipment. The tank needed to be at least 100 gallons. No aquarium equipment could be visible. The stand needed to fit the existing decor (brick floor, warm wood colors, nothing contemporary) and the system needed to arrive ready to run, just add water and fish! I’ve included costs for those of you who stumbled in here looking for ideas on setting up your new aquarium. My labor charges are not included.

The scale is difficult to gauge in this picture. The piece is 6′ 6″ long, 2′ 4″ deep and 6′ tall. Needless to say it will take up some room in a house!

Aquarium Materials/Equipment:

• 1-135 gallon aquarium from the great people at GlassCages (~$550 delivered)
• 2 -Rena Filstar XP3 canister filters (~$125 each)
• 2-ETH 300 watt inline heaters (~$55 each)
• 2 -Ice Cap 660 VHO ballasts (~$180 each)
• 3-10,000K 72″ 160 watt VHO Lamps (~$40 each)
• 1-Actinic Blue 72″ 160 watt VHO Lamp (~$40)
• 1- 72″x12″ Reflector (~$40)
• 8-End Caps for T12 high temp bulbs German 3 piece waterproof (~$5 each)

Materials:

• ~65 board feet of rough cut African mahogany ($4.75 per board foot)
• 1-4′x8′ sheet of 1/2″ mahogany plywood ($60)
• ~24′ of mahogany crown molding ($3.35 per foot)
• 1-4′x8′ sheet of 1/4″ mahogany plywood ($30)
• 1-4′x8′ sheet of 3/4″ pre-finished maple plywood ($65)
• 12-8′ select or #1 grade 2×4’s ($2.50)
• Assorted wiring/electrical components (~$75)
• Hinges/Hardware ($25)
• Finishing Supplies ($50)

Tools:

• High-end Table Saw
• Jointer (at least a 6″)
• Surface Planer (12″ or greater)
• Band Saw
• Router/Shaper Table
• Router
• Shaper Hold Down Jig
• Rail/Stile Bit Set
• Raised Panel Bit
• Edge Molding Bit (2″ High)
• 1/4″ Cove Bit
• Plate Jointer
• Spindle Sander
• Duel Bevel Compound Miter Saw
• Random Orbit Sander
• Finishing Nailer
• Air Compressor
• Pocket Screw Jig
• Loads of Clamps

Assembly:

The tricky part of this project was the integration of 5 distinct systems into one piece of furniture.

1. A support system that could hold up a 220 lb aquarium, 1,100 lbs of water, a 75 lb canopy (with other decor items on top), and 450 lbs of rock for a total of almost 1,900 lbs.
2. An electrical system that could deliver power to the pumps, heaters, and lighting as well as control the lights via a timer or override switch.
3. A plumbing system that could deliver water to and from the filters and the heaters
4. A decorative wrapper system that would encase all the above systems and make it look like a piece of solid mahogany furniture.
5. Fully integrated canopy/lighting system

Support System
Step one was to do the load calculations and ensure that the whole thing would not come to a very loud and very wet end. I keep a white board in the shop for tasks like this.

Aquarium Load Calculations

I began by taking high quality white pine 2×4’s and running them through the jointer, planer, and table saw to create 1.25″ x 3″ stock. I then built a frame with this stock using pocket screw joinery.

Frame Design

The front uprights were doubled up in thickness to create the column look. Below you can see the frame assembly from inside one of the cabinets

Frame with Pocket Screws

To the top of the frame and to the inside right and left bottom frame I attached a shelf made of 3/4″ pre-finished maple plywood. This plywood comes from the factory with a heat applied poly coating that is virtually indestructible…perfect for conditions involving water. Minus the back of the cabinet which provides my lateral stability this structure makes up the support system that will bear the 1,900 lb load.

Maple Plywood

 

Decorative Wrapper System
Next, I needed to disguise the frame with a mahogany wrapper. First, I attached some 1/2″ mahogany plywood panels to the outside ends as well as the inside of the inner frame. The bottom inner frame panel was milled with two dado’s to receive the upright panels. The inner upright frame panels were milled with a dado to receive the center shelf later. Next, I wrapped the upper portions of the frame with a 4″ wide 3/4″ thick band of mahogany. This would later become the support for the crown molding to attach to. For the last bit of plywood work I slid a 1/2″ thick piece of mahogany plywood into the center shelf dado’s and finished it with a small milled piece of solid stock to treat the edge.

Center Shelf

 

The main visual element of the design is the four fluted columns (they are not load bearing). To build these I glued up a three sided column (front and two sides) with biscuit joinery. Using a jig to ensure accuracy I routed 3 flutes and a corner detail into each column and then fitted them over the existing frame.

Column Fitting over Shelf

I also created a fake rear column on each side using a single piece of stock.

False Column

Next, I attached the top shelf which hides the bottom edge of the aquarium. I treated the edge of this shelf with the same half flute detail that I used on the center shelf, lower cabinet frames, and lower edge of the top wrapper. This simple detail repeating throughout the piece gives unity to the design and ties in to the full flutes on the columns.

Top Shelf Edge Detail

Next, I milled out the base board from solid mahogany stock 2.5″ wide using the shaper. Then I wrapped the bottom edge and columns with the baseboard.

Baseboard Detail

The last piece of molding detail was to install the crown molding below the top shelf and around the tops of the columns.

Column View

The final steps for the design portion of the system was to mill out a pair of raised panel doors.

Rail and Stile

When I installed the doors I made sure to line up the face of the door on the mid-line of the last flute…this allowed the reflection of the half flute in the door face finish to create the illusion of a full flute.

Flute Reflection

 

 

Power System
Now that the base was complete it was time to wire the system. The unit features a single line to plug in. This line feeds a multiple sets of outlets in each cabinet.

Outlets

The white set of outlets on each side powers the filter and heater and any other accessories that require power at all times. The gray plug is controlled by a hidden switch and powers the lighting system. Rather then hard wire the lighting system I utilized this pass through plug design to allow for a timer to be installed on the lighting system at some point in the future.

Hidden Switch

 

Plumbing System
Now for the water handling system. The canister filters are installed on each side and the output and return lines are passed through the back panel and up to the canopy behind the aquarium background. The output line also runs through an inline heater on each side to avoid having heaters in the tank. You can also see the lighting ballast in this picture.

Inside Cabinet View

 

 

Canopy System
The canopy system needed to house the lights, route the plumbing, allow for access to clean the tank, provide an easy way to feed the fish, hide the top edge of the tank, and match the design of the rest of the tank. I built it using a 1/2″ thick plywood for the top rear section and solid 3/4″ stock for the rest. I kept the crown molding and half cove detail intact.

Canopy View

The front and forward 6″ of the top fold completely up to allow for periodic tank maintenance and also revel the 640 watt 24′ long VHO lighting system.

Top Opened

The bulbs are mounted in German 3 piece water proof high temperature T12 sockets and backed by a polished aluminum reflector. The lights are 8″ above the tank to allow for some heat dissipation. You could mount them closer to increase the light level as well as shrink your canopy but you would need fans and this client wanted the system to be as quiet as possible.

Light Mounting

On the right hand side I also installed a fish feeder door to allow limited access to the canopy compartment without opening the face.

Fish Feeding Door

Here is the final product

Competed View

 

With All Access Doors Open

 

Summary
This project had a materials cost of about $2,400 and a labor cost of around 100 hours. This was a very enjoyable build with lots of unique challenges and design features. Hopefully I’ll get around to doing a few more of these past project write ups.

“Elfed”

After seeing this on our friend Mel’s blog I had to try it out. Click the link below to see the Nilsson’s get “Elfed”

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1634973406

Make your own 360 degree panoramic picture

I often get asked for advice on setting up a home shop so I started writing a series of posts on selecting tools and arranging your work space when I realized I wanted to include one of those cool interactive 360º scrollable & zoomable panoramic pictures you often see on web sites advertising vacation spots. These images offer users a virtual tour of the environment and just look really cool. I begin the process of learning how to create these images with one goal in mind. It had to be free! I wasn’t going to buy some panoramic lens for my camera, I wasn’t going to pay some company to produce it, and I wasn’t going to shell out any money for software. After 2 weeks of research and failed experiments I finally put all the pieces together. Below you can see the results of the experiment and a step by step how-to guide if you would like to make your own virtual tour (for free).

Click here to take a virtual tour of my shop
(4 Mb file)

To begin, you simply need a camera and a tripod. Take a series of pictures (15-20) rotating the camera a few degrees each time. When finished, you should have a set of pictures covering the entire 360º view. Try to make sure your pictures have some overlap as this helps the software when it stitches together the final panorama. I also found it usefull to put the camera in manual mode. In auto mode the camera adjusts the picture based on lighting. As the lighting may change for different angles, your pictures may not all look the same. This will make your final panorama have obvious seams. Manual mode fixes that. Here are the images I took of the shop. As you can see, each picture shows a slightly different area of the shop (and you can see the jatoba table waiting to be completed on the floor…).

Now you need to download the software that will create the single panoramic image from your photos. The best free tool I found was AutoStitch. After downloading and launching AutoStitch you can play with a few settings (although I used most of the defaults). I did change the scale value (edit>options) to 50% to increase the detail of the final product.

Now click file>open and select all the images from earlier. As soon as you click OK, AutoStitch will begin to create your panoramic image and save it as pano.jpg in the same directory as the original files. Be sure to move or rename the file if you want to try again as AutoStitch will overwrite without warning. Mine looked like this when it was complete.

The next tool you need is some software to take your panoramic image and turn it into an interactive movie. I found that the free version of Pano2QVTR worked great. It can even add clickable hotspots to your movie but I choose not to use that feature. After installing and launching Pano2QVTR you’ll need to change one setting. The default setting for image type is equirectangular but you need to choose cylindrical.

Next you need to tell it where to find your panoramic image (pano.jpg) from AutoStitch. Click the … button next to the “Cylindrical image” field and locate your panoramic image file

Under the “QuickTime Output filename” you can choose the location for your completed movie. Under the settings tab you can also change the size and quality of the final movie. When you are ready click “Create” and Pano2QVTR will take care of the rest. It’s surprisingly fast (about 30 seconds) and upon completion it will show you a preview of your movie. After that you can email or post it to the web if you choose. If you are posting to a web site, here is the minimum code for embeding a quicktime movie.


<object CLASSID=”clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B” width=”600″ height=”420″>
<param name=”src” value=”garage.mov”>
<param name=”controller” value=”true”>
</object>

 

There are other options you can choose to include such as an auto download of the QuickTime plugin. A excellent explanation for all the embedding options can be found here.

Have fun making your own panoramic movies!

PS the shop setup posts are coming soon…

 

Astros have a closer again with Valverde

The Astros just acquired all star closer Jose Valverd from the D-Backs for Chris Burke, Chad Qualls and Juan Gutierrez. Valverd’s numbers look great if he can keep it up. Last season he posted a Major League leading 47 saves with a 2.66 ERA. Valverde, 28, also struck out 78 hitters in 64 1/3 innings while walking 26 and allowing 46 hits. The only real loss in this trade is Chad Qualls. Chris Burke’s future with the Astros was sealed when the club signed second baseman Kazuo Matsui. Gutierrez was a decent prospect but not a lock. Qualls, on the other hand, was one of the most consistent guys in the bullpen. I’m not sure if Qualls had the stuff of a modern closer but he was generally a dependable setup man.

Not 100% sure about this trade yet but it could turn out in our favor. Bottom line is that not every trade is going to work out but you’ve got to take some chances. I respect Ed Wade for this. Tim Purpura seemed too reluctant to pull the trigger on big risky moves and as a result the team suffered. I’m guessing his time spent as vice-president in charge of player development taught him to be very patient with players but the big leagues is not the same as rookie ball. The blind spot the Astros’ seemed to have regarding Jason Lane was laughable. On the other hand, Ed Wade has no personal relationship to these players and so far seems willing to take some calculated risks. I hope they pay off…but you’ve got to respect the effort. This is going to be a very different looking team from last year.

Annelise’s Christmas Pagent

Annelise’s little preschool class had their Christmas show today.  Here is the video for all the family members who read this blog (You’re probably happy to have a post that doesn’t involve power tools).

Astros Aquire Tejada

Let me go on record as a big supporter of this trade. The Astros acquired Baltimore Orioles All-Star shortstop Miguel Tejada for Matt Albers, Dennis Sarfate, Troy Patton, Luke Scott and Michael Costanzo. First I’ll tell you what we got. Tejada is only 31 years old and hit 18 homers and 81 RBIs last year in only 133 games. Before that, he was an extremely reliable shortstop who played in nearly every inning of every game over his 11-year career.  He hit .287 with 258 homers and 1,033 RBIs and there’s no reason to believe he won’t do that for the Astros (at $16 million per year). While it is a defensive downgrade at shortstop over Adam Everett (who will be a free agent by tomorrow and who missed most of last season) the addition of Matsui at second base (a vast upgrade over Biggio last year) makes the Astros’ defense up the middle a far cry better then last year. Now for what we lost… Costanzo may turn out to be a decent hitter but not any time soon. Sarfate pitched well in a very brief time last season, but to say he’s a can’t-miss prospect and was going to be a big part of the bullpen was a reach. He might not have amounted to anything, which is the conclusion the Brewers reached when they traded him last season. Scott was trade bait after they acquired Bourn anyway, so losing him was part of the plan. Albers has been inconsistent at best. Losing Patton hurts but all good trades should hurt a little. He may turn out to be a good pitcher but he ended last season with an arm injury and his velocity was way down.

The bottom line is that the Astros’ starting rotation stinks. It currently is among the worst in baseball. After Roy Oswalt (one of the best in the business) there are a bunch of 4th and 5th starter types. I’m not down on Backe but it remains to be seen if he has the stuff of a quality #2 or #3 guy. The free agent market this year for pitching is pretty bleak and frankly the Astros don’t have much to offer. No way they have the minor league talent to get in on the likes of a Johann Santana (without giving up Hunter Pence). So, if you know your pitching sucks and isn’t likely to improve drastically then you better plan on scoring more runs then your opponents. That has been the Achilles heel of this team in the past. Not after this trade. The Astros (on paper) appear to now have the most potent offence in the division with the possible exception of Milwaukee.  Ed Wade announced the starting lineup earlier today (bad move in my opinion…should be the manager’s role) with one strange positioning. He has Matsui batting in the 2 hole with Pence at #6.  WHAT??? Why would you put Matsui in a slot that is going to come up 50-60 times more over the course of the season then Pence’s slot.  My dream lineup:

1. Bourn .277
2. Pence .322
3. Berkman .300 (career)
4. Lee .303
5. Tejada .296
6. Matsui .288
7. Wigginton/Loretta .278/.287
8. Towells .375 (limited ABs)
9. Pitcher

This lineup will be impossible to pitch around.  Combine that with the friendly confines of Minute Maid park and the offense looks great at this point…Anyway, I can’t wait for the season….March 31st is coming fast!

Van Seat Holder

I was so excited earlier this year when Monique and I got our first minivan. I mean, what kid didn’t grow up with a poster of the latest Ford Astrovan on their bedroom wall. Seriously, I really do love our van. I can haul a ton of stuff around and it all stays nice and dry. The only problem is that I typically keep the rear seats out and store them in my garage. These seats are heavy, awkward to move, and difficult to work around in the shop. After working around the seats during the first part of the jatoba table build I decided to do something about it. Here is my solution:

Materials:

• 2′x2′ – 3/4″ high grade plywood
• 4×4 – 48″ long
• 4 – 6″ L Brackets
• 4 swivel casters
• Assorted nuts and bolts
• Material for hooks (I used angle iron)

Tools:

• Drill
• Saw (or get the wood cut for you at the store)
• Assorted hand tools (wrenches, screwdrivers, hammer, etc)
• Welding rig (for my type of hooks…you may come up with another type)

Assembly:

This is a quick afternoon type project. Just center the 4×4 post on the plywood and temporarily hold it in place with a few 3″-4″ wood screws. Now anchor the post with the four L brackets. I used bolts that went all the way through the post and the plywood rather then just wood screws for strength. Next attach the four casters to the bottom with bolts. The most difficult part of the build is designing the hooks for the seats. If your seats are like mine they weigh about 60 lbs each so the hooks must be very strong. Another concern is to make sure that the hooks won’t damage the underside of the seats while holding them securely. I choose to weld my own hooks out of angle iron rather then try to find a pre-fab hook. The final product came out great for an hour’s worth of work and now I can easily move the seats around the shop to keep them out of my way!