Friday

Got the drawers done today on the new cabinets in the shop. This is actually one of the cabinets I had done. It has drawers for all of my air tools and the brads and staples for each.

This is a corner shot of that cabinet and the new one.

These drawers are lined with the pool table felt that Harbach gave me last time I was up there.

Here is the whole cabinet. The top will have a few hundred holes in it to be used as a down draft table. It is hooked up and ready to go, I just need to get the holes drilled.

The part on the right has a shelf where I keep the sanders and also the biscuit jointer. I am not sure what I will do with the space under that shelf. That will be later on....
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I think we really need one of these for our pond.

Amazing New Water-Powered Jet Pack - Watch more Free Videos
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Travis will jump anything. This dude is just nuts.

If you don't believe me, here is more proof:
Travis Pastrana hydro-jump

Thursday

Hey, it is really Friday for me. I took tomorrow off :-) Gonna get some stuff done around here tomorrow and the weekend. Nice.
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Hey, it is an R/C bug! I love this quote from a true geek telling why they chose the rhino beetle for their subject: They can fly carrying the module weighing about 1.3g on their backs. And another reason is that they look cool, according to the university.

Sunday

Just in case you thought only the government could flush $70K down the toilet. STORY
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Random picture of the day brought to you by Fox.

I got this in an e-mail the other day:
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Interesting Statistics

Professor Joseph Olson of Hemline University School of Law,
St. Paul, Minnesota, points out facts of 2008 Presidential election:

Number of States won by:
Democrats: 19
Republicans: 29

Square miles of land won by:
Democrats: 580,000
Republicans: 2,427,000

Population of counties won by:
Democrats: 127 million
Republicans: 143 million

Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:
Democrats: 13.2
Republicans: 2.1
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That sounded wrong, so I googled it. Turns out that this e-mail went out four years ago:
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Gore vs. Bush

Population of counties won by Gore: 127 million
Population of counties won by Bush: 143 million
Square miles of country won by Gore: 580,000
Square miles of country won by Bush: 2,427,000
States won by Gore: 19
States won by Bush: 29
Average Murder per 100,000 residents in counties won by Gore: 13.2
Average Murder per 100,000 residents in counties won by Bush: 2.1
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You might notice that the names are changed, but the numbers are exactly the same. Wow, what are the odds of that?

Friday

I don't know where they got the name Chickenfoot, but it should be an interesting band.

respect

So I am driving home today and I see some poor slobs wearing ugly ass Statue of Liberty outfits along side the road waving like fools. Not the ones in the photo below, I stole that off of the net, but just like that. Every time I drive by them I think to myself how degrading that must be. But every time I also think how much I respect them for going out on a cold Iowa day to a crappy degrading job for what I am sure is very little money. It would be much easier to sit around and bitch about things and expect for somebody to give it to them like many here in IC. Like the guy on the same corner in the median with the "BROKE-ANYTHING HELPS" sign begging for change from passing motorist while if you look directly behind him you will see a "HELP WANTED" sign at the restaurant 3 buildings down. If you need change, how about this: WORK FOR A LIVING. That would be a change, yes?
And, what the hell kind of tax service uses stunts like this to promote business? Does this make you want to turn over your financial records to this place? A friend of mine did one year and she said it seemed like the year before she got a lot more. I suggested having H&R Block look it over because I knew they do it for free if they don't find more money. They found about $1,400 more.

Iowa City, the perfect city.

It seems that Iowa City is SO perfect that they have time to worry about stupid crap. Banning plastic bags, busting smokers and huggers. Most cities don't have time to worry about such things.
Now they want to make so cops can run breath tests on the bands playing in bars. I feel better now. Morons.

Giz is getting too full of themselves.

I like Gizmodo and read it about daily. But this whole Steve Jobs is sick and we told you so thing is getting pretty lame. They reported he is really sick. Somebody else reported he isn't He came out and said that he is sick but now they know what it is. People slammed Giz'. Then he came out and said that it turns out he really is sicker then he originally thought and will take a leave. Now Giz is all full of themselves saying that they were right all along and so proud that "they" launched an SCC investigation about it.
I am not going to claim that I know what is going on with his health. That is his business. He may have mislead people with that first statement. I don't know.. Giz' certainly doesn't. It sure seems like it would be stupid on Job's part to say he had one thing if he knew he had another that is more serious and he would have to change his story soon. So I am just wondering if it isn't possible that perhaps he really did think he had one thing and forces made him make a statement about it. Then he found out it was another and he updated the information?
Giz certainly is not even entertaining the possibility that he is telling the truth because that would mean they were sleezy suck ass reporters and they were just wrong.
Either way, I still like the graphic on the article.

Tuesday

I was watching American Chopper the other day. Paulie was riding in an armored transport to do research for a National Guard bike. As they were riding along, he said to watch out for IUD's along the road. Stick to bikes, Paul :-)
I really like the idea of those little 7" displays that hook onto your computer via USB. But as they point out in the review, you could buy a 17" for the same price. Still cool. And I like the keyboards that have the LCD on the side. Naturally I like the Optimus Maximus, but it cost more then my computer. So anyhow, we have established that I like geeky-lcd type thingys. So I thought that this idear was pretty damn sweet. Put your iPhone on a dock on your keyboard and use it as a second computer/monitor/touchscreen. Build that because I don't want to have to use a scrabble keyboard.
Or go hang your iPod on the side of your rifle.
EDIT: I fixed the link (thanks, Stove)

Monday..

Got the day off.. Whoot. Jack (24) is on tonight. Whoot^s.
Here is a interesting piece about liquidation sales.

Thursday

Well it is cold. Really cold. I went to work at 4:00 this morning and it was -19. We were supposed to get up around -4 later in the day. Tomorrow is supposed to be a little colder. Enough of that.
The kids wound up having a six day weekend. Three snow days, the weekend, and MLK day on Monday.
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This video has been around for a while and it seems like once a year I come across it and every time it still makes me laugh. So here it is.

Runnin' with the Songsmith

I don't know why I did not think of this. Too funny... RUNNIN' WITH THE SONGSMITH

Sunday

Takin' it easy today. I hooked up the surround sound (finally) in preparation for the 2 hour season debut of 24 tonight. Gotta have it loud for Jack.
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This is kind of funny: A David Lee Roth soundboard for Runnin' With the Devil. My personal favorite is HEEEYYYAAAAHHOUUUUAAAA. (second one down in the middle column)

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I can't decide which is more lame. Microsoft trying to make music (or anything creative orartistic for that matter) or this dork doing a demo of a stupid program. I am hoping that he is kidding, but I fear he is not.
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HERE is a pretty impressive animation done by a student for his final degree project. The video is good quality so expand it out and enjoy.

Happy Birthday...

The Kids are not kids anymore. Tim and Alex turned 18 years old today. I remember when they were babies and people told me that they grow up so fast. When you have twins and you don't get to sleep, and every waking moment is about taking care of them... it does not really go that fast. But I think that was the best time of my life. As they have grown and gotten more independent it seems that time really does start moving quickly and before we know it they will be gone. That will be the happiest and saddest day of my life. We are going to go out for pizza or steaks tonight and just hang out as a family and enjoy the time together.
I am doing pretty well after the tooth ordeal. I can eat real food again and that sure is nice.

Friday

I took the day off today because I had a molar extracted yesterday. It really went as well as it could have gone. It was supposed to be done on Monday but it got to hurting me pretty badly and the got me in. I did have to threaten my oral surgeon with a malpractice suite however. They were playing Willie Nelson on the stereo and because I was added in at the last minute I was there for quite a while. I was on my second loop of Willie's greatest hits and when they finally were able to get to yankin' on my tooth I was getting a bit tired of it. I mentioned it to the surgeon and he laughed and said he was sorry. I told him it was okay, but if I had to hear it a third time we might be looking at malpractice. They were very nice and did a good job.
Today I am just sitting around trying to let things heal up. Tomorrow the kids turn 18. OMG. Kids no more. I am hoping that I will be all better and we can go out and celebrate. I should be fine by then.
HERE is the coolest woodworking store I have ever seen. Wish you did not have to live in Ohio to go there. I really love the full metal extension on the PM2K tablesaw. Me want.

Tuesday

The end is HERE.

In case you missed the Macworld expo news, here is the big story

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

Monday

So today Steve Jobs comes out and says that no, he does not have a re-occurrence of cancer, but rather a hormonal imbalance that robs his body of protein. There are bloggers and even "real" news sources that are saying that he needed to say more. One news site said that he (the "reporter") did not know what that meant and that he should have gone into details about his condition. If only there were some way to get information about things you read about on the INTERNET. Another said that he should have said something sooner and that he owes that to the shareholders. It sounds like they did not know what it was for a long time. Should he have come out and said, "I am really sick and they don't know what is wrong with me!!!! AAAHHHHH!!!" Yea, that would be good for the shareholders.
Then there is this moron who says this whole thing is just PMS. He tries to mend things in the and and says, "my biggest question is why didn't Apple just come out and say this three months ago". Again... They did not know. Did he actually read the letter from Steve, or was he too busy coming up with that really witty PMS comment.

Saturday

Well as if I did not know that HABITAT FOR HUMANITY SUCKS, here is more proof. There are some who read how bad the houses are and say that it was not because they were built by a bunch of unskilled do-gooders who don't know what they are doing and just want to put in some time so they can get their pictures taken and get a T-shirt and then go home and fell all warm and fuzzy because they think they gave of themselves in that neighborhood across town. They will have a great story to tell the folks back at the office and "oh.. look at me i am a construction worker and I am going to save the world with my skills"
There are those that say that these houses were not taken care of. From what I saw next to me at the house we had to move out of, it is an equal part of both. The house was built very poorly. They people that moved in would not mow the yard, much less do a damn thing on their own to maintain it and since they did not earn the house they don't appreciate it. (don't give me the sweat equity crap) I thought it was hilarious when Oprah gave a Pontiac to everyone in the audience and there were those that complained because they had to pay taxes on it and they could not afford it. If you are that poor you don't need a brand new car. You need to sell the car and buy food and shut up.

09

Oh, my. Seems that some glitch in the internal clock of some zunes caused thousands of them to lock up. This is really interesting because nobody thought that they sold that many of them.

HERE is what happens when you put 10 laptops on sale cheap in Russia.

STOVE posted about Ravi Shankar yesterday. Today I saw this headline on FARK and had to laugh: "Back to the Future" to be remade, Bollywood style: "Ravi? Ravi. It's Suroosh - your cousin Suroosh Shankar. You know that new sound you're looking for? Listen to this"

I was reading about the whole Microsoft stole ideas from Sony in the Xbox/PS3 debates and came across this cartoon that somebody posted in the comments. Nice one..