We haven’t gotten around to posting new photos of Evan lately, so we had about a 6 month backlog! Take a look on the photos page. Months 22 through 28 are new.
Kill-a-watt
A few months ago I was given a Kill-A-Watt electricity usage meter as a gift. It’s a small device with a digital readout that you plug into a wall socket. When you plug whatever you want to test into the unit, it shows how many watts it’s drawing.
I’ve been measuring most of the items in my house and am recording my findings in a Google Spreadsheet. I’ve written up a page with my findings, which you can see here.
Tranformers – Thorns Edition
A few college friends and I got together over summer break (long ago) and made this fantastic work of art. I’ll let you in on a little secret: in the final few seconds, when the yellow truck drives off the screen, we SWORE you wouldn’t be able to see the table tilt! Enjoy the ever-moving blanket in the background and all the knees and elbows in the corners of the frame!
Transformers Battle 2
I don’t really remember making this video, but we used my parents old VHS camcorder with a “stop-motion” feature to make it. I had to edit out a number of frames where we got our hands in the shot!
Transformers Videos
On the eve of the new Transformers movies, I thought I’d post a link to my stop-motion Transformers animation. They’re just some goofy videos some friends and I made, but I spent a while this evening setting up a new video player called WordTube. It uses a Flash video player and really works a lot better than the junk I was using before. When I moved to the new host, the old one broke anyway.
Here are the video pages:
- Transformers Dance (featuring YMCA and the Macarena!)
- Transformers battle video
EDIT: I actually posted a couple of new ones tonight. They aren’t great, but they’re free!
New web host
Although things were going OK with GoDaddy as my web host, I decided to switch over to Dreamhost. The migration seems to have gone basically OK, though with the limited upload speed of my cable modem, the file upload will take over 20 hours. Transferring the databases and changing the name servers was easy to do as well.
Dreamhost offers a lot of extra features over what I had before. Here are a couple that were important to me:
- Ability to host multiple domains on one hosting account
- Better (in my opinion) web control panel
- Shell access
- IMAP mail support
- Cron jobs
- Subversion repositories
I agreed to a one year contract, at $10 a month. By agreeing to a year you avoid the $50 setup fee. Thankfully, I found a promo code (“MAX97”) that took $97 off my bill. My first year of hosting is going to cost me $23!
So far I’m really satisfied with Dreamhost!
If you notice anything not working on the site, let me know. I’m writing this at 11pm and about to head to bed, but a bunch of non-critical files are still uploading. I’m setting this post to not be published until the morning, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed!
Toyota Tundra
Over the last couple of days, my wife and I have taken a fairly close look at the new 2007 Toyota Tundra. Before you say “oh no, not again”, we’re not shopping. I’ve just heard a lot of good things about it and wanted to learn more.
I’m not a qualified automotive reviewer, so I’m not going to run down all the specs, etc. but I wanted to share a few impressions. We visited a few different Toyota dealerships, and when we finally got someone to offer us a test drive, we were very impressed. According to the literature, the big 5.7L V8 puts out 381hp and the maximum trailer weight is 10600lbs. When we drove it, we had NO reason to doubt those figures! We tried out the Double Cab configuration, which is the smaller of the two 4-door choices, and it was plenty roomy and comfortable for us, even with a child seat. The new Tundra is the real full-size contender that the previous generation Tundra was not.
I guess, here’s the point. I’ve always held the opinion that American trucks were superior to the imports, and honestly, there haven’t been too many serious choices until recently (and in the interest of full-disclosure, I’ve owned three Dodge Dakotas). The new Tundra has changed my mind. It’s one heck of a truck: so much power, huge tow ratings, nice build quality and well-thought out design. Of course, it’s a Toyota, so it’s going to be much more expensive, right? Well… I priced one how I’d like it (big engine, tow package, double cab, 2WD) and did my best to build the comparable models from Ford, Chevy and Dodge. I wasn’t able to find an American half-ton that could match the horsepower or GCWR of the Tundra, but I got as close as I could. The Dodge was about the same price (I’m accounting for all rebates), while the Ford and Chevy cost a couple thousand MORE. Of course, with the big three, the prices are negotiable, but the salesman at Toyota assured me that they’re willing to deal on these trucks as well, hinting at their goal to get a lot of them on the road rather than maintain high margins.
If you’re shopping for a full-size truck, do yourself a favor and give the Tundra a look.
Independent music
I know the concept of musicians creating music without the aid of the major labels and the RIAA isn’t new, but I thought I draw a little bit of attention to guy I found by chance recently: Josh Woodward
I like his music, which is a mixture of folk and rock, but I also find his approach to distribution interesting. You can buy his CD’s from his website for $10 each, you can buy his latest album off of iTunes, or you can just download all of it for free. He also encourages you to copy and share his music with your friends without fear of being sued. I haven’t found much music put out by the major studios lately that I enjoyed, so I’d like to encourage those musicians who are taking a different route.
It’s worth noting that Josh is a loyal Fruhead (fan of the band Moxy Fruvous). As a matter of fact, he even runs the site! If you’re a fellow Fruvous fan (like me), take a quick listen to Josh’s work.
Playset landscaping
On Thursday the delivery guy unloaded 20 cubic yards (about 7 tons) into our front yard. I spent about 20 hours total on Friday and Saturday getting it hauled back to the playset using the new garden cart that Dad bought and Nathan’s two-wheel wheelbarrow (which I have to say is MUCH easier than the single-wheel I’ve been using for years). By the way, a pitchfork worked WAY better than any shovel for moving mulch. Nathan came over and friday and helped for a couple of hours. Neither day got above freezing temperatures, and the winds were rather brisk. Since the mulch was still actively composting, it was almost hot, giving off steam as we dug into the pile.
Here’s the pile in the front yard, with Mom and Dad’s tractor for scale:
Twenty yards was plenty of mulch, so a couple of yards went into our flowerbeds our next-door neighbors used some for theirs as well. I’d say about 15 yards went into the playground, which encompasses an area about 1250 square feet. That provides more than the suggested safety margins around the structure canadianviagras.net. I put the mulch on very thick in the areas where kids are more likely to fall. We used twelve 8-ft composite recycled landscaping timbers and some spikes to form the boundary between the playground and the yard. By the way, I’m not entirely sure what those timbers are made of, but they dulled my wood/metal drill bit in short order…
We have just a little bit to finish with the landscaping (once I sharpen my drill bit!) See the project page for all the pictures of the landscaping.
Playset construction day 4.86
Ok, I’ve given up on counting days, but I put in a number of evenings of varying length (including four night under artificial light until 10pm). The playset main tower isn’t entirely complete, but it is now able to be played on. I’m in the process of building the swing beam.
The next step is putting in some mulch underneath the structure, for safety. I’m having 20 cubic yards (15,000 lbs) of mulch delivered. The plan is to enclose the back part of the yard with some landscaping timbers and mulch the entire area, 1250 square feet. That’s going to be a LOT of mulch, but I’m borrowing my parents’ lawn tractor and wagon to help move it from near the road back to the playground area.
I’ve posted a bunch of photos of the semi-completed tower and the swing beam under construction on the project page.
The weather has taken a turn for the worse, but I hope to make some good progress this weekend.