Thwarted Again

Month: April 2009

  • Auto-Tune the News

    This is great. The Gregory Brothers have edited together clips from the news and have used Auto-Tune to make the newscasters and pundits sing their news, interviews and discussions along with the background music. They have also done political debates and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Their youtube channel is a treasure trove of delights.

    The first one here is actually the second Auto-Tune the News video. Katie Couric’s section is very good. Seriously.

    Auto-Tune the News 2


    I Have a Dream

  • okwow

    Flying robot penguins. Smart walls. Moduluar cube robots. Superbad.

    edit: There’s more!

    http://www.festo.com/cms/en-us_us/4981.htm

  • Almost a box

    I now have cabinet carcasses. You could set a book on one if you wanted but it would look a little silly. I still need to stick the back boards on the boxes but I’ll hold off on that until I’ve painted the box. Bill was kind enough to loan me his paint spray gun. I also want to see if they actually fit in the room too in case I need to have a bonfire. Wouldn’t want to waste paint on kindling. So, what’s left? Backs on the cabinets, glue the book cases, backs on the book cases, make face frames and tops… on second thought let’s not go enumerating all of the remaining things so I don’t feel terrible. Let’s rather say that some day I will finish the shelves and perhaps books will not be completely obsolete by then. Yes, we’ll say that. Anyway, here’s pictures.

    Also, I know I’m doing it wrong with the lap joints on the panels but I don’t care so nyah.

  • Signs of life

    It’s been a busy day around the house today. I found the touch up paint that was provided with my house and went around cleaning up all the little scuffs and marks the walls have accumulated over the years. I also painted the recessed ceiling in the front entry way. I think some nice small mouldings would look good up in there too so I’m going to visit the Despot later and see what they have. I recovered my UT electronic ID so I could apply for a job there. Did a little work on the book shelves too though I only have one new piece cut to show for it. It is irritating when the table saw is too small to handle things. Being creative and improvising are fun but sometimes you just want to cut a corner off a piece of plywood and go about your day instead of jumping through a bunch of hoops. Oh well.

    The big news today is that there are little growing things in the garden. I have four cucumber plants, three yellow squash plants, one acorn squash plant and something like ten corn plants that have all pushed their way up to smile at the sun. There’s also something growing near the edamame but it remains to be seen if that’s beans or weeds.

    squash
    yellow squash

    cucumber
    cucumber

    corn
    corn

    Also the flowers are pretty. Here are pretty flowers.
    red roses

    white roses

    white rose

    amaryllis

  • Garden

    The garden is finished and planted. I didn’t get any potatoes or sweet potatoes planted because it is a bit late in the year for that and I didn’t see any “seed potatoes” at any of the nurseries I visted. I do have cucumbers, yellow summer squash, acorn squash, onions (so many more than I could ever eat even if I liked them), tomatoes, green beans, corn, basil, edamame and some strawberries in a pot. Apparently I got started a little late on the planting but it’ll be ok. Here’s a picture.