Blog this: 737 Explained

I used to work in the aircraft industry: from college with an Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics degree (a typical Aerospace Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Minnesota Institute of Technology … which is now the College of Science and Engineering) to work 7 years or so for Boeing. It was an absolutely wonderful time of life for me. I like hard science, I like airplanes very much, and working for a company with many wonderful creations was immensely satisfying.

However, times have changed. While at Boeing, I collected aircraft information memorabilia in the form of little booklets. They detail facts and data about the airplanes I’d worked on and are now a bit dog-eared, maybe fading just a touch, and definitely can’t hold a candle to this website: NewAirplane.com.

The Flash front end to the web site will thwart some devices but if you can see it, be ready for wow. Lots of pictures and information on the many Boeing jet liners are at your disposal, but the 737 has my attention in this post.

By holding your cursor over the 737 label on the top left of the screen, you get a drop down that includes 737 Explained; make that your target. Clicking on it loads the site and you are left with a close up of the airplane and two options: Explore the 737 or Airline Benefits; choose Explore the 737. At that point the image zooms out so you can see the 737 in profile with a series of thumbnail detail images running across the bottom.

If you don’t have a mouse with a scroll wheel, this may not be as impressive but, if you do, you can start from a full view of the airplane and scroll/zoom in to see amazing up-close detail! Here’s an example:

You can start by looking at the overall 737 but then zoom into the lettering on the door!

The image to the right is smaller in this post than on the web site but you can easily the placard warning and instructions.

It’s really quite amazing. I’m not sure what technology this is but the viewer uses Silverlight (a Microsoft product) so it’s likely HD View, a little something from Microsoft Research.

But, it’s the pairing of the viewing technology along with applying it to an aircraft that has me all excited. The NewAirplane.com site is just wonderful and especially the 737 “zoom viewer”. Take a little time to wander through all the airplane information and pictures.

Kudos and nice work, Boeing!

Blog this: the art or Judith Klausner

In a world in which I can go to an Internet search engine, type “oreo” and get 23 million hits (then click the Images link and see nearly 600,000 pictures), Judith Klausner’s web site might strike one as particularly Spartan. But what gems await!

While the quality of the images are fine, the creativity is outstanding. I’d use other superlatives but my hyperbole might sound excessive and appear insincere. It wouldn’t be.

I’m including two images from her collection here. The one to the left is a cameo she created from … get this … an Oreo cookie! Done in an ancient Greek style, it’s wonderful. To the right is an extremely clever bit of work replacing a light bulb filament with a moth; likely not a good light source, absolutely brilliant in other respects.

Rather than taking up time and space to wax about her artwork or poach more from her site, I’ll just stop while you click-through to her site and poke about. The site is small but well worth the trip.

Snow place like home

When home is Seattle there are some things you’re used to and some things you’re not. A few things you’re used to are wet Fall and Springs, very wet Winters, and gorgeous Summers; and something you’re not used to at all is snow. Yup, we get a dusting most years but this year we got enough to make national news.

Late last year a local weather guy pushed hard to get a new radar station working off the Olympic Peninsula … I follow his weather blog and think he does an exceptional job. You can even see a link to it on the left: Seattle Area Weather Blog. Anyhow, the new capabilities of the radar allowed us better than ever views of what was coming (weather-wise). So we were prepared. Maybe over-prepared!

On Monday the Seattle Times proclaimed we might get 14” of snow in the Seattle area by Wednesday! By Tuesday we were down to 4”-7” but all indications were that Wednesday would be the day. And it was.

So, aside from the headline hyperbole on the amount of snow, they nailed the day. Unfortunately, most weather reports indicated a hit-and-run sort of storm that would be cleared away by the rain and warm weather coming on its heels. Well, we saw a cooling front come in (or sit tight) and today we’re all about freezing rain. For the last 12 hours, we’ve had freezing rain coming down. It’s bending willowy trees, causing fences to sag, breaking off the occasional bough, and making it darn near impossible to drive anywhere. Oh, and we’re seeing our power fluctuate. We’re lucky, many are already without power!

Anyhow, we’re sitting tight.

On Monday and Tuesday I drove in to work but left when the weather looked bad; Wednesday I just worked from home; and today it seems like I’ll do the same. Suzanne drove in Monday and Tuesday but took the train in on Wednesday. Today she’s evaluating her options: most of her staff isn’t going into work and she’s weighing out which projects must get done.

Around the house we’re warm and dry.

*And then we lost power.*

Dear Digital Diary … what have I been doing?

Sometimes I have a point to my entries, usually I’m telling a story, and every now and then I ramble. Best have a pair of comfortable shoes on, it’s time for a mental stroll through what’s been going on around here and my weekend ahead.

Eggs.

While we typically only eat them once a week or so, they’re part of our daily lives with the chickens. With our original three hens we had a weekly high of 19 eggs, I think. It could have been 20 but that may be wishful thinking. We then had a dry spell where we actually had to buy eggs from our local market but that was when we’d lost a few hens and our replacements were all very young.

Now we have a lot of chickens but they’re not all producing. Still, we get about 3 eggs a day on average (although now that number is climbing) … a nice number; enough for both Suzy’s baking and our eating.

Then came the discovery that our tailless red was holding out on us … see this link for that story. We tried “forcing” her to use the nest box by locking her in the coop … it’s got food, water, and running space (for very short runs) so it didn’t seem like deprivation, but chickens are social animals. To avoid too much stress, we locked her in with another hen who was ready to lay. The thinking being she’d learn where to lay. Instead, we ended up with a little red tailless hen who was bleeding. Not sure what happened, but we’ll now collect her eggs from wherever she lays them.

But this brings me to say that with her contributions, our eggs-per-week total is climbing! Days collecting 4 eggs isn’t uncommon and we got 5 eggs earlier this week! We had a day with just two eggs, so we’re not overwhelmed, but, this week we have 19 eggs with one day left in our counting; I believe we’ll have a new high in the eggs-per-week category!

Last year I mapped out our 2010 egg production (see it here) and I’ll get to creating the 2011 chart shortly!

Out and about.

Christmas Eve was a blurry hurry as we ran about doing this and that. We hosted the family and that took a lot of effort. Then it was just us for Christmas, us for New Years, and us for the weekends between. The “social silence” felt good but we’re about to break out of that mold today! Suzy spotted a fun tour called the Chocolate Indulgence Tour.

The tour is hosted by Savor Seattle Food Tours who are considered to be “the #1 rated attraction in Seattle”. A bold claim considering I haven’t exactly been living under a rock but have only now heard of them, but I’ll certainly give them a chance!

Suzy heard about them through … you guessed it … Groupon and we grabbed tickets for their 2-hour walking tour of the Seattle Chocolate scene. For those uninterested in clicking the link above, let me bring some of the information on that site to you!

Give in to Seattle’s sweet side!

Chocolate has become so important to Seattle culture that it is rivaling the other famous bean in town. On this tour, experience chocolate in all of its delicious forms – white, milk, dark, and every tasty combination in between! Taste the cookie that Seattle Magazine named one of Seattle’s best desserts. Find out what is served in the Oval Office, and indulge in renowned chef Tom Douglas’s signature desserts. You will be surprised by the chocolaty connection that coconut cream pie, cheesecake, red velvet cupcakes, and gourmet popcorn all have in common. Learn about where chocolate comes from, how it is made, and tips on the best ways to savor them.

While I’m not a chocolate foodie, Suzanne is. I tried to develop a palate for fine dark chocolates but I never got to a point where I truly appreciated it versus the calories I was packing on. Yes, I realize you nibble, but even then … not a great tradeoff. I’m just a salts-fats kinda snacker and chocolate ain’t my thing. But, it’s certainly tasty and I very much look forward to enjoying this tour.

Around the house.

I have a couple “to do” chores around the house this weekend: continue to clean out the garage, hang new curtains in front of Suzy’s office, and straighten up my office!

When I built the shelves for the garage loft, we moved our holiday decorations up there. This made space in a nook under the stairwell that I plan on using as a bit of a lumber storage for all my short pieces, cut-offs, and various other woodworking items. I don’t think I’ll be up to building that this weekend, but I will move some of the seldom-used items up to the loft.

As I mentioned here, we have another set of shelves in the garage that we store lots of stuff on/in. Right now it’s a bit of a mess but we’re at a point where we can tidy things up, give our food/kitchen items their own shelves, move the paints/chemicals to a separate spot, and generally arrange things more efficiently. This is on my list for today. It’ll be easy if I don’t “chocolate myself out” with the tour I mentioned above.

As for hanging curtains … we already have some serviceable curtains in front of the new sliding door but I installed those just after we bought the house and they’re not my finest work (the connections are a bit loose). Also, we’re looking for a sliding system that goes better with the sliding door and will block the light without impeding entry or egress. I’ll take pics when I’m done.

And, finally, cleaning up my desk. What a pig pen it’s become. Piles piles piles. Time to clean it out and tackle some of the projects represented in all this stuff.

So that’s it. A rambling stroll through things on my mind before the weekend starts. I need to jump into the shower and prepare for our walking tour … starts in a couple hours and we have a train ride to experience on the way there.

Hope you have a good weekend and thanks for stopping in.

Blog this: Street Art

Street Art is a new name for “graffiti” but you can take a look here and see that graffiti has come a long way since someone grabbed a can of spray paint and scrawled “Joe ♥ Suzy” on the back of a fence:

106 of the most beloved Street Art Photos – Year 2011

But, to be completely fair, this isn’t just about graffiti, it’s about public art and some of the best of it from 2011. Now, I suppose when you run a site called Street Art Utopia you can claim some measure of authority, but I’d never heard of this site before I ran across a link somewhere as posts of the “Best of 2011” started hitting the interweb. But, based on my review of this site (and no other), I won’t argue their assessment as this collection being the “best”.

Regardless, there’s a lot to like here.

A cathedral window frame over a graffiti-tagged wall, Lego bricks repairing a broken wall, clever lost/found postings, popular culture references inserted into daily life objects, and, yes, lots of graffiti. They have a lot … well, in the article I’m referencing above, 106 to be exact … of art. And the site is written so it only loads those pictures within the frame … no long load times.

Another thing I like is that all is squeaky clean (yes, one image could be construed as “naughty”) but none are overtly sexual or vulgar. Which, given the amount of “stuff” you can find on the Internet, it’s just a nice respite to enjoy a collection of pictures that don’t resort to prurient overtures. Yes, I’m getting old.

If you have a bit of time and want to spend it wandering through clever images, I recommend the Street Art Photos site; and what better place to start than the top 106 from 2011.

Enjoy.

     

For more information on the above, see:

• Stained Glass Window
• Lego Bricks
• Found Love
• Star Wars reference

The Remodel

This could either be a really long post, or a relatively short one (with a lot of pictures). I’m going to expect something in between but I’m just starting so we’ll see!

… OK, I just deleted about five paragraphs and hadn’t even gotten to talking about what we remodeled! I gave some history, explained our motivation, and really strung it out. So, here’s the deal, let’s just jump into some pictures and see what story falls out!

Oct 3: The day they start

The first day they spent doing some investigation work to find the main support beams and setup their operations. It was also the day I lost my workshop as they slowly took over the third bay of our garage (my shop area). I was a bit disappointed as I’d expected a swarming crew and a transformational change; we got two guys for what looked like a few hours of work.

  

Little Red Hen

Our Little Red Hen’s Hiding Spot

Suz and I have a number of hens and we keep a reasonable eye on them. So, we’d had the full head count earlier in the day as we did yard work and then, about an hour later, we were a hen short! Our smallest red hen was missing.

Well, we did a complete yard search, a search of our yard and the neighbors, and then one of the entire neighborhood. No little red hen. So we’d resigned ourselves to wait.

As evening was approaching I wanted to use the light to see if I could find any clues about what might have happened to her. Maybe something jumped the fence and nabbed her; maybe a hawk strike. Out to Chickenville I strode and found no clues.

On the way back I walked more closely to the fence line and found her nestled inside some pampas grass. We figured she was due to start laying and this was her first attempt at finding a spot. As I picked her up to deposit her in a nestbox, we got a surprised.

See the video for the surprise.

Notes from after building the shelving unit (already!)

OK, admission time. And I don’t mean letting someone in … I mean letting something out: such as letting the cat out of the bag. I had posted my last note including a description of an “easy to build” shelving unit, but I hadn’t actually built it when I wrote the notes. I’d only sketched it up on SketchUp. I sit here now, aching back, ripped up fingers, and my frustration abating and feel I need to come clean on building that unit. I learned enough and made more than a couple mistakes so, I feel it only fair that I lay it all out there … not wave my hands glibly and proclaim that you could follow those instructions and get a “nice, sturdy set of shelves”.

Sturdy my tukas!

When I drew up the plans for those shelves, I had 3/4” plywood in mind for the job. And, basing it off some 8’ tall units I’d made previously, I was thinking about cabinet-grade plywood … not some void-pocked D-grade sheeting. But, when I was at the store and costed out the project at $60-$90 for 3/4” material or under $25 for the stuff I used, I got the cheap stuff and reworked my project plans.

However, I’d never worked with chipboard (OSB) before and just assumed it would work about the same.

I’ll say it simply and clearly and then move on: I’m an idiot.

OSB and cabinet-grade plywood do not work the same, do not handle the same, and do not give you the same quality and integrity of a finished product. I’m sure some of that is because I went to 1/2” instead of 3/4”, but while using a jigsaw to cut the slots (more on this later), it was like running a hot knife through butter, driving pins through it was a joke, and nailing was hit-and-miss (no pun intended). OSB is a porous material so it just ate the glue, it was hard to clamp up (bent like a wet noodle), and if I hadn’t nestled it against two walls it would be an unstable structure to say the least. I’m even regretting that I didn’t fasten it to the walls!

But, it was super easy to work with, very easy to cut, and it was a fraction of the price I’d have paid for the plywood. And yet, beware: following the plans from the prior post will not give you a “sturdy” shelving unit; it will give you a passable, light-duty set of shelves.

Last Post of the Year – build a shelving unit already!

Well, it hasn’t been the explosion of blogging that I thought I’d be practicing! I have a lot of good books to talk about, my “blog this” entries are burgeoning, and the holiday activities, time-off, and gifts have all left me with plenty of material to prate on about. And yet … nothing. Or the thing that’s just to the right of nothing.

But, I’m not only good with that, I’m really good with that.

Suzy and I fill most of our empty time with something. Places to go, people to see, stuff to do. And since October-ish, there’s been plenty of that. So much that I feel a bit worn down. So, over the last couple of weeks I’ve woken up, ate a bit, read the paper, played some games, got onto the computer for who knows what reason, and just floated through the holiday. It hasn’t been that empty as we’ve attended concerts, hosted a family gathering, dealt with my car’s problems, dealt with cat problems (all’s well now), and cleaned, shopped, and generally attended to life.

But, adding “one more thing” hasn’t been in the cards. I can tell the tide is changing, however.

Just yesterday I was feeling miserable in the AM (I’d taken the train into Seattle the prior day, went to our large public library, was outraged to find that we have both a “Seattle Library” system and a “King County Library” system … yes, Seattle is in King County, and wasn’t able to check out a book without getting another library card) and figured it was something I picked up on my walkabout and association with the unwashed masses. But, today, the skies had cleared enough to stop raining and show some blue so what did I do? Well, go to the nearby Home Depot and get some lumber for a project!

The remodel on the house had completed and left us with a loft in the garage: storage space. But, it was a blank canvas. So, I picked up three sheets of plywood and plan to build some simple shelves to hold our holiday decorations and any manner of other things.

I built something very similar to this for the main garage and it’s worked out beautifully. So well, in fact, that we’re now storing too much stuff there and I’m really looking forward to using the space in the loft for storing some of this stuff.

To build the shelves to the right you need a couple things: saw, glue, maybe a router and some nails. It’s a bit more complex than an IKEA project but it’ll be rock solid. To save you some of the sawing part, you could have the place you buy your lumber from rip the panels for you.

Lumber: three sheets of 4’x8’x1/2” plywood.

In the shelves I built previously, I used 3/4” plywood and it worked great. But, the shelves ended up costing a pretty penny. On sale, I got OSB 1/2” plywood for under $7.50 a panel … that’s under $25 for the entire shelving unit. Now that’s getting close to IKEA prices!

But, as I noted, it won’t be quite as easy as the “build it with only a hex key/wrench” IKEA projects.

After getting the panels ripped in half (now 24” wide by 96” long), you’ll have six of these skinnier panels. Cut two of them in half length-wise. This will leave you with

• Four panels at 24”x96” – called “long panels”
• Four panels at 24”x48” – called “short panels”

Measurements are rough.

Take two of the long panels and position them side-by-side on the long edges. You can now take a router with a 1/2” straight bit (preferably one with a collar) and route 1/4” deep dados on the ends and at 31 7/8” from the ends. On edge, it will look like this:

These are your top and bottom panels. By positioning them side-by-side on the long edges before you route the grooves, you’ll ensure that your slots for the vertical dividers are aligned perfectly and you won’t end up with dividers that are at an angle. I will also note that, if you don’t hit “31 7/8” “ exactly, that’s just fine. I only used that measurement to try to get the spacing as close to perfect thirds as I could. Go with 32” if you want … it’ll mean your center bay is roughly a quarter inch narrower than the other two but that’s fine.

Now do the same for the end parts!

Take two of the short panels and position them side-by-side on the long edges. Using your router set at 1/4” deep, cut two dados at 15 3/4” from each end. NOTE: you do not want to cut dados on the ends of these panels. It should look like the below (I’ve rotated it purely to fit better in this blog entry):

These are you left and right outside panels.

The interior shelves are where things get tricky, but only marginally.

The vertical dividers are going to look like the picture to the right when you’re done. The “15 3/4” “ isn’t a coincidence … it should be the exact same dimension as you cut into the short panels you used for the sides. The exact dimension. By keeping both the dados you cut in the short panels and the slots you’ll make in the vertical dividers the same, you’ll keep everything nice and straight.

The tricky part here is “how do you cut these?

If you have a table saw you can cut a stopped slot; you can use your router to cut through, too (but that’s a lot of wood to remove). There’s no right answer but by using a jig to find the right place to cut the slots, you should be able to do this without too much concern for being exact.

[Update: use a jigsaw to cut the slots]

So, for the vertical dividers, take the remaining two short panels and cut slots in as shown on the right.

The shelves (the horizontal dividers) are going to be cut very similarly to the vertical dividers but the dimension for the slot will “look off”. It’s not.

[Update: First, cut down the horizontal dividers (shelves) by 1/2” to give an overall dimension of 24”x95 1/2”. This accommodates for the fact that the shelves will nest inside the outside panels.]

The picture below shows the slots to be cut at 31 5/8” from the ends. This is very specific. Above I noted you didn’t really have to cut the dados in the top/bottom panels at exactly “31 7/8” “ … you could use “32” “ or something, Well, to be clear, whatever spacing you used for the top panels, back off a quarter inch for the spacing of the slots in the shelves.

By doing this, you’ll ensure that, once you nest the shelves into the dados in the sides panels, the slots will line up with the dados in the top/bottom panels.

So, for the shelves, take the two remaining panels (they will be long panels) and cut slots in as shown below:

As I mentioned above, this can get tricky unless you are really good at 3D spatial puzzles, or just slow down and mentally construct the model of the shelving unit we’re building.

OK, once you have all of these parts built, you’ll be ready to assemble!

Mate the slots from the vertical dividers and the shelves. You’ll have the interior of your shelving unit ready! The, using a liberal amount of glue and a nail or two, nest the ends of the shelves into the dados you cut into the outside panels. Finally, do the same for the top and bottom: nest the vertical divider and panel ends into the dados you cut into the top/bottom panels using a goodly amount of glue and a nail or two.

Once that sets up, you’re done! I should note that having a bunch of clamps, assembling this on “riser blocks” (a simple 2×4 to hold it off the ground is fine), and being patient will all play to your favor and the ease with which this comes (and stays!) together! While this isn’t a trivial project, it’s absolutely geared for the beginner and about as easy as they come. Just think through the cuts and don’t hurry. In the end you’ll have a nice, sturdy set of shelves for the garage. Or the storage loft in the garage!

Thanks for reading and have a happy New Year!

And so it’s Christmas

My wife’s family celebrates Christmas on Christmas Eve. This is after what seems like years of everyone negotiating “second family” obligations around the holiday. I’m easy as my family is far far away and we’re either here (most of the time) or there (significantly less). But, for the most part, all of the other siblings and in-laws have fallen into step and we have the entire gang in one place for Christmas Eve day.

Well, we hosted last night and the strangest thing happened: we ended early. Without shooing anyone out, without awkward end-of-night yawns, without children imploding in an over-hyped, over-sugared, under-rested frenzy … they all left by about 8:30 pm.

Both Suzanne and I wondered if it was something we said, a courtesy we didn’t extend or what … and then we got about tidying up and sitting back to enjoy the quiet night and the inevitable peaceful Christmas morning. I consider it part of their gift to us!

But, the house is clean and warm, we’ll get up leisurely and enjoy a nice breakfast, open some gifts, and then I’ll call my family back in MN to extend my greetings.

And to all of you, I do the same: Merry Christmas!