06.30.08
Posted in Life, the Universe and All that Jazz at 2:30 pm by Meg
When the email came through it seemed like a nifty idea and I thought I had just the place to put it.
What is it?
A keyless programmable lock. Something that could be mounted on a door for everyone’s convenience.
I wanted to put it on my garage…Well, that’s what we call it, but it’s not for parking the car in. You see it’s detached from the house and 30ish feet behind it, but with no driveway leading up to it. We use the building for storing stuff, primarily the pool stuff. And we keep it locked up.
The building has 2 doors. A typical garage door (hence why we call it our garage) and a sidedoor. And with it locked up, it’s a pain when someone needs to run out there and get something.
- Remember the key…Find the key chain…Find the correct key on the key chain (which means trying all 3) -
And if we are already outside when we go through this, then it means tracking back into the house first. The idea of having a code sounds great!
Schlage suggests that you’d want the lock because you can put in multiple codes (up to 19) and can change them whenever you want. So, your latchkey kids (yeah right, in this household?) can have their own codes and never have to remember a key or worry about losing one. Or if you schedule some workmen they can use their own code to come in and do the work (which you can erase when they are done).
So, the lock came and I set it up.
It’s a bit heavier than a regular deadbolt, but that’s not too surprising given that it’s got a lot more to it. It had multiple pages of instructions (in two languages) including everything from drilling instructions (if you need to cut a hole), installation, and programming. And there’s even instructions on where to go on the web to find more instructions and video clips (showing installation and programming) if you want to see someone setting it up.
I’ve installed regular locks and deadbolts before and I found the paperwork more than adequate. Oh, btw, the lock runs off a 9V battery and they even send you a battery.
The lock comes with a programming code and then two preset user codes. I suspect trying not to lose the programming code will be interesting (though taking the lock back apart will get you access to the code, and removing the battery - and pressing a certain button - will reset the lock). You use the programming code to enter and erase the user codes - which I did, and it worked fine.
My only concern will be how long the battery will last, and that only time will tell. The lock they sent me does have it’s own keys to use as a back up if you forget the codes or the battery fails.
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Posted in Life, the Universe and All that Jazz at 12:05 am by Meg
Today’s writing assignment is to choose a new religion for yourself. It has to be something different than what you are now, or have been in the past.
It kind of makes me think about a sci-fi series by Lydia Morehouse. The first book is called Archangel Protocol, and without getting to much into it, here’s the starting premise:
Science, which had brought an ugly end to the fighting by producing and detonating the Medusa bombs, and the secular humanism that spawned it, had fallen so far out of favor that it was now officially a crime not to be at least nominally part of an organized religion….
People had suggested I simply convert to another religion and have done with it…
The book then follows this excommunicated ex-cop as she saves the world and lives happily ever after fixing up the theocracy that the world had become - not quite.
So where to go with it?
I was raised without religion and am happy being there so that makes my starting point Atheism. (Though I prefer describing myself as secular or non-religious because while they have changed their tone some, the American Atheist’s used to have a rant against celebrating any kind of cultural holidays and it set a tone in my head.)
Now my father’s family was reformed Jews. Very, very secular, reformed Jews, was always my impression. But it was something that as an adult I have always been interested in. Enough so that I took an Intro to Judaism class at one point after the kids were born. It explained a lot about my family history and interactions. I even came to realization that for me, being Jewish is a cultural thing and I still have a lot of it even as removed as I have been from the religious aspects.
I’m also a traditionalist, so picking to change to reformed Jew is one of the first things to jump out in my mind. With the traditional choice, I can just claim whatever my forefathers were, and not have to think about logic and myths - hey, isn’t that what most people that claim to be religious do?
But since it’s suppose to be something that you have not been in your past, can I choose it?
Let’s keep looking.
My father often told me that one of my largest problems with religions is the problem that there is all the superstructure of the organization. He used to think I got that way from my mom.
I’m not sure. I do know that while I don’t believe in a mythical being that ‘cares’ about us peons; I certainly believe that if it/he/she was to exist it wouldn’t need someone to mediate between us.
Maybe because of that, I’ve always been attracted to some of the Quaker ideals. Especially the idea of declaring yourself married. I think the idea of standing on a hillside with your loved one and just saying we’re married is so romantic.
But they still believe in GOD, so it probably won’t be a great fit. And since there isn’t any tradition here sending me to them, I certainly need to be thinking about why I’d want to be there.
I have studied different religions with the kids as they looked at different cultural groups around the world, and Buddhism certainly gets away from the GOD problem…but reincarnation is just a weird idea and I could never give up eating animal tissue and become a vegetarian.
Now I could take the easy way and just say that I’d become a Unitarian Universalist. They would be happy to let me stay an atheist…
Unitarian Universalism is a liberal religion that encompasses many faith traditions. Unitarian Universalists include people who identify as Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Pagans, Atheists, Agnostics, Humanists, and others. As there is no official Unitarian Universalist creed, Unitarian Universalists are free to search for truth on many paths.
…but that kind of by passes the whole point of this exercise.
But I’ve also run out of steam, so I guess I’ll stay where I am. It’s the best fit that I can see.
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06.29.08
Posted in COLLEGE, The nuts and bolts of it, Books at 10:51 am by Meg
If this works, you should be able to click below to view a list of everything that Boy has read over the last 4 years. Not just the ‘good’ stuff that we included in his course description.
List
Edited later: To follow up on Applestars question about why I didn’t have him list comic books and graphic novels - he ‘thinks’ he has about 3000 comic books and 200 graphic novels. Way too much to list.
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06.27.08
Posted in The creative side of life at 10:15 pm by Meg
…other than dealing with graduations, workshops, and running critters all over the place….
so glad you asked.
For nearly the last 3 weeks I have been working on my own leather bowl.
I’ve had a couple of people recently ask me about the “process” I go through making a bowl. Because of that, I took a lot of pics as I was working on it. If you aren’t interested in the “process” - just jump to the end to see the finished bowl.
I started by tracing a large bowl onto the leather as a guide for cutting it out. You want the piece to be slightly larger than the lip of the bowl. (black bowl on a black plastic covered table doesn’t show too well does it?)
Then I spent days going through patterns and pictures trying to figure out what I wanted to put on it. I finally settled on this coloring page from Dover. I used to be on their weekly free downloads, and had saved it to carve - this seemed to be the time.
Then I trace over the pattern, first to transfer it onto translucent plastic mylar. And then using a pointy tool, unto the leather (you almost always work on damp leather, not dry.)
When I’m starting completely from scratch and drawing my own pattern, I can just sketch on the mylar, but it’s often easier to sketch on white paper and then put the finished design unto the mylar. One convenience of the mylar is that it is reusable and I can take a design and use it over and over again (getting highly bored in the meantime.)
Once the pattern has been traced onto the leather, you need to carve it. Leather carving tools come in a lot of different shapes, but there is a basic set of 7 tools that you use.
Now that funky thing in the middle is a swivel knife, and it’s the first thing you do. Any line that needs to be more than faint, gets cut. Not all the way, mind, but ideally about a third of the way down.
The other 6 tools are used to add details and textures. The one you use the most is the beveler. Every line you cut, gets beveled to make one side ‘up’ and the other ‘down.’ It can get very, very boring - or a perfect time to get into a white zone.
The last tool you use is a backgrounder - guess where that’s used?
How much you do will depend on your picture, but it stamps down the areas that you aren’t interested in.
Then you need to shape the bowl. - And amazingly, I forgot to snap a picture during the shaping process. - Anyway, I took one at the end by putting the finished bowl, back into the black plastic bowl I used. (Remember that first picture of the leather sitting on top of the bowl?), but since I don’t want this to give away the finished bowl, you’ll have to wait to check it out.
Shaping the bowl takes about 3 days and needs diluted lemon juice and a refrigerator…but it’s actually fairly easy.
After the bowl is shaped and dried completely, you finish it. For this bowl, I opted to paint the flowers and leaves. With all the different flowers, I ended up searching on the web for ideas of what the colors should be. (I’m especially pleased with the blue flowers.)
That sketch under the bowl is a tracing of a dragon for my next project. I’m going to try to make a leather mug like they sell at the renaissance fairs. (But I haven’t found instructions, so it will be fully winged.) I decided to put the dragon on it, and as I suspected, Boy has already tried to claim it for himself.
Then the last steps are to stain the bowl to bring out the details and then cover with a water-proof finish. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in COLLEGE at 10:12 am by Meg
Trinity wants a copy and so for completeness, I figured I’d put it here (and update the page on the side)
I’ve been dragging my heels getting this done.
With this final transcript we are not resending the course descriptions - yeah, there’s some changes and more books to be added, but it’s not worth it for what is primarily a rubber stamp indicating that he did finish high school.
For fun, I thought I’d also post his entire actual reading list that includes all the ‘good’ stuff as well as the junk - the only thing that would have been missing were the comics and graphic novels of which he has an amazing collection built up. (I just bought him more sleeves and cardboard for storing them in and he wanted 200 to bring him up to date and have some to fill.)
But trying to take the file I have and get all 227 books to post on here properly (without having to retype them all in) is taking too much fiddling. So until I can figure out how to import an Excel spreadsheet in mass, you’ll have to take my word.
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