Near fishtank tragedy...

I was doing my regular cleaning and maintenance of our 55 gallon fishtank in our living room this evening when I had a boo-boo. I cleaned out our Fluval(the worst part of the whole job) and replaced its media(carbon, peat, and the like). I was then going to play a little on the computer but decided tonite was the night to clean the glass too. Here was where my mistake lay.

Since it's a glass tank it's usually an easy job to clean the hard algae that a brush won't clear, just use a razor blade. This is also why I prefer glass to acrylic. As I was cleaning the tank I barely bumped the center support and I heard a large *CRACK*. 'Oh, shit, what was that.' The plastic center support had broken. The tank is 10 years old and the plastic was brittle, I guess, and it didn't take but a slight bump to snap it. This caused the front and back glass of the tank to bow out dramatically. They bowed out almost an inch. Damn close to the breaking point of the glass. Now I had a two 3 foot wide panes of glass bowing out badly and creaking in protest. I couldn't get the ends close enough to join them back together somehow. I wouldn't try anyways for fear of losing the whole tank and 20 or so fish at the same time. Some of those fish are 8 years old. We lost a 10" Bala Shark last week that was that old and I think it was the first time I was ever really upset at the loss of a fish.

Luckily a close friend of mine was cleaning out his garage last week and gave me an old 45 gallon corner tank he no longer wanted. We had been looking for a tank for our bedroom so I said I'd take it. I cleaned it out this past weekend and we moved it into our bedroom where it sat empty while we decided what kinds of fish we were going to try. Luckily it was sitting there empty and waiting for some fish because it was about to get some. The whole family sprang into action grabbing buckets and pitchers to do a quick move of 50 gallons of water and about 100 lbs of sand at 10 o'cock at night. Not fun.

We got everything moved and the fish seem to be doing alright. It's been several years since we've had a tank in our bedroom and as I sit here watching them explore their new digs I wonder why we waited so long.

The moral of this story is: 'Hard work pays off eventually. Laziness pays off right now.' If I'd have been lazy and played on the computer I wouldn't have made more work for myself.

: Upside Down from the concert "Play Everywhere For Everyone Austin, TX 03-10-04" by Barenaked Ladies

Barenaked Ladies concert....

We went to the Barenaked Ladies concert last night. They put on a great show. I've been waiting to see them for at least 10 years. They were playing in San Francisco when we lived there but I couldn't convince my wife to go see a 'great new band named the Barenaked Ladies'. We missed a chance to see them playing in a small club out there. They've been rained out twice in the last 8 years here in Austin making it impossible to see them play here. Yes, I snuck a few crappy phonecam shots of the concert. Sadly, that one is the best.

Last night we finally got our chance to see them in concert. They played for about two hours doing about 25 songs. Ed had some monitor problems and had to switch earphones after the first song then he did a great rap about it. In the middle of the concert they had a little acoustic session which started off with the theme to the Roadrunner cartoon. They also did 'One Week' acoustically. For their song 'Shopping' they had a great little shopping cart ballet on stage. They ended the night with 'Rio' by Duran Duran which was interesting.

: Am I Awake by They Might be Giants

Pinecar madness...

Today was my son's big pinecar derby with the Cub Scouts. Over the past 2 weeks we put a lot of time into his car. He wanted a Ford GT-40. First thing we had to do was make sure the axles were straight. With a micrometer we found the axle slots that came precut were out of straight by about 8 degrees. That won't do. We borrowed a friend's drill press and drilled some new axle holes that also give the benefit of lowering the car. When drilling we made sure that the axles have a slight downward droop. This way only the outer rim of the wheels touch the track lowering friction. We also drilled one front axle hole about 1/64" higher than the rest. This way it rides on 3 wheels instead of 4, again to lower rolling friction. After this I cut out the rough shape and he did most of the sanding. He got to use the electric sander which he thought was cool. Once things were nice and smooth he got to use the spray paint after a lot of begging by him to let him do it. A nice glossy red was the color. Add some Black Widow stickers he picked out and the body was done.

Now came to boring part, sanding and polishing axles. The little nails they give you to attach the wheels have some wicked burrs on the underneath side of the head. Those kill speed. We put the nails in the drill and while he held the trigger I filed them down. After that we used 150 grit sandpaper to knock down any other ridges. We worked our way down to 600 grit. Then it was time for emery powder. We got those axles gleaming. Then it was on to the wheels. Some 600 grit paper to knockdown any imperfections and make sure they were round and square the the axle.

I did some unscientific tests on our axle work. Take a stock axle and wheel and spin it while holding the nail. It'll spin for about 3 seconds before coming to a stop. After our polishing work it'll do about 10 seconds. Once graphite is added for lubrication it goes over 20 seconds. That's a heck of a difference.

Next we ground out a hole in the bottom of the car for adding weight. Luckily we have a fairly accurate scale at home. Research says the best place to put the weight is about 1-1.5" in front of the rear axle. Too far back and the front of the car can bounce all over robbing speed.We added lead weight to the cutout to bring it up to the 5 ounce max. A test on the kitchen counter showed it rolled arrow straight and the front right wheel just barely touched the ground. Perfect.

On the side I built the pencil car you see for his mother to race in the family/sibling races after the main event.

Today was race day. There were about 55 racers. A lot of them looked like they could be some serious competition for 'The Widder'. At check-in we weighed 5oz on the nose. No last minute weight adjustments for us. The pit table was a beehive of activity as parents tried to figure out how to add 2 or more ounces to their kids' very underweight cars.

The races started on time and my son's car was in the first heat. Only two cars raced at a time. He lost the first heat by about a car length. We were stunned. We know we have a fast car, how could we lose? Luckily it's a double-elimination event. We'd have another chance to show our speed. We easily won the next 7 races. Some in total blowouts. We came down to the race for 3rd place. The loser gets 3rd place and the winner goes on to the final. It was a dead heat according to the judges. I saw my son winning by a nose but didn't argue as I don't want to be seen as the kind of parent that argues every call. They re-ran the race. The finish looked exactly the same but the judges agreed that my son won by a nose. We were in the final. Woot! We then realized that we were going up against the only undefeated car of the day. We'd have to beat him twice to win. I also realized, but didn't say anything, that the car we were going against was the one we lost against in the first heat. We ended up losing to him again by about a car length. This gave my son second place over all, beating out 53 other cars. Funny thing was, he was disappointed. He wanted the first place trophy. Then after showing him all the cars he did beat he felt better. He ended up with two awards. The second place trophy and also the fastest car in his den which earned him a 1st place ribbon.

After the race I got to take a look at the winner's car. The wheel motion was a thing of beauty. Smooth as silk.

Next it was time for the sibling/family races. They are open to any relations of the Cub Scouts. Long story short. The Pencil killed every other car in the race taking first place. My wife beat out about 22 cars for first. Normally there are a few adults racing in that race but this year she was the only adult. She felt bad beating the kids, but only for a little while. :)

After the races I had several dads ask what the secret was to building such fast cars. I had two wining cars so they knew it wasn't a fluke. One asked how much my consulting fee would be for next year. I laughed and told them my secrets then said get a hold of me next year and I'll show you how to do it.

Here's a list of things to help your pine car go fast:

• Body shape: It means nearly nothing at the speeds and distance the cars travel don't worry about it. Do whatever you like for the body shape.


• Deburr those nail heads: This is the number one thing you can do.


• Polish the axles: Start with 150 grit, then 300, 600, and finally wet emery powder.


• Don't use the stock axle slots: They are almost never straight. If you have access to a drill press use that. Drill the holes with a slight up angle into the body. Don't use a hand drill. You'll never get the hole square to the body. Place one front wheel slightly higher than the others so you only run on 3 wheels.


• Graphite the axles as you insert them: This guarantees that graphite gets where it's needed most. Don't use liquid lube like WD-40 or oil. These can eat the plastic.


• Glue the axles in place: Too many cars have lost races because they lost wheels somewhere during the race. I use rubber cement. It can be removed if I need to take off the axles. Wood glue is also good. use any glue sparingly and make sure it doesn't squirt out and glue the axle.


• I wax the body where the wheel hub touches the car body. I don't have enough data to tell if this helps but I don't see how it could hurt


• Weight: Get your car's weight as close as possible to the 5 ounce max. I usually try to overweight them just a touch then bring a drill to drill out weight if needed to bring it back under 5oz.


• Weight location: Try to use as dense a weight as possible, like lead, and place it about 1-1.5 inches in front of the rear axle. This keeps the front wheels from bouncing and robbing speed

If any of these tips help, drop me an email and let us know.

My own 'Oscar'...

Tonite we went to the Central Texas Geocachers Awards. It was held at GattiTown in Oak Hill. Not my first choice but the kids loved it. The awards were for the best geocaches in the Austin area. They were voted on by locals. There were awards for best camouflaged, best themed, best multi-cache, and so on. About 15 awards in all.

One of my caches,The Rock That Rolls, won two awards. The first was for the 'Most Innovate Cache'. The second award was the biggie. I won the Best All Around Geocache of 2003. Of the 400 or so geocaches around Austin mine was voted the favorite. I was surprised at that one. It's a cool geocache but I never thought that it'd get as popular as it has gotten. People can be rabid about it, almost fighting for the chance to be the next finder. For the top honor I was given a small 'Oscar' of my own and the even cooler Golden Ammo Can award. A very well painted gold ammo box. I'm trying to decide if I'll hide it or pass it on to next year's winner.

Now I have to top the Rock this year to win next year. :)

Say bye-bye money...

I've previously written how we just purchased the house we've lived in for the past 8 years. This past week we signed a contract to have all the original 25 year-old siding replaced with vinyl siding. Everything that isn't rock or concrete will be covered. It's a bargain(yeah, right) at a mere $13,000. That includes replacing bad siding with plywood then covering the house in 3/4" insulation backer board, then vinyl over that. That includes all the soffits and facias also. It should lower our AC/heating bills as it adds another R-5 to our insulation. We went with vinyl for its very low maintenance and the lifetime warranty. No painting. Ever. Only maintenance is washing it down once a year. When you work two jobs and get off one day a week if you're lucky like I do, you don't want to spend those days off working on the house.

Now on to the even better news. When the guys showed up to start work today they started poking around the old siding and found termites. Fuck. I looked for them but never found them before. We called out the exterminator for an estimate. He found they were coming into the house along an interior water pipe. That's why I didn't find them before. One usual telltale sign of termites is a tunnel on the outside of the foundation. I couldn't find one because they found another way into the house. Well, shit, there goes another $1K to kill and treat for the little fuckers.

Ah, the joys of home ownership. Can someone tell me how much better is is to own rather than rent again?

Phone stupidity...

I got a shiny new toy a couple of weeks ago. It's a Sony Ericsson T616. I picked it out mostly for its Bluetooth capabilites. I didn't really care about the camera that's built-in. I thought I'd use it as a modem so I could get wireless Internet access for just the cost of minutes. Should be no big deal to set it up. My iBook saw it and iSync works perfectly. I can also use Romeo to control iTunes and such.

When I tried to use it as a modem was where the problems started. It setup easily using the guide I found at this site. Once setup I tried to dial out. The iBook would access the phone and dial the phone then drop with a 'No carrier detected' error message. I tried all different kinds of changes to get it to dial with no luck. I Googled extensively and found a pointer to a page deep inside ATT's website that says they have disabled CSD(Circuit Switched Data) access. Cingular and others support this. It's built into most phones. It appears ATT wants you to use their mMode crap at a cost of 2 cents a kilobyte to access the Net. Um, no. I don't think so folks. Oh, yeah for $13 you can get a whopping 4MB of data transfer a month with 1 cent a KB after that. I can do 4MB in a day easy...Also disabling CSD kills any ability to use the phone as a wireless fax machine too. Another feature I thought would be useful.

So, now the question is: I'm still within my first 30 days of service with ATT and can cancel without penalty. Should I cancel and switch to a more sane provider or do I wait for the Cingular/ATT merger to finish hoping that Cingular carries over the CSD service to former ATT customers? *sigh*

: AM Radio from the album "Songs From An Amercian Movie" by Everclear