End-of-Year-Holiday Projects

Happy New Year!
        Usually, the week between the Christmas and New Year holidays is for pigging out and sleeping in.  But there's only so much eating and sleeping one can do.  Yah, I know. Can't believe what I'm typing either.
        As warm-up, I installed a small desk for Jia Nin in the master bedroom (check out the pictures on her flikr site) late November.  The standard tables that they sell in stores were too big for her purposes and we wanted something off the floor.  We found a really nice cabinet door in Ikea's as-is section for $5 and a pair of shelving support brackets at the local home-improvement store. 
Project 1: Swift 
        Jia Nin does alot of knitting.  One of the things to do is to wind yarn from a loop into a tight ball.  Something about not stretching the yarn until just before it's needed.  So instead of buying a "swift" online for over a hundred dollars, I figured that this is the perfect excuse to make her happy while letting me buy lots of tools at the same time.
        The cost of raw materials (wood, nuts and bolts, etc) is about $35.  Buying the tools... is a one time thing that'll spread itself among future projects.  Setting up a basement workshop will be a post for later in the year.  Total time spent was around 20 hours.  Finished product wasn't too bad.  I may do a bit of rounding-off of the corners.

Project 2: Add lighting for the living room 
        Actually, the lighting was added in November.  A few pieces of Ikea's Ribba picture ledge and Grundtal halogen spot lights added soft illumination for the living room.  Perfect for watching movies, playing Nintendo Wii, etc.
        However, we didn't want the lighting wires hanging  down the wall, and especially not in ugly plastic channels.  So the solution was to run the wires in the wall.  U.S. homes are framed in wood supports and then clad in drywall (a kind of plaster panel).  After drilling a few small holes to check what's behind the drywall, figuring out which circuit breaker shuts off electricity to the living room, and buying the parts, time to get it done.

        Replaced the single switches in the original living room switch panel (above left) with doubles (above right).  
        Ran wires behind the walls up to where the lights are, terminating in a power socket (left).  Each socket is controlled by a switch which gives me the option of adding more lighting in the future.
        Finally, screw all the parts in place with the covers and we're left with the cleanup.
        Time elapsed: 4 hours.

(Note: using a flashlight to for the photos because the breakers are still off, and phone's camera's flash is really weak.)

Golden Leaves of Fall

With the more abrupt change from summer to fall this year, the trees are showing more varied, and prettier colors.  My usual drive to and from work has been nicely scenic.  On the left is one of the trees in front of the house.  Gold, red, purple, brown, and yes, some trees are still green.

The temperature has fallen low enough that I have to wear my warmer coats on cloudy days.  Time to get used to the cold again.

I'm enjoying the scenery while it lasts.  At this point, all it takes is a strong rain shower and there goes the leaves.

Food Photo

Not a good photo, but enough to make me want to go back. ;-)

2009 Movies

Now that the summer blockbusters are done, time to do a movie roundup for 2009. I'll probably need to do another roundup for the later-in-the-year movies. They tend to be horror or serious drama though, which doesn't appeal to me as much. Favorites are: Star Trek This "reboot" of the Star Trek franchise is superb! Strong storyline, cast, effects. It manages to avoid the usual time-travel cliches that make sci-fi movies such a drag. Leonard Nimoy is, as usual, a treat as old-Spock and all the new guys stepped into their roles admirably. The update to the Enterprise is excellent. It keeps all the classic lines. As with most sci-fi movies, I did have to turn off part of my brain that cringed from the science, but definitely a most enjoyable movie. Angels and Demons Another well-executed adaptation of Dan Brown's novel. Luckily, I read the book years ago and the plot was only vaguely remembered. The Vatican is a grand setting and they managed to keep the suspense up for most of the movie. GI Joe - Rise of Cobra Good solid action movie. The transfer from comic to big screen was done well, though the "accelerator suits" were an obvious attempt to up the special effects quota to attract Transformers/Halo/etc enthusiasts. Watchmen I only vaguely recalled the original comic mini-series plotline when I watched this movie. That turned out to be a good thing since I didn't have too many expectations to shatter. The pace could have been faster, but it has a good balance of action and exploration of cold-war themes. Up Another great Pixar product. A bit on the kiddy side for me but still quite entertaining. I never was a fan of the prehistoric-lost-world type of setting, so maybe that's why it doesn't score that high for me. And then there are those that fall a tad (or more) short: Monster vs. Aliens Very entertaining movie. Again very kiddy, but quite fun to watch. Underworld - Rise of the Lycans Good addition to the Underworld franchise, but as a prequel, it suffers from the usual "I know what is going to happen already". Push The problem with trying to use precognition (predicting the future) is the ease with which to make it different for the good guys and the bad guys. The good guys should suffer from the same plot detriments of "if I change the present, the future changes". Not a bad movie, but could have been better. Gamer Another movie that could have been much better, though it is still good. I can really imagine the technology in-use and abused in the way described if it becomes available. However, other than that one tid-bit, the plot was average with elements similar to all sorts of one-man-against-the-world/government/corporation/evil-dude. District 9 I liked the plot, special effects and ending of this movie. But the main human character was just such a wimp for most of the movie that I couldn't stand watching him. Night at the Museum 2 Fun but not very exciting. For most of the movie, it seem like someone flipped through a few history books and decided to add historical figures to the story without integrating them. Fast and Furious 4 Yawn. What is this, a video game? Oh yah. It is. Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen Oh bad. Very bad. So very very bad. Explosions galore but suffers even more than the first movie from the glaring plot holes, inconsistencies, lack of character development (yes, the robots are characters and not props!). Finally, the "need to watch, but don't feel like it right now" list. Most of these are from series where I have had disappointing experiences: Terminator 4 X-Men Origins - Wolverine Land of the Lost Harry Potter 6 - Half Blood Prince All in all, a pretty good year of movies.

Portland, Oregon Trip 2009

We were in Portland, Oregon last week. Jia Nin was there to attend a knitting event, the Sock Summit (hey, if the US president can hold a beer summit...). We decided to check in a few days early to see the city and its sights. I flew back to Michigan once the summit began. Our hotel (Mark Spencer) was right in the middle of downtown Portland, with a light rail and street car system within short walking distance. In fact, we took the light rail all the way from the airport to the hotel. This was great since parking was very scarce. All parts of the city, and most of the attractions, are easily accessible via the public transportation system. The website even gives great directions (with several options) and very accurate time estimates. The hotel room had a kitchenette which proved very useful since we didn't want to eat out all the time. A Whole Foods Market was conveniently located just 3 blocks away. View Larger Map Naturally, we had to visit the touristy places: the Portland Japanese Garden and the International Rose Test Garden. Walked a staggering (literally) 10km that day! On the plus side, got some landscaping inspiration at the Japanese Garden, and got a whiff of the best smelling rose (IMHO) ever, the New Zealand. We spent a day around town looking for a good coffee place, pizza and a bookstore; respectively, Stump Town Coffee, Old Town Pizza, and Powell's. The first two were very very tasty and the last was simply heavenly. Powell's took up an entire city block in a 4-storey building! It is stocked with books (both new and used) of every catagory and has the largest science fiction/fantasy section I've ever seen. Nirvana... Having spent 3 days in the city, we decided to rent a car and drive to the coast. Since it was a last minute decision, and it was summer, the local car rental places were all out of cars. Luckily, the light rail came to our rescue and we went to the airport for a car instead. The route took us past a few of the suburbs and small towns, down the coast (beautiful cliffs, coves and wetlands) and finally through the Cascade Mountains. Made me wish I'd rented a sportier car. Uphill, downhill, sweeping turns and short passing lanes. It's probably for the best that the cheapo car didn't allow me to enjoy the drive _too_ much. View Larger Map

Our Books Are Here!

In a previous blog post about my recent trip back to Singapore, I mentioned that I was shipping 240+kg worth of books to the U.S.. Well, they're here! They arrived in a series of deliveries over the course of 3 weeks. Otherwise, I would have piled them all up and taken a photo. Our existing bookshelves wouldn't come close to holding all these books. And I would have to reinforce the floor of our ground-floor library so that it wouldn't collapse into the basement! What to do? Why, make a basement library, of course. The basement has a concrete foundation, no need for more reinforcement. Its temperature, being underground, is a consistent 16-20C. I had previously installed a dehumidifier so that it will be dry for storage, perfect for books. Being hidden away in the basement, we don't have to care about looks of the shelves and concentrated on load bearing capacity. We went to the university's Property Disposition facility and picked up 5 used office shelving units. They are usually about US$180 when new, but were going for US$45 each. We had to rent a truck to bring them all back to the house, but that was only US$70. The 2 shelves on the left contain my books, while the 3 on the right are reserved for Jia Nin's. I've been shifting to electronic books over the past few years, so I only collect books that I really, really want to keep. My entire e-book collection can fit on one single backup USB hard drive! Ah, progress.