Twofoos

Oh noes! We were “hacked”

Kevin — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:51:04 +0000

Apparently there was some latent vulnerability in either the theme I was using or the slightly out of date (v2.9.2 – current is v3.0) version of wordpress. In any event, I have jumped on it with both feet and it “should’ be okay from here.

I am combing through the rest of site to see if I can find anything else out of place. If you see anything out of order, feel free to let me know!

Changing Themes

Thunderweave at LRC 2010

Kevin — Wed, 26 May 2010 01:43:08 +0000

Just a quick post to show off Jen fronting the band Thunderweave at the May 2010 Ladies Rock camp in Portland. There’s a ton of pictures floating around and more than one video, so I’m going to drop this here and gather up the rest later.

I thought the show was great, all the ladies did an excellent job, my only complaint was that the show was so short.

Closet Bookshelves

Kevin — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:01:35 +0000

A few years ago, we pre-modeled the (tiny) second bedroom upstairs into an office. I had bookshelves all along the walls and I built a desk into the closet to make use of the space. I say pre-modeled only because it was never really meant to stay that way, it was just something to tide us over for a few years until we got around to doing it properly.

I really was pleased with the idea of being able to use the closet space for something like the desk, but when it came time to actually do the remodel I had to make a change. That arrangement always put Jennifer and I in close proximity, which would never be a bad thing, but it also meant we had a pretty limited amount of desk space. That fact coupled with the thought that we wanted to make space for Brady meant we needed to rethink the desk scenario.

We ended up with a “U” shaped desk, for three, on the walls opposite the closet. That left little room for the bookshelves that are so dear to me. I had some wall-mounted ones but that just made the space feel even smaller. I decided on something completely different.

The bookshelves had to be in the closet, non-negotiable. I really didn’t want to have the open shelves gaping out at me lamenting a lack of orderliness and I quickly realized orienting the shelves perpendicular to the closet opening would triple the linear shelf length. Bonus points for being able to pretty up the exterior of the shelves.

We wound up with the picture leading into the article. Four rolling bookshelves, two double-sided, two double depth. They ride on casters straight in and out, but may be pulled completely out and wheeled around the room, if you were so inclined.

Here’s a look at each of the sections pulled out:

The above two sections are the double-sided shelves holding normal sized books, both hard- and paperback.

The bookcase on the far left side holds all of our board and card games.

The last bookcase holds the boxed photos, art books, and office supplies. In this view you can see the back side of the bookcase showing that it is full-depth.

This final shot is the closet area with all of the bookcases stowed fully. They all have the same twelve-inch cabinet pulls and the vinyl tree and bird graphics came from here.

The best part of these bookcases? I LOVE them. In a totally “still in the closet” kind of way.

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Balloon Bass Guitar

Kevin — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 02:19:26 +0000

This is not the sort of thing I would normally post, but I would love to catch a full band like this playing at my local bar.

Ballon Bass And Box Jam – Watch more Funny Videos

Finally, door handles!

Kevin — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 02:10:25 +0000

We’ve been without door handles on our French doors, in the shop, for about 8 months now. I kept thinking that I would find something funky and fun to put up but never did.

Angela floated out the idea of doing something with license plates so after a few false starts this is what I came up with.

I formed the plate over a section of 1″ steel pipe creating the grab area. I then knocked out a quick and dirty press brake using some scrap wood and C-clamps to flatten the mounting area back the other direction.

I was able to do all of the forming with a 3 pound hammer and a small ball pein. I think it turned out great, you?

Dad at the drag races

Kevin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:38:27 +0000

My pops went to the track recently with his Mustang. Mostly stock except for a cold air intake and twin turbos. The big secret is that it’s running a custom tune (software) that he and his new business partner crafted.

They won every race that day.

Secret Santa Name Picker

Secret Santa Name Picker

Kevin — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:59:21 +0000

Our family decided a few years ago to only do single gifts for the adults members of the family. We usually selected names whenever the largest group of us got together and, if someone was not present, would select for them and pass along their selection later.

This generally worked, but when we added the conditions that you wouldn’t select your spouse or significant other (what a dumb term) or that you wouldn’t have the same name two years running, things got a bit complicated.

I think I was the person most guilty of screwing this up.

This year there haven’t been any opportunities to get together and get this sorted out so I decided to come up with a solution. I wanted to write a small program to do the selection, exclusion, and emailing but I really don’t have the time right now. I stumbled on web-based solution that is free, no need to register, and has all the functionality we require.

I’m certain that use of the service entails some advertising related emails to follow, but that was a necessary evil at this point. If you find yourself in need of a Secret Santa Name Chooser give it a try.

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Placing our first vending machine

Kevin — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:01:14 +0000

Jennifer and I put our first vending machine into the wild this past Sunday. I say first, not as an indicator of future plans, but as a way of indicating it was brand new to us.

I bought the machine used for a pretty decent price, $200 if I remember correctly. It has around 20-24 vending heads that serve candy, chips, gum, etc. It cost about $100 to fill the first time. We put a fairly wide assortment of items inside, mainly to gauge interest, but also just to have things you wouldn’t typically find.

My brother was able to score the location from his apartment management gig and it seems like a pretty decent spot so far. It’s in one of the laundry facilities in the apartment complex. It has 2 coin-op washers, 2 coin-op dryers, and soda vending machine. The soda machine is owned by the local bottler and we’ve considered attempting to displace it if the candy machine gets any traffic.

I felt a little bit guilty placing the machine in such a situation. It felt sort of like I was preying on folks who have poor impulse control or planning ability. I completely understand having vending in an environment like a cafeteria or workplace where it serves as a useful option, but it seems different when I am practically placing it in their homes.

Those predatory feelings have all but evaporated now. There were two people that came up to us in the short time we were installing it and expressed enthusiasm for having it there. Give people what they want, I suppose.

The final nail in the pity party came the next day, when Kristopher said that it looked like someone had been shaking the piss outta the machine to dislodge product. Someone will always be seeking the upper hand in any arrangement, it might as well be me.

Apparently, vending is an adversarial relationship.

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Solve problems by waving

Kevin — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:00:31 +0000

I drive a big yellow truck. BIG, yellow truck. Technically it’s a Grumman-Olson body on a GMC P-30 chassis. Think like a bread truck or FedEx just a tad shorter in length.

I was driving down a 4+1 lane road headed into Lakewood yesterday. I was in the right lane and had just crossed a set of railroad tracks when I see a blue Civic sedan start to drift into my lane.

The rear tire of the Civic was even with or behind my front tire, so this person was definitely not in front of me at all. Apparently they didn’t have or use their turn signal, and I had an inoperative horn (I’ll fix it soon, promise). There are cars behind me so I can’t jam the brakes but I do slow down.

Right about the moment I begin to slow down they make their move to get into my lane with a quickness. I swerve out of the way and have my right side in the grass on the verge, throwing dirt and clods of grass in my wake.

Lane change complete, she finally looks in the mirror and sees me, back on the road, hands held out at shoulder-level as if to say, “What in the hell is your damn-fool problem that my 9 foot tall, 16 foot long, YELLOW truck was invisible to you?”

She holds up her hand by the rearview mirror, fingers splayed, wrist slightly twisted, in what is an apparent display of the female driver’s version of the phrase, “My bad.”

She keeps it up there like a beauty queen for the next quarter of a mile or so. It moves around occasionally as if with every change of aspect it’s indicating how “very, very” her apology is.

Stop waving, goofball, drive the damn car and, this is key, pay attention to the road! If you’re really that sorry call the ladies at Hi-Teck Nail and get Jen a gift certificate.

Momma needs a pedicure.

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Diamond Plate is a man’s best friend

Kevin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:57:43 +0000

Well not really, but it does have a nice ring to it. To the point, the doors on the newly-built shop have lacked thresholds for about 4 months now. This has not been a major issue since the weather has been very mild.

Starting just a day or two ago, however, the clouds have been notified that it is officially Fall and they have been dumping rain in teasing on and off again torrents.

This is not good for hardwood floors. Even thought the rolling doors have a large rubber gasket to seal the sill there was still potential for problems. Yesterday I installed some tread plate that I cut to fit around the doorway. I think it looks pretty nice and it is certainly functional.

I just realized I was talking a good game about it but hadn’t taken any pictures yet. I’ll be sure to get some up this afternoon.