What did I do this weekend. Well, first off I replace the front brakes on the ole ‘Woo. I had new rotors for her to, but the caliper mounting bracket bolts weren’t budging and considering I was on an incline, I felt it not wise to attempt to use too much force.
Also, I learned how important it is to ensure the jack you bought will fit under your car.
And also, I learned that the previous owners of the vehicle stole the lug nut wrench and the jack handle.
Which meant I had to use the only tool left, a screwdriver, to raise the car’s own jack. No, it wasn’t really fun.
I was actually disappointed the brake pads had as much left on them as they did. I was hoping my soft brakes were the cause of next-to-no pad left. I was wrong - but in a week or two I’ll tackle the rear brake pads and rotors - hopefully those are the ones causing the issue. The guy at Napa, in a super casual glance through a hole in the rim assured me that “Yeah, they’re shot”. So if you can’t trust that, who can you trust?

Then, on Sunday, I went through all of my computer parts and electronic packratting. I managed to go from 4 large plastic bins down to 2. I threw away a lot of things, some of which were:

• 17 computer power supplies (Out of 19, I kept the 2 AT ones for use as bench power supplies)
• 5 cell phones of varying age, the newest being about 5 years old
• 11 hard drives, with a combined storage total of 9GB!
• Batteries for a laptop I don’t have any more
• Batteries for several cameras I don’t have any more
• Easily 300 feet of coax cable alone - plus about 200 feet of misc cable
• A ginormous box of obsolete electronic devices from a local school district. A lot of Mac gear.
• 2 complete PCs, not anywhere near powerful enough to do anything of much use these days.

I also have something like 35 12 foot long brown extension cords.

All of this is part of my “One Project, One Trip” mentality. If I have a project to complete, I’ll buy the main parts of it and anything else I think I need but don’t know if I have.

So I think I’ll start making a home inventory system for the office. Keep all my cables tagged and organized. Same with the tools. And if I’m going to do that, I might as well make it web enabled, so I can query it from Home Depot and see that yes, I do have a 25 foot long S-Video cable. And if I’m going to do all that, I might as well throw my barcode scanner into it, so I can just scan things when I get them and know what they are right away.

Ain’t technology great?

I’ll have some pictures of the brake action later, but forgot to take some of the cable action. However, I will be taking timed pictures of the move out date, so I can make a neat little time-lapse movie about it.

Anyway - big move happens this Friday. And I think we’ll be ready.

So since I’ve decided to keep the ‘Woo instead of upgrading to a sexy CX-7, I’ve decided why not go the next step and actually upgrade it.

My Leganza is an “SE” model. Not the absolute bottom line, but not the top end “CDX” version. But, what I have going for me is the fact that most of the stuff the makes an SE a CDX is already there. All of the internals are there - wiring harnesses, sensors, and the what not. And to be honest, for being a ‘bargain’ car maker, Daewoo did do a lot to the hardware side of things¹ - it gets over 30mpg, the 2.2 liter engine is surprisingly peppy, 4 wheel anti-lock disc brakes², power windows, locks, mirrors, etc. So it’s definately worth keeping around for awhile.

The best part is since they sold it all to Chevy, the Daewoo branded stuff is getting dirt cheap - I bought the service manuals and wiring schematics for over 80% off their normal price! Hell, I can buy the Daewoo allow rims for only $50 a piece, when they originally went for almost $250 each! Not to mention, the Daewoo website is amazingly helpful. I can buy, literally, any part that the car has - right there online.

But even better, and back to my original point - eBay has many of those same parts, and even cheaper. So since we’ll be moving to a place with a garage and multiple rooms soon, I might as well get started!

Read the rest of this entry »

1. Taking away from the comfort side of things to do it [↩]
2. And it’s a 2001 mind you - there’s a lot of 2008 cars that don’t have 4 wheel disc brakes [↩]

Many years ago I used to own a Jeep Cherokee Sport. It was an older model, 1996, but I loved it very much. It had 170,000 miles on it and the windshield seal leaked because of the rust,  but it started every single time and ran strong then anything I had ever owned before.

Then, in March of 2005 my baby was stolen from me. I was shocked. Right after that I was pissed. Then right after that I went looking for a car.

My credit wasn’t all that hot at the time so I had to take what I could get. And the only thing I could manage to get was the 3rd largest exporter of automobiles from Korea.

Yes, I ended up with a 2001 Daewoo Leganza. This beauty right here:

At the time I hated it. It wasn’t my Jeep at all. It was the only car Denny Hecker showed me, and since I was simply dropped off at the dealership by a friend I really had no choice.

Well, now the ordeal is almost finally over - it’s just about paid off. I paid to much, and it took to long, but when you’re in the desert, it doesn’t really matter what the glass of waters costs, you pay it, right?

So for the past 6 months or so, I’ve been mulling over, dreaming of, a new car to get when this thing is paid off. Bouncing around from automaker to automaker, model to model, I had finally set my sites on the perfect vehicle for me. A Mazda CX-7. Look how gorgeous it is:

Of course, mine would be painted black, with tinted glass and powder coated color-matched rims, but still - it’s a quite aggressive looking beast. And with a turbo-charged 4 cylinder, it’s 22MPG isn’t half bad.

So I was getting quite psyched for it. Then I realized something.

I hardly ever drive my ‘Woo as it is. And not having a several hundred dollar a month car payment would be quite a nice thing to get used to.

So I’ve switched gears and am now psyched to work on my car and get it in tip-top shape. It needs new brake pads and rotors all around, so I picked em up and when we start moving in a month I’ll use the new garage to get that done - I’d do it here, but I’m not sure how the rotors come off - it’ll either be a simple wheel off and then bam, rotor off; or it will be an hour long ordeal which requires me taking the hub assembly apart.

And if I do that, I might as well replace and/or repack the wheel bearings, since I’ll be there anyway.
Then when that’s all done, I’ll give it a general tuneup - new spark plugs, wires, figure out why the pesky check engine light comes on - probably a flaky O2 sensor caused by crappy SA gas, since the only time it comes on is when I get my gas from there.

Then, I’ll do something I should have done years ago, ditch my beloved Belkin iPod tape deck adapter and get myself a proper receiver and some new speakers to go with it.

And that would be about it - then I just drive it until it falls apart. And considering I was due an oil change over a month ago, but haven’t done it yet since I’m still about a 1000 miles short of 77,000, that will be quite some time. At least long enough to save up for a big down payment

Well, the Bent Festival is over. It was an amazing event, I met a lot of awesome talented people, and took a metric ton of pictures - over 1700 in all. Here are some of my favorites, starting with my absolute fave!

Albino Ghost Monkey from Rice Lake, WI

Tim Kaiser from Duluth, MN plays his homemade instruments

The custom hacked and bent keyboard played by Albino Ghost Monkey

Closeup of one of the hacked synthesizers connected to a stationary bicycle

Hacked Nintendo, used to display odd visuals of classic games

DJ Tendraw from England gives us his hardcore renditions

Memory Selector from Chicago/Minneapolis plays a chill set

Creme De Menthia of Illinois waxes his bending skills

Mike Rosenthal of “The Tank” cooks for the group at the Bent BBQ

Datura 1.0 and Tim Kaiser discuss their art over Bratwurst

Ronald Schleper teaches a drum machine bending workshop

Beatrix*JAR pumps up the audience at the end of day 1

There really are to many good pictures - it’s hard to choose. If you’re feeling brave, feel free to look at the over 750 shots at my Flickr set.

Really looking forward to next year! And thanks to Wired’s GeekDad for asking me to shoot it!

There’s a lot of neat things going down in the TC this weekend, and here are some choice ones to check out!

The Bent Festival - Happening yesterday until Saturday, the 5th annual Bent Festival makes it’s last leg stop here in Minneapolis. Check them out at Intermedia Arts, on 28th and Lyndale. You’ll meet & greet and listen to some of the most interesting music in the world of DIY circuit bending. From soft soothing melodies to a brash jarring cacophony of sounds - you can find it there. At $10 per concert, it’s your best choice for 6 solid hours of music, and on Saturday there is a wealth of workshops to show you how to do it yourself and a barbecue to help you keep going! Please Note: They don’t like credit cards, so bring cash. And some of the workshops have a fee, so keep that in mind.

Studio Bricolage’s First Friday - A lot of people know about Leonardo’s Basement, an organization that helps boys and girls from 6 - 16 expand their minds with the help of music, art, robotics and more. But did you also know they hold an event every First Friday of the month at Studio Bricolage? Studio Bricolage is the adult oriented version of Leonardo’s Basement. For only $10, this month’s session will teach you how to melt plastic toys into bowls, crochet plastic bags together, create your own inflatables and a whole lot more. We’ve been here a few times, and it’s always a great time¹

Black Dog Exhibit Opener - If you’re not doing anything at all tonight and you’re in the St. Paul area, check out the Black Dog Coffee & Wine Bar for the opening night of their “Limitless Energy” exhibit - showing the energy that resides within the artist. Cost is free, and you can see some of my stuff! And maybe, even, buy it!² And remember, my art comes JACC approved, for that extra goodness!

And now for a few shots from last night’s Bent concert

1. Really looking forward to their Arduino workshops in June! [↩]
2. Yes, I’m a shameless whore. I’m learning that’s just the artist’s way [↩]

Just a quick remind, the 5th annual (2nd annual in MN) Ben Festival starts tonight, 7pm @ Intermedia Arts. If you’d like more information, check out my post earlier this week about it. It’s sure to be a blast, and I will see you there!

The 2008 Bent Festival will be making it’s final stop here in Minneapolis from May 1st - 3rd at Intermedia Arts¹. This is it’s 5th year, and it’s 2nd in Minneapolis - let’s show ‘em some love!

What is it? The Bent Festival is an annual art and music festival celebrating DIY electronics, hardware hacking, and circuit bending. Each year they invite artists from across the country and around the globe to perform music with their home-made or circuit bent instruments, teach workshops to adults and children alike, create beautiful art installations and to generally come together, face to face, and showcase the state of the art in DIY electronics and circuit bending culture.

If you’re the type that took your toys apart growing up, then this event is definitely for you! Like to learn more? Check out the Bent Festival on Flickr or YouTube, add them to your MySpace or Facebook, look at the workshops or check out the complete schedule. The 3 concerts are $10 each, and some of the workshops have a small charge for parts. Buy individual tickets, or a 3 day pass for only $25.

Local artists performing this year are: Datura 1.0, Caly McMorrow, Beatrix*JAR and Memory Selector.

1. Google Map to Intermedia Arts [↩]

What would you say I could offer you access to over $1 million dollars in tools, for only $100/month? I’m talking about rapid prototyping machines, vertical & horizontal CNC milling machines, laser cutters, lathes, CNC plasma cutters, MIG welders and a ton more. Imagine all the projects you could work on!

Well, I’m in talks, hopefully we’ll have that around here soon. We may have one of those here in our fair Twin Cities. It’ll be tough to open a business + plan for a wedding and such - but I think it can be done, I’d love to have 2 dreams done by the end of the year.

In episode 12, season 3 of Futurama - title “The Route of all Evil” - Fry, Leela, and Bender brew beer inside of Bender, and end up treating him like an expectant mother.

Well now, Simon Jansen of Asciimation remembered that episode and decided to make an actual functioning brewing Bender, and wrote out all the steps he used, including circuit diagrams! Fanboy note: It’s joked that Bender is powered by an ancient 6502 processor, so Mr. Jansen decided to gut an old commodore disc drive and use it’s 6502 to make Bender talk.

Kudos to you man, kudos!

As a collector of screen printed gig posters, I know the pain that is the cost of frames. Not only that, but where can you find a frame that will fit an 11″ x 23″ poster correctly?
Calling around here in St. Paul, the average price ran about $50 for an 11″ x 23″ piece of glass - not the whole frame, but the glass! There has to be a better way! And, there is!

What do you need? A sheet of acrylic and some sectional frame kits. Read on, and I’ll show you how!

Read the rest of this entry »