MacGyver Jack-O-Lantern

I just received this email from MacGyver fan, Chris Sprague.

Thinking out loud to teach our kids.

I was thinking about this as I walked up to get my son from school today (yes I said walked. I know) I was thinking about how probably one of the most subtle, yet important aspects of MacGyver was that it (almost subconsciously) taught us how to problem solve.

How many times have we heard MacGyver explain, in either a voice-over or to someone there with him, about “this is the problem I have.” Or “this is what I need to do” and “This is what I have to do/fix it with”. Admittedly they where often deliberately vague in order to maintain that “what’s he doing now?” factor and to provide an element of surprise when the viewer saw the end result, but over all he did often talk us through a very good problem solving process of…

1. Assess the problem
2. Determine what you want the end result to be
3. Identify what tools you have to achieve that result
4. Plan how to use those tools to get the result.

I know I’ve certainly caught myself following this process and I can only assume that I picked it up from watching and emulating MacGyver as a young teen, which lead me to thinking today about how if we “thought out loud” to our kids (if you’re one of those now rare parents that actually do stuff with their kids (is that too cynical?)) as we go about fixing things at home or doing stuff around the house etc, they too would pick up that MacGyver-problem-solving process which would certainly be an invaluable asset to them for the rest of their lives. It won’t make them into MacGyver’s using chewing gum wrappers to fix fuses (that’s a separate thought process again) but it will give them the ability to meet the challenges they will face in life.

Is the Consumers Guarantees Act misleading?

I’ve been hearing some comments and debates in recent times about how we don’t need to purchase extended warrantees because we’re covered under the Consumers Guarantees Act.

Having recently looked into this with the view of actually using it to get a 2 year old Microwave replaced I’ve found that there is actually quite a hassle involved in going through the process and there’s no guarantee you’ll get anything fixed.

Read the full story here

Home-made Hockey Stick

home made hockey stick

There’s a couple of reasons I decided to try making a hockey stick…

1. Because ice/inline hockey isn’t very popular in this part of the world, the equipment is harder to come by, and quite expensive.

2. I only want it to skate around on my own up at a local old outdoor roller skate area. (or on week-ends down at the school with my kids)

So I decided that all I really needed was something that resembled a hockey stick which I could dribble and hit a ball around with while I got some exercise on my roller blades.  Skating around in circles is pretty boring; chasing a ball around with a hockey stick is much more fun.

So after doing some research (via my good friend Google); I found the various measurements of standard hockey sticks, and set about looking for suitable materials to use.

I figured it was going to be all wood, and didn’t’ take long to find a piece of long thin wood for a handle and a small piece of compressed plywood for the blade section.

Blade cut out of compressed plywood

First task was to draw out the shape of the blade and lower shaft and cut it out using an electric jigsaw.

The piece of wood used is considerably thicker than a normal hockey blade, but this will (in time) give me the chance of developing a curve in the blade.

Although old hockey sticks never use to have a curve in the blade, it does make for better control of the ball or puck.

metal used to attach blade to handle

My next big problem was how I was going to attach the blade to the handle. Normal sticks are glued, but also made so one section partially slides inside the other to make for a firm attachment. I don’t have the equipment required to do that, so I decided to look at bracing the two pieces together.

I found a piece of angled aluminum from an old dead BBQ I had dismantled last summer; the metal was a bit too wide, but I decided to cut it in half (jigsaw fitted with a hacksaw blade made quick work of this) and use it as a splint brace to join the two pieces.

I was a little disappointed to find that the angled aluminum wasn’t as strong as I’d hoped it would be, so I needed to add a second strip on the other side of the join area for a bit of extra support, which worked out well.

So the end product is understandably heavier than a professional made stick due to the thickness of the blade and I guess the kind of wood used. But in time I’m hoping to get around to thinning the blade down and adding a curve to it, although I’m not sure of the woods strength so I’m a little hesitant to make it too thin.

home made hockey stick

I gave it a good work out this afternoon with a bit of one-on-one roller hockey against my son with his home made stick down at their school. It worked well and stood up nicely to the riggers of the game.

SG:1 season 9 is BAD!

Wow! I can’t believe how bad season 9 of Stargate SG:1 is.

It lost it’s way when RD Anderson left.

I’ve just watched the first 4 episodes of season 9 and I’m not sure i’ll get through the rest. It’s like a completely different show and I really REALLY want to slap Daniel every time he starts speed talking.

Natures fury

I’ve just been out for a (relatively quick) bike ride through the wetlands enjoying the colors of autumn and the show nature always provides at this time of year.

There was an extra feature to this bike ride though, the air has a pre-storm tension to it.

I love being outside when nature starts to build her fury,the feeling of tension that builds before a storm.
The wind picks up, the skies cloud over and darken, the air cools down and fills with electricity and anticipation.

It’s a great time to be out amongst nature, it adds a certain something to the wilderness, an energy that you don’t feel at any other time. But it also makes you appreciate being inside all that much more too.  It’s easy to forget what it is your actually being protected from when your curled up in front of a warm fire with the rain and wind beating against the windows. Being out in it reminds you of what that beating sound at the window really is.

T.A.R.D.I.S

My kids are currently on a Doctor Who kick, so we’ve been spending some time discussion and looking into the whole dimensional relativity idea worked around the Tardis being bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.

We’ve been playing with the original explanation of how a larger cube can appear to be able to fit inside a smaller one if the larger cube is farther away, yet immediately accessible at the same time. This conversation can quickly lead into the theory of relativity if your not careful. lol

Anyway, while reading about the TARDIS on the Wikipedia site we came across this picture, which while not totally explaining the concept of “dimensionally transcendentalism” it gives a quite kewl effect.

Stupid online TV zones

So what the hells the stupid idea with these online TV viewing sites anyway?

Youtube has just launched a new viewing channel for TV shows along the same lines as Hulu and the various network sites, but they are only available to US citizens.

I tried to watch a MacGyver episode earlier and it said it’s not available to my area. This is in spite of the fact that I can watch re-runs of MacGyver every Saturday on TV and buy the damn DVD’s here, but I can’t watch it online!?

These idiots need to get their shit together and realize that we’re no longer living in the separated zoned planet of the 80’s and 90’s. There aren’t any time restrictions or zone issues any more. Everything online is real time. and yet these plonkers are still carrying on with their zoning control as if the internet didn’t exist.

Mind you I really shouldn’t be surprised. These are after all the same dipsticks that are still using the worlds most out of date ratings system to workout how many people watch their shows, while completely ignoring the fact that people are watching the shows on their very own channel websites. And they can’t figure out why TV ratings are dropping.. oh… I know.. maybe because they are simply watching it on your channels web site now instead of through the TV!! Only they’re too darn stupid to think of that!!

Then again maybe they think this Inter-web thing is a passing fad, and once the computer novelty wears off people will return to spending their evenings in front of the TV set.

Roasted Chestnuts

Chestnuts ready for roasting

While riding through our local Wetlands park area yesterday I noticed the ground around the Chestnut trees where littered with the prickly husks of fallen chestnuts.

I’ve always liked the look of Chestnuts. Not entirely sure why, but the color, texture,shape, all just makes for an interesting object to me.

I’ve often heard my parents talk about roasted Chestnuts over the years, so decided to grab a hand full to try roasting.

After doing some internet research on the exact process. I gave it a go and was quite surprised at the tasty result.

So I took my kids back later in the afternoon and we collected a decent amount to bring home to roast.

My youngest seems quite taken by the idea of being able to take something we found laying around and turn it into food in the same way as we see Bear Grylls do in his Man vs. Wild show.

Fish tank still not right

Last week I got so sick of my water problems with the fish tank that I emptied it out and gave it a complete scrub down.

Rinsed all the gravel, boiled the rocks, scrubbed out the filter. The full works.

Put it all back together and filled it with clean water.. which is something your not suppose to do, because of the water cycle, but with only 5 fish left, there’s not much of a load on the water cycle, so I figured it would be ok.

For the first week I had perfect PH levels, this morning I see they have dropped right down again!

So although I have got a nice clean fish tank, my complete cleanup doesn’t seem to have done anything to help.