Ramblings of a hacker/photographer/woodworkerTumblr (3.0; @sigwinch)http://blog.sigwinch.org/<a href="http://gchpaco.livejournal.com/81453.html">Lathe!</a>: My dedicated turning tools came today. They’re, uh, big. But hopefully I will pick the art up reasonably quickly. My pole lathe is nearly assembled, and while it won’t win any awards (one of the 2x4s…http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/43208659http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/43208659Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:32:08 -0700<a href="http://gchpaco.livejournal.com/81202.html">Ouch</a>: <p>From <a href="http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/">Lawyers, Guns and Money</a>’s entry <a href="http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/2008/06/its-racist-not-to-fly-confederate-flag.html">It’s Racist NOT to Fly the Confederate Flag..</a>, specifically Bruce Baugh’s comment: </p> <blockquote cite="http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/2008/06/its-racist-not-to-fly-confederate-flag.html#587854"> Some years back, a friend of mine worked for a company whose owner had…</blockquote>http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/40168880http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/40168880Sat, 28 Jun 2008 04:30:57 -0700<a href="http://gchpaco.livejournal.com/80979.html">Blades</a>: <p>As seen on my Old Tools list from Thomas Conroy: </p> <blockquote> Swords and even bayonets often have a groove, properly called a “fuller,” along the blade to lighten the sword and to increase its stiffness, a very…</blockquote>http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/40139002http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/40139002Fri, 27 Jun 2008 22:01:06 -0700<a href="http://gchpaco.livejournal.com/80851.html">Just what I always wanted.</a>: 30° C and the power is out, probably because of home air conditioners. Just what I always wanted. I drank a cold Coke and things got real fuzzy for a minute. I took a cold shower to cool down and…http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/39353496http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/39353496Sat, 21 Jun 2008 22:48:58 -0700<a href="http://gchpaco.livejournal.com/80523.html">Transformers: The Abridged Script | The Editing Room</a>: From <a href="http://www.the-editing-room.com/">The Editing Room</a>’s entry <a href="http://www.the-editing-room.com/transformers.html">Transformers: The Abridged Script | The Editing Room</a>: <blockquote cite="http://www.the-editing-room.com/transformers.html"> <b>Peter Cullen</b> <p> When your great, great grandfather found evil robot Hugo Weaving in the arctic, he…</p> </blockquote>http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/38969910http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/38969910Wed, 18 Jun 2008 20:21:12 -0700<a href="http://gchpaco.livejournal.com/80194.html">Summer Movies so far</a>: <dl> <dt>Indiana Jones and the Search for More Cash</dt> <dd>Lame. Mind bogglingly lame. <i>Star Wars</i> prequel without the terrible acting. Camerawork was mildly better when it wasn’t making itself incredibly obvious,…</dd> </dl>http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/36846291http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/36846291Sun, 01 Jun 2008 21:54:00 -0700<a href="http://gchpaco.livejournal.com/80114.html">Puccini: 1988–2008</a>: <table style="float:right"> <tr><th>Puccini and window</th></tr> <tr><td><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gchpaco/3599242/"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/3/3599242_d1621faf98_m.jpg"/></a></td></tr> </table> <p> Some time yesterday, our cat Puccini suffered a major stroke which appears to have disabled her ability to use her rear legs effectively. This follows prolonged kidney…</p>http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/32381558http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/32381558Sun, 20 Apr 2008 22:55:15 -0700<a href="http://gchpaco.livejournal.com/79635.html">1½ vises later…</a>: Rather than go to crown, I “opted” to spend Saturday sleeping for like 12 hours and today after mysteriously being totally unable to get to sleep last night working on my workbench. I installed one…http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/31708401http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/31708401Mon, 14 Apr 2008 02:56:53 -0700<a href="http://gchpaco.livejournal.com/79384.html">yew lives!</a>: My laptop has returned from the hard drive failure intact, thanks to the Time Machine backups. Yay for automated backups that actually work. Replacing the hard drive was a bit of a production, but I…http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/31115441http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/31115441Tue, 08 Apr 2008 00:39:42 -0700<a href="http://gchpaco.livejournal.com/79331.html">Link</a>: My laptop’s hard drive is dying. Fortunately thanks to the new Mac OS X I actually have backups, so I’ve ordered a new HD. It seems one can get quiet or low power but not both (although occasionally…http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/30731557http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/30731557Thu, 03 Apr 2008 19:27:35 -0700<a href="http://www.divinecaroline.com/article/22291/43737">How to Fight a Health Insurance Denial : DivineCaroline</a>: Submitted without comment; I have no personal experience with these matters.http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/30122046http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/30122046Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:14:53 -0700<a href="http://gchpaco.livejournal.com/78856.html">Workbench</a>: One pair of the legs for the bench is being glued together. Yay. I might actually get it on its feet and start installing the vises this week, if work permits. Wedged mortise & tenon joinery is…http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/29771131http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/29771131Mon, 24 Mar 2008 22:47:00 -0700<a href="http://gchpaco.livejournal.com/78607.html">Chisel review</a>: I doubt any of you really care, but in case the Semantic Web comes to exist tomorrow I’d like prospective purchasers to be able to see my impressions of the tools. Capsule version: between the two of…http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/29763383http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/29763383Mon, 24 Mar 2008 20:46:58 -0700<a href="http://gchpaco.livejournal.com/78348.html">Tools</a>: I received a traditional English style pigsticker mortising chisel today. It’s somewhat difficult to really convey my impressions of the thing in text, so have some photos instead. <p> <a name="cutid1"></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ghughes/2353411118/"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3191/2353411118_9419885fec_m.jpg"/></a><br/>This is…</p>http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/29587201http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/29587201Sat, 22 Mar 2008 17:40:44 -0700“<p>Could someone please sit down the slower students in the class and explain to them that ‘hackers’ who seek to alter a device’s software for the purpose of giving it more functionality are not the same as ‘hackers’ who try to find illicit ways to compromise your data for personal gain.</p> <p>Kay apparently believes there’s a rash of people breaking into the homes of Apple customers, installing applications on their iPhones or enabling them to be used with other carriers and then slipping away into the night.</p>”<br/><br/> - <em><a href="http://www.cnet.com/8301-13509_1-9899095-20.html">Oh, Kay. | The Macalope: An Apple blog - CNET Blogs</a></em>http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/29437197http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/29437197Thu, 20 Mar 2008 19:48:00 -0700“You see, when the wingnut feels threatened, it excretes a foul substance which forms a protective layer of disingenuous stupidity designed to deflect dissonant facts and beliefs which could damage the wingnut’s tender underbelly of pure stupid. In order to harden this protective layer into an impervious carapace of ignorance, the wingnut needs to come to believe this tactically-held nonsense - needs to incorporate this protective layer into its body of stupid beliefs by making itself believe them for real. But then, of course, if this carapace is threatened, it too will have to be protected by a layer of disingenuous stupidity, and so on and so on until you start writing books called Liberal Fascism.”<br/><br/> - <em><a href="http://thepoorman.net/2008/03/18/oh-hes-good/">Oh, he’s good « Liberal Fascism</a></em>http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/29257540http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/29257540Tue, 18 Mar 2008 23:37:59 -0700“…You nauseate me, you disgusting, spineless, pallid little excuse for a man. I hate you. I’ve seen tripe in my soup that had more character than you. When we all receive our just reward, you will spend all eternity cleaning my toilets with your tongue, after which you’ll have to write an essay describing your feelings about this experience, as well as discussing any new vocabulary you will have learned from my toilets. You foul little worm. For a person such as you to have testicles and a penis is such a profound waste of these lovely organs, yet I feel certain that you’d be just as much of a disgrace to the breasts and ova. Actually, the ability to have sex itself is something you don’t deserve even a little bit, and as for reproducing, may Heaven itself strike your unworthy DNA from the rolls of history. May your ass-cheeks be afflicted with a red, weeping rash; may your wife continually entertain herself with syphilitic manwhores; may your car always break down in a busy intersection on a rainy day; may your armpits ache with swollen carbuncles! May flies lay their eggs in the corners of your weepy little eyes! You and your whole tribe are nothing but an infected open sore on the groin of the Universe.”<br/><br/> - <em><a href="http://community.livejournal.com/metaquotes/6600104.html?page=2#comments">metaquotes: QWP. F’locked context hates her son’s wussy fourth-grade teacher</a></em>http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/29231231http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/29231231Tue, 18 Mar 2008 16:55:25 -0700<a href="http://gchpaco.livejournal.com/78267.html">The Infamous Brad - The Wearin' o' the Black</a>: <p>From <a href="http://bradhicks.livejournal.com/">Brad Hicks</a>’s entry <a href="http://bradhicks.livejournal.com/383569.html">The Infamous Brad - The Wearin’ o’ the Black</a>: </p> <blockquote cite="http://bradhicks.livejournal.com/383569.html"> Early in the history of Irish Catholicism, somebody came back with stories of how amazingly spiritual the Egyptian ascetic…</blockquote>http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/29079927http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/29079927Mon, 17 Mar 2008 05:27:31 -0700<a href="http://gchpaco.livejournal.com/78027.html">Link</a>: <p><a href="http://xkcd.com/397/"><img src="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/unscientific.png"/></a> </p> <blockquote> Last week, we busted the myth that electroweak gague symmetry is broken by the Higgs mechanism. We’ll also examine the existence of God and whether true love exists. </blockquote>http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/29076167http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/29076167Mon, 17 Mar 2008 04:27:18 -0700“How do I know my neighbors appreciate the melodious tunes of my power tools? Because whenever they see me, they wave like crazy. The odd thing is, the neighbors on both sides of my house must have experienced a similar unfortunate accident that claimed all but the middle finger on their right hands. Despite this, they wave. God love ‘em.”<br/><br/> - <em><a href="http://villagecarpenter.blogspot.com/2008/03/signs-of-spring.html">The Village Carpenter: Signs of Spring</a></em>http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/28740728http://blog.sigwinch.org/post/28740728Thu, 13 Mar 2008 05:06:07 -0700