Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

Wow, another long, long day. I got up not too early today, around seven, and worked for an hour or so and then Nefarious got up and we watched a little Bernstain Bears (a promised reward for being really good the evening before) and then cooked up and split an ultra-hearty breakfast (diner-style homefries with onions and so on)… But don't go thinking I'm a good parent or anything — here's Nefarious playing with nunchucks. But they're padded trainers.

Phil came along (and I should mention that he needs a date to a very cool elite sideshow party — check his page if you want to go) so we could head out to Future Shop to pick up all the gear for tomorrow night's screening of MODIFY here at the house… I also grabbed some speaker stands, a UPS, and a wall mount for my LCD monitor which I'm using as a bedroom television. Oh, and here's what was in the parking lot of Home Depot:

I think that truck on the left is fairly expensive but I don't really know. But I can tell you that I could build you the truck on the right for a parts cost of under $4000, including the truck… and really, which is more fun? I'd say the one on the right is a far cooler vehicle.

But anyway, so I plugged in the UPS, and a massive spark shot out of the plug, and I could see a flash of light from inside the unit. At the same time the lights went out since it had flipped one of the breakers… Nice… So then I put together my speaker stands… oops… my “little” speakers are too heavy and the units won't stand up. Luckily I checked and the return policy makes it a non-issue…

Then I moved on to the monitor mount. My LCD has a folding base that stands it up on a table that I think looks pretty lame when you see it on the wall, even though it mostly folds flat. Unfortunately it is not “officially” removable, so I decided to try and take it off anyway… I unscrewed everything, but apparently they've designed it so you can't get it apart. No problem — I just cut the base in half with a jigsaw! Yeah, one of my favorite tools is a Sawzall…

Anyway, there were still bolts in the side (which of course had epoxy stuck all over them)… I had to really squeeze the pliers in to grab them, so I couldn't get a very good grip. They did come off in the end, but at one point the pliers slipped and crashed into my forearm… an instant later blood was pouring all over the place. It was sort of a surprise because the cut was very shallow — and I didn't think I could even cut myself with this tool — but I guess because it was really hot and I was hopped up on caffeine, I bled like crazy. Calliou bandages saved the day.

But the TV looks awesome on the wall (Phil helped get it straight) — I even drilled through so there'd be no cables hanging… I might end up doing the same for my speakers. When I have a chance I'll swap the stands that don't work for wall mounts I think.

We have the 50″ downstairs of course so this isn't generally where I'd watch TV, but I like listening to music when I go to bed… Other than that, I also went to the dump today again, and I noticed that as you drive in they scan your truck for radiation:

I'd never even considered that people might be trying to dump nuclear waste (ok, probably there's a simpler explanation) down in the ports, but hey, I guess the kind of person who would dump nuclear waste will probably put it anywhere they think they can get away with it.

Oh yeah, and I've added quite a lot of new posts on ModBlog today. That blog has built up a nice readership, and I think people are enjoying it, but I'm still considering what it's future will be… I'm in part considering phasing out publishing it, but still writing it, so it can go exclusively to print publication, but I'm not sure yet. And now, I am done for the day! Whew!