Monthly Archives: May 2007

"Rupert visits Coon Island" (!)

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Legaleze: “Rupert Bear” is the property of Entertainment Rights Distribution Limited and Express Newspapers

Some of you may know of or even be fans of Rupert Bear (as seen on TV!). A friend found this while she was working at Value Village and lent it to me to scan. This is the “1960 Daily Express Annual”, published by Beaverbrook Newspapers (Great Britain, 1960) and is available online from various used booksellers. The “Rupert and the Diamond Leaf” story, in which he visits “Coon Island” particularly caught my eye for obvious reasons!

Anyway, it was definitely a surprise…!
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DIY Underwater Video Camera Enclosure

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

It's really simple — two screw off caps, one of which has been permanently replaced with a sheet of clear lexan, and the other that's been left alone. Both are epoxied onto matching PVC pipe, which has a small plate in it (made of the leftover lexan), and a rubber and expoxy sealed 1/4″ bolt to mount it. I'll glue on some sort of a handle still; probably a general mounting that can attach to something else.

Tomorrow or later today I'll test it under water and maybe take it for a swim in Phil's pool or something.
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I am so getting one of these.

Monday, May 21, 2007

I don't know what this picture is from but I think I need one.

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Stop launching fireworks PLEASE!

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Thanks to the asses outside my house blasting dance music I'm still awake, so I emailed a bunch of realestate agents about properties they're listing here in Ontario. It's actually quite amazing. You can get a somewhat scrubby piece of land in the 20-100 acre range with power and DSL connectivity in the $15,000 price range, and given that a yurt is only about that as well, I can conceivably own a “house” and land without ever going into debt, which is a real dream come true.

Now, it's not like I haven't talked about this before, so I was asked by an old friend, “what makes you think it'll work this time?” — a reasonable question!

As you may recall, I do have 50 acres in New Brunswick that Rachel and I almost developed, but I gave up on it (the photo was taken there, with CT's Corvette). I'd like to think that in the five years since then — certainly in the last year — I've done a lot of growing up and am a lot more sure about what I want in life and I really believe that I can do it now. I don't know if I'm sorry I messed it up the first time, but I know I will be sorry if I don't figure it out eventually!

If I do this, I'm going to go with a yurt because not only does it offer me a lot of future options but also because so far I'm hearing nothing but good reviews of them. Anyway, I guess if I bought a little lot like this the first thing I'd do is build a washroom and shower/bath building that would also act as my “utility” building that the power and internet connectivity would run to, and then drop a yurt next door (because I don't really want to do a yurt as a permanent installation).

The reason I mention this is that I'd like neighbors. Loneliness is hard. You'd have to have the cash to come up with something you could live in that would be tough enough to handle the winter (probably $3,000 to $6,000 minimum depending on what you need), but I wouldn't be looking for rent or anything like that. You'd have to be either legal in Canada or willing to live illegally (not my problem). If you want to take part in this message me (and feel free to include your phone number and realworld name if you're really serious). I feel like I've screwed around and wasted time and money far too long and need to stop dreaming and start doing.

A good life is out there!

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So tired!

Sunday, May 20, 2007

First, thanks to everyone who's been sending me little stories about their yurt experiences! It's definitely helping convince me that this is a good idea.

This morning, after doing a little sculpting, Nefarious and I went to High Park and after playing for an hour or two we went for a walk up through the forest and saw tons of beautiful trilliums and caught a toad, which she got to hold and was quite pleased when it peed on me instead of her (no camera on that trip unfortunately). After lunch I thought I'd start a project that had recently been proposed to me — organizing my books by subject — which is entirely more work than I'd expected.

I'd say I'm about 10% done. What you see above is only about a quarter of what I need to organize… So many categories of books: cookbooks, food theory, farming, gardening, home construction, primitive skills, survivalism, gun smithing, religion, philosophy, math, computers, homosexuality, automotive, Scandinavian fiction, body modification, politics, cults and communes, indigenous cultures, military history, and so many other piles. It's really fun actually because I'm rediscovering a lot of things I'd forgotten I had.

I've been cooking a lot more (so it's probably good that I now have my zillion cookbooks — almost all vegan incidentally — sorted out in one place). I'm kind of rusty because Jon did most of the cooking for the last year and a half, but it's fun doing it again. Supper was simple but given how quickly it was devoured, also quite successful I think.

Just a nice veggie and nut stirfry with chicken and brown rice in a lemon-ginger sauce (I'll switch back to primarily vegan in three weeks when Nefarious is in California for the summer). My hillbilly drink isn't moonshine or urine, it's just maple syrup and lemon, my favorite way of making lemonade. Desert was vanilla-mango frozen yogurt with mandarin oranges and a half a brownie. Nothing particularly exciting but it was yummy…

I found a book on pain management that has lots of information on nerve blocks. If anyone reading this is a doctor, feel free to give me a good reason why I shouldn't inject acid or alcohol or something into the nerves to try and kill the connections permanently. I hate feeling nothing, but I'd really rather feel nothing than constant pain, and I hate taking painkillers because then I have to take stimulants at the same time to keep myself conscious and I just don't think that's healthy.

Other than that, I either have incredibly annoying new neighbors or they have incredibly annoying guests for the long weekend. They've been spending every night until about 11 PM screaming their heads off on their balcony, and because of the holiday, fireworks go off within fifty feet of our house every fifteen minutes all night long, so neither Nefarious or I have gotten any sleep at all the last couple days, and definitely not tonight either. It seems sort of insane to be launching fireworks in the tiny back yards of a dense neighborhood, but given the hell I've raised with fireworks, I suppose I can't complain too much.

I can't wait to get out of the city.

Tomorrow I'm making an underwater video camera enclosure out of PVC for Jon and Clive to take on their fishing trip next week, and maybe I'll do some underwater test filming in Phil's pool or something (I'll post pictures of it; it's super simple). Hopefully it doesn't drown my sister's DV camera!

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