Sweet New Year
I’m going to be offline for the next two days while we celebrate Rosh Hashana. Thus the short post today and lack-of-a-post tomorrow.
For those who don’t know, this is the Jewish New Year. One of the many traditions on this holiday is to eat apples and honey. This is supposed to help you have a sweet year. I’ve got plenty of both here.
If you celebrate Rosh Hashana, I hope you have a good year ("L’shanah tovah"). If you don’t, I hope the rest of your year (and all of the ones after this one) are very sweet.
What is a favorite holiday tradition you have?
Disclaimer: The image above was created by combining Apples by gnokii and Honey Jar by PrinterKiller. Both of these images are available on OpenClipArt.org.
Aloha Friday: Build or Buy – The Sonic Screwdriver Conundrum
Recently, I’ve gotten interested in Doctor Who. I’ve been watching the episodes back to back to back on Netflix. It’s become a bit of an addiction for me. I’ll be sitting on the couch trying to get some work done and the Roku remote will start calling "Dooooctor Whoooo! Doooctor Whooo! Watch another episode of Doctor Who!" (I should probably call it a night when my electronics start talking to me.)
Since I love the show so much, and since I’m such a geek, I wanted to get some Doctor Who merchandise. Luckily, ThinkGeek has plenty of Doctor Who items to choose from. My favorite are the sonic screwdrivers.
For those who don’t watch Doctor Who, the Doctor isn’t one to brandish a gun and blast his enemies away. He’s more likely to outthink them. His tool of choice is a very special screwdriver that’s totally sonic. It can open nearly any door and can override computer systems. It’s the Swiss army knife of the Time Lords.
Of course, the sonic screwdrivers you can buy don’t really work like the Doctor’s. Most of them are flashlights (a logical leap as the Doctor’s lights up when he uses it), but a couple are pens or even TV remotes. As I was looking through them, I began to wonder which one to get. Then a thought occurred to me: Why don’t I try making one myself?
I’ve long admired and envied geeks who build things. I always think I don’t have the knack for it, but honestly I’ve never really tried that hard. I’m not going to fool myself and think that my creation will fool people into thinking it’s the real thing, but maybe I could make my own passable sonic screwdriver.
I’m thinking I’d start with a pen, put some kind of metal tubing around it and add some embellishments around that to make it look less like like a tube-with-a-pen and more like a sonic screwdriver. If I’m really feeling ambitious, maybe I’ll figure out how to wire up an LED light so that my sonic screwdriver pen can light up.
Yes, buying it would be faster and easier (maybe cheaper as well) and yes, it would probably look nicer, but a handmade sonic screwdriver could be fun and even educational (for both me and my boys).
My Aloha Friday question for today is: Do you usually "build" your own items or buy them? If you usually build, any advice you can give for where to go or how to approach this project would be appreciated.
P.S. If you haven’t already, try out my Twitter applications: FollowerHQ and Rout.
Disclaimer: The "build vs buy" image above was composed of "Tools, Hammer, Spanner" by Andy and "Money – banknotes and coin" by n_kamil. Both images are available through OpenClipArt.org.
Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.
Aloha #156
Training Dragons Live
Three years ago, B and I took the boys to the Walking With Dinosaurs show. We were amazed by the realistic looking dinosaurs walking around the stage. I’ve long loved dinosaurs (when I was young I wanted to be a paleontologist) and it was great to see my kids’ interest being sparked.
Many of the same people who made the amazing dinosaurs come to life have set their sights on a group of more mythical creatures: dragons. Twenty-three dragons will walk, fly, and even breathe fire during Dreamworks How To Train Your Dragon Live Spectacular. The dragons are very realistic looking (well, as far as fantasy creatures can be).
These aren’t merely small, light-weight props, either. Each dragon weighs up to 2.6 tons and have wingspans up to 46 feet. One dragon, Toothless, weights nearly 4 tons and flies over a mile during the show. That’s like having an SUV flying above the audience. The entire production requires 30 18-Wheeler trucks to transport. In other words, it’s a big show.
Of course, I haven’t seen it yet so this isn’t a review. That will come later. In the meantime, though, I’ve been reading up on the show and am getting very excited about it. Here’s a trailer for the show:
We haven’t told NHL and JSL about the show just yet. That will be a surprise for three weeks from now. I’m sure they’ll be amazed by the show and will likely come out of it wishing they could have their own dragons to train and ride. (Given their size, though, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that I’ll be glad we don’t have to feed one of them!)
If you are interested in attending a show, you can find tour dates and tickets by going to http://www.dreamworksdragonslive.com/tickets.php. If you are in the Albany, NY area, the show will run on Thursday, October 4th through Sunday, October 7th in the Times Union Center. In addition, you can save 25% off the cost of select seats by using the promo code "MOM".
Disclaimer: I received tickets to the How To Train Your Dragon Live Spectacular for me and my family. The images above were provided to me for use in my post. However any opinions, not to mention enthusiasm, stated above are my own.
Pickle Weasel Unleashed
NOTE: I won these mugs from JC Little. If you aren’t familiar with Pickle Weasel, I suggest you head on over to The Animated Woman’s blog to read about him and his antics. If you want your own mugs, you can get them from JC’s Zazzle Shop. (I don’t get any compensation if anyone buys anything from that link.)