Faith Regardless of the Outcome

Directions:
Step 1: Open this link in a new window, press Play, and then pause it so the video can load:

Step 2: Read the following from Hebrews 11:13-16, 11:32-40

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

Step 3: Watch the video. It should have loaded by now.

Step 4: Repeat Step 2.

Step 5: Share your thoughts.

He's faster than lightning, stronger than steel, smarter than a speeding bullet, he's...

SUP---ER GROVER!!!

This year for Halloween, I wanted to do something different for my costume. At the beginning of October, I got invited to a Superhero/Supervillain party, and being the silly guy I am, tried to think of an unconventional superhero that no one else would think of. That's when I was struck by a flash from my past.... I would be Super Grover!

I didn't want to have to make too much stuff for this costume, so I found some blue coveralls at Walmart to take care of the blue body, but I still needed to make the Super Grover logo, the cape, and the helmet. For the logo and cape, I contacted my personal seamstress who has helped me on past projects.


Sup-er Katie!

I designed and cut out the logo in felt, then she sewed the pieces together, made the cape, and sewed pieces of Velcro onto my coveralls so that the logo could be easily attached and removed.

After the fabric stuff was done, I made the helmet out of paper mache. Using a balloon as the form, I built up a couple layers of glue-soaked paper. To match a the look of Super Grover's helmet, I used some drawer pulls for the top and sides of the helmet (Super Grover's alter-ego is a doorknob salesman, and drawer pulls kinda look like doorknobs). A couple coats of aluminum-colored spray paint, and I had a pretty good match.



The costume turned out so well, that I won the best male costume at the Baylor Swing Dance Society's Halloween Dance.

Eat Your (Overpriced) Heart Out, Pottery Barn

A few weeks ago, my older brother asked me to build a shelf similar to this one from Pottery Barn for my nephew's bedroom:


To make sure that I get the measurements right on the first try (and also to get an idea of how it would look), I used some 3D modeling software at work to model up a prototype:


Here is the dry-assembly before glue and paint set up against the wall mount:


Here's how it looked after some paint and assembly:


And here's how it looks installed:


With the shelf made out of 1/2" PVC tubing, the long span of the shelf was a little flimsy, so I reinforced it by inserting some 1/2" copper pipe inside the PVC, which makes it very rigid. The Pottery Barn version costs $99 on their website, and I was able to build this for $37 ($15 of which was paint and $11 for the copper).

Fruit-Flavored Crack

My sister-in-law has started a few trends in my family. One of her first was when she introduced us to the game of Nertz. One of her latest is this Apple Berry Salsa with Toasted Cinnamon-Sugar Tortilla chips.


(the picture somehow got rotated during the upload, so you'll just have to drool with your head tilted to the side)

It is insanely good, and highly addictive. It's like fruit-flavored crack. This past weekend, my mom made a batch to share at the family get-together to celebrate my cousin's 19th birthday.

We all played the role of "quality control" after Mom finished the snack, and I'm surprised we had any left for the party. Since it's made from fruit, you can eat as much as you want, right?

On Wednesday evening, I'm going with some friends to enjoy an evening of music at the Carleen Bright Arboretum in Woodway. Since it's outdoors, I thought that this snack would be a welcome addition to the heat, music, fresh air, and heat. In the process of making it tonight, I think I ate a whole tortilla's worth of the chips and a similar amount of the salsa. My mouth is watering just typing about it..... I need to go make sure it's still tasty......

Before I go all Cookie Monster on some Apple Berry Salsa, here is the recipe:


And here is the recipe for the Tortilla Chips:


Now that you have been shown this powerful formula, use it wisely. With great power comes great responsibility.

Realization Due to Age

I joke around a bunch with my friends here in Waco that I'm getting old (especially around the "kids" I swing dance with at Baylor who are between 6 and 10 years younger than me). A couple days after I turned 28 (not necessarily old in and of itself), I was telling a friend about some of the gifts my family had given me for my birthday when it happened... I felt old (or just odd, they feel a lot alike).

One of the curses of having a full-time job and being single is that if I see something I want/need and it's reasonably priced, I'll buy it. This is bad because it makes the process of making a birthday and Christmas list for my family really hard because I tend to just buy things as I want them. Now, my birthday/Christmas list falls into three main categories: DVD's, tools, and stuff for my house.

My dad wasn't satisfied with the things I had on my list, so while we were talking on the phone shortly before my birthday, he asked me if there was anything else that I wanted to improve around my house. So I took a stroll around my bachelor pad thinking of things that I want to upgrade. A new chandelier (or some kind of light fixture) for my dining room, a new shower door for my master bathroom, redoing the inside of my workshop... all sorts of thrilling things like that. My parents ended up doing some research and giving me the money and contact information to replace the glass door on my shower stall. When I got excited about this and excited when telling others about it, I realized that I was getting old. I mean, what kid brags about getting a new shower door to his buddies?

Anyway, here are some pictures of the old door:


Here is my biggest pet peeve about the door (if you look closely, you can see segments of the hinge missing):


Here's how the new hinge/pivot looks (muuuuch cleaner):


Here's the door in its final state:


The change may be subtle to the untrained eye, but as someone who has looked at that door for the last 3.5 years, it's a world of difference. Thanks Mom and Dad!!!

Bo Jackson has nothing on Ethan

Ethan knows baseball:


Ethan knows soccer:


Ethan knows basketball:


Ethan knows golf:

Pinewood Derby 2009

Details to be added soon...

Finished at Last!!!

It's been almost a year since my last update on my TV stand.

This was the original idea modeled up in Pro-Engineer (the software I use all the time at work to design stuff that goes into airplanes).




And here's the final result:


The doors are attached to the bottom three drawers, so those open when you pull on the door handles:

(I couldn't figure out how to undo the rotation that Blogger added when I uploaded the picture)

And then you can access the top three drawers:


After 17 months, my home-built TV stand is finally finished! Hallelujah!!!

Fixing Rock Band 2, Too

My regular blog readers may remember this from a few months back. The fix worked for a week or two, and then it broke again. I had looked at buying some new drum heads online, but a new set would cost as much as a new drumset, so I went out and bought the Rock Band 2 wireless drumset (with the help of a couple gift cards).

After about 90 days of use, a crack appeared in one of the drum heads on my new drumset. I looked into taking advantage of Rock Band's return policy, but I was out of warranty. So, it was time for another repair. After my fix on the last drumset failed, I decided to go a little overboard by adding a metal plate to the drum head.

The materials: 26 gauge sheet metal, 6-minute epoxy, tin-snips, drill, Dremel tool with an abrasive disc.


Because of some standoffs on the backside of the drum head, I had to drill holes and make some cut-outs so that it would fit snugly against the drum head:


In order to make sure that the epoxy sticks to the metal plate and the drum head, I roughed up the mating surfaces using the abrasive disc:


To spread the epoxy around quickly, I created a little tool out of popsicle sticks:


The final, reinforced product:


So far, the repair works great. I've noticed that the drumsticks rebound more off the new head, which is great for those really fast, repeated notes. Hopefully this repair is more permanent than the last one. While I was working on the repair for this drum head, I went ahead and traced the outline of the metal plate just in case they're needed for the other drum heads.

The Bucket Chair

It's becoming more and more apparent that I had a unique childhood. One of these unique aspects was our two bucket chairs. It's pretty simple; it's a kid's chair made from a 5-gallon paint bucket. We used these chairs all the time when we were kids. With my nephew Ethan turning 2 years old this past Friday, I thought I would try my hand at making one as a birthday gift for him.

Here is the chair that I made (left) with the chair I grew up with (right):


Here's the chair with a little decoration:

Gig 'em!

Here's the birthday boy enjoying his new chair:


It was tough pulling him away from all of his new toys to get a couple pictures with a "boring" chair. Fortunately, Grandpa (the arm in the two pictures) was there to direct Ethan and to prevent a dump truck accident.

New Livingroom

I spent the better part of December 30th and 31st painting my livingroom. You gotta love some of these paint color names. The main blue color is "Tempe Star", the tan stripe is "Latte" (the same color as the hallway, the kitchen, and the diningroom), and the white stripes are surprisingly "Bright White". Here are some pictures of the new livingroom.