Bunk Bed for Joseph

I built Joseph a bunkbed for his 4th(!) birthday. I don’t have much for gratuitous making-of photos, but here are a few of the finished product. Let me know if you’re interested in more detailed pictures (up close, joints, connections, that kind of thing).

Update: I made a video when I built a bunk bed for Joseph’s cousin, Bella.

The wood is top choice white pine, which you can find at your local Lowes/Home Depot.

I knew staining it would be a bad idea as Joseph would likely end up denting and marring it (he’s rough, and pine is soft), so I kept it the natural look, which I like quite a bit. And to help protect against fingerprints and such, I used this Minwax water-based Poly.

YouTube Fav: 30 Days Timelapse at Sea | 4K | Through Thunderstorms, Torrential Rain & Busy Traffic

YouTube URL: https://youtu.be/AHrCI9eSJGQ
Vimeo Description:

30 Days of Timelapse, about 80,000 photos combined. 1500GB of Project files. Sailing in the open ocean is a unique feeling and experience.I hope to capture and share it for everyone to see.

Route was from Red Sea — Gulf of Aden — Indian Ocean — Colombo — Malacca Strait — Singapore — South East China Sea — Hong Kong

Follow my adventures!
Instagram: http://instagram.com/Jeffrey.hk

Music:
Philip G Anderson – Winter (from 0:00 to 4:37 and 8:00 to 10:00)
Buy Winter here:
https://philipganderson.bandcamp.com/album/winter

Stellardrone – Billions And Billions (from 4:37 to 8:00)

Camera used: D750, Rokinon 12mm f/2.8
0:32 Milky Way
0:53 Sirius Star (I think) Correction: Jupiter the planet according to some viewers
1:17 Approaching Port of Colombo
1:45 Cargo Operation
2:08 Departure Colombo with Rainstorm
2:29 Beautiful Sunrise
3:13 Lightning Storm at Malacca Strait and Singapore Strait
3:29 Clear night sky Milky Way with lightning storm
4:01 Camera getting soaked
5:09 Arrival Singapore
5:56 Departure Singapore
6:20 Moon-lit night sky
6:48 Another Sunrise
8:30 Headed due north and you can see Ursa Major rotating neatly around Polaris.
8:36 Squid Boats
8:54 Chaotic Traffic
9:15 Arrival Hong Kong

 

Goals, Shmoals

Howdy! Pardon me while I clear out the cobwebs in the blogging corner of this site.

Recently I’ve started following the work of James Clear. He seems to be (at least trying to be) a 21st century version of Stephen Covey or maybe John Maxwell. Coincidentally, today I came across this tweet:

This post by James Clear, as you can imagine, talks about the possible overvaluing of goals (Turns out Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert has some similar things to say on the matter). As with Brad, I’ve often been uncomfortable with the ever-present concept of goals-setting.

Why is that? I’m not a slouch with no vision for my future. While I am no Covey, Maxwell or Clear, I consider myself to be a very driven, and most of the time, effective person. But to me, the idea of goals has always felt a bit too much like a prison, or more, a chastising schoolmarm. When I think of goals, often my impatience kicks in. I just don’t have time or mental capacity (I am notoriously bad at multitasking) to worry about that possible future which may never materialize.

But I’m no dummy. I recognize you cannot get to where you want to go unless you know where that is.

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

a common, but maybe slightly-out-of-context quote by Wayne Gretzky ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Several years ago, a group I was in read the book, “The Principle of the Path: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be” by Andy Stanley. In that book, Andy makes the simple case that the best way to get to that future destination (your “goal”) is to get on the path and start walking. And that at any point, we can look down at our feet. If they are not on the path (or pointing the right direction), then we need to “recalculate”, and get back on the path.

This is my favorite way to look at goals. Because one thing I can definitely do is to take the next step in front of me. And trust that somewhere down the line, I will arrive at my destination. It doesn’t seem to be a coincidence that I am involved in many things with this same driving principle. My church‘s motto is “helping you take your next step”. The ministry I am heavily involved with, Celebrate Recovery, is a steps-based recovery program with a key motto, “one step at a time”.

Even with with learning new things… about 8 years ago, I started to learn the guitar. My primary encouragement was the comfort in knowing that even though it was harder than I thought it would be, and I was worse (longer) than I thought I would be, if I just kept playing, I could only keep improving until I die. Depending on how long I lived, I might eventually be decent. :)

This definitely also applies to my job and learning new things in programming (Vue/React anyone?). If I just keep writing/reading/doing, I won’t suck at it forever, and eventually, I’ll even be good at it.

And James Clear’s article resonates with that same principle. He states the case that Systems are often more valuable and productive than setting goals.

Because whether you call it systems, habits, or steps,

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

Will Durant

But just like the principle of the path, where you need to know where the path should lead, you cannot build a system if you do not know what that system should accomplish. So as much as I dislike setting goals, they are still an integral part to becoming effective. The difference to me is that goals should not be the… goal… but rather a way to orient us on our paths and provide a structure to our systems.

Related resources and links:

Jim Carrey: I Needed Color


By: JC
Vimeo URL: https://vimeo.com/226379658
Vimeo Description:

For additional information regarding Jim’s art please visit: www.signaturegalleries.com
For all other inquiries email info@befreejc.com

Director/Producer David Bushell

Associate Producer – Linda Fields Hill
Editor – Nicole C. Conrad
Music – Dave Palmer
Vocals – Jane Carrey
Camera – Bobby Davidson (NY)
Sound – Sean Massey
Asst. Editor – Kelsey Ann McClure
Art Assistants – Roland Allmeyer, Lino Meoli, Brogan Dunphy

Thanks to FotoKem
Edited w/ Adobe Premiere Pro CC

Copyright 2017 Jim Carrey
Unauthorized downloads and usage of this video without written permission is strictly prohibited.

Monitor Stand (made from Pallet wood)

Thanks to this Ugmonk post where he talks about building his own monitor stand, I was inspired to build my own. I used my (free) wood of choice, pallets.

As you can see from the detail pictures, the pallet wood is far from perfect, but I appreciate all the little knots and saw marks. Because this is the desk of a working man! 😝

This was pretty simple to make. The most difficult part (as is always the case when making anything near “furniture grade” with pallette wood) was the intense sanding that was required to get the boards smooth.

I opted not to finish this with anything at this point, but I may eventually apply some Tung oil. For now, I just wanted to get it on my desk to see how it works. I’m super happy with it!

Side-note: if you’re curious about my desk, you can read about that here, and if you’re curious about some of the things on my desk (monitor, speakers, mug… etc), or even how I made my desk, check out the “my favorites” page.

The Treehouse Adventures

In late February, thanks to some nudging from my kids (and a slight case of Spring Fever), we decided it was high-time our backyard had a tree house. Our yard has a large number of tree-house-ready trees, so we actually struggled over which location would be best.

In the end, we decided the best place would be nestled between a live oak and willow oak, just inside the fence. Not only is the location perfect, with 3 large trunks/branches to support it, but being within the fence line, it helps prevent neighbor kids from coming over and hanging out on the tree house. Not that I wouldn’t be happy about that, but there’s a certain liability that comes along with that prospect.

Building this has been one of the most therapeutic and rewarding things I’ve built (I’ve built a few things). If you’re contemplating doing something similar, my advice is go for it, because you (and your kids) only live once!

To get started, I read a lot about some of the basics of building a tree house. E.g. what size boards should be used depending on the distance being spanned, what type of fasteners to use, how to make things level against an organic surface, etc. I also bought this handy little book. It’s full of awesome little tidbits and illustrations. While not meant to be a complete how-to, it provided plenty of light bulb moments and inspiration. Highly recommended.

I started construction February 25 (2017), and after a weekend and some help from friends/family, I had a basic platform installed with floor joists.

Since I am a web developer by day, it feels super good to get outside and work with my hands (and some power tools!).

As much as possible throughout this project, I tried to use reclaimed wood. In that platform, the joists are all new pressure treated 2x6s and hung with joist hangers, and the longest span (in the picture above) is a new pressure treated 2×10. But the other side’s 2×10 is a leftover from our old water-bed (yep, you heard me right), and the two side 2x6s are leftover frames from an old bunk bed that we never used for the kids that we got from some garage sale.

To fasten the boards to the tree, I used 4 or 5 inch lag screws and washers.

The next weekend was spent working out some details, like corner braces, angle braces, and corner beams for the eventual hand-rails.

Much of the braces are boards from pallets that we scrounged up (the final project probably has about 5-8 pallets in it), and the corner 4x4s were used to hold up an old lattice divider in the yard (the lattice has been gone/destroyed for quite a while).

Here’s a redneck stunt I pulled to get some of those pallets:

(I need a truck!)

By the end of weekend 2, we had half a floor!

As you can see, we also used boards from pallets for the tree house floor.

The next weekend, the first order of business was to finish the floor so the kids could come up and check it out. 😁

Time was limited that weekend, so I had to wait another week before I could start adding the hand-rail. Took me a bit to sort out how I wanted that to look. I didn’t want to have too many boards to obstruct the views (I wanted the tree house to feel open), so I left about a 6 inch gap between each board.

Well, it turns out my son can fit his head through that gap, and so Meagan was having none of that. So, back to the drawing board, and I had to add some lateral boards to make sure nobody was gonna be squeezing out. As you can see below, we took this opportunity to add a little flair and make it look like an authentic kid-built tree house (I mean.. I am just a big kid, so it’s pretty accurate).

We let our kids, their cousins, and some of their friends paint their names and other things on a few boards, and nailed ’em on!

Another end to a successful weekend.

The next weekend, we finalized the other 2 sides (minus the door). We got a little creative with those sides to try and work with the trees’ structures.

This is the point where I consider the top “habitable” and began working from the tree house.

Of course, some people had fun with this.

https://twitter.com/d_espi/status/846783542797520897

https://twitter.com/d_espi/status/846809173589458944

The next step was to build the door/gate. I used a gate latch and built a crude rope/pulley mechanism that allows the kids to open the latch from below the door. I posted a video at the end where you can get a general idea.

Once that floor was complete, it was time to begin construction of the first level, half-way up. I wasn’t sure I was going to go that route, but once the main part was complete, it just seemed like the best way to go.. It would provide a bit of a safety net on the side where the kids would climbing in/out of the top, and allow them to have multiple levels to their “tree condo”.

At first, I attempted build the platform without adding the additional 4×4 supports on the outer corners, hoping the angle braces would be enough. Unfortunately, they didn’t provide enough structural shear-strength, so I had to dig some holes, pour some cement and install some ground-rated 4x4s. Once those were in place, the platform structure was as solid as a rock.

We then got the sides built:

At this point, the only thing missing is the ladders. Surprisingly, building these was some of the most difficult work in the whole process.

Phew! This has been a ton of (fun!) work. Happy to see it come together. Here’s a quick video tour:

You might be wondering, “what’s next”. Well, the grandparents purchased a tube slide as an early birthday/Christmas type of gift (ssshhh they don’t know yet), so we’ll see about installing that once it gets in (we got it installed! Scroll down to see). 😁 The adventure never ends! Thanks for hanging with me this far. If you’re interested, page 2 of this post is a big gallery of images from the process. Hope you enjoyed!

Update 5-14-17 we got the slide installed!

FlightLapse #01 – MilkyWay by SkyProduction

http://vimeo.com/211656397 By: SkyProduction
Vimeo URL: http://vimeo.com/211656397
Vimeo Description:

Flying through the night, while the world beneath us is at sleep, is a pretty common thing as a longhaul pilot. Late evening departures lead to far distant destinations like Singapore, Hong Kong, Sao Paolo or J’burg. Depending on the direction of the flight the crew and the passengers either have a short night up ahead if flying eastbound or almost eternal darkness if headed westwards. Read the full article on: https://www.beyondclouds.ch/2017/04/05/vuelo-nocturno-the-magic-of-flying-at-night/

YouTube Fav: Subway performer stuns crowd with Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide”- Chicago, Il- Blue Line, Washington S

http://youtu.be/x–yddOolRQ
YouTube URL: http://youtu.be/x–yddOolRQ
Vimeo Description:

On my way home from work tonight I saw one of the best performances I have ever seen- anywhere. This young women playing “Landslide” absolutely stunned the entire crowd which erupted into applause as the train arrives. Her details at the end- please share. #Chicago #cta #blueline #subway #fleetwoodmac #landslide #mikedrop

To use this video in a commercial player or in broadcasts, please email: licensing@storyful.com

From birth, Marine Iguanas fight for their lives – BBC’s Planet Earth II by Tea_and_Biology

http://vimeo.com/190482741
By: Tea_and_Biology
Vimeo URL: http://vimeo.com/190482741
Vimeo Description:

Uploaded for Reddit by /u/tea_and_biology

On the Galapagos, adult marine iguanas have little to fear. For their young however, they risk life and limb right from the moment of birth.

From BBC’s Planet Earth II: Islands. Programme website: bbc.in/2fBKcVo

UNSATISFYING by PARALLEL STUDIO

By: PARALLEL STUDIO
Vimeo URL: http://vimeo.com/189919038
Vimeo Description:

During the summer of 2016, We created and directed a video about unsatisfying situations: the frustrating, annoying, disappointing little things of everyday life, that are so painful to live or even to watch.

We quickly realized that there are a lot of other situations that would be fun to see animated, so we decided to run an animation challenge around this idea.
Join the Unsatisfying Challenge Here : http://unsatisfying.tv/

Direction Animation and illustration : Parallel Studio
Sound Design : Zelig Sound
Music : Samuel Barber
Special Thanks to : Hugo Leick

Pallet shelf with coat and key hooks

Another pallet venture. This is modified from some pictures we found on Pinterest. In those pictures, the ones that had coat hooks had them attached to the front piece of wood, but that won’t work for us since the door would open into them. Instead, we got some celing hooks to attach underneath, and a couple standard coat hooks to serve as decorative “key hooks”.

Grilled BBQ Chicken

Made some delicious grilled BBQ chicken today. Here’s how I did it.

Ingredients:

  • Large chicken breasts. The larger/plumper you get, the longer it takes to grill them, BUT also has a much better chance of being juicy inside and not getting dried out.
  • Grill Mates® Applewood Rub. Looks like this.
  • Sweet Baby Ray’s® BBQ Sauce. Looks like this.

Steps:

1. Rub the chicken with the Rub.

Well, technically, the first step, if needed, is to dry the chicken pieces with some paper towels.. You don’t want the rub to slime off. The super important part here is that you are not stingy. I dump a big pile on top of the chicken piece, dump a little in the tupperware thingy, then rub it it in and around. Make sure to get it in all the nooks and crannies and make sure the whole piece is encrusted and orangy. Your hands will be orangy too. I don’t recommend licking it…

2. Refrigerate

You can put the rub on at any time, even right before you want to grill, but it’s ideal to put it on a few hours before you grill to give it time for the rub to set and the flavor to marinate. Take it out around 15 minutes before you start grilling.

3. Grill

Grilling is a nuanced thing, but here are a few of my recommendations for optimum results. Keep in mind, the times are all based on the heat of your grill, its hotspots, etc.. times are approximations.

  • Start the grill 5-10 minutes before putting the chicken on so it’s hot
  • To help with the chicken sticking to the grill, spray some of that grill spray stuff
  • For the large chicken breasts I had, it took about 40 minutes on the grill, so you need to be committed
  • If you have an infrared grill or something, avoid cranking the heat all the way to high. That’s a good way to dry those suckers out. My grill is a standard propane grill and doesn’t get quite as hot. For my grill, I left it on high for about 20 of the 40 minutes, then went to medium.

4. Flip

Generally speaking, it’s best to move or flip the meat as few times as possible. After about 10-15 min, flip all the pieces. They should have some nice grill marks by this point.

5. BBQ sauce

After about 5-10 minutes, squeeze some of that Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce on them, and use a marinade brush to spread the BBQ sauce around on the side that is facing you, giving it a nice glazed look. Careful not to go crazy, as you don’t want to remove the rub that’s on the chicken and you’ll be flipping these one more time before you’re done, and you don’t want them to drip all over your grill when you do.

6. Flip again, and more BBQ sauce

Another 5-10 minutes later, when the BBQ on the top has caramelized just a bit from the heat, flip them one more time, applying the BBQ sauce on that side.

7. You’re done!

Well, not quite yet. At this point, you keep them on the grill until they are no longer pink on the inside. Cooking chicken is always tricky, as you need it to be fully cooked (unlike beef). It’s not ideal, but I always remove the biggest ones and cut into the thickest part to see how it’s looking. Even this cut is calculated as you don’t want the juices to all flow out of the cut when you put it back on (if you need to). Once they’re white all the way through, you’re done. Your chicken should look something like this:

In 1980, after long consultation with some of America’s most senior nutrition scientists, the US government issued its first Dietary Guidelines.

The most prominent recommendation of both governments was to cut back on saturated fats and cholesterol

Look at a graph of postwar obesity rates and it becomes clear that something changed after 1980. In the US, the line rises very gradually until, in the early 1980s, it takes off like an aeroplane.

At best, we can conclude that the official guidelines did not achieve their objective; at worst, they led to a decades-long health catastrophe.

The sugar conspiracy