Join the iPhone Club

That is just what I did over the weekend.

Just a few days ago, I coordinated with a very good friend of mine and had my cell phone account's financial responsibility transferred on to my name. So now with TOFR completed, the account is under my name now. And of course, that called for an upgrade. It's about that time too I guess. My main Razr has been a reliable workhorse. Time for it to be the backup and have a new phone take point.

Saturday came and my good friend and his family came over, and we all had a fun time (see blog below) - cooking/baking/telling stories/playing games on the Wii and doing a Netflix movie-thon, good times! Then my friend did his sales pitch on the iPhone again. And I think that sealed the deal for the iPhone.

The following day, I went to the mall after church to get some Christmas shopping done. And I said to myself "...if I see an AT&T store here, I'll upgrade..." Not even 2 minutes after me muttering that here's the store on my right side. It's a sign!


They did a good job with this gadget, I must admit. My other candidates: Nokia 5800 and the Nokia E71.
I walked in, talked with one of the sales reps, and looked at the E71. Then I looked at the iPhone and never looked back.

Within 10 minutes, I was out the store with my new iPhone, all contacts transferred from my Razr. The Razr is still on active duty, serving as my on-call cell phone (transferred company SIM card in it).

I went to a local electronics store, and got a nice case for the iPhone and set it up after I went out as I didn't want the phone to get scratched up on the first day.

After arriving home, I charged the unit, and reviewed the specs, the plan (of course I pay more now, plus the mandatory $30 data/email (unlimited) plan), and did my ilounge forum research. The phone still has its hype and novelty, I have to admit Apple did a good job on this, as it also serves as many of the newer touch screen phones' baseline for features and the like.


Lots of personal customization is possible on the iPhone. The free apps are pretty neat too. Ability to use either the 3G connection or local wifi hotspots ftw!

So do I like it? Yes, even if the 'unlimited plan' really has a 5gb monthly cap (hence not really unlimited). The phone itself is a technological marvel, and at the lower price now, I took that opportunity and finally joined the 'iPhone club'.

I wonder what's will be the next cell phone 'hit'? Hologram imaging perhaps? Let's sit back and wait, and for the meantime, I'll hit the App store and load up some freebies to make the most of this thing. ;)

Fudge...

...Brownies anyone?

Had a very nice night gig with my friend and his family. Simple get-together that encompassed a lot of things: baby sitting, 'power' cooking, back-to-back-netflix moviethon, brownie baking, and wii sports resort adventures.

One thing to note: this is what happens to a brownie pan when it is cut by kids who had just finished playing the canoe challenge in the Wii:

Looks like it was cut with a Wii-mote :-D
But don't let the looks deceive you. The kids were serious about this brownie bake and made sure all the ingredients were properly mixed and set, and that the baking time set to a good 50 minutes at 325F. And that includes occasional toothpick checks on the brownie (for density checking).

And all of that while engaging in kendo, canoeing, cycling, and archery. Now that's multi-tasking for ya!

The verdict: one really, fudgy, yummy, and awesome brownie! Good job kids!

Next time we'll do a real cake...seriously. ;-)

Display Stand Part II

After a week of the successful display stand 1, I was given the opportunity again by TofuCarpenter-san to work on another set.

I didn't really plan too well on the measurements though, but I had a quick idea in mind for 3 single-tier ones. Two of them in the same size, and one a bit taller (5.5" vs. 3").

This time TofuCarpenter-san wanted to use rabbet joints on the connecting sides of each piece in the stand. So we went ahead and did as such.


The 'plans'.
We actually managed to churn out the three in 'record' time, and the rabbets looked great.


Note how the joining ends are shaped - this is called a 'rabbet'.

And here's the three stands. Nice, eh?
After completing the cuts, we started putting them together. For the two smaller ones we used wood glue and 2 pairs of small nails on each side. These held up great.

Now we were on record time - until we decided to play around a bit more with the bigger stand. While dry fitting it, the bigger stand appeared to be wobbly again (similar to what happened with the 2-tier stand we made earlier).

We considered putting a support bracket to it. Wood? Nope, went with aluminum. Yup, aluminum. TofuCarpenter-san had an extra L-shaped piece of aluminum (looked like small gutter) and from there, cut up two smaller pieces and we drilled holes on these to form a smaller bracket.

The plan for the bracket was great on paper, but it sort of didn't work well, moreso because of my 'precision' measurements. In short, we ditched the aluminum brackets and just used wood glue on the bigger stand too.


Larger stand clamped while waiting for the wood glue to dry. Notice one of the aluminum brackets that we added to the picture for posterity's sake.
After the wood glue dried, we put in two pairs of longer nails on each side...and guess what? The thing held up pretty well and didn't wobble at all! Lessons learned there, heh-heh.

So now they'll go the same route as the first display stand. Some wood filler first and then a staining session.

Will be posting the final outcome soon (if I don't get lazy or something)!

As always, thanks to TofuCarpenter-san for again helping out in this project. His wife Takoyaki-chan was also there to cheer us on (well she mostly played Lego Star Wars but we knew she was cheering us on - I hope).

On to the filling and staining!

Display stand - installed and done

Continuing with the 2-tier display stand saga...

The final steps were to patch some gaps (and one crack) with wood filler/putty, and then to stain it with a darker shade of brown.

First, filled in the gaps and this went pretty smooth.


There used to be a crack here, but the filler did it's job well!

I let that dry overnight, and the following day, brushed on the stain. I did a couple of coats, and it had a longer drying time due to the cold weather. I left it in the garage for a week, just to be sure.


Started staining using a brush. Last time I did staining, a co-worker recommended using a piece of cloth instead of a brush.

After a week of waiting to dry, it's finally in the Detolf and complete!


Nendo section 2-1, a.k.a., the 'Peanut Gallery'.
Everyone looks happy so far.

Thanks again to TofuCarpenter-san for his help on this project.:D

Next up, 3 more display stands. Stay tuned!