A San Francisco stay-at-home dad getting the hang of things.
Doodad Inferiority Complex
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Some of my favorite doodads are of my own invention.
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My Wine Door<br /> You really must click it for the full impact of its amazingness.</td> </tr> </table>
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Check this out: I built a baby-proof door to the wine rack using PVC and a carabiner. Oh, how I love carabiners! I guess that hole’s not exactly straight or anything, but it’s in the right place!
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So I thought I was pretty slick until I got my first copy of <a href="http://www.makezine.com/" target="_blank"><em>Make</em> magazine</a> today, a Father’s Day present. Now I pretty much feel like a useless lump.
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The issue has an article on how to “build your own microcontroller-driven sound and light device to obtain altered states of consciousness.” Pinouts and solder figure heavily. Um. What?
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Another is subtitled
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“Turn a Hot Wheels toy into a versatile radar gun.”
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Just how versatile is a radar gun gonna be? And maybe I’d prefer the Hot Wheels car, anyway.
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I’m actually enjoying <em>Make</em>, the same way that I like <em>National Geographic</em>: it’s aspirational. I see adventurous photographers in, oh, say, an active volcano crater on a far-off island inhabited by venomous lightning toads and I think, “I could do that. I just choose not to.” I’d also have to be about 10 steps cooler and able to sport a three-day growth without getting horrible acne. But apart from that — that could totally be me.
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<a href="/uploads/2007/06/fridge-magnets.jpg" atomicselection="true"><img loading="lazy" src="/uploads/2007/06/fridge-magnets-thumb.jpg" alt="Fridge-Magnets" height="240" width="215" /></a></p>
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My Flippable Magnet Signs<br /> Do the inventions never cease?</td> </tr> </table>
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<em>Make</em> is like that, except substitute dangerous nature photography for disassembling your DVD burner to get the cool laser.
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Of course, I can only read magazines in the short breaks I take from pasting magnets together to make informational signs.
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Much more my speed.
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