Doodad Inferiority Complex

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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&#8217;s not exactly straight or anything, but it&#8217;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&#8217;s Day present. Now I pretty much feel like a useless lump.
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      The issue has an article on how to &#8220;build your own microcontroller-driven sound and light device to obtain altered states of consciousness.&#8221; Pinouts and solder figure heavily. Um. What?
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      Another is subtitled
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        &#8220;Turn a Hot Wheels toy into a versatile radar gun.&#8221;
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      Just how versatile is a radar gun gonna be? And maybe I&#8217;d prefer the Hot Wheels car, anyway.
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      I&#8217;m actually enjoying <em>Make</em>, the same way that I like <em>National Geographic</em>: it&#8217;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, &#8220;I could do that. I just choose not to.&#8221; I&#8217;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 &#8212; 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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