Three Ducks in a Coconut Shell

And sawdust in a can.

A Truly Puzzling Puzzle

I have always enjoyed those puzzles where you have to separate two or more pieces of seemingly inseparable metal. 

My brother and I each solved this one:

Now on to the next:

Home

I'm pretty tired.  I got up this morning at about 3:00 a.m. and took a plane out of Grand Rapids to Chicago and them from Chicago to Richmond.  After that was the car ride from the airport back home; I got here around 1:00 p.m..  G'night.

Speaking of pipe cleaner warriors...

Airplane Survival Kit

Tomorrow I will be returning home to Virginia via airplane.  I will not be going unprepared.  I will be bringing with me an airplane survival kit which contains, actually, very few items.

Firstly, I will be carrying three books.  Yes, three books IS excessive for one trip, but three is a bigger number than one, so there.

I will also bring my iPod and my noise canceling headphones; I don't want to have to turn the volume up to drown out the jet engines, my hearing is valuable.

Now, on the iPod I have podcasts.  I'll be listening to Twelve Byzantine Rulers, Fast Karate for the Gentleman, The Greatest Movie Ever, Geek Nights, and Old Jews Telling Jokes.  I'm Set.

Finally, a suspicious-looking but totally benign object; the TSA has a boring job, and I aim to make their day a little brighter (just as long as they don't actually take anything from me).  Unfortunately, I do not have such an object.  Last year, however, I carried on an old military emergency flashlight which was a hit with the bag-searchers.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go pack.  My flight is early and I have to wake up even earlier.  See you tomorrow VA!

Board Games

Othello is an intense game.

Click below for more.

Merry Christmas!

For Christmas this year I received a camera of my own (I have been using the family camera for all of my photos and videos so far) that has a macro setting.  So, as a sort of Christmas special, here are 13 macro shots I took today (click "read more" to see the rest).

A Snowy Welcome

First of all, I have to post this code in order to get my blog listed on Technorati.

JT6FQAA8V886

Secondly, here's today's photo:

The Old Country

Tonight I ate at Old Country Buffet.

The name was misleading; there was no haggis, just fried chicken and soft-serve ice cream.

Is it Copper?

All pennies minted today are made predominantly of zinc; the small amount of copper they contain is in their outer coating which gives them their characteristic metallic brown color.  But, before 1983, pennies were minted almost entirely out of copper.  They changed for a simple reason:  the copper it takes to mint a penny is worth more than 1¢.  As of today, the metal in a pre-1983 penny is worth almost 3¢.  (You can calculate the value of US coins at Coinflation.)

Now, it's usually pretty easy to tell the difference between the two; all you have to do is look at the date on the coin.  However, it is faster and easier to use this simple trick:  flip the coin, flicking it with your thumbnail.  If it makes a ringing noise, congratulations! It's copper.  A zinc coin will make a dull "tink" sound.  You can use this to determine what a penny is made of without even looking at it.

For today's photo, a CFL blacklight (I didn't know they made these):

The (cloudy) Lunar Eclipse

Last night I stayed up late to watch the lunar eclipse.  I've seen a couple of them before, but an eclipse is something special enough to warrant another viewing.  So, after putting on two jackets, I went outside and saw this:

Yep, it was too cloudy to see the moon or even the stars.  I went to bed.

Since the above picture is pretty boring, here is a bunch of Arizona cans:

Bonus! A busted cymbal:

Also, check out The Cult of Done Manifesto.  It's pretty clever and has a witty poster.

Internet Speed

Sigh...  If only this were possible at home...

But, seeing as we only got off of dial-up a couple of years ago, I believe that I will have been in and out of college before most of Nelson County gets basic broadband (defined by the FCC as 4Mb/s down and one Mb/s up).  I hope I'm wrong.

For today's photo, frosty pumpkins:

Tying My Shoes

When it comes to tying shoes I'm not very fast.  Now, I may be doing something wrong, but I can never seem to tie my shoes quickly when I do it the traditional way; there's just too much transferring of loops from one hand to the other and it's hard to keep the knot tight as you tie it.


My Solution: Do it a different way.

Instead of using the regular method, I use something called the Ian Knot.  By using this method I can tie my shoes twice as fast and end up with the exact same knot.  It's kind of tricky at first, but definitely worth learning.

A demonstration:

For today's photo, a barrel full of ice.

Michigan

After 13 hours of travel, we're finally in Michigan.  This is one of those times when I wish that I carried a camera on me (which I will probably start doing).  I saw a drink in a bag that said "Alcohol is in it!" and a license plate that said "EPIC WIN," both of which I wish I had pictures of.

Since I don't have any photos to post, here is a video Dakota took of Nathan when we stopped for lunch/dinner.

Daily Photo

A shower head, a penny, corks, springs, tennis racket strings, a couple of buttons off of a circuit board, and plenty of hot glue.  I believe we have the makings of a fine robot.