Homemade Cedar Planter

Hey everybody. Wondering where I've been? The simple answer is that I was busy with the new condo and other random projects.

This project started because I wanted to really get my balcony farm going. I call it a balcony farm, not a garden, OK? I soon found out, however, that redwood and cedar planter prices are crazy. Like 50 bucks for a 16x16x12 inch box crazy. A few days ago I got an OSH ad and saw they had 6"x1/2"x6' cedar fence planks for sale. They went for about 2.80 per plank, so for the box that I built which was 6'wide, 16.5" long, and 11.5" high, I needed 8 planks for about $24. I also needed some drywall screws for $5 for a box with way more than I needed. Why drywall screws? Why not? So for $29 and about an hour of time, you can make a 6 freakin' foot long cedar planter!

The space before with 2 store-bought redwood planters @ $50 each:

First things first, get your cedar or redwood fence planks. The dimension marked out is 6" wide but usually they are 1/2" less. I don't know why they do that but that's how it is.

Grab 3 pieces and put them on a flat surface. Line them up so the ends are even and clamp them together at both ends. This will be the bottom. Remember these are rough cut so you might want to wear gloves if your hands aren't use to woodworking.

I had some 1 1/2" leftover redwood post from a previous project so I grabbed those for the feet. Have at least 1 screw going into each plank. I used the appropriate screws so that the points would not go all the way through the planks. It's a good idea to raise your planter up from the ground to allow for better drainage and so the base will not stay soggy,  which could shorten the life on the planter.

A minimum of 3 feet is required due to the length of the box. I simply eyeballed the 2 on the outside to be about 1ft in from the edges. The third was roughly in the middle.

Now we start making the front and back walls. I used some leftover red oak for the corner supports. These were 12" but I recommend you get about 10" pieces for this. I just wanted to minimize cutting. Just square up the edges and put in 2 or 3 screws. In my case I was going through soft cedar and into hard red oak so drilling pilot holes were necessary to avoid splitting. After you get one side, of course, do the other.

Now square up your partial wall to the bottom corners. I used a single 1 1/2" screw right into the end grain of the red oak. This time I drilled a pilot hole to the entire length of the screw. Normally you never want to screw into the end grain because it just won't hold up, but red oak is so hard that I think I'll be ok here. Repeat on the other side. hint: clamps help out a lot if you don't have another set of hands to help.

What I forgot to take pictures of was additional 1" screws drilled along the bottom edge into the first wall plank. Smack the plank with a hammer until you get it flush with the bottom edge and use 5-6 short screws to keep it there.

Now line up another plank right over the first one and screw it in on both sides. Your first wall is done!

Repeat the wall process for the other side.

Doesn't that look SWEEEET?!

But wait, we still have 2 more sides to do! Measure one side of the box  from outside to outside, close to the bottom, and mark your last plank. These pieces should overlap the edges. Cut that piece and use it as a template for a second. You might not want to do this for all 4 pieces as you carpentry skills may differ and there may be differences in materials. When you get to the other side, measure and cut in the same way for the last 2 pieces.

Screw those puppies in. See what I mean by "overlap the edges"? Also make sure you're screwing into the support and not the endgrain of the bisecting planks.

Lather, rinse, repeat, go use the bathroom because you haven't in the past hour...

...and come back and take a look at your brand new 6 foot long planter!

SWEEEEEEEET!!!

 Plants and soil coming soon...

Another Random Conspiracy Gone Awry

Why do people pay more for decaffeinated coffee? It's less product, won't help you stay awake, and will still give you the shits no matter what. I'd rather follow the KFC model. Pay the same price as a regular sandwich, but wait!! THE BUNS ARE ACTUALLY 2 MORE PIECES OF CHICKEN!! Sanders for Pres. 2012.

Extreme Pizza: Everest

Extreme Pizza

5829 Jarvis Ave 

Newark CA 94560

510-742-9200

     It was a calm Saturday morning and I'd I was out running errands which included buying heinous amounts of paint for my new condo and doing tax stuff for my first time home-buyer credit. Both of those tasks made me feel really good. Of course I wasn't thinking about how much it would suck getting a 5 gallon bucket of paint up the stairs at that point... Anyway I was in the area of an Extreme Pizza that the local pizza gourmet recommended so I figured I'd take a shot. Here's my review of the Everest, all meat pizza.

Taste:
     All meat. How can you wrong with that? Well, I'll tell you. If you place that meat on a platform of ASS! Ok it wasn't really ass but the crust was like eating barely wet cardboard. You know like if you wet the corrugated stuff just enough so it became flexible but was still hard to poke all the way though with a finger. But it wasn't even as thick as corrugated cardboard so however they achieved that level of ass-board eluded me. And the sauce and toppings themselves tasted ok, not $22 and change ok, but ok nonetheless. Or at least it was for as long as I could concentrate on tasting before the toppings fell off. It really was more like a crunch as you bit in while the rest of the toppings popped and flaked off. No sliding off here. It seemed like they forgot to lay down some primer before they laid down the topping coat. - Ahaaah! See that was a little painting reference there, being as I picked up some paint and all... Like that? I thought you wouldn't......

Authenticity:
     What does authentic extreme taste like? I don't know, seriously. It's like saying the awesome blossom had that extra hint of awesome that brought out the flavor just right.

Consistency:
     Here's where I didn't perform my usual scientific method. When a guy who eats Little Caesar's pizza and expects Little Caesar's pizza and then likes it tells you that this was worse than a F@*king LITTLE CAESAR'S  PIZZA... it can't be good. If you've followed my food ratings for any amount of time you would easily understand that I love my food to a greater extent than that of most people and I find myself discouraged to give them the standard 3-visit average rating.

Cost to Serving:
     Like I said up top, not a ~$23 pizza. Sure the actual diameter was there to justify the price of a large pizza but it was brought down, way down, by that sub par crust. In golf I think they call that a bogey... Bogey crust folks, which magnified the total cost to serving as a complete unit to double bogey status. Yeah, unit. Not a pizza.

-- WARNING: GRAPHIC DEPICTION AHEAD --

Conclusion:
     I love my food, maybe a little more so than is healthy, but hey, someone has to. But this just broke my heart, then took the shards and put them in a food processor, was eaten by an abnormally sweaty, overwight comic book fanboy , crapped it out in some plastic, shrink wrapped it, and called it Hillshire Farms.

____________________________________

Price Paid: ~23

Price I'd Pay: ~5??

Cumulative Rating: 3.0 - only because there are still worse out there

CRAP TO THE EXTREME!!!

Xenoblade AKA Monado

Here's a preview of the upcoming Xenoblade, the next in the Xenogears/Xexosaga series:

     A lot of people are saying that this in going to suck and that the graphics are terrible. Well, here's what I say. How do you know so little about it and know that it's going to suck? And sure the graphics are not state of the art but this thing is coming to the Wii. Besides, if you're a true Xeno fan, you'd know that the story  is the heart of anything Xeno-tagged.

     On another note, some of the music has leaked and so far it is very good as well. Different from FF or Uematsu(which is damn good), but distinctly Xeno sounding in my opinion. Some of the previews strongly remind me of RahXephon and you'll see why.

Pre-Walkthrough Cleaning

     So my current place has their walk-through tomorrow and I just busted my ass cleaning and burnt the crap out of my eyes and lungs from the massive amount of bleach. But i don't know what they hope to inspect 8 days before I actually have to be out of there. I mean, all my stuff is still here and in the way. Anyway, lets see if I can get any sleep this night, unlike the last.

SQARE + LARA CROFT = WTF?!!

Crystal Dynamics, a part of Square Enix Europe, today announced Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, a new game developed by Crystal Dynamics, which will be released via digital download in 2010.

“This is a really exciting project for Crystal Dynamics, we have created something completely new and very different to what people might be expecting,” said Darrell Gallagher, General Manager of Crystal Dynamics. “Lara Croft is such an iconic character in videogames, with Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light we have created what we believe is a truly original digital experience.”

Crystal Dynamics is an award-winning studio located in San Francisco. Founded in 1992, the studio has created and developed key game franchises such as: Legacy of Kain, Pandemonium, Gex and most recently the Tomb Raider series.

VIA Megagames

The Saga of a First-Time Homebuyer: The Scheme

     Alright, short post. Below are the official colors of the Frank Empire. If I were to make that a flag I don't thin kit'd look half bad. but in the center I might have a picture of a chorizo burrito in the center and pho', dry salami, mayonnaise, and a chili pepper at the corners.

Sorry Japan, Microsoft Project Natal is for America

Microsoft’s belated disclosure of the space requirements for its innovative new Project Natal interface have struck many as being physically impractical for all but the large living room, with the controller demanding a “clear” space 4m (13 feet) deep.

The device (an Xbox 360 peripheral which uses sensors to interpret bodily movement) is said to require an area significantly larger than most other gaming devices, and more pressingly, larger than many homes or gaming areas can feasibly provide:

To be precise, you’ll want to clear an area extending at least 4 meters (a little more than 13 feet) away from the television.

That’s the back edge of the space to be taken into account by the Natal sensors.

In terms of width and height, the field of vision naturally expands as it moves from the Natal device to that back edge, ending up a little more than 4 meters wide and 2.7 meters high (about 8 feet, 10 inches).

Japanese gamers immediately noticed that this is larger than the size of all but the biggest Japanese rooms – as pictured in the below diagram, previously published by Microsoft during one of its more brutally frank moments:

Possibly this is a significant miscalculation on Microsoft’s part – a “clear area” 4m deep might be a reasonable enough expectation for an American living room centred on a large TV, but in urban dwellings throughout much of Asia and Europe such spaciousness cannot be taken for granted, and even if it could the hassle of clearing away intervening furniture each gaming session might be unappealing.

The 4m space requirement also rules out a significant number of more cramped bedroom and single room dwelling settings. Needless to say, a close-in “PC gamer” style setup with chair, desk and monitor/TV is completely out of the question.

It is not clear how well the unit will function in more confined areas, but it seems likely degraded operation will be possible to an extent. On the other hand, there are clear minimum and maximum range limits with Natal’s sensors which are unlikely to offer much leeway.

More pointedly for gamers (especially slothful ones), Microsoft’s gaming future apparently also involves a great deal of standing up.

POWER UP!!!

A boy who was desperate to “power up” after watching “Transformers” started drinking gasoline in emulation of the mechanical heroes of the film, suffering permanent brain damage as a result.

The boy, a 14-year-old schoolboy living in China’s Sichuan area, apparently enjoyed good grades and was good with machines, perhaps explaining his fascination with Transformers.

His parents running a shop selling lighters, he found himself with ready access to lighter fluid, which he began covertly snuffing, in spite of being caught several times. Soon he progressed to filching gasoline in bottles and using the vapours to get high with.

All this apparently took its toll on his cognitive faculties, and soon he hatched upon a scheme based on his viewing of Transformers. Seeing that his mechanical heroes gained power from fuel, he too resolved to try this, and began stealing fuel in mineral water bottles, which he would drink habitually.

Eventually his theft came to light, and he was taken to see a doctor, where it was discovered that he could no longer perform simple sums and appeared to have developed a severe mental disability.

Doctors found him to have become addicted to gasoline, the lead content of which entered his body, causing brain damage. He was subsequently hospitalised in order to curb his addiction.

When asked why he imbibed the fuel, he said only “Because I wanted to power up.”

Via Heaven.

Another Vipper Challenge!!

The Vippers once more threw down the gauntlet (to themselves), challenging all comers: “Make this image cool!” With the decidedly uncharismatic oyaji in question, captured in the midst of an exaggerated flying kick, this presents something of a challenge.

Fortunately, there are Photoshop masters at hand:

Xenogears Flashback

Who like the game Xenogears on the PS1? I did. Enough to do a really bad recording apparently...

The Saga of a First-Time Homebuyer: The Layout

So the time is nearing and I'm getting a little over excited. I thought, man it would be cool to be able to plan out my wall colors and whatnot without having to buy samples and possibly screw everything up. Wait a sec, holy crap, I CAN! It took two days to finally get an idea of the color scheme, though the kitchen is still a toss up.

Shortly after I got the colors mostly sorted out I figured that I should start plugging in all the crap I have to figure out where everything might fit. The pictures above are far from fully furnished, but the essentials are there: TV, bed, couch/futon -- still missing another TV though.

Here are a couple of actual shots against my model:

Kitchen from Living Room

Kitchen

Chinese Cooking Oil “Made from Sewage”

Come on, China. Would you cook an animal one wouldn't normally eat in toxic waste and eat it yourself? ...Wait, don't answer that one.

The news that a tenth of all cooking oil used in China may be made from recycled sewage and laced with toxic contaminants has stunned China.

Originating from a report on a state radio station, the news that “Chinese are eating 3,000,000 tons of ‘recycled cooking oil’ each year, but it is 100 times more toxic than arsenic!” spread throughout China in a matter of days.

The cooking oil is apparently “recycled” from raw sewage taken from sewers and elsewhere, which is heated and filtered. After filtration the liquid is transparent and free of particulate matter, and can be rendered into cooking oil.

Fears over the toxicity of the recycled oil are high. Significant levels of aflatoxins have been detected, a poison said to be “100 times more toxic than arsenic,” and known to cause growth defects in children and cancer.

Viral and bacterial contaminants are thought not to be a problem, assuming the sewage-oil is properly boiled in preparation.

Despite the obvious hygiene and safety problems of using treated sewage in cooking, its usage is thought to be widespread, as the “recycled” cooking oil is all but indistinguishable from normal cooking oil, in all but one aspect – its price.

It costs only 300 yuan ($45) a ton to manufacture, half the price of regular oil, and it is said to be common use throughout China – estimates are that it constitutes a tenth of all cooking oil used in China.

Chinese food safety regulators, such as they are, launched an immediate emergency investigation, although it is not clear if they actually previously approved the activity.

China’s record on food safety is of course already utterly abysmal, but if as widespread as reported this could turn out to be the most damaging scandal to date, as cooking oil is an integral part of food preparation in China.

Nations importing cheap cooked foodstuffs from China may also be concerned that they have been inadvertently poisoning their children by trading with a nation in which regulation and business ethics are all but unknown.

The Saga of a First-Time Homebuyer: The Search for a Lender

Two years. It took two years in this God forsaken housing market for me to find a property that could work for me. And it ended up being a small condo on the second floor of a low rise. Wait, don't congratulate or smack me down yet. There were many factors in my choosing of this condo. Though it wasn't exactly a "choice" in the deeper sense, more like a mutual truce. And so begins the story of me and my first home. (sound effect from the show 24).

So like I said, I've been looking for a place for two solid years before I came across this place. With all the houses around me foreclosing and selling like hot tamales in the snow in Mexico, (does it snow there?) I figured that it would be an opportune time for me to look for my very own place. The interest rates were down, I had some savings, and I'm pretty damn handy so fixer-uppers wouldn't be a problem for me. Not to mention, the company I work for deals with construction, mold, water damage, etc., so if needed I had someone to call.

The first thing I needed to do was figure out what I could afford, or rather, how much money I could convince a lender to let me borrow. That's what it really is folks. Anyway, so my agent tells me to get a pre-approval from a lender. Sure, that sounds fairly easy. What the hell is that and what do I do? I don't know what I'm doing remember? Eventually, with help from the internet I figured out that it was just a sheet of paper from a bank or lender saying, "We could probably let you borrow this much". At this point I didn't know squat about the different companies out there so I went the way of the couch potato and said to myself, "Hey, that there Lending Tree commercial says they'll hook me up with a bunch of folks". So that's what I did. I signed up, filled in some boxes and pretty soon I had 3 or 4 notices in my email. The info from my skillful box filling helped them figure out where I stood and what I could afford. After looking at the offers I picked the one with the lowest points charged(1 point = 1% of the total loan) and promptly sent a pre-approval request, per my agent. A day later I got an email with the attached pre-approval letter and forwarded it to my agent. That one sheet of paper that barely has half a page of type on it makes you look much better when you put in an offer against people who don't supply one. But don't let the rates on that letter lock you into believing those will be your final costs. Things will change like the Fed raising interest, or even lowering it, and changes by the lender because of certain conditions you fall into. One such example is that you may have a high income to debt ratio, meaning that the amount you take home comes awfully close to the amount of bills and other obligations you have to pay. Lenders like to see something not higher that around 30%. That's not to say that you should give up if you have a high ratio. 30% is impossible for most of us anyway. It just means that you fall into those conditions I was talking about that makes it more likely your rates/charges will change. Ask you potential lender for a GFE or Good Faith Estimate that will estimate your charges line by line so you know what you're being changed for. These usually show what is called PITI, or Principle, Interest, Taxes and Insurance costs. It's also a good idea to just to help show you what your estimated monthly mortgage(payments) might be at the specified loan amount. If you have a good agent, ask him or her to work these numbers a bit further to give you an even closer estimate. And when I say close, I mean close. Good agents will call up the title company and other organizations associated with the lender to get actual costs and plug them into a refined GFE. And if you know the property you want, the agent can refine it still further by getting HoA charges or other fees that might be included with your monthly payments. This greatly helped me figure out how much house I could afford -- or in my case, condo.

In the next post: An Accepted offer

The Seinfeld of Blogs

Alright, it's been a year since I touched or even looked at my other blogs. The fact is I don't even know what to write about anymore. My old pages were apparently too focused on a certain topic and I don't tend to hold an interest in things for too long. I've decided to take anything I'm interested in currently(like right now) and just spatter my brains out all over this blog. Not being so constrained on a topic, as in the past, I hope I can generate enough content to keep my followers happy and retain my own interest in blogging. Sounds fun eh? We'll see...