I originally signed up to this blog thingy so I could add stuff to the Echo Black project.

I've always looked down on blogs... they seem like little more than glorified online diaries that not only your little sister nicks and reads... but everyone else does too. I suppose I'm missing the point.

Anyway, I read Steve's EchoBlack blog and discovered two things. Firstly, the sometimes clumsy and gangly Steve has quite a way with words... and secondly, he's quite funny too.

So I thought I'd add my little bit to the EB project... although it'd probably be a good idea to actually ask Steve about me contributing to EB.

I suppose I can also use this blog to write down some of the rediculous ideas and projects I come up with.

Currently, I am working on :

• a set of pneumaticly articulated wings for a LARP costume. I've been building these since early 2003... Actually, I worked quite well on them for a couple of months... and then they were moved to some convienient hooks on my garage wall. The framework is all there, most of the pneumatics is there... but I need to custom build a valve to go from the CO2 cylinder to the regulator... and it needs to be able to handle at least 600psi (I think... But I want to do some more research on the pressure of CO2 at room temperature)
• a wooden computer case. The idea was taken from Doug's Quiet Wood Case PC. An excellent article about a custom build wooden PC case. I'm building pretty much the same thing but with two major differences. It's bigger... and water cooled. Currently I've got most of the framework build, and have already gone through at least two of those "Oh shit nooooo!" moments where I've spotted a fundamental flaw and had to jury rig a redesign.
• A pair of six foot high pillars (like the Pillars of Isis kind of thing) which represent a Stargate in a scifi LARP game I play. Currently they have the custom built circuitry that will make 20 halogen spotlamps flash in sequence... they also have most of the power and sound amp systems sorted... I just need to finish the control and sound generation systems. (I'm currently waiting for a really cheap MP3 player to arrive from singapore (ebay special!)... but the seller has been kicked off of ebay for dodgy practices so I expect I'll never see it.
• A massive guitar amplifier. I started building this soon after I began going out with Jen (the lovely girl I live with). Like most of my projects, it got put on hold for a while. So far that's been about two years. The woodwork is all done, and I've got a sweet pair of Celestion speakers from the 70's. Circuitry needs finishing... and I need to aquire a massive heat sink for the 100w amp.
• The House. Myself and Jen bought a lovely 100 year old house about 2 years ago. The people who owned it were... for want of another word(s)... cheating scumbags. It wasn't until we moved in that we discovered... roofing problems... damp in the kitchen.... a 8 inch hole in the kitchen wall ... loose floorboards (cut in the middle... not over a joist) ... a toilet which was not screwed to the floor or wall and it's overflow opened onto the bathroom floor... a garage with an absolutley flat roof (seriously - you could have used this roof to calibrate spirit levels!) which of course was not waterproof.
  Our house is the one in the middle... with the garage with the stripy (but flat) roof. I'm sure there is a very special place reserved in hell for 'The Greens' that they normally reserve for estate agents and child molesters.

Anway... I'm doing this at work... so there is no way I can continue to blag this blog as my lunch break. So I'd better look like I'm doing some work.