I made something this summer

Inspired by an instruction video and watching our grandkids enjoy the water tables at a children's museum (don't you think "museum" is the wrong word for these places?) I decided to build our own portable water table.

The main parts:

• plastic storage bin
• fountain water pump
• PVC pipe and elbows

The most expensive item is the submersible water pump. I bought one from Home Depot for $29. The pump sits on the bottom of the bin and just needs to be covered by water. I did notice that typically after 30 minutes of play more water needs to be added. I found the 1/2 inch size pipe was the easiest to use. Leaving the pipe connections not glued allows the "water system" to be configured a variety of ways. Small plastic cups and stoppers add to the fun.


Two of my water table testers:

Both water table testers gave it their sign of approval.

It’s just a box

I wonder how many of you are old enough to have had experiences using a jukebox will also relate to my ongoing battle about boxes. Not jukeboxes, but I do wish I owned one since they were mechanical wonders and could store great music. No just plain cardboard boxes of varying size.

“It’s just a box” I replied to the directive coming from she-who-rates-boxes.

I learned very young that a box can be a toy

That exchange about boxes often takes place around holidays involving gift giving. There’s satisfaction in contributing to recycling for the betterment of our planet right? Now I will admit to occasional long term use of an old shoe box or two. Maybe I just draw the line at a different point in the complex box saving decision process.

Today box ranking was challenged but I quickly backed down since in the end does it matter to take a stand on boxes? (oh I'm sure you know, but standing on cardboard boxes can be hazardous to your health)

Imaginative use of cardboard

I believe boxes are great for:

• Play
• Moving
• Limited storage for holding beer supply (when does storage become hoarding clutter?)
• Protective mats on damp grass or dirty garage floors

I guess what is not on my list but I have repeated found out is on others’ lists is - potential gift box for a yet unknown gift in the distant future.

Straighten Up and Fly Right

This past January I reported my first drone flying crashing experience.

The weather has warmed but the rain and wind has been a too frequent visitor. Recently the air was mostly still on my deck but when I reached an open space in a nearby park the wind conditions were very different. I gave the drone a try anyway. The wind was pushing it around at will. After one hard landing I noticed I had cracked one of the four arms.

It was a fun challenge to repair it with tape and popsicle sticks. My "fix" didn't effect my flying. Still more hard landings than soft. However, I have increase my airtime between landings. The unpredictability of controlling it with wind and battery power has convinced me not to fly it around any crowds.  

No GPS, no live video streaming and no automatic avoidance system on my drone. Flying it requires constant eye contact with it.

(oh I found this Nat King Cole song performed by Lyle Lovett in my i-tunes collection - good fit for the video) 

moving on, up, down

A Christmas surprise and mild weather this January has offered me a chance to create my first dronie. Now I figured this new word was out there already and sure enough it was. Like a selfie, a dronie is picture but taken by a drone.

first dronie

Compared to others I know I’m not “into” gadgets that much. One problem I see with gadgets is the high cost for something that the bugs are not worked out of yet. I believe early adopters pay the price for being too early.

I’m a novice in the drone world. Novice sounds young so it’s an alright label by me. I categorize the retail drones in 3 groups. First very small indoor type drones, next the outdoor type with limited controls and finally full featured ones. The full featured ones start about $600 and go up from there. I suspect their GPS and avoidance features allows beginners better control.

My gift drone fits into my second category. No GPS, no live video streaming and no automatic avoidance system. The drone I’ve been crashing (not sure if I could call it flying yet?) is very light which is good and bad. Good because knocking it down as it came toward our adult daughter with my hand worked fine without any cuts. Bad because a slight breeze will push it around.

My first attempt of flying confirmed my belief that all this drone delivery talk is just hype to gain attention. Sure the commercial drones will be heavier with more powerful motors but I don’t see them delivering during a thunderstorm or even a high wind day. Sorry that same day delivery was cancelled due to an act of God.

Quick story about one of my first attempts. Granddaughter of 5 was over recently and I thought I would just show her (amaze her?) how it worked by lifting off and landing quickly on our deck. It was cold out but not bad for winter. I told her stand behind me. It lifted up about 4 feet caught a breeze and crashed into the deck railing. Took about half a minute total. Seeing this she told me, “It’s cold out I’m going back inside now.” Smart kid.

Now that I’m giving more attention to drones, I found this upcoming drone concept. I’m wary of the whole idea. A personal taxi drone called the EHANG 184. The Chinese company is currently test flying prototypes. No pilot, just the passenger and well tested software. I’ve flown in small helicopters which are fun but expensive. I've never felt scared since I had just watched the pilot land and take off with other customers before me. This no human pilot thing? No way, I’ve worked on too many software bugs in my career. 

step inside for a ride

For the readers who have read to the bottom of this post, thank you and for your enjoyment here is a clip of my crashing abilities. Just amazing outstanding crashing skills! (Oh the drone does record video onto a tiny memory card for later viewing.)

lets discount this

With the abundance of Black Friday, Cyber Monday and TU Tuesday savings I wonder if anyone will take their enormous savings, quit work and retire. Have you noticed the word “savings” being hijacked by the advertising industry. “Savings.com” is not run by a bank. No it’s actually a place to find coupons.

I’m not saying coupons are bad or worthless. You need to ask yourself, would you have bought the item regardless of the coupon? In other words, do you really want it or is the distorted savings idea playing tricks on you?

Coupons are great when you are going to buy the item anyway. They (the marketing gods a few clowns short of a circus) know that coupons are more than discounts for items. They are game pieces in the ongoing shopping games. Have you ever bragged to your friends about a great coupon you recently got to play in the shopping game?

I’m a victim of a recent coupon.

An ad in the newspaper caught my eye as I drank my morning coffee last week. A good store for computers and electronics, Tiger Direct, offered a coupon for a toy helicopter. Only, $9.99 with the coupon. Limit one per customer. (that limit is another gimmick I suspect).

Yes I knew this offer was meant to draw me away from my coffee and out to their store. While I was there I briefly shared how this offer was tough to pass up with two other older new-toy-helicopter owners. Hey for only $10 the downside of possibly being a lousy toy was reduced. I’ve spent more on a six-pack of beer when I don’t have a coupon.

Before I get to my final thoughts on the product, I want to point out a problem with their ad. It’s common practice, we have seen it but yet we still get tricked by it. The price in the ad was listed as $39.99. A $30 “savings” or discount. When I got to the store, the sale sign was closer to the truth. Without a coupon anyone could buy it for $19.99 ($39.99 was still listed as the original price). Getting it for just $10 off might not of taken me away from my morning coffee.

Just another side/tangent - Why is it when some product is discounted shoppers typically react positively, but when a stock drops (discounted, on sale?) many investors react negatively? Also, it would be nice if I could check a chart of the selling price over time of products like I can easily find the selling history of a stock.

The actual toy - for a helicopter it did not provide a very uplifting experience. Hard to control. It did take a beating of crashes ok. At one point I dropped the controller and one of the joysticks cracked off. No joy in that stick. I probably should have bought some premium craft beer instead.

how do you get this type of work

I wish I could get a gig like this! play with lego figures, write a bit of report, take pics of lego figures, write a bit of report, ask co-workers about lego figures - Oh wait wait - that's how I lost my job. Never mind.

Once again my thought of studying the reason for stupid studies has surfaced. I’m sure you have heard of them. Study shows, researchers find, scientists say, blah blah. The blah is often ridiculous and common knowledge. Study shows men forget to put the toilet lid down. Really, who knew?

Lego toys were not included in my childhood. They didn’t become a big hit until the 1970’s. My kids played with them and I loved to join in.

How cool and fun would it be to be paid to research the faces on Lego minifigures.

Dr. Christoph Bartneck of the University of Canterbury in New Zealand created a fun study. He and two others studied the changes of the Lego faces since 1975. I was able to download a copy of their report here.

After looking over the report, my opinion (really who relies on my opinion) is that this study might be of use to someone. I’m posting about it because (many media outlets picked up on it too) it’s odd and would be a hell of fun job to do.

As discussed in this study, Lego has been busy introducing themed play sets often based on movies and action heroes. This reflection of popular movie characters is bound to include a few villains.

Anyone want to fund Lisleman Labs research?

Current Lisleman proposals:

• Social impact of the new Superman not wearing his underpants on the outside.
• Survey of people knowing the color of Superman’s cape.
• Survey of people who have spit into the wind. 

(one last thought, Dr. Bartneck? Did anyone else have the image of Bart Simpson pop up when you read his name?)

come on the peace train

We watched a few trains today.

This was at the Morton Arboretum. They call it the Enchanted Railroad. I asked one the "engineers" operating it, how long it took to set-up. He gave a detail schedule of so many days for the this and that step. It totaled about 4-5 days. It would be wonderful if we could set-up a peace train over 5 days.

every creature tells a story

I got a surprise package in the mail. (hope our postal service stays around for a long time) 

My anniversary of first breathing air is coming up so when I saw who the sender was, I was able to deduce it was a gift. I was right. I should have taken a picture of the tape job but then my little sister might think I was making fun of her. Nothing new there. I like to say we laugh together.

Turns out the gift is a combo gift from both older and younger sister. They happened to be shopping together which is unusual since they live states apart. 

But what is totally unbelievable (you’ll see in the picture below) is how similar this odd gift is to the odd gift my daughter gave me for Christmas. Now these two odd gifts were purchased in different states too. Also my sisters had not heard or seen anything about my Christmas gift. I have not strolled a craft fair in a long time so maybe this type of metal creature is popular.

Here’s the odd metal creature my daughter gave me:

Here’s the surprise gift from my sisters:

They look good together, don’t you think?

I also deduced that I must be good at letting others know of my fondness of odd things. 

Every picture tells a story and Unknown Mami has links to many stories/pictures on Sunday.

funky sneak preview

Do you know there are youtube clips being shown on cable channels?  I've seen it.

Are they hard up for content?  Too deeply stuck in the reality crap, I think.

Well, if this youtube clip is ever shown on a cable show you can say you watched it here first at A Few Clowns Short.  (don't hold your breath unless you just ate garlic)

Enjoy and take me to funkytown

Oh by the odd chance you would like to watch other Lisleman creations click over to the "playing around" page.

barbie message what about ken

Yes finally!  I found the above picture years ago and I knew I would be able to get a blog post out of it someday.  I never cared for Barbies but troll dolls were cool even way back in the late sixties.

So did you hear about this controversial Barbie doll?

Some Barbie designer (who are these people?  Didn't make it in the real life fashion biz?) produced an inked/tattooed Barbie.

Don't be too worried about your impressionable girls getting a hold of one.  They sold out quickly.  According to reports the doll was produced for the adult collectors.  Ok I understand collecting old Barbies but buying new ones as an adult?  I have better uses for $50. 

Sending the wrong message to young girls?  Honestly if you worried about that type of thing why even let any type of Barbie doll in the house.  I would be more worried about the "normal" Barbie giving my daughter the desire for a boob job.  (IMHO a boob job is even a dumber idea than some ink job)

One possible advantage of this would be the lesson of watching the tattoo wear off with age.  Now that lesson would take awhile unless you borrow my portable orbital sander.

Now from my experience with raising daughters (also noticed with granddaughter) the Barbies are most often found naked.  At least the tattoo distracts you from the thought she has been running a nudist camp in the toy box. 

 

athletic Barbie - do you think her hair gets messed up?

This was fun.  I hope you enjoyed the trolls roasting Barbie as much as I did.

Oh, no word from Ken on this latest development.

Oh BTW, Lisleman is still collecting Left-over Laugh posts on his LLL#4. (please tell me why I am writing this in the third person??)

fabled franchised Friday fragments

Oh, it’s Friday in more than half the world now so lets start Friday Fragments (FF). I heard Mrs. 4444 has been spotted on the left coast. Lots of celebrities out there. I think she wanted to join in. Check her blog for a full Friday filling of fragments.

Be aware Mrs. 4444 the FF host is a teacher, so she probably would not appreciate us skipping our Friday blog assignments.

We had stormy weather Tuesday night. There was no problem here but one daughter had a good size tree limb come crashing down in her front yard. It was a close one for her. Sirens, lightning, thunder, wind and rain filled the evening.

There was an outdoor concert going on in Chicago that evening. It was stopped. Guess the band playing?

Earth Wind and Fire

I have a 40th high school reunion coming up. The better half and I are planning to attend. I dusted off the school year book and started flipping through it to refresh my memory. All the pictures are in black and white.

I posted this status on FB the other day:

40th HS reunion coming up - hope everyone remembers their reading glasses

I hate calls from companies, charities, banks, etc. I signed us up on the do-not-call list but that’s doesn’t seem to matter. Since we still have a landline (I have debates with my wife about dropping it) I think we get even more because the number is published. I even get a unknown number on my cellphone at times and that’s really bad because the call will use up my minutes.

Today I get this call, some guy saying that he calling on behalf of some opinion-up-your-ass company (Ok I don’t remember the name) and would like to ask me a few questions about whatever. We went back and forth a little about who this group was. I pointed out the do-not-call thing and he tells me that it does apply to his company because he is not selling anything just asking for my opinion. I told him I could give him my opinion of this phone call but I won’t and hung up.

Don’t know what to get that security enthusiast for their next birthday or Christmas?

The toy TSA scanner wand - The TSA was not in existence when I was young. Good thing too. My friends and I would have set-up a security point on the sidewalk for all the younger kids. Oh, if you do get this for someone - don’t buy them any rubber gloves - that’s pushing it too far.

 

Hey any of you remember my experimental blog, I Can’t Blog?

Yeah I thought so, what blog?

Well another blogger commented on it today. It’s been about 2 months since that happened. I drop a comment up there once and awhile (sad huh?). One month ago I dropped this in the comment section:

this comment section is like an echo in the canyon of a blog. A comment stays here for you to reread it again and again echoing in a digital way.

So I might put a third post up there soon. Ok, if you don’t have a clue what I’m talking about you need to read the first post up there. That post was going to be the only post. It worked for awhile.

So this third post will be on the general subject of blogging.  Any suggestions?

Not long ago I offered up simple blog game - match my phrase with the blog. I got a good response and most all of the bloggers matched their own blog. But surprising to me (you guys need incentives?) nobody tried guessing all nine.

Just in case anyone is still wondering (I doubt it) here’s the answers.

• blogs from over the rainbow land - Lilly’s Life
• happy her pool stopped moving closer to Hollywood - The Fifty Factor
• just drawn to it - Bearman Cartoons
• will sit anywhere as long as it is on the bus - Pearl, Why You Little
• has seen hot rocks monkey visits - OneStonedCrow
• thinks a paper bag is retro - Unknown Mami
• puzzles over her next puzzle - Jillsy Girl
• met Forrest Gump at Chippewa Square - Savannah Marsh Mama
• fights spiders dreams of Halloween - Half-Past Kissin’ Time

If you are interested the game post (follow link) has all the blog links.

F F Fragments

A friend sent me this Demetri Martin quote:

I notice that there are no 'B' batteries. I think that's to avoid confusion. Because if there were, you wouldn't know when someone was stuttering.

As we slide into Friday do you have some fragments to share? Mrs. 4444 will help spread your digital fragments around.

My daughters have been telling me what to wear for years but I thought that was just natural. The scary thing is when they give up.

Any of you watch CNBC? It’s the business channel that follows the stock market which I find both interesting and rewarding. Typically I watch for awhile in the morning and then before the market closes at 3PM my time. One reason I don’t watch much during the other part of the day is their few talking heads that I just don’t like. They come on too strong with their political views and I just want to hear about business not politics. Of course these subjects do mix but I would prefer them remaining quiet on some of the extra commentary.

Today Michelle Caruso-Cabrera threw a comment about William Daley being appointed Obama’s Chief-of-staff. She suggested there was a conspiracy involving Mayor Daley (they are brothers) and Rahm Emanuel and whatever. What a dumb irresponsible statement to throw out on the air.

Well have you seen it yet? Slightly over 2 minutes and packed with action. I’m referring to Conditioner Man’s debut youtube video.

It’s up on my “Playing Around” page (see tab in the header).

Conditioner Man defends against wild split ends and other dryness. Here’s his PR shot.

After you watch the debut video (did I mention it’s on my “Playing Around” page) and catch your breath be sure to check out the other digital fragments Mrs. 4444 has collected for you.

eight is enough

I'm not talking about that old TV sitcom. No it's a less known feature I tried last year here on this blog.

"Where's the Clown" is what I named the idea.  I ran the game eight times and I kept track of the photos I challenged the readers with under the tab titled the same above.

                                          

All the challenges except for #6 had recent pictures.  The picture I used for #6 was a trip back in my past.  At least one reader liked my T-shirt.

                                         

I'm moving on from this game idea.  I've decided to replace the tab/page "Where's the Clown" with a page focused on my hobby of creating little moving toys.  I'm not sure if "toy" is the right word.  The small objects would not hold-up the rough handling of most kids.  Right now I plan on calling it "Playing Around".  It will very much like another blog I had started called "Broken Gadget".  I'm open for suggestions on the name if you have any suggestions.

+=+=+= 

update

I just added the tab/page on the top.  I would have done it when I posted this but I decided to go to bed and sleep on it.  Please comment here since the tab/page doesn't have a comment section.

Hey that toy looks like me

If you changed his hair to a salt and pepper gray and put some bags under his eyes, I would need to get a lawyer to sue Mattel's Fisher Price for having fun with my image.  (see this post about a similar dumb lawsuit)

Is there money in toy reviews?

How could I get started as a toy critic?

I stumbled on this new toy being discussed over at the Crytomundo site.  Then I found this good detailed clip the CrunchGear team posted on youtube.

Now if you watched the above clip, did you notice the temper tantrum part?  Whose kid did they model for that behavior?  I have seen tantrums very similar to that.  How about you?

Two benefits of being a toy critic:

• getting toys sent to you to play and review
• going to the toy fairs around the world

solar info link

economical diversion have fun

Sick of this economy crisis, the news of bailouts, yet another investor fraud, and stocks crashing?

You don't need to be depressed in a depression do you?

How about indoor duck hunting?

I caught this on MSNBC a day ago. Looks like Interactive Toy Concepts might have a winner with this.

I have a FlyTech Dragon that is similar. But my living room needs to be bigger to get a good flight with it. Of course it works outside if it's a really calm day.

A better idea than this infrared shooter would be just to shoot it down with a nerf gun. I'll need to give that a try.

Of course if you lost your house you might not have an indoor available for hunting or much of anything else. But if it hasn't gotten that bad yet, this toy will at least provide a diversion to all this crappy news.

New toy tri-bristle

Been here before? Maybe you remember my first post on a modified toy.

After that, my wife happened to find this old toy with a clown head. That lead to the next modification (2.0 ??) check this if you like

Well putting it up on youtube and looking around the net, I discovered bristle bots. Do some searching you'll find many variations - here's a fairly large one. (quad bristle?)

Basically it's a fun way to reuse your toothbrush vs. cleaning toilets or whatever.

My first bristle bot attempt was not too stable. It moved a few inches and fell on its side. Then the idea of using a paper clip and a couple of brushes to form the TRI-BRISTLE. (like the outrigger idea for canoes)

So now I have combined the clown head and the bristle bot.

hex bug at hexadecimal level

I have posted about the hex bug before. Most recently I found a new use for an old cellphone battery. Just crude modifications with a battery and LED. Here's that post.

I just found a site that takes hacking the hex bug to another whole level - say hexadecimal.

Now this looks more professional - but I still like my clown head.

Applied Inspirations offers the details of an extensive hex bug hack. So if you want more from your $10 hexbug take a look.

Now here's an idea - thinking of my last post about GPS - add GPS to the hex bug and map something. Of course the hexbug doesn't travel over uneven or soft surfaces.

one trick kangaroo

I found this $10 kit at Fry's the other day. I was a little surprised by the number of steps in building it, but the instructions were good and it included more parts than you needed. They even give you the parts to make the switch. I thought that was too much, so I modified it with a switch I already had.

Fun little toy. It would be easier assembling if I had smaller fingers.

As I mentioned you put just about everything together except the motor. They have a quick good method of attaching wiring to terminals. After you slip the bare wire into the terminal the wire is kept in place by squeezing a piece of rubber tubing over the wire and terminal. This much easier and quicker than soldering.

Oh, I don't know if you remember but here's another similar video I made earlier.

tin toys

The top picture (motorcycle) is from a visit to the Japan exhibit at Epcot in Florida. The second picture is from wired.com. Here's a link to more pictures at wired.

Wind-up tin toys remind me of a simpler time.

spare parts

Here's a little video of a toy robot that I modified. The Hex Bug toy comes with some small (watch like) batteries so I wanted to have it run on a rechargeable. I happened to get a new cordless razor from Santa so I took the rechargeable batteries from the old one and wired them on the hex bug. I also needed some well placed rubber bands to hold things together. I threw on a gum drop looking LED for that extra touch.



If you are looking for more of real robot --- watch this: