New blog!?!?!?

Hi there people.  I've decided to create a more sophisticated blog.
Simpler in design, more aesthetically pleasing, and more informations!

It is still in the beginning stages, though.  I've got it looking presentable, but don't be surprised if you look at it tomorrow and it looks a bit different.

There's always room for improvement! :)

Anyway, here it is:

http://www.stardaly.com

Follow my new blog! :D

"Ob la di, Ob la da, life goes onnnnn, brah!"

Looks like we're back in business, kids.
Here are some things I've learned lately:

“Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore. We have seen the future, and the future is ours.” -Cesar Chavez


"A man is rich in proportion to the amount of things which he can afford to let alone." -Henry David Thoreau


"From all your herds, a cup or two of milk,
From all your granaries, a loaf of bread,
In all your palace, only half a bed:
Can man use more?  And do you own the rest?"  -Ancient Sanskrit Poem


"If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be.  Now put the foundations under them."  -Henry David Thoreau


The more you say you cannot do the something, the more you will believe it.  The more you believe it, the more truly you will be unable to do it.


On a separate note...
I'm planning the writing of an ebook.  What is something you'd like to learn/read about?  I'd love any ideas you have to offer!

Nevermind tomorrow; TODAY is the day.

Went out tonight for sushi with my love. :)It made me feel a little better.

How to Hollow a G40 Lightbulb (photograph tutorial)

Greetings, ladies and gentlemen.  Today we explore the mechanics of hollowing out a G40 lightbulb.  First you get your tools.  My favorite three are a small screwdriver, pliers, and a pocket knife. You will need sandpaper or steel wool for the last steps.
It is also advised you use gloves.  I forgot to use them for most of the pictures.  Don't follow my bad example.

 Since I do this all the time, I have used a plastic bin for all the lightbulb guts and broken glass.  The towel is to help decrease the spread of glass, should it spill onto the floor.

The first thing you do is peel that copper plating off with the pliers.  Simple enough.

I forgot to take a picture of the black glass underneath the plating being broken, but it's quite all right.  This is what the lightbulb looks like minus the copper plating and black glass (it is actually kind of purple...)

I use my pliers to bend the metal edge on the inside back against the inside of the base so it will not cut anyone (especially if this is to be used for a fish!)

This is the part where I break the glass tube you saw two pictures ago with the wire.  It releases the pressure and argon gas (harmless, no worries) and makes the lightbulb a lot less likely to break from here on out.  After the tube is broken, I disconnect the two wires on the inside and poke the glass where the tube was.  Eventually I have broken most of the glass and it looks something like this:

Looks pretty rough, eh?

 Poke it some more, then start smoothing it with the knife.  Can't have any sharp edges!

 Maybe you shouldn't do this part... But I have to be positive that the inside is not going to cut a fish or you, so I feel around the inside where I just smoothed the glass to make sure it's all good.

Looks pretty good!

Introducing... lightbulb guts!  These are shaken out of the lightbulb into my plastic bin.

 See that?  That's solder.  Someone did a terrible looking job, too.  Well, this has the chance of having lead in it, so it's gotta go.

I remembered my gloves at this point.. 
Basically, pry the solder off.  Be careful with that knife, though.  If it slips, you might not have a finger anymore.  USE GLOVES.

 Time for the steel wool!  It looks nasty where the solder was if you don't use it.  Kind of a burnt look.

 This has got to go too.  Use the steel wool, but gently.  Don't be scared of a few hardly visible scratches.  It looks better than this stamp, I think.

 You should be done now!  Congratulations!  A hollow lightbulb.  Great for a number of uses.

 Yeah, sometimes they break.  It's all right.  It happens.  (this was the second lightbulb I hollowed that day)

I often turn these into fishbowls.  They're a perfect size for a female betta (a small male betta works too!)  If it becomes one of my fish's homes, I usually will stick a bit of bamboo or rooted plant in there as well.  The fishes like to swim about in the root systems, and it keeps the lightbulb clean so I don't have to change the water as often.  Plants love ammonia, interestingly, and will thrive on the waste of the fish, including any uneaten food.  Works out great!  Kind of like a mini ecosystem...

If you are interested in seeing this fishbowl actually being used as such, I have some for sale here.

Never buy a replacement cell phone charger again!

Photo: batteriesinaflash

Always worried you'll lose your cell phone charger while traveling?
Or worried that overuse will break it?
Never fear!

Simply go to any hotel and say, "I lost my cell phone charger.  Did you guys find one?"
They will come out with a bin full of cell phone chargers and there's bound to be a few that will fit your phone.

This is actually a form of recycling.  The hotel will throw them away after a while because they get so many.  You are saving a charger from being thrown in a land fill.  Congratulations!  You're making the world a better place!

Skirt-Pants

So the neat thing about this idea is you get to see the beginning stages.

The idea: Pants created from skirts (whether second hand, vintage, or otherwise).

My inspiration was from The King and I. The men in the movie wore awesome pants, so while watching it, my mind went to work on how they were made.
I concluded that they are basically skirts. The front hem tucked into the back waistband.
Like so:


If you notice, they look like your traditional style of harem pants from the front.
I think he may have pulled some of the fabric up to the front waistband to create that flow look.


Pay close attention to the bottom hem in these two pictures.

See how it is wrapped between the legs and is tucked in the waistband? The hem certainly suggests so.

After the movie was over, I immediately went to my cedar wardrobe and took out any skirts with potential. One worked perfectly. Of course, I did not achieve the exact same look. I would need a skirt with a wider bottom hem. But I can definitely see that it works from my experiments. Here are a few pictures:



I've worn these pants twice and got compliments both times!
I am finding, though, that something to hold the hems in place (the one inside and the one tucked into the waistband) would be nice. I have to periodically adjust them so that the pant legs are even.
But other than that, they're great! I love them!

What do you guys think? :)

I need a brain-hurricane.

After a while of making the same thing, I get bored with it. It doesn't take very long, either.
And after I've been bored with something for a while, if I continue to create it, I will come to dread it.

So that's when I create something new.

I'm at that point right now.
I need a new idea.
I keep slowly raising my lightbulb prices so that I will get less orders, and those that I do get will be more worth my time, effort, and boredom.

I have a few idea hatchlings.

One is a series of phone/iPod sleeves.
Maybe even play with a Macbook sleeve idea.

Recently, I had an idea for turning skirts into cool pants (kind of like the style of "harem pants," but think more of The King and I).
Only problem is that only certain skirts will work with this idea, and where I live, those kinds of skirts (and related clothing, for that matter) are rather scarce.

Another idea is sandals. I want to make myself a pair of really neat sandals with leather straps and tire tread for the soles.
If I manage to perfect the design, I could make them to sell.

I still like the bookbinding idea for journals and sketchbooks. I had fun with the two that I bound. Only problem is, I have been so busy lately, I have forgotten to purchase the proper supplies (online, since my town doesn't have any neat craft stores like Joann's Fabrics and Crafts or Michael's or A.C. Moore or ANYTHING). So we'll see if that idea ever becomes anything great.

Any of you got any ideas? I am open to anything. :)


P.S. A "brain-hurricane" is similar to a brainstorm, only much more forceful and ideaful.

Why do we do it?

What are colleges and universities?
Institutions that teach you in certain disciplines, and after you learn enough, you receive some sort of degree in that subject of learning.
Sounds good.
But would you trade that for a life of college payments?
Many, many years of debt.
Sounds not as good.

So, what is the real value of college?
A degree?
What does that get you?
A good job?
Well, what is a good job?
A job that pays well.
What is entailed in "pays well?"
I suppose a good bit more than minimum wage. Enough to live off of. Enough to support a wife/husband and 2.5 children (Who has ever had half a kid? Really?) Enough to live comfortably.
Who says you need a lot of money to do that, though?
Well society, I suppose. Good old society... But as mom would say, if society told you to jump off a bridge, would you do it?

I think a college education is overrated. Who wants to go broke for many years for a well paying job? And in this economy, there's absolutely no guarantee that master's degree is going to land you an automatic job for life. In fact, quite the contrary.
There is nothing you can learn in college that you could not learn in a library, online, or in a class at the Y.
Not to mention that all those essays you wrote will do you absolutely no good once you're in the "real world." You'll actually have to relearn how to write. Nobody wants to read a formal essay with no contractions and a bunch of big fancy words that no one understands except your college professors.

So my question is, why do we do it?
Why do we take 4-N years out of our lives to learn things for tens of thousands of dollars per semester that is knowledge that can be gotten for free or much, much cheaper?
Granted, if you are interested in a medical field or some other such very detailed occupation, a college education can be quite helpful.
But is it really worth the money you'll spend?

What do you think? Is it worth it?