I’ve moved 4 times in 4 years, not always voluntarily — Vancouver is experiencing a prolonged and very nasty housing crisis — but I’m happy to say that the latest is a good one and likely to last for a while.
One of the major perks is project space.
This project is an embodiment of the 3-year-old spirit of road rage.
Back in 2008 or so I bought a 1993 Mitsubishi Delica, a.k.a. Road Toaster, a.k.a. Damn Vanne, a.k.a. Van Diesel, a.k.a. The Thin Green Duke. It’s been constant companion through tours with The Elixxxirs, surfing trips up the west coast, and even a few dainty off-road adventures. These Japanese-import vans are common vermin in East Vancouver, but pretty exotic elsewhere. (A Delica is is now only Chuck’s second most exotic vehicle — check out the all-American exploits of VanTruck.)
What to do with the bare patch of dashboard where the steering wheel would normally be?
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A year or two ago I was building the Nielsen Speaker for the Moog circuit bending contest (which I failed to win). My goal was always to build something bigger, though.
Luckily a friend (thanks, Brent!) came through with a central piece of it: a keytar.
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I was recently contacted by a local escape room with a project: replace an ailing antique pump organ (SFW) with something more playable. They wanted the keys, when pressed, to “speak” a numeric combination that opened a lock in another part of the room.
I had recently come across Neil Thapen’s Pink Trombone, and wanted to do something impractical with it. It was the perfect match.
I’m calling this the Nielsen Speaker, for no particular reason.
In February, a Facebook friend sent me a link to the Moog Circuit Bending competition:
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A wise man once said: “What The World Needs Now Is [Remote Control Eyebrows].” Or something to that effect.
My dad’s got formidable eyebrows and it only seemed logical that my first foray into applied cybernetics should be this, for his birthday:
(Apologies for the video orientation.)
One last project for 2015:
I’m not religious and always felt a little weird about putting the star on the tree, but traditions are valuable and Luciana, now 3, is old enough to start absorbing them. This is also my first Christmas of separated parenting, so I have the freedom to follow my instincts.
Immediately disregarding my instincts, I went to Canadian Tire and picked up a plastic Christmas tree (hereafter termed the Festive Petrochemical). I hated choosing it, I hated paying for it, I hated driving it home, and I hated it as it sat in its box in my entryway. So I turned around and returned it, picking out instead a Norfolk pine from Figaro’s Garden, a local shop housing the biggest housecat you ever saw. Norfolks will survive year-around as houseplants, so avoid the plastic-vs-murder dilemma.
Now, decorations: I decided to wire the tree for power and start building a series of custom ornaments, both festive and nerdy. As time passes I’ll involve Luciana more and more in their design and construction. But for now I have three: a glowing eyeball, a robotic “ho ho ho”, and a touch-sensitive icicle.
Christmas tree ornaments are an ideal vehicle for beginner hacking projects. All they need to do is produce a bit of light or sound, and you have the pleasure of seeing them displayed. I’m eagerly anticipating next November, by which point I hope Luciana is already going to be tinkering.
Oh, and we have named the Norfolk “Jac the Tree”.
Happy holidays!
Source code on github.com.
This year’s culture crawl was a rousing success! Thanks to everyone who came, not least the food, alcohol, and film crews. But more about that in another post to come shortly.
I procrastinate terribly, which is why most of these projects exist — by working on these I’m usually avoiding something else. The last sprint leading up to the culture crawl became its own target for procrastination, so I wandered into a thrift store and got one of these…
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The Vancouver Eastside Culture Crawl is coming up — one of the best and most legitimately Vancouver events of the year, and I’m not just saying that because I’m in it. Seriously. Walk around Strathcona, check out the insane ant-nest that is 1000 Parker, or if you’re on the agoraphobic side, stick to the periphery.
And please drop in and say hi! I’ll be showing a lot of creations, many of them new for this year.
I recently moved, and in cleaning up it just so happened that four of five pieces of one of my oldest projects surfaced at the same time. I put it back together again for the first time in well over a decade, threw the switch — and it worked.
My boss brought me a gift from Mexico City a couple of years ago — thanks, Brian? Karen? Whoever it was? — and I’ve finally gotten around to doing something with it.
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