The Adventures of Curious George

April 17, 2018 was a glorious day for all of us Oxford Comma lovers (and for Maine dairy delivery drivers, I suppose).  https://thewritelife.com/is-the-oxford-comma-necessary

Things I've been doing/learning lately: (In no particular grammatical structure or temporal order) - Installing linoleum floors and sub-floors - Replacing floor joists - Various other home-repair contracting, mostly for Lee's mom's rental properties - Earplug earrings - so glad I finally made these, thanks Mom.  Maybe someday I'll sell them. - Light-up sign boxes with changeable messages, with help from several people, most notably Lee and Ransom. - Summer and other travel: Vietnam, Oaxaca Mexico, Peru, Montreal/Canadian National Park/Rochester NY, Southern India - backpacking - chaperoned 7th graders in Yosemite and 12th graders in Zion, went to both of those and several more places with Lee and others. - Reading *tons* of books (as long as you count listening to audio-books as "reading.")  Since I found audio-books, I've returned to my childhood levels of ~50 books a year.  Mostly fiction, some non-fiction. - How bicycle freewheel hubs are rem...

Should you use a wood-cutting spade-bit in metal?  Specifically Aluminum.  The internet seems to have to primary opinions, "no, that's really dangerous," and "I've done it."  This week, with Steve Westwood and a bunch of 9th grade robotics students, I changed my opinion from the former to the latter. - Use a drill press.  I still feel like hand-drills would be dangerous (heheh, we'll see when and if I change my mind on that), and might not be effective. - You want "chips," not just friction and tiny grindings. - Using cutting fluid (or some other oil in a pinch?) will at least tell you if you're heating things up to the smoke point of the cutting fluid, give you a warning that you're getting too hot, and a tiny thermal buffer for you to realize, "whoa that's too hot," and stop. - For the love of the FSM, clamp your work in such a way that if it becomes unclamped and spins, it won't disembowel you or remove appenda...

Update (Friday, 16 August, 2013): I'm leaving Yantalo this afternoon, so I won't be able to personally steward any more donations here.  However!  Your donations have already funded a gas s tove is well covered (yay, no more smoke inhalation or sooty clothing/walls!), as well as a potable-water container (oh yeah, I forgot to mention she tends to boil and drink the yellowish water from the tap... I'm not sure what makes it yellow), as well as enough money to refill each of those a few times.  The remaining $100ish (edit $150!) will stay here in the Luz Dina roof fund, from which money could be drawn for any other emergencies she may encounter.  Another volunteer plans to run another fund-raiser, and I'll publicize this one even more once we secure someone who actually wants to do the work of installing a new roof, and have figured out how much it will cost.   In the meantime, I'm sure the patches helped a fair amount with the leaks, and the rainy season isn'...

"What do you get when you cross an elephant and a rhino?" Van/me: Ele-fuck-a-rhino... or Ele-phant-a-fuck-would-I-know.  Oh, right, ele-fuck-a-ri-supposed-to-know. lobelia skull cap passion flower blue lotus dammiyana catnip rosemary and a bunch of other things

A new way to play Cards Against Humanity Inspired by Van and Elvia: Players have no cards in their hands.  Spread out all the white cards in a face-up pile.  When the current Card Czar (player whose turn it is) flips a black card, all the other players hunt through the pile for 30 seconds for the best pair of white cards. Optional bonus rule: Once you find your first card, it takes up your dominant hand.  You can continue searching the pile for your second card only with your non-dominant hand. A gem of a response from Van: "What's that smell?" "Boogers." Finally, Van's newest addition to Cards Against Humanity: Flash round For simple questions (like "What's that Smell?") everyone throw in your 5 best cards.