RG's Workshop: The 90-minute glove rack

(note: I have added the label "Workshop" to the previous posts about stuff I've built, in addition to the "Treasure" label for discarded stuff I've found)

Last night, I got creative again. Like the pieces that became the "Three Hole Punch" that I talked about last December, gloves have outgrown my little basket for them and are in overabundance on my kitchen table. They could use a proper nesting place. At 10pm, it was already a bit late for woodworking projects, but I figured I could manage a quickie.

I'd already worked out roughly how I wanted to arrange them, and like the Three Hole Punch, it would be vertically, on the wall. I didn't have any spare dowelling (or broomstick, the trusty dowel substitute) handy, but I did have a bunch of narrow pieces of wood, which would actually work better for gloves, since they'd hold the gloves in the right orientation.

The first step was seeing how much wood I'd need. To do this, mount various gloves onto a scrap piece of similarly-sized wood and mark how far in it goes. This leather one didn't go in very far, but a couple others went further down on it.

The wood I use is from a the slats of a popular IKEA bedframe called "Lade", which I presume is pronounced "Lay-deh". This Lade is a queen. You can find these Lade slats on the curb often enough because the frames that hold them break, or the owner upgrades their bed.

As shown in the diagram on the label above, and in the photo below, the slats come strung together on a ribbon. It's not very difficult to remove the ribbon if you have the right tools. You might want to do it gently and slowly, but I prefer a more rough and vigorous approach, because it's faster and more satisfying.

Once the ribbon is removed, you can put the Lade slats on a rack and arrange them nice and tidily. Lade slats come in a variety of sizes, though the slats are the same size within each set. This stack has slats from two different size Lade sets, and the one in the previous picture was a third size somewhere between these two.

Finally at 10:25pm I began cutting. I ended up being able to get six 5" handles out of each 30" Lade board. Fitting the wood snugly in a mitre box, I first cut it into three 10" pieces with a 90 degree cut, then cut each of those into two with a 22.5 degree cut so that they would stick up slightly.

I next gauged the screws I would be using, by lining up the backboard and the handles to see how I should arrange the pieces to safely penetrate the Lade bits.

I used the wider Lade for the backboard and mounted pieces from the smaller Lade on top. I started with two in order to test the angle and separation with gloves on, and got them on at 10:40. I pre-drilled the holes through the backboard to avoid splitting, but just pushed into the bare wood for the handles with brute force.

The wider Lade was long enough to allow eight glove mounts, each three inches apart. Since I could only get six mounts from the smaller Lade, I had to get a second one to finish the job. I got all the pieces ready for screwing at 11:00pm. The square ends needed to be sanded vigorously to ensure a smooth insertion into the glove.

Finally, at 11:23pm, I got all the pieces assembled. The angle in this photo makes some of the slats look a bit crooked. (Yes, the camera angle...) I intentionally used a warped piece of wood for the mounts because I knew with the gloves on, nobody would be able to see how warped it is.

I have yet to decide on a mounting mechanism to get this glove rack on the wall (hence one hand in this picture), but that's a job for another day. I also have to stain it, but I need to be careful not to use a cheap stain--that's no way to treat a Lade.

Anyway, here it is, with the gloves on. Wave hello!

This rack only carries four pairs of gloves/mitts. I have many more for various purposes. I also carry a couple spare pairs in my bike bags to prepare for changes in weather when I'm out on the road, and I have a couple of backup pairs of gloves (like the lobster winter cycling gloves) at home for when my primary pair is misplaced, dirty, or wet. And of course I keep different sets of gloves handy for different seasons. Considering how easy it was to build this one, I think I'll build a second rack for my off-season gloves, too.

- RG>

Green Bin Blues

The City announced this morning in a PSA that green bin pickup will be switching to bi-weekly. Starting immediately.

Unfortunately, this message came after the green bin pickup for my street. This morning, when I realized my almost-full green bin wasn't put out last night, I didn't rush out of the house to put it out, because I knew I would just be able to put it out next week. Other bins on my street were already picked up before I left for work this morning.

Yet this PSA was only posted on the City's website at noon today, hours after bins on our street had been picked up.

Residents using collection calendars B & D will not have Green Bin pickup during the week of November 29 to December 3.

Residents using collection calendars A & C will not have Green Bin pick up during the week of December 6 to 10.

Luckily I'm on calendar A, according to the Property Resport results when I search my address on emaps, so I'll be able to put it out after all. If I were on calendar B or D, my nearly-full bin would have had to accommodate two more weeks of material, on top of the stuff already in there after not putting it out this week.

For all the people the city's communications department hired in the last year, you'd think one of them would have a decent sense of timing.

- RG>

Santa Claus dances like a jerk

This life-size dancing Santa Claus doll was at pho tonight, and presumably will be there until that pagan whatchamacallit day. It sings songs in French and dances. And as we noticed, its left hand moves somewhat... suggestively. The clacking sound the hand makes as it hits the belt buckle will certainly leave a lasting impression.

I won't be going on his lap anytime soon.

- RG>

Thought of the [undefined period of time] #11

The man who hides his words is as much a coward as the one who hides his name.

Previous undefined period of time: 5 months, 27 days, 7h24

- RG>

Who the fuck designed the Dexter DVDs?

So I'm watching the TV show Dexter, and being the good (and lazy) person that I am, I am doing so by renting the DVDs from my local video store, instead of downloading them illegally from the internet. I did the same thing for House, which was powerfully addictive. Once you get past the hokey acting, it's an interesting show that keeps you wanting to see what happens next.

I'm now at season 3 of Dexter, and there are some major issues with the way they designed the DVD.

First off, you get about thirty seconds of FBI warning and Showtime advertisement that you can't skip through.

Then you get some ad that thankfully you can skip through.

But then you have to sit through the animation/advertisement for the disc menu. In previous seasons, you could just click on the "disc menu" button and it would skip the animation. With season 3 (or at least disc 2), if you click the "disc menu" button in the middle of the animation, it takes you back to the beginning of the animation.

What a piece of garbage.

Then, when you finally get the episode started, it starts with a couple minutes of "previously, on Dexter" clips. Only I guess the producers don't realize I'm watching the fucking DVD. I know what happened previously and want to start seeing the next part of the story.

So I click the "next chapter" button. On the House DVDs, clicking "next chapter" at the beginning of the episode would take you to the start of the opening credits, and clicking a second time would take you to the end of the credits--the beginning of the episode. With season 3 of Dexter, if you click "next chapter" at the beginning of the episode, it skips the first few minutes of the actual episode.

What benefit do the producers think they gain by forcing me to first sit through adverisements for the show I just paid them to watch, and then not be able to conveniently access that content?

On top of this, the bonus features in the DVD suck monkey balls. There are promo episodes of miscellaneous TV shows that I can only assume sucked too badly to make it to air, then there are text biographies and photos of the cast with cludgy interfaces. LAaaaame.

I think for season 4 I'll just download the torrent. Lazy as I am, at least the DVD producers won't punish me anymore for acquiring their content legally.

- RG>

RG's guide to pedophilia

Apparently somebody is selling a book on Amazon called "The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure: a Child-lover's Code of Conduct". It's making a lot of people angry.

No doubt it is. Quite the scam.

I've got my own Code of Conduct for people who want to have sex with children, which I'll share for free:

Step 1: Stay the fuck away from children
Step 2: Don't even think of it

I admit, it could use a bit of refinement. Maybe once a publisher accepts my guide, they can trim off the wordy bits, or maybe add a sequel: "repeat steps 1 and 2".

Until then, sorry, Amazon--you won't be making any money off this guide!

- RG>

Take Notice: there's a new street artist in town

I saw these two "Take Notice" installations on street poles around Elgin and MacLaren yesterday:

Looks like Coyote has seen them, too. One is his picture of the day today.

Looks like Ottawa has a new street artist in the neighbourhood (or at least a new campaign by an old hand). I'm not sure if the images have a specific message, or if "take notice" is simply an instruction to the people who are so tuned out that they don't see these creative invaders as they walk or drive down the street.

Either way, I think it's a good message.

- RG>

Rats! The NCC does it again!

The NCC took something out of Confederation Park.

No, it's not about the rat poison they took out, after putting it there to try to get rid of unwanted guests.

It's the shrubs they took out of the park in November 2008 to get rid of unwanted guests. Only there was no mention of rats at the time; they didn't like people sleeping in the park and leaving litter and clutter.

In that article, a man who used to sleep in the park said the park was kept clean by the homeless people who slept there. It sure makes sense--if you sleep someplace, you keep it clean. He says any litter was left by the people who pass through there.

Since the NCC didn't say anything about rats when they removed the bushes, I can only assume the rats arrived after they removed the shrubs--and the homeless residents. Maybe the homeless people were no longer there to keep it clean.

I can only wonder if the NCC brought about the rat infestation themselves by removing the shrubs that gave it housekeepers.

- RG>