Daily Linky Posty Thingy 02/01/2011

• Bolt Depot - Chart of Nut, Bolt and Screw Types

  tags: hardware diy reference howto

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Daily Linky Posty Thingy 01/16/2011

• Axis Of Oversteer: When Motor Racing Was Dangerous and Sex Was Safe

  tags: videos cars motorsport documentaries

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Daily Linky Posty Thingy 01/15/2011

• The Dude Abides

  Preview of the PBS documentary on Jeff Bridges, in which his Dudeness enters a Big Lebowski memorabilia store.

  tags: videos documentaries jeff-bridges coen-brothers pbs lebowski

• Saving the World Two Strokes at a Time at Hemmings Blog – Classic and collectible cars and parts

  Ex-Ford SVT engineer (and Ford GT/F150 Lightning/SVT Focus creator) John Coletti's opposed-piston green car startup predicts a 100mpg non-hybrid car.

  tags: cars eco ford ecomotors john-coletti peter-hofbauer

• Sous Vide Immersion Cooker — DIY How-to from Make: Projects

  tags: food howto sous-vide via:boingboing.net

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Pa-rum-pa-pum-pum!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Carts of Darkness

The scene:  The affluent, hilly and eco-conscious streets of North Vancouver.  In the shadow of one of the world's finest ski/snowboard hills, on the same streets that gave rise to the world champion downhill longboard teams of Rayne and Landyachtz, there's another breed of insane thrill-seekers on the loose.  Every city in North America has hordes of homeless people filling shopping carts with discarded empties, scraping up enough for a slice of pizza and a day's worth of booze or drugs five cents at a time--but it becomes a little bit different when they can reach speeds of 70+ km/h bombing hills on those carts.  The NFB's Murray Siple tells the story:



(Incedentally, this is the first I've seen of the NFB's new post-YouTube site... well done, lads!)

edit: If the embed isn't working for you, the full length film is here.

There She Goes Again

It's redonkulous Internet meme time!

How this works:

1. Put your iTunes/Napster/Zune Player/WinAmp/etc on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!
4. Tag 5 or more friends who might enjoy doing this as well as the person you got it from.


IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY", YOU SAY?
No One Has (Remastered)

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Mudride (Demo)

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
40 0z. To Freedom

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Casino Boogie

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Good Day

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Blue Lines

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Trumpet Clip

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR PARENTS?
In The Morning of the Magicians

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Horn Blower

WHAT IS 2+2?
Run Thru

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Finish Your Collapse and Stay For Breakfast

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Never Let Me Down

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Steam Engine

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
House of Cards

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Lowlife

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Hangin Downtown

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
She Thinks She's Fat

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Syeeda's Song Flute

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Inevitability of Death

WHAT'S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?
Hag

HOW WILL YOU DIE?
Jesus Christ

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?
Da Art of Storytelling pt. 2 (acapella)

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
Elevate Me Later

WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?
One Of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)

WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?
Hey Joe

WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?
The Seer's Tower

DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?
In n' Out of Grace

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
Ya Leil

WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?
Naima

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
There She Goes Again

There is no way to make the term "schlongboard" not sound inappriopriately raunchy

Our tale begins, as so many do, at a party.  Or rather, if you insist on specifics, at an indie rock bar that doubles as a jazz club.  I'd seen on my cousin Mark's Facebook that he, and his thoroughly brilliant latin jazz/fusion/world music combo Cumako were set to host the Saturday afternoon jazz jam at Broken City, and I, being a fan of sax solos, ninth chords and weddings-parties-anything-bongo-jams-a-speciality, thought it a worthy way to unwind from work.

So I arrived while the band was on break, and wound up chatting with Mark, and he asked me if I want to go to his charming wife's birthday party that evening.  "Sounds like a plan", I said, or words to that effect.

Now it must be said that Mark, for all his bohemian hippie-surfer-dude appearance, is a man who believes in the old Scouts' motto of "Be Prepared" to the nth degree, at least where parties are concerned, so along the way, in addition to said aforementioned charming wife (Hi Eva, if you're reading this!) and a couple of other guests, and the expected assortment of wobbly pops and exotic small-label tequilas, he winds up loading a guitar, his bass and three skateboards in the back of his right-hand-drive Mitsubishi van.

Anyway, after a suitable time has passed at the party, we decide the evening calls for a nocturnal longboard raid down the broad, sweeping backalleys of whichever suburban neighbourhood this actually was.  I've never ridden a longboard before, only the standard popsicle stick skateboards and a frankly kind of scary '60s Makaha mini I bought at a garage sale like 20 years ago.  I knew to expect a smoother ride than I was used to, but beyond that, I was unprepared for the sheer magnitude of radness.  I was riding a borrowed Loaded Vanguard, with a nicely flexy bamboo construction and huge Gumball wheels, and the sensation of riding it was a kind of floaty euphoria.  Long story short, I knew I needed to get something like it.

Unfortunately, it was--and as I write this, is--November in Calgary, and the cheapskate in me blanches at the thought of dropping $300 on a setup like that Loaded one, or even $200 on the Landyachtz board I like best out of what I've found in the local shops, and then waiting until next frickin' year to ride it.  However, I did have a spare shortboard deck , a set of longboard trucks and wheels I'd bought for $5 at a garage sale in the summer, a drill and a couple of hours to kill today.  The forums at Silverfish tell me this combination is called a Shlongboard, a combination of shortboard, longboard and "ha ha dick jokes are funny."  Sounds thoroughly doable...

 

The victim.

After removing the existing trucks, step the first is to take a straightedge and scribe a line past the stock truck bolt holes.  This will align the new holes.

 

Right here looks nice.

Now figure out where you want that truck, and mark some mounting holes. Measure 'em well to make sure they're square and drill, baby, drill. After the first two are drilled, you can use the truck itself as a template for the next two. Then do the same thing on the other end of the board.

And here's the end result. You can see the increase in wheelbase for yourself. Ride height is, surprisingly, only a half inch or so lower, and the new trucks turn hard enough I'll probably need to carve cutouts in the nose and tail to avoid wheelbite.  More surprising is that the board seems flexier than in its stock configuration, which suits me fine. I took it for a little test ride, and while it's nowhere near as fast or Cadillac-smooth as the Loaded board I tried, it'll still make a nice neighbourhood cruiser. I'd like to try setting it up with some faster bearings and bigger wheels, but I definitely got my five bucks worth!