I've spent the last week casting a concrete countertop, and giving it a handrubbed finish rather than buying/renting a concrete polisher. As this has got me thinking about the unusual uses of concrete again, I thought I would repost what I said back in 2005 about an experimental concrete lathe.
Than I discovered that the Net only loses things of value: my old Geocities website is still being hosted in all of its hideousness.
Learned in retrospect: Never post a 'Under Construction', never post beginners mistakes in HTML,
and never presume that your life is interesting.
Unless you're 'Richard Branson'.*
Perhaps its safer to never post at all.
*Yes, that is correct use of quotes. Yes, this is a asterisk. Get use to it.
I desperately desire to read this paper: "Issues in Cultural Narratives: The New Cretinism, Vexation, and the Decline of Notional Consequence." Raoul Walker, 2007.
Too damn bad the best things in life are imaginary.
Too damn bad the best things in life are imaginary.
When I watched the movie Avatar, I was irritated by many things: cardboard cutout characterization(the Scientist, the Angry General), the re-hashing of other SF works(Harry Harrison's 'Deathworld', Fredrick Pohl's 'Jem', et al).
But one thing stood out the most: the feeling that I'd seen it before. At first I thought I was just channeling the 'First Encounter with Hostile Wildlife' sequence into A.E. van Vogt's jungle sequence in 'War With the Rull', but today I figured it out.
I've been sorting all my SF novels into two stacks 'Re-readable's' and 'Not Worth Reading'. I suppose I am going to have around 1500* N.W.R. novels all told, and I imagine they will end up on eBay. ("Bad SF and Fantasy! Box lots! (in)Famous authors!).
I ran into 'Symbiote's Crown' by Scott Baker.
The human-alien metamorphosis, the self-aware and hostile jungle, the handicapped hero becoming whole and hale after transmogrification...
And yeah, the book's going into the N.W.R. pile, along with 'Way-Farer' by Dennis Schmidt and "Steelheart' by William C. Dietz.
(In all fairness, at least 'Steelheart' shows imagination and adventure: charges that cannot be laid on 'Way-Farer')
*EDIT 10/2015: Ended up with 947 N.W.R. books. About two hundred were in rough shape, too rough to honestly sell. Of the 700+ left, I gave away around 40. Unable to sell the rest at any price.
They all went to the Salvation Army in the end, and I hope to god they did not have to pay to throw them out.
But one thing stood out the most: the feeling that I'd seen it before. At first I thought I was just channeling the 'First Encounter with Hostile Wildlife' sequence into A.E. van Vogt's jungle sequence in 'War With the Rull', but today I figured it out.
I've been sorting all my SF novels into two stacks 'Re-readable's' and 'Not Worth Reading'. I suppose I am going to have around 1500* N.W.R. novels all told, and I imagine they will end up on eBay. ("Bad SF and Fantasy! Box lots! (in)Famous authors!).
I ran into 'Symbiote's Crown' by Scott Baker.
The human-alien metamorphosis, the self-aware and hostile jungle, the handicapped hero becoming whole and hale after transmogrification...
And yeah, the book's going into the N.W.R. pile, along with 'Way-Farer' by Dennis Schmidt and "Steelheart' by William C. Dietz.
(In all fairness, at least 'Steelheart' shows imagination and adventure: charges that cannot be laid on 'Way-Farer')
*EDIT 10/2015: Ended up with 947 N.W.R. books. About two hundred were in rough shape, too rough to honestly sell. Of the 700+ left, I gave away around 40. Unable to sell the rest at any price.
They all went to the Salvation Army in the end, and I hope to god they did not have to pay to throw them out.
"the effects allow many or four-year stores that are trapped by nouns
published alongside the man or on hospitals across the ability."
--found on the Net
'Trapped by nouns' !
Ten million monkeys stumble upon philosophy. Somewhere in the background noise, the ambient buzz, the unavoidable dreck that blankets the Internet lies the Truth; golden, unseen, and unsuspected.
published alongside the man or on hospitals across the ability."
--found on the Net
'Trapped by nouns' !
Ten million monkeys stumble upon philosophy. Somewhere in the background noise, the ambient buzz, the unavoidable dreck that blankets the Internet lies the Truth; golden, unseen, and unsuspected.
Snows gone, so I refilled my Farmall's gas tank and tried to start up.
Immediate problem - fuel running out of the carburetor and air intake hose.
Obviously the gaskets were shot. I pulled the carb off to discover it was rustier on the inside than the out. Thick layers of ferric oxide lay on every surface. It was blind luck that I hadn't cranked the motor over and dragged all that crapped into the cylinders.
Being a little put-off by the prospect of sanding the whole thing clean,I turned to electrolytic anti-oxidation.
Three tablespoons of washing soda in a gallon of water, a chunk of rusty band saw blade as the sacrificial anode.
Out came my handy little 6 amp battery charger.
Up came the little bubbles, streaming off the electrodes.
Worked like a charm. Three hours took off nearly all the rust, and just about every bit of grease and sludge was scrubbed away as well. The electrolyte is a nasty rust orange, now.
Two interesting things happened though, possibly due to the fact that I was using a heavily scented 'washing soda' form of sodium carbonate.
First, the sacrificial anode grew the expected chunks of rust. What I didn't expect were clusters of green-blue crystals. They grew to about 0.5 - 1 mm in diameter over several hours.
Copper contamination in the washing soda?
Second, the gas bubbling off the electrodes should have been pure H2 and O2. Harmless except to inveterate smokers.
I couldn't smell anything (Sinuses clogged) but breathing over the tank while watching it work gave me a faint but noticeable chest pain. Perhaps some chlorine mixed into the output?
I used a stainless steel strainer to hold all the carb's small parts. Half an hour cleaned them up nicely, and the carb lies re-assembled on my dinner table, the size and shape of a human heart.
Weird similarity, there.
Immediate problem - fuel running out of the carburetor and air intake hose.
Obviously the gaskets were shot. I pulled the carb off to discover it was rustier on the inside than the out. Thick layers of ferric oxide lay on every surface. It was blind luck that I hadn't cranked the motor over and dragged all that crapped into the cylinders.
Being a little put-off by the prospect of sanding the whole thing clean,I turned to electrolytic anti-oxidation.
Three tablespoons of washing soda in a gallon of water, a chunk of rusty band saw blade as the sacrificial anode.
Out came my handy little 6 amp battery charger.
Up came the little bubbles, streaming off the electrodes.
Worked like a charm. Three hours took off nearly all the rust, and just about every bit of grease and sludge was scrubbed away as well. The electrolyte is a nasty rust orange, now.
Two interesting things happened though, possibly due to the fact that I was using a heavily scented 'washing soda' form of sodium carbonate.
First, the sacrificial anode grew the expected chunks of rust. What I didn't expect were clusters of green-blue crystals. They grew to about 0.5 - 1 mm in diameter over several hours.
Copper contamination in the washing soda?
Second, the gas bubbling off the electrodes should have been pure H2 and O2. Harmless except to inveterate smokers.
I couldn't smell anything (Sinuses clogged) but breathing over the tank while watching it work gave me a faint but noticeable chest pain. Perhaps some chlorine mixed into the output?
I used a stainless steel strainer to hold all the carb's small parts. Half an hour cleaned them up nicely, and the carb lies re-assembled on my dinner table, the size and shape of a human heart.
Weird similarity, there.
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