Ugly Betty

Heather said, she's never liked my utility trailer because it is ugly (in her opinion), but I never thought she'd go to so much trouble to get it off of our property. Normally, the trailer sits on the RV pad (on the side of our home), where trailers are SUPPOSED to go. But, this morning I found the trailer had been moved way off in the back. She said the *wind* had moved it to where I found it, in the middle of the night....likely story.

You don't fire someone just because they're ugly. If she only took a moment to get to know Betty-the trailer, she'd see beyond the rust and dents. She see its inner beauty: the painstaking work ethic and its acquiescent and accommodating attitude (if a bit fashion-challenged).

Mad Skilz

I am going to enter a "Furniture Build-Off" contest. I need your help picking out an item that I should build for the contest.

The rules require that I make the best piece of furniture, that I can, from a single board of maple, 10 ft. long x 10 in. wide x 2 in. thick (no more than 17 board feet in total).

I will submit my entry with (3) photos, which will be judged:
a. Quality of Design 60%
b. Craftsmanship 40%

What should I make with the board? A sofa table? A children's bookcase carousel? Maybe a night stand with a drawer? I could stain some of the project for contrast. The possibilities are endless. One guy said, "In the hands of a craftsman, one board has a thousand possible lives." I hope to find one.

The top (24) entries will be selected by the Judges and advance to the “Semi-Final” round. Then, the contest turns into American Idol for wood builder nerds. The semi-final projects will be displayed on their Website and website-viewers vote to advance their favorite one.

So what do you think? Here are some ideas, I thought about building. Which one has the best 'wow' factor? ...or suggest an even better idea. Thanks.

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The sofa table

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The Bookcase Carousel

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The Night Stand




Contest Website

Quality Garage Time

I've had a week off of school (which typically takes a lot of my free time in the evenings and weekends). With my break, I decided to have a little fun in the garage and build a cabinet for our media center equipment, located downstairs in the basement. I've been thinking and wanting to do it for a long time. The equipment has been on a cardboard box ever since I finished our basement a year ago.

The Before

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Here are some "before" pictures. This one below is a picture looking down at the back of our entertainment center area. The next shows the view of our equipment on the cardboard box.




After

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This is what I came up with.  The cabinet is about 22 x 32 x 24 (W x H x D), made from select pine and stained an espresso color (dark brown) and finished with a few coats of a wipe on urethane oil-based top coat. The legs are silver metal (brushed nickel). I think they look fantastic; I bought them here.

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I made the drawers using wood craftsman techniques I learned from Norm with dove-tail joints, etc.  I mounted them on full extension drawer slides (they can also hold 100lbs. each). I think the unusual part of my drawers is that I used separated steel for the platforms instead of solid wood. I want the air inside the cabinet to be able to flow freely and help cool the equipment, plus I think it looks good.

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You will also notice that I added cable management arms.  These will help keep all of the media equipment wires organized and untangled.  I saved these arms from when I replaced some servers at work.  I had to modify them to work properly in this application, but they will do nicely.

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Here is a view from the back.  It is open on the back; I plan to mount it directly to the wall.

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When I finished our basement, I designed an exhaust vent (shown here) to be placed behind the entertainment equipment and 'suck out' the hot air from the media center cabinet. Typically this equipment gets very hot and attracts a lot of dust. Hopefully, along with the air-filter (next picture) this vent system will solve the heat and dust issue.

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As I mentioned above, I added a set of air-filters at the bottom. The filters can be changed by removing the wood panel at the bottom with a couple of hidden screws underneath.

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Here's a view from top, showing the cable management arms and the air filters at the very bottom.

note: I don't have a top yet. I'm waiting on my neighbor (who is finishing his basement) for a leftover piece of corian that will match perfectly. If the corian doesn't work out for some reason, I'll build a top in the same style and out of the same material as the rest of the cabinet.

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Special thanks to my Mom, who for my birthday, bought me some great tools that I used on the project. Thanks Mom.

Mock Me, will you...

I am a Information System Security professional. I have a thorough understanding of business and policy issues and a strong foundation of effective solutions to current and emerging security threats.  I have developed skills necessary to communicate and act on these issues to and with other leaders in my company.  How is it that my own family does not take me seriously?

I am casually walking though our home and noticed this on my wife's desk.  Here are a couple of things that stuck out to me (as a security professional):

• bad: She wrote her computer password on a sheet of paper.
• very bad: Her password is too weak to do any good.  If she didn't already write it down, anyone would be able to guess it.
• worst: She wrote it on the cover page of my "Security Assessment" that I prepared for my Information Assurance Master's program!

What can I do with such a blatant disregard for all things secure?