I Make Stuff.

Two of My Favorite Things

2009-02-06T10:11:00.003-05:00

Yes, it's a Russian spy camera in a ring. Where do I get one of these? Or better yet, how could I make one? Hmm...

Home Processing

2009-02-01T18:02:00.003-05:00

Since I usually have to send my 120 film through the mail to be developed, I don't get pictures too often. After reading this article about how easy it is to process your own color film, I thought I'd give it a try. So I got two 1-liter containers and a new developing tank with a film apron, and finally got around to ordering a Tetenal press kit last week.

I've developed two rolls of film so far. The first one came out... well, entirely blank. I wasn't really expecting much from that roll, but I was still kind of disappointed that I didn't get anything. The second roll was slightly more of a success, with four pictures coming out. I scanned in the best two:

Wonky, but in kind of a good way. I'm especially fond of the colors in the second one. :)

I know I'm probably screwing something up to cause all the blank photos, most likely not keeping the stuff at the right temperature. But getting those few photos gives me that little sliver of hope that will keep me trying to develop more until it works.

Some Kind of Yakisoba

2009-01-19T20:12:00.001-05:00

I have this habit of buying those little cookbook magazines that you find in store checkout lines. My most recent one is "Chinese Favorites", which included a recipe for "Soba Stir-Fry". I've been wanting to find a decent recipe for yakisoba and, despite the fact that it doesn't contain Worcestershire sauce or tonkatsu sauce, this one is actually pretty good.

Like most recipes, I modified this from the original to fit my tastes and what was in my kitchen. The original calls for shiitake mushrooms, red peppers, and bok choy, none of which I like. It also calls for tofu, which never turns out right when I try to cook it. Add whatever meat and vegetables you want, it's still good. :)

The Recipe:
- 8 ounces uncooked noodles (I used two blocks of ramen)
- assorted vegetables of your choice in whatever amount you want
- 1 Tbsp. cooking oil
- 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
- 1 tsp. minced garlic
- 1/2 c. chicken broth
- 2 Tbsp. tamari or soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp. mirin
- 2 tsp. corn starch
- 2 thinly sliced green onions

1. Cook noodles as you normally would. Drain and set aside.
2. Heat the oil in a large pan or wok. Add the vegetables, red pepper flakes, and garlic. Cook until the vegetables are tender.
3. Combine chicken broth, tamari, rice wine, and cornstarch in a small bowl. Stir sauce into the vegetable mixture, and cook until thickened (about 2 minutes).
4. Add noodles and stir until coated with sauce and heated through. Top with green onion slices.

The Corg

2009-01-12T14:11:00.002-05:00

You know, in case Ellie ever decides to run for public office.
Made at ObamaIcon.Me.

New Year, New Title, Same Outlook on Life

2009-01-02T11:59:00.001-05:00

I can't believe it's 2009 already.

This blog now has a real title instead of the lame placeholder one: "I Make Stuff." Because... well... that's what I do. Jewelry, lunches, hats, drawings, I've always been happiest when I'm making something.

In addition to the usual New Year's resolutions (eat better, exercise more, lose weight, continue to not chew my fingernails), I'm starting a year-long project of taking at least one picture every day. It's good practice, and by the end of the year I might have gained the ability to look at the world with a photographer's eye.

Sadly, though, I considered today my "first" day of the new year and my resolutions since all I did yesterday was sit around on my butt and play Dokapon Kingdom. Oops.

FLAN.

2008-12-23T14:25:00.004-05:00

I had my wisdom teeth taken out last Wednesday and to prepare for the event, I stocked up on lots of pudding, Jell-o, and applesauce. I found these little flan-in-a-cup things that come two to a pack, sitting in some kind of flan fluid. I've never had flan before at all, and for my first taste of it being in a pudding cup, I wasn't expecting wonders. I was pleasantly surprised; It's pretty good! I'd like to track down a recipe for "real" flan. I think a small batch made in silicon baking cups would be a great dessert for a bento. ^_^

Quad Cam

2008-12-21T11:11:00.006-05:00

I've known about four (and more) lensed cameras for years, but until very recently, I was under the impression that all four shutters went off at the same time making a Warhol-esque image. As soon as I found out how they actually worked, they seemed a lot cooler. Unfortunately, the only one I knew of for sale was Lomography's ActionSampler, and $30 for something I'm not going to use that often is ridiculous.

So imagine my surprise when I spotted this crappy thing in a local store. It works like the ActionSampler, but it's a whole lot shittier and cost me only $7. And it comes in green AND blue. Hell yes!

The store owner asked if I was sure I wanted to buy it. She had opened one up a while ago and wasn't even sure the back would stay on very well. I assured her that I like crappy cameras, half the time I'm happy that anything comes out on my film at all... and that the back would be fine once I put some electrical tape on it.

So how's it work? At first I was worried that it didn't. Upon depressing the shutter button for the first time, I was intending to hear "click click click click" like it said on the package. Instead, I got a second of loud buzzing that freaked me out. Watching the lenses the second time confirmed that yes, that's the sound it makes when it's working properly. I'd hate to hear what it sounds like if it ever breaks.

Winding the film is easy enough, its just a little plastic wheel on the back like most inexpensive 35mms. When you're done with the roll, you turn the little crank on the top until the film is all back in the cassette. How the film actually looks when developed is something I'm going to have to wait and find out.

The Quad Cam is made by Accoutrements. If you simply *must* have one of your own but don't know of anywhere that sells their products, you can get one from Stupid.com or Archie McPhee for $12.95. Enjoy making your tiny animations!

Coil

2008-12-14T01:01:00.003-05:00

If you're the kind of person who likes games where you know what you're doing and the controls clearly do what they're supposed to, then this probably isn't the game for you.

If you're the kind of person who likes deep, philosophical, artistic things that make you think, then this probably is the game for you.

If you're like me, you'll just spend the entire game thinking "Holy shit, it's an alien fetus!"

Play Coil.

Two-Letter-N-Word

2008-11-30T10:34:00.008-05:00

I found this article while checking my mail yesterday. Due to the economy being as bad as it is, parents are going to have to cut back on kids' toys this Christmas... but of course, they can't possibly tell their kids "No, we can't afford that," just as thousands of kids in the past have heard. Instead, they want the toy companies to stop advertising so much.

Click here to read the whole damn thing. -->

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Meltdown fallout: some parents rethink toy-buying
By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer David Crary, Ap National Writer – Sat Nov 29, 1:35 pm ET

NEW YORK – In a season that inspires earnest letters about toys, one notable batch is being sent not by kids to Santa's workshop but by parents to the executive suites of real-world toy makers.

The message: Please, in these days of economic angst, cut back on marketing your products directly to our children.

The letter-writing initiative was launched by the Boston-based Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, which says roughly 1,400 of its members and supporters have contacted 24 leading toy companies and retailers to express concern about ads aimed at kids.

"Unfortunately, I will not be able to purchase many of the toys that my sons have asked for; we simply don't have the money," wrote Todd Helmkamp of Hudson, Ind. "By bombarding them with advertisements ... you are placing parents like me in the unenviable position of having to tell our children that we can't afford the toys you promote."

The Toy Industry Association has responded with a firm defense of current marketing practices, asserting that children "are a vital part of the gift selection process."

"If children are not aware of what is new and available, how will they be able to tell their families what their preferences are?" an industry statement said. "While there is certainly greater economic disturbance going on now, families have always faced different levels of economic well-being and have managed to tailor their spending to their means."

In recent conference calls with investors, toy company executives said they expect to suffer some holiday-season impact from the economic crisis, yet suggested their industry would be more resilient than many other sectors. The toy industry is commonly viewed as recession-resistant, due largely to the parent-child dynamic.

"Parents have trouble saying no," said Allison Pugh, a University of Virginia sociology professor. She says parents often buy toys to avoid guilt and ensure their children feel in sync with school classmates.

"Even under circumstances of dire financial straits, that's the last thing parents give up," said Pugh. "They'll contain their own buying for themselves before they'll make their child feel different at school."

Amanda Almodovar says she encounters such families in her work as an elementary school social worker in Alamance County, N.C., where homelessness and unemployment are rising.

"I had one parent who said she'd prostitute herself to get what her child wants," Almodovar said. "It's heartbreaking. They feel inadequate as parents.

"I try to tell them, worry about your home, your heating bill — but they're the ones who have to look into children's faces, the children saying 'I want this, I want that.'"

Even in some households not in fiscal crisis, there's a sense that this holiday season is different.

John Schenkenfelder, a financial adviser and father of three in Louisville, Ky., wrote a blog entry this month urging families to scale down their gift-giving and spend more time playing together.

"This has been bugging me for years, even when times were great," Schenkenfelder said in a telephone interview. "Maybe people will get it this year — they're so unprepared for this debacle. They're shell-shocked."

In Columbus, Ohio, Erin Beth Dower Charron has been trying to brace her 4-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter for more subdued gift-getting this year as the family begins financial belt-tightening.

"My 8-year-old is still holding out hope that Santa will get her that one special gift, but understanding this year may be different," Dower Charron said. "My son doesn't understand. Everything he sees, he wants."

Toy ads on kids' TV shows make the process harder, she said. "The onslaught seems to be more intense this year."

Dower Charron was among the hundreds of parents who took up the suggestion to write to toy companies.

"Help me understand why your toy is the better one for my child, and why it should be one of the few I can afford," she wrote. "Don't leave that up to my children."

The director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, psychologist Susan Linn, said she and her colleagues don't expect toy companies to stop advertising — rather, they want the ads directed at parents.

"It's cruel to dangle irresistible ads for toys and electronics in front of kids — encouraging them to nag for gifts that their parents can't afford," she said. "It's just not fair."

The big toy makers aren't likely to redirect their ads for one fundamental reason, according to Richard Gottlieb, a New York-based consultant to the industry.

"Toy companies advertise to children because it works, to be brutally honest," Gottlieb said in an interview.

Gottlieb also contends that it's good for children to encounter toy ads — even in cases where products later turn out to be disappointments.

"It teaches, for very low stakes, how to navigate in our consumer culture," he said.

"They are going to have to spend the rest of their lives listening to every kind of marketing approach, and childhood is where they will learn to cope with it."

As for the economic pressure on parents, Gottlieb sounds a fatalistic note.

"Believe me, there are families with much bigger issues on their plates right now then worrying about whether their child will be unhappy because they did not get a particular toy," Gottlieb wrote in his "Out of the Toy Box" blog. "Delivering disappointment goes with the job of parenting."

I don't want you to think I'm one of those people who encourages socks and underwear for Christmas. Much on the contrary; I freakin' love toys. I just think there should be sensible limits. Kids are, in a way, undiluted human nature; They see shiny things and they WANT THEM. It's up to the parents to set these limits and be able to tell the kids that no, they can't have everything they want, they have to choose what they want the most.

I see no parents in this article. All I see is a bunch of people whining that life isn't fair because the toy companies won't do as they say and they might have to do something they don't want to. They're acting like... well... like a bunch of spoiled kids who were never told "no". How oddly fitting.

Comparison Shopping

2008-11-22T23:47:00.006-05:00

I want a 35mm Holga for Christmas, so I've been poking around several sites for them. Most online stores had them for about $50, but several sellers on eBay have them for about $33. Obvious choice, right? Unfortunately, they're all from Hong Kong and require about $16 for shipping, which makes them only a few bucks cheaper total. A lot of people complain about Lomography's stuff being overpriced, but they actually had the best deal: The Holga 135BC is $50, shipping was only $3 after a random coupon I had... and it comes with five rolls of film. A good deal from Lomography, imagine that. :)

Snow!

2008-11-17T09:39:00.004-05:00

We got about a ton of lake effect snow yesterday. It's up to Ellie the corgi's back and she has to make little tunnels out in the yard. (Not that she doesn't enjoy that...)

It's funny how we get used to things. At home, this much snow would call for at least a delay in school while they plow everything. Half this much snow and my mom is telling me to be careful because the roads are bad! But here, just south of Erie, PA... this is normal. They hardly plow anything because clean roads are for wusses. Due to this, I will see at least two cars in ditches on my ten-minute drive to class today.

Mysterious Stranger

2008-11-03T21:39:00.003-05:00

Found this on YouTube. It's part of a claymation movie called The Adventures of Mark Twain. I remember watching this a long time ago, though I have no clue when.

Some people find it to be disturbing. Others find some kind of religious meaning in it. Right now, I just find it to be oddly... familliar. And maybe a little ironic.

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T19:55:00.002-04:00

Artistic Luxury Show

2008-10-28T19:07:00.004-04:00

I got to go to a museum show this weekend with a few of the people from my metals class, which was exciting for me because I don't get to go to museums too often. The Cleveland Museum of Art is having a great show right now called Artistic Luxury, featuring some seriously awesome jewelry, metalwork, and glass from Fabergé, Tiffany, and Lalique. They have several rooms just full of absolutely beautiful stuff, and I love the knowledge that nearly everything there was meant to be worn or used by someone. (I think that's one of the things that puts me off about contemporary jewelry as art: We're all just supposed to imagine a "wearer" or "user". Rarely is there an actual one.) One of the pieces there is a giant vase made of 23 lbs of gold, and nobody in my studio can get over that. :) The show is up until mid-January, so if you're in Cleveland, I highly recommend it.

The rest of the museum seems to be under a lot of construction right now... There were a few rooms upstairs of some paintings and furniture, and a room of armor and weapons (which was great!), but not much other than that. Pretty much all the other exhibits had signs outside of them saying that they were opening anywhere from 2009 to 2012. How disappointing.

There was also a botanical garden, a nifty park, and a natural history museum in the area, but I didn't get to visit any of those... and hence, I didn't get very many pictures out of the trip. Luckily, getting to Cleveland from here isn't as bad of a drive as I thought it would be. When I have a free weekend sometime, I might go back...