Our Do-It-Yourself Entertainment Center

Our Do-It-Yourself Entertainment Center

We once had cable television service. It was a long time ago.

When cable was brought to our small town by a forward-thinking consortium of wealthy community leaders, people were suspicious. "Yup, after we all take our antennas down, they'll up the ante. Then we'll all be trapped into filling their pockets for the pleasure of watching what we now get for free." The consortium pledged that the price, $7.45 per month, would be iron-clad since their contract with the city governed the rates.

The city approved the contract, the cable system was set up, and over the next several months, people began to sign on. Within a couple of years, most of the roof antennas disappeared. After a couple of years, the local group sold the system off to a national cable system. That effectively killed the original contract with the city. We quit the cable about twenty-five years ago, after the monthly rate for basic service had climbed to $34.95.

It wasn't just about the price. We were receiving ninety-some channels, but a good share of those were junk channels - religious, shopping, sports, government, local groups, local schools, and so on. I'd often flip through the channels, and then turn the television off. My wife and kids would often flip though the channels, and then go out and rent movies to watch. So, I went over to Radio Shack, bought a $50 antenna, and put it up on the roof. Since then, we've been satisfied with the four broadcast channels we can receive in this area - CBS, NBC, ABC and FOX - and that has cost us about $2.00 a year, leaving lots of money for movie rentals.

Thence cometh the switch to DTV. We got the converter boxes for cheap, but they don't work all that well because ... wouldn't you know it ... the four broadcast stations in our area chose widely divergent geographical locations for their transmitters. DTV signals don't bounce as good as the old analog waves, so the wonderful new technology often provides chopped up audio with pixilated video. I've been pretty sure that the switch to DTV was a success story for the cable/dish lobbies … extra fees for each additional TV in the house, increased fees for HD stuff, and so on … so I'm damned if I'm going to cave after all these years.

Thanks to the Internet, we have the option of downloading movies for free, watching network television programs for free, and logging on to online entertainment providers like Hulu.Com. So who needs cable anyway? Yet, watching stuff on PC monitors is kind of like watching 1950's era televisions, where the family pulled their chairs up close, crowding around the front of a round, twelve-inch screen. So I decided to someday replace the old TV with a new flat-panel type, and then hook a PC up to that. That was my long-range plan, since I really wasn't prepared to pop for a new computer fast enough to do entertainment video, or a new flat screen television to use as a monitor.

Then our eldest son and his wife came to visit. Evidently thinking that we're hopeless mired in the technological dark ages, they bought us a new 42-inch Visio television and, after returning back home, sent us one of their surplus PC's; a speedy full-size desktop tower. After adding that to all the stuff already hooked to the television - the DVD player, VCR, Radio Receiver/Stereo Amp, X-Box, and Game Cube - alas, our little old Sauder TV stand was getting too crowded and overloaded. Finding a compact, low cost, replacement that could accommodate all that stuff, plus the big PC box, proved difficult and probably impossible. So I decided, reluctantly, that it would be easer to just build a custom-made box for myself.

I started by measuring up all the components that would need shelf space, and then cranked up "SketchUp," a free three-dimensional drawing program provided by Google, and went to work. Within a couple of hours, I had this ...


Then I went to the lumber yards to find some decent material. The best deal I could find was some walnut-veneered plywood on sale at The Home Depot for $34.95 per sheet. Since my plan needed two sheets, that would cost almost as much as I'd wanted to pay for a bigger, better Sauder kit. That immediately quashed my interest in the DIY project, and I resumed the search for an easier solution.

But then, the son showed up again for a quick visit, bringing along his new air compressor, his new pneumatic brad nailer, and all hot to trot to build my custom-designed entertainment center.

Oh well; resigning myself to the idea that this would be a good chance for a little quality father-son time together, off we went the next afternoon to The Home Depot, collecting about $95 worth of materials and supplies. We pulled the old table saw out of the garage, blew off the dust, and went to work on the driveway under the hot summer sun. By nightfall, not too long after the mosquitoes began tapping our veins, we had this ...

A day later, my wife (the artist in the family) finished the box with "Colonial Walnut" MinWax stain and sealer. After going over it with a little Lemon Pledge, we move it into the house, swapped out all the toys under the television, and were looking at this ...

So that's my little story. No cable or dish for me, and goodbye Blockbuster.

For those who are interested, my SketchUp layouts and other information are available for free at www.boysmindbooks.com/misc/entertainmentcenter.zip.

If the design doesn't suit you exactly, download a free copy of SketchUp and change it. You don't need to be an engineer to use SketchUp. Take an hour or two to check out the basic video tutorials, and then you'll find that modifying the drawing will be easy and fun.

A Homemade Cough Remedy That Works

It's that time of year again. The bug strikes, and is dispatched within a few days by your immune system. But then weeks of annoying coughing ensue.

The caging spells are intermittent, but are sure to come at the worst possible moments. They begin as soon as you crawl into bed a night, robbing you of the rest you so sorely need. You just know it's going to happen during the quiet of the church service, or in the midst of an important meeting. It's sure to happen on the bus, train or airplane, giving your fellow passengers to shun you like a pariah who is spewing the air with disease.

Whatever happened to Cheracol, that wonderful cherry-flavored cough syrup that actually worked? Answer: After years of over-the-counter availability, the FDA decided that small doses of Codeine (Cheracol's morphine-like cough-suppressing ingredient) were dangerously addicting, and this popular remedy became a "Schedule V" drug under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. It was taken off the shelves ... a casualty of the Nixon "War On Drugs." Rules vary somewhat among the states. For a while Cheracol with Codeine was available upon request at most pharmacies. But evidently druggists, at least in this area (West Michigan), eventually got tired of messing with purchase logs, and quit dispensing it, offering "Cheracol D" (Dextromathorphan or "DXM") as an equally effective alternative (it isn't).

Now the FDA and DEA are wringing their hands about teenage abuse of Dextromathorphan. To get a "high" with DXM (a.k.a. "DM", "robo", "rojo", and "velvet") a kid would have to down 250 to 1,500 milligrams ... that's up to three eight ounce bottles of icky-tasting cough syrup. Provided that the adventure isn't spoiled by puking the stuff up (a rather common reaction), the initial effect is similar to mild inebriation, which a kid with any sense could better achieved ... and much less expensively ... by chugalugging a couple of Dad's beers.

I've found that DXM-based cough remedies actually will work, but not at the usual recommended dosage. If you're going to try this stuff, read the label on all the bottles on the shelf, paying attention to the Dextromathorphan content per recommended dose. Buy the "extra-strength" product with the highest per dose content. Better yet, rather then drinking lots of that awful stuff, consider a cold remedy such as Coricidin (30mg per tablet).

Here's another idea; forget the drugs and make your own inexpensive preparation using ingredients found in your own kitchen. No warnings - no side-effects. The recipe is supposedly from India, but most websites credit the book Herbally Yours by Penny C. Royal, 3rd Edition, June 1982. Not only does this simple preparation seem to be very effective as a cough remedy, a dose just before bedtime also seems to promote a good night's sleep. Although this magical elixir has a little bite, and the taste leaves something to be desired, it's probably no less palatable than commercial preparations.

Here are the ingredients:

	1 part cayenne pepper (1 teaspoon)
	1 part ground ginger (1 teaspoon)
	12 parts honey (4 Tablespoons)
	12 parts apple cider vinegar (4 Tablespoons)
	24 parts water (8 Tablespoons)

Combine the water and vinegar, and warm it to coffee or tea temperature to promote easy mixing. Add a little of the warmed liquid to the cayenne pepper and ginger and stir. Add the honey and the remaining warmed liquid, and mix thoroughly. The measurements given in parenthesis make eight liquid ounces. A typical adult dose is one tablespoon (1/2-ounce), so an eight-ounce bottle is good for sixteen doses. Since the ingredients are all natural, there's no need to worry about overdoses. The mixture will quickly separate, so always shake well before using. Refrigeration is not required.

Enjoy!

Fix Your Own Seat Belt Stop Buttons

Seat belt stop buttons prevent the free-sliding latch plate tongue of lap/shoulder belts on GM cars from falling all the way to the bottom when belt is not in use. The two-piece plastic buttons are installed by simply pushing the button pin through the seat belt webbing, then snapping the back piece on.

Unfortunately, the plastic buttons break off easily. Although they’re easy to replace, replacements are usually difficult to find, and are usually unreasonably priced; around $7.50 when found in auto parts stores, and twice that much when ordered from dealers.

After spending upwards of $50 repeatedly replacing broken buttons, then finding them out of stock in all of the local auto parts stores, I decided to stop wasting my time and money, and to get more innovative and resourceful.

You can come up with a better stop button by going to The Home Depot’s “Hardware” isle and finding these items:

     • #8 Hinged Screw Cover
         (UPC 0 30599 89828 2)
     • #6-32 x ¼” Screw
     • #6-32 Hex Nut


The hinged screw covers are usually available only in white, black or tan, so pick the best match for your belt. Any kind of screw and nut will do. The picture shows stainless steel hardware, with Phillips head screws.

It’s usually easy to find the location of the missing buttons, since they usually leave an indentation in the belt webbing. Look for it about 16-inches from the bottom of the belt, or approximately mid-way up the seat back.

Use an awl, ice-pick or sharpened pencil to poke through the hole created by the original plastic button to open it up a little. That will make it easier to find, and to push the 6-32 screw through.

Insert a screw through one of the hinged covers and push it though the hole in the belt. Use a second hinged cover on the back side of the belt; to cover the hex nut. Hold the nut while tightening the screw, then snap the caps closed.

All done. That will probably be the last time you’ll need to fix your seat belts, and the you’ll have spent less than a buck.

A Simple Class Reunion Website Design – FREE

I’ve noticed that there aren’t a lot of high school class reunion websites. I suppose that’s because classes only have one reunion a year. Why bother with a website – and who’ll pay for it?

Nevertheless, since I graduated from Grand Haven High School, there have been fifty other graduating classes. You’d think someone in some of those classes would be interested in putting up a site and maintaining it just as a hobby. You can do that these days for less than the cost of dinner for two, or a tank of gas. And unlike those two pastimes, tinkering around with a Class Reunion website can provide hours of entertainment and fun. Besides that, as the “Class Webmaster,” (albeit self-appointed) you’d probably get a seat at the head table – right up there with the Class President, Secretary, and all those former “preppies” who snubbed you in the old days.

I hate ClassMates.Con (oops! – I meant “.Com,” of course). They keep sending me messages about all my old classmates who are eager to check out my profile and get together, with invitations to come to the site and see who they are. Then when I go there they meet me at my home page with their hand out – pimping their site with a “Choose Gold!” button. They’ll tell me who “Friend X” is and let us get together for $59 – their “best value.”

Best value? I’m dubious. I can do a lot better than that over on the corner of Hall and Division in Grand Rapids. And I’d even get to see the merchandise first. And, she’d probably even lie to me and tell me I was “hot” for an old guy.

So, I thought a good way to pimp my books might be to build a class reunion website template and give it away for free. The catch is that in order to go live with it, a person would be smart to read Chapter 9 of my book Solutions for Secretaries of Small NPO’s, but then, you can read that for free on Google if you can stand reading books on a screen. I don’t like to do that, and I hope others hate it too, and will therefore decide to pop for the price of the book (hint: it's discounted at amazon.com, barns&noble.com, etc.) Even if they don’t, they’ll maybe stumble across my author/publisher website, so my small but growing library might get a little exposure.

My class reunion website is Spartan and “user friendly.” Rather than cluck about all its virtues, I’ll just point you towards my real, live online example – www.ghhs58.org. Go there and browse around, and if that encourages you to put up a similar site for your class, the link to the freebie is at the bottom right-hand side of the GHHS58 home page. You’ll find the download in the SfS site’s “Examples/Downloads” area. Inside the downloaded ZIP file you’ll find a README text that’ll get you started and walk you thorough the process up to the point of launch.

C’mon – give it a shot. If you’re smart enough to get here and read this, you know all you have to know to handle the project. Quite whining and making excuses. Just do it!

-=glw=-

P.S.: In case you missed it, here's the link to the download page.

Our Makoonsag

Preface

I once read a personal memoir written by an old man who was one of the children of a North Manitou Island Lightkeeper. The light station was located on the north Island's southern-most point, several miles from the few other people who lived on the island. Some of them were farmers and loggers, but most were summer residents who left as the days began to grow shorter. It was a lonely place, open to the winds and the weather.

The Manitou Passage was still an important maritime asset then, with several ships negotiating the treacherous waters between the towering Sleeping Bear Dunes on the mainland, and the two nearby islands, North Manitou and South Manitou. The significance of the maritime traffic and the danger in that immediate area was marked by the presence of two lighthouse stations and three lifesaving stations. But as time marched on, the importance of shipping was diminished by the growth of railroads, motor freight and air travel. By the late years of the twentieth century, the Manitou Passage was only a footnote in history books, and important only as a beautifully scenic tourist destination. The islands were eventually deserted by all the families who had once thought of them as "home."

Makoonsag is an Ojibwa word meaning "bear cubs"; Mishe-Mokwa is "the Great Bear" referred to in Longfellow's famous "Song of Hiawatha." Those familiar with the area know the Indian legend explaining the presence of the great dune and the two nearby islands. I was conceived on South Manitou, so certain things in the memoir I was reading that evening struck close to home, even bringing tears as in my mind's eye the words on the page morphed into moving pictures of what used to be. That inspired the only attempt I've made at poetry during my adult life.

[-=glw=-]

Our Makoonsag

West of watchful Mishe-Mokwa, lay the cold and lonely Islands
on the slate and restless waters, 'neath the clouds that darkly threaten,
warning boats to stay at bay.

Hosting now the north winds only and the snows its gales blow fiercely
into fields and woods and ruins, drifting over trails and pathways
where our feet oft found their way.

Out of season and abandoned, save for tiny beasts and migrants,
islands where we once made merry; silent now and solitary
on this wintry New Year's Day.

On the mainland we now frolic, having moved across the Passage,
seeking fortunes then elusive (never found on either Island) ...
lighter work for greater pay.

But quiet moments bring to mind the warmth of simple village folk,
faithful kin and caring neighbors, farmsteads once so full of laughter;
journeys made by horse and sleigh.

Dauntless seamen making crossings challenging the angry billows,
worried wives a'watching seaward, catching ropes upon deliverance.
Voyagers back, now home to stay.

Sands still warm on summer evenings soothing bare feet of the children,
racing beams around the lighthouse, finding shapes in starry heavens.
Bath and bedtime after play.

Sought we all for "something better", fooled by fickle expectations,
one by one the Islands leaving. Dreaming then, now sadly knowing,
the better life we'd cast away.

While coldly we forsook our Islands, steadfast they to our hearts cling,
fostering such recollections! Absence hindering not remembrance,
pictures saved there oft replay.

Save we facts and share we fables of our much revered makoonsag;
generations hence might know them as have we, their privileged stewards,
passing on our legacy.

Gene L Warner
January 1, 2004