It's been nearly a year since my last Trashroom Treasure post, so it is with great pleasure that I present to you, the DELUXE folding chair! It's metal with a beautiful vinyl seat. And the paint is not that cheap shiny paint, no sir. This here chair has a TEXTURED paint job.

There it was, folded as it was made to do, leaning against the wall of the trashroom. Was it broken? Like a trick chair? Did a cat pee on it? Was the seat cushion ripped? Rusted? Old?

NONE OF THE ABOVE!

This appears to be one of a 2-chair set that retails for $59.99 (Amazon Link). I wiped it down with a damp paper towel and it's as good as new.

I'd like to ask the previous owner why they were throwing it away. Maybe they upgraded to gold-plated folding chairs, because as far as folding chairs goes, this one here is a fancypants chair.

When I moved here from Texas in 2003, I brought along an old blue metal folding chair. After all, the moving company was moving stuff, there was nothing wrong with the chair, it was easy to move, it folded, could come in handy, etc, etc...

Well now my old blue all-metal folding chair has found a mate! Old chair and deluxe chair have moved in together in our washer/dryer closet.

Laugh all you want at my trashroom scavenging. I'm sitting pretty in this here deluxe folding chair. :P

That's all... until next time!
-Dean

Dear Ying,

Ok, so I can't sing very well. But that didn't keep me from trying :)

So this is what happened... one day while at work, I was listening to a CD I happened to have at my desk. It was a Vivian Hsu CD I bought a long time ago. Then track 8 comes up; it's "I Miss You" and for some reason, I could actually catch 90% of the lyrics! And hearing that song for the first time again, this time, understanding what the song was about, I got all emotional about it. Here I am sitting in my cubicle hoping no one happens to stroll by to talk to me. Maybe it's because I had (my self-diagnosed) teflon flu that day or something. I dunno. But that really made me think of you and miss you. So here we are, a week and half later, I have something to show you. Hope you like it, even though my singing is ... pretty lame :)

Love you!!! -Your NT1

Testing the email to blog post functionality. Seems like it's not picking up iphone image attachments! :(

P.S. - this is my new wallpaper. Inside joke.

Ying's outta town, so all you readers that like reading her posts are just outta luck! Too bad!

Next up in our dorky, nerdy, Dean posting series is a video on how I mount my iPhone in the car so I can listen to music/podcasts, use the GPS functionality, check email, sent txt msgs, and watch movies while driving down the freeway on the way to work.

Umm. Ok, so music and GPS stuff is true. Everything else is very, very, VERY, sparingly used if used at all. It's dangerous to use anything on the iPhone that takes more than a split second of focus.  On the way to work, any time I see a car driving slower than the flow of traffic, drifting inside their lane, or braking for no apparent reason, I guarantee you, that person is either putting on make up or typing something on their phone.  So don't do it! Just drive, dang it.  </rant>

Oh, before I get to the post. I notice that women who don't pay attention while driving are the drifters and brakers, while men seem to be more prone to driving slower than the flow of traffic (in the fast lane usually). </scientific observation>

Aaaaaannd, now; The moment you've all been waiting for, the video of me being a nerd!!!!eleven!1

 

So in part 1, I brought home a sad little lamp from our trashroom.

This is the post where this sad little lamp is sad no more! Now it's a graceful fancypants lamp!

I went to IKEA and picked up the parts: $4.99 for a GRUNDTON (table lamp kit) and $8.99 for two SPARSAM flourescent bulbs. I'm only going to count this fix as costing $4.99+$4.50=$9.50 because I only use one of the bulbs. We have another IKEA lamp that takes this size bulb so the extra will just be a household spare.

Anyway, I happened to be meeting someone to sell some old laptop RAM for $10 today. So today's net dollar spend is zero!

On to the pictures!

 

 

Make sure the lamp isn't DOA before I get my grubby mitts on it...

 

It took almost 2 hours to get to this far... the grundton wire was thicker than the original and it was really tough getting it through the neck. Oh! And I took a break to get my 10 bucks....

 

 

Me and electricity understand each other perfectly. I remain scared of it, and I remain alive.  If I really did mess up the wire while pushing and pulling through the lamp neck... I was wondering if those rubber tipped stanleys would really insulate me from 1.21 jiggawatts of instant teeth clenching....?

 

 

And now some glamour shots! Old Lamp, this is YOUR time to SHINE!!!!!1

 

"Why's that sticker there," you ask? Well, it's because.... Old Lamp is sitting on top of DialupPC's case!  DialupPC is now our Windows Home Server (simply the awesomest backup/fileshare OS. Ever.)

 

That's all, folks!

-Dean :)

This past weekend was the best ever for trash room treasure finding! I don't think we'll be able to top this find the rest of our residency here...

The other night I was taking out the trash and inside the trash room was an empty box for a brand new 37" LCD tv. And right next to that empty box was a 26" LCD TV.  Needless to say, I didn't even bother asking Ying for permission to bring it home. (After bringing that cool hat home, she made a new rule that I have to ask her before bringing anything home from the trash room).

I didn't skip a beat; I dropped my trash bag down the chute, turned around, leaned down and picked up the LCD TV with my right hand and opened the trash room door with my left hand and made my way home. Triumphant. GRUNT GRUNT GRUNT!! ME MAN. BRING HOME TV. GRUNT GRUNT!

"Stoopid! It was probably broken," you say.  Well yes, it was kind of broken. The picture turned on, but within a minute, the display got all staticky and weird. So off to the Internets I go to search for, "Maxent 26 inch LCD TV fuzzy picture" and what is this I see??? ----> Maxent MX-26X3 picture problem Wow! The very same problem reported by many people about the very same TV! Figures.

But before trying the DIY method, I called Maxent to see if they would warranty the tv. I was going to just say, "I *ahem* got it as a ...uhhh... gift. Yeah, a gift!"  But it turns out that the tv was manufactured back in April 2005 which means it's out of warranty anyway. A 4 year old tv going bad huh? Well according to that link above, I (nor the previous owner that threw this tv away) am not the only one with the problem.  I asked their tech support how much it would cost to fix the tv with a bad heatsink... The support tech said, $90 examination fee, $150 materials for a new board (they weren't going to just fix the heatsink) and $90 labor for installing a bad board.  He wanted almost $400 to fix this thing!!!  Ok, time out-- YOUR company makes tvs that die in 4 years and you want someone to shell out $400 to fix it? You do realize that a new 37" TV costs about that much these days?.... What kind of company policy is this? Ok, so I got it from the trash, but what about everyone else stuck with a non working tv?  I won't bother looking at Maxent the next time we go shopping for a TV.

So anyway, I took it apart myself and adjusted the heatsink and the tv is working now!  If it gets loose again, I'll actually go through the trouble of re-applying some real thermal epoxy. But for now, it's working and I'm happy! (So is Ying actually, but her rule still stands -- I'm not supposed to bring back anything else from the trash room. Bah!)

Here's a picture of it turned on -- great colors!

 

Here is a bigger picture of it sitting on our bedroom dresser. It has replaced an old 20" tube tv that we had there.

Talk about major score! Say what you want about taking stuff home from the trash... I'm already ahead by a TV!

Ying asked me, "Why would anyone throw away a tv if it's so easy to fix?" Here are my thoughts about the person who threw it away. 
1. They purposely left it right inside the door of the trash room, which meant they knew someone would take it home.  Very nice of them. 
2. The TV was out of warranty
3. They might not have been very handy with a screwdriver
and 4. They weren't comfortable around high voltage electronics.  I think they were all valid reasons for leaving the TV in the trash room. After all, look; it ended up in a good home!

We went shopping tonight. Here she is doing what she does best. Sent from my iPhone

Gotta walk off the calories. So it's time to shop. They said they were going to the Puma store as I went back to the car to get my jacket. On the way back, I was on my way back to the puma store when I passed Victoria's Secret. I figured they would be lured inside and I was right! Sent from my iPhone

We left the baby at home with the grandparents and came out to Korean BBQ!! Sent from my iPhone

Hi Folks, Trying out a feature on our blog that lets us send posts via email. I took this pic of Bonnie a couple days ago. I'm looking at here right now and she already looks very different! We have to stay at the hospital longer because she has a little jaundice. Sent from my iPhone

I found this in our trash room today....

Apparently someone in the complex is moving out because there's a LOT of just-throw-it-away-because-we're-moving-and-don't-have-time-to-pack-it stuff in the trash room right now.

There were other, less practical items in the trash room like almost-new dust pans, designer paper waste baskets and brooms, suitcases... but I went for the most useful thing in there -- THE HAT!

As soon as I saw that hat, 50 images flashed through my mind of all the great poses I could make with this thing.  The above picture highlights some of the more glamorous of the bunch.  This was such a great find!!

Ying had a good laugh at my expense tonight. :)

Our other great find: http://www.deanying.com/PermaLink,guid,5e7b5968-1313-4a5c-8e5b-430b7eb06f6c.aspx and http://www.deanying.com/PermaLink,guid,da325696-9571-41a3-877d-c2422767eb67.aspx

Man, I love our trash room.

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老爺愛撿垃圾已經不是新聞.偏偏我們又跟全世界最浪費的民族住在一起,所以偶爾還真的會從垃圾間裡面撿回一些寶.

昨晚老爺倒完垃圾回來,他站在門口不停的對我喊:"我不管.我不管.不管." 我因為在跟我娘講話,眼睛也沒有往他的方向看,只是覺得很奇怪,為什麼老爺一個勁兒地喊我不管,到底是不管什麼.待我轉頭過去看到老爺帶著這個越南帽時,我開始狂笑,大笑,爆笑.....然後因為太激動,腳就抽筋了..........

你馬好了,撿那個回來幹麻啦!!!!

 

 

突然很想寫流水帳來荼毒大家的閱讀樂趣.那就從最近發生的開始寫好了.

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因為一個阿呆總統執政了八年,加上這次兩方政黨選出來的候選人都頗有爭議,所以今年的美國總統大選氣氛比往年熱烈了一些.雖然說大家是比以前關注了許多,但論吵鬧跟轟炸的功力,台灣還是比較厲害一點.

老爺破天荒在網路上訂了三張他支持的候選人的貼紙.等了一個多月,昨天終於寄到,打開一看,裡面只有一張.老爺問我要貼哪裡(通常都是貼在車屁股),我回說你的屁股是個不錯的位置.

下面就是那張貼紙的照片,我特意用電影票把老爺支持的候選人名字遮起來,就是不想引起不必要的懷疑質問跟吵鬧.選舉這件事情說穿了就是為了自己的既得利益靠邊站,當你主觀批評他人背景與既得利益時,不要忘記自己也是為了自身的既得利益在投票,這是人性.離選舉越來越近就會看到越來越多人在自己的車屁股貼上支持候選人的貼紙,老爺跟我常常邊開邊數,你看,那個人支持歐巴馬耶!那個人支持馬坎哦!就算遇到的是老爺不支持的那一方,他的口氣總是很平靜,還會冷靜分析給我聽為什麼他能理解同事跟他支持的人不一樣.我很喜歡這樣的老爺.良人卡+1.哈!

 

******************************************

老爺很得意他用迴紋針"創作"放iphone的架子在youtube引起廣大迴響,還嘲笑我之前很無知的笑他說沒有人會來看那個video.這麼多人觀賞的確是出乎我意料之外,換句話說,看倌們,你們現在知道這個地方都培育著什麼樣的怪咖人了吧!有人讚美當然也就會有人來鬧場,有個人連寫了四封信說他怎麼都做不好一個架子,要老爺作好幾個送給他,請老爺務必做到.有人叫老爺去看大電視,不用看iphone小螢幕傷眼睛(這個很好笑也挺中肯的,哈哈哈).有人叫老爺去找份正經的工作,不要每天閒閒沒事在家裡當宅男搞這種無聊的小玩意(咦?那老爺每天早上出門上班,每個月薪水進帳難道是呼攏我的?).人就是人,到哪個國家都一樣,有天才也會有阿達.

為了慶祝迴紋針影片在youtube突破十二萬人次瀏覽.特獻一張我家天才+阿達的混合體在懶人床上看影集的呆樣.

 

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為了迎接粉圓小姐的到來,我們把只有一個房間的小公寓改變了一下.這是昨天新入手的二手書桌與書架,非常節省空間.讚!

---

Hey Folks!

I'm at it again.  And yet again, thanks goes to Ying for filming me being a big nerd.  Yes, I'm a nerd, get over it; I have :)

So I was wanting to watch Napoleon Dynamite. But I didn't have a way to prop up my iPhone.  I went online to look for instructions on creating any kind of make-shift stand but all I came up with was some triangle thing made out of a dollar bill and also a retail item called the Bat Rest. The Bat Rest is a great idea... but I wanted something NOW. (Kids these days; they always want instant gratification!).  So I tried to make my own bat rest out of scrap cardboard... it was ... full of fail.
:( Cardboard was too soft.

After all this work, I could have seriously just gotten two strips of scotch tape and taped the damn iphone to the wall or something. But that would've been too easy!  So I look around my desk for other options... oooh PAPERCLIP!

Watch the Video!

Anyway, long story short, after a couple of failures, I came up with this shape:
Download the bend-marks pdf template here  (Scroll down to learn how to use the template)

 

Cool huh?

With the iPhone:

 

From the side:

Back View

 

How to use the Template:

Get the template here. Print it out with your favorite PDF reader. Be sure not to stretch the document. If you have a ruler, do a reality check to make sure the document didn't get resized when printed.  When the paper clip is straightened out, it should be the same length as the grey line in the template.  A pair of pliers will make your job a lot easier.

1. Take a jumbo paper clip and straighten it out. Use a fine tip sharpie to mark all the bend points:

 

2. Bend the 7.25 and 8.25cm points. Let's call this the "V"

 

3. Next, Bend the 4.25cm point. You need to make the bend perpendicular and angled a bit outwards from the "V"  Also notice that the bend is an "acute" angle.

 

4. Bend the 1.0cm point for the tip.

 

5. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for the other side and you're done! Here's a pic of 2 stands from different positions:

I'd like to point out the importance of the bend angles. Acute-angled bends from step 3 give the stand the correct support to prop up your iphone without falling over. The obtuse-angled bend in step 4 needs to stick out far enough so the tips of the paper clip won't rub against your iPhone and scratch it.  You can play with the width of the stand and/or the green angles to adjust how much your iPhone tilts.

Here's a video of just the stand without all the jabber

 

That's it! Thanks for reading~!

 

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老娘的眉批:

這到底是什麼了不起的發明????  不過就是一根彎起來迴紋針而已啊....勞駕老娘爬高爬低的幫你攝影就算了,還千叮嚀萬交代的要我拍的時候要有當導演的sense,要懂得適時zoom in跟zoom out.啥屁啊!!!!

我左想右想,這種把戲能吸引到的觀眾恐怕只有豆媽家那顆小二的豆子,人家還有去上自然教室,懂的東西應該也比你這個cool吧!

呀!呀!呀! 烏鴉從天空飛過去,我不知道要再講些什麼好了......

Hi Readers!

I'm such a geek...

Ok, so now we got that part out of the way; pay attention!  I went online and ordered this part from Meritline:

http://www.meritline.com/earphone-adapter-iphone-3-5mm-mic-666.html

Read the description and you'll get it...

So that allows you to plug your iPhone's stereo output into the auxiliary input of your car stereo. No big deal right?  Even better is you can clip the microphone to your collar and call people and play their voice through your car stereo too!

Except for one problem... The cable is about 3 feet long.  Where are you going to put your iPhone? Hold it in your hand? So much for hands free!  So I also got this:

 

http://www.meritline.com/iphone-car-mount-holder-643.html

Now for the FUN part! The Modding....

I found an old telephone cable (yes, land line) and gave it a glorious future; a new chance at life!  It was to become the wire that I'd be using to relocate the handsfree microphone to an acceptable place in my car.  I had to do a little soldering.

 

Close up pic...

 

Car mount in the car... it's awesome... very sturdy and it even swivels so I can rotate it to the passenger side to let them control the iPhone..

Here's the mic.  I hadn't put heatshrink around it since it was getting late... It looks nice with the heatshrink! I'll take better pics tomorrow and update this post...

And... watch the video! ... because I didn't take any more pictures (it was late).

Near the end of the video, you hear the infamous cell phone buzzing.... stupid buzzing! I'm going to try tackling that problem this weekend with some ferrite cores. (google it).  Anyway, the buzzing only lasts for a few seconds when you start dailing or when the internet kicks in for the first time.  Still, I'm gonna try getting rid of it altogether.

 

 

Should I make a few of these and sell them?

-Dean

Friday I slept most of the day, Saturday, same thing.

Today, Sunday, I've been up and about, watching some TV, reading a book (Day Watch, 2nd in a series, translated from Russian author Sergei Lukyanenko).

Today I also took my first shower since Wednesday night.  It really is a milestone on the road to recovery when you're standing in the shower rubbing the surgical tape residue off your hand from where the IV was taped.

My left front tooth is still kind of numb! And I found a vertical crack in the enamel running all the way up the middle of the tooth :( That's bad news... maybe the trauma was too great to my tooth when they put the breathing tube down my throat.  The first thing I did was get online and read everything I could about cracked teeth. Seems like I could be ok, as it looks very similar to a "craze line" -- a technical term that means hairline crack.  I think the numbness is the different pressure being put on my gums behind my teeth. I'm guessing my gums will adjust and the numbness will go away.  But having odd pressure worries me since my teeth are already crooked enough! More odd pressure is sure to make them even more British comedy worthy. (think Austin Powers)

Looks like I won't be making it back to work on Monday after all. My appointment to remove the packings got moved to the afternoon because the doctor has a surgery in the morning. BELIEVE me, I'd rather be at work, slouching in a computer chair and programming than have this packing jammed in my nose for another day.

Ying's taking really good care of me! She's made me the most DEEELICIOUS get-well food. Chicken soup made from a whole chicken (organic, from Mitsuwa). And a beef soup made from scratch as well. Then she took some of the soup stock and made rice porridge. And a secret to make the rice porridge taste REALLY good, she put in a raw egg yolk and let the heat from the porridge cook the yolk. You folks are missing out. (the food, not the surgery)

No new pics; I look pretty much the same as last post.

-Dean :)

You know in the movies where the clumsy (but really hot) actress is walking through the house and runs right into the sliding glass door?  And you think, "haaam gah!" (that's Taiwanese; it means ridiculous). That kind of stuff only happens in the movies!!!  Well.... I guess we must be making movies!

I was standing in the kitchen getting some water when I heard a LOUD crash....

 

Yes, that's right; Ying walked straight through the screen door at full speed.  She said she didn't even slow down and was confused for a moment when she hit the screen.  Don't worry, she's ok.  I took this picture after I made sure she was ok :) ... And this picture turned out really cool!  The camera's flash was off so the exposure was really long and Ying was still walking around looking at the destruction she caused.

 

Here's a closer picture:

You better not mess with my wife; see what she did to this door? She'll do it to YOU. My wife is the Incredible She-Hulk ... She walks through doors as if they didn't exist.

 

 

I brought the screen door back into our kitchen to survey the damage:

 

The damage wasn't too bad. I was able to bend it back and stuff the mesh back into the frame:

 

After I put the screen door back on the tracks, it just wasn't the same any more... the door doesn't close all the way, it's bent in a few places, the lock doesn't work any more and it doesn't slide very smooth.  (Before our little accident, closing the screen door was like sliding it on a stick of butter) Yes folks, we've lived here less than a month and we've begun wrecking the place. Thank you very much. 

By the way, Ying says "hi" and to be sure to write that she's baking me some banana bread right now.  I'm thinking... she's pretty good at breaking down doors. Baking something with FIRE??? She'll be FINE!!!!!! :)

And I used to wonder why screen doors never close properly...

 

 

[Update 10/29/2006]
I installed a safety device guaranteed to protect our screen door from damage... err I mean... guaranteed to protect Ying's safety!!!