Now *that's* commitment!

Over in Atlanta, a couple have taken their commitment to Scrabble to a whole new level.

They've created an enormous scrabble board in their own backyard.

I hope Hasbro doesn't jump on them for copyright infringement...

As if Re-reading the catalogues wasn't enough...

We all know that IKEA prides itself on providing nifty storage solutions for just about anyone (thereby making its creator the richest man in the world). BUT - there's a whole group of people out there who enjoy modifying their IKEA purchases for just about anything. You can find these (mostly) ingenious modifications at a blog called ikea hacker.

Some of the fantastic ideas include:

This kitchen was created from an ikea shelving unit, with a few kitchen doors, magnetic handle and other utensils thrown in.

This was the original IKEA item.

My favourite one, though, appealed to my desire to be clutter free. Below is the "before" picture...

Add a few modifications to an IKEA box/table, and voila!

This...

...to this!

Pictures all taken from IKEA Hacker

I am *really* behind the times...

This week I discovered a geeky subculture that I'd never heard of before - even though it's been around for decades. It's called Steampunk. The first inkling I had of such things was this post, showing a PC case that had been turned into something huge and interesting.

What is it? Steampunk is a whole genre of literature, art, decor etc. Steampunk magazine describes it thus:

  

BEFORE THE age of homogenization and micro-machinery, before the tyrannous efficiency of internal combustion and the domestication of electricity, lived beautiful, monstrous machines that lived and breathed and exploded unexpectedly at inconvenient moments. It was a time where art and craft were united, where unique wonders were invented and forgotten, and punks roamed the streets, living in squats and fighting against despotic governance through wit, will and wile.
     Even if we had to make it all up.

It also involves modifying modern-day technology to look quite different...

Here are some other examples, from the Wired site:

Believe it or not, this used to be a 1988 Mac. It still works. 

A keyboard and monitor modified with old-fashioned-typewriter style.

A laptop modified to look "steampunk"

What do you think of steampunk?

Embracing your inner geek #68

One of the big things that geeks tend to do is quote movies verbatim. Back when I was at uni, the most commonly quoted movie was the Princess Bride ("Stop rhyming now, I mean it!"). 

It seems we weren't alone. Now you can quote at people without even opening your mouth:

Thanks to the wonderful people over at ThinkGeek.com.

Accuracy in reporting AKA showing the nitpicker in me...

I'm sorry for those of you who think I'm being nitpicky, but this picture (above) was reported on the SMH website as being a burned page from a bible. 

Perhaps there are some Anglicans out there who would treat the prayer book with a similar level of reverence, but it's not the same thing...

Downright disturbing...

Now, I know that missing your flight can be a traumatic experience. I have, on occasion, experienced the tension that builds up when time is tight and you're running late for check-in. But is it really a rolling-on-the-ground-kicking-and-screaming experience?

 This is very similar in appearance to one or two of my (then) two year-old's temper tantrums...

I guess it goes to show that growing older doesn't automatically mean you lose the impulsiveness of youth. :/

Embracing your inner geek, #67 - geeky craft *and* subject matter

Ok, so this is something that should satisfy your inner geek on several levels. Crochet - that geekiest of handcrafts - is skillfully combined with the Geekfest that is Star Wars, to bring you the crocheted R2D2.

According to the source of the pictures, two people were involved in creating this little cutie: one to do the crochet, and one to do the gluing of felt etc. 

I always loved the bleeps and bips of the feisty little Artoo, and was very impressed that the man behind the sound effects was employed to good use in Wall-E. Now we have a cuddly little reminder (well, one lucky owner does) of the wonderful, geeky, '78 film masterpiece.

Sometimes it's better to listen to warnings

The whole situation of the Victorian fires is very sad, but I found this article even more so. I've reproduced the text of the article from Melbourne's The Age newspaper below:

Husband's defiant last stand

• Farah Farouque
• February 11, 2009

Elaine Postlethwaite, whose husband Len died in the fire, with a photo of her wedding. Photo: Neil Bennett

ELAINE and Len Postlethwaite, like many long-married couples, had their "creative differences". A difference of opinion on Saturday night, however, became a matter of life and death for them.

Mrs Postlethwaite survived while her husband perished.

When fire enveloped Marysville, the small town where they had marked their 48th wedding anniversary last year, Mr Postlethwaite refused to accept his wife's repeated urging to evacuate.

"He was stubborn like that," she said. "He was always in charge — and he'd lived in Marysville for 78 years. It was quite a record, and he was proud of it. He was the town's longest resident."

Still, hoping the 82-year-old would change his mind and agree to leave, Mrs Postlethwaite packed their ute. There was no room — or time — to pack the mementoes collected of a life together in the pretty home where they had reared two daughters.

Mrs Postlethwaite, 72, a longtime schoolteacher, recounts the chronology of the evening with the precision of her profession. Yet, she said, the loss of a loved husband had not sunk in.

"My daughter, Ann, rang around 5pm and said, 'Get in the car, and get out'," Mrs Postlethwaite recalled. "I thought it was urgent — I put the dog in the back of the ute, my handbag and my camera and I told my husband, 'Come on Len, come on'."

She had hoped he would enter the car when he put on his shoes — but it wasn't the white flag she had hoped for. Instead, the one-time champion axeman went and sat on the veranda. In a further show of defiance, he had his back determinedly turned against the smoke balls massing down the road.

The fire was fast approaching by now yet Mr Postlethwaite remained convinced they could beat it. "It was a case of him not believing — and he just didn't want to listen to me."

Mrs Postlethwaite believes her husband's intransigence was influenced by his experiences beating a bushfire back in 1939 as a boy in Marysville.

"He'd stood on the roof of the family home with a hose and succeeded in beating that fire."

This time, however, Mrs Postlethwaite had a bad feeling. So, because she could not drive, she began marching down the road. "All I had was a face washer to keep me cool."

As luck would have it, a passing car containing a neighbour picked her up. As they left the area, she spied an emergency SES truck approaching her home.

Her last hope was that the officials could persuade her husband to leave. But, to her regret, it seems he was not a man so easily overcome.

To the end, Mr Postlethwaite remained an immovable force.

There are many Proverbs that come to mind, but it is more appropriate to mourn with Mrs Postlethwaite and her family at this point in time.

Who makes your peripherals?

Your computer keyboards could be made in very nasty conditions.

From the folks over at Gizmodo comes this report:

A study by The National Labour Committee, which is a worker's rights group that actually is not associate with the government, found very crazy (and very cruel) working conditions in a Meitai factory in Dongguan City. Here's a very small subsection of cruelties employees were subjected to:

• Workers are prohibited from talking, listening to music, raising their heads, putting their hands in their pockets. Workers are fined for being one minute late, for not trimming their fingernails-which could impede the work, and for stepping on the grass. Workers are searched on the way in and out of the factory. Workers who hand out flyers or discuss factory conditions with outsiders are fired.
• The assembly line never stops, and workers needing to use the bathroom must learn to hold it until there is a break.
• All overtime is mandatory, with 12-hour shifts seven days a week and an average of two days off a month. A worker daring to take a Sunday off-which is supposedly their weekly holiday-will be docked 2 ½ days' wages. Including unpaid overtime, workers are at the factory up to 87 hours a week. On average, they are at the factory 81 hours a week, while toiling 74 hours, including 34 hours of overtime, which exceeds China's legal limit by 318 percent!
• The workers are paid a base wage of 64 cents an hour, which does not even come close to meeting subsistence level needs. After deductions for primitive room and board, the workers' take-home wage drops to just 41 cents an hour. A worker toiling 75 hours a week will earn a take-home wage of $57.19, or 76 cents an hour including overtime and bonuses. The workers are routinely cheated of 14 to 19 percent of the wages legally due them.

Workers are also routinely penalised for random things, including these, which BoingBoing highlighted:

* "Infractions" punished with the loss of over two hours' wages (fine of 10 RMB—$1.44), including for-
—"Being 1 to 5 minutes late to start a shift..."
—"Not periodically trimming fingernails, which will affect product quality."
—"Not lining up correctly while punching time cards or at the cafeteria."
—"Wearing work shoes outside the work room after work."
—"Putting hands in pant pockets while inside the factory or workroom."

* "Infractions" punished with the loss of 4 ½ hours wages (20 RMB fine, $2.88)
—"...answering a personal telephone call in the workroom."
—"Not diligently working or raising ones head to look around when guests or cadres come to visit."
—"Putting personal objects on the work desk."
—"...listening to the radio while on the job."
—"Not parking bicycles according to company regulations; riding bicycles in and out of the company in a way not in accordance with company regulations."
—"Returning to the dorm after regulated hours [curfew]."

* "Infractions" punished with the loss of nearly seven hours' wages (30 RMB fine—$4.32)
—"Switching beds without authorisation." (Dorm beds are assigned by management.)

* "Infractions" punished with the loss of nearly 1 ½ days' wages (50 RMB fine—$7.20)
—"Workers who arrive over one hour late..."
—"Riding the elevator without permission."
—"Plugging in electronics [using electricity] in the dorm room for personal use."
—"Using the company phone to make personal calls."
—"Producing products of low quality..."
—"Workers who...go to visit other workers during working hours."
—"Chatting at the workstation during work hours..."
—"Entering or leaving the factory area without allowing door personnel [security guards] to inspect [search workers]."
—"Treating supervisors with an arrogant attitude..."

* "Infractions" punished with the loss of nearly three days' wages (100 RMB fine—$14.40):
—"Leaving one's workstation without permission..."
—"Putting up personal notices...or handing out flyers."
—"Revealing confidential company or production-related information."

* "Infractions" punished with firing:
—"Violating labour discipline...and not obeying the company's work arrangements."
—"...Taking part in illegal organizations." [In China, this means independent unions; human, women's and children's rights organisations and non-state-sanctioned religious organisations.]
—"Not following the procedures spelled out by government regulations on stopping work, slowing work down, encouraging others to stop or slow down work."
—"Missing three days of work."
—"Disobeying China's one-child policy."
—"Not obeying company arrangements or directions or...collectively causing trouble as a group..."
—"Any behaviour similar to that listed above or helping or colluding in such behavior."

If you think these conditions are obscene—and I think most of us should—contact details for the companies that contract Meitai for manufacturing are located at the bottom of the link. [NLCNet via Boingboing]

Learning life lessons

A funny thing happened yesterday.

At breakfast time, our bible story for the day was Jesus' parable about the unmerciful servant. Telling it to preschoolers, I asked the question: "How much has God forgiven us?" The answer was accompanied by the action of spreading my hands out widely: "Lots and lots and lots and lots!"

Then I brought my hands in very close to describe the "leetle, tiny bit" of sin that we often struggle to forgive others for, and encouraged the kids to forgive each other rather than holding grudges.

I wasn't expecting the story to have such a quick application, but later in the day Eldest became upset that Boo was playing with his cars. I asked him the question: "How much has God forgiven you?" The answer: "Lots and lots and lots and lots." I then said: "Boo has done this leetle tiny thing, hasn't she?"

The answer: "Well, it's really a middle-sized thing, Mummy."

Ah, you've got to laugh.