Brighter Fusion Blog

Here’s a case I made last night for the new car radio’s faceplate. I wasn’t happy with the choice of two ugly, plasticy, bulky black cases at Car Toys, and I couldn’t find anything other than pencil cases at Target. This is simple enough a deal that I decided to make my own.

I found some really nice remnant quilting fabric in turquoise and brown for less than $1.50 for a quarter yard — the perfect dimension for this project. I ironed the fabric to fusible polyester batting with a felted sweater wool remnant underneath, which it did not stick to. I then folded the piece in half, batting together, and ironed down a seam with hem tape. I turned that doughnut inside out and sewed down one end and turned it back and sewed down that taped seam. So now I have a flat, fluffy piece with one end open with raw batting sticking out. I folded it in half again and sewed down the raw end and trimmed off the extra length.

Here comes the highly annoying but professional looking part — the turned tube loop on the side. I took the piece left over from the extra length, flattened it out, ironed it folded lengthwise in half the wrong way, and sewed it down the length about in the middle. Then struggled for way too long to turn it inside out to make a fluffy, round ribbon. I folded a section of it in half and sewed the ends together and then arranged it into the side seam. I sewed a very narrow edge up the long side to make the rectangle closed on three sides and then squared off the corners on the closed end and turned it right side out.

It occurred to me after all this that I wanted to put magnets inside the fabric to hold the opening closed, so I cut the threads at the seam that was originally taped (see the beginning of the project) just enough to allow the magnets to pass through. I maneuvered two magnets in on each side, with the batting in between. Then I repaired the opening in the seam.

I plan to hand sew circles around the magnets on each side, as soon as I’m bored enough. Just one magnet on each side might have worked, but this way there’s more magnetic power, and there’s incentive for the magnets to stay where they belong.

In the close-ups you can see evidence that The Doctor was helping me. The cotton holds onto fur more than I would like, but OTOH, it’s non-allergenic for me, unlike the plastic cases. Here is the finished case with the faceplate inside.

More fun with fusible batting. Took a medium size bulletin board from Savers ($3), tore off the fake-wood frame, ironed a half fat quarter of Amy Butler’s Midwest Modern fabric and the batting onto the board, moving from the center out to the edges. Wrapped the fabric and batting around the edges to the back and trimmed the batting back to a centimeter shorter than the fabric. Since I can’t find my electric stapler, I just used iron-on hem tape to glue the fabric edges down to the back of the board. The corners are a little messy, but they’re really not noticeable enough to bother me. Someday I’ll probably tidy them up with a little bit of hot glue.

Today I got on the bike and rode for hours around Boulder, just exploring the streets and paths like a kid. Awesome.

And his love letter to the town:

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2009/04/the_leisure_of_the_theory_clas.html

Welcome back, Roger. You were missed, and in our thoughts.

Now, how do I buy that Rice Cooker book? Is it out yet? I’m still in the first few weeks of a happy relationship with a Zojirushi which plays “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” every time I start cooking my oatmeal.

With “updated” hairstyles.

At least Gene looks relatively normal.

Here’s a preview!

Courtesy of Nordstrom’s email list.

Here’s the YouTube clip that Jon was sourcing:

Philip Glenister says the second season of A2A will begin next month.

Interesting article/teaser at the Life of Wylie blog.

BBC America will be airing both seasons back-to-back, albeit in neutered form.

(BBC America has chosen to clean up his juicily phrased, almost poetically off-color outbursts.)

Pooh. They’re making the retro-racist, homophobic, misogynistic, fat, drunk, fascist dinosaur into a politically correct (and anachronistic and literarily inappropriate) shadow of himself? Where’s the entertainment in that? I love this country, and I love Barack Obama, but can I just say that Americans are stoopid?

Make that American TV execs.

Since we’re on the subject of ambiguously gay tough guys, enjoy this fanvid of Casey from CHUCK. The longer that show goes, the lamer it gets, but the brighter Adam Baldwin shines in it. Very, very shiny!

Like many of you out there, I enjoy a hot beverage close at hand when I’m working on the computer. (Specifically, I like a stainless steel carafe of ginger tea brewing, but that detail isn’t too important.)

I’ve spent a bit of time shopping around for an alternative to the 1960s Salton “Hotray” that I had been using. It was big enough to fit my carafe and mug together, and it worked great, but I felt bad burning up that much juice for hours on end when a smaller, round hot plate of less than half the surface area would have been just fine.

So, first off, I tried a normal mug warmer (Rival brand) which plugs into the wall. I didn’t even bother with the USB powered ones, which run from 20 to 30 watts, hardly enough power to read by. The ordinary mug warmers go from 30 to 60 watts, depending on the model, but I couldn’t get any decent heat out of even the top of that range.

Next, I bought a Bunn decanter warmer from Amazon, 85 watts, which has great reviews. Although it had a bigger footprint than I would have preferred, I was excited to get a product that was reported to be effective. Unfortunately, even after 45 minutes, it only seemed to achieve a temperature just short of potability (which surprisingly enough, turns out to be the #1 most disgusting temperature). Actual consumption was average 60 watts. It also gave off a terrible burning plastic stink that made me ill. So back it went.

I was about to give up and return to my Hotray (120 watts) when I stumbled across this blog entry relating to Asian travel cookers. The Sanyo Multivolt Travel Cooker RN-38 NF (purportedly “easy to tourists in hotel rooms” and “useful to tired to eat supper and when making local and rice or noodles”) has plenty of juice (runs at 360 watts on US current) but lacks a knob to control the temp. It’s also pricey and hard to find in the US, and if you look at the measurements, it’s not as small as the cute picture would suggest. The square burner is 5 inches across (128 mm) and it weighs 1050 grams. I don’t know why anybody would think it was appropriate for light travel. I didn’t buy one.

Finally, I stumbled upon the World’s Greatest Mug Warmer on an eBay hot plate search. The Thermolyne HP2305B, also referenced in places as simply the 2300 series, is a 3.5 inch diameter laboratory burner with a knob and a max draw of 325 watts. In a flat-bottomed metal container, I can achieve boiling at the halfway mark. In a stoneware mug which has very poor contact from the bottom of the mug to the hot plate, I can do it at full power.

That pic is almost life size!

This thing weighs about a pound and a half (~700 grams), including the long, heavy duty power cord, which incidentally makes it a nice choice for travel cooking (though not outside 120V regions). I bought mine lightly used on eBay for $65.

For safety, I have it plugged into a lighted rocker switch, so I won’t have to worry about the knob getting bumped when it’s supposed to be off.

It’s tiny, it’s hot, it’s adjustable, and it’s rockin’ that Bunsen Honeydew style. It’s the World’s Greatest Mug Warmer.

if I went in for that kind of thing. It seems like old friends, flames, and crushes are coming out of the woodwork for me and people close to me, all in the last couple days.

I’m happy that a guy who used to be my friend (or something like that) finally came out on the ‘net. He’s fat and happy and the perfect dad, just like I knew he would be. I’m so relieved to know he’s safe and sound, and he looks like he got it right.

Plus, how nice is he to put pics of himself up from back when I knew him? I haven’t seen him in around 12 years, but OMG! No wonder he scrambled my brain. I’d like to show you, but I guess that would probably be pretty invasive of his privacy, so I won’t.

I wonder whatever happened to the guy who used to play with the Christians and had zero electric cats?

This is a FABULOUS idea! I just read a reference to it in my newly arrived issue of ReadyMade magazine.

http://www.airbedandbreakfast.com

I will say right now that as soon as I get a neat and tidy household with a guest bedroom available, I’ll be signing up for that.

Make $50 to $100 extra income PER NIGHT for hosting a guest!