Cheezer and Louzer

The boy and I built this cool toy called a Vibrobot today. I got to use my soldering iron and it actually WORKED! (Yay)

We pulled the little motor out of a $2 handheld fan and mounted it onto a mint tin, powered by a 1.5v AA battery. I put a little rubber thing on the motor’s spindle to make it off-center and that gives the whole thing a vibration that makes it move.

More pictures here in my picasa photo album.

And here is the short video.

I got the design idea from this article in my favorite magazine, MAKE!

Thanks Make!

So, here it is. The latest story that proves my position about the evil ones. It seems in this case that a capuchin monkey at the Denver Zoo is the latest fatality in the ages old war the squirrels are waging against mankind. The culprit? The Plague, probably transmitted to the monkey by fleas  – in league with the squirrels just as drug smulggers need help from the “coyotes”.

What’s the most distubing thing in this article, you ask? This quote:  “Plague is common in Colorado during this time of year, but it usually occurs in rural parts of the state, where it’s sometimes discovered when entire prairie dog colonies die off.”

Yikes.

I was searching YouTube tonight for Yo La Tengo music and found this band instead. I am not at all sure of their name – Google’s translate page seems to be suggesting Female Dog & Co. – but I think I love them already. The music is quiet and slow but likely to break out into crazy chaos at any moment. They love the slow building to nowhere thing. One song I’ve found just tonight has this loooooong slow part, and then allasudden it’s like they let n angry 5-year-old Thelonius Monk just rampage on the piano. Brilliant and spooky and wonderful all at the same time!

If it helps any, I guess you could say they are like a Japanese version of Yo La Tengo but it never feels like they’re just copying any other band’s sound. They have videos on YouTube, as I mentioned and they are very nice too. Here’s one you can check out, yo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDys4OSLJVc

That there is one mighty nice picture. I don’t generally think dressing up a dog is “Cute” but this just hits on so many levels that it’s awwwwright.