Some notes on how I built a power box.

The other day I posted a picture of the first power box I made. Here is an attempt to answer all the questions I got.
Backstory: some one last year on the Ice Fishing Minnesota Facebook group posted a blurry video of a box they made and were selling. It might be the same person who has now made a bunch of the and is selling them. I like to tinker so i thought it would be fun.

There's a lot of variations. You can do it how ever you want.

The box: this is just a run of the mill plastic ammo box from Fleet Farm. You can also get them at Harbor Freight. If you catch the on sale you can get them for about six bucks. Otherwise they're around fifteen dollars.

Most of the other parts I order from Amazon. The items are hyperlinked.
The LED light bar.  ($11) I picked this one because it fits nicely on the end. There are a lot of different lights available. On my second box I didn't put a light. I put it on the first one with the idea that I would run it when I am sitting up my shack. And then run my larger lights off of the box.

LED Rocker Switches (12 for $7) These aren't water proof or anything, but their cheap. They work just fine and they light up when in use.

The Charging Panel ($13) I like the charging panel. You can run a lot of phones and devices off of it, especially if you carry one of the car socket to USB adapter. I also like the voltmeter in it.

For the post terminals, I just used some screws I had already. For the terminal connectors I got a variety pack at Harbor Freight.

The difference between my first and second box is startling once you open it up.

As you might know, working with electricity is a logic puzzle. You can get it right many different ways. For some reason I felt the need to have a hub (the piece of wood in the first picture) for all of my positive and negative wires to go to. In the second one, I used jumpers between the switches eliminating the need for the hub. This also reduced the amount of wire I used by about 70%, thus reducing the clutter and mess inside.

There's also a few ways you can wire it up depending on how you're going to use it. I have the volt meter on its own switch. You might not want to do that. You could have it turn on when there's power on the unit anywhere or for a particular switch. On the first one I made I have the terminal posts and the 12v car socket on the same switch. I might rewire it and add a button.

I like having the buttons on the side so that they somewhat line up with the item it powers. On the inside, that makes it difficult to get the battery in and out. I will experiment with putting the switches in a different place for my third box.

First 45 of the Collection: Donna Summer: Heaven Knows single

I found this little record at Half Price books. I always peek through their discount 7" section when I go there, if I have time. It was worth the twenty-five cents I paid for it. I am always happy to see a name I recognize not to mention two that I recognize: Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder. These tracks are from a full length album called Live and More. I am assuming the Heaven Knows is part of the & more; it doesn't sound live. Its a fun disco tune that reminds of some Harold Melvin stuff. She is accompanied on this record by Brooklyn Dreams. They were a trio that often collaborated with Summer. Heaven knows is said to be their biggest success. Its a decent enough disco track. My copy is pretty much burned. Due to its condition, I won't be incorporating it into any set lists. I might if I find another cheap copy but its not a priority. I have other stuff.

The B side, Only One Man, is a live track. She is sassing the audience at the beginning of it. Banter makes live tracks fun. The performers on stage personality comes out. Its not a particularly stand-out song.

Below is a Youtube video for Heaven Knows. It is not the exact same edit I have on 7". Mine is less than 2 mins long.

This the third in a series of posts where I listen to a record from my collection and write something about it.

This is a short post. There will be some of those. I will choose a more interesting record for the next post.

80s Soft Ear Porn: Vanity 6

When I was a kid my parents were on a mission to make sure that we knew the human body was a natural not a shameful thing. I think they even said as much. The execution of that notion unfortunately misfired and tended to reinforce objectification. One such example is that my mom would go out and buy playboy for my dad, which he would then read on the deck by the pool. I remember several times, my sister gave my dad a playmate calendar for Christmas. I am not sure where he put the calendar. It wasn't in the garage or anywhere in the house. My assumption was that he brought it to work. I suppose you could've gotten away with that in the 80s. Thus I remember the joking confusion when my sister got Vanity 6 from my parents for Christmas. Dad:"Oh I thought that was for me!" I remember only catching a glimpse of it myself. I was nine, so for me it was all so confusing and one of those things that was embarrassing because I was ignorant. The same way kids at that age snicker at the word sexy.

There are a couple things of note about this era in my musical taste development. One is that my sister had, for where we lived, a really advanced musical pallet. This will show up later in my record collection for sure. The flip side to that coin is I faced utter demise if I touched her records. This made them more mysterious. She was a tremendous influence on the music I consumed. Though not being allowed to touch her tunes, she would make me a tape of certain records. Which was why I could be seen at 10 or 11 singing along loudly to the Violent Femmes on my walkman while raking the leaves.

See where one record takes you.Though I never heard much of it from her copy. Not being allowed in her room under threat of further demise prevented this.  I bought this from the thrift shop because my sister had it at 13.

As far as the music goes, if your sitting around thinking, "Man, I wish Prince had made more music in 1982." Then there you go. Chances are if you are sitting around thinking that, you know more about Prince & Vanity 6 than I ever will. This record is soft core audio erotica set to a Prince beat.  I don't think, I'll listen to this record around the fire on a cold winter eve to wind down.

With that said there are several tracks that I would use in an 80s mix or an electro mix.  Track 3: (the first two are straight up Prince tracks) Drive Me Wild would be good for an electro mix. It would work well with Kavinsky, artists on the Italians Do It Better label,He's So Dull, reminds of an 80s movie montage music, that is if you needed a montage to point out how lame some dude is.

and some Kraftwerk, etc.
Side B: If a Girls Answers: ooh its a girl fight. The song is not a favorite, but there might be a good loop at the end where's its just the beat, light synth, bass, and the chorus of "Don't Hang Up." Make-up is a good track, more of the electro feel. Its ripe for a beat loop, or just mixing in an 80s set. Bite the Beat is a peppy synth track with claps that has hints of GoGos or B52s. 3x2=6 is the slow dance. So all in all there's a couple of fun things here. If you see it at a thriftstore/yard sale for $1, pick it up, otherwise skip it.

Here is the whole album on Youtube. Youtube has quite a bit of content on Vanity 6.

A few interesting notes about this group. After having seen A Star is Born, with Streisand and Kristoferson, Prince was initially looking to put together a female pop ensemble that performs in lingerie, but he wanted to call them The Hookers. He wrote all of the music for their album but gave them writing credit. After Vanity tired of performing in her undies, she found religion and quit music, movies, and modeling.

If you want a copy of this record, don't go to amazon for this one. Check out ebay.

This is the second in a series of posts where I listen to a record from my collection and write something about it.

Another Smash Mancini Film Score! Experiment in Terror

I am not sure how I got this. My best guess is it was a thrift store find. Seeing the cover and the composer, I had to give it a shot. I have never seen this movie. Having read the plot outline on the web, I am intrigued. Maybe even enough to spend $3 on an online rental. The premise seems good.

Music. Since this is a film score. I have to mention the movie briefly. It is apparently about a psycho-killer that kidnaps a bank teller and her teenage sister to get the teller to steal money. I was surprised to find that the side A was very light. It has a three twists on it even a twist rendition of the main theme song. There's some possible loop material in Fluter's Ball and the twists can be given more umph with a B'more beat or a Breakbeat.

The B-side is much darker. It includes the main theme and some music that is meant to drive the suspense. During my first listen, I was surprised that there wasn't more of that. Then I realized that many of the tunes were supposed to support the setting rather than the action: tracks such as Final Out and Down by the Wharf.

Another interesting note about this is that on the liner notes they make a big fuss about Mancini having used two autoharps in this composition. It treated the instrument like something he should have to apologize for. "Although the autoharp is not a regulation instrument, Mancini used the unique sound of two of these instruments to create and exciting and interesting theme." Who regulates what a regulation instrument is?

All in all, this is a fun sound track to play. Its not overly repetitious as many are today. Given the topic of the film the music is mostly light and airy.

Click here to purchase the film score.

Click here for the movie.

Music Galore.

We've been listening to a lot of music in the last twenty-four hours. My wife and a friend suggested I move the records to the living room among making other changes. This inspired us to paint quickly. Thanks to all of the family that helped with that task. The picture above is the temporary solution until we buy shelves specifically for the music collection. These will be an Ikea hack that includes Kallax shelves and capita feet, base on many DJ console plans I found online. See my sketch below.

 To the non-record owning person, it might seem that I have a lot of records. I don't dispute that I have a lot of music, over fourteen linear feet of twelve inch records and many 7's. Folks with my level of involvement in music often have much more.  Grad school and having children tempered my ability to buy many records over the last decade. That being said, there have been many records that I have bought either because they look cool or I had some familiarity with them but had not heard the whole selection. Now that I think about it, this is how we used to buy music before the one-track-purchase-at-a-time-itunes era. I have come up with a fun way to explore and reacquaint myself with my collection. I am hoping to regularly update this blog with a picture, description, and review.
Stay Tuned!

When Two Tribes Go to War

Que up the Frankie Goes to Hollywood song. (love the Krushev vs. Reagan video)

There was an escalation in my neighborhood earlier this week. Two (groups) of my neighbors got in to a struggle over territory. One won and one lost. If you have never seen an actual ant battle its pretty crazy. This is the second one I have seen. There's no Minnesota nice in the next few tidbits. This is more of the in the ring with Jesse, the Mind, Ventura type of Minnesota action. 

Here's a still picture of the video above. 

Here's a close up.

You may have noticed in the video that Walter was throwing some stuff on them. This helped us see them better. As you can see on the leaf, they are fighting one on one. Although, to the left side bottom of the leave its two against one. To the top of the left side its more like five to one. 

This picture is just creep-tastic. 

Here is the picture in full motion. If you are as fascinated by this as I am, watch the video a few times. Focus on a particular groups or ants.

 

This battle took place on the base of the three steps of the walkway that leads up to our house. The following video is on the vertical part of the step. There were fewer ants here. It makes it easier to see the action here. 

I wish this one was a little less blurry. At the center its four ants on one. 

Here is the last video. You can hear Harry in the background trying to use the imobulous curse on them. It didn't work. The battle continued. When it was done, I think the ants to the north lost. They seemed to be retreating or it could be ants from the south breaking through the battle lines. 

Nature in the front yard. There you have it. 

NPFP

Nonsense Post-Funny Picture. 

This is a tomato that came from the store. It had a couple of spots and a stripe. Usually these things happen when they rub up against other things I guess. This guy was really happy to see us. 

School is now in session! No More Shenanigans*

Schools in Minneapolis started on Monday, with kindergarteners starting on Wednesday.  It has been the hottest week of the year so far. Many schools including ours have no AC. Many kids are just stuck. Our kids go to a great school. Two days of school, Adrian has already been on two field trips to a local park with a wading pool.

Walter was not deterred by the heat on his first day of school. He knew the day would have some time playing in the sprinkler and end with a trip to the wading pool. He was not to apprehensive since he was used to coming here with me and his brother of the last few years. 

This is Walter trying not to let me get a picture of him in his classroom. 

This is how most people feel about the bittersweat reality of their youngest starting school. 

Our kids on the other hand were having a pillow fight style battle in the back of the car with their towels for the pool. It was crazy. Clemma looks over and goes, "I don't think this is going to be a tearful drop off for us." 

 Instead its worthy of a celebration with a Minnesota breakfast.

We are so excited and proud of our kids. I am not sure they could be in better hands than the loving folks at SSFS. Cheers! 

Extra End of Summer Shenanigans

Walter didn't start school until today. A post about that will arrive a little later. Since he had two days more of summer than his brother I decided to take him for a quick fishing trip to the cabin in Wisconsin.  It was so hot... How hot was it, that we decided only to stay for one night instead of two. Its funny he's such an easy kid to negotiate with as long as you know how to do it and are willing to let him make some choices. I guess most kids are like that. The difference with Walter is that you (the adult) have to think through the implications of the choices. He's not much of a last minute change the plans, sorry we said we would do this, but now we ran out of time, kind of kid. You said we will do this and we will. Thinking about this made our negotiations work well. For example, he wanted to stop at the donut shop in Lindstrom on the way back. Not possible with his desired departure time of after supper. So we decided to leave after lunch instead.
Anyway here's the good stuff.

I caught this Largy on Walter's rig with a big chunk of night crawler. My photographer was carefully cradling the iPhone.

 This wish you were here picture made the little photographer want to go for a swim.

If you look carefully you can see Walter is about eight feet from my bobber. "Hey Walter, Tell some of those fish to jump on my hook!"

 It worked!

 Can't have enough pictures of the sun setting on the prairie. 

The next morning we tried to fish, but our worms had perished in the heat wave. I suggested going to the store for some leeches, but Walter wanted to head home. 

 He wanted to take one last dip in the lake, but I protested. The wind had blown all of the algae to our side of the lake.

Since we came back early, yesterday I took W to lunch at the mecca of board games and old school video games, Chatterbox Pub. We had tasty lunch, frosty brews, (Walter's was the root variety), and played the heck out of the original NES Super Mario Bros.

Last Week of Summer Break Shenanigans II

After lunch we went to the area at Minnehaha Park downstream of the falls known as the deer pen. The kids love playing there. This is the best summer play spot in the Twin Cities. 
Adrian is in the blue swim shirt and Walter is in the white. 

 In the previous two pictures they were doing what they love most. Building a dam with the river stones to divert the water. On our previous visit we completed a gap in a dam that went clear across this half of the creek. (As I am typing this I am having to change damn to dam. I guess I haven't typed the word dam much.)

Then the cousins show up. Calvin helps Walter ford the swifter parts of the creek. 

 Walter, Adrian, and Everett at the deep part of the creek upstream from the bridge. 

 Snack Time!

 This week of Shenanigans just keeps getting better. When we got home I noticed the boys did not follow me into the house, but were squealing outside. They were in Lisa's backyard (Happy 50th Lisa!) playing with water balloons. 

 Adrian had figured out that being fast can be helpful. You can run up to your brothers balloon and squeeze it so it pops all over him. 

 Lisa's turn!

 Special Trick works again!

 I'm gonna get you sucka!

If that wasn't enough excitement. On the walk back from the creek, (yes for those of you out of town, there is a creek with a massive 40ft water fall a 10 minute walk from my house!)their Grandpa Bruce called and offered to take them to the Cabin. They are out for two nights of cabin craziness! May the last week of Summer Break Shenanigans continue in this vein. I know that mine will with the kids gone...