Tag Archives: DIY

The week of Christmas, 2007, I learned an essential truth about myself. I am born with invention and discovery in my pedigree. I was sitting in my parents’ new house holding a small, silver alarm clock pitted with little dents and patina. Picture the stereotypical alarm clock — round face, stubby little peg feet, big bells on top with a clapper in between them and a little lever for bypassing the clockwork to both silence and reset the alarm. Nothing remarkable about that, right? You can still find them for about $15 at Target. What makes that little clock remarkable is that according to my dad, it’s the first one of its kind.

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October 4, 2009 — Today I went for the best ride I’ve had all season. It wasn’t a long ride, only about an hour. What made it such a great ride was two things: I met someone interesting, and I rediscovered a great stretch of scenic road.

For my birthday this year, my gift to myself was taking the day off of work. With that time all mine, the trick was figuring out what I wanted to do with myself. My car conundrum is not yet resolved, so I wanted to drive a Honda Insight and a VW Jetta TDi.

The Honda was very interesting and obviously very advanced, but like all Hondas, was seriously lacking in soul. The Jetta TDi was shockingly powerful …

If you’ve never heard the Stebel Nautilus horn in person, it’s difficult to describe. “Loud” is insufficient. Sure it is loud – very loud at 148 db. The two-note tone created by the Nautilus could better be described as “piercing” or even “pseudo-deaffoning.” Both are great qualities in a scooter horn. If you’re looking for a great way to get that absent-minded cager’s attention, look no further. You’re likely to startle the cell phone right out of their hand.