The New Soda Crate Hope Chest (complete with how-to video)

A couple of weeks ago, I crafted a hope chest from old wooden Coca-Cola soda crates.  It was a fun project, and I had a great time bashing out the wood and re-assembling everything. So much so, in fact, that I decided to build a second chest.  This chest will incorporate various other popular sodas…

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A postcard from the 2017 Iowa State Fair Photo Competition

What you see here are two postcards from my previous Iowa State Fair submissions.  Five entries sent in 2014 … four entries sent in 2016.  All nine entries were rejected like Chuck Miller on date night. And yet, I’m trying one more time.  Such is the masochist in me.

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7 and 7 on Saturday: July 15, 2017

We have an amazing crop of blogs this week, and they really deserve your attention.  As per our Saturday formula, I’ll list seven blogs from my community blogging friends at the Times Union, and then seven blogs from my blogroll.  And if you have any suggestions about blogs or bloggers that I should include in…

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Computer Answers really does have the answers!

Ten years ago, I cobbled together a desktop computer tower.  Rather than go to the local CompUSA and buy a tower off the shelf, I ordered all the component parts and jiggered them together. The tower survived a couple of hard drive crashes – one in 2010, another in 2015 – as well as an…

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K-Chuck Radio: Awesome and rare 70’s dance classics

On this edition of K-Chuck Radio, I’m going to dive into the wild and wonderful world of dance music from the 1970’s.  Back when discos stopped calling themselves discotheques. These tracks were monster hits in the clubs and discos, but sadly they’ve drifted off to rarities status.  Except for here, where I dust them off…

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Let’s all play Donald Trump Twitter Bingo!

You know it’s coming.  That moment when you’re watching the news, or your checking your Facebook feeds, and you hear about the new outlandish, shocking, what-the-hell-was-he-thinking tweet from President Donald Trump. And you know, once you hear what the President has said that morning, whether it’s one single tweet or a six-message tweetstorm, that there…

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“And here comes Mugshots Bro from out of nowhere!!”

It’s Sunday afternoon, and I want to test out a lens I haven’t used in a while – my super-telephoto Soviet cadiatrophic lens, the MC MTO-11, an 1100mm f/16 piece of glass that can pick up images half a mile away. My plan – stand at one end of the half-mile oval at Saratoga Harness…

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7 and 7 on Saturday, July 8, 2017

Hey everybody, it’s time for a Saturday wrapup of blog posts from my friends and colleagues that I believe deserve your attention.  First we start with seven blogs from my old haunt, community and independent bloggers from the Times Union – and then seven blogs from my blogroll that I think deserve your attention. Ready? …

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