My friend has been teaching his 6 and 7 year old to tie shoelaces and other knots, he’s also teaching them to tell the time.
Children could come out of this with more practicable life skills.
Good to see a modern practical use for morse. I had to learn it for my job, back then we had to learn it a 6 words / min by light. I believe its down to 3 words / min now. When I was in the rfa the comms rats (comms ratings) got me up to 12 words / min by light. Tried at 15 but it was gibberish to me. Never got the hang of it by sound strangely.
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My friend has been teaching his 6 and 7 year old to tie shoelaces and other knots, he’s also teaching them to tell the time.
Children could come out of this with more practicable life skills.
That reminds me of Ian's Shoelace Site, featuring 62 shoe lacing tutorials. It's brilliant:
https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/lacingmethods.htm
Don't just do something, sit there. - TNH
Sounds like a classic example of what my Dad referrs to as the male menopause: when your child does the thing that you think you are pretty good at better than yourself. It usually occurs around the time that we think we are still at the peak of our abilities but in reality we maybe a bit beyond that peak.
I'm trying to delay the inevitable by encouraging my son to take up activities that I know I am rubbish at.
I was up to +25wpm at one time (USCG Radioman). Now I barely recognize my ring tone: .-. .-.. ..-.
Best wishes,
Bob
Got round to a bit of restoration on this old thing. New body shell painted, electronic speed controller fitted, shims made to take a bit of nod out of the front suspension , just got to crash it into the skirting board a few times ...
Not sure it counts as interesting or entertaining but just been sitting in the sun in the garden
playing “I packed my bag for London” 3 of us and managed to get to 20 things before brain fade set in.
The Strandbeest has landed.
Don't just do something, sit there. - TNH
Strandbeest update.
There's a large postcard in the box of one of the full sized creatures, it's a nice touch. Most of the parts are injection moulded plastic and snap off a frame like in an Airfix kit.
A little clean up with a blade and we are ready to commence assembling.
The instructions are fairly clear and comprehensive.
The beest starts to take shape around a central cam shaft.
No bits left over, which is usually a good sign.
The final part to assemble is the set of wind-catching sails. It is little surprise that Jansen comes from a nation famous for millwrights.
She's alive!
I should make a video clip, but in the meantime here's Adam Savage with his.
Last edited by Mr Curta; 26th April 2020 at 08:27.
Don't just do something, sit there. - TNH
Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Finally rebuilt my retro rig (old faithful 486 board died on me unfortunately) with a slightly more modern twist. Step forward a 2004 spec Sempron 2800+ based monster with a massive 512Mb RAM and Radeon 9800 XXL gpu.
Excellent. I'd love a setup like that if only to programme the Timex Data Link watches.
Don't just do something, sit there. - TNH
Not everyone's idea of entertaining but I do rather enjoy an IDLES gig. They are streaming the final show from their Joy as an Act of Resistance tour, A Beautiful Thing: Idles Live at le Bataclan in parts over the next few evenings with the full show on Friday. First bit kicks off in 15 mins or so.
https://www.youtube.com/user/Idlesband
Last edited by Mr Curta; 30th April 2020 at 13:28.
Don't just do something, sit there. - TNH
Next off the production line is this one:
And in the meantime my son also completed his first engine build.
Remarkably detailed, you can even advance and retard the ignition. Being Haynes though the instructions weren't always clear.
Next up the biggest build so far, the Millennium Falcon. Let's see how long it takes.
Museum From Home kicks off at 10am tomorrow (30 April). It is a whole day focused on the UK’s museums, hosted by the Beeb but most social media channels are also involved.
Loads to dip into during the day - Royal Museums Greenwich feature at noon and there's the launch of a new virtual tour of the American Air Museum at Duxford.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/art...mazing-museums
You can add your own personal exhibits on the twitter feed.
https://twitter.com/MuseumFromHome
Don't just do something, sit there. - TNH
Dunno if this has already been posted - free download pdf to build a Lotus S1 Esprit 'Wet Nellie' from The Spy Who Loved Me.
https://www.lotuscars.com/build-esprit-s1/
I've just started an old Czechoslovakian model kit of a Supermarine Walrus.
I'm drilling holes where there are none, removing flash etc. Terrible fit and finish.
At this rate it will probably last until the lock down ends!
Cheers,
Neil.
Downloadable paper Nissan Fairlady Z Nismo (370Z?) kit here http://www.nissan.co.jp/EVENT/PAPERC.../index_sp.html
Doesn’t look easy!
Those Apollo links are fantastic watches them all now and sent to my brother and dad who are both addicted now too!
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More slot cars to play with for me amongst other things, I may be having a bit of a slot car buying phase in lockdown, mind you who doesn’t love a good cossie
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On the subject of paper models, here is a simple but effective three-rotor Enigma emulator that can be constructed around a Pringles tube. It is a great way to illustrate the wiring, and is fully compatible with Enigma models I, M1, M2 and M3 prior to the Kriegsmarine introduction of wheels VI, VII and VIII.
http://wiki.franklinheath.co.uk/inde...a/Paper_Enigma
https://fhcouk.files.wordpress.com/2...senigma3a4.pdf
We're all set.
There are some good online Enigma simulators to have a play with.
This one has something of the feel of a real machine and can helpfully display the encryption steps through the rotors, reflector and plugboard in the lower window: https://www.101computing.net/enigma/enigma-M3.html
This is more utilitarian but allows rapid encoding and decoding of strings of characters: https://cryptii.com/pipes/enigma-machine
And there's a nice iOS app, called Mininigma: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/minini...or/id334855344
Last edited by Mr Curta; 2nd May 2020 at 11:44.
Don't just do something, sit there. - TNH
You can even keep the spare rotors, turnover rings and reflector inside the tube
Last edited by Mr Curta; 2nd May 2020 at 12:29.
Don't just do something, sit there. - TNH
We gave the mesmerising Kontax Stirling Engine a run after putting it back together. The original build is detailed here: https://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.p...=1#post4285492
Here's a video clip of it in action.
Don't just do something, sit there. - TNH
This will probably be my last post here for a few weeks as I need to temporarily focus attention elsewhere. Massive thanks to all for sharing so many inspiring ideas thus far.
The rest of the family have some tidy needlework skills. They’ve been busy knocking up washable Ear Savers to donate to a local hospital (loads of knitting and crochet patterns on t’interweb) and some Bunting for Bletchley. Our youngest had a lot of fun channelling Jackson Pollock.
Stay safe.
Don't just do something, sit there. - TNH
Very, very interesting items here. Lots of "Oh I want one like that!" moments when reading the postings. I keep myself entertained by renovating the second floor and attic rooms of my house. Two more jobs to go: new laminate floor in the attic and then the final job: removing the carpets from the stairs, removing the glue(...) and repainting the steps. One needs to be redone with new carpets and the other will stay 'natural' with parquet lacquer. That will keep me busy for a while.
Menno
Dropping in especially for the music lovers. If you haven't discovered #TimsTwitterListeningParty then you really should. Basically Tim Burgess hosts a band live tweeting anecdotes whilst simultaneously listening to one of their albums. I've really enjoyed a few of these, Public Service Broadcasting on Wednesday was great. Most of those involved have really embraced the concept.
Info and schedule here: https://timstwitterlisteningparty.com/
Real time replays here: https://timstwitterlisteningparty.com/pages/replay.html
Tomorrow night is Movie Night with Edgar Wright tweeting Baby Driver anecdotes. Start the movie at 21:30 (UK), bring your own popcorn.
Also, for those so inclined there is Block by Blockwest festival running in Minecraft from 15:00 on Saturday: https://blockbyblockwest.com/
Don't just do something, sit there. - TNH
Inspiration?
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
Remote baking with Granny:
Who would have thought it would have turned out so tastily. Plus he didn't hurt himself or burn down the house.
Well here we go again, and speaking of safes...
We decided to have a bash at an 'Escape Room in a Box' having always quite enjoyed puzzling our way out of the more physical versions (Hungarians can be particularly fiendish). This was very well designed with a nicely thought out variety of challenging but achievable puzzles, a few red herrings and a clever mechanism for 'unlocking' each stage. There are a large number these available so it took a bit of research to decide what to go for; we felt that this one was pitched about right to include the whole family (our children are aged 13 and 15), get used to the concepts involved, and sustain interest (We cracked it in 70 minutes which is just about right). This brand is single use, involving getting stuck in and destroying some of the items which took the kids aback at first but was enjoyable. We've since ordered a couple more with slightly higher difficulty levels.
Don't just do something, sit there. - TNH
In lockdown I made a habit to learn something new. I mean once a fortnight I get a new hobby. At the moment it is getting into lighters (Zippo, Dunhill, Dupont etc.). The next one will be CBD. They say this theme is getting more and more popular in the USA so I guess that it can be useful even in terms of future investments into this field. BBC says that even Coca Cola is considering adding CBD into into its beverages. I never thought that there can be such a wide range of CBD-containing herbies.
Last edited by Owren; 11th January 2021 at 21:37. Reason: additional info
great game,I love to play it with my family. Staying at home especially during lockdowns can do a lot. When it just started, I started taking various online courses and reading those books that I had been putting off for a long time. Recently I have been writing a research paper. I need to submit this research paper at the end of this semester, there is little time left, so I turned to the service https://uk.edubirdie.com/research-papers-writing which helps me in writing it. in general, staying at home for a very long time, I very much relaxed and it seems to me that it will be very difficult for me to adjust myself after the lockdown to the working mode.
Last edited by bobocat; 22nd January 2021 at 10:58.