LEGO Millennium Falcon!

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I loved LEGO as a kid. I had several castle sets, a Robin Hood set, a pirate ship and lair sets, and buckets and buckets of random pieces that my brother and I would play with endlessly on Sunday afternoons after church. Some of my fondest memories are tied up with the little plastic bricks and the hours I spent with nothing but them and my imagination.

BUT

Childhood doesn’t last forever. And I didn’t go into architecture or design. AND I don’t have whole afternoons and evenings to dedicate to building castles in the clouds… I also don’t have any of those LEGOs anymore. They’re still at my parents. Where, I have been told they will remain, for the grandchildren (when they come) to play with when they are at grandma and grandpa’s. I still love them though. I still love putting them together, flipping through the build guide, imagining what other ways the pieces could be combined (and they can be combined in some really fascinating ways). It’s all just so much fun!

Occasionally to scratch that building itch, to re-experience the feeling of building, I’ll head into a store and pick up a small set to fiddle with. Over the weekend I was in Target picking up some odds and ends and I saw this tiny LEGO set of the Millennium Falcon:

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There were seven other tiny little Star Wars related sets as well and I was sorely tempted to pick up the Star Destroyer or the TIE Interceptor as well… I didn’t but I thought about it. I just picked up this one and then I put it together:

The pieces and instructions
The pieces and instructions

Continue reading “LEGO Millennium Falcon!”

Fixing My Playstation 2

12 years and going strong!

I don’t recall when I picked up my PS2. If I recall correctly, and as time goes on that becomes harder and harder, I picked it up in 2002 which makes my console nine years old. Through those nine years it has faithfully played every CD, DVD, and PS2 game I’ve put into it. Well, that was the case until last month or so… Then it started giving me intermittent “disc read errors” that slowly, but surely devolved into complete inoperability.

I have a slim PS2 that has been sitting in a box for years. But, I was not ready to give up on my old one, especially since one of my goals this year was not reduce the amount of waste I generate. It is not easy to recycle advanced electronics and companies are not (yet) taking them back to recycle.

I poked around on the internet and found a guide at ifixit.com that guided me through the process and all it cost me was an #00 phillips screwdriver.

The bottom of the PS2 with the screw caps removed.
The opened case, the optical drive is on the right.
Optical drive with its cover removed. All it took was a little rubbing alcohol.

The whole operation only took 30 minutes or so… and I’ve been running the PS2 through its paces and it is working fine. I hope to get another nine years out of the console before I need to take a look at it again!

Moar Ninja Turtles!

Sometimes they fight over my mail…

If only I had the patience for stop motion film-making... and the talent.

Of course there can only ever be one:

Imagine he's Scottish and screaming on a mountaintop...

Then of course comes the violation of Federal laws:

Frankly I'm surprised he can wield the damn thing...

For being 29 years old I still have a lot of fun playing with toys. I only wish my Party Wagon was here…

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