bonnie & jason

New project - the beginning of Jason Wang Bicycles

With the bike done, I find myself craving another project. Not that I don’t have enough to do around here as it is with Alissa, Bonnie on bedrest, and some photography stuff here and there. I guess maybe I just need a diversion from all the adult responsibilities that come with a growing family. And since I can’t afford a Lotus, I figure I’ll expand on the bike theme. But instead of just building up a bike frame, this time, I’m going to build a bike from scratch. Crazy you say? Crazy like a fox! =)

It’s actually not that big a deal although I admit that the scope has grown. How? Here’s the evolution:

1. The last bike project aggravated the lumbar radiculopathy that hasn’t bothered me for the last two years so I need a proper work bench.
2. Work benches are expensive though, so I’m going to build my own.
3. To build a proper work bench, I need a compound miter saw. (Ok, I don’t absolutely need one, but any self-respecting DIY homeowner should have one.)
4. While I’m at Home Depot, I might as well get the closet rod that Bonnie wants me to add.
5. Yet to be identified projects that will be born from here.

And of course, to build the bike itself, I need some other tools that I don’t already have (bench grinder, hole saws, hand files, vice, gas torch, etc.)

So anyway, no post is really complete without pictures, so here are a few quick ones.

Here’s the bench holding up the mitre saw I used to build it:

It has wheels so I can put it in the middle of the garage when I’m using it and then roll it against the wall when I’m done.
I got the miter saw for $60 off at Sears.

Here are the bike pieces:

I got them from Nova Cycle Supply. Many of the parts are from their November special.

Here’s about how they’ll go together:

Of course, I still need the chain, wheels, saddle, seat post, handlebars, stem, pedals, and brake lever. I already got a crankset, freewheel, and brake caliper.

So, hopefully, before too long, all these parts will turn into a ridable, safe, and cool bike that fits me perfectly.

Aidan’s 1st birthday party

Today was Aidan’s 1st birthday party at Kathy’s sister’s beautiful house in St. Francis Woods. As you’ll notice, Mickey Mouse was the theme. Aidan had a small nap half way through, but otherwise seemed happy to see all the friends and family who came to help celebrate. He even let Alissa sneak in a little smooch.

Before we left for the party, Alissa was busy with stickers and more corn. But she did let us put her in a skirt. It’s rare that the weather is nice enough to put her in one, so Bonnie took advantage.

My “free” IQ

I got suckered into one of those free IQ tests on Facebook. The test itself was fine albeit suspect in accuracy given there were only like 20 questions you needed to answer. The crappy part was the 3,523 free offers I had to decline before getting my score. I know, I know… people are trying to monetize the internet and all. But really… if it takes me as much time to say no as it does for me to take the stupid test to begin with, I’m just never going to click on any link ever again. Maybe they’ll invent something like Tivo for the internet so you can just skip all the commercials. Anyway, the result is below. (I removed the link to prevent unsuspecting suckers like me from clicking through but if you like free offers, the site is right there.) Again, who knows how accurate these things are… my IQ is probably really low and they just inflate it to get more people to link to their stupid site. Grr…

Reached my weight goal today!

You probably haven’t been paying attention to the additional tab at the top of the blog, but I’ve made my goal of reaching 160 lbs a month ahead of schedule. I’ve rewarded myself with (finally) getting a PS3. Should be here today. Woot! Now I’m thinking I might try to get to 155… which was my marathon training weight from years ago. These last 5 lbs might be quite a bit harder to lose than the first 10 lbs though. We’ll see!

Technical difficulties

For those of you who haven’t been able to access the blog for a couple days, I apologize. Apparently, there was a fire and explosion at theplanet.com, which took out a bunch of servers, one of which hosts this blog. Thankfully, they didn’t lose my data and they were able to get things back up and running on generator power so hopefully we won’t have further interruption. I should probably be more diligent about storing a backup of the blog on my own personal computer more regularly though… lesson learned.

Bonnie’s new business

Some of you may have seen some of Bonnie’s crafty creations. Well, Bonnie is using Etsy.com to see if there might be a market for some of her designs.

Check out the store at www.alongcameapiglet.com. You may also recognize the baby model we used in the picture.

I’m an official volunteer

I’m now an official volunteer for the Moment by Moment organization. From the website:

Moment by Moment is a non-profit organization of professional photographers who will provide portraits for families of children with a life-limiting illness. Our goal is to create lasting memories, capturing the role of families, love and courage in living each day moment by moment.

Some of Bonnie’s hair clips

As Deeann mentioned on her blog, hair clips for babies are amazingly expensive! So Bonnie decided to try making some of her own with some supplies from the local crafts store. Here are some of the ideas she’s come up with so far. If you have any suggestions, let her know!

Cafepress store

Bonnie has opened up a Cafepress store.

There are only a few items on it right now since it’s a free store front. But here’s a sample:

Mac Pro 5th hard drive installation

I’ve been filling up hard drive space pretty quickly recently with all the HD video that I’ve been editing along with the Alissa and wedding pictures. As such, I’ve been looking for more storage as well as how to archive old stuff that I don’t need to access much.

Thankfully, the Mac Pro has four hard drive slots. Unfortunately, I really want five slots to have one system drive and four data drives setup as a Raid 10. So, originally, I was considering getting an external SATA enclosure taking advantage of the extra SATA ports on the Mac Pro motherboard. But then, I found that you can actually use the space in the optical drive bay to add a fifth hard drive.

Here’s an easy off-the shelf solution, but it’ll cost you $69. And here’s a guy who made things work with some spare parts and creative thinking.

I basically did the same thing the guy did but I didn’t have any spare parts lying around so I was able to do it “right” by buying new parts that would fit without modification.

Here’s my parts list:
2x$109: Seagate 500GB hard drive (These were made in Thailand vs. the ones I got from newegg which were made in China… no idea if it makes any difference.)
$4.99: 18″ SATA cable (right angle on one end, straight on the other… should have gotten the 24″ one.)
$2: Molex to SATA power adapter (I actually forgot to buy this initially and had to visit to my friendly Cosmic Computer to pick one up.)
$3.99: 3.5″ to 5.25″ drive bracket

So basically, instead of spending the money on an external enclosure, I was able to install the hard drive for an extra $11 in parts. Plus, the big benefit is that I don’t have to deal with another enclosure that requires power and a cable. Simple=good.

If I was really smart, I would have gotten the 24″ SATA cable because the 18″ one was a bear to get in. (Tip: if you screwed up and got the 18″ one, first thread it through from the SATA port to the drive bay after removing hard drives #1 and #2. Then attach it to the new hard drive and replace the optical drive assembly before attaching the right angle side to the SATA port.)

Here are some pictures that show how the SATA cable was routed:

Looking from the rear of the case towards the front, here’s the view of the SATA ports:

Here’s a closeup of the right angle SATA cable connected to one of the two free ports:

Here’s a view of the SATA cable routed behind the fan shroud. This is looking where the #1 hard drive would normally be. You can see the cable routing goes by the #1 SATA connection.

Here’s a view of the cable as it leaves the section in the above picture into the area where the 2 optical drive bays are normally located: