My Spirit Board Finished

Well I finally did it.  I made a spirit board.  No, not a "Ouija" board because that name is copyrighted.  This is my own personal creation.  Although I copied the idea, I burned it.

The font I used for the letters and numbers is Captain Howdy and the yes, no, hi and bye is obviously Comic Sans.  I didn't want to have big words like Hello and Goodbye and I'm sure Hi and Bye are perfectly acceptable.

I added the sun and the moon because I read you are supposed to ask the "spirits" if they are from the sun or the moon.  Sun meaning good, moon meaning not so good.

Look, I don't know if a spirit board works or not and I don't know if or when I will ever use it, I just wanted to make one lol.

I showed awhile ago my planchette that I made but it was too big for this board so I had to cut a smaller one out of it and I am not going to drill a hole in it, instead the "spirits" can use the point from the top of it to point to everything.  I could drill a hole the size of a nickel but it's not necessary.

For now I am finished burning but I'm not completely finished with it.  I still need to put some lacquer on it.  I'm waiting until I can buy a spray lacquer instead of wasting yet another brush that I can't clean.  Also I'm sure spraying is smoother than brushing.

I hope you like it.  Oh by the way, the wood is the "irregular" from Walnut Hollow's website so it was only $2.25 and it measures 13.5"W x 10.25"H.  Pretty good price for a spirit board right?

Hump day or Ghost day?

When I was in school Wednesday was hump day.  Well now as a grown up and as an avid Sci-Fi (now SyFy) channel watcher, Wednesday is Ghost day.

Today it's not just Ghost Hunters though, from 8am to 4pm SyFy channel is airing Scariest Places on Earth. Then 4pm is Lost, 5pm is Stargate Atlantis, 6pm is Stargate SG-1 then from 7-11 is Ghost Hunters.  Well, they are adding Ghost Hunters but it's mainly Ghost Hunters International.

I'm not too crazy about Scariest Places on Earth because I'm sure those are all rigged up because those people are just regular people who are spooked for no reason so they won't know if there is a real ghost or if it's string tied to a rocking chair and being pulled via remote control.  Plus they are always doing these rituals where they have to call the ghosts to wake them up.  Bullshit!  Also the guy at the beginning who tries to scare them by telling them just how haunted the house or mansion is.  Shenanigans!

I like Ghost Hunters because they don't scream (Donna) or run (Brian).  They mostly stick around if something happens because they want to find it.  They usually run toward the activity instead of running away from it because they want to debunk it.  They have actually found speakers in this one place so they knew it was shenanigans.  And they also found shenanigans on the queen mary when someone pulled the covers and paused the tape.

What am I doing sitting here blogging?  I'm MISSING it!

Edit: What are the odds that I would blog about something this morning at 7:53am and it happens later in the day?  I said in this post:

"They have actually found speakers in this one place so they knew it was shenanigans."

And that episode is on.  I'm watching the East coast SyFyHD channel so I'm seeing it 3 hours before it really should air in CA so it's the 8pm episode called "Widows Watch".  Jay and Grant just found the speaker in the ceiling of the ladies room, when you open the door there is a sensor that activates the speakers and there is also a mirror with a face behind it that illuminates when someone is near it so when you are looking at yourself you see another face over your own.

I had no idea that episode would be on when I posted that this morning lol.  I must have ESPN or something.

Bored

I get bored easily, real easily.  When I find an interest in something it's all I can think of, talk of, even dream of.  But as with everything I get bored with it after awhile.

The boredom graveyard:

Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, EverQuest, crafts, Snood, Just video games in general, the internet... my computer....  my bike?  Maybe soon.

I don't know, I still visit those websites I'm bored with hoping to find something that will spark an interest again, except for EverQuest because that's not free to explore.  They charge you $15 a month so it's not good to be bored with something that you have to pay to play.

I guess I'm just bored with everything, life included.  I'm bored with people who think they are funny.  Wait a minute... I think I'm funny.  Am I bored with myself?  Good lord, I'm bored with myself!  UGH!  I need to make myself laugh and if I can't do that then I have no hope for humanity.

Yummy Pigeons

I found this a couple years ago in the kitchen with a lot of other recipes and I just couldn't resist scanning it lol.  I'm not sure if Opal ever made this but just reading the recipe will make anyone cringe and laugh at the same time.  I don't know how old this is but I'm certainly glad I didn't live during the time that it was acceptable to eat pigeons on toast with gravy.

Back Problems

I don't know what's going on with me lately but it seems that since I got that new bicycle seat I've had nothing but back problems.  It could be that I still don't have it adjusted right, I don't know for sure.  I'm sitting back in my desk chair with the vibrate turned on the upper back selection and it does help some.  Sometimes I go sit in the shiatsu massage chair and that just hurts.  I have to sit funny for it to even get to my shoulders.

What happened is a few mornings ago I wasn't wearing my bipap machine mask because sometimes I can't breathe with it on so I have to go without for 1 night.  So when I sleep without it I sleep on my stomach and I sleep so weird that it puts a crick in my neck.  So I can't put all the blame on this new seat but it doesn't help my back either.

Yesterday I went on my morning bike ride despite the bad neck/shoulder pain but this morning I decided I was in too much pain to go out so I stayed home.

I'm really thinking about going to the chiropractor again because I get massages 3 days a week and they make me use their gym which helps with my weight loss lol.  The last time I went there I think I lost 10lbs in 1 month from using their gym doing the machine exercises as well as the ball exercises.  Maybe that will help me out some then I can learn what exercises I can do at home on my home gym so I will start using that again.

The only issue right now is that I'm broke.  I mean totally broke.  I have $1.75 available in the bank lol.  So I can't take the bus there and they moved to across the street from the DMV which is a very long bus ride.  I wouldn't want to take my bike because well, I'm going there because of my bike and I don't have the proper locks for my bike yet until I get money.  So I'm kind of stuck until I get money.

I hope the pain will go away soon because I don't have any pain pills or the money for them.  I do have a couple ibuprofens still for my carpel tunnel syndrome and I'm seeing that doctor on Friday so hopefully he will renew that for me.

Walnut Hollow Hot Tool Issues

July 15th 2009:

I just emailed Walnut Hollow with this query but I wanted to post it here as well.

I have a Creative Versa-Tool wood burning kit.  Sometimes the points get black from being used so much or maybe from being turned on for extended periods of time.  The points I can sand with a very fine metal sandpaper which I usually use when needed but the threads on the points also get black.  I can use a wire brush to get the black off the threads on the points but what about the inside of the tool?

I'm having issues getting the points on and even taking them off.  I have to use a pair of pliers to put the points on and take them off because it's so tight from all the black on the threads.

So while I await their response I'm going to save this post as a draft so I don't have to edit my post.

I am still waiting for their response but while I was waiting I decided to try my own little experiment.  I tried looking for a wire brush, it looks like a tooth brush but it's wire instead of the normal plastic bristles your tooth brush has.  I wasn't so lucky but I did find something that is a bit longer than the average tooth brush with longer bristles and is meant for use in the kitchen.  So I grabbed that and also a can of WD-40 meant to keep my bicycle lubed up at all times.

I sprayed some of that on 2 of my points and it soaked the In 'N Out Burger napkins on my desk so the bottom of my desk is now an oily mess.  I proceeded to scrub the shit out of the points with the brush and even though I could see some blackness going onto the bristles, the threads didn't change.

I then squirted some WD-40 into the chamber where you screw the points, not too much, I flipped it over and tapped it on the napkin so in case I put too much in there then it would drip out.  I then tried screwing a point on and unscrewing, you know, to grease the threads and it seems to have helped a little but not too much.  Maybe it just needs that to be done several times to get that shit out of the threads on the inside and on the points.

It's too late now to get a response so back to the draft this post goes until I get a response hopefully tomorrow (Thursday).

July 20th 2009:
Dear Michel,

I believe that the ‘black’ on the Points and threads is due to a reaction when the metals get hot from the tool. To remove this, you can use fine grade sandpaper. As for any difficulty you have changing the Points using pliers, try using powdered graphite (found at most hardware stores) to help with changing Points on the tool. Powdered graphite is mostly used in locks to make keys slide in and out easier – works on our hot tool threads also.

Hope this helps,

Chris