Check this out. A coworker is into a racing thing here in the US where you have a $500 limit on your car, and your run it in a 24 hour race. Themes are key… Someone did a brick theme… Check out this specific one:Many more pictures if you sift through the New England entries in http://jalopnik.com/search/lemons/

After a few quick questions, he located their site boxybutgood.us.

What makes the car so cool is it’s design. Based on a volvo and designed to look like a Lego model. I haven’t obtained permission to skank any photos yet, so for now, you’ll just have to head over and see this mad beast for yourself.

O.K. probably not extreme, I decided against adding storage into the small space under the direct top. Figuring that there’s usually so much stuff on top, we’d never open it… So like one of those semi-homemade cooking shows, I tackled one of those projects that has been literally staring me in the face every morning.

When we first bought this piece of walmart furniture, it matched the entertainment center we had, as well as the overall style of our living room, which was “Early American Attic.” Now that we’re ‘all growned up’ (debatable) and ‘making money’ (again, debatable) our style in the living room has evolved.

When refinishing any piece of furniture, what finish was still there, needed to be removed. This was pretty easy to do using my Dewalt Random Orbital Sander. With only an 80grit paper, I was able to quickly remove the finish. I also quickly hit the hard to reach places with my Black & Decker Mouse sander. That sander has some parts you can tack on, and by itself, reaches harder to reach areas for sanding.

I did this out in the driveway with a box fan blowing the dust away from the work area. Put the fan so it pushes, rather then pulls the dust, saving you one fan motor. Been there, lost that fan, this time I learned from my mistake. The other thing I did, since I was working on a paved drive was to bring out my floor mats from the shop. This gave me a soft place to rest the table while sanding, as well as a place for my knee.

Making this piece match our entertainment center was a touch more then just painting it black. The slats on the end that made it distinctly “mission” needed to go. In the end it was easier to pick up a sheet of luan (very thin plywood capable of easily taking paint) to cover up the slats. With a little observation, the other detail that made our entertainment center what it was, is it’s use of molding to add a little “architectural detail.”

After sanding, dismantlement, further sanding, and reassembly, I added the panels on either side of the slats, and a little molding around the edges. Using a foam roller for super smooth surfaces, I painted it black. I chose a rustoleum flat black for this application. Figuring on how abusive we are to the table top, I wanted something excessively strong. I gave the top 4 coats throughout the weekend and the rest of the table 2. Between initial sanding and first painting, I wet down the entire table with a damp cloth. This does two things, first it wipes off all of the dust so you don’t trap it in your paint, second it stands up any little fibers of wood that didn’t sand off in the first hit.

You can choose to sand off those fibers, or paint. I chose to paint, only because I knew I was going to hit the first coat with a mild abrasive to smooth it between coats. Something I did between a few of the coats of paint.

Placing it in the living room, it matches pretty well. I don’t have the equipment to make it match 100%, mainly the clean room and sprayer apparatus, but this table looks good enough to fit in. It’s also nice to refinish it, instead of throwing it out and buying something else. It saves us money (estimated cost of project hit at $20 of materials), and saves the environment one more thing in the landfill.

The complete ‘reno.’ This wasn’t the only project I worked on this weekend. It got multitasked with another piece of furniture that I’ve been making from scratch. I’ll have more on that a little later. This piece, did give me a chance to try out some techniques before it was a more ‘costly’ mistake.

Maybe if enough of us promote it, it will become reality. Pun intended.

So lets think back to what brought this blog to life. . .

Oh thats right, those damn raccoons. They’re still around, in fact I had great fun, ehr, I mean I was left no other option, then to shoot one a couple weeks ago with my paintball gun while I had the electric fence repurposed on the garden for the summer.

But of course, I wouldn’t be here with such an audience if it wasn’t for my peeps. Those folks that both read my insane ramblings, and those that link to my blog. So since I can’t thank every single one of you by name, I’ll be certain to report out what Wordpress tells me are the good folks linking to my site.

Thanks!

• Notes to Marquis
• Wii Sixty: File under – Suck it Sony
• Strong Kids, Safe Kids
• Moldy Snack
• mandymag.com
• Users Suck!
• spiralbound.net

There are many, many great sources out there that explain the process step-by-step in great detail, so I will not do that. Instead I will link to the instructions that Dave used successfully on his xbox, and brought to use on mine.

However, I will tell you the basic steps, and declare this has to be the true meaning of hacking. The process of softmodding is essentially making a small change to the eeprom in the xbox, backing up the original Microsoft dashboard, and installing a new version of the dashboard that will enable ftp access to the machine.

Because you need someway to get a special save game on to the xbox, you may need something to get the game from your pc to the xbox. Once the save game is on your xbox you can use it to exploit certain versions of Mech Assult (original, not platinum hits) by loading the save game. I found a version of the game at Game Stop this weekend for a whopping 2.99 so I picked it up.

By loading the save game, the Xbox reboots or crashes out (don’t know which is the case) to a version of linux, which like a wizard steps you through the process of softmodding the box. What’s great, is this mod can be turned on or off, and by starting up the xbox with a game in the drive, it appears as if it has never been installed at all.

Once the mod is installed, reboot and enjoy a new dashboard. However, just like anything out there there’s more to be done. Once ftp access is on, you can drop on the XBMC which can be used to read network shares to play videos, music and pictures. Download and install (by ftp) the new replacement for the dashboard and enjoy. IT takes a couple of hours for this process. The ftp was slow, I suspect I missed setting something up in the original ftp server that would speed things up. Its a clean tool and fun to use. Since it’s built on linux there are many scripts you can install to enhance the new OS with faster ftp and great customizations. My favorite, beyond the well built media center is the ability to add NES, SNES and N64 emulators if you wish.

EDIT: This was a completely software based hack. No need to open the case, and therefore less chance of bricking your Xbox. If you do, it’s not my fault.