MISSION: Buford

Looks like this weekend is a scouting mission to find Buford Spring. Buford is a small, pristine sinkhole hidden in the marshes of the Chassahowitzka Wildlife Management Area. Being as it is about 5 miles back into the wilds and has at best a dirt road leading to it, the site is not heavily trafficked and remains in its wild state. I plan on making the trek along with Gibby and Robbie, who has a truck brutal enough to get us all there. Perhaps we will bring snorkels or a small tank and do some submerged recon as well. Mostly we hope to get some accurate GPS readings and take a look at what it would take to put in a walkway, like at the Eagle's Nest. Eagles Nest is a large, deep cave system which is WAY beyond my current skills, training or confidence.
More to come this weekend... hopefully lots of pictures.

Candi..... chocolate and cheese!

BRILLIANT!! As if singing about it, or even naming an entire album after it, werent enough of a tribute to the combo. A New Zealand company has begun marketing chocolate flavored cheese slices. And apparently doing pretty well too. Unfortunately, its only available in Taiwan currently. But if you follow the Slashfood link there is a link to the University of Michigan Dairy Store(?) where you can get something like it. Or take the homebrew method and follow Paula Dean's recipe for cheese fudge, made from cocoa, powdered sugar and (wait for it) Velveeta. Mmmmm, cant wait.
And at last, a way to combine two of my passions, cheese and diving. What's next? Beer ice cream? I need to break out the ice cream machine and fire out my own recipe for Guinness Ice Cream with Dark Chocolate SauceTM.

NEWSFLASH: Dry ice is fun. RC submarines rule.

As I left work today, somebody said "Hey, want some dry ice?", indicating a 2 cubic foot box at his feet. I said "Seriously, you dont need it?" which seemed to confuse him because I think he was just kidding when he offered it, guess he was gonna throw it out. So I said "Hell yeah, I'll take it" he asked what I would use it for, to which I replied "I dont know but it'll be cool whatever it is". And off I went, happily carrying home the 10 pounds or so of frozen CO2.

Lets just say that dogs dont like the sight of a room filling with thick, ground clinging fog.

So after I wasted most of it just making things smoke, I found this. Which by the way, came from hackaday, one of my fave websites and basically my reason for starting this blog. Go see all their other hack goodness sometime.

And per Wazoo's request that after I perfect my video housing I add some sort of guidance system to it, I present this link. Also from another great blog, Divester.

DUDE! Everybody should have one of these.

This guy built his own flamethrower, then went out in the street to test it! I'm sure the folks in my neighborhood would just love it if I did that. But then again, what do you say to a guy holding a fucking flamethrower?? I know I could build it, I doubt I could ever use it. Its basically the same thing as a confetti cannon I once constructed for a certain stage act, but instead of shooting out paper, it shoots denatured alcohol. Yummy. I think I would have added a thickening agent to make the alcohol a little more viscous and clingy. Someone please stop me before I do something bad.

In other constructive/destructive news, I found two really cool and over the top websites all about spudguns, or as I always knew them, "potato cannons". These guys have taken it way beyond my length of PVC and can of Aqua Net. Of course these are intended for safe and responsible use in an area away from people and animals. And you should NEVER use a spudgun to launch a projectile intended as a weapon. Now why would I want to do that???
Give www.spudtech.com and www.advancedspuds.com a look-see for all the fantastic details.

I think once I'm done with the camera housing project I will use some of my accumulated PVC pipe and glue to make one or both of these devices.

Also check out onlineconversion.com for any kind of unit conversions you may find necessary in completing a project.

As a side note, as much as I love wrong tshirts, if I find the person responsible for this shirt design I intend to punch him/her squarely in the mouth.

Lathe? We dont need no steenkin' lathe!

All it took was a little creative tool use, oh, and willing suspension of the fear of losing an eye. I managed to coaxe these two beauties out of the piece of 1 inch thick acrylic I picked up last week from Farco Plastics. These will eventually be the cylinder end caps for my video camera housing. They look like they would stop a bullet, I'm pretty sure they will hold up deeper than I plan on diving. At least if I drown the camera will record it all the way to the bottom for later examination....