junkyard wars

Today is Jeff's birthday! Feel free to send him a
birthday

Today is Jeff's birthday! Feel free to send him a birthday greeting.

My sister leaves today to do a book/school tour in the Northwest Territories. If you're in the area, be sure to check out the Yellowknife Public Library tonight at 7 pm! :-)

Last night, Jeff and I watched something called "Junkyard Wars". Anyone heard of this? I had never seen it before. It looked like a set from Mad Max, complete with the host in grubbies and goggles. The basic premise: two teams are given an assignment involving the creation of something mechanical. They have until sundown to find all the materials in a huge junkyard, plan and implement their design. At sundown, there is a challenge.

Last night, the assignment was to create a "puller", something that pulls things. The challenge was to hook both pullers together, and see who could the pull the other across their team's finish line first. I found it fascinating, mainly because I have pretty much zero mechanical knowledge. Also found it educational, since a lot of basic stuff is explained, like why they are building their gizmos the way they are, what a fixed differential is and why it will be useful in this pulling challenge, why balance between the front and back of the machine is so important, and so on.

The entertainment factor is also heightened by the humour prevalent throughout, the increasing grubbiness of the contestants, the competitive atmosphere, the banter. The host flits between the two teams, prodding each with hints about how the other team is doing, occasionally pausing for commentary with an engineering expert who gives his opinion at various stages.

Today's Blatherpic:
We celebrated Jeff's birthday this past weekend at the Deerhurst Resort. Thinking we weren't going to have access to an oven to bake a cake, Ruth brought Hostess Twinkies and chocolate cupcakes instead, decorating them with candles. Today's Blatherphoto is of Sara with her wrapped gift for Jeff. The label reads "To Uncle Slowpoke, Love Sara". Sara calls Jeff "Uncle Slowpoke" because he seems (to her) to take so long to finish his dinner, at which point he is finally free to play with her. :-)
greeting.

My sister leaves today to do a book/school tour in the Northwest Territories.
If you're in the area, be sure to check out the
Yellowknife Public
Library tonight at 7 pm! :-)

Last night, Jeff and I watched something called "Junkyard Wars". Anyone
heard of this? I had never seen it before. It looked like a set from Mad
Max, complete with the host in grubbies and goggles. The basic premise:
two teams are given an assignment involving the creation of something
mechanical. They have until sundown to find all the materials in a huge
junkyard, plan and implement their design. At sundown, there is a
challenge.

Last night, the assignment was to create a "puller", something that
pulls things. The challenge was to hook both pullers together, and see
who could the pull the other across their team's finish line first.
I found it fascinating, mainly because I have pretty much zero
mechanical knowledge. Also found it educational, since a lot of basic
stuff is explained, like why they are building their gizmos the way
they are, what a fixed differential is and why it will be useful in
this pulling challenge, why balance between the front and back of
the machine is so important, and so on.

The entertainment factor is also heightened by the humour prevalent
throughout, the increasing grubbiness of the contestants, the competitive
atmosphere, the banter. The host flits between the two teams, prodding
each with hints about how the other team is doing, occasionally pausing
for commentary with an engineering expert who gives his opinion at
various stages.

Today's Blatherpic:

We celebrated Jeff's birthday this past weekend at the Deerhurst Resort.
Thinking we weren't going to have access to an oven to bake a cake,
Ruth brought Hostess Twinkies and chocolate cupcakes instead, decorating
them with candles. Today's Blatherphoto is of Sara with her wrapped gift
for Jeff. The label reads "To Uncle Slowpoke, Love Sara". Sara calls
Jeff "Uncle Slowpoke" because he seems (to her) to take so long to
finish his dinner, at which point he is finally free to play with her. :-)