Peter Hosey @boredzo@mastodon.social

Minecraft, the game in which “version migration” is completely literal, because any time they add new content that spawns on world generation, you need to move to a part of the world you've never been to in order to experience it.

Finished the cyberpunk adventure game “Technobabylon” a few minutes ago. Started it years ago and got about a third of the way through, then picked it back up this weekend and binged the rest of it.

It's very good. I recommend it. It's on iOS, as well as Windows/Mac/Linux, and may also work in recent versions of ScummVM.

One of the better ideas I've ever had is adding a teaspoon of butter to the popcorn bag.

It's already “butter-flavored” popcorn and the brand I buy even uses real butter, but it's not nearly enough. Adding more helps.

(If you buy the “100-calorie” bags, maybe do half a teaspoon on those.)

I don't mean multiverse plots (I am very done with any and all forms of a multiverse) but really creative movies that play with the medium and tell new and different kinds of stories.

I finally finished “Everything Everywhere All at Once”.

I wasn't as lit up by it as I know some folks were (hence the long delay between my watching part 1 and part 2) but I do think we need more movies *like* this.

Can confirm that a bead reamer (a type of narrow diamond file primarily used for widening or smoothing the hole through a bead) is useful for sharpening seam rippers.

“[statistic] is greater than 10 times what it was [before], an increase of more than 1,000 percent.”

Huge if true.

Welp. The jig doesn't really work.

I can *sometimes* start the hole more or less centered, but I can't get the angle reliably straight so I end up coming out the other side in the wrong spot.

I think I just need a real drill press, accept no substitutes.

Today I wondered whether it'd be better to drill parallel to the wood grain or perpendicular to it.

Thankfully, this USFS report has the answer: https://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/pdf2001/green01d.pdf

For a solid block, the only question would be compression strength. In my case, I'll be pressing perpendicular to a hole, so there's also shear to worry about.

The answer is: It doesn't matter, because my finger cannot produce the megapascals needed to induce failure. But drilling across grain (pressing with grain) is better.

3D prints are done.

The jig fits the drill bit and one of the cubes perfectly.

The text on one of the printing blocks didn't quite come out right, but I think it'll give it a little bit of a stencil look. Also I don't care enough to try to fix it.

Made it to 555 toots!

Also I *really* should update that profile pic.

Gonna block-print a couple of designs on the cubes (assuming this works), to help remind me which way is up (as the adhesive will be on the bottom) and which way needs to face the paper.

The printed drill bit jig is the alternative to using a drill press. It's a less reusable solution, but costs pennies' worth of plastic and electricity rather than $$$, and takes up a lot less space.

As a bonus, the tent in between the face of the cube and the drill bit channel—a necessity anyway, because fused deposition printing—might end up catching some of the sawdust before it blows everywhere.

So it turns out Michaels sells wooden cubes in a variety of sizes. I bought the 3/4-inch size, along with a 1/4-inch drill bit and several lengths of threaded rod at a nearby Ace Hardware.

I had already made a drill bit guide for the old idea; I just revamped it for the new plan. The new guide is a 1-cm-deep 1-inch square socket on one end, and a 1-inch-deep 1/4-inch diameter drill bit guide on the other end.

I might be able to print this tomorrow, and then start drilling.

It occurs to me that it might actually be simpler at this point to get some wooden cubes, ideally 1 inch or so in diameter, and bore a hole through the center on one axis with a drill press.

More for the version 2 list:

- I may want to stick with glue dots but put them at the back rather than the front. Pushing down on the front then pivots it down to meet the ground plane. (This may or may not be reliable enough to be useful.)
- I need a solid place to push down on the stop to press it to the grid plane. Probably the channel for the threaded rod should be fully enclosed rather than just a couple of loops.

Another prototype in need of improvements: This stamp roll rack. (Intended to be two halves, which could be held together with tape or a rubber band or something.)

I've no idea what happens on those corners to cause them to bow inward like that, or why they scorch.

I might need to make it simply a cuboid, at least on the exterior.

Ideas for version 2:

- Replace the (fragile, useless) dowel channels with closed holes that I can put threaded rod through.
- Rotate the model 90 degrees to front-down, so the smooth bed-facing side is the side that faces the paper (which is how I originally designed it, before moving to bottom-down to accommodate the dowel channels).
- May need to adjust size, particularly for the 3/4-inch wide tape.
- I may need #10-24 threaded rod if 1/4-20 is Just Too Big.

Update: Bought some glue dots at Jo-Ann and printed up my first prototype.

This sort-of works.

The glue dots are too thick; I might be better off with the tape.

The dowels don't really help. I need something that stays in when I pick up a pair of stops and keeps them aligned. These only stay in when the stops are already placed, when they aren't needed.

Also I found out my 12-inch cardstock is actually a little over 12 inches. That's part of why I was getting not-6-inch cuts.

TIL that what the chain that used to be called “99¢ Only” is now “The 99 Store”.

They dropped the nothing-over-99¢ restriction years ago; now they've dropped any pretense of being a dollar store. Seems like they're trying to compete more with Big Lots or Family Dollar than Dollar Tree these days.