Norwegian nursery rhyme

My grandmother was born in the U.S., but her parents immigrated from Norway.

When we were little, she'd say this Norwegian nursery rhyme to us:




If anyone knows anything more about it (e.g. the region; the correct translation), please let me know.  The kids and I just call it "The Ridde-Ridde Runke Song".


--GG

Review of Monsters U

Saw Monsters U with the wife and kids.

Curiously, I can actually copy and paste everything I wrote about Despicable Me 2, a few days ago.  That is:


It was fine:  enjoyable; laughed in a few places.

But, no memorable scenes; would never bother purchasing the DVD; my life is not richer for having seen it.

Rent it if you can't think of anything else to rent.


Summary:  Fine -- but not as good as the original.


(Addendum:  6/30)  Actually, there was more to it than that.  First, I thought the outcomes to their actions near the end of the movie was very realistic -- at least, as realistic as a movie about monsters could be.  Spoiler:  stop reading now.  Spoiler, spoiler, spoiler.  They cheated in a contest, they blew up a lab, and so they got kicked out of school.  Yep, that's a plausible real-world outcome.

And second, (spoiler again -- spoiler spoiler spoiler) the lesson provided was that a lot of people have to adjust the life goals they set as teenagers:  most people that aspire to be a rock star end up as the guitar tech (or even the local guitar teacher); you wanted to be a famous painter, but you're the layout person at a woodworking magazine; wanted to be a famous novelist and end up as editor at the publications department of some government agency; not an Olympic athlete, but a coach to athletes.  Yep, that stuff happens:  sometimes you don't have what it takes.  So the movie rung true to my middle-aged self.  ;)


--GG

Review of Despicable Me 2

Saw Despicable Me 2 with the wife and kids.

It was fine:  enjoyable; laughed in a few places.

But, no memorable scenes; would never bother purchasing the DVD; my life is not richer for having seen it.

Rent it if you can't think of anything else to rent.


Summary:  Fine -- but not as good as the original.


--GG

A nice compliment

I'm on a three-person hiring committee (exciting!  Haven't been on a hiring committee since I worked in retail, a thousand years ago).  We've been e-mailing revisions of the interview questions back and forth.


I e-mailed the group that, "I think it’s notable that we don’t have any 'If you could be any type of tree -- what type would you be (and why)?' questions."

The chair of the committee replied, ''GG -- you would totally be a Christmas tree!''

That'sa nice.  :)


--GG

DIY handplane adjusting hammer

There's a shop downtown called Daiso, where everything (literally!) is AU$2.80.  Some products are a little rickety, but some are perfectly solid.  Especially for two-eighty.

The blades of wooden-bodied handplanes are typically adjusting by tapping them with a small hammer.  It's generally thought it's better to do this with a copper-faced, or brass-faced, hammer, rather than a steel or iron hammer.  If you use a steel or iron hammer, the concern is that you will eventually "mushroom over" the butt end of the blade.

So, some people buy a plane-adjusting hammer like this:

They're very pretty -- but they're not worth sixty bucks to me.


So, when I saw the funny little hammers at Daiso -- for two-eighty! -- I thought:  I can turn this into a plane-adjusting hammer!


First I visited Next-Door Uncle, to get a scrap piece of copper tube.  Then I drilled a hole for the handle, cut a slit for access, and cut four flaps into the future "face" end:

And another view:

I sprayed some oil on it (to facilitate the process), and jammed the copper tube onto the hammer head:

Then I used a cross-peen hammer (shown; also $2.80 from Daiso!) to fold over the flaps:

A closer view:

I actually got to use the "anvil" portion of my machinist's vice!

And, here's the completed project, in (posed) action:

It's a little "rustic" looking -- which is fine by me (I was aiming for "functional and completed", rather than "beautiful and never finishing"!).  And, it works well:  copper is surprisingly heavy.

As you can see, it has a red plastic handle.  I roughed it up with some coarse sandpaper.  No, I didn't B.L.O. it.

Also, the handtool woodworkers among you will notice that the mouth of this handplane is exceedingly large.  I ground the blade with a pronounced curve (as you can see), and use it as a scrub plane.


Not including sketching out the design, and visiting N.D. Uncle, this took me an afternoon.

The best project is a completed project.


--GG