I got fifteen out of my sixteen to-do items finished yesterday. Lots of life-maintenance chores, mostly, but I also got a couple of projects wrapped up. I finished stitching together the custom Raggedy Ann themed laptop case for Candace M., and met up with her to drop it off. It’s made of neoprene, which is not the easiest material to sew, and I broke two needles when I veered off-course while sewing the zipper, so the fabrication is not as perfect as I had hoped… but, whatever, it looks good and it works, so I’ll call it a success.

Also finally installed that light switch in the ALTSpace machine shop. It was originally set up on a motion detector, which would annoyingly forget about your presence if you didn’t move around enough while working. We had jury-rigged a system of extension cords we could plug and un-plug, but it really just needed a normal switch. Which I have now installed.

I am now down to four open projects:

– a funky custom L-shaped couch for the living room
– animated, networked lights for the Shame Project
– controller for Hunter C.’s solar light project
– Radian

I haven’t been making any progress on Radian lately. I think it might be time to ship it. Perhaps I need feedback from real people to figure out what I ought to work on next.

For the couch, I am waiting for the roll of batting to arrive. We’ll cover the foam with batting, cover the batting with upholstery fabric, then staple it all onto the wood frame and call it good.

My goal was to complete the Shame Project lights by the end of June. I’m going backpacking in California for a good chunk of July, so I’d like to have any time-sensitive stuff out of the way before then. I guess that the couch project will be finished by then, too. So, I’m thinking I might have time free to make some interesting personal project for Burning Man.

I’ve been thinking of making a custom tent: a heavy-walled, light-blocking tyvek/canvas sandwich, with no windows and no zippers, seven or eight feet tall. The door would have an internal strut to hold it rigid, and a closure made of either velcro or magnets, with a wide flap: something I could open and close without having to duck and climb in, but which would still keep the wind and dust outside. A pocket on the side would let me install an HVAC filter, through which a fan could pull cool air, and an array of clips and D-rings attached to the walls and ceiling would let me hang up flashlights, a mirror, camelbak, headlamp, and all the other stuff that ends up scattered on the floor. I’m sick of going to Burning Man in normal camping tents, which just aren’t very good at dealing with Black Rock Desert conditions.

Another idea is a second try at the inline tricycle I tried to build in 2009. This time I’d use even bigger, fatter back wheels, and a much longer, more ridiculous set of front forks, and I’d weld the frame instead of trying to bolt it together. (Oh yeah: there’s a welder at ALTSpace now. Whee!) It’d have the same long banana seat chopper design, but it would be even more ridiculous looking.

Finally, I have a few pieces of playawear I’d like to sew up: a new-model fur coat, a leather/nylon-webbing/silk jacket, a stylin’ utility vest, this red-tan-orange striped three-piece suit….

Oh, well. We’ll see how much time I actually have for this kind of stuff after I get back from Yosemite. Perhaps the new Google job will soak up all the time I have – that would be a certain kind of success.