$60 projector on a $0 screen; outdoor movie night!

I think I've lost my mind in quarantine. 

But I finally snapped at the thought of ESB being re-released in theatres last month to celebrate its 40th anniversary, and not being able to go see it again. After sulking about it for a couple days, I floated the idea of an outdoor movie night to the wife and kids. Despite not having any existing setup, I got the okay to see if I could make it happen. So I did. 

First up was a projector. This model was decently reviewed and a 20% off coupon on Amazon, so that fit the bill. It arrived in a couple of days that I used to fill a micro SD card with as many star wars and kids movies I could fit on it. 

Next up was figuring out what to project onto. As luck would have it, we had both a plain white sheet and a black sheet in our basement that we would put on the couch for guests. But who's having guests right now, so fuck that. I had everything I needed for a cheap screen. 

After laying things out, I realized I had an extra board in the garage long enough span our basement sliding door, so I trimmed that in half to give the screen some shape. I stapled the black sheet to it, and velcro'd the white sheet onto that. 

After ironing it, I had a decent-enough looking surface to project a movie onto. 

Deciding what to watch and waiting for it to get dark enough was the hardest part of this whole thing. I wouldn't use this project for daily viewing, but for an outdoor movie night it did the job. Unfortunately ESB got voted down and we watched a different Disney  movie. 

Not the fanciest set up but it worked. 

Getting voted down just meant I stayed up later to watch the movie myself though, which meant I went to bed much more drunk than I initially planned. That seems to be a COVID theme. 

I loved outdoor movie night though. I should have thought of it ages ago, and I'm looking forward to doing this so often next summer we all get sick of it. 

What a dumpster fire

Well fuck 2020 folks. 

Not that it's been all bad. I finished my doctorate, although I'm still waiting on that diploma in the mail. No ceremony, since we were all sheltered in place and no one was getting in a room with more than 9 other people. Even got myself a new gravel bike as a quarantine present to celebrate. That was a challenge, apparently everyone is biking now. But the only thing that really matters is that we're all healthy at least. 

Not for lack of trying. But the kids are elearning, the wife and I are working from home, and my sanity is slowly slipping away. Are there things I could have posted about inbetween? Probably. Finishing my study was a big deal. Defending over a zoom call. Work opening back up. Honestly time has lost all meaning at this point. 

The only reason I thought to check in here was I have an idea for a project that I need the wife's buy-in on and I'm hoping to have something to do with my hands in the near future. It would be a nice change of pace. 

lightsaber(!) shelves

So. We went to disney over thanksgiving, and enjoyed ourselves very much. One of my favorite parts was obviously visiting Galaxy's Edge, where the kids and I each built our own lightsaber at Savi's. Talk about a semi-religious experience. Thank god we spent the past year putting points together to get the cost more palatable. 

Of course, now that we're home we just have these three awesome lightsabers sitting around. Power and control for the girl, elemental nature for the boy, and peace and justice for me. Red, purple, and good old fashioned blue. The boy picked up an extra kyber crystal too in yellow. I got it in my head to make shelves to display each of them, and I just managed to knock them out over the holidays.

I kept these very simple; bracketed floating shelves with a stand to display the entire saber. Apparently even just keeping the blade in the hilt will wear down the battery but why not display the entire thing?

Just like anything else, the plans for these changed from start to finish but I like where they ended up. I found different brackets I liked, so the shelves are just inverted boxes open on the bottom. Simple and messy glue up for mitered edges.

Simple scrap holders for the hilt.

Proof of concept, ready to go!

The brackets are heavy L brackets in studs. I kept my shelf unfinished minus a couple coats of poly. But I love it!

On the wall, not bad. 

Okay, I absolutely love it. My desk is a little SW crazy right now. 

Both kids wanted shelves to match their crystals, so I used the red I had left over from the beds for the girl and the boy picked out a yellow he thought would work. His got spray painted, which wasn't quite as clean but looks decent.

Two more. I did not mind having the work at this point. 

I put a small bit in to hold the boy's extra crystal.

Shiny. 

I love it. 

Not as crazy about the yellow but the concept is good. 

These kept me busy, which I needed over break instead of stressing about school. At some points I was really wishing these were functional and I could slice a motherfucker, but it's probably for the best if they're just for display.