Archive for » November, 2008 «

Nov

Requirement #4 for the Family Life Merit Badge: With the approval of your parents or guardians and your merit badge counselor, decide on and carry out a project that you would do around the home that would benefit your family.

The Project: Repair two holes in the drywall. One is in the laundry room and another larger one is in the upstairs hallway.

The first step is a trip to Ace Hardware to ask the pros for advice and buy equipment. Came home with drywall compound, self-adhesive silicone tape, a putty knife, a drywall saw, and a Choco-Taco. We later bought texturing spray at Lowes.

The first hole was easy, and the laundry room is the perfect place to practice, since it’s mostly out of sight. Just used silicone tape and drywall compound to cover and fill the hole. Let the drywall compound set for 24 hours, then sand and apply texturing spray (not shown above). The second hole was a little bit bigger – about 4"x4" – the size of big sister K’s knee:

Mom’s breaking out in a light sweat as her twelve-year-old saws through the wall to make the hole square – and it gets bigger. This is an individual project – mom gets points for (mostly) keeping her mouth shut and limiting advice to "read the directions" and "go watch that video on YouTube." W’s self-confidence is amazing. Of course, he doesn’t own the wall he’s sawing through.

W. cut it into a square, measured, then cut a piece of drywall to fit, leaving about an inch of paper on all sides as shown in this video. He then added some reinforcements with self-adhesive silicone tape. That wasn’t in the video, but it doesn’t hurt to improvise. (Mom has her fingers crossed and hopes that’s true!)

See, Mom? The house didn’t fall down. The hole’s all gone. All that’s left is to let the drywall compound dry, spray it with texturing spray, and paint.

A job well done! Dad agrees. Mom’s proud – and a little relieved.

Submit a report to your merit badge counselor outlining how the project benefited your family:

According to servicemagic.com, "…we know the national average for drywall repair is about $525. Our Houston drywall repair projects show a similar average, but also show small repair projects that consistently cost $50-$250 and larger projects that run around $700-$900." The cost of these repairs? About $40, and W. learned some basic home repair skills.

About the Author Holly Jahangiri

Holly Jahangiri has decades of experience in tech writing, freelancing, fiction, poetry, and editing. Writer, wife, and mother, Holly is the creator of Trockle and instigator of the Puppy-Guppy Rebellion.

Category: advice or instruction Leave a Comment

Nov

Chaos Theory: Six (More) Random Tidbits About Me

Holly Jahangiri

Drats! Tagged again! This time, by RetroHeather at How to be a Woman..? (Is that supposed to be a trick question, Heather?

I mean, I think I know…I hope I haven’t been doing it wrong all my life.)

DISCLAIMER (Heather, your "cat" looks like a Bush Baby):

If tagged, you are not required to participate and you are not allowed to hate me because of it. (As @blogbooktours would point out, these games of tag are a great way to increase your blog traffic. Yeah, whatever – let’s face it, we just don’t get out and play often enough, once we reach adulthood. So c’mon, play tag!)

The point: Share six or seven things folks don’t know about you, then tag six other bloggers to do the same.

Okay, before we start, can I just point out that if there are six or seven things y’all don’t know about me by now, it’s because (a) I didn’t want you to know; (b) you weren’t paying attention; or (c) they’re very obscure things and I’ve probably forgotten them or assumed you weren’t interested in knowing?

I flunked my first IQ test, but started college at age 12.
Michael Crichton diagnosed my daughter’s first case of hives over the phone.
I have Dr. Michael DeBakey’s hands on my piano. Well…sort of.
I’m afraid of roux. But I made some this past Thursday! I’m inordinately proud of that.
I used to swear I’d "never work with computers." My dad’s still laughing at me for that.
Gary Stollman was an online friend of mine in the 1980s. Before he was abducted by aliens and replaced by clones.
Never play Trivial Pursuit with Tom Clancy. Just sayin’…

The CIA is after me. No, really – they keep sending these "bloggers" (wink, wink) over to "tag" me to write six "random" things about myself… they’ve now compiled a three-shelf dossier at HQ that is guaranteed to cure their agents’ insomnia or drive them to jump off the roof.

Who to tag, next? Hmm…

http://renajjones.blogspot.com/

http://beewhour.blogspot.com/

http://ramblingon-bill.blogspot.com/

http://www.junecleavernirvana.com/

http://sirsnapalot.multiply.com/

http://saladbar.livejournal.com/

About the Author Holly Jahangiri

Category: blogging Tags: social media, tag Leave a Comment

Nov

Book Review: Historic Photos of Houston, by Betty Trapp Chapman

Holly Jahangiri

This is not the most stunning book of photographs ever to grace my coffee table. Some of the photos are a little out of focus. Some are grainy. All are black and white; few in the "artistic" sense that my daughter associates with black and white photography. And yet, Betty Trapp Chapman’s Historic Photos of Houston is fast becoming my favorite book of photographs. It is certainly one of the most intriguing. Gazing into these photos, I feel as if I’m being drawn back in time.

One problem with studying history is that teachers too often present its central figures as two-dimensional, cardboard cut-outs. Houston’s history comes alive in these photos. Some depict significant events: ground-breaking and opening night at the Astrodome; Mission Control at the Johnson Manned Space Center following splashdown of Apollo 13; an oil gusher; a dinner party honoring Booker T. Washington; the Democratic National Convention in June 1928. Some invite comparisons with modern day Houston: a devastating fire in the Fifth Ward; flooded Houston streets; a traffic jam in 1930; road construction on Texas Avenue. And others seem quirky, mundane, fun, and human: C.L. Bering’s 250 ducks; cotton being graded; a horse-drawn hearse; a troupe of actors; ladies lined up at the library. The pages breathe with the history of Houston. Again and again, I flip through the pages – backwards, forwards, finding new details each time I look.

This book contains a copy of the oldest known photograph of Houston, taken in 1856, and a photo taken from the same point at the 300 block of Main street, ten years later. Clearly, Houston was booming – and it has continued to grow and to thrive ever since brothers Augustus and John Kirby Allen founded it to become "the great commercial emporium of all Texas."

Historic Photos of Houston touches upon life, government, education, and historic events from the 1800s to the 1970s. You want stunning? Compare the aerial photo of Houston, "the sixth largest city in the nation" as of 1970, to the first photo from 1856. It’s a little like looking through Houston’s baby book, and it’s impossible not to gain a new appreciation for the spirit and energy of the people who appear in these photos – the people who guided Houston from infancy to adulthood.

About the Author Holly Jahangiri

Category: Uncategorized Tags: history, houston Leave a Comment

Nov

Ten Secrets to Hugely Successful Article Writing (Humor)

Holly Jahangiri

They say that the pen is mightier than the sword. In that case, never tick off a writer. A couple of years ago, several writers and I found that our work was being used on various Web sites without our permission or knowledge. While waiting for a response to my legitimate copyright violation notices and subsequent DMCA take-down notice, I decided to have a little fun with the scum–er, plagiarist–who, according to WHOIS, was in the Ukraine.

This post rated "M" for "Might offend due to profanity and really poor imitation Ukrainian accent." Which was only fair, given the really poor imitation of my writing found on said plagiarist’s site(s). You’ve been warned; do not complain to me!

From the Desk of Ivan Mor Smirnoff:

10 January 2006

I take you along on bumpy ride to getting pooplished. We’ll see just how hard it really is, kidlinks, as I soobmit this to free articles site. I am going to be famous author some day soon! Smoochies, Ivan

Ten Secrets to Hugely Successful Article Writing

1. Don’t write drunk. I write like seagull spit when I have been drinking. You think all great writers were drunks and drug addicts? Yes? No? Probably. But unless you are Hemingway or I-95, you write drunk and your donkey will be hanging out for all the world to see.

2. Write about thinks Googly people want to know. Mesothelioma, sex with cats, girl with broken leg, writing while drunk – all good topics for freebie articles. Lots of people want to read this shit.

3. Proofread. About 80 proof ought to do it.

4. Use humor. Always should be tasteful. Not like my uncle’s favorite joke: Why chicken cross road? To fuck duck on other side. (Is from old country, maybe loses something in translation.)

5. Be original. Don’t steal stuff other people’s words. Maybe they no write so good, either.

6. Write about sex. Sex sells. Everybody want to read about sex.

7. Don’t use bad words. Bad words like "lawsuit" and "Pythagorean." No one can pronounce "Pythagorean" and no one like "lawyers."

8. Make sure you use lots of keywords, like "mesothelioma" and "sex" and "slutty teenage virgins" even if article not about those things. Article get picked up by fifty bazillion search engines that way, make you lots more money.

9. I forget what was supposed to be tip #9. If you have good idea, write it down, or you forget too.

10. Submit to free content sites and pretty soon – boom! – your name be toast in forty-six countries! You be famous, make lots of money.

Now I Wait, and Wait, and Wait

11 January 2006

You know, Dahlink, Ivan to tell you somesink… I am SO upset. My article was not accepted. It was not sloosh-piled, either. Rinky-dinky site so BAD that I log on this morning and POOF! it gone. (No, sadly, not site – just article.) It say I never submit anytink. Ivan to know – what you tink I should do? Submit again? Maybe twice, just to be sure? Maybe hundred times. You can never be too sure. Right, Dahlink?

Smoochies, Ivan

12 January 2006

Oh, Ivan to die. I am crushed, Dahlinks. Lookit dis: This article has been disapproved. Your article has been disapproved. I can’t even get fly-by-night Siberian crooks to pooblish me. I must really suck as writer. Maybe I go back to being doctor. It was more fun to play that, don’t you tink?

Dejected smoochies, Ivan