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Stardate: 20200630.2304 | |
Location: Garage | |
Input Device: MinervaX Med Cart | |
Software: nano | |
Audio: Box Fan | |
Visual: Garage clutter | |
Emotional State: Tired, like a kid. | |
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I found a free road case/flightcase down the street from where I | |
live this past weekend. I was driving by when I saw the case with | |
a big FREE sign taped to it. I had to nab it immediately as | |
soon as I saw it so I parked my car in my driveway and walked | |
down the street to go get it. Since it was on casters, I was | |
able to wheel it home. [1] | |
The road case is huge! I didn't realize how big it was until | |
I got it to my garage. Since there are a couple projects | |
going on in my garage at the moment, I had to move some | |
things around to make room for it. The dimensions are | |
roughly 53"x38"x57" with casters. It has two end caps that | |
are latched on and can be removed. I opened it up and inside | |
there were 4 padded vertical dividers and 2 large dowel | |
rods.[2] The walls and the floors were padded as well. This was | |
apparently used as a wardrobe, probably for the entertainment | |
industry. There were some very minor scuffs and scrapes to | |
the foam on the inside, but it was pretty clean. | |
At first, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it. I | |
was conflicted...the adult in me kinda regretted the | |
impulsive garbage grab and was like, WTF are you going to do | |
with that? And now you're responsible for getting rid of it! | |
The kid in me was like, YEAH, LET'S BUILD A FORT!!! I even | |
thought of putting it back or putting it on my curb with the | |
free sign for a moment, but didn't. My inner child had won. | |
After that there was no turning back. I was completely | |
onboard. I started thinking, maybe I can make one of those | |
cool Battletech pods that I used to play in at Dave and | |
Busters way back when or make a MAME cabinet cockpit or even | |
a cool flight simulator rig. I've always wanted to do | |
something like that. I almost did with the closet under the | |
stairs, but there were too many issues with that. Or maybe a | |
sound booth of some kind for music. Or maybe a home theater | |
pod. | |
While I had these ideas going on in my head, I proceeded to | |
dismantle the dividers and clean it up. The exterior was in | |
decent shape and had the previous owner and other previous | |
owner's logos spray painted over in black. The last company | |
(or band?) had their name painted on one side, which I sanded | |
off, which revealed another logo for some display company. | |
I'll probably leave it there or paint over it in black. | |
After I removed the dividers and rods, I went over the | |
interior with the shop vac and cleaned up the exterior with | |
the vac and wiped it down with WD-40, especially all of the | |
metal parts. I noticed that if I had both end caps off, the | |
middle portion seemed pretty wobbly, so at least one end cap | |
needed to stay in place, if not both. | |
Another thing I noticed was that if I was going to occupy the | |
inside of this box, there definitely needed to be some kind | |
of ventilation. So I brought out my tools and cut some holes | |
on top of one of the end caps. I cut 2 rectangles for | |
ventilation and 1 hole for cabling (power, ethernet, etc.)[3] | |
I picked up 2 vent coverings and some kind of PVC adapter | |
thingy for the cabling from the hardware store. It came out | |
a lot better than I thought it would. | |
I don't know what it is, but I have this thing for building | |
out confined spaces. Maybe it has to do with building tree | |
forts and snow forts as a kid and continued with reading | |
about container dwellings in cyberpunk fiction or seeing it | |
at the pictures. I actually went to a park in Las Vegas that | |
used old shipping containers for stores and eateries... Or | |
even the confined spaces in space ships of sci-fi films. Or | |
even capsule hotels in Japan. Well, whatever it is, it has | |
my imagination going. I feel like I'm a kid again building a | |
fort out of mattresses and blankets or out of cardboard | |
refridgerator boxes, except this time, the control panels are | |
not drawn in. They are actually real. But I can still | |
pretend that I am in my shuttle craft transporting the away | |
team to the alien planet's surface. | |
[1] Flightcase with FREE sign | |
[2] Inside of Flightcase with dividers and dowels | |
[3] Holes for vents and cables | |
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