“Pocket Memory:” USB with Steampunk Style

For this post, I thought I’d feature some stunning steampunk style portable USB drives.  All are listed for sale via various shops on Etsy.com  I was pleasantly shocked by how creative and interesting they were.  I just wish I knew where they picked up the skills to make the stuff!

The cerriousdesign (item link) item featured to the right bears almost no resemblance to the USB stick drive I carry with me, except the translucent plastic piece in the middle that apparently still glows.  I’ve read that steampunk items are made to be unique, and ‘comfortably used,’ and I think this has that well-used, but still-worth-looking-at feel to it.  (Although, I must admit, it looks like someone left it out in the rain?)

The next USB drive, the “Exotic Wood Nautilus” created and sold by WillRockwell, is unique, at least among many steampunk-style USB drives, because it features a great deal of wood, rather than metal or glass (such as those featured above and below).   It comes inside the featured tin.  WillRockwell refers to other Steampunk USB drives as “pocket memory” and I think I like the phrase.
The last USB drive I’ll feature glows at the end within blue liquid and in the middle with a red light.  Created by Steamworkshop, this USB drive contains a quartz crystal and “100% waterproof with or without the cap on!”  The tubes and glass definitely give it a vintage feel, while the claim that the device is waterproof just makes me want to find a way to show it isn’t. (Yes, I’m perverse that way.)
These are only the beginning of what you can find if you look hard enough for USB drives with steampunk modifications (or mods, DIY, and various other terms).  In fact, these are some of the more expensive options, but they are certainly worth looking at, even if your budget won’t allow you to purchase them.

Stretching the Dollar – The Magic of Rejunking

Some possible profits involved in rejunking have come to my mind, so I’ll share (whether you want me to or not).

I have been told many times by many people that there are two ways to increase your excess money: (1) make more money, and (2) spend less money.  I seen more than once how people use rejunking to make more money, but I would guess that more people have more success in rejunking to spend less money.

For one, when you make something useful out of what normally gets thrown out, you save yourself the expense of buying whatever you replaced.  Another bonus is that you got more for your money out of the stuff you would have thrown out.

To end the thought, just think how this savings escalates when you are given something and then use it in a junk creation–that’s at least three ways you are saving!

(Please, if you see more than three ways, let me know.  I’d love to be considered more helpful than that, if I can just cook the numbers…)

Originally posted by the author for b5media on Wednesday, January 23, 2008.

Definition of Dumpster Diving

I found a good definition of Dumpster Diving.  You can find that definition here.

Part of the definition is:

The practice of raiding the dumpsters behind buildings where producers and/or consumers of high-tech equipment are located, with the expectation (usually justified) of finding discarded but still-valuable equipment to be nursed back to health in some hacker’s den. Experienced dumpster-divers not infrequently accumulate basements full of moldering (but still potentially useful) cruft.

I think I this blog seems to prove the last portion, since my junk drawer and the bins in my garage are similar to the “basements” mentioned.

(I also love the phrasing ‘hacker’s den,’ it makes me think of some mixture of a chop shop for cars and an opium den…it makes for an interesting mental image.)

Originally posted by the author with b5media on Wednesday, January 2, 2008.

Great Starter for Steampunk Jewelry-Makers

This is just a quick plug for a book I recently picked up and the entire thing intrigued me enough to start on my own steampunk jewelry-making expedition.  If you'd like the book, consider purchasing it from amazon.com (see the link on the left).

Let me share a couple of great quotes from the book just to entice you all:

"The type of antique things and techniques the steampunk artist or recreationist instinctively seeks and utilizes are those objects and techniques for which the current period offers only inferior or ugly or distasteful counterparts...Silk and linen instead of polyester.  Brass and glass and rubber instead of plastic...Leather belts and buckles instead of Velcro..." (p. 6, Paul Di Filippo - Steampunk Author)

It just gives me warm fuzzies inside when I start dreaming up different projects made with these sorts of sensibilities and items many would think of as "junk."

I'll leave you with a link to the wikipedia article on steampunk (since it covers steampunk fairly succinctly).

Notebook Paper "Lucky Origami Stars"

I tried to find some junk mail to make the stars from Saturday, but I suppose everyone will have to settle for the used notebook paper I used instead.

I found some relatively good instructions for the Origami star here.

Keep in mind that it may take several tries to make the star–I had to start over twice.  I guess they are “lucky stars” because you are lucky if you get one to work.  I found that using stiff, but not too stiff of paper seems to work well.  (Not that I am an expert–I just tried it until I got it right.)


Good Luck!

Published previously by the author through b5media on February 18, 2008

(http://blisstree.com/live/notebook-paper-lucky-origami-stars-241/).

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Disposeable Tupperware - Not a new thing.

Has anyone else been laughing at the commercials for disposable Tupperware?  I’m laughing because, my family has had that stuff for years.  We used to call them: used margarine and/or cool whip tubs.

Here’s how to make your own disposable Tupperware: (1) use some cool whip and/or margarine from a tub, (2) put the empty tub into the top rack of your dishwasher (if you have no dishwasher, you can wash it just as easily by hand), (3) use and reuse as often as you like.

The best part about these tubs is that when you give food to a neighbor in them, you don’t have to ask for the dishes back when they still havn’t found their way home 6 months later…

Published previously by the author through b5media on January 21, 2008

(http://blisstree.com/live/disposeable-tupperware-who-needs-it-241/).

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