Turn AA batteries into C sized batteries!

My wife is sick this week and lost her voice. Something I remembered buying awhile back was a cheap megaphone for about $3. It uses C sized batteries which have been sitting in it for years, so naturally they’re dead. On top of that, the batteries cost more than this little cheap megaphone did. Being a genius, I naturally came up with a solution.

AA batteries are the same length and capacity as a C cell battery. Maybe less capacity, but something such as a megaphone, that doesn’t matter a whole lot. If I can make them fit, they will work. 

Inserting the batteries on their own didn’t work. They would fall over when trying to close the mouth piece, and even if I did manage to keep a connection, they’d fall out of place as soon as the thing was picked up. The solution was simple: Electrical tape. 

Get a rough measurement of the battery, and just wrap that bad boy up in tape. It worked like a champ, and now I can hear my wife again.

Another Smashed Dell

Not to be outdone by FedEx, UPS delivered a brand new Dell laptop and did their best to smash it as well. The real issue here is Dell’s packaging is terrible. A $2k laptop being shielded with 1 layer of the cheapest cardboard known to man isn’t a good start. At least they’re quick about sending replacements. 

Also, because it looked kind of cool, I took a pic of the busted screen and created a nice wallpaper out of it. Available for download in 1080p. 

Visited the Space Shuttle Atlantis

Recently we were in Cape Canaveral before driving down to the port to hop on the cruise ship Carnival Elation. On my bucket list has been visiting all of the space shuttles across the country. This trip to the Kennedy Space Center was my first time, and seeing the Atlantis checked off shuttle #2 from my list. Though technically with them having pieces of Columbia and Challenger on display, I have seen 4 at this point. Which leaves me with Endeavor and Enterprise. 

Snapped a few shots of Atlantis that I wanted to share, and felt that KSC did a really good job of displaying the space bird. With it set up the way it is, you can actually get closer to it than you can Discovery at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. 

FedEx strikes again!

FedEx delivered us a new laptop to the office that had clearly had someone jump up and down on the package before arrival! After being delayed several times, having a $1700 laptop show up in this condition is quite frustrating. The service and support from FedEx over the past few years has gone downhill quite a bit.