Possible Artwork

Got a little bit of artwork done through the hazy of cold meds...

 

And Just for fun

For now I will work on bookcase moving, gorilla bumpers, and the presentation on Tuesday!

Crunch Time

I have plans to bumper proof the outdoor disturbances of garbage can lids and screendoors; unfortunately I am not feeling up to it right now. I have a cold and it is getting worse. The thought of staying awake to do this in the middle of night gorilla style appeals to me, but my body says rest for goodness sake. The plan is to get so much rest this weekend that I can't sleep at night and maybe then go out there and get it done, hopefully my mind and body agree with me.

Bookcase stair wall wise, I will be moving the solid bookcase I already own against the wall to see how effective that is in the hope of making the $50 purchase of supplies seem worth it for the rest of the wall.

I plan on making a PowerPoint presentation of the photos I have taken for all the strategies I have used to reduce the effect of noise pollution on my indoor environment.

White noise does help, but it can only do so much. By the way turning the volume up too high...just disturbs the person trying to cover the noise.

Art messages are still percolating. I am still considering a canopy maybe a king size quilt but it needs to be the right opportunity to find the supplies.

Good luck everyone on your project!

Priorities

So my immediate plans changed a bit because of the stuff I found once I went shopping. I bought a few things for the book shelves that I will get back to. Another $50 is required to finish them up. The bumpers for a table on the porch that gets slammed by the screen door felt too expensive for what I needed - about $8 for 4 corner bumpers, at least the 3 places I looked, that I only really need one of. I am hoping to find used or a less spendy option. I am going to try some styro-foam balls and see how they work. I found some thick weatherstripping that I think will work well for the lids of the garbage cans next door and plan to implement that plan in the middle of the night, hopefully when it isn't raining too hard.

I will be working on the artwork for art gratitude messages this week.

Door

So after adding felt weather stripping to my door I  can no longer see daylight like in the following picture. I had previously asked my landlord for weather stripping but he gave me the answer that it was too wet and cold to apply it. LAME!!!

Cork

I painted a couple of my round cork boards to see if I liked them when I put them in place. I like the way they look. I wanted something abstract which I got from this method, but am thinking of trying a more landscape design or adding more variety to what I already have done.

Shelf Liner

I used some scissors on the waffle shelf liners cutting them into triangles and some squares, moving them around until I came up with a design I liked then applied it to my wall.

Test

So I tested the cork and shelf covers last night to see how they might work before I made them more pleasing to look at & interestingly enough they did seem to keep down the reverb within the house. They did make it more obvious that the door has big cracks that street noise comes through so I will be adding the weather stripping kit to the door this weekend.

I am still hearing my object dropping inclined neighbors though. It seems they have a hard time keeping things in their hands while carrying them. I am encouraged by my testing though.

The cork is placed in the top of my 12 foot ceiling corners & the liner is just over the walls.

Purchases

So I went to Bring and found some boards that could work for shelves. I went to a discount store and found some round cork boards for $2 a piece & got the 7 they had to make into art-full sound buffers.
I bought some waffle shelf liner and some door and window weatherproofing to see if that helps too.

Now I need to come up with a good design for making these things aesthetically pleasing.

I still need to head to a home improvement store for some of the other things I need this weekend.

Plans

Since Tuesday-Thursday are my most packed days, planning and rethinking have been the largest majority of what I could do the last couple evenings. I have decided that in order to make my bookshelves work most efficiently I need them to be rearrangement friendly and that makes me believe that a system of brackets where I can place shelf hangers will work best. This way I can place them where they seem to work the best without spending too much or creating a mass of ugly bookshelves side by side.

Shopping

    Bring
         See if they have anything I can use to make my
           projects first
  
    Home Improvement Store
           Shelves around 8 / 4-6ft lengths or 4 longer
               lengths to cut down to size
           3 Wall Brackets
           16 Bracket hangers
           Wall stud finder
           Screws
   For Gorilla bumpers
          Foam pads to be attached to lids of garbage cans &
             thinner ones for screen-door

For gratitude art messages
        Have started collecting images to use for vinyl art
        Want to see if anything inspires me at Bring
        Have thought about using an old chalkboard or
             making one with chalkboard paint

Bookcase Possibilities

Staircases that are bookcases, unique!
http://www.homeinteriorszone.com/interior-decoration/15-creative-and-modern-staircase-designs/

Easy smaller bookcase
http://www.instructables.com/id/60-minute-bookcase/

Arduino rotating bookcase/for fun
http://hacknmod.com/hack/diy-rotating-bookshelves-staircases-trap-doors/

All Kinds of Bookcases
http://incrediblethings.com/lists/20-brilliant-bookcases/

This one makes sense in a whole other way
http://www.thisintothat.com/secondeditions.html

Sollutions for Noise Pollution

Noise Pollution


Turquoise are plans for immediate future
Violet for change in plans // 10/26/09


Noise Pollution from Neighbors
    Reasons:
        1906 house -- no insulation
        12 ft ceilings
        Neighbors have kids
        Their staircase goes right through my space
        Drop things upstairs a lot
      
Solutions:
        Goofy Gratitude Art Messages/ Slap happy goodness
            No elephants upstairs
            Nothing rolls down the stairs
            Screen door isn’t larger
            Loud shouting visitor not there often
            Reciprocating cone of silence/play on term

        Physical Changes
            Fabric bed canopy
            Fabric/art covered core to absorb sound
            Bookcase wall for stairway wall  // need more cash

Gorilla Bumper Mission
            Add bumpers to outdoor noisemakers
                in dead of night // still to come

        Other options
            Input noise output sound reduction machine
            Record loudness with delayed play back for them
            Vibration triggered recording
            Fence art for outside problems

D I Y Watercolor Techniques

Watercolor Techniques from KS Dorn on Vimeo.


Try this one too!!!
http://www.uoregon.edu/~dorn/DIY/BalloonSlideshow.swf

DIY

So I had planned to show some watercolor techniques for my DIY and am still planning on doing that. It fell through for reasons of supply disfunction, but will get back to that one eventually. I did a smaller project and will post it until I can get up the one I really wanted to do.

I have a rather sad looking lampshade that needed some pizzazz. To change it without permanence I decided to add some beads with safety pins but hot glue could be used as well.

I happened to have some strings of beads around as well.

Using the pins I attached them to the top of the shade. This would work well with a glue gun as well.

This is what the finally result was. A bit cheesy but goofy good at the same time...

Websites

Any time they promise a 5 minute solution you do have to wonder just who the demographic is, but this site looks interesting to me.

http://www.5min.com/


Kinda Cool

http://showoffbook.com/

http://wildammo.com/

http://www.offbeatearth.com/

http://www.multiurl.com/ga/audiogravity-18th-september-2k9/

Could be useful


http://pelfusion.com/tutorials/27-excellent-digital-photography-tutorials/

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/08/05/5-apps-you-run-that-suck-and-5-replacements-that-dont//


Might work well for textbooks

http://bookmooch.com//

Random Thoughts

In regards to Personal accountability for controlling our effect on our environment

     Simple Thoughtful Acts of Kindness
                 Could include:
                                Thinking before acting
                                Realizing that one single awnser doesn't solve everything

In regards to Noise Pollution  in my personal space
                 Bookshelf muffler
                 Fence block {Artistic}
                 Water fall
                 Fabric ceiling block

Sounds are carried in the air, they diminish faster with softer materials.
                Something new?
                Trip to Bring Recycling sounds like a good idea
             

Noise Pollution

Noise Pollution and the Illusion of Privacy


An irritating cacophony assaults us from every direction. Some noises are easier to ignore than others. Some of it is just being unaware they are annoying and some is just disregard for others. Aside from asking them to please quiet down, which is only semi-practical especially if they have kids; which my current neighbors do, there are some things that can and have been used to reduce ambient noise that could help.



Affect Me

Noisy Neighbor # 1 biggest effect … either side of home
Lose sleep
Pisses me off

Annoy me

Make for resentment …
even when I know it isn’t personal Interferes with effective study time
occasionally Forces me to go somewhere else



Traffic #2 effect

Honking horns/yelling out window …
The DODO effect
Awakens me sometimes
Garbage truck the worst


Pedestrians #3 effect

Loud talkers Could be inhibitions are down
Just like everyone to know they are important/or think they are
Just being silly


Trains #4 effect … 4 blocks away
More use to it than I was before


Affect Others
Probably similar to myself
I don’t’ have kids though


Subtle Factors
Hard to control actions of others
Noise Ordinances don’t work for business/daytime hours


Past Strategies
Ordinances
Physical Barriers Fences Hedges
Rugs/carpets
Foam wall coverings/noise block
Newer windows
Counter Sounds Water fountains Fans Sound machines Noise-canceling headphones

mindmap for: interacting with our environment

Interaction with our Environment

I've decided to focus on noise pollution and the illusion or lack there of privacy it can create. My neighbors are loud really loud!!!. Two kids running around and slamming the bed into the wall. Yeeeooow! But that is just the half of it: The adults can't seem to shut a door without slamming it. The screen door is the worst, it bangs into the table on the porch on the way out and slams closed on the way back. What fun...

Integrating a successful use of recycled materials sounds like it could be the best way to go.