I ♥ My Moleskine

I asked for a "squared" Moleskine for Xmas because I'd heard such good things about them. ("Square" means graph paper and "large" means "not pocket sized"--it's only about 8"x5".) I can confirm that it is awesome. I'm not even sure why it's so awesome. It's definitely well made--nice binding, good quality paper, pocket in the back, elastic strap and bookmark. And it's not just that I'm having fun using it, because I was using a regular spiral notebook before and it wasn't this awesome.

I found the perfect pencil case. It's actually a case for a removable car stereo, but I don't have that car, let alone the stereo, anymore (if I ever did).

Inside are the pencils I mentioned once. Notice that I've got them tagged with tape so I can tell what lead type is in each. Also, extra lead and a kneaded eraser.

And now a couple pics of the Genius At Work. The page sizes seem to be almost exactly how much room I need to explain an idea and draw an illustration of it.

The only thing that could make this better would be if it were exactly the same as it is now, only it also uploaded an electronic version automatically. In vector format. Also, it would be made of ponies.

Discoveries

• The biggest difficulty in making something like a Stirling engine without access to a machine shop is how to make the power piston. The piston has to be precisely sized to fit inside the cylinder. However, via a YouTube video, I have discovered that it is possible to use a pair of PVC pipes to get the same effect. I made one and under breath power it worked so well it nearly knocked my teeth out. I haven't done any real testing yet, so I don't have all the construction details worked out, but basically you just get two sizes that differ by 1/4" and sand down the smaller until it fits in the larger.


• The way I'm going to test the piston is to build another Stirling. Need a bigger displacement chamber for a piston this big. Should be metal, not too thick-walled, largish, easy to make air-tight. A paint can would be perfect, except you don't want to combined leftover fumes and high heat. Turns out Lowe's sells empty paint cans! Quart- and pint-sized. That means you can even remove the lid to work on the innards and then reseal it.


• What with one thing and another, the flywheel on the new engine has to be mounted differently. I need a whole crankshaft dealie (which is something else it would be easier to make with a machine shop). Once I realized this, I realized I'd also need some kind of bearing. Idly reading something completely unrelated, I came across a mention of "skate bearings". I was thinking inline skates, but skateboards have the same thing. They are only like $1 each! And I even had an unused skateboard at home, from which I harvested 8 of them. ID ~8mm, OD ~22mm. Cute as a bug's bearing.


• I've had these drawing pencils for a while now. The leads are 2H, HB, 2B and then some high B one, I dunno what. The problem is you have to keep sharpening them like every 15 minutes. The other day I realized this is already a solved problem: mechanical pencils. The only question was, do they sell mechanical pencil leads in hardnesses other than HB? Answer: Yes. So now I have 3 mechanical pencils, each with a different lead. Makes drawing so much less of a hassle. Can't shade with the side of the lead, of course, but I never did that anyway.


• I'm not going to meet my Xmas diet goal. Scale is still going down, but too slowly to make it in time. Maybe I should aim for the secondary goal (an additional 10 lbs) at the 2 year mark (March?).