The Book of Ashes

Disasembling the VCR for the IR diode and other parts... 11:23AM

Monday was crazy. It started you see with me saying that I needed to dismantle this old video we had to fit it into the rubbish bags to dispose of it (seeing that it didn't work and all). Thomas then decided that he wanted to salvage some parts for it as we had a little project under way (Project Nascent) and some LEDs and wires might come in handy. Of course he didn't even think that the video had an infra red sensitive diode in it (the bit that picks up the remote control signal) so I pointed that out to him and the salvaging began. I scored a whole lot of wires and some screws and an LED and the IR diode. Our idea was to create a receiver for the computer that allowed you to use any remote in the house to perform operations on your computer, like play MP3s or shutdown your computer, etc... After we had masacred the video player and tested the IR diode (yup we had a little red light flashing everytime we pointed the remote at this diode and pressed a button), I came up with the cool idea of taking a soft toy and replacing its eyes with LEDs and putting a IR diode on its front. This little toy could then sit on your TV or stereo and its eyes would flash every time you used a remote. Pretty cool, well at least I thought. So I went out and brought this little porcelein horse head for $3 from the $2 shop and super glued some LEDs to it (LEDs for those that don't know are Light Emitting Diodes or in simple terminology, those little red light thingies). In testing phases we managed to get the eyes to light up but couldn't hook the IR diode into the circuit. It seems to shortcircuit it keeping the eyes alight all the time. A little more research is required I believe and a few more million dollars investment...

So we did a mish to Dick Smith and drooled over all the cool toys that we needed. I brought a pack of 50 LEDs but wanted a soldering iron and a multimeter as well. Damn I wish I had some money. All up that was pretty much my day

The tree 11:37AM

A tree grows, symbolising new life and prosperity. His soft green leaves striving for the light as his branches reach forever upwards. Peaceful under his blanket of dead leaves, yellow and orange and then brown as the autumn gives room for winter, he rests, whispering only when his friend the wind passes by one of his many visits. Soon warmth and new light awaken him from his slumber and once again he stretches out his legs, thirsty for life and all its adventures. Many years pass and much happens and he never forgets. He was there for it all, recording the seasons in his layers of bark, noting his age by his rings. He becomes ageless, one of the few true immortal life forms on this planet, not limited to a pitiful century of life such as the sentinent beings have. He out lives us all, he remembers us all, and as time passes us by he shall never fall.