dryfly.ca started as a website for sharing one of my DIY projects, a stitch and glue kayak. Since then I've added several more projects including a skin-on-frame kayak, cedar strip canoe, kayak paddles, canoe paddles, building a spey rod, and an antenna for receiving OTA HDTV. I also occasionally ramble on about politics, technology, bike racing, product reviews and last but not least, our kids.
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Tight Lines!
Archive for April, 2006
April 29, 2006 at 12:24 am · Filed under Tern 14 kayak
Call me crazy, but I decided to try and use black epoxy for the deck seams. The materials involve black pigment and microfibres from Fiber-Tek. The pigment is added to the epoxy resin up to 10% by weight. Then the hardener is mixed in. Finally the microfibres are mixed into the epoxy.
I did some tests with black pigment and fillers. The basic options for fillers include wood flour, microfibres, and microballoons (in decending order of strength). I made a batch of epoxy and split it into three separate containers. I then added wood flour to one container, microfibers to another and approximately a 50/50 mix of wood flour + microballoons in the third container. I had ruled out using microballoons by themselves for this task. I figure that the deck could see some high forces pressing down on it, and if the deck flexes I don’t want the seams to crack. Microballoons apparently are significantly weaker than the other options. The microfibres ended up maintaining most of the black epoxy gloss, while the wood flour was quite a bit dulled (as expected). The wood flour/microballoon mix was similar to the microfibres in looks, but the microfibre mix was easier to work with.
I’ve put the first batch of epoxy in the seams, and so far the deck looks good. I’m a bit nervous about how much work will be required to get the seams finished. I’ll need to remove the stitches and then mask all of the seams again (which is really boring). Then I’ll add the second batch of epoxy to fill in the gaps and where the first batch sagged or shrunk. Then I will have to sand all of the excess epoxy off of the panels. I’ve already applied a coat of epoxy to the panels, so the black pigment should not have soaked into the wood. Hopefully it will come off without too much work.
April 17, 2006 at 10:43 pm · Filed under Sports
Okay, maybe it’s a bit dorky to be writing about this but I’m going to do it anyways. Here are my top picks for this year’s mvp.
1. Joe Thornton
2. Mikka Kiprusoff
3. Jaromir Jagr
The New York Rangers have surprised a lot of people this year, and it’s not hard to imagine the importance of Jagr in this. He’s had a bit of a renaissance this year and it looked like he was going to walk away with the scoring title this year. It’s hard to tell what would have happened with the Rangers this year if he wasn’t around.
There cannot be any doubt that Kiprusoff is the key to the Calgary Flames’ success. The Flames get their results for three reasons: their teamwork, their work ethic and Kiprusoff. Kiprusoff is the premier goalie in the NHL right now and his stats are impressive. He leads the league with 10 shutouts, .207 goals against average, 74 games played, and 42 wins. I think Kiprusoff is top 4 in all of the other important stats. Interestingly, Cristobal Huet (Montreal Canadians) has 7 shutouts in only 35 games.
It looks like Joe Thornton will win the goal scoring race. Even more telling of his importance is San Jose’s record since aquiring Thornton. The Sharks were having a horrible year and it looked certain that they would not make the playoffs. Along comes Thornton and next thing you know the Sharks wrap up 5th position in the West. That’s pretty impressive.
To me it looks like this year’s MVP is a toss up between Thornton or Kiprusoff.
April 17, 2006 at 9:38 pm · Filed under Just Stuff
No, I’m not talking about hemorrhoids. Nor having my heart crushed by any number of women in the early 90s. I’m talking about Calculus 200. The 1989/90 scholastic year at UBC followed an excellent year of science for me which included a 91% in Calculus I. What began as a year of hope and promise nearly ended with a course failure in second year calculus. What went wrong? Who was to blame? Who cares? I’ll answer the last question first: I care. I’m still annoyed with Calculus II and the grade I received, it drives me crazy. Every now and then I still tell myself that I will audit this course and improve upon my previous results. I bet a lot of people have had a similar situation.
First, let me say just how gutless I think UBC was in their selection of the course text book. The book sucked and should not have been used. For most people that attended undergraduate courses at UBC, it will come to no surprise that the book was authored by lo and behold, a professor from UBC. If memory serves me correct, the book was written by Robert Adams. The book was okay at presenting mathematical theorems but it failed miserably at showing how these theorems could be used to solve mathematical problems. Every chapter followed the same formula. First, the theorem would be presented along with some sort of proof or derivatization. Next, the theorem would be used to solve the simplest mathematical problem that could be imagined. Each chapter would then finish with a series of problems/questions. Noticeably absent from this formula would be the actual solutions to said problems. Now I’m no expert in the science of teaching but it is beyond me as to what purpose would be served by not providing detailed solutions for the problems. Surely the author should assume that a university level teacher is not going to use these questions for course quizzes exams, so there shouldn’t be anything to hide. Secondly, the text book needs to be able to stand on its own without necessarily needing the guidance of a course instructor. In my mind, this text book completely fails in its attempt to teach its reader in the understanding and application of multivariable calculus.
If that wasn’t bad enough, I had some freakazoid of prof. The guy was a walking hygiene problem. Body order, crappy clothes, brown stained teeth, he had it all. I remember one day he showed up wearing an 18″ tall wool hat, and when the students laughed at him he got all flustered and confused as to what the problem was. He was probably some type of genius but there was no way that guy had any business in teaching. He would essentially copy the text book out on to the blackboard. I remember one day someone asked him a question and he looked at the student, looked at the text book, looked at the blackboard, looked back at the student, back at the text book, back at the blackboard, and then replied with “it’s in the text book.”
I suppose I had my own intellectual limitations, so I can’t pass on all the blame. How UBC could use that book or that prof is inexcusable to me though. It’s situations like this that leaves me completely disillusioned with UBC. For many reasons I would recommend potential students stay away from UBC. I guess UBC’s saving grace is that Vancouver is a great city and I don’t think it really matters where a student goes for their undergraduate degree.
April 7, 2006 at 3:30 pm · Filed under Tern 14 kayak
It’s been a busy week with the kayak. I’ve managed to do the saturation coat, lay the fibreglass and do the first fill coat. I’ll likely do some scraping on the fill coat and complete the 2nd fill coat tonight.
Overall this work went fairly smooth, although there were some stressful moments.
The saturation coat went very fast and quick. I don’t know why someone would skip this step unless they were very busy or experienced. If you have a spare day (and it seems most kayak builders do), you might as well do this step. I was making batches sizes of about 6oz, and the boat took 4 batches. There’s not much more to the saturation coat than that. Read the rest of this entry »
April 4, 2006 at 10:30 am · Filed under Just Stuff
I guess Emma-May has a bit of Kids In The Hall in her, just like her old man. Grady is no slouch in this department either.
688
April 2, 2006 at 8:33 pm · Filed under Just Stuff, Politics
It’s sort of old news but in case you haven’t heard, VANOC (Vancouver Olympic Committee) put together a closing show at the 2006 winter olympics that was full of pathetic Canadian stereotypes. This show was recently in the news again when BC’s premier, Gordon Campbell, slammed VANOC in the media.
From what I understand, VANOC displayed Canadians as a bunch of ice-fishing, mukluk-wearing, ski-dooing people of equal-opportunity. I think this article sums it up nicely. I highly recommend that you click on the link BTW. In case you’re wondering why I made a reference to “equal opportunity”, you can read the Closing Ceremony Colour Commentary Information document which outlines the whole spiel. It also supplies the names of the people that are responsible for the event… I find it odd that “The show begins in Canada’s vast north, representing our huge land of equally huge
opportunities,” and that five of the six honoured guests are from First Nations (corresponding to the territories of Aboriginal peoples where events will be held). This has got to be the only “equal opportunity” provided to First Nation people in Canada. I suppose it’s a start.
Enough of the background, on to the the task at hand. Who is getting fired and why are they getting fired? Well, I couldn’t help think of the tv show “The Apprentice” when I read about the closing ceremonies. Imagine that the closing ceremony was a task handed out to VANOC. It’s not hard to then imagine that VANOC would have lost the task. Some pointed questions would have been asked, such as:
Trump – Who’s idea was it to include ice-fishing, because I think that’s a terrible idea. George, have you ever ice-fished?
George – No I haven’t.
Carolyn – I’ve ice-fished, but I didn’t ride in a ski-doo. I don’t like fishing.
George – I don’t even like killing fish.
Trump – I built a fishing lodge called “Trump Resort”, but that’s in Florida. VANOC, does anyone in Vancouver ice-fish? Is ice-fishing an olympic event? Isn’t there some good skiing in Vancouver? Carolyn, Canadians are good skiers aren’t they?
Carolyn – Yes, why didn’t you show some skiing, or snow-shoeing? Everyone loves skiing.
George – I love skiing. VANOC, don’t you think it’s kind of embarrassing to depict Canadians as ice-fisherman?
and so on…
In the end, we all know what would happen. VANOC, you’re fired!
