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BidNip eBay sniping service saved me over $16,680

Posted on July 21, 2013 by Tony Patti

thanks to:

BidNip is an eBay sniping service I have been recommending for over five years.

I now have more than 16,000 reasons to recommend BidNip to you!

At first I was skeptical that BidNip had really saved me that much money, but they explain how they calculate the savings, and their algorithm makes perfect sense:

How do we determine the “$ SAVED BY YOU TO DATE” number?
Your max bid on an item = A
The amount you end up paying = B
Your savings (for one item) = C
(A) – (B) = C
C + C + C + C +… = Total Savings on ALL items.

I have successfully completed more than 1,000 snipes with BidNip since early 2006.

I believe there are other eBay sniping services, but BidNip only charges a small fee, on the order of 40 cents per auction, and only when you win.

(the cost of snipes varies based on the amount you purchase, the more you buy, the less you pay per snipe)

You really have nothing to lose (with the free trial), and you, like me, may end up with many thousands of reasons to like BidNip!

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Raspberry Pi

Posted on April 6, 2013 by Tony Patti

The Raspberry Pi is an inexpensive credit-card-sized Single-Board Computer (SBC), which has tremendous learning (and play!) potential. And it runs Linux, so promotes Open Source Software!

While the size is small, its impact is large: in less than one year, from first introduction March 2012 through January 2013, ONE MILLION Raspberry Pi’s were sold!

There are two models: $25 Model A (with 256 MBytes RAM, one USB port, no Ethernet) and $35 Model B (512 MBytes RAM, 2 USB ports, and 10/100 Mbps wired Ethernet). Model B is shown below:

This computer was developed by the non-profit (charity) UK-based Raspberry Pi Foundation. You can read more about its genesis here: http://www.raspberrypi.org/about. And this Wikipedia article also has more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi.

While the name may sound tasty, here is the reason for its name (as reported here): “In the early days of Home Micros, there were a number of “Fruit” named computers. Apart from Apple, Apricot and Tangerine spring to mind. Pi is said to be derived from the programming language Python, which was an early runner in suggestions for a suitable “official” language for the Raspberry.”

Beyond the Raspberry Pi board for $35, you only need a few additional items to create a useful computer, and hopefully you have some of these already:

SD Card (such as used in Digital Cameras)
HDMI Monitor/TV (and HDMI cable)
USB Keyboard and USB Mouse (can also use USB wireless keyboard and/or mouse)
micro USB power supply (as used by many smartphones)
optional ethernet (network) cable
optional case

So, here was my first setup of my Raspberry Pi (shown circled in red on the right), and dwarfed by the 32″ TV:

The Raspberry Pi runs Linux! Specifically, the Raspbian Operating System is based on Debian optimized for the Raspberry Pi hardware. You can download Raspbian for free here, with much more information on the www.raspbian.org website. The Raspberry Pi runs LXDE (“Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment”) as its graphical user interface (GUI) or “window manager”. Here is what the LXDE desktop might look like (click for full-size actual resolution of 1824×984 pixels):

The FAQ page recommends purchasing the Raspberry Pi (for those in the USA) from Allied Electronics but reported as out-of-stock with a 6 week wait, so instead I purchased my Raspberry Pi Model B from Amazon (for less than $47 including free shipping).

One of the interesting characteristics of the Raspberry Pi is that it runs from an SD card (just like you would find in a Digital Camera or Smartphone), and not from a hard drive (although you could install one via USB). The huge benefit of an SD card is that it allows changing the computer’s “personality” simply by swapping SD cards! In fact, the first step in this Raspberry Pi Quick Start Guide is to insert the SD Card. Pages 2 through 4 will tell you what you need, and how to setup your bootable SD card. Another useful startup guide can be found here, including the section “Booting Your Pi for the First Time”.

What can the Raspberry Pi do? Here are some ideas:

As intended, it is a phenomenal learning environment for those who wish to learn hands-on how computers really work, including programming in various languages, including Python and C.
For those who would like to learn more about electronics, especially computer-interfacing, the Raspberry Pi will be really great. Back when I was soldering electronics for hardware-generated true (not pseudo) random bits for cryptography, using my RANGER Device interfaced to a PC’s Centronics parallel port, it would have been nice to have a Raspberry Pi! Worth noting that the RANGER Device was all 5 Volt TTL (Transistor–transistor logic) and the Raspberry Pi uses 3.3 Volt CMOS (Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor). More information on interfacing TTL to CMOS can be found here.
For those who want to learn how amazing Linux is, and perhaps “be root” on their first Linux server
For surfing the Web, there are several browsers available including Google’s Chromium (“sudo apt-get install chromium-browser”). While may be a bit “heavy” for the Raspberry Pi, being able to run multiple tabs in the browser while also being able to run extensions like “Session Buddy” is very pleasant and familiar.
You could make your own $35 Apache web server. Another set of instructions is here.
Or, put another way, an inexpensive way to learn LAMP. LAMP is an acronym for Linux (operating system), Apache HTTP Server, MySQL (database software), and the programming languages: PHP, Perl or Python, as the main components of millions of the world’s web servers.
Download and Play a variety of computer games, including Minecraft (Pi edition)! Also consider downloading “Beneath a Steel Sky“
Build your own media server or NAS (Network Attached Storage)
More ideas can be found on various web pages through a Google Search, including this one by Ars Technica: “10 Raspberry Pi creations that show how amazing the tiny PC can be”.

First thing I would do on first boot of a Raspberry Pi, install the “The Ace of Penguins” solitaire games including freecell by DJ Delori, most easily installed via the command “sudo apt-get install ace-of-penguins”.

Here are the hardware specs of the Model B:

700 MHz ARM11 32-bit RISC CPU
512 MBytes RAM
GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) capable of 1080p video at 30 frames per second.
SD card (for Booting, Operating System, Program, and your files). The smallest would be 2 GB Class 4 (speed), but you might want to consider a larger SD card such as this 32GB SDHC card from Amazon, a larger 32 GB and faster (class 10) SD card, costs only a few dollars more.
2 USB ports (via integrated USB hub), you can also use an external USB hub to expand further. I use a Belkin F5U403 Hi-Speed USB 2.0 4-Port Lighted Hub which I got from Amazon for only $11
Audio output via a 3.5 mm audio jack or HDMI
General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) pins, Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) Bus
5 V (DC) via Micro USB connector (you can use typical phone charger)
10/100 wired Ethernet RJ45. But if you want to add wireless networking, this website has a list of Wifi USB dongles which have been tested to work. I have successfully used the Belkin F9L1001 USB WiFi with my Raspberry Pi, as the notes say on that page, will work with powered or unpowered USB hub (not true for all other options).

Noticeably absent is a Real-Time Clock (RTC), but this is no problem, since Linux can easily run NTP (Network Time Protocol). In the context of NTP, this is an interesting article “The Raspberry-Pi as a Stratum-1 NTP Server“.

I saw a very wide variety of Raspberry Pi cases shown on the Internet, from manufacturers all around the world. I was initially drawn to the Raspberry Pi cases which were made of Lego blocks (fond memories of childhood), but I wanted to be able to see the five LED’s (possibly via Light Pipes), and to have the various ports labelled. Having the option of a slot for the GPIO cable would be a plus. I finally decided on the “black box” approach from “Built to Spec”. At $12.50 (plus shipping) it is one of the least expensive options for a professionally made Raspberry Pi case. The assembly instructions are here. Once you get all the pieces together, you probably won’t want to take it apart, as the six pieces of plasic are held together by the four bolts, and it’s kind of all-or-nothing. A two-part case might be more desirable if you intend to do a bunch of hands-on electronics and frequently want to work inside the case. Other reviews of the Built-to-Spec case can be found here and here.

Once you have started using your Raspberry Pi, don’t forget to periodically back up your SD card. You can use the same Win32DiskImager software, but this time we READ from the SD card and write the image to the PC hard drive. The only trick is that you need to type in the filename and then click the “Read” button. Also, these images are uncompressed, so you need as much disk space as the capacity of the SD card (e.g. 16 GBytes) even if most of the card is empty. Backing up your SD card is particularly important because there can be “memory wear” inside the SD card (after as little as 10,000 – 100,000 program-erase cycles), which can ultimately result in corrupted data, the inability of your Raspberry Pi to boot, and possible loss of all your data. You should backup your SD card. If you run your Raspberry Pi 24 hours a day, one write per minute would be over half a million writes per year. It leads me to believe the reports I have read on the Internet that a heavily used Raspberry Pi can have its SD card fail in as little as three months.

Want to learn more about the Raspberry Pi? You know a topic is “mainstream” when it has its own 412-page Dummies book! Google Books has “Raspberry Pi For Dummies online here” by Sean McManus, Mike Cook. Or, if you want your own paper copy of this book, you can buy it from Amazon here.

There is also a FREE monthly magazine dedicated to the Raspbery Pi, with much interesting information, and ideas for exciting projects, here is the list published so far:

Issue#	Month	Web address
1	May 2012	http://magpi.finalart.hu/The-MagPi-issue-1-en.pdf
2	June 2012	http://magpi.finalart.hu/The-MagPi-issue-2-en.pdf
3	July 2012	http://magpi.finalart.hu/The-MagPi-issue-3-en.pdf
4	Aug 2012	http://magpi.finalart.hu/The-MagPi-issue-4-en.pdf
5	Sept 2012	http://magpi.finalart.hu/The-MagPi-issue-5-en.pdf
6	Oct 2012	http://magpi.finalart.hu/The-MagPi-issue-6-en.pdf
7	Nov 2012	http://magpi.finalart.hu/The-MagPi-issue-7-en.pdf
8	Dec 2012	http://magpi.finalart.hu/The-MagPi-issue-8-en.pdf
9	Feb 2013	http://magpi.finalart.hu/The-MagPi-issue-9-en.pdf
10	March 2013	http://magpi.finalart.hu/The-MagPi-issue-10-en.pdf
11	April 2013	http://magpi.finalart.hu/The-MagPi-issue-11-en.pdf

Posted in Computer Miscellaneous, Interesting, Just for Fun!, Linux Apache MySQL PHP (LAMP), Networking and Internetworking | Leave a comment

Glassblowing Color Bar Cutter

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Tony Patti

In making my triple-color raked (feathered) glassblowing footed bowls last semester, I needed to cut a bunch of glass bar (“color rods”) into small sections.

To make that process easier for next semester, I wanted to make a simple apparatus, and I believe I succeeded, and it cost me nothing, since I had the few items I needed as left-overs from other projects.

The photo below is shown with a bar of Reichenbach R-95 Opal Black (which reduces to a beautiful metallic silver color). For size reference, that bar is 1.25″ in diameter and over 11″ long.

I used a 40mm diamond cut-off wheel in a hand-held Dremel rotary tool to cut (under running water) a bit of a “score line” or “slit” at the spot where I want to break the rod. This gives me control over the size of the chunks. To mark off evenly-spaced sections, it is easy on the light-colored bars to use a Sharpie marker, but on the dark-color bars like black, I use 3/4″ wide tape to mark off each section to be cut, cutting in-between where I have marked with tape.

Glassblower.info - Diamond cut-off wheel for Dremel rotary tool

Below you can see that I am using a chisel at the point of the slit, and that is positioned over the apex of the right angle steel.

And in this final photo of the process, you see the chunk which has been cut off:

I can’t remember if I made my tool out of solid gold, or if I used scrap steel and spray-painted it with Rustoleum Gold “Bright Coat” Metallic Spray paint. 🙂 Seriously though, the main part of this apparatus is just a piece of right-angle steel which you can purchase at Home Depot, and any scrap piece of steel for the base. I used J-B Weld Steel Reinforced Epoxy (also available at Home Depot) to hold the three pieces of steel together. I also used two long nails on either side of the bottom edge of the long “V”, I thought it would provide more of a mechanical support for the epoxy.

It is common for shards of glass to splinter off when you break off sections. I have a good example of that from one of the vendors at the GAS 2007 Conference:

Glass Rod Cutter at Vendor Booth at Glass Art Society GAS 2007 Conference - showing shards

The device shown above, with its paper-cutter-like arm, is available commercially from M-Space in Tacoma, Washington for $155:

M-Space Glass Rod Cutter Chopper

You can see in that photo that it similarly has the two fundamental pieces of angled steel, like mine.

There are other approaches, including using a ring saw (expensive) or wet tile saw (moderately expensive, but readily available for example from Home Depot) with glass cutting blade. It seems to me that there are two disadvantages to this approach:

“Kerf” is the width of the cut, which wastes “a lot” of glass (especially if you are cutting off relatively small slices, and
also perhaps more importantly the kerf may become airborne glass dust, which you definitely do NOT want to breathe.

As with anything involving glass, YMMV, and while this works for me, it may not work for you, and appropriate safety precautions should always be taken.

OK, and now we have “version 2” of this glassblowing color bar cutter. More compact and reinforced design. Total weight still just a little under three pounds.

(back view)

(top view)

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Hanging my Glass Art on Walls

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Tony Patti

I wanted to hang some of my footed glass art on my walls, I hoped they would look nice.

I know that there are many professional ways to hang glass, such as the stand-offs from HangYourGlass.com. But those are expensive ($23 to $76 for each stand-off plus $28 for an adhesive kit, and then there is the required grinding so that no gaps exceed 0.5mm). Instead I chose an improvised and very low cost (under $1 each) way to hang my glass.

I purchased at Harbor Freight for $7.99 a spool of 0.041″ stainless steel wire (223 feet of wire), and also for $0.99 for an 8-foot section of shrink-tubing.

One of the ideas I learned from having electronics as a hobby is twisting wire using a drill. If you do a Google to search for “how to twist wire with a drill” you will see many results. One result may be this web page “A Perfect Twist”

After twisting the wire, I placed a section of heat shrink tubing over the wire, and then used a heat gun to shrink it somewhat, and then placed a second layer of heat shrink tubing over that first section. I just felt that it was better to cushion the metal-to-glass-interface with a polymer.

Below is a close-up of the two layers of heat shrink tubing over the twisted stainless steel wire.

Below is the first half of a square knot which is made to the exact size which is required to fit over the foot of the glass piece and then extend to the heavy-duty (50 pound capacity) picture hanging hook which has already been placed on the wall.

YMMV. While it worked for me it may not work for you, experiment at your own risk and expense.

(Three pieces of Tony Patti glass art on wall over fireplace)

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Homage to the 50th Anniversary of the American Studio Glass Movement and Audrey Handler

Posted on January 7, 2013 by Tony Patti

As part of the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the American Studio Glass Movement, the Toledo Museum of Art published on their website Early Studio Glass Publications

Toledo Glass National © 1966 (16.6 MB download)
Toledo Glass National II © 1968 (8.7 MB download)
Toledo Glass National III © 1970 (15.2 MB download)
American Glass Now © 1972 (42.2 MB download)

I downloaded all four of these PDF files, and was particularly drawn to page 46 of the 1972 document, which contained this:

Audrey Handler - Glass Waffle - 1972 - American Glass Now - Toledo Museum of Art - PDF

As you know, I have purchased other cast iron and bronze tools to use with hot glass, especially Flower Irons, but I had never thought about waffles, perhaps because they are a lot larger. But I loved the presentation that Audrey Handler had made back in 1972, with the glass waffle inside the open waffle maker!

So, as my Homage to both the 50th Anniversary of the American Studio Glass Movement and especially Audrey Handler, I present my own glass waffle made last semester:

Tony Patti - Glassblower.info - Glass Waffle - Hearts and Stars

Tony Patti - Glassblower.info - Glass Waffle - closeup

Tony Patti - Glassblower.info - Glass Waffle - extreme closeup of center of glass waffle

This waffle is in the “Hearts and Stars” pattern, which I liked very much!

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Can a minute contain 61 seconds?

Posted on October 1, 2012 by Tony Patti

As another weekend draws to a close, I was wishing for a bit more time to Get Stuff Done.

And then I remembered, during a weekend earlier this summer, that’s exactly what happened.

Saturday June 30, 2012 contained a leap second, so that weekend was one second longer than all the rest!

Yes, a minute CAN contain 61 seconds, but it does not happen very often.

After the leap second occurred, I took a photograph of the Dell server console which runs this www.glassblower.info website, here is what I saw:

The Linux kernel wanted to make sure that I was aware of this extra-long minute at the end of June 30 2012 when the leap second was inserted. In addition to the console output, of course, this message also appeared in dmesg (the kernel message buffer command).

For anyone interested in learning more about leap seconds, I’d recommend beginning with this Wikipedia page which starts with this information:

A leap second is a one-second adjustment that is occasionally applied to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) in order to keep its time of day close to the mean solar time. The most recent leap second was inserted on June 30, 2012 at 23:59:60 UTC.

The UTC time standard, which is widely used for international timekeeping and as the reference for civil time in most countries, uses the international system (SI) definition of the second, based on atomic clocks. Like most time standards, UTC defines a grouping of seconds into minutes, hours, days, months, and years. However, the duration of one mean solar day is slightly longer than 24 hours (86400 SI seconds). Therefore, if the UTC day were defined as precisely 86400 SI seconds, the UTC time-of-day would slowly drift apart from that of solar-based standards, such as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and its successor UT1. The purpose of a leap second is to compensate for this drift, by occasionally scheduling some UTC days with 86401 or 86399 SI seconds.

Specifically, a positive leap second is inserted between second 23:59:59 of a chosen UTC calendar date (the last day of a month, usually June 30 or December 31) and second 00:00:00 of the following date. This extra second is displayed on UTC clocks as 23:59:60. On clocks that display local time tied to UTC, the leap second may be inserted at the end of some other hour (or half-hour), depending on the local time zone.

A negative leap second would suppress second 23:59:59 of the last day of a chosen month, so that second 23:59:58 of that date would be followed immediately by second 00:00:00 of the following date. However, since the UTC standard was established, negative leap seconds have never been needed.

Because the Earth’s rotation speed varies in response to climatic and geological events, UTC leap seconds are irregularly spaced and unpredictable. Insertion of each UTC leap second is usually decided about six months in advance by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS), when needed to ensure that the difference between the UTC and UT1 readings will never exceed 0.9 second. Between their adoption in 1972 and June 2012, 25 leap seconds have been scheduled, all positive.

Leap seconds can cause a variety of problems with computer systems. In fact, there was a Java Leap Second Bug which took down a number of websites during the transition from June 30 2012 to July 1 2012. This article in Wired Magazine entitled “Leap Second Bug Wreaks Havoc Across Web” gives you a pretty good idea what mayhem leap seconds can cause.

Added: June 30, 2015: during the last minute of June 2015, right before 00:00:00 UTC July 1, this appears on the Linux console, hope everybody used their extra second wisely:

Leap Second inserted June 30 2015 - Linus Console

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Thank you for 700,000 visits to www.glassblower.info home page

Posted on September 29, 2012 by Tony Patti

I had written in this blog at the beginning of the year, about www.glassblower.info being ten years old.

Well, we’ve reached another milestone a few days ago, with now over 700,000 visits to the home page of www.glassblower.info

700,000 visits to www.glassblower.info home page

Just wanted to share that good news with you, and thanks so much for visiting!

Tony Patti
www.glassblower.info
gaffer@glassblower.info

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My New Telephone Poles!

Posted on September 9, 2012 by Tony Patti

As you may remember, the car accident on April 15, 2012 completely “took out” the telephone pole on the corner which is opposite my house, and that telephone pole had to be replaced by PECO Exelon.

Since then, the telephone pole on my corner (which had been supported by a guy wire) [circled in magenta below] started to significantly lean/tilt. I’ve drawn a red rectangle to give better perspective on this leaning, and notice that the rectangle is parallel to the street sign in the background (to give a good sense of correct vertical orientation).

(click to see full-size)

As you can see below, the leaning telephone pole resulted in the wires over my residential driveway also sagging, to an unsafe 8 feet 9 inches. 😥 You can get a sense of the low height, my GAFFER Transit Connect van has a body height of 79.3 inches (6 feet 7.3 inches) and only two feet of the yardstick is visible.

Gaffer Van Low Wire with Yardstick

In fact, when we had an air conditioner repairman (with a large work truck) here, and he tried to back out of the driveway, the ladder on top of his truck snagged the wire.

So, how high SHOULD the wires over a residential driveway be? I found the concise table below in this presentation by Cascade Range Chapter of the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers. NESC is an acronym for the National Electrical Safety Code, available from the IEEE Standards Association. Although the word “electrical” is in the title, the NESC applies to BOTH electric supply AND communication lines.

Vertical Clearances of wires over a residential driveway

Details concerning the 15.5 foot vertical clearance can be found here:

NESC Part 2 “Safety Rules for the Installation and Maintenance of Overhead Electrical Supply and Communication Lines”
Section 23 “Clearances”
Subsection 232 “Vertical Clearances of wires, conductors, cables, and equipment”
Table 232-1 “Vertical clearance of wires, conductors, and cables above ground, roadway, rail, or water surfaces”

Kind of like an iceberg, you don’t really realize how long telephone poles are, because a significant portion is below ground, but my new telephone poles are around 45 feet long! For purposes of scale, notice the yardstick (circled in magenta) on the middle right!

My two new telephone poles on the ground

Those two new telephone poles were delivered Thursday September 6, 2012 and are scheduled to be installed by PECO Exelon on Wednesday September 12, 2012.

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Hand blown art glass landscape lighting

Posted on August 27, 2012 by Tony Patti

I’ve visited other glassblowers’ shops and homes, and frequently you will see many unique handmade glass articles hidden in the exterior landscaping.

Some years ago I had acquired from West Virginia a “Double Bubble” four-part cast iron glassblowing mold, which I believe was originally intended to make very pretty ceiling light fixtures.

I’ve wanted to use that mold to make some interesting landscape lighting in the front of our home, along the front walkway, and that project finally got to the top of my to-do list (and now it is to-done! Ace Hardware is smart for using that phrase), here are some initial photographs, of the first six lights.

My neighbor calls them my “Lighthouse Lights”, because the “Double Bubble” glass sits on top of the white bases, and that’s OK with me, because the small pebbles on the ground have the off-white/tan color of sand anyway.

Tony Patti - Glassblower.info - Six Handmade Hand Blown Art Glass Landscape Lights

Home Depot sells a variety of outdoor-rated landscape lighting under the brand name “Hampton Bay”. The kit is the Hampton Bay 10-Light 4 Watt Low Voltage Landscape Path Light Kit, Model# EL0262BK, Store SKU # 154749.

Home Depot - Hampton Bay - 10-Light 4 Watt Low Voltage Landscape Path Light Kit, Model# EL0262BK, Store SKU # 154749 - kit parts image

Here is the product description from the Home Depot website:

Line a walkway, accent a yard, or illuminate a porch or patio, by installing these Hampton Bay Outdoor Black Low-Voltage Landscape Path Lights (10-Pack) that feature an all-weather plastic construction to withstand the elements for long-lasting use. Their frosted glass lenses provide gentle illumination, powered by a 45-watt low-voltage landscape transformer for reliability. 50 ft. of included 18-gauge low-voltage wire allows flexible installation and placement options.

Durable plastic construction allows convenient installation outdoors
Frosted glass lenses provide gentle illumination
Stake design to install easily in the ground to illuminate paths, walkways and low-lying ground cover
Waterproof all-weather design withstands the elements for long-lasting use
Powered by a 45-watt low-voltage landscape transformer for reliability; includes 50 ft. of 18-gauge low-voltage wire, making installation easy
MFG Brand Name : Hampton Bay
MFG Model # : EL0262BK
MFG Part # : EL0262BK

The kit includes an outdoor low-voltage transformer with an adjustable timer control (on when dark, or bulb lights automatically when becomes dark and then stays on for 4 hours, 6 hours, or 8 hours). This is basically a 120 VAC to 12 VAC 45 watt transformer. Should the bulbs burn out, the 12 volt 4 watt low wattage incandescent wedge bulbs can be purchased separately.

Because my plan was to replace the outer parts of these lights with my own glass art, I could purchase the least expensive plastic fixtures (no need to to pay for more expensive aluminum parts which would be discarded anyway). And I could not use solar/LED lights because I intended to completely cover the guts of the fixtures with my own glass, and there would not be room for the mini solar panels (photocells). I believe current pricing is around $45, the equivalent kit using aluminum fixtures would be three to four times more expensive.

I’ve never done a project like this before, but it was fun. Below are close-ups of some of my landscape lighting, both lit and unlit.

Below is a photo showing the completion with all ten lights installed and setup (click for full-size image):

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Today is a LUCKY Day!

Posted on August 5, 2012 by Tony Patti

While digging to plant more Hibiscus moscheutos (see photos from my garden below), my shovel hit what I thought was a rock, but after digging up this “rock”, instead I found my Good Luck Talisman!

I live in suburban Philadelphia and had heard that the area where we live was once cornfields, and given that my horseshoe has Caulkins (also spelled “calkins” or “calks”), it is likely that this workhorse obtained better traction over slippery terrain.

Now, instead of corn, we have BIG flowers (8 inches – 9 inches diameter):

Posted in Just for Fun! | Leave a comment

BidNip eBay sniping service saved me over $16,680

Raspberry Pi

Glassblowing Color Bar Cutter

Hanging my Glass Art on Walls

Homage to the 50th Anniversary of the American Studio Glass Movement and Audrey Handler

Can a minute contain 61 seconds?

Thank you for 700,000 visits to www.glassblower.info home page

My New Telephone Poles!

Hand blown art glass landscape lighting

Today is a LUCKY Day!

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