.: bistan.net :.

A little over a year ago, when I still worked for Mercer Law School, a student worker was cleaning out a faculty member’s storage closet.  They stumbled across a vintage Macintosh Performa 200 (by vintage, I mean 1992).  Thinking it belonged to the technology department, they brought it to us for disposal.  I decided to keep it to see if it would work.  It didn’t, but it was too cute to trash.  I remembered seeing photos and stories on Instructables.com about people turning old computers into working aquariums and I knew that this would be my next project.  I promptly took it home.

After some online research, I stumbled upon a great set of instructions by Andy Ihnatko. Like cleaning the insides out of a pumpkin, dismantling the computer required special tools and certain protruding portions of the case had to be removed as well.  Between a Dremel and a hacksaw, I finally removed the portions of the computer necessary to build the aquarium. (My apologies for using “Mercer Law” and “hacksaw” in the same blog post.)

The mac, still covered in Splenda

Gutting the mac

Out with the unneeded

Pretty chinese art from 1992

The garbage pile growing

Sawing off the protrusions

After getting the case like I wanted it, I cleaned the outside thoroughly.  When the computer was found in the closet, it was covered in spilled Splenda.  I also used black spray paint to give the insides a nice, new look.  Some vintage macs have Steve Job’s signature engraved in the inside.  This one, however, did not.

Next, I needed glass to build the actual tank.  I went to Lowe’s and learned they only carry 1/8 inch glass, which wouldn’t support water.  Home Depot had the same.  Specialty glass shops online wanted big bucks to cut the glass. At this point, I lost motivation and put the case in the attic for over a year.

At my new job, I desperately needed some sort of decoration, etc. to personalize my office.  Perhaps a conversation piece?  One day while riding down Riverside, I discovered a glass shop about 3 blocks from the office.  I printed out the dimensions I needed and took it in to see if they could do it.  Not only could they do it, but it was only about $9.00.  Score!

I came home and assembled the pieces using regular silicone and leak-proofed it with aquarium-safe silicone (which was difficult to find). I also constructed a wooden base to position the glass box on (and keep the electrical, etc. underneath).

Constructing the glass from instructions on the macbook

The glass assembly - waiting on silicone to set

Next, it was time to design the look of the aquarium. My friend/former boss Chris had an aquarium in his office at Mercer for several years and over that time I did a few different shots of the law school as the background for it. That background got rave reviews. Since I work in a beautiful building now, I thought that might be a good plan.  I also love bubble bars and Mackenzie picked out some neon-colored gravel, which I bought against my better judgement.

I also needed a light to illuminate the tank, for visibility and to make the fish think its daylight inside.  I wanted to go LED even though the price was a little steeper.  I found a great LED light that can even be submerged if I ever decide to put it under the water line for about $20.00 on eBay.

Because changing the water would be difficult, I also needed a filter.  I found an under-gravel filter online (powered by the same air pump that will generate the bubbles) that is supposedly perfect for small tanks.  Since I plan to start with cheap goldfish, a heater/thermometer isn’t necessary.  Of course, I can always add one later and go with a better filter.

Upside down case, mounting light into position

Aquarium safe silicone, found at Ace for 3x the price

Under-gravel filter, perfect for small tanks

Here’s the complete list of supplies:

Glass: 10.26 (also bought a second set, just in case — if you want it, let me know)
Silicone: 3.77
Aquarium-safe silicone: 7.41
Wood for the base (select pine): 6.84
LED light from eBay: 20.73
Under-gravel filter: 10.72 (shipping was more than the actual item)
Air pump, tubing, valve, gravel: 17.42
Fish catcher, food, and vacation feeders: 6.89
Distilled water: 1.21
Fish: 54 cents

Total cost: $85.79 (yikes!)

I went a bit over my $50.00 budget, but shipping killed me on a few items (filter, light) and I spent more to get better stuff on others (light, wood).  You can purchase a similar sized aquarium kit at a local pet store for $25 or so, but it wouldn’t be nearly as cool.

I also bought a small table to sit it on for $8.00 at IKEA so that any leaks wouldn’t damage my office furniture, but I ended up not using it because it was too small.

I initially set the tank up on Friday to give the water a few days to circulate, I ran into a few problems.  The air pump caused a loud vibration noise that was not conducive to a work environment.  I also had issues with the gang valve leaking and ruining my background print.  Currently, I have removed the bubble stone and I moved the pump to outside of the computer case. I set the filter up to run continuously, but put the LED light on a timer so that it simulates daylight for the fishies.

Today (Sunday), we added two goldfish from PetSmart: a regular orange one and a white one with an orange spot. Let’s hope they are still alive tomorrow when I get to work!

Finished product

Close up

Macquarium

The photos above as well as the video below were taken with my iPhone.  I forgot to take a camera!  I’ll try to post more shots soon.

Hopefully I don’t get fired for having this at work.  Nobody knows about it so far.  Remember my motto: It’s better to ask forgiveness than permission!

I told you I still had those 25-year-old Tinkertoys!

You’ve probably seen the reports on tv about Coupon Queen, Coupon Mom, Southern Savers, etc. and how they play the drug store game to get tons of stuff for really cheap.  Those ladies should just hope that one day they are as good at it as I am.

Each Sunday, I wake up, grab the CVS ad and Sunday coupons, and map out my game plan.  I make it so that CVS pretty much pays me to take their junk.  What if CVS is out of something on my plan? No problem! There are 2 stores within 4 miles of my house and another 20+ stores within 15 miles of my house. 

I’m not one of those folks who usually blogs about how much I save, but this morning CVS paid me 3 cents to take a $10.00 razor, $4.00 to take $10.00 worth of body wash, and 55 cents to take $15.00 worth of cereal.

Over the past few weeks, we have gotten free deodorant, heat wraps, holiday stuff, toothbrushes and toothpaste, shampoo, expensive razors, body wash, feminine products, candy, cereal, air fresheners, and tons of other stuff.

We do use most of the stuff, but then some of it we don’t need, especially the soaps and shampoos, as evidenced in this previous post.  I don’t even know why I do it.  Maybe I’m addicted?  The razors in the center photo, for example, are some of the newest models out and retail from $10 – $15 each!

On Friday, it snowed. And snowed. And snowed.  In fact, it was more snow than I have ever seen in Georgia.

When I was about 6, we had a little snowfall and had to use cardboard to slide down the hills in our neighborhood.  My grandmother was determined that I would not be sliding on cardboard anymore!  So for Christmas that year, my sister and I were given these awesome sleds from the JCPenney catalog.  Then they sat in storage for 25 years, waiting on the next great snowfall . . .

This is one time that being a pack-rat paid off!  Those sleds were worth the wait!

It was a fabulous weekend!  Sledding was finally conquered and multiple snowmen were built (pieces of some still remain). I’m probably the only person in central Georgia who owns real sleds!

(BTW, I totally stole the title of this post from Kristi F)

In the first episode of my pack rat series, I mentioned that I would one day get rid of my collection of hotel soaps.  Since we finished renovating the bathroom floor last week, today seemed like a good time to do it.

I’ve mentioned before that I take the soaps from hotels, but can you believe I’ve amassed this much?  I mean, who takes baths on vacations, right? (Just kidding)

There are soaps and shampoos from California, Las Vegas, Baltimore, Washington DC, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, many from Disney World and Disney Cruise Lines and even a bar from an Amtrak train!  In the next few months, I plan to add soap from Tennessee, Colorado, and Louisiana.

When I was younger and would go on school or church trips, I would make sure I was first into the hotel room so that I could swipe the soap before anyone noticed.  And if someone would call the front desk to report the missing soap and request more, I would swipe that too!

I have enough soaps and shampoos to mask the odor of several bodies for a very long time.  This isn’t even all of it!  After taking those photos, of course I found more hotel soap that had wandered away from my main stash.  And this doesn’t include all of the bars that I’ve used since I decided to stop collecting it and start using it. (No, we aren’t throwing it out.) We won’t have to buy soap or shampoo again for a VERY long time!

It’s no secret.  I am a pack rat.  One of my goals this year is to go through some of the things I collect and send it with the garbage man.  As the kids grow, our house seems to be shrinking.  There is no such thing as free space in our house.

The first thing to go is my collection of AOL (and other ISP) CDs.  I’m tossing several hundred CDs that have been sent to me over the years.  It’s actually been quite a while since I’ve added to the collection since dial-up is virtually non-existent now.

The next thing to go are pay-stubs.  I have every pay-stub that I have ever received.  Don’t worry, I scanned every single one of them into PDF using a high-speed scanner at work.  Nobody would have ever believed what things I did for $4.25 an hour while in high school or how a 21 year old college student could actually make $11.00 an hour working part time at Publix in 2001.  Perhaps my scans will help Tristan appreciate working when he gets older.  

Before trashing them, they will be properly shredded.  Don’t worry, you won’t find any SSNs in the photos below.  Here are my pay-stubs from high school and college:

Notice this Pack rat post is titled “part 1″.  There is certainly more to come.  Eventually I’ll use all of the hotel soaps that I’ve amassed since the 1980s and maybe I’ll even trash all of the Business Reply Mail envelopes.  Stay tuned!

What do you collect?