Creatrope

My newest costume is finally up. It’s got some finishing touches to go, but I wanted to squeak it on the site before Halloween in case some of the techniques were useful to other DIY costume makers.
Here’s my version of the General Grievous Costume for Halloween ‘08!

Several of my favorite posts involve Halloween costumes & props. I’ve got a few more in the works, but I thought I’d point new readers to our Halloween posts:

http://www.creatrope.com/blog/make/godzilla-costume/

http://www.creatrope.com/blog/make/high-tech-robot-halloween-costume/

http://www.creatrope.com/blog/make/rocking-gravestone/

http://www.creatrope.com/blog/make/quick-pvc-halloween-mannequin/

Make a card cable organizer to prevent your cords from falling and keep them nicely organized at the back of your desk.

Having trouble laying your hands on the smaller items in the toolbox?

Think outside the toolbox!

Turn a static foam gravestone into an animated gravestone using K’Nex in about ten minutes.

Quick Halloween Rocking Gravestone

Learn to make an easy and imposing Halloween mannequin from PVC for about $6. It packs flat (doesn’t add to your clutter), and holds costumes in ways sure to get a lot of attention from your halloween audience.

If you are like me you will find a reason to use email while you travel. If you have a Blackberry you are probably set as long as you have connectivity (and the right data plan). Sometimes the internet cafe, library, or other ‘insecure’ location is your only or best option.

There’s lots of articles on how to safely use public internet access, but frankly, if you don’t own the environment you are subject to keyloggers and other nasties that makes it hard to truly have peace of mind on using your precious email account.

So why risk it at all? If all you are trying to do is send a safe-arrival email, remind the neighbor to let the cat out while you’re traveling, or send a quick digital photo to a friend, simply create a ‘throw-away’ email account that you don’t care if it gets compromised.

The fastest and easiest way to do this is by using gmail. Simply send your main email an ‘invitation’ on the bottom right. When this email arrives a few moments later, create a new email account. If your main email is foo@gmail.com, you might use travel.foo@gmail.com for ease of memory. It’s probably a good idea to change up the password a bit as well from your normal password.

When you travel, simply use that email to send and receive email. Tell your friends if you like or send them a quick mail as you go (from that account) saying that you’re travelling and using this email for a bit. They may not remember or use it - to be candid if everyone had a different email while travelling it would be pretty annoying, but if you need to carry on a dialog with a specific person it will work (especially if they can just reply).

Since your travel email has nothing to do with your ‘normal’ email there’s no risk and you don’t have to bother with over-complicated security rituals. To be clear - your new email protects your main email because they are completely disconnected. If you start to create online banking accounts, trade stocks, or send gushy love letters with your travel mail, any mail you send and receive under that account is not auto-magically protected! It’s just a separate email with no ‘history’.

You can also forward select mails from your mail account by filtering to your travel email. Obviously if you are too comprehensive with the forwarding you’ll defeat the purpose of the travel email. You might forward mail from a few selected friends or work colleagues and not sensitive mails from banks, etc. Or just the opposite - allow alerts from your bank or financial instituation to go through and nothing else.

There are other alternatives - such as using a ‘catch-all’ email account associated with a personal domain, or a pre-existing but rarely used email (perhaps one left over from your DSL/Cable account you never use?). But I prefer the disconnected-ness of the throw-away gmail account.

When you return either retire the gmail account or use it on your next trip!

Lost an important tool? Make a new one!

What’s a cardboard spaceship without a Lunar Excursion Module!

In honor of our efforts to return to the moon (personally I think we should just go straight to Mars, but that’s another story), why not recycle a few boxes for your kids and put together a Lunar Excursion Module for your kid!

It goes together quickly with a box knife and hot glue (it won’t last forever but you can’t beat it for speed).
The bottom is open (or you can make a door in the back).

Cardboard rivets also work well.

Build a Godzilla Halloween Costume from recycled cardboard & packing material!