shark vs the universe
dirt enthusiast
YOU ARE THE REASON
roma★
blake kathryn
let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open
we're not kids anymore.
Stranger Things
h
Three Goblin Art
★
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
No title available
Cosmic Funnies
Jules of Nature
Product Placement
oozey mess
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
$LAYYYTER
ojovivo
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from Austria
seen from Russia
seen from Russia
seen from Latvia
seen from United Arab Emirates
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from Ecuador
seen from T1
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from Hungary
seen from Türkiye
seen from United States
seen from T1
seen from Romania
seen from United States
seen from Russia
@jtsternberg
Integrity is Structural
For a long time, I thought integrity meant being the buttoned-up guy who never messes up. The stuffy shirt who looks down on everyone else. Goody-goody vibes. I grew up in church, went to Christian school—I tried hard to be that guy. In my early twenties, I read Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. He talks a lot about paradigm shifts—moments where you see something…
The Stick That Stuck
What's brown and sticky? A stick. It's a dumb joke, but it's one of my faves. It also happens to be the best metaphor I've found for something that has taken me years to name: the way our strengths and weaknesses are bound together, inseparable, like two ends of the same stick. This post is a short introduction to the idea. My wife says I need to write a book, and she claims it will be a NYT best…
Test Post from CLI
This is an updated test post created via the jt-blog-publish command. Features Markdown support Category selection Draft mode Post updating via –postId flag Content was updated using the CLI tool!
Sunset at Sea
View On WordPress
If he left the grave behind, so will I
If he left the grave behind, so will I
If the stars were made to worship so will I If the mountains bow in reverence so will I If the oceans roar Your greatness so will I For if everything exists to lift You high so will I If the wind goes where You send it so will I If the rocks cry out in silence so will I
My favorite part of that song. The accurate depiction of the state of my free will combined with God’s sovereignty. If the…
View On WordPress
Hurricane Florence webcams
My friend Brian Harden has some cameras streaming. This is within a mile of our house, if you want to see how things are holding up in that area.
http://www.happyhardens.com/
View On WordPress
It me!
We’re writing up some mini-bios for the Zao blog. Here is mine.
View On WordPress
Kneeling - WWJD edition
First. I believe it is entirely possible to resent the players kneeling WITHOUT being racist. Many service men and women believe the flag is so much more than a symbol. And when the flag is “disrespected”, they may feel their service is disrespected. This is an extremely unfortunate side-effect of the protest, and I have never heard any of the players say otherwise. As for us who respect the…
View On WordPress
Today, I helped Joseph build a box.
A post shared by Justin Sternberg (@jtsternberg) on Sep 2, 2017 at 7:21pm PDT
More pictures of Joseph's box #futurewoodworker
A post shared by Justin Sternberg (@jtsternberg) on Sep 2, 2017 at 7:30pm PDT
box closed
After “burning” the sides of the box for bit of decoration
Built a box with Joseph
Bunk Bed for Joseph
Bunk Bed for Joseph
I built Joseph a bunkbed for his 4th(!) birthday. I don’t have much for gratuitous making-of photos, but here are a few of the finished product. Let me know if you’re interested in more detailed pictures (up close, joints, connections, that kind of thing). One messy garage later, we have a Bunkbed for Jo-man. A post shared by Justin Sternberg (@jtsternberg) on Aug 27, 2017 at 4:40pm PDT A bunk…
View On WordPress
Goals, Shmoals
Howdy! Pardon me while I clear out the cobwebs in the blogging corner of this site. Recently I've started following the work of James Clear. He seems to be (at least trying to be) a 21st century version of Stephen Covey or maybe John Maxwell. Coincidentally, today I came across this tweet: https://twitter.com/bradt/status/902851479169622016 This post by James Clear, as you can…
View On WordPress
Thanks to this Ugmonk post where he talks about building his own monitor stand, I was inspired to build my own. I used my (free) wood of choice, pallets.
As you can see from the detail pictures, the pallet wood is far from perfect, but I appreciate all the little knots and saw marks. Because this is the desk of a working man! 😝
This was pretty simple to make. The most difficult part (as is always the case when making anything near furniture grade with pallette wood) was the intense sanding that was required to get the boards smooth.
I opted not to finish this with anything at this point, but I may eventually apply some Tung oil. For now, I just wanted to get it on my desk to see how it works. I’m super happy with it!
Side-note: if you’re curious about my desk, you can read about that here, and if you’re curious about some of the things on my desk (monitor, speakers, mug… etc), check out the “my favorites” page.
Getting ready to “install”
I added some corner braces at the back to help keep the vertical boards square.
You can see some of the funky knots/wood grain.
Saw marks
Pre-drill if you don’t want to split them!
I like that I can tuck my keyboard underneath
In action
Monitor Stand (made from Pallet wood) Thanks to this Ugmonk post where he talks about building his own monitor stand, I was inspired to build my own.
Plywood Poster Frame I spent an amazon gift card to get this sweet x-wing schematics poster. I didn't want to hide the cool matte chalk-board-like finish behind a Plexiglass poster frame, so I built a plywood poster frame instead.
In late February, thanks to some nudging from my kids (and a slight case of Spring Fever), we decided it was high-time our backyard had a tree house. Our yard has a large number of tree-house-ready trees, so we actually struggled over which location would be best.
In the end, we decided the best place would be nestled between a live oak and willow oak, just inside the fence. Not only is the location perfect, with 3 large trunks/branches to support it, but being within the fence line, it helps prevent neighbor kids from coming over and hanging out on the tree house. Not that I wouldn’t be happy about that, but there’s a certain liability that comes along with prospect.
Building this has been one of the most therapeutic and rewarding things I’ve built (I’ve built a few things). If you’re contemplating doing something similar, my advice is go for it, because you (and your kids) only live once!
To get started, I read a lot about some of the basics of building a tree house. E.g. what size boards should be used depending on the distance being spanned, what type of fasteners to use, how to make things level against an organic surface, etc. I also bought this awesome little book. It’s full of awesome little tidbits and illustrations. While not meant to be a complete how-to, it provided plenty of light bulb moments and inspiration. Highly recommended.
I started construction February 25 (2017), and after a weekend and some help from friends/family, I had a basic platform installed with floor joists.
Hard to go inside when the treehouse project is waiting for me.
A post shared by Justin Sternberg (@jtsternberg) on Feb 27, 2017 at 9:40am PST
Another angle on that treehouse while I wait for Saturday to get here.
A post shared by Justin Sternberg (@jtsternberg) on Mar 1, 2017 at 8:07pm PST
Since I am a web developer by day, it feels super good to get outside and work with my hands (and some power tools!).
Oh yeah. #treehousemaster #rockstarmanofmine
A post shared by Meagan Sternberg (@meagansternberg) on Mar 4, 2017 at 5:07pm PST
As much as possible throughout this project, I tried to use reclaimed wood. In that platform, the joists are all new pressure treated 2x6s and hung with joist hangers, and the longest span (in the picture above) is a new pressure treated 2×10. But the other side’s 2×10 is a leftover from our old water-bed (yep, you heard me right), and the two side 2x6s are leftover frames from an old bunk bed that we never used for the kids that we got from some garage sale.
To fasten the boards to the tree, I used 4 or 5 inch lag screws and washers.
The next weekend was spent working out some details, like corner braces, angle braces, and corner beams for the eventual hand-rails.
All. Day. Long. #buildinghisoffice #treehouse #thekidswillhavetoshare
A post shared by Meagan Sternberg (@meagansternberg) on Mar 4, 2017 at 5:09pm PST
Much of the braces are boards from pallets that we scrounged up (the final project probably has about 5-8 pallets in it), and the corner 4x4s were used to hold up an old lattice divider in the yard (the lattice has been gone/destroyed for quite a while).
Here’s a redneck stunt I pulled to get some of those pallets:
https://twitter.com/Jtsternberg/status/843524866804465665
(I need a truck!)
By the end of weekend 2, we had half a floor!
We've got half a floor! Just need to find some more pallets.
A post shared by Justin Sternberg (@jtsternberg) on Mar 4, 2017 at 4:28pm PST
As you can see, we also used boards from pallets for the tree house floor.
The next weekend, the first order of business was to finish the floor so the kids could come up and check it out. 😁
And they are up there! #mommycantlook #treehouse
A post shared by Meagan Sternberg (@meagansternberg) on Mar 11, 2017 at 6:41pm PST
Time was limited that weekend, so I had to wait another week before I could start adding the hand-rail. Took me a bit to sort out how I wanted that to look. I didn’t want to have too many boards to obstruct the views (I wanted the tree house to feel open), so I left about a 6 inch gap between each board.
Well, it turns out my son can fit his head through that gap, and so Meagan was having none of that. So, back to the drawing board, and I had to add some lateral boards to make sure nobody was gonna be squeezing out. As you can see below, we took this opportunity to add a little flair and make it look like an authentic kid-built tree house (I mean.. I am just a big kid, so it’s pretty accurate).
We let our kids, their cousins, and some of their friends paint their names and other things on a few boards, and nailed ’em on!
Friends make a treehouse a home.
A post shared by Meagan Sternberg (@meagansternberg) on Mar 19, 2017 at 5:38pm PDT
#happyface #treehouse #myohmia
A post shared by Meagan Sternberg (@meagansternberg) on Mar 19, 2017 at 5:36pm PDT
Boys working hard. #treehousemasters #gettingsoclose
A post shared by Meagan Sternberg (@meagansternberg) on Mar 19, 2017 at 5:35pm PDT
Another end to a successful weekend.
Becoming habitable! Thanks to @wy_and_jen and @perryjack5 for all your help today! We'll make sure you guys get permanent all-family passes.
A post shared by Justin Sternberg (@jtsternberg) on Mar 19, 2017 at 5:59pm PDT
The next weekend, we finalized the other 2 sides (minus the door). We got a little creative with those sides to try and work with the trees’ structures.
All sides are up! Now… how to get up there… 🌳🏗
A post shared by Justin Sternberg (@jtsternberg) on Mar 27, 2017 at 6:18am PDT
This is the point where I consider the top “habitable” and began working from the tree house.
https://twitter.com/Jtsternberg/status/846430312578109440
https://twitter.com/Jtsternberg/status/846781571030007808
Of course, some people had fun with this.
https://twitter.com/d_espi/status/846783542797520897
https://twitter.com/d_espi/status/846809173589458944
The next step was to build the door/gate. I used a gate latch and built a crude rope/pulley mechanism that allows the kids to open the latch from below the door. I posted a video at the end where you can get a general idea.
Once that floor was complete, it was time to begin construction of the first level, half-way up. I wasn’t sure I was going to go that route, but once the main part was complete, it just seemed like the best way to go.. It would provide a bit of a safety net on the side where the kids would climbing in/out of the top, and allow them to have multiple levels to their “tree condo”.
Multi-level tree condominium 😜
A post shared by Justin Sternberg (@jtsternberg) on Apr 14, 2017 at 7:02pm PDT
At first, I attempted build the platform without adding the additional 4×4 supports on the outer corners, hoping the angle braces would be enough. Unfortunately, they didn’t provide enough structural shear-strength, so I had to dig some holes, pour some cement and install some ground-rated 4x4s. Once those were in place, the platform structure was as solid as a rock.
We then got the sides built:
About ready for some summer adventures.
A post shared by Justin Sternberg (@jtsternberg) on Apr 17, 2017 at 6:15am PDT
At this point, the only thing missing is the ladders. Surprisingly, building these was some of the most difficult work in the whole process.
This ladder was super fun to make. It's an interesting challenge to cut in half round-ish raw logs from your yard without a proper table saw.
A post shared by Justin Sternberg (@jtsternberg) on Apr 30, 2017 at 5:01am PDT
I like to think this place is a little magical. Also, final ladder is complete.
A post shared by Justin Sternberg (@jtsternberg) on May 8, 2017 at 4:14pm PDT
Phew! This has been a ton of (fun!) work. Happy to see it come together. Here’s a quick video tour:
Turbo Treehouse Tour
A post shared by Justin Sternberg (@jtsternberg) on May 8, 2017 at 3:55pm PDT
You might be wondering, “what’s next”. Well, the grandparents purchased a tube slide as an early birthday/Christmas type of gift (ssshhh they don’t know yet), so we’ll see about installing that once it gets in. 😁 The adventure never ends! Thanks for hanging with me this far. If you’re interested, page 2 of this post is a big gallery of images from the process. Hope you enjoyed!
Processed with VSCO with kk1 preset
Processed with VSCO with kk1 preset
Processed with VSCO with kk1 preset
Processed with VSCO with acg preset
Processed with VSCO with kk1 preset
Processed with VSCO with kk1 preset
Processed with VSCO with v5 preset
Processed with VSCO with v8 preset
Processed with VSCO with v5 preset
Processed with VSCO with kk1 preset
The Treehouse Adventures In late February, thanks to some nudging from my kids (and a slight case of Spring Fever), we decided it was high-time our backyard had a tree house.
"Is experience exactly the same as pessimism?"
“Is experience exactly the same as pessimism?”
This Dilbert strip is painfully accurate.
View On WordPress
Made some delicious grilled BBQ chicken today. Here’s how I did it.
Ingredients:
Large chicken breasts. The larger/plumper you get, the longer it takes to grill them, BUT also has a much better chance of being juicy inside and not getting dried out.
Grill Mates® Applewood Rub. Looks like this.
Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ Sauce. Looks like this.
Steps:
1. Rub the chicken with the Rub.
Well, technically, the first step, if needed, is to dry the chicken pieces with some paper towels.. You don’t want the rub to slime off. The super important part here is that you are not stingy. I dump a big pile on top of the chicken piece, dump a little in the tupperware thingy, then rub it it in and around. Make sure to get it in all the nooks and crannies and make sure the whole piece is encrusted and orangy. Your hands will be orangy too. I don’t recommend licking it…
2. Refrigerate
You can put the rub on at any time, even right before you want to grill, but it’s ideal to put it on a few hours before you grill to give it time for the rub to set and the flavor to marinate. Take it out around 15 minutes before you start grilling.
3. Grill
Grilling is a nuanced thing, but here are a few of my recommendations for optimum results. Keep in mind, the times are all based on the heat of your grill, its hotspots, etc.. times are approximations.
Start the grill 5-10 minutes before putting the chicken on so it’s hot
To help with the chicken sticking to the grill, spray some of that grill spray stuff
For the large chicken breasts I had, it took about 40 minutes on the grill, so you need to be committed
If you have an infrared grill or something, avoid cranking the heat all the way to high. That’s a good way to dry those suckers out. My grill is a standard propane grill and doesn’t get quite as hot. For my grill, I left it on high for about 20 of the 40 minutes, then went to medium.
4. Flip
Generally speaking, it’s best to move or flip the meat as few times as possible. After about 10-15 min, flip all the pieces. They should have some nice grill marks by this point.
5. BBQ sauce
After about 5-10 minutes, squeeze some of that Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce on them, and use a marinade brush to spread the BBQ sauce around on the side that is facing you, giving it a nice glazed look. Careful not to go crazy, as you don’t want to remove the rub that’s on the chicken and you’ll be flipping these one more time before you’re done, and you don’t want them to drip all over your grill when you do.
6. Flip again, and more BBQ sauce
Another 5-10 minutes later, when the BBQ on the top has caramelized just a bit from the heat, flip them one more time, applying the BBQ sauce on that side.
7. You’re done!
Well, not quite yet. At this point, you keep them on the grill until they are no longer pink on the inside. Cooking chicken is always tricky, as you need it to be fully cooked (unlike beef). It’s not ideal, but I always remove the biggest ones and cut into the thickest part to see how it’s looking. Even this cut is calculated as you don’t want the juices to all flow out of the cut when you put it back on (if you need to). Once they’re white all the way through, you’re done. Your chicken should look something like this:
Grilled BBQ Chicken Made some delicious grilled BBQ chicken today. Here's how I did it. Ingredients: Large chicken breasts. The larger/plumper you get, the longer it takes to grill them, BUT also has a much better chance of being juicy inside and not getting dried out.
WooCommerce: Allow adding multiple products to the cart via the add-to-cart query string
WooCommerce: Allow adding multiple products to the cart via the add-to-cart query string
If you’re not familiar, WooCommerce offers a way to link to the checkout/cart page and automatically add a product to the cart. You can create a link like so:
[snippet slug=woocommerce-add-product-to-cart-url line_numbers=false lang=php]
I recently (somewhat annoyingly) discovered that while that works fairly well, there was no way to do this for multiple products. So I’ve created a snippet that…
View On WordPress