DIY Life

Did you know that many household items are considered hazardous? This means you cannot just toss 'em in the trash when their useful lives are over. Well...you can just toss 'em in the trash, but that would make you naughty, naughty, and not very green-minded, wouldn't it?

There's no shortage of advice out there on safe disposal for hazardous household waste. But, really, who has time to sit down and read the ten-page brochure your city's waste collection division mailed you? That is, if you can dig it out from the depths of your To Do pile. (I think that's where mine was last sighted.) If you're like me, you'll simply turn to the Web for help. There are fabulous tips like this DIY Life post by Francesca. However, if you're pressed for time and need to save your brain cells for other tasks, check out this fun little interactive tool from the website Learner. It will help you decide whether what you've got is hazardous and therefore requires special disposal. Happy bonus for tired minds: no reading required -- just click on the little pictures to test your knowledge. It's a geeky yet fun way to educate yourself!

Addictive pop culture site X-Entertainment has posted a fine DIY/reuse-recycle idea. X-Entertainment guru Matt demonstrates how to turn an empty Altoids tin into a teeny-tiny sanity-saving survival kit. Yep. All you need to get out of any conceivable urban scrape (well, some of them, anyway) is tucked securely -- and super compactly! -- in your back pocket.

Check out the X-E site for most excellent pics. Wow, that's a lot of stuff to fit into one tiny tin! First, there's the basics: food and drink, in the form of beef jerky, two types of gum, and a tiny vial of something strong to drink. Second, are comfort items: Listerine strips, a cigar and a couple matches. Finally, fun items to help you cope with typical urban boredom, such as being stuck in traffic: crossword puzzle, pencil and paper, a tiny piece of clay for modeling, a die (as in one half of a set of dice), and stickers for decorating your surroundings. Beautiful, just beautiful.

For those of you already enamored of those cute little Altoids tins, this is a fabulous way to prolong the love. In fact...let's make a pact not to toss them when all the mints are gone. We will try and repurpose them instead! Need ideas? Here's a DIY project that I touched upon just a couple days ago: the Minty Boost iPod charger. As I stumble on more ideas, I'll share them with you right here at DIY Life.

It's the newest attraction at DIY Life! It's got colored stars and arrows! It's hot, hot, hot! Without further ado, let me introduce to you our brand-spanking new commenting system. Yes, the whole thing has been upgraded so that you will find it much, much easier to A) post your own comments to the site and B) correspond with other readers.

First up, we now have threading. This feature enables you to respond directly to other DIY Life readers' comments. Simply click the "reply" button under the particular comment that grabs you, type in your message, then click "add your comments." Presto! Your words will appear underneath the parent comment. This way, it's possible to get distinct "threads" of DIY-related conversation going.

In last week's edition of Wedstravaganza, I took you through a virtual cornucopia of meal selections, RSVP count updates, cake styles and selections, reception ballroom pictures, and photographer choices. We're now at week six of the eight-part series, so I'm going to attempt to wind up many events in this edition, and prepare you for what my final wedding day looked like and how everything came together.

After deciding to rent a projection system from our chosen wedding place, Marci and I set ourselves on a mission to locate a bunch of old photographs. You know, those yellow, 1970s-era (oops, I let me age slip there, heh) Polaroids and crusty images found spread amongst photo albums from family members on both sides.

Marci's mom and dad obliged with over six albums full of pictures from infant age through college, and my parents did the same. In fact, we had so many pictures at our choosing that it was hard to pick out 150 images or so that would work for the final reception presentation.

Twitter much? Well, whether or not you even have the first clue about what Twitter is or what it does, DIY Life is now live on twitter, and will be bringing you updates on some of the best stuff that DIY Life has to offer each day! Drop that hack-saw for just a sec, put down the yarn, be sure to unplug that drill, and take a spin -- this is the web after all -- over to our twitter feed for our illustrious updates:


Twitter is a place where many people now get their too-much-information-and-actually-legal-eavesdropping fix by seeing what people are up to. The funny thing is that people actually add updates to the site so people can be all up in their business. Why? Who knows, it is web 2.0, and it isn't supposed to make sense, we just know it is the cat's pajamas. Check us out and see what all the buzz about at twitter.com/diylife. For any of you hardcore tweet-mongers out there, you can also add our twitter RSS feed to your reader, if you want.

Oh, and if you end up getting twitter-pated, we really can't help you with that, and remember friends don't let friends twitter under the influence ... wait, never mind.

Wondering how to use the features on DIY Life's pages? Check out the video below. Be sure to also check out our Top Five Cool Features of DIY Life for some of the cooler things you can do around here.

Have you ever done things yourself? Have you ever thought about getting paid to blog about it? Are you handy as all-get-out? If so, have I got news for you...

Weblogs, inc. (an AOL company) is the world's largest publisher of web logs (blogs) and is looking for talented writers with a definitive do-it-yourself sensibility to join our team of bloggers! We need people who know a lot about everything and who can help our readers become a bit more handy on a regular basis. We would like to invite you to apply to blog for us.

Here's how it works:
You write short articles online (blog posts) for us that help our readers do-it-themselves with handy tips on everything including: home improvement, gardening, computers, scrapbooking, finances, weekend building projects, kids, cooking, wedding tips, organization, toys, recreation, etc. and we'll pay you to do it.

Here is what we need from you:
To apply for this blogging "position", send the following information to the email addresses at the bottom of the screen:

1. Some information about you.
   

   • Your full name
     
   • What your qualifications and interests are in the realm of DIY.
   • The address(es) of your blog(s) or website(s) if you've already been writing on the subject.
   • What you can bring to DIYlife that we haven't already got, and so on.

2. What we can depend on you to do. How many posts can you write a week? Can you write every day, every other day, or just during a particular phase of the moon? If we needed an original step-by-step walk-through done from scratch in 48 hours, could you do it? We need to know.

3. Three original blog posts. Consider this the audition, the resume, the golf-swing. We want you to write some stuff (imagine that). We won't accept anything that's been published anywhere before. (Note: You retain ownership and all rights to anything you submit in your application, and we won't publish it anywhere, unless we bring you on-board.) Emphasis on the original, emphasis on the three. Show off your knowledge of your topic, show off your ability to go in-depth and beyond the blurb, show off your wit and passion, and show off your impeccable grammar and spelling. Send us one of each of the following three kinds of posts:

   1. Technique or tool profile: Introduce us to a tool or technique that we may not have heard of or know about. Tell us about the particulars of it, how an average joe could use the tool effectively or perform this technique.
      

   2. How-to/tutorial: Show us how to do something useful. It can be a simple tip (or a bunch of tips), or it can be a full-fledged tutorial, but make sure it's good, original and interesting to read.
      

   3. News item: An in-depth report on a current event or trend in the DIY world. This can be something about a retailer or a general story on what people are doing to their homes, etc. We're not the Associated Press, and your post shouldn't read like it, but it should be interesting and informative.
      

A tall order, to be sure, but we know you're up to it. Impress us, entertain us, make us wish we had grabbed you a month ago, and you could be the newest DIYlife blogger on your block (which happens to need a coat of paint and shutters)!

One note: if you happen to be a specialist in electronics or robotics we're especially keen to talk to you. If you wish to specialize in something we're missing in the realm of DIY, drop us a line and let's chat. But we're mostly looking for DIY generalists, so be sure to follow the instructions for best results.

No attachments, please! Send your samples in the body of your e-mail.

After double-checking to make sure you've included all of the above, send your email with samples to the address you see in the graphic below. Due to the volume of applications, we cannot personally reply to every applicant. Yes, this is a paid position, in case we hadn't mentioned that already.

Wondering what all these buttons and text do in DIY Life? Wonder no more! Let's take a look at our top 5 features... Be sure to check out our How to use DIY Life video as well.

1. Categories and Tags
You may access categories at the top of the page. Click on "Tech" and a drawer will open, revealing all the tech categories. By clicking on those words, like "electronics," you'll see a page with only posts in that specific category. This is nice when you just want to see posts about knitting, or drywall or robotics. Browse around!

The tags, on the right, a little further down, are words each blogger adds when they write a post. Think of them like keywords, and this list will change once in a while (unlike categories, which are hard-wired). Click on a tag, and you'll find posts with those tags-- even if they span multiple categories.

Keep reading to learn how you can see fresh, hourly updates by category or tag, how to leave comments, how to search the site, and what reference pages we have available (hint: see area 5 there).

Ready, set, paint your station wagon. Pimp your ride, however you like to say it. Seriously, is it even worth it to attempt to do that which only professionals have done? You be the judge, but we say of course! It is always at least worth a try. Well, I suppose your car isn't something you want to ruin, cause it isn't like you can just get a new one from the hardware store. Statracing has an excellent and quite thorough tutorial with photos on how to pimp your own ride with a brand new paint job.

Painting your vehicle can be a big undertaking, when you are doing it all yourself. There are many things you need to take into account before doing this job, but fortunately, it looks like this Statracing tutorial has it all. They even include how to mix paint, test pattern, painting technique, and other details. I must say the finished product is quite impressive.

Today's prize is a 6.25 horsepower wet/dry Shop-Vac that really sucks. It holds a good 16.6 gallons of whatever you feel like sucking up with it, scraps from your last DIY job, dust, dirt, exotic particles, something the dog dragged in, or a mess created by a child who is hell-bent on covering everything you own in a slimy liquid, and much more. In fact, this thing has enough oomph for you to experiment with what is and is not suckable all over the house. All the guys reading this just clapped, I know I did.

This beautiful piece of equipment features a long 18' cord, a 2.5" lock-on hose, and all the attachments you could fancy. It also sports a bright yellow hull so it is much harder to lose in your well-calculated DIY mayhem. If that isn't enough to get you drooling, this vacuum will blow you away with its versatility as it doubles as a 200 MPH blower. If I did the math right, that is enough to hold a small child up in the weightless for a few seconds, not that I either recommend or endorse this practice. Please use this in a safe, careful, and proper manner, but don't be afraid to enjoy its use as well.

Please leave us a comment to be able to have a shot at winning this machine which I'm sure you will come to love like man's new best friend and even give it a prime spot at your family dinner table. This Shop-Vac is depressed still in the box, and it is begging to be unpacked, plugged in, and used to suck, or unsuck whatever you want. The vacuum wants you to be its new owner, and so do we. It sucks well, and frankly, we lose more bloggers that way, so we would love for you to have it instead.

To enter for today's giveaway prize, leave a comment on this post and validate it. Entry period is 5AM-11:30PM EST on August 8. Full rules after the jump and on our Toolstravaganza page. Good luck and happy crafting!

Weeds, every lawn has them. Our blogger, Dan Chilton examined some alternative strategies for killing weeds without resorting to the use of expensive lawn care chemicals. Based on Dan's inspiration, I thought I'd give you a look at one of my "stay green" strategies for dealing with the nastiest weeds that pop up repeatedly in the middle of your yard. The trick to permanently eliminating your toughest weeds is to make sure that any root which remains in the ground cannot regenerate.

I was surfing around the Internet and I was intrigued by a picture of Paris Hilton carrying a laptop computer which was wrapped in a quilted pink Sumo laptop sleeve. I thought, "Hey wait a second, quilted pink? That's not the style for the Paris Hilton we've all come to know and love!" I can accept the pink color all right but quilted? I'd expect Paris to be sporting patent leather with studs, or something of that nature. Then I realized that it was a picture of the new, improved and "rehabilitated" Paris Hilton and it all made sense.

Here is a better solution for dressing your laptop than to have to drop $35 on a pink quilted laptop sleeve that your grandma could have made in an hour while talking on her cell phone. Here are some hand-made, high quality and trend setting laptop sleeve and cover ideas.

What kid doesn't like to go down a slide? Slides are great attractions at water parks, theme parks and just about any fair or carnival you go to. You will find at least one slide in virtually any municipal park or playground which provides play equipment for kids and the slide is still a must have item on back yard swing sets and jungle gyms across the country.

Here's how to help keep the slide fun going, fast and furious, in your back yard playground. After all let's face it, the faster the slide is, the more fun it is. For metal and fiberglass slides, apply a coat of car polish in just the same manner as you would wax the hood of your car. Apply a generous coat of wax, let it dry for a few minutes, and then buff it to a high polish. For composite plastic slides, spraying them down with pure silicon mold release and then wiping off the excess will provide a surface which will send those little butts flying!

In both cases, be very certain to keep the wax or silicon away from the climbing steps and handles. You don't want to reduce the friction factors in those two areas. Additionally, it's always a good idea to have a pad of coarse mulch or at least four inches of sand at the landing end of a slide. Sliders always have a lot more fun when they don't have to worry about bruising their little rear ends!

Acid reflux is a nasty health condition which many people suffer from. I personally don't have the affliction but I have friends who do. Acid reflux is the upward passage of digestive acids past the Lower Esophageal Sphincter (LES) and back into the esophagus. The resulting symptoms can range from fairly mild burning to moderately severe pain. Over time, acid reflux will even damage the interior of the esophagus.

I have discovered a recurring theme when I talk to my friends about their acid reflux troubles. It seems that most of them have found significant relief with simple changes in diet and eating habits. I happened upon an article which reminded me about what my friends have said helps their acid reflux discomfort. The article by Joe Barton reaffirms that you can probably relieve some of those symptoms yourself.

First, there are some simple changes you can make before you actually change your food choices at all. Make sure that you're hungry before you eat, don't eat just because it's time to. Take reasonable portions, be relaxed about eating your food and always chew a bit more than you think you need to. It's also a good idea to drink some water along with your meals.

The next time you buy an electronic machine and find those little packets filled with something called desiccant in with the packing materials, don't throw out those packets. Desiccant is the name for a group of materials which have a special attraction for water. They are placed in the packaging with electronics to help protect them from moisture damage during transit.

Take those packets and just toss them in the bottom of your tool boxes. They will act as mini dehumidifiers, fighting the condensation which tries to make rust specimens out of your tools. Hand tools are prone to damage from condensation because their dense materials make them handy condensers of moisture especially when enclosed in tool boxes. Keep your tools clean, dry and off the floor for longest life, and if you get a couple packets of desiccant, just toss them in those tool boxes. Your tools will thank you!