Tag Archives: CB2

World of Nerdcraft: My 21st Century Steamer Trunk

Posted on by
Open the Luggage Bay door Hal...

Open the Luggage Bay door Hal…

     Here’s a project I’ve been working on for about three months now.  Back when I first set up the Nerd Cave, I bought a large black, plastic storage bin to use as a coffee table/ottoman.  My plan was to spray paint it O.D. Green and add some stenciling to make it look like a cargo container off the U.S.S. Sulaco (from the film Aliens).  I may still do something like that down the road, but ended up scrapping the idea for now because the storage bin I chose was too tall.  It worked great as a coffee table, but as an ottoman, the height tended to hyper-extend my knees.  If there’s one thing my knees don’t need, it’s hyper-extension.  I couldn’t find another bin that fit what I needed so I back-burnered the whole thing.

Continue reading →

Designing the Nerd Cave–Going Online

Posted on by

     I spend 8 hours a day sitting at a desk in front of a computer in a dingy, windowless, government office.  The absolute last thing I want to do when I get home is sit at a desk in front of a computer.  Unfortunately, the busy life of a renaissance nerd means I need to have a PC handy.  The obvious choice was to get a laptop and that’s what I ended up doing.

     I’ve never been a huge fan of laptops.  The few times I’ve played with them in the past, I found them to be clunky and I absolutely hated touch pads.   After some research,  I went with a Sony Vaio, getting a nice deal on Amazon.  Adding a Logitech wireless mouse took care of my aversion to touch pads.

Continue reading →

Designing the Nerd Cave–Modeling Workbench

Posted on by

    I’ve been buildling models since about the age of ten and I’ve had a model workbench everywhere I’ve lived since 1989.  I’m a huge military history buff and I used to build 1/35 scale armor models almost exclusively.  However, in the years since my kids were born, I’d gotten bored with them, had less time and all but lost interest.  They tended to be massive dust collectors and I had pretty much maxed out my skills on them.

     In the years before our house fire, I’d started dabbling in Warhammer, 40K, Lord of the Rings miniatures, spacecraft and large scale figures. I actually had a pretty nice Warhammer Vampire Counts army progressing. Key word: had.

Continue reading →

Designing the Nerd Cave–Home Theater

Posted on by

     Maybe “home theater” is a bit of an overstatement.  I’ve never been one of those guys who needs to have the surround sound speakers finely tuned to the acoustic profile of a room and the windows shaking.  If I can understand the dialogue, I’m usually good.

      I actually had contemplated NOT having a TV in the new nerd cave.  But that feeling passed after about 10 seconds.  Let’s face it, no self-respecting nerd would voluntarily exclude a TV from his or her den.  My problem was that I had nowhere to put the TV.  My wife suggested mounting it up high in the corner but that would’ve meant a pretty small screen and I’d have felt like I was sitting in a doctor’s office waiting room watching the Weather Channel.

Continue reading →

Designing the Nerd Cave—The Reading Room

Posted on by

     It’s a cold rainy Monday afternoon in November and you’ve got the day off of work. You’ve spent the morning running errands or doing chores around the house.  Now it’s time to chill.  If you’re like me, the absolute number one way to spend the afternoon is to ensconce yourself in a comfy chair with a big fleece blanket and a pile of books, comics, magazines, or all of the above.

     When designing my dream nerd cave, my first priority was a comfortable place to read.  However, the room still needs to function as a guest bedroom.  The queen-sized bed that we had, while comfortable, took up way too much room.  Plus, I’ve had too many reading sessions in bed turn into nap sessions, so I’ve got to stay more or less vertical.

Continue reading →