Castle in the Clouds

One of my favorite songs comes from Les Miserables: Castle on a Cloud, sung by the sweet Cosette:

There is a castle on a cloud,
I like to go there in my sleep,
Aren't any floors for me to sweep,
Not in my castle on a cloud.

There is a room that's full of toys,
There are a hundred boys and girls,
Nobody shouts or talks too loud,
Not in my castle on a cloud.

There is a lady all in white,
Holds me and sings a lullaby,
She's nice to see and she's soft to touch,
She says "Cosette, I love you very much."

I know a place where no one's lost,
I know a place where no one cries,
Crying at all is not allowed,
Not in my castle on a cloud.

This "castle" is found in Manti, Utah. I got to visit on Valentine's Day with Prince Charming, and it was absolutely wonderful. Not only was the structure itself magnificent, I just felt so happy to be there and serve the Lord. It was built in the late 1800s, which is so amazing considering the lack of technology and tools that we use today to build such edifices. Without a doubt, its construction was directed by the Lord. We saw the original spiral staircases: 6 stories tall and 151 steps. It was so beautiful.

Total number of temples in Utah:13
Temples in Utah visited: 5

Just eight more to go in two-ish years . . .

Almost-Free Luxury

I have always wanted an lcd projector, and this last week we finally got one. The idea of a projector is very appealing to me for several reasons. First and most obvious is the 90 inch screen, which makes watching things much more pleasent than on my laptop. Second, and probably a little less obvious, is the hassle to set it up as opposed to a traditional TV. The hassle? A benefit? Yes. We keep our projector hidden under our bed and out of sight. I think that if we had a nice tv in our front room it would be a big temptation to overuse it, to have it on while we eat or just on all the time. In one of my apartments we had a TV, and it was on constatnly, piping filth into our home almost 24-7. Well, that wont happen to our house. It's not that we don't like TV (we are getting way off topic now) its just that there really isn't anything on there worth watching. Anyhow, enough anti-TV ranting.

So how did I do it? We can't afford an LCD projector, the cost upwards of $500. But we can afford to build one on our own. So I got an overhead from the BYU surplus sale for $15 and got an old lcd screen (a sony 1024 X 768 screen vintage 2002) from work for free. We put them together and there you have it. Not the prettiest or most easy to use (there are circut boards hanging everywhere). But it works and looks really good. If any of you are intrested, here are the instructions:

http://www.instructables.com/id/LCD-Overhead-Projector/

It was actually really easy, from the time we got home with the screen and the overhead, it was assembled in under 30 minutes, and that was just taking apart the screen and putting it where the transperency normally goes. (It would have taken a lot less time, but my cordless drill wasnt charged). In the inscructions (which I havent actually read, I just got the idea from there and then figured it out once the screws started flying), they talk about having to solder, but with my screen I didn't. I think all monitors are made a little different, I just lucked out. Your experience may vary.

I tried to take several pictures of it in action, but none of them seemed to work out, this video is the clostest I can come, hopefully the scale and picture quality will come through. Also, here is the wall that we projected it on, it pretty much fills that space.

Next project?

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/09/dumpster_hot_tub.html

It even comes with its own cover!