Episode 1: Paperclip and 2x4

Opposable Thumbs

Our first episode! We completed our "Paperclip and 2x4 "challenge! Some things went great. Other things went... pretty darn wrong. We also introduce ourselves, share what inspired us this week and talk about the structure of the podcast. We discuss the goofiness of "Silicon Beach," the awesomeness of Prisoners' Inventions, and the rise of Critical Making. We try to comprehend the elusive power of the bobbin (Do you even sew, bro?). We ruminate on the exciting topics of glass skateboards and shipping containers. Rob learns diegetics has nothing to do with L. Ron. Come to find out, Comic Sans might not be the worst font in the world. You can checkout photos of what we built at http://projects.opposablepodcast.com/project/1/

Links:

• McMaster-Carr — Taylor was a McMaster-Carr employee
• Silicon Beach - Wikipedia — No, really, "Silicon Beach" is actually a place
• Feral Art and Technology | Rob Ray
• EXOSKELETON — EXOSKELETON is Rob's art space
• EXOSKELETAL by EXOSKELETON — The EXOSKELETON newsletter
• Tenancy In Common Definition | Investopedia — a way to buy a building with other people.
• Taylor Hokanson | Artist, Engineer, Educator, Tall — Taylor Hokanson's website
• Toy Story 3 Clip:A Mr Tortilla Head:B Ripping Trouble - YouTube
• Toy Story 3 Buzz's Spanish Mode - YouTube
• Controlled Feeding Status | Taylor Hokanson
• 2x4 Contest — Instructables 2x4 Contest
• Prisoners’ Inventions – TEMPORARY SERVICES — collaboration with Angelo
• criticalmaking.com — Matt Ratto's Critical Making lab
• Critical Making - Hertz — Garnet Hertz's "Critical Making" series of booklets
• Design Fiction: diegetic prototypes | WIRED
• Diegetic and non-diegetic sounds
• Amazon.com: Portable Cordless Hand Held Sewing Machine Stitch Home Mini Clothes & Travel Use — The "Spring Come" Handheld Sewing Machine
• 1989 Cisco CallManager Default Hold Music - Opus Number One [Stereo] - Darrick Deel & Tim Carleton by Codyhodyman_II | Codyhodyman II | Free Listening on SoundCloud — Sometimes, dear listener, we will put you on hold.
• Stiffening Paper Clips - Metallurgy in the kitchen | The Naked Scientists — Explains the differences between work hardening (by bending back and forth), annealing, and annealing and quenching.
• bobbindiagram.gif (GIF Image, 371 × 387 pixels) — No. Really. The bobbin is sew awesome (See what I did there?)
• G5WQ4Dt.jpg (GIF Image, 300 × 221 pixels) — The bobbin is the sewing machine's secret weapon.
• Homemade lock picks - YouTube — Reid’s YouTube channel of lockpicking was an inspiration. He has a "homemade lockpicks" video that is really cool and simple. He doesn’t show how to make lockpicks but he shows off the ones he’s made.
• DEWALT DWHT83191 Small Trigger Clamp 4-1/2 Inch - - Amazon.com — DEWALT Small Trigger clamps are really great. They’re about 5 bucks a piece. I used them a lot on this project and I’m surprised how often I pick them up. The squeeze trigger allows me to set the pressure with more granularity than a typical spring-loaded squeeze clamp.
• www.sparrowslockpicks.com — Sparrows Lock Picks
• Making something you love – Containers – Medium — I’m really digging a new podcast called “Containers.” It’s an eight-part series, hosted by Alexis Madrigal. He uses the Oakland seaport to talk about globalization, immigration, crime, and lots of other stuff. It’s a cool model for telling a story. Picking a location and digging into it and also extrapolating outward from it. “Crimetown,” a series on organized crime and corruption in Providence, Rhode Island is a Gimlet Media podcast that does a similar thing.
• Crimetown – Gimlet Media
• How to Draw a Bunny (dir: John Walter, 2002) on Vimeo — A documentary film about Ray Johnson who died in 1995. He was part of the New York avant garde art scene during most of the time he was alive. He was a pretty interesting and wacky collage artist mostly though he made some sculptures and other things. He sent a lot of art through the mail which I’m really into. I enjoyed the film because I think some parts of his life were lived in a way that most artists, or at least I myself, aspire to living... very deeply engaged with the processes of looking at the pieces of the world and then assembling what we see in a way that might change how we see it and also maybe actually change how the world is. Ray Johnson’s life is inspiring that way and is maybe also tragic because of that too... Anyway, it's worth watching. I got it on DVD from Netflix. I think I'm the only person left who still gets DVDs from Netflix or DVD.com as they're now secretly called.
• AliExpress.com - Online Shopping for Electronics, Fashion, Home & Garden, Toys & Sports, Automobiles from China. — The weird and wonderful world of AliExpress...
• Opposable Thumbs is creating a podcast | Patreon — We have a Patreon! pleeeeez become a patron!
• EXTREMELY DANGEROUS GLASS SKATEBOARD | YOU MAKE IT WE SKATE IT EP 13 - YouTube — The Braille Skateboarding crew rides a Glass Skateboard in their "You Make It We Skate It" series.
• Host Your Podcast - Fireside — We roll with Fireside.fm. It's a great podcasting platform.
• RPi web cam baby monitor | Taylor Hokanson — Taylor's RPi web cam baby monitor
• Opposable Thumbs - Code of Conduct — Our Code of Conduct
• SAIC - Bess Williamson - School of the Art Institute of Chicago
• Comic Sans Might Just be the Best Font for People with DyslexiaEye on Design | Eye on Design
• Nerd Poker - Howl — A great podcast about Dungeons and Dragons.
• Teleport City | Bringing You Yesterdays Tomorrow…Today! — Keith Allison is an inspiring person, ex-BBS sysadmin and runs the amazing Teleport City website
• Things tagged with 'Dice tower' - Thingiverse
• Meghann Sottile | METALSMITH + MAKER
• Frame construction details | Open Library — Our episode cover art is from this Open Library book!