Seeing Things

There's something about being a scraphound - a term I borrow from Cory Doctrow - where you see potential in things, cast offs and detritus.
Sometimes it's pretty obvious - like a big neon sign flashing on and off in the heavens - " This toy truck has wheels perfectly gaged for my railroad. I see a railtruck here". Sometimes it's less obvious - "This dead VCR has some very cool buttons and a nice pancake motor here... lets throw it on the scrap pile for use sometime in the near future". And somedays it's just " how long have I had these four broken VCR's for? Uhhhh. Time to clean house".
This one was one of those ones that lept on me like a jagular from a tree. Robot Chassis. definitely a robot chassis. Look at it - independent wheel drive, rechargeable battery, input socket for commands, wireless radio remote for crying out loud... found it at a neighbours garage sale for $25. It powers up, but it's either got some kind of code lock on it or it's dead. At any rate, even with that I'm sure I can re-jig the motors with some kind of controller. It's all about potential....
Hmmm.... now I'm thinking chainsaw and flamethrower.... you know, for when the zombie apocalypse comes? Awesome

Popcorn

Way back, 1972 ish I'm guessing, one of my favourite AM radio tunes was "Popcorn" by a group called Hot Butter. It was probably also one of the first 45 RPM records I bought and played to death on my little portable record player.
Years later I heard it as a dance mix, then as a mash up with some Mutant Frog Thing. Wow - what a blast from the past.
It was only recently that I discovered the original composer of the piece... Gershon Kingsley from "Music to Moog By" circa 1969. Awesome on several levels.
Man, that internets is a useful place.