My First DIY Project - Part 4

So after I fiddled around with the paint and finally figured out how I wanted it to look, I went ahead with my second and third coats, as well as making any touch-ups in areas that I messed up.

Now that all the pieces are painted, it was time to reassemble the whole cabinet and add any finishing touches that I wanted. This did not go smoothly at all.

My first problem was realized after installing the board for the radio and turntable. It was about 1/4 of an inch thicker than the original piece that I removed. This meant that the radio would not attach properly and essentially wasn't going to work. I then spent about 4 hours carving into the plywood in order to make the board thinner around the bottom of the hole for the radio, without making the hole any bigger.

Finally, after hours of laying on my back on the garage floor, getting sawdust in my eyes, nose, and mouth I finally got the radio to fit in perfectly.

Look! It works!!

Here is the nearly completed cabinet, reassembled and in the garage. I bought new handles for the faux doors from Home Depot because the old ones are ugly and cheap looking. Plus the silver handles go nicely with the charcoal and cream colour scheme. Originally, I had wanted to get a cream/white cloth to go behind the grills on the front, covering the speaker holes, but I couldn't find any speaker cloth that wasn't black, and it looks fine as-is.

I drilled a hole into the board to hide all the cables for the turn table. Also, I realized that there is a "Tape In/Out" plug on the back of the cabinet, meaning that I can now play music from an iPod/cell phone/anything with a headphone jack, which is pretty sweet. 

So, that's basically the whole thing. It seems as if I'm finished with this project. For now. I have plans to fill the inside of the cabinet with egg cartons (to help with acoustics) and in the distant future I'm thinking of turning it into a full entertainment unit to use up the wasted interior space (put in a Blu-Ray player, Xbox, etc. and wall mount a tv above the cabinet). Thanks for following along! If I have any updates I'll definitely share them. Finally, if you enjoyed this little project, or think the finished product looks nice, please feel free to Pin it, tweet it, Facebook it, or whatever other social media thingies there are.

 

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

My First DIY Project - Part 3

So now that the cabinet has been stripped of all electronic bits and has been sanded down, I get to choose my paint colours and really start to have fun. I chose charcoal-ish black and heavy cream 2-in-1 paint and primer with a semi-gloss finish. But before I could start painting, I wanted to get a piece cut for the interior of the cabinet, where the radio and turntable will sit. This is that piece.

Made from beautiful laminate plywood...yay!

My talents with a jigsaw are.... less than good, so the hole for the radio came out a little wonky, but it fit inside perfectly and hid the crappy cut really nicely.

Next I started fiddling around with the paint, trying to figure out how I wanted it to look.

Painting was starting to seem easy and was actually rather fun. I should have known that something terrible was on its way.

Thanks Hagrid

Boy, these posts just seem to be getting more and more pictures, with fewer and fewer words.... Stay tuned for Part 4, coming soon!

Links to the other stages!!
Part 1
Part 2
Part 4

My First DIY Project - Part 2

This stage is the dismantling and figuring-out-how-this-thing-is-put-together stage, plus sanding. I have realized that my plan for installing doors on the front is very ambitious and not going to happen. I have also learned that much of the wood in the cabinet is laminate particle board, so I will be painting and not staining.

I knocked out the main board under the lid with some difficulty. It was held in with a combination of wood glue, screws, and staples making for an hour filled with sweat and cursing.

I got help sanding from my girlfriend, so that I had someone other than myself to blame if everything went horribly wrong. Thankfully it didn't.

The helper

With the help of two power sanders we managed to get all the big areas done in a few hours without a lot of trouble.

The trim, on the other hand, had to be done by hand and that took a while. With the cabinet stripped and sanded, the next step is to pick paint colours and cut an interior board.

Here are the links to the other stages of this project

Part 1

Part 3

Part 4

My First DIY Project - Part 1

Wouldn't it be funny to watch someone with essentially zero carpentry skills attempt to fumble their way through a mildly complex furniture update/remodelling? To stand by as they ask stupid questions like, "What the hell is that thing?" "A chisel is a flat head screwdriver, right?" and "Where's the chainsaw?"

Well, now you can do just that! ..... Sort of. I'll be posting mildly humorous (to me, anyways) updates showing each stage of my attempt to turn an old stereo cabinet (that I got at a garage sale 4 years ago for $20) into something that is fairly pleasant to look at, so that my parents finally stop suggesting that it would be better served as feed for a very hungry wood chipper. The cabinet originally featured a very basic turntable, an AM/FM radio, and a small storage area for your records, as well as an outrageous amount of wasted interior space and several dead spiders.

No, I don't own any coasters. Why do you ask?

As you can see, I've taken great care of my investment. I think only 80% of that water damage occurred since I took ownership of this piece. I got rid of the original turntable as soon as I got the cabinet home. It barely worked, wasn't level, and the needle on it was done. I installed a turntable that belonged to my grandma, but had difficulty getting it to work consistently. Now I have a brand new Audio Technica turntable that I'm going to be installing into the cabinet, although I'm not quite sure how yet.

The first step in my project is to strip the cabinet of all the electronic pieces. This was not as easy as I had hoped. The wires would not detach from the main hub on the radio, nor from the speakers. The speakers are screwed in from the front, beneath those lovely (plastic) grills and under a speaker cloth that is pasted onto the front board. To make matters worse, I can't detach the grills on the left side of the cabinet because the sleeve for holding your records prevents me from accessing those screws. At this point, I have been working on this project for about 1 hour and have already considered getting the chainsaw numerous times. I decided to put the radio and all its electronic components in a plastic bag for protection and to just work around it for now.

I think that I have figured out how the whole thing is held together and have decided that to do anything meaningful with this cabinet, I'm going to have to knock out the main piece under the lid of the cabinet, design a new layout for the radio and turntable, and cut a new board. This includes making cuts to hold my turntable, the radio, and any storage I may want to add in there.

I'm also considering what should be done with the wasted space inside. I'd like to convert the two middle plastic grills on the front into cupboard doors, but it doesn't seem likely. I'm willing to take some suggestions on what could be done with that.

The radio: post-op

All the wasted interior space

Here are the links to the other stages of this project

Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Aslan vs. Wolverine: The Battle for Middle Earth - Part II

Okay, I got a lot of feedback about my original argument on this topic, so I'm here to respond to the critics and prove that I am right, you guys are wrong. I'll see how long this post gets and I may divide the whole thing up into smaller sections and post them because I don't think anybody wants to read a 30 page rebuttal to every objection that was raised against my argument.

So here it goes.

Summary of the Original Argument

Most people misinterpreted my original argument, so I'm going to summarize it for you here. I said that Aslan is the representation of Jesus Christ in C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia books, and this symbolism means that Aslan is not merely a lion with the capacity for language. I used the Greek mythology analogy to show that Aslan has similar qualities to the Greek god Zeus, while Wolverine shared similar characteristics of the Greek hero Hercules. I showed that in a fight, Zeus would most certainly defeat Hercules just by the mere fact that he is a God and Hercules is not, despite Hercules' many other very strong qualities.

This is an analogy, this is not supporting evidence for my claim. Analogies are meant to illustrate a similar situation where there are circumstances that resemble the one I am arguing. Aslan is a God, just like Zeus. Wolverine has some God-like qualities, but he does not have power on the same level that Gods do, just like Hercules. I use this analogy to show that, in a very similar situation, the outcome would be that the God would win over the lesser being.

(Perhaps the flaw with my argument was that I did not provide several other arguments to strengthen the use of the analogy. And boy, am I paying for it now...)

Now, I'll summarize how I described the fight between these two would go down. Essentially, the fight would take place in Narnia, Wolverine would strike first and land a blow or two, but eventually Aslan would use his size and strength to pin Wolverine to the ground and then proceed to bite his head off.

Okay, so that was my original argument, in a nutshell. Now I'll address your objections to it in the order that they were raised.

The Objections

'Aslan cannot bite Wolverine's head off, the adamantium that reinforces his skeleton is indestructible.'

• It is not true that adamantium cannot be destroyed. Here is a link that describes adamantium in detail, it shows that there are circumstances that adamantium can be destroyed. Although none of these options are available to Aslan, it does clarify the definition of adamantium that will be used from here on.
• (As I cited in my original argument) The Xavier Protocols says that decapitation is the only way to kill Wolverine. So, as long as Aslan bites his head off instead of just trying to chew on it, Wolverine will die.

'Aslan cannot throw lightning, so your analogy fails.'

• This counter-argument implies that Aslan is supposed to be the symbolic representation of Zeus in the Narnia books, but he is not and I was just using Zeus and Hercules to show what would happen in another similar situation, it was an analogy.

'You mention Aslan as being a Pacifist, so he wouldn't even fight Wolverine. Or even if he did he would perform some kind of miracle, which wouldn't be fair.'

• I said Jesus was a Pacifist, but the evidence from the Narnia books shows that Aslan is very willing to partake in battle. In hindsight, including this in the original argument may have muddied the water, but honestly, it was supposed to be funny.
• "All's fair in love and war." - Wolverine's adamantium reinforced skeleton is part of his character, just like any 'miracles' would be part of Aslan's character, so it's fair game. You're trying to eliminate one of Aslan's powers for the reason that it gives him an advantage in the fight. The whole purpose of listing off the strengths and weaknesses of each fighter is to see which one would have the advantage that is how you determine who would win. By you admitting that Aslan has this big of an advantage you have shown that Wolverine would still lose.

'My friend says that Thor would beat them all, "no one has a stronger one syllable name than Thor."

• I'm including this because I think it's hilarious.
• Nonetheless, adding Norse mythology would only add to my analogy of Aslan=Jesus=God=Zeus because Thor is the Norse God of thunder and lightning storms. He is also King of the Norse Gods; he's essentially another culture's interpretation of Zeus. So now, Aslan=Jesus=God=Zeus=Thor

'If Aslan is Zeus, then Wolverine is more like Kratos, who kills everyone.'

• Okay, quick bio on Kratos: in Greek mythology he is one of Zeus' winged enforcers. But he also sometimes appears as a Titan that binds Prometheus (stole fire from the Gods to give to mankind, punished by forever having an eagle eat his liver everyday, only to have it grow back to be eaten again) on orders from another God. In both God of War video games Kratos is a mortal human who becomes the God of War through a massive killing spree. In the second game he casts off his title as God of War, becomes a Titan and overthrows the Gods with the help from the other Titans. 
• So, the problem here is that in standard Greek Mythology Kratos doesn't have much influence and even less actual power. His name means "strength" in English, but him and the other enforcers of Zeus are just representations of other attributes (Nike=victory, Zelus=zeal, Bia=force) so they aren't Gods and they never overthrew Zeus, nor did Kratos ever team up with the Titans to wage war on Olympus.
• The problem with the God of War part is that Kratos is greatly exaggerated in these games. They basically took a Greek name that means strength and power and applied it to a character in a story.

'Kratos is the "servant gone mad," similar to Judas' betrayal of Jesus.'

• This analogy requires the combination of the Greek mythology Kratos and the God of War Kratos, a very fallacious counter-argument. This is taking two different characters with the same name and combining them to better support the argument while leaving Aslan as being represented by only Jesus. You have to put my example at the same level, or higher, as yours if you want to successfully tear it down. You're building your example up to a whole different level, while lessening mine, that's fallacious argumentation.

'Greek mythology isn't real.'

• Neither are Wolverine or Aslan. I'm using other fictional characters with similar attributes to prove how a fictional fight would occur. I cannot compare Aslan and Wolverine to real people because there are no real people that have similar attributes (unless you count Jesus, but that's an entirely different argument).

'Is Jesus as strong as The Hulk?'

• Okay, this is in response to the part in my original post that talks about how Aslan can track Wolverine better than the Hulk because Aslan is smaller and more agile. Jesus is not as strong as the Hulk, but Aslan doesn't have to be as strong as the Hulk to beat Wolverine, he uses his agility, claws, and teeth to do it. The Hulk relies on his strength to beat Wolverine because he can't track Wolverine very well, and he is driven entirely by rage, he doesn't use strategy when he fights, something that Aslan can use.

'This link says that Wolverine's one weakness is decapitation, which I don't buy, but it never says that you can actually succeed in removing his head.'

• Having a weakness implies that there is the possibility of success in exposing that weakness. If it were impossible to remove Wolverine's head, decapitation wouldn't be his weakness would it? If there were no possible way to fire a shot down that ventilator shaft on the Death Star, then it would have no weaknesses. If kryptonite did not exist, Superman would not be negatively effected by it, and he would therefore have no weaknesses. Having a weakness relies on the fact that it is possible to exploit that disadvantage to the benefit of the other combatant.

'That same site also talks about the many advantages that Wolverine gains from his adamantium skeleton, such as; superhuman strength, cat-like agility, and super speed. Aslan wouldn't be able to pin him down, and even if he could, he wouldn't be able to bite off his head.'

• Okay, for now I'll ignore the fact that in one breath you denounce the validity of this website and then in the next you use that exact same site to support your argument. 
• Alright, you're assuming that Aslan has absolutely no speed, strength, and agility benefits. You're reducing Aslan's skills to those of an average lion that can talk, while at the same time giving Wolverine his all-time best attributes. You have to remember that Aslan is the representation of the Christian God in the Narnia books, he created the entire world of Narnia, he is no ordinary lion. In my original post I said that I wasn't sure how big Aslan was so I gave statistics for the average size of an African lion, I wasn't saying that Aslan=an average lion, just that I didn't know how big he was supposed to be. He has the powers that are associated with the Christian God; all-knowing, all-powerful.
• Also, Aslan, a lion, doesn't have cat-like agility?
• So if we accept that Wolverine has superhuman strength, cat-like agility, and super speed, we also have to give Aslan the best qualities that are associated with Him; being and all-knowing, all-powerful, and infinite deity. So Aslan knows all, is the Creator and Destroyer of all and exists for all of time. Aslan: "What eva, what eva, I do what I want!"
•  Okay, so what power beats what power: all-powerful vs. superhuman? All-powerful is a God's attribute, whereas superhuman means, by definition, more than human capabilities. God will win over superhuman every time (the only possible exception could be Superman, and he may not count because he technically isn't human, but that's a debate for another day). Aslan, by definition, beats Wolverine.

 'The original question was to compare Aslan and Wolverine based on their skill set. Comparing them to Greek mythology and other figures is irrelevant. The fight is based on the skills that we know Aslan and Wolverine have, not what skills they might have based off of comparisons to other characters.'

• I used the Greek mythology analogy to show how similar characters, with similar attributes, would square up against one another. And also to make the post longer. But you're right and I'll give you a list of each character's skills.
• Aslan
• Skills: claws, teeth, lion, travel between worlds and time periods, jump a great height and distance (clears the walls of the White Witch's castle), can undo curses and enchantments, create and destroy worlds
• Accomplishments: created Narnia, was hit in the face by the White Witch (superhuman) with an iron bar while he was creating Narnia and he didn't notice, proceeded to make that iron bar grow into a lamp post, created all the creatures of Narnia and gave them the ability to talk, created all other life in Narnia
• Wolverine
• Skills: Adamantium reinforced skeleton and skull, retractable adamantium claws, enhanced healing abilities, agile, superhuman strength
• Accomplishments: he's done a lot and I don't feel like listing off every thing he's ever done in every issue he ever appeared in. I do know that he's fought the Hulk a bunch of times and won once, and by what people say on the message boards on this topic, that win should never have happened.

Ripped in half, bitch!

• To my knowledge Wolverine has not created any worlds inhabited by life and he cannot break curses and enchantments, his superhuman powers do not match up to the God powers of Aslan.
• The Greek mythology analogy was just to put both characters into the same context by comparing them to similar characters that exist in the same universe as each other. 
• So, again, each character's skill set:
• Aslan - All-powerful, All-knowing, exists infinitely, the Creator
• Wolverine - superhuman strength, cat-like agility, super speed, adamantium claws and reinforced skeleton, accelerated healing
• By definition Aslan will always win, God beats mutated human with nearly indestructible claws.

'So, just because C.S. Lewis compares Aslan to Jesus he is all of a sudden a great deity with God powers? The only discernible skill he shows is the ability to die and come back to life.'

• Yes, because C.S. Lewis says that Aslan is the representation of Jesus that does mean that he is a great deity. And resurrection is not Aslan's only power, he also sang the world of Narnia into existence, he turned another character into a donkey, he creates a new Narnia and a new Earth, basically anything that the Christian God has been said to have done, so has Aslan. And after doing some more research I found all of the other Godly things he does in the Narnia series, see the previous rebuttal.
• Being God is a character trait of Aslan, just like Wolverine's claws are part of his character. If you want to dismiss Aslan's claim to divinity then you also have to dismiss Wolverine's powers as well.
• Also, even if Lewis never made that connection, and assuming that no one else pointed it out, based solely on his achievements in Narnia Aslan would still have the more powerful track record.

 'There is a case of Wolverine surviving a nuclear explosion, so Aslan can't kill him.'

• Well, that case actually makes no sense, whatsoever. Here is a page that says that Wolverine could not survive losing all of his skin in a nuclear explosion. That would be such catastrophic damage that he could never recover from it. Also, on the adamantium page of that site it is said that the melting point of adamantium is 1,500 degrees farenheit, the temperature of a nuclear explosion is between 16,000 and 18 million degrees farenheit. So there is no logical explanation for Wolverine surviving that explosion.
• Also, even if we ignore my above objection, Aslan will not be using nuclear weapons to beat Wolverine; he will be biting his head off, something that is allowed to be possible by Marvel comics. And even if he were to not remove Wolverine's head, according to this site, Aslan just has to attack Wolverine's tummy or fleshy sides and completely gut him. Wolverine can recover from wounds, not regrow organs, muscles, or tissue.

'Wolverine's healing powers negate the long term effects of alcohol and tobacco and allow him to indulge in prolonged binges.'

•  I have no argument against this. I would totally do terrible, terrible things to get this power.

'You're incorporating science into a discussion about fictional characters, and you also appealed to religion and mythology. Seems kind of inconsistent.'

• The science that is being used is in response to the explanations given in the Marvel Universe for Wolverine's powers and events that have happened to him. I was illustrating that writers can be inconsistent in their interpretation of what Wolverine's powers are. I was showing that on the one hand, they give scientific explanations for how it was possible that Wolverine had adamantium bonded to his skeleton in the first place, and then turn around and refute that method by having the metal escape a nuclear explosion without so much as a scratch.
• I used religion in my original argument because it directly applies to what abilities Aslan has, and the mythology was used to place Wolverine and Aslan into a world where similar characters would be able to face-off against each other.

 'Liam Neeson being the voice of Aslan and Aslan appearing as the leader of the Council of Nine in the Imaginationland episodes of South Park are not strengths, they don't help Aslan's fighting ability.'

• To start, these were supposed to be amusing points. Second, Liam Neeson being the voice of Aslan was just a (funny) similarity between him and Zeus. Third, Aslan being the leader of the Council of Nine shows how highly regarded he is in the world of fictional characters, and again was intended to be amusing. And forth, this didn't even play a part in my real argument.
• List of Council of Nine: Aslan, Gandalf, Jesus, Zeus, Glinda the Good Witch, Morpheus, Luke Skywalker, Popeye, and Wonderwoman.
• The Council of Nine was also part of Greek mythology, Zeus called them together to punish mankind for accepting the fire that Prometheus stole. That's just another example of how Aslan is similar to Zeus, even though Zeus is a member of the South Park Co9 he is not the leader, Aslan is, just goes to show where Aslan stands in the world of fictional characters.
• Wolverine was excluded from even appearing in the Imaginationland episodes, just showing that his importance in fiction is not nearly as pronounced as Aslan's.
• I cannot argue against the idea that these points do not add anything to either character's fighting skills, but neither do "Hugh Jackman is cool" or "[Wolverine is] Canadian." So I did not try to stack Aslan's strengths while reducing Wolverine's.

'Aslan being a dominant character in these episodes has absolutely no value on his fighting skills.'

• Yes, this is true. Like I said, this was supposed to be a funny little poke at Wolverine's pride, but then everyone got their cocks in a knot over it. Notice how the observation that Aslan is in these episodes of South Park and Wolverine isn't never play any kind of role in the overall outcome of the fight? I never said that Aslan wins because he trains Butters how to be the Key.

OKAY! I've reached the end of the arguments. I didn't post all of the objections that I faced because lots of them overlapped and I was getting tired of writing the same thing over, and over again and I'm sure you'd be tired of reading a super long winded, repetitive post. So I will summarize:

Aslan wins by definition. Aslan is the representation of the Christian God, so he inherits all of that God's powers. Wolverine, even with all of the best powers he has ever been given, does not reach God status, so he cannot kill Aslan. The problem with all of the arguments against Aslan is that they completely ignore the fact that Aslan created Narnia, that he created the life in Narnia, that Jadis (White Witch, superhuman strength) threw an iron bar at his face and he didn't bat an eye and then he proceeded to make that iron bar grow into a lamp post. Oh, and it turns out I was wrong that Aslan can't leave Narnia. He can, and he still has his God powers in our world. Yeah, so Aslan will beat Wolverine every time.

Want some more proof?

Here is a thread on a sci-fi website about who would win in a fight, Aslan at the height of his power, or Sauron The Deceiver (Lord of the Rings) with the One Ring. Based on theological symbolism, and then solely on straight up abilities, Aslan walks away as the Undisputed Champion. So, I ask you; could Wolverine defeat Sauron the Deceiver at the height of his power, while he possessed the One Ring? Sauron killed Elves, Men, and Dwarves as if they were flies, Wolverine may put up a bit more of a fight, but he'd meet the same end. How could he possibly then match-up against Aslan? There is no way.

Conclusion

So, in conclusion, Aslan wins not only because of his symbolic meaning, but also just purely by his skills as Lord of Narnia. Wolverine can't keep up to him, if he lands a hit it won't be by any means a fatal blow. Aslan can pin down Wolverine and bite his head off based off of Aslan's enhanced speed and agility and Wolverine's weakness of decapitation. Even Wolverine's extremely high level of endurance won't help him fight a God that does not get tired. Just look at every religion in history, the humans (even the remarkable ones) who challenge the Gods always end up on the wrong side of the sword.

Okay, so that is it. I'm tired, and I have actual work for school that I have to get done. That is all.