To think it only took a half hour to fix, and caused hours of discomfort. Yes, the only thing bugging my laptop and preventing it from starting was a cable short, specifically the touchpad cable. Somehow the wires had separated from the plastic casing and were burning a few wires they shouldn't have been.

Knowing is half the battle, be prepared and remember cable shorts are irritating as all hell.

It has been a little while since I last wrote an article for CDT, but that doesn't mean it has been a while since I got paid to write!

Yes, ketchup does work wonders for a quick fishing trip. There isn't much to it. Say for instance, your lure and hook are a little dull. That's bad, you think to yourself, the fishies can't see my death grasp.

I know! I'll clean it with some polishing chemicals. No, you will not. Those chemicals deter fish from going anywhere near your lure. That's bad.

Use ketchup fellows. The slight acidic composition will clean off anything on your rod. I mean anything, previous bait, catches, dog biscuits, dollar bill residue, anything. Plus, it leaves your lure tasty fresh for future catches.

Just a couple packets in your tackle box and you're set. Or don't and sit in that lake wondering why the fish won't bite after you irradiated their environment with your cleaning supplies.

You were aware of your drinking habits years ago and until recently, you did not know how to express them to others. Especially folks you just met who have no idea your idea of a fun time is, well...gee, I can't remember. I know it had something to do with something.

Time to actually do something with those bottle caps you were collecting for three years. Stop chucking them at one another in an attempt to see who can fit the most in the bowling ball girl-boobs.

Ideas we will most likely be putting to use next semester:

1) Making a doormat. Arrange the caps in whatever design you want and decide if you want to put them into the ground, embed into a carpet-like material, or make a resin mold. If you really want to make it interesting, use a few bottles in the design as well.

2) Make a beer cap curtain. You know those cheesy, beaded curtains every Hollywood fortune teller has? Yeah, make one out of beer caps and cord. All you have to do is drill two tiny holes in each cap and string it through. Or be lazy and duct tape them on, I will never know.

3) Make a poster. Arrange your bottle caps in a design, get some resin, smooth out the surface and put a picture hanger on it. Done.

4) Play checkers. Paint half black, half red. Voila! You have a checkers set now.

5) Switch out your bass guitar tuning pegs. Take two of your caps, superglue them together, covering the peg. Works best with a bass, but a regular guitar might work if you're careful.

6) Play cards with them. Note: This works with Pabst Blue Ribbon only. Collect the whole set!


This will probably have secondary posts in the upcoming semester, so cheers to the beginning! Stay sharp y'all.

Back with my cattle once again. While I was away, I left my last batch of homebrew mead (honey wine) to finalize its alcohol-making processes. Well it's been two weeks since I started it, time to test how it made out.

Well after three days of nine-hour volunteering, I will take the time to put together some up-to-date information on how the reusing experiment is going. I wanted to make blocks of bottles in order to easily lay them together, assemble, and store. Since I am a college student and I do not have the foresight to know how duct tape will work, I automatically assume it will hold together anything I use it on, so why stop myself now?

No, we aren't talking about this plastic ship, that is waaaayyyy too complex. Nope, the idea here is to make a raft, or possibly a couch, out of old plastic bottles and containers with nothing more than duct tape, maybe some wire, and rubber cement. This is a bit of a long-term project, so for now I'll just show you how I began the project.

First, you have to get a boatload of bottles. This can probably be done in a day if you walk around town. Or, if you are like my family, you consume so many bottles you have a separate trash collection can called "recyclables," but is in fact simply used to store post-consumption waste. Clean them out and get ready to seal them off. If you don't feel like cleaning, you can still make a raft...a raft of uncleanliness!

I use rubber cement on the bottle threads and then twist it shut. Rubber cement has got to be the best glue for most of CDT's projects. I use it for all purposes, not just projects. Pens are so hard to hold onto, so just apply a little to your digits and profit!  That bowl of Cheetos just will not stay on your belly? Apply a little to your pectorals and profit! Hungry, and there is just nothing that can satisfy your desire for an amorphous, flammable liquid? Stop. Do not taste it, not without a little salt first.

Sometimes you will not have the caps, because let's face it: remembering is hard. If it was easy, I'd remember some allusion to something historical and make it sound witty in this sentence. Therefore, I found the best way of sealing off topless bottles is to get some duct tape, tear off a strip, and then seal up with hot glue. Seal the glue all around the bottle top's edge making sure it is waterproof. Or not, and let your raft sink, it's not like I care.

One attempt today is to figure out how to seal together several bottles to make pieces I will use to assemble the raft. I need to make larger pieces of similar sizes to get some consistency in the assembly, otherwise it just takes too much time taping each piece together individually. Let's see how it goes. Cheers, and good luck.

Holy cow, you still need more ways to drink stealthily? You might actually have a few problems. Fortunately, we could care less about your problems and instead we are going to focus on drinking. Let's get to work.

Well we've definitely made more than two batches of mead before, but for our purposes here, it's #2. If you haven't checked out our first article of making mead, now's the time! This one is quite a bit more aged than most before it. It was made cheaper than those before. It is also quite drier than its predecessors, with only 2.5 lbs of honey per gallon instead of 4 lbs. Here are some quick stats:

- A 2 gallon batch with 5 lbs of honey total

- Several oranges, lemons, and a whole box of raisins were added for flavor complexity

- Two packets of Fleischmann's yeast

- Aged two months before opening

- Settled for another three weeks before bottling

- Currently about four months old


As you can see in the pictures, the yeast is settling out quite nicely, leaving a clear wine. It still has some settling to do, but that's not necessarily bad. Some folks like the taste of the yeast still in the wine as it tastes more like bread when it does. It takes patience to sift the mead through without taking the yeast with it, but it does clear up quite nicely when you do. That's about it for this batch folks. Any questions about a recipe or variations we will try our best to answer. Cheers, and good luck!

Your place looks boring now that you think about it. You don't want to buy more posters or furniture, and there are only so many black lights you can have in a household. Your place needs something to liven it up. Wait...how about something ALIVE to liven it up? Pets aren't allowed and fish die every time you get them. Plants don't die immediately after you touch them, so let's try that idea. Well since you have some spare time, why not take a look at a tea garden you can grow in your room/appartment? Let's have at it.

You've heard about it from your crazy, eccentric uncle plenty of times and now you want to learn how to do it on your own. Well we've tested wine making quite a few times and have come up with a cheap way for you college students to do it also while still leaving you with beer money for later. At the end of the article, check out the pics of our mead from last semester.

Below are the ingredients and prep you'll need to start your first batch. However, the most important factor in making your very own wine is patience. A decent batch takes about a month to ferment and settle, while an above-average batch will take at least six weeks.

Now we're starting. You'll need:
1) A one gallon jug of the cheapest water you can find. I prefer ones with huge caps because it'll be easier to stuff your ingredients through and takes less time to pour out later.

2) Your main sugar. Yeast eats sugar and leaves alcohol as its waste. For mead you use honey. Essentially any sugar-water content will work, but honey is typical for home brews. This is your most expensive ingredient as well. Don't buy any fancy honey unless you want to impress others, it all ends up the same. Grape juice works, as well as any other high-sugar juice. Just make sure you don't use juice with preservatives (anything with sorbate, nitrate, etc. listed)

3) Your flavor additives. I've used oranges, lemons, blackberries, raspberries, raisins (ALWAYS INCLUDE RAISINS - they're already fermenting!), and cherries. High-sugar fruits work great as they give more food for the yeast. Experiment with fruit combos too. Raisins and lemons are almost standard, but I prefer more tart fruit for an awesome flavor.

4) The yeast. Dry-packet yeast is great and for $1.25 you get three packets. Protip: use specific wine yeast for better alcohol content and flavor.

5) Random flavorings/yeast nutrients. You can buy Yeast Nutrient anywhere specialty foods are and it is also available online. It is not needed, but it can turn a decent wine into something great. However, tea is a great alternative. Yeast likes tannin and tea is full of it. Plus, the tea adds some complexity that will impress wine appreciators, should you show off.

All this stuff is available at any average dining commons on campus, except the yeast. If you live in campus dorms, wear a jacket or bring a pack. You pay for the food, why not use them to make yourself some tasty libations?

Ready to brew? I thought so. Grab your gallon jug, dump half the water into a container for later (you will need it to top off the batch). You will need 3-5 lbs of your sugar-water substance, like honey, maple syrup, molasses, etc. More sugar = a sweeter, stronger wine. 3 lbs honey per gallon is a little dry, but 4 lbs is perfect for a normal batch. I usually use 4 lbs. If you're using a juice instead of honey, fill the gallon jug up almost all the way, about 75% full.

Heat up the sugar before adding the yeast. It starts the fermentation faster. You want speed right? Now is also a good time to activate the yeast. Put a packet of yeast into a glass with warm water and let it sit for ten minutes. Done yet?

Toss your fruit, tea, flavorings, and anything not-yeast into the gallon jug. Make sure it's warm, not boiling. Shake it up a bit, mix it around. This makes the flavor consistent while the yeast eats it. Top it off with the water you were saving until it's at the fill line.

After mixing, finally add the yeast, man! Put a cap on and shake that thing up. Shake some more, and then let it sit with the cap off. Within an hour you'll get a nice foam building up (that's the CO2). Put the jug on some paper towels because it will start spewing out over the next few hours. Once you're confident it won't leak much anymore (three hours later), put a balloon on it with a hole punctured in the balloon to allow CO2 to escape.

Protip: you're in college and might not have balloons lying around. Use a condom. They're just lying around not being use, amirite? Ha, well just stretch one over the jug's cap and pop a hole when it fills with CO2.

Now just let it sit somewhere it won't be disturbed much. A closet, shelf, on top of your old books you can sell, where ever. Now wait a couple weeks and enjoy. Just about all the alcohol is created in the first 2 weeks, but more time = better tasting. But who am I to tell you when to drink? Let the dead yeast settle after fermenting and you'll have a clear, great tasting wine you just made.

                                       Enjoy you classy, crafty college students.