Reinforcing a Reinforced Concrete Design Textbook; Temporary Textbook Repair for Minor Splits Along the Sides of the Book Spine with Assorted Tapes and Scissors

I had a clumsy episode earlier this afternoon.  I had too many things in my arms.  When I set my cup of green tea on the counter next to my purse, I must have set it down wrong because it tipped over.  In the confusion, I dropped my reinforced concrete design textbook onto the tile floor in the kitchen.  I suppose the textbook landed on the perfect stress point because both sides of the book spine ripped.  Since I'm the outright owner of the book and it did not wake up my baby niece visiting from Germany, it wasn't a catastrophe.  Here's a picture of the damaged textbook.

Here's the picture of the other side of the textbook.

So I called up FedEx to see if they could rebind it for me/fix it so I wouldn't have to buy binding tape and such other book repair items that would be much more expensive than having FedEx fix it (assuming it was a reasonable price).  The guy on the phone said it would cost $5 and that they could do it.  I drove over there and went in the store.  The guy at the counter examined the book and said they couldn't fix it.  I was disappointed because I thought I had been a smart shopper to call and check beforehand and they changed their story when I reached the store, but I figured I would just have to take it home and fix it myself.

My mom found various kinds of tape available around the house (which are shown here).

I started my repair by making scotch tape circles with tape and laying them flat on the cardboard inner spine.  This process is shown with the following pictures.

I had to use two pieces because the spine was really long.

Note: You can see my index page casualty above.  Don't worry! I tape that page back together next.

Then, I turned the book so the weight was centered on the book spine to help the scotch tape adhere (granted, this might only be a temporary fix given that it is scotch tape).

Next, I tackled the back index page to make that page legible for future use.  I appreciate indexes from my textbooks, so I'd rather be able to read those pages.  It took a lot of strategic placement of scotch tape to get the page back together.

The last thing I tackled was the actual outside spine of the book.  For this fix, I used the clear plastic shipping tape.  First, I lined the tears up with the corresponding sides.  Then, I cut the tape pieces with scissors at a length of the entire spine to make the fix as strong as possible.  After this step, I carefully placed the tape along the book spine.  One side of the tape was at the middle of the book spine to the front of the book cover.  Pictures of this taping process are provided below.

I cut the piece of tape on the end so only a tiny bit was off the end.  Then, I tucked it along the edge.

Voila! I can read my textbook and it's not falling apart.  This is what the book looks like when it's open.

It's too bad that FedEx did not want to fix it for me for $5 because I would have bragged about them on Facebook and my blog, providing them with free advertising.

However, fixing a textbook spine on my own was really awesome and I was able to use whatever tape was lying around the house.

A proper fix might have involved binding tape, book glue, and sewing practices.  I did work in a library for a bit, so I have seen and used materials to repair older books (the kinds worthy of treasure).  Then again, this break of the sides of the spine was minor and the page binding of the spine was mostly intact.

As such, this method of textbook repair might not work for someone with a more severe break on their book.  Even so, I thought I would go ahead and share how I fixed mine in case it helps anyone else.

It is ironic that my reinforced concrete design textbook has to have its spine reinforced with tape.  Hopefully, my book will last through my summer class and beyond that for when I work as a professional engineer and need to use it as a reference book.

Update: This textbook did survive my summer class with these fixes and I earned an A.

Walt Disney is Rolling Around in His Grave; Disney's Cryogenically-Frozen Head is Rotating in Circles In Its Container

I really do not watch the Disney channel a whole lot.  I used to watch it all the time growing up.  I loved the oldschool animation and the cheesy cartoons.  I enjoyed the later cartoons: Kim Possible, Doug, House of Mouse, and Phineas and Ferb.

But...the new Mickey Mouse cartoons really upset me.  They upset me for quite a few reasons.  First, oldschool Mickey Mouse cartoons had more moral storylines.  I caught one of the new cartoons and Mickey was squirting ice cream from an ice cream truck into his shorts to get relief from the hot weather outside.  Goofy and Donald were also rubbing the ice cream on their bodies to get cooler.  This cartoon is called "Stayin' Cool".  It's on Youtube.  If Walt was around, he would have had the characters pay for the ice cream before using it to cool themselves.  Using it illegally is wrong and un-Disney.

In another cartoon short "Goofy's Grandma", Goofy bets Donald Duck money that he can fool Mickey into believing Donald Duck is really Goofy and Goofy is not dressing up as his grandmother.  The bet is lost and Goofy gives Donald a stack of money.  Gambling does not belong in Disney cartoons.  That is not moralistic behavior.  It is also certainly not a habit that impressionable children should be learning about.  Lying to friends is also not something that should be represented in this manner either.  It's disgusting?! What is wrong with the Disney writers?!! That's terrible. 

Another problem is the animation quality is really REALLY bad.  If I wanted to see body hair and manboobs with a dumb-funny plots, I would watch "Ren and Stimpy".  This is the Disney channel.  Children should not be watching cartoons that can spurn other adult-related questions like: what are manboobs? what are those red dots on his chest? why does that character have hair on his chest? why don't I have hair on my chest? These cartoons are not up to proper Disney standards.

Lastly, the plots are not as good as they used to be.  Certain iconic behaviors are missing.  In a cartoon I caught today, Goofy was pretending to be his grandmother and he fell through the wall.  When classic Goofy would have somehow been catapulted through the roof and done his iconic yell.  I think he even farted.  I don't remember any other past Disney cartoons having bad manners in them like farting.  It's not right.  Good manners were upheld back in the old days within Disney cartoons.

As a result, I'm a firm believer that Walt Disney is rolling around in his coffin and his cryogenically-frozen head is spinning inside a container somewhere.  It's really sad that oldschool 2D animation Disney cartoons are crappy now, and Pixar-animated cartoons are of WAY HIGHER quality.  It's sad when a company that started out doing 2D animation suddenly sucks at what it was iconic for when it started.

There's something wrong with the world if Disney cartoons become comparable to "Ren and Stimpy".

If the new shorts cannot live up to the oldschool short cartoons, then just show the oldschool Mickey Mouse cartoons.  Those are awesome cartoons.  Quality over quantity.  And if you don't want to show the old cartoons, show the decent tv shows like Jessie, Good Luck Charlie, and Girl Meets World instead of sub-par cartoons.  The "Steamboat Willy" lover in me hates the creators of the new Mickey Mouse short cartoons for even making Disney cartoons like that.  Shame on them.

Step Aerobics for Nerds = DDR; DDR Extreme & How to Set It Up So It Is Easier to Workout Using PS2

I bought a used game a month ago, so I could feed my obsession for DDR and try out other DDR games.  I already had DDR Extreme 2 and DDR Supernova, which are excellent games.  I had the two previous games for so long that I had forgotten how they were set up originally for the optimum game use convenience.

As such, I found the consistent "Game Over" messages and having to watch the game use instructions and DDR ads over and over again after playing 3 songs rather tedious.  Thus, I fiddled with the settings and figured out how to set it up so it was MUCH MORE CONVENIENT to workout, pick the songs I wanted, and do cardiovascular aerobic exercise consistently instead of having to deal with the aforementioned breaks.

Step One: Change the game settings for maximum number of songs: 5

Here's the game main menu:

You want to go to the Options Menu.  This menu is below the Records Menu and above the Credits Menu.

Change the Max Stage from the default setting of 3 to 5 on the second row (the row under the Game Level row).

Step 2: Change the Game Over setting to End of Music setting.

Since I want to use this game mostly for aerobic exercise, I want to be able to play entire songs even if I misstep.  The original setting is for the game to grade your performance and fail you if you are playing really bad.  Since my Dance Controller pad is old and sometimes I misstep out of faulty equipment, the original game setting hinders my game experience.  Thus, the best thing to do in my case is to change the Game Over setting.

Thus, change the Game Over setting on the 3rd row (the row below the Max Stage) to "End of Music".  This allows the user to play the entire length of songs (even if their dance controller pad is faulty or they lack flawless coordination).

Step 3: Change Event Mode to ON, so the game will go back to the song wheel after 5 songs.  

Since I want to exercise for about 15 songs in a row, the best way to achieve that is to set the Event Mode to ON.  This can be changed using the row below the Game Over row and using the side-to-side arrows.  This will mean that after 5 songs in each game, the game goes back to the song wheel.  This measure allows me to pick whatever songs I want to play in whatever order I want and not have to wait through tedious ads and for the game to restart.  This is great for a fickle individual who doesn't want to go through the trouble of setting up courses for workouts instead as well (aka: me).

Step 4: Default Difficulty Setting changes (optional)

Now, I like playing most DDR games on Basic or Light modes.  Hence, I didn't change the Default Difficulty setting from Light to any other setting.  However, if you are new at DDR and want to start off on Beginner setting and not have to change it all the time, you could change the Default Difficulty setting to Beginner in this menu to avoid the hassle.  On the flipside, if you are an amazing DDR player and want to play the Standard setting or any other setting more difficult than that, you can also toggle up to and change this Default Difficulty setting to one of the harder settings to eliminate the hassle of changing it all the time while playing.

Step 5: Turn Workout Mode ON in the workout menu

Since I want to monitor how many calories I burn while I workout, setting this mode to ON means that the number of kilocalories I burn shows up in the bottom left corner of any song results screen I see while playing in Game Mode.  Hence, I set Workout Mode to ON as shown in the image below.

Make sure you save all these changes on your memory card in your PS2, so playing the game for workout purposes can be more convenient.

Review: I really like this game: DDR Extreme.  It works great.  There are some awesome 80's songs in it as well, which is the era of music I like best for dancing.  Plus, now that I have figured out how to set it up for workout mode, it makes it almost as convenient to use as the other DDR games that I own.

I hope other DDR enthusiasts find this blog helpful so they can enjoy other DDR games!!

I was bummed out that the other used DDR game that I bought a month ago couldn't be read by my PS2.  As such, I cannot review it for you.  It is called Dance Dance Revolution X.

Disclaimer: The screenshot images were taken by me using my digital camera, but the menus displayed on the television in the images are the property of Konami, Bemani, PS2, and the whole DDR franchise.  I do not own the menus.