THIS
AND THAT
Wayne
Schmidt's multi-topic site covering everything from kaleidoscopes to
electric rocket engines
(This
site is viewed best in Internet Explorer.)
Pages
Dealing with Writing:
JOKES 31
pages of side-splitting jokes .
X-FILES 3
novels, 2 short stories, commentary, favorite episodes
PERRY
RHODAN A description of the longest running sci fi series of
all time
BOOKBINDING
101 How
anyone can make professional-looking paperbacks at home
BOOKBINDING
201 Make
professional-looking hardbacks at home
RETIEF
OF THE CDT 2 stories, episode list, series explanation
MELVIN
COGSWORTH, P.D. 5
humorous stories about metal detecting
STAR
TREK DEEP SPACE NINE 1
novel, largest DS9 link list
FAN
FICTION WRITING PAGES Techniques to
improve anyone's writing
GREATEST
QUOTES OF ALL TIME Wisdom
from the wisest of the wise
Antiques
THE
MYSTERY OF THE FORGOTTEN TABLE GOING
TO PBS's ANTIQUES ROADSHOW!!!
Pages
Dealing
with Chocolate:
GROWING
COCOA Cultivation
of the cacao tree and bean harvest
CHOCOLATE
TESTING 84
brands of milk chocolate compared
CHOCOLATE
HISTORY From
discovery to the confection we enjoy today
CHOCOLATE
DOCTORING Altering
commercial chocolates
HOW
TO EAT CHOCOLATE Techniques
to maximize your pleasure
HERSHEY'S
VINTAGE PAGE Vintage quality for Hershey's UPDATED!!!
MERCKEN'S
VINTAGE PAGE Vintage quality Mercken's
HOW
CHOCOLATE IS MADE The entire process from pod to bar
CANDY
BAR AUTOPSY PAGE Photos
of 62 dissected candy bars
HOW
TO MAKE CHOCOLATE AT HOME My
first two attempts and results
EXPERIMENTS
IN TEMPERING CHOCOLATE Comparing
different techniques
Pages
Dealing with Music:
BOOGIE
WOOGIE! History,
definition, top Boogie Woogie songs, and piano midi samples
TWO
MUST-HAVE ALBUMS Two
great collections to make at home
ROCK
& ROLL REVOLUTION Charting history's greatest music takeover
GREATEST
MUSIC HITS OF ALL TIME Megahits from
1890 to 2006
THE
SCHMIDT FAMILY CHRISTMAS ALBUM The
best versions of 28 classics
WHAT'S
NEW, THE LINDA RONSTADT CONCERT Songs'
original singers
GREATEST
MUSICAL PERFORMERS OF ALL TIME Musical
superstars from 1880 to now
COLLECTABLE
BILLY JOEL CONCERT PASS PAGE
ELVIS
PRESLEY - BING CROSBY COMPARISON PAGE
MOST
POPULAR ENTERTAINER OF THE 20TH CENTURY
STYLE
WARS: RAGTIME vs HONKY TONK vs BOOGIE WOOGIE
Pages
Dealing with Movies:
ON
APPROVAL Dedicated to the funniest play
ever staged
THE
BIG SLEEP 65
images with comments about this film noir classic
SWEET
SIXTEEN The
funniest and most hated British sitcom ever aired
BOX
OFFICE DATA Box
office totals and ticket prices from 1929-2011 UPDATED
WITH 2012 DATA!
MEETING
OF MINDS The
most innovative television show ever aired
BING
CROSBY MOVIE PAGE Comparing Bing and Elvis Presley's
theatrical successes
THE
IMPORTANCE OF BEING ERNEST
CHRISTMAS
MOVIE RECOMMENDATIONS
THE
20 MOST POPULAR MOVIES OF ALL TIME UPDATED
TO 2012!!!
Food:
CAKE! How
to make the best tasting cakes from mixes
COOKING
51 home-developed and tested recipes
DOUGHNUTS How
to make professional quality doughnuts at home!
TASTE
TESTS 110 different food brands compared BIG
HAM TEST!!!
BUTTERHORNS the
world's most delectable cookie
THE
JOY OF JELLO NEW
PAGE!!!
SCOTTISH
SHORTBREAD NEW
NUMBER ONE!!!
CAKE
BATTER ICE CREAM How
to make the world's best tasting ice cream
THE
EGG McMUFFIN PAGE History
of and how to make the best Egg McMuffins!
THE
VANILLA PUDDING PAGE How
to make the world's best vanilla pudding!
POPCORN
COMPARISON PAGE 19
gourmet popcorns taste tested!
FOR
THE LOVE OF FIG NEWTONS History, taste tests and FAQs
TASTE
TESTING ARTISANAL HONEYS Taste
testing exotic single-flower honeys
WHAT
RESTAURANTS SHOW YOU IS NOT WHAT YOU GET
Gardening:
JAWS Venus
Fly Trap information page
ROSES Experiments
in growing fragrant tea roses
TOMATOES The
sweetest cherry and best tasting beefsteaks
GARDENING
Fifty fruit, vegetable and flower articles
SOIL
TESTING Seven
soil test kits compared!
POTTING
SOIL Seed
germination and plant growth rates for 6 brands
JUST
FLOWERS Pictures of flowers in my garden
SOLARIZATION Comparing
10 different techniques
MORNING
GLORIES
FLOWERING
BULBS Experiments
in growing bulbs
CANTERBURY
BELLS
How to grow these great flowers
WAR
OF THE NEMATODES
GROWING
RANUNCULUSES Planting
guide
EXTREME
MELON GROWING Grow
the sweetest melons!
FLUORESCENT
PLANT LIGHTING
HOW
TO GROW SUPER TRANSPLANTS
WHY
DRY PEAT MOSS REPELS WATER
THE
UGLY TRUTH ABOUT COMPOSTING
INTERVIEW
WITH A CARNIVOROUS PLANT GROWER
Kaleidoscopes:
MY
KALEIDOSCOPE I call it Fire Under Glass
MY
NEWEST KALEIDOSCOPES
KALEIDOSCOPE
MIRROR DESIGNS Exploring Kaleidoscope Mirror Systems
CHEAP
KALEIDOSCOPE DISSECTION REPORT
LINKS
TO SOME GREAT KALEIDOSCOPE SITES
MY
VISIT TO THE EILEEN KREMEN KALEIDOSCOPE GALLERY Pictures and comments
Hobbies:
BETTAS 50
pages about bettas
GREAT
KITES! Not dime-store toys. These are
eye-popping monsters
PINTOGRAPHS How
to make and use a pintograph
HUMMINGBIRDS! Get
hummingbirds to sit on your finger
INSANE
PROJECTS Some
of my odd-ball projects
BUBBLE
BLOWING Bubble solutions and machines
METAL
DETECTING A
brutally honest metal detector evaluation
HARMONOGRAPHS How
to make and use a harmonograph
SWORDS
OF GLASS Playing
guide with screen shots for this classic game
CRYSTAL
GROWING How
to grow crystals
DEATH
MASTER 3000 The
ultimate Nerf terror weapon
CPS
2000 SUPER SOAKER The
biggest, baddest production squirt gun ever made!
UKRAINIAN
EASTER EGGS
My bumbling attempts to learn this great art form
RELAXING
MOMENTS PUZZLES NEW PAGE!!!
LOST
ART OF KNITTING NANCYS How
to make and weave with a Knitting Nancy
AWANA
GRAND PRIX RACE CARS How to build the fastest race car at
the meet
LIGHTSABER
BLADE EXPERIMENTS Developing
the world's brightest blade
Pages
About Weaving:
TRIANGLE
LOOMS How
build and weave on them
AN
ENGINEER WARPS A LOOM A
fast and simple way to warp a loom
LOST
ART OF KNITTING NANCYS How
to make and use them
PRECISION
VARIEGATED WARPING Create
solid blocks of color!
FIVE
TRICKS TO IMPROVE AN INEXPENSIVE INKLE LOOM
Addams
Family Pinball Pages:
MY
ADDAMS FAMILY PINBALL GAME CENTER How I set up my game
ADDAMS
FAMILY GAME MODIFICATIONS How
I customized my TAF
THE
ADDAMS FAMILY PINBALL GAME Playfield
details and ball aiming
ALTERNATE
TAF GAMES TO PLAY Fun
drills and shot sequences to try!
THE
RESTORATION FROM HELL What
went wrong with a restoration
PLAYFIELD
RESTORATION Restoring
a seriously abused TAF playfield
PLATINUM
EDITION TAF
My fantasies about making a dream Addams Family game
MALFUNCTION
SURVEY 50 owners discuss reliability, problems and fixes
DMD
SCREEN SHOTS 100
Dot Matrix Display Screen Captures!
MY
TAF PROBLEMS Ways
it broke and how they were fixed
MYLAR
REMOVAL Five
removal techniques compared
ODDS
AND ENDS Rumminations
that don't fit on the other pages
ASTRONOMY
PAGES
TELESCOPE
MAKING
21 telescope making articles
STELLAR
ASTERISMS Locations
and sketches of 62 asterisms
THE
MAKING OF VOYAGER A
motorized chair for giant binoculars
OBSERVATIONAL
ASTRONOMY
The best objects in 15 constellations
ASTRONOMICAL
PHOTOGRAPHS Hubble's best photos
GREEN
LASER POINTERS FOR STAR PARTIES
Pages
Related to Photography:
INTRODUCTION My
photographic expertise and purpose of these pages
ODDBALL
IMAGES Some
of the strange images available on this site
MY
BETTER PICTURES My
best work
IMAGES
ON THE INTERNET Comparison
of JPEG sampling densities
PICTURES
OF HUMMINGBIRDS
LENSES
FOR THE CANON EOS 20D Canon,
Sigma, Tamron, Tokina lenses
SONY
DSC-F707 DIGITAL CAMERA A
photographic sub-novice reviews this camera
CANON
100mm F2.8 MACRO LENS A
performance evaluation page
BUILD
YOUR OWN FLASH FOCUSER Triple your flash's range for only $5
MARVIN
SCHMIDT'S PHOTOGRAPHS
My brother's work
PHOTOGRAPHIC
PRODUCT REVIEWS
WHY
I PURCHASED A CANON EOS 20D
CANON
MP-E 65mm 1-5x MACRO LENS
ELIMINATE
DEPTH OF FIELD CONFUSION
HOW
TO MAKE 3D POKESCOPE IMAGE PAIRS
CANON
580EX SPEEDLITE FLASH DURATIONS
FEATURES
I WISH CAMERAS AND LENSES HAD
COMPARING
THE CANON 20D TO THE NIKON D70
HOW
TO STRETCH THE DEPTH OF FIELD IN A PRINT
WHICH
COMPANY MAKES THE BEST CAMERA LENSES?
EXPERIMENTS
WITH CLOSE-UP LENSES AND TUBE EXTENSIONS
Pages
Dealing with Medical Issues:
COLDS Everything
you want to know about them
MY
HERNIA A record of symptoms, the operation, and healing
BRAIN
FREEZES What
they are and what causes them
HEART
ATTACK 101 My symptoms, surgery and recovery
MY
LASIK EXPERIENCE A
detailed account of having the new wavefront LASIK
THE
REVITALIZE STUDY Experiences of a stem cell test subject
ALMOST
LOSING AN EYE
NUTRITION
AND EXERCISE
Vitamin, mineral and exercise information
MY
LINGUAL FRENECTOMY
FLIRTING
WITH DEPRESSION My
clinical depression and its cure
PLAYING
THE SUPPLEMENTS GAME Lessons learned and tricks of the trade
MY
EXPERIENCE WITH SHIN SPLINTS How I got them and the cure
ELECTROCARDIOGRAPHY
FOR DUMMIES
MECHANICAL
ANIMAL AUTOPSY REPORT Just a
little fun
MY
ROTATOR CUFF SURGERY EXPERIENCE What it was like and how it healed
Sports:
ARCHERY
A hint to give you an extra point per in
BILLIARDS
Articles on shafts, custom cues, tables, chalk, and much more
TWO
USEFUL PING-PONG TOOLS
Stop breaking your back picking up balls
AN
UNCONVENTIONAL DART GAME A
different target for a challenging game
Science:
SILLY
PUTTY What
it is, its history, how to make it and experiements with it
MAGIC
ROCKS Information
about these stalagmite growing kits
AIR
BLASTERS Smoke-ring
and air-puff guns
MYSTERY
EGGS A
case study showing where many the pages on this site come from
PLASMA
LAMPS A simplified explanation of how they work
IRIDIUM
FLARES What
they are and how to see them.
LUCID
DREAMING How
to live
your wildest fantasies!
OPTICAL
ILLUSIONS Interesting
and entertaining illusions
HOW
SUPER GLUE WORKS
HOW
MUSICAL TOPS WORK
VAN
DE GRAAFF GENERATORS Buying,
using, and how to make them
MY
ELECTRIC ROCKET ENGINE The
USAF's starship Enterprise's impulse engines
MENTOS
- DIET COKE GEYSERS Create
the highest eruption
THE
TRUTH ABOUT SARAN WRAP What
really makes it so sticky
WINTERGREEN
LIFESAVER FLASH
Why it happens with photos
ELECTRIC
ROCKET ENGINE BASICS How
different electric thusters work
BUILD
YOUR OWN JACOB'S LADDER NEW
PAGE!!!
SUPER-BRIGHT
GLOW-IN-THE-DARK PAINT
THE
FASCINATING WORLD OF ICE AND SALT How
salt melts ice and makes it colder
HOW
TO MAKE THREE DIMENSIONAL IMAGES
ULTRA-FAST
NUCLEAR DETONATION PICTURES Strange
images you won't believe
PHYSICS
AND PSYCHOLOGY OF MURPHY'S LAW
AN
ENGINEERING APPROACH TO PSYCHIC RESEARCH What
a team of PhDs found
Comparison
Pages:
ANT
WARS
How to get them out of your house
CAT
WARS! A
comparison of products to keep cats out of a yard
OPAL
HUNT! My experience purchasing opals on
the Internet
PRODUCT
TESTS 78
toys, tools, odds and ends evaluated
TELEVISION
PIXEL PAGE Comparing
magnified images of TV pixels
DRAGON
NATURALLY SPEAKING
A test of this popular voice recognition software
WHAT'S
THE BEST SEARCH ENGINE
THE
BEST PLACE IN THE USA TO LIVE
Based on weather and other factors
THE
BEST TOWNS IN CALIFORNIA TO LIVE
ANTI-SPYWARE
SOFTWARE COMPARISONS 7
programs compared
HOW
MUCH TODAY'S STUFF WOULD COST LONG AGO
Inflation across 2 centuries
WHAT
RESTAURANTS SHOW YOU IS NOT WHAT YOU GET
HOW
MUCH COMMERCIAL TIME HAS GROWN OVER THE YEARS
Assorted
Subject Pages:
ABOUT
ME A brief biography of this website's owner
RAMBLINGS
Articles on the strange and mundane
FOSSIL
HUNT A
homemade dinosaur dig kids love
GHOST
PAGES Explanation
and list of lost pages that still exist
MY
PLEO PAGE Raising
a robotic dinosaur
ASSORTED
LINKS A collection of assorted links
STORMWIND
CITY A
very large map of the famous city in World of Warcraft
SEND
ME AN EMAIL Temporarily
turned off
ABOUT
THIS AND THAT How
this site came to be END OF YEAR UPDATE!!!
BICENTENNIAL
QUARTERS 2013 UPDATE!!!
WKRP
IN CINCINNATI PAGE Episode
guide and WKRP
DVD review
HOW
TO SOLVE A 15-PUZZLE
SPACESHIP
COLORING PAGES 20
free crayon coloring pages
HOW
TO SOLVE A RUBIK'S CUBE Simple
mnenomic trick makes it easier!
ETCH
A SKETCH AUTOPSY REPORT What's
inside, how they work
PLEASE
LOOK HERE IF PAGES OR PICTURES DON'T OPEN
VICTORIAN
DOMESTIC SERVANT HIERARCHY AND WAGES
2010
CONSUMERS ELECTRONICS SHOW: A FIRST-TIMER'S EXPERIENCES
POETRY:
GAIL
SCHMIDT'S WEBSITE My
wife's Inspirational poetry UPDATED 6
MAY,
2013!!!
Site Statistics: 432 pages, 4,000 images and over 1,000,000 words covering more than 100 subjects.
Disclaimer: The statements on these pages only relate to my own experiences. I am not an expert in any of these subjects. Nothing I say should be taken as a recommendation or endorsement.
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