In light of now having been fitted with a spinal cord stimulator implant, I decided it might be a good idea to have some sort of medical alert on my person, beyond the card in my wallet, so that some well-meaning soul wouldn’t put me in a MRI machine by accident.

Metal in the body + MRI = bad idea.

I wasn’t really sure what I wanted… Well, that’s not true. I knew what I wanted — a set of custom BSG dog tags with my medical info — but it wasn’t really economically feasible and might work against me if I landed in the hands of Galactica fans who might just ignore them as an affectation of geekery.

So I searched the web until I found these (pictured right):

The orientation of the tags is different so that they look more like stop signs — but that might not be a bad thing considering their purpose — and they are stainless steel instead of the heavy brass of the prop replicas (pictured left), but they are close enough to make me happy.

I ordered from IDTagsOnline, and they arrived so quickly I was actually shocked to see them in the mailbox. The order was placed on a Friday afternoon and I had them by the following Monday — and I only paid for USPS 4-day Priority Shipping (Michigan to Texas)!

Nxtiberius has announced a new Battlestar Galactica LEGO project over at Flickr.

The latest creation is the Viper Mark VII. It’s a work in progress, but it already looks frakkin’ awesome.

Check it out!

Well, I finished my custom binder for my Battlestar Galactica Blu-ray and soundtrack discs … almost.

I say almost because I wanna do one more thing, but overall it’s complete and I’m ecstatic. Beyond ecstatic!

Take a look:

(click the image to see the slideshow)

The Corners Conundrum

To resolve the corners conundrum, I paid a visit to a nearby Home Depot and scoured the hardware section for tools for cutting. A reader of the blog had commented that he used a pair of kitchen scissors to cut the corners on his — thanks for the tip! — but alas my scissors were of the wimpy variety and surely would have popped a rivet in the attempt. So, to the hardware aisle I went.

I came away with a plastic cutter (which looked like a plastic-handled hobby knife with a bizarre “hooked” blade) for like $3, and what looked like a pair of heavy-duty shears/scissors (Wiss MultiMaster) for $15. I ended up using the shears as they were easy to operate and made a pretty straight and even cut; just go slow and cut as precisely as possible.

Here’s where the almost comes in: I plan to use a bit of sandpaper or a file to run along the edges, just to “polish” them up the tiniest bit. Some might not even bother, but I’m something of a perfectionist.

Cutting Corners … in a good (BSG) way

Tools used:

• Wiss MultiMaster cutters
• a metal ruler 18″ long and approximately 1.25″ wide
• a Sharpee marker

I started by cutting the corners of the front and back covers of the binder:

1. I made the first cut in top right corner of the front cover, cutting along the inside edge of the embossed middle band using the Wiss MultiMaster cutters.
2. I then used the corner I’d cut away as a guide to mark where to cut on the other three corners, which do not have the bands, by aligning it with the corner then using the marker to draw a line, on the inside of the covers.
3. Next, I used the Wiss MultiMaster cutters to cut those corners.

I also decided I wanted to trim the width of the binder as well, since the half pages didn’t completely fill the inside and I wanted it more compact, so here’s what I did next:

1. I aligned the ruler with the edge of the binder, then used the marker to draw a cut guide along the inside of the cover on each side.
2. I then used the Wiss MultiMaster cutters to trim along that line. It went slowly and carefully so I wouldn’t end up with a jagged or crooked cut.

The next and final step will be for me to get some sandpaper or a file to “polish off” the edges. Then I’m really gonna be a super-happy geek!

Oh, one other thing…

I’m looking for a laminate pocket (think a single baseball card holder) with an adhesive back to put on the front cover to hold the front label. Will keep you posted on what I find, or whatever solution I end up with to put the label on securely.

> Check out other posts related to the BSG Binder