Another use for Apple Care / journal / hicksdesign

10/11/05

Another use for Apple Care

You get great boxes. Let me explain…

The previous hicksdesign workhorse, a 17” ex-Dunstan powerbook, had to be sent away twice to be fixed with Applecare. Once to get the bluetooth module replaced, then second time to replace the screen (which was meant to be done the same time as the Bluetooth, but they forgot I think).

This left me with 2, very sturdy, boxes crammed with various foam & polystyrene packing bits. Until last week, they’d been sitting under my desk, waiting for some action. It finally occurred to me to take them home and get some children action on them.

So here’s what we did (or rather what ‘I’ did, as it did become a bit of a ‘Daddy obsession’). By taping the boxes together, and unfolding the ends of the boxes we made our very own pirate ship!

Samantha and Daniel sitting in the applecare pirate boat

The bamboo cane mast, brown parcel tape and paper flag made by Samantha were the only materials that didn’t come from those Applecare boxes. The foam bags made great sails, and the pimply foam blocks looked like waves crashing against the boat. The whole thing took less than an hour, which could have been faster without Daniel leaping on top of me every few minutes. We haven’t tackled painting it yet, that might be a task too far.

Samantha and Daniel loved it (for a day at least), and it was strong enough for Daniel to lie back on the stern. The only drawback is that our house is not exactly spacious, and the boat takes up most of the free floor space that we have here!

Technorati Tags Tags: applecare, family, making

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Comments are now closed, but you can still have a jolly time reading what others have left:

Peter J Lambert said 1065 days ago:

Man, that’s some good box action. I used to love that stuff. My dad’s a printer and every so often he’d bring paper boxes (that’s boxes for paper, not cubist origami) home for me and my brother to play with.

He’d give each of us a box and get us to crawl inside, then he’d tape the lid shut with brown packing tape and let us try and break our way out.

We’d get really flustered and out of breath trying to get out of the boxes and it would take us ages. I don’t quite understand why my mum and dad would get red-faced by it though. They weren’t even watching, they were upstai… Oh…

David said 1065 days ago:

Is there a patent on that, or can we all have a go? How about a Flickr contest for most creative use of Apple Care boxes! Good stuff.

Matt Lindop said 1065 days ago:

www.pimpmyapplecarebox.com?!!

Faruk Ates said 1065 days ago:

You, sir, are my hero.

Jeroen Mulder said 1065 days ago:

Damnit Faruk, don’t steal my lines!

_” Ok, Jon Hicks is my hero.”_

It’s beyond awesome. ;-)

Jordan Wollman said 1065 days ago:

Bravo!

Roger Herbert said 1065 days ago:

arr!

the three fundamentals of fun: pirates, robots and monkeys – and any combination thereof squares the fun.

Eric Meyer said 1065 days ago:

That utterly rocks.

FatBusinessman said 1065 days ago:

The Flying Spaghetti Monster will look kindly upon you for doing your bit to reduce global warming, the geek community will look kindly upon you because pirates are cool and your kids are looking kindly upon you because you’re a damn cool dad.

What more could a man want that isn’t cheese-related?

#10

Wilson said 1065 days ago:

Oh man, your kids are great. I sent my 12” PB back twice and kept the boxes until I moved. They seemed so well-thought-out and useful. But I never made such brilliant use of them as building a carpet-faring vessel.

#11

Rob Wilmshurst said 1065 days ago:

Wish my dad had made me a pirate ship. I may go all out and go for a 1/2 size replica of the Queen Mary 2. Whadya think? And how many powerbooks!?!?

#12

Olly said 1065 days ago:

Daniel doesn’t look very happy to me. In fact, looks more like he’s scared ;-)

#13

Mark Boulton said 1065 days ago:

Genius Jon, Genius.

#14

Mike D. said 1065 days ago:

This is why you are the king, Hicksy.

#15

Nathan Pitman said 1065 days ago:

Kids love cardboard.

#16

Nick said 1065 days ago:

Mad props.

#17

oneighturbo said 1065 days ago:

awesome. gotta love the smiles! i feel ya on the space issue. we are getting ready for #2 and i think the house just shrank!

#18

Yannick said 1065 days ago:

LOL That is awesome Jon. Nice work!

#19

Ara Pehlivanian said 1065 days ago:

A little late for talk like a pirate day but very cool nonetheless! w00t! Or should I say arrrgh!

#20

Andrea said 1065 days ago:

That is too cool. Will you make one for me? I could sail it around work and steal all the doubloons from the administrators and use them to do all my pet projects… arrgh! ;)

#21

Joel said 1065 days ago:

A Dad of the year nomination is in order

#22

James AkaXakA said 1065 days ago:

Mr. Hicks, could you be my daddy too?

#23

Jon said 1065 days ago:

Nice. Glad to hear you’re getting good service from AppleCare. Check out the box that my imac was returned to me in when I sent it out for service through AppleCare (photo at the bottom of the service horror story).

#24

Siobhan Curran said 1065 days ago:

Hmm, parcel tape? Gaffer tape would make a much better galleon. It keeps the landlubbers at bay for longer.

But still ;-) Yaar!

#25

Jason said 1065 days ago:

Very, very cool. My brother and I had tons of fun playing with cardboard boxes when we were kids, but we didn’t have our very own pirate ship.

#26

matthew Smith said 1065 days ago:

An able-bodied seaman meets a pirate in a bar, and they take turns recounting their adventures at sea. Noting the pirate’s peg-leg, hook, and eye patch the seaman asks, “So, how did you end up with the peg-leg?”

The pirate replies, “We was caught in a monster storm off the cape and a giant wave swept me overboard. Just as they were pullin’ me out, a school of sharks appeared and one of ‘em bit me leg off.”

“Blimey!” said the seaman. “What about the hook?”

“Ahhhh…,” mused the pirate, “we were boardin’ a trader ship, pistols blastin’ and swords swingin’ this way and that. In the fracas me hand got chopped off.”

“Zounds!” remarked the seaman. “And how came ye by the eye patch?”

“A seagull droppin’ fell into me eye,” answered the pirate.

“You lost your eye to a seagull dropping?” the sailor asked incredulously.

“Well,” said the pirate, “it was me first day with the hook.”

—-sorry, if it’s a bit long, I couldn’t resist. You should send that pic to apple. I bet they would get a kick out of it.

#27

Arjan Terol said 1065 days ago:

Cool way to keep the kids away from your new Powerbook. Will remember this one ;-)

#28

Mearso said 1065 days ago:

Boxes are grrreat! Combined with masking tape and some very dangerous cutting implements. My children’s recent effort is a Tank, which survived a week in the garden before they went on a Hulk-type smashing frenzy.

Also, on box related theme I love the Box Doodle Project