Monday, March 4, 2013

GCT Level Examples

Happy Monday! This is so me this morning:
Calvin and Hobbes
http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1987/10/02

When we started Pinstrosity we knew we wanted a way to rate the projects with some sort of a "fail scale". We had already seen with our own projects that there were some near misses and there were some catastrophes. Every project was not created equal. As we thought on it, Em came up with an idea to base our scale off of one of our projects and immediately we turned to this post:


Hello All! This is the first post by Emilee, and well it's not actually mine! This one was The Mr. Chip's disaster project. Ahem. Here Goes!

The Original Pin
Awesome right! Who knew?! Grilled Cheese, easy on the Grilled.

The Pinstrosity

What Went Wrong
 A few things went wrong here:
If you read the directions, instead of just going off of the picture, it would have told you that this "trick" doesn't work on ALL toasters, however, it then goes on to say that this only works on a toaster without a "Toast Cage", AND (here's where they get ya') if the cheese does NOT melt off the side. So in all reality this only works if there is in fact no cheese involved at all, lame right?!  Because really what is a Grilled Cheese without melty cheese?!
In Chip's experiMELT he turned the toaster over, put in the cheese and bread, just as the pictures shows, and well...our toaster caught on fire. So this project is a bust.
How to Fix This

Go to your local Wally World, and buy a Toaster Oven!
...and well another option is to carefully place your cheese on the bread, and make sure you REALLY watch it, because the cheese can get out of hand really quickly. Another thing to consider is that toasters were not meant to be on their sides, so the heat has no where to go if it can't vent up, causing to much heat, and then fire. Overall this "trick" was a bust and safety hazard, so if I were you I would stick with traditional toast, or traditional Grilled cheese, on a grill, the way they were meant to be. Happy Toasting!



After we chose this project as our basis for the fail scale, the rest of the ideas flowed fast and easy. It quickly became dubbed the Grilled Cheese Toast Fail Scale (or the GCT Scale for short).


We've all had issues making toast. One time we'll get a beautifully toasted piece of bread, other times it won't toast at all, and then there are those lovely occasions where we set off the smoke alarm. Let me go through each of the levels of the scale (with the addition of Pin Wins and Pin Spins...which aren't a fail so they're not on the scale) and give you one of our favorite examples for each.

Pin Win:
A project that worked out just like it was supposed to. This is what we all hope for when we start our projects, but we all know not to hold our breath. One of the Pin Wins we have featured is the Penny Stain. You know...the one that says "put a bunch of pennies in vinegar for 2 weeks and you have a great Caribbean Blue stain". I decided to give that pin a very thorough test and here's what I ended up with:





Next, we have Pin Spins:
Pin Spins are projects that people took and made them their own. They are pins that people tweaked to personalize, improve, or change. They don't turn out just like the original pin because of the tweaks, but they still turn out fun and great.

One of the projects that inspired this category was submitted to us by Jean. She was trying to do the "60 years of memories" idea (only she'd do "51 years of memories"), where you have people from every age of your loved one's life send in letters with memories. You then put them in chronological order and give the sentimental and fun gift to the special person. Jean wrote 100 of her Dad's friends/family members, figuring she'd get at least half . She ended up with 15. That wasn't quite going to work. She said, "Since I was a far cry from the intended 51 letters, I had to work with what I had. I created a magazine, and gave each friend a full page to tell their story. This resulted in a large, easy-to-read fonts and big pictures."



When things don't turn out just exactly how you imagined them, look for ways you can salvage it and turn it into something new! I know not everything is salvageable, but you'd be surprised what you can save even out of the biggest Pinstrosities. 


Now on to the actual Fail Scale. 

GCT Level 1 (aka Pindifferent)



1: White-It didn't even toast at all!   This is when a project varies from its intended finished product slightly, but it's fairly close.



And the example? The birthday balloon avalanche. We all have this idea of a wall of balloons falling onto the happy Birthday Person, covering their whole person in balloons. Instead of the wall of balloons though, these guys got a bit of a balloon slump/avalanche:



GCT Level 2





2: Two-Toned-Toasted on one side, but not the other.  This is when a project doesn't quite turn out, but it's still usable. More of an "It's not ideal, but it still kinda worked" mentality. 




Here's our example for Level 2 projects:
The original pin:
Pinned Image
http://www.lizvetteblog.com/diy-easy-christmas-lights-background-photography/

The Pinstrosity:
http://pinstrosity.blogspot.com/2012/11/faux-depth-of-field.html

GCT Level 3:



3: Brown-Darker than preferred, but still edible. This is when a project definitely went wrong, but all hope is not lost. Maybe it's usable as something else. Maybe it's semi-usable as intended. It's definitely not quite right, but not worth throwing away either.


The Original Pin
Pinned Image
http://busy-mommy.com/2009/12/cooks-ham-tortilla-christmas-tree.html

The Pinstrosity
http://pinstrosity.blogspot.com/2012/12/party-palate-planning.html




GCT Level 4


4: Black-Charred, but maybe the dog will eat it. This is definitely a project gone wrong. It's no longer usable as originally intended, but maybe it's still usable in pieces? Maybe you can dismantle it for the future?



The Original Pin
http://www.wikihow.com/Curl-Hair-with-Bobby-Pins

The Pinstrosity



GCT Level 5




5: Up in Flames-Past saving. This is when a project hits disaster zone. There's no saving any of it. Time to chuck it all out.




The Original Pin

The Pinstrosity



Okay...I'll give you my two favorites for GCT Level 5:

The Original Pin
http://www.maniacworld.com/How-To-Make-Glow-In-The-Dark-Mountain-Dew.html
How to make Mt. Dew glow. The video looks convincing. Looks like fun. But this is the result:
The Pinstrosity

"There's nothing in that picture!" you say. Wrong...my husband is in that picture holding the "glowing" bottle of Mt. Dew. Seriously. As you can see...it doesn't glow! Just look at the Cam-man's disappointed and disgusted face below when the flash was used.




We love it when people rate their own projects. It's fun to see everyone's perception of how their project turned out. 

3 comments:

  1. A passable toaster grilled cheese recipe: Make toast (without cheese), add a slice of cheese, microwave for 15 seconds (long enough to melt cheese), eat. It's not a perfect grilled cheese, but works well if your stove is broken, or you don't have time to drag out a skillet.

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  2. Haha I love the scale!! hilarious. I saw the grilled cheese in a toaster a while ago and it looks too suspiciously perfect to actually work... good thing we have a toasted sandwich maker at home...I wouldnt attempt this in a normal toaster.

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