When I was 8 years old I tried to build hovercraft.

I started with my sister’s blowdryer, took the fan out of the plastic housing and fitted it into a hole I carved into a soapbox derby car .

So here’s how it went down. I sitting on the edge of my bed leaning over and working on the floor. I was holding onto my hovercraft while reaching over to plug the dryer into the socket. So far so good.

Next I grabbed the switch dangling between the wire from the wall to the wire routing to the fan and flipped the switch to High. I wanted this hovercraft to fly.

I must have been touching one of the hot wires when the circuit closed.

I remember hitting the back of my head on the wall of the bedroom and everything going black for a split second, then just stars and spinning. When I regained my senses I looked down and the switch was black and melted. The fan never came on.

I’ve done some light electrical work as a homeowner, tapping into existing lines to wire new switches, installing ceiling fans. If the jobs are any bigger than that, I call a professional.

Today I’m cleaning out the electronics bin. It’s comprised mostly of power cords, vga to dvi cables, usb cables, cat5 cables – but also some things that I’ve carried around for a long long time. A Canon film camera, a tape (tape!) personal recorder, 2 VTBooks – essentially graphics card on a chip used to run multiple monitors prior to… all the manufacturers supporting multiple monitors and all these hard drives.

Apparently I copied a Morcheeba album to all my computers because I’ve found it on all but 3 of these drives.

Today I’m voiding warranties, wondering why I thought the files on these machines were so important and reformatting hard drives before I recycle them… made think of that time I tried to build a hovercraft.

Here’s a Morcheeba song.