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Stardate: 20200630.2304
Location: Garage
Input Device: MinervaX Med Cart
Software: nano
Audio: Box Fan
Visual: Garage clutter
Emotional State: Tired, like a kid.
                                                          
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I found a free road case/flightcase down the street from where I 
live this past weekend.  I was driving by when I saw the case with 
a big FREE sign taped to it.  I had to nab it immediately as 
soon as I saw it so I parked my car in my driveway and walked 
down the street to go get it.  Since it was on casters, I was 
able to wheel it home. [1]

The road case is huge!  I didn't realize how big it was until 
I got it to my garage.  Since there are a couple projects 
going on in my garage at the moment, I had to move some 
things around to make room for it.  The dimensions are 
roughly 53"x38"x57" with casters.  It has two end caps that 
are latched on and can be removed.  I opened it up and inside 
there were 4 padded vertical dividers and 2 large dowel 
rods.[2]  The walls and the floors were padded as well.  This was 
apparently used as a wardrobe, probably for the entertainment 
industry.  There were some very minor scuffs and scrapes to 
the foam on the inside, but it was pretty clean.

At first, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it.  I 
was conflicted...the adult in me kinda regretted the 
impulsive garbage grab and was like, WTF are you going to do 
with that?  And now you're responsible for getting rid of it!  
The kid in me was like, YEAH, LET'S BUILD A FORT!!!  I even 
thought of putting it back or putting it on my curb with the 
free sign for a moment, but didn't.  My inner child had won.  

After that there was no turning back.  I was completely 
onboard.  I started thinking, maybe I can make one of those 
cool Battletech pods that I used to play in at Dave and 
Busters way back when or make a MAME cabinet  cockpit or even 
a cool flight simulator rig.  I've always wanted to do 
something like that.  I almost did with the closet under the 
stairs, but there were too many issues with that.  Or maybe a 
sound booth of some kind for music.  Or maybe a home theater 
pod.

While I had these ideas going on in my head, I proceeded to 
dismantle the dividers and clean it up.  The exterior was in 
decent shape and had the previous owner and other previous 
owner's logos spray painted over in black.  The last company 
(or band?) had their name painted on one side, which I sanded 
off, which revealed another logo for some display company.  
I'll probably leave it there or paint over it in black.

After I removed the dividers and rods, I went over the 
interior with the shop vac and cleaned up the exterior with 
the vac and wiped it down with WD-40, especially all of the 
metal parts.  I noticed that if I had both end caps off, the 
middle portion seemed pretty wobbly, so at least one end cap 
needed to stay in place, if not both.  

Another thing I noticed was that if I was going to occupy the 
inside of this box, there definitely needed to be some kind 
of ventilation.  So I brought out my tools and cut some holes 
on top of one of the end caps.  I cut 2 rectangles for 
ventilation and 1 hole for cabling (power, ethernet, etc.)[3]  
I picked up 2 vent coverings and some kind of PVC adapter 
thingy for the cabling from the hardware store.  It came out 
a lot better than I thought it would.

I don't know what it is, but I have this thing for building 
out confined spaces.  Maybe it has to do with building tree 
forts and snow forts as a kid and continued with reading 
about container dwellings in cyberpunk fiction or seeing it 
at the pictures.  I actually went to a park in Las Vegas that 
used old shipping containers for stores and eateries...  Or 
even the confined spaces in space ships of sci-fi films.  Or 
even capsule hotels in Japan.  Well, whatever it is, it has 
my imagination going.  I feel like I'm a kid again building a 
fort out of mattresses and blankets or out of cardboard 
refridgerator boxes, except this time, the control panels are 
not drawn in.  They are actually real.  But I can still 
pretend that I am in my shuttle craft transporting the away 
team to the alien planet's surface.

[1] Flightcase with FREE sign	

[2] Inside of Flightcase with dividers and dowels	

[3] Holes for vents and cables	

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