Within a couple months of getting the XBox 360 game Rock Band, my drum pedal snapped in half. I sent it back under warranty for replacement, and within two weeks of receiving the new one, the new pedal also snapped. Because they didn't ask for me to return the first pedal, I now had two broken drum pedals.

Online reports suggested that this was a very common problem. Duct tape and/or metal rods were suggested as ways to fix one's pedal. So, for the next several months, various amounts of duct tape and metal rods were used to hold these pedals together. The duct tape would eventually lose its strength and each pedal would become a wobbly mess of tape and plastic until being re-taped.

Eventually, the drum kit itself broke, and it became time to get a new drum kit. A new kit was purchased, and of course, within a couple months, the new drum pedal snapped in half. I looked online at aftermarket pedals, and read about various mods people have done to their pedals to make them more resilient. One particular aftermarket pedal repair kit was made out of wood. I didn't think it seemed worth the $20 they were asking, so I decided to try to make my own.

This project took me about 2 hours, including scrounging around for tools and such. I've written some fairly detailed instructions below in case you want to try repairing your own pedal this way.

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I am planning a road trip up to Boston for Christmas. One stop I may hit is New York City. I'd love to see a taping of the Daily Show or the Colbert Report while in town. And since jtron has a crush on is a fan of Steven Colbert, I thought it would be fun to get tickets to a taping of that show. I went to the website where free tickets can be requested, and found that there was not a single opening available. Ever. I can't say I was very surprised - it's a popular show, and tickets are free.

A little googling led to some folks who have studied the problem a bit. Tickets to the Colbert Report and the Daily Show, they say, are doled out in chunks, roughly 1-2 months in advance. They also randomly show up at times. Indeed, while studying the site to figure out how to poll it, a date briefly became available in early November for the Daily Show. They apparently can become available online as late as the day of the show, which for me seems better than waiting in a "standby" line. The thought occurred to me that I could write some software to poll the website and notify me when tickets become available for the dates I am interested in. So that's what I did tonight after getting home from work.

Details below...

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