Don’t you just hate those times when you’re on vacation and you want to take a picture of you and your cuddle bunny, so you ask a total stranger to take one for you, and they run off with it, cackling as they sprint away with your shots from Cancun, Belize or some other place with an exotic-type name (like Dubuque). Cheap b*stards that we are, instead of buying a real tripod that’ll really make us look like tourists (as appealing as that sounds), we’d rather fashion our own little doohickey from trash. Good job, Planeteer! Captain Planet must be bursting with glee, assuming those damn kids decide to get back those rings they hocked for a bottle of tequila and eight-minutes of ecstasy.

Without further bullhonkey, may we present to you the bottle cap tripod. You can buy one for $20 or, if you’re really feeling the pinch of being poor and destitute (we writers call that “integrity”), you can make one yourself. Whichever you choose, just remember to fill the bottle with water, lest you want all your pictures to take on that deconstructionist “shattered” look that’s so popular with talentless artistes looking for an edge to make up for their dead, dry souls.

Oh look, a puppy!