Robot Claw

Ramen 11: When Will It End?!

November 18th, 2021

I’ve already reviewed 27 different chicken ramen here on this blog, so why stop now!

Mi Lau Thai (Chicken Flavor) (380 Calories, 15 g fat, 2240 mg sodium)

The extreme amount of sodium gave even me (a famous salt-eater) pause but naturally I had to try this. It contained as astonishing five flavor packets, including one which was some sort of impossibly fine (weaponized?) dust that puffed smoke when opened! Cooking it was normal, but the first taste was of ash and I was about to take a second mouthful when the heat hit me. This was hot! Very hot! Dare I say, this was volcanically hot. One bite almost did me in, and the lingering smell in the kitchen (no doubt that spice dust that had filled the airways) reminded me of this torture all afternoon. For me, an unquestionable 0/10.

Cup Noodle (Chicken Flavor) (290 Calories, 11 g fat, 1070 mg sodium)

It’s remarkable that it has taken me so many installments to finally get to the granddaddy – the progenitor – of all cup noodle ramen! The simple reason is that the standard chicken flavor Cup Noodle isn’t easily found in my local shops, and I actually bought this one back when we were in NYC. Given that this is the model all other ramen is based on, it was a breeze to cook and the taste was perfectly acceptable. In fact I daresay it’s one of the best, but in a world with Gefen I’ll not lament my inability to find this one easily. That said, this is a fine chicken ramen and an easy 8/10.

Mini Tokyo Noodle (Chicken Flavor) (130 Calories, 4 g fat, 790 mg sodium)

Isn’t this cute! A tiny ramen brick, with flavor infused into it. The bag photo actually shows 4 servings, and the single bricks are small enough for a coffee mug. You just pour boiling water over, wait a few minutes, and enjoy your mini ramen meal! At least that would be the idea, but since it has no taste at all and the noodles have the texture of elastic bands this one went down the karzy quick smart! I wouldn’t even throw this garbage out the window for the birds! Score: -1/10

Stay tuned for installment #12, which may feature regional dishes…

Posted in Food | Comments Closed

500 Postcards!

November 11th, 2021

Yesterday I received my 500th Postcrossing card from Anastajia in Russia:

Reminds you of a certain film doesn’t it?

It was six months ago I passed 150 cards so I’ve been receiving them at the rate of about 25 a month. Since the last update I’ve received cards from 7 additional countries, to a total to 49:

There’s still a long way to go though: there’s users from 206 countries on Postcrossing! Looking at the above chart the average travel times have gone up by a few days compared to six months ago, no doubt due to the pandemic. And as usual it takes about a week longer for me to receive cards than for those I sent them to to get them.

The cards are as weird and varied as ever, helped no doubt by me saying in my profile that I like weird cards! Here’s a couple of notables from this last six months:

That’s a card from Belarus and as you can see the sender matched the stamp to the card. This is the third time this has happened and I’m always impressed since it couldn’t be easy!

That’s an old advertising card I received from Germany. The card is clearly very old (it’s heavily yellowed on the reverse) and a quick google search showed the program it advertises screened in the early 1950s. Could this be a 70 year old card?!?

As always I love the stamps, and the majority of users seem to as well since most put effort into using pretty or unusual examples.

I received a card from Guernsey (a small not-country in the English Channel) which is one of the smallest regions in the world to have its own postal service. While the queens portrait gives a hint as to the connection with Royal Mail, I’ve always been intrigued by these small independent island that have their own mail and it was a treat to get this card.

Look at this gigantic Indonesian stamp! I’ve got some massive stamps from Russia but I think this must be the new record for big stamps!

And then there’s this from a sender in Austria. The stamp and surround perfectly fit into the envelope into which he put the postcard. He mentioned he was an avid stamp collector but he is now aging and is giving away his collection. Amazingly he also included a United Nations first day cover in the envelope:

I’ve never sent a card back to a sender (that’s not how Postcrossing works) but I made an exception in this case and sent him one plastered with a variety of retro stamps.

At 500 received (and 502 sent) I’m now well above the average for US users (which is about 100 cards) but well, well below the top ranks, which is over 14,000 cards for a US user and more than an absurd 33,000 cards for any user (in this case, a German). In fact this German guy has sent an average of 7 cards a day since he signed up about 13 years ago. Imagine the time and cost!

So my next target would be 1000 cards, which at this rate should be in about July 2023. I’ll update when it happens and we’ll see how close my prediction was 🙂

Posted in Collecting, Postcards | 1 Comment »

Pokeos

November 6th, 2021

There’s recently been stories popping up on social media about Pokemon biscuits/cookies selling for thousands. Naturally, it was time to strike it rich.

We bought two bags of them. The Oreos feature 16 different Pokémon designs but are otherwise unremarkable (no different colour or flavours). They look cute though.

There’s sixteen different designs, one of which is ‘super rare’ (according to a press release put out by the manufacturer). In our first pack we got thirteen of the varieties, not including the rare one.

They were tasty though, and we bought a second pack. We got one Pokemon we hadn’t seen in the first, but still no rare version.

The rare one is ‘Mew’, which was a cute choice since Mew was the rarest Pokémon in the original game. About a month ago word spread on social media that Mew Oreos were selling for ‘thousands’ on eBay, and before you knew it there were hundreds of listings, made by people hoping to strike it rich. Still today, you’ll find ~~fools~~ people hoping for a payout:

Of course they aren’t selling for these prices at all, and likely never did. Surprise, surprise, but the stories that initially claimed as much didn’t have a lot of facts to back them up, and (as usual) the internet was happy to spread the story without bothering to verify it. Mews were selling on eBay, but for only a few dollars. And apparently 99% of the listings never sell.

The truth is that the Mew Oreo isn’t that rare at all. I’ve read maybe one in four packs, so for about $15 (the cost of 4 packs) you’d have about a 70% chance of getting your own. Think about that before bidding $1,000,000 on that eBay auction!

Madness aside these are decent Oreos, but don’t hold a candle to the Trolls ones from last year that included pop rocks in the cream! Let’s hope they bring them back at some point 🙂

Posted in Collecting, Food, Otaku | Comments Closed

Update Complete

November 6th, 2021

The blog has been updated. It only looks slightly different since most changes were behind the scenes. Hopefully it’s good now for many more years to come. Thanks Bernard!

Comments are working again the same as they ever did. You may need to log in again though; if you’ve forgotten your login info let me know.

Posted in Miscellaneous | 3 Comments »

Australian Squirrels

November 4th, 2021

I was doing some research for lecture preparation the other day and learned something I never knew: Australia has had squirrels! And there’s a small chance the country still does…

Grey squirrels (the same ones common in our backyard!) were introduced into botanical gardens in Melbourne in 1880, and Ballarat in 1937. They spread into surrounding suburbs and gardens but were never truly successful, and apparently died out within a few decades. It’s possible the last remaining grey squirrel in australia was a pet which lived for 9 years (and was fed breakfast cereal)! I can’t find much information about why they died out but it may have been a combination of a small initial colony, lack of suitable food, competition from possums and natural predation (including from lizards and birds).

Needless to say this experiment will never happen again, as grey squirrels (along with all non-native mammals) are prohibited from import into Australia.

The case of the Indian palm squirrel is a little more surprising. Along with several other species (including fish and birds) these little guys were introduced into Perth in 1898 to make the area more livable for colonists. Almost none of the introduced species survived, but palm squirrels established a thriving colony in the grounds of Perth Zoo.

There they lived for over 100 years, being popular with visitors and a tasty snack for the zoo animals (there are accounts of the squirrels being eaten by monkeys, brolgas and leopards). The squirrels slowly spread out from the zoo into neighboring suburbs, a golf course and a high school and it has been estimated that the colony contained at its peak about 1000 squirrels. Some were even imported east to set up a similar colony in Taronga Zoo (in 1920) but these died out within 50 years due to predation and because the squirrels were frequently caught in the traps set up to control rats.

By all accounts the squirrels in Perth were quite popular – especially at the school – and well known by the locals. But the squirrel was eventually deemed a threat to native wildlife and agriculture, and about a decade ago an eradication program was initiated. This was very successful (apparently they’re easy to catch) and within three years the squirrels were reduced to ‘undetectable levels’

It’s not known if they’re truly extinct in Australia, but if any still live their numbers are likely too small to allow the colony to survive.

So there you have it! Australia did have squirrels, and for over 100 years at that!

Now about the reports of errant ghost kangaroos in the USA…

Posted in Animals, Australia, Nature, Science, The Unknown | 2 Comments »