Robot Claw

Let’s Call It A Christmas Tree

December 23rd, 2020

I bought a multi pack of crystal tree growing kits recently and gave some of you one for Christmas. Who got one? I don’t remember! If it was you, here’s what you have to look forward to…

I believe all four kits were different colours, and we ended up with pink. It takes only moments to assemble it, and when you’re done be sure to put it somewhere it won’t be disturbed.

The above three shots are right after making it, then 1 and 2 hours later. You can see the tree saturates quickly, but the growth takes a while to begin.

Here we have 3, 4 and 5 hours after assembly. As you can see this is a high quality kit! I’ve blogged about these before and if you’re interested how they work go have a read.

And lastly we have 6 and 7 hours and then the final image is the next day (about 18 hours after assembly). What a lovely tree!

That’s a detailed shot of the crystals themselves. They’re very fragile so we keep it in a curio. In time they get stronger, but they will also fade as the food coloring evaporates. The white thing in the background of the photo is one we set up years ago.

If you get one from me for Christmas please set it up and send me a photo when it’s done. I’d like to see the colours 🙂

Posted in Crafts, Nature | Comments Closed

Five Breakfasts

December 21st, 2020

It’s time for another food review! This time its breakfasts. One a day for five days, all similar but different.

Oceanfish with a Shrimp Topper

As you can see this meal is fishy and oil and includes delicious cooked shrimp. It’s mostly mackerel (I think) and Zoffy took 4 minutes and 24 seconds to finish it without ever once walking away. I think that means it was good.

Skipjack Tuna with a Sole Topper

Now this is high quality! Who else eats skipjack and sole for breakfast? Zoffy took only 3 minutes and 10 seconds to polish this meal off, and that included one brief walk away due to being startled by a noise. She loved this one!

White Meat Chicken

Zoffy is a cat that loves chicken, and since her second love is fish then this delight – which is served in a tuna broth – is right up her street! Indeed the fact she scarfed it down in only 2 minutes and 48 seconds is good evidence of the fact that this was a breakfast for kings!

Light Meat Tuna with a Scallop Topper

Lest there be anyone that doubts the quality of the breakfasts I serve my cat witness exhibit D, which includes scallop! Yes, Zoffy eats a variety of different tuna breakfasts each week and loves them all. This time it took her 4 minutes and 15 seconds (the scallop takes a lot of chewing!) with only a brief walkaway since Emi wandered too close while she was eating.

Steamed Wild Alaskan Salmon

This is an unusual breakfast for her, since I had convinced myself she preferred whitefish and had stopped buying Salmon. Then amazon made a mistake with an order and we got a bunch of these. So naturally, salmon was back on the menu. She loved it! With no walkaways she ate it all up in only 3 minutes and 7 seconds! Obviously Zoffy is a cat of refined taste, and can appreciate a delicious cut of steamed wild fish.

So if we judge in order of how fast Zoffy ate them, the ranking ends up being
1) Chicken
2) Salmon
3) Skipjack Tuna
4) Light Meat Tuna
5) Oceanfish

And yes, I am careful she never gets the same choice two days in a row. She also has a range of different soup/broth meals she gets for ‘dinner’ every day as well.

It’s almost as if Zoffy eats better than me…?

Posted in Cats, Food | 2 Comments »

Space Invaders

December 19th, 2020

Space Invaders may not have been the very first video game, but it’s probably the most historic. It took the world by storm and led to an industry that by 2018 had surpassed the movies. I’ve written before how I still remember first playing it about 40 years ago, and to this day the game retains a place in my heart.

So when I saw the line of Micro Arcade handheld games it was a no-brainer which one I would buy.

These are tiny little game systems about the size of a credit card. I believe the same basic hardware is used for the entire range of games which is why this one has two buttons and a four way controller (space invaders only uses left, right and one fire button). The design is very nice: it’s a solid little unit with good buttons and a nifty clear front so you can see the PCB. It contains a rechargeable battery and has separate on/off and sound switches.

The screen is impressive for its tiny size (less than 1 square inch) and the pixels are clearer than they look in this photo. You can see the game simulates the cellophane stripes that added colour to the original monochrome arcade game, which is a nice touch.

It is of course a rewrite of space invaders and not the original code. It controls and plays the same but is fiendishly difficult with very fast enemy shots. Unfortunately the iconic sound and music of the original is not reproduced (this is a major omission) but what is here is good enough. It also doesn’t save high scores when turned off.

All things considered, for the low price ($15) this is much better than I thought it would be and while it’s probably ‘one for the collection’ I’m intrigued enough by the tech to consider buying one of the more complex games they have released.

It’s also notable how advanced this device is especially for such a low price. If you could take this back to 1979 and give it to little me I would have thought it was magic. Imagine the technology the children of today will be using when they’re my age!

Posted in Games, Miscellaneous, Otaku, Retro, Tech | Comments Closed

Too Much Snow

December 17th, 2020

Woke to this:

That’s a shot of my driveway and the neighbors tree. You can’t see the driveway? Neither could I!

We knew we were getting a big storm, but even when we went to bed last night the forecasts said the worst would be south of here (around NYC) and we’d only get about 6 inches. We got a lot more than that!

You know you’ve got hard work ahead of you when the snow is deeper than your giant-sized snowthrower! Luckily it was light enough the machine could clear it, but it was very slow going. Here’s my view heading to the end of the driveway:

After one pass:

And after some progress:

It was terribly difficult work and took a long time – over 90 minutes – but it was made all the more difficult by the fact it was damn cold! When I started it was 15 F (-9 C) and even with three hats and two pairs of gloves on I was cold. I started to feel my fingers freeze and for the first time ever ended up putting ‘hot hands’ (chemical heat packets) into my gloves, which helped a lot.

Here’s before and afters on the driveway and front steps:

And a shot of the edge of the driveway with a normal sized soap bar box for scale:

The officially tally as of 7 am was 17.5 inches. It’s still falling now as I write (around 10 am) but will taper off soon. We’ll probably end up with about 20 inches, which is a colossal fall for less than 24 hours.

As you can imagine the world seems to have stopped. Everything is closed and there’s a ‘state of emergency’ in effect keeping vehicles off the road. Not that there needs to be: our street hasn’t been plowed yet and it would be virtually impossible to drive through this:

The good news of the forecast is for frigid conditions to continue for at least the next two weeks. It seems 2020 will be a white Christmas 🙂

Posted in Home, Miscellaneous, Nature | Comments Closed

Ramen 1: Triple Chicken

December 13th, 2020

I ate three different packet chicken ramen on three consecutive days. All were prepared the same way (boil water, add ramen then flavor when noodles cooked). Here’s my review of each.

Top Ramen (380 Calories, 14g fat, 1600 mg sodium)

I bought a pack of these months ago due to a Gudetama promotion but didn’t get around to trying any until this past week. The noodles are fatter than other ramens, but the flavor was light and didn’t taste anything like chicken soup. Not terrible for the price (about $0.25), and I’ll eat the ones I have but I won’t be buying them again.

Maruchan (370 Calories, 14g fat, 1520 mg sodium)

An old favorite of mine, this one didn’t disappoint. The noodles are thin and delicious, and the flavor is stronger and more chickeny than Top Ramen. Afterwards I felt satisfied and regretted I hadn’t been wearing my Maruchan t-shirt whilst eating. Overall a solid chicken ramen, especially for the low price ($0.16).

Sapporo Ichiban (460 Calories, 20g fat, 1810 mg sodium)

The undisputed winner of this comparison! The noodles seem identical to maruchan so the difference must be in the flavor packet. I’m guessing it’s the extra fat and sodium that makes this one better. Each mouthful is like a chicken injection into your soul, and this is a ramen you could eat over and over without ever getting tired of it. They cost more ($1 apiece) but are absolutely worth it!

This was a fun thing to do, but I wished I had more types to include. If I can get my mitts on any other types of plain chicken packet ramen I’ll do a follow up!

Posted in Blog, Food, Miscellaneous | 3 Comments »