Flash Memory

Rather than buy online and pay shipping, I used my Best Buy gift card at the brick and mortar store. 

Now I have an 8GB flash drive.

I promptly downloaded 15 books from Project Gutenberg and put them on the flash drive, not because I plan to read them any time soon, but because the idea of 15 books (including the complete works of William Shakespeare) taking up only 6MB of space makes me feel like this.

That sentence may have been a few words too long.

Old Fashioned

Check out this padlock I found lying around.

I love old stuff like this.

A Candle

Verily.

360 Spin

Check it out.

This is the Rubik's 360, a puzzle that is not at all like the Rubik's Cube.  There is absolutely no comparison between the two.  The Cube requires memorization of several algorithms (I never bothered to learn them) while solving the 360 is more a feat of dexterity.

The Rubik's 360 is a sphere with two smaller spheres nested within it.  You must get the six colored balls from within the inner sphere to its corresponding capsule on the outside.

Here it is solved.

Also, I will never buy anything from Best Buy's online store; they tried to charge me $4.95 per item for shipping.  Ha ha, no thank you.

That is all.

What Better?

What better to photograph than a shell?

And what better to put loose change in than this jar?

A Map of Mice

I thought I'd share a pretty neat program that I found today called MousePath.  It's a cross-platform tool that runs in the background and records you mouse movements in an neat looking way.

Here's my mouse movements for the day.

And here's some candy canes and mancala.

That's a Lot of Books!

I just thought I'd leave this small post here to show you how many books I got today for the new semester.  I have been told that I will eventually be able to leave the largest one at home.

I hope so.

That's six-and-a-half inches of book.

I Drop Some Knowledge (So You Can Learn)

Lashing is one of the skills that not all people know even though they should.  It is simply the act of tying sticks to one another, and helped me out this past summer when I was making a table between two bunks.  I don't profess to be an expert on the subject, but I do know how to lash.

Step 1:
All you need is twine (or rope) and two sticks.  You may also want a knife to cut the twine.

Step 2:
Position the sticks like so...

Step 3:
Take the twine and, while holding one end of it tightly on the top stick, wrap it around four or five times like so...

Step 4:
Tightly wrap the twine between the sticks several times (now might be a good time to note that this is the same piece of twine, no cutting yet).

Step 5:
Cut the twine and tie both ends together to secure the lash.  You're done!

A Spoon...

...and other stuff (the spoon is the best).

You may have to view the large version of these pictures of this geode to see the difference between the two (hint: it's the focus).

Muhahaha... (In a Good Way)

Today I got my hands on a DSLR again.

Enjoy.

Look!

Look!  A marble!

Look! Bobbins!

Box Set

Firstly, today I made a "How to Subscribe" page (as you can see near the top of the page) that shows you how to subscribe to my podcast feed in iTunes. 

Also, today I uploaded a new (not actually new, I just got around to putting it up) song I made in PSPSeq.  You can find that here (or on the podcast feed).

Now, one of my favorite things...

This is the BBC Lord of the Rings radio series on 13 cassette tapes.  It is very good, I should probably get around to recording it to MP3s at some point.

Candy

Sometimes a post is just a photo (of my absolute favorite licorice candy ever).

Improvement (Cake) Time

Ok.  Seeing as archive.org failed me yesterday when they broke the links to the photos in Sunday's post, I will now be hosting my photos elsewhere.  Luckily I keep backups of all of my pictures on my computer.

I will also be resizing the photos to speed up load times, as I have noticed that they have been a little slow.  You can still click on them to load a full-size version which will still be hosted on archive.org (only the small sized images are on the new and more reliable host).

On a  different note,  I made this cake today for my sister's birthday (which was yesterday).

Instead of frosting, this cake has thick homemade chocolate sauce (which gathers around the edges, making the corners REALLY good).

I can't wait to eat it.

This isn't Jelly

See this?

 

As the title of this post has probably told you, this is not jelly.

These are preserves.

Who would want jelly or jam on their delicious sandwich when they could have chunks of strawberries?  Not me.

Well, I guess that jelly and jam might be alright on wimpy sandwiches, but in order to stand up to the large amount of peanut butter that I use, the fruit component has to be a little more substantial.

They also taste better (just sayin').

A Mini Medley

In addition to the two photos I posted yesterday (at 11:59 with 15 seconds to spare) I have these, which were taken today (because after 12:00 is today).  I got the opportunity to use a friend's DSLR for these shots, which was really fun.

These first two are just standard photos. (Click "Read more" if you do not see all six photos.)

EDIT:  Archive.org seems to have failed me.  All of the photos in this post are unable to be found of their servers.  I have switched to a new image host.

Painting the Scene

I've gotta get this post up fast, it's almost tomorrow!

So, really quickly, here are two eight second exposure shots where instead of pointing the flashlight at the camera I pointed it at the scene, selectively illuminating certain parts.  They look pretty surreal.  Enjoy!

How to Peel a Banana

If you are like most people, you learned to peel bananas from the top, bending the stem back until you break the peel.  As you know, this is sometimes difficult and can often squish the top of the banana, which would be nice to avoid.  That is why I peel bananas from the bottom.  Not only is it easier, but it is far less likely to result in a mushy banana.

This is how it is done.

1. Hold the banana upside-down.
2. Pinch the very end, causing the peels to split apart.
3. Separate the individual peels and peel away!
4. Eat (optional)

Photo:  What's left.

Three Facts

Fact 1:
I watched the first three sessions of Cowboy Bebop today.  They were amazing!  I am really looking forward to watching the rest.

 Fact 2:
These little snowmen are delicious.

Fact 3:
These are REAL sandwich crackers.

Conundrum Conquered

Remember this?

Well guess what, it's solved!

After fiddling with it for a few minutes this morning before school (which was delayed two hours) I finally managed to separate the pieces of the puzzle.

Unfortunately there were no Netflix envelopes in the mail today, but Cowboy Bebop should be here by tomorrow.

Also, here is a picture of some old coins:

"Z3" PSPSeq track