I poked around old notes, remembering I had scribbled a followup
verse. I found it, long after I crafted a newer set of lyrics to go with
Neil Sedaka's monster hit. My lyrics came pretty fast. However, the
later fine-tuning of fitting words to meter was slower. The longest
process was actually singing the parts.
My methodology involved using Audacity to make multiple
strung-together pieces of the karaoke music, then singing into several
tracks. I made each snippet a series of 12 pieces, then separated them,
playing them to decide the best six to have as my "chorus".
I noticed in recording that I was often late starting to sing. The
first line (a few bars) would be ghastly. The latter lines were much
better. BTW, because I don't sing, professionally or otherwise, I had
multiple sessions of recording each snippet to arrive at my 12 pieces
per snippet.
I hope my music parody video entertains you. It took a lot of effort, but it was fun and educational for me.
Autumn! Good time of the year for improved leaf tasking! My blog topic is a DIY plywood leaf pusher. It's related to my raking leaves blog articles and parody videos (widescreen, scrolling text).
My leaf pusher at the time of the parodies was a Rubbermaid dustpan,
still flexible, uncracked, and unbroken after years of leaf pile
gathering and compressing. (For smallish piles, I still use the
dustpan.)
My inspiration for my plywood presser pusher is
"How To Rake (Bag) Leaves - the EASY WAY!", starting just before the 5-minute mark, where he shows his leaf presser. He used
plywood, drilled holes, and attached cabinet handles. BTW, I advise
skipping the part about drilling holes in trash receptacle and also
using plastic bags. (Plastic is not acceptable for yard waste or compost
pickups.)
The Home Depot door handle I used is no longer available. You can view similar door handles
on the web. BTW, I think each handle with one hole at each end is
adequate and more economical than two holes at each end. Another
suggestion: Rather than using the wood screws that come in the package,
use machine screws and nuts for securing the handles to the plywood. (I
used 3/4" screws, washers, and hex nuts.)
My info is advisory. You can decide to skip using a template or
preplanning. After mulling a few template shapes (rectangular, circular,
octagonal, stop sign), I made the 11" x 15" rectangular plywood presser
pusher so that it'd fit in a lawn/leaf bag that measured 11 1/2" x 16"
but also fit into a typical round, 32-gallon plastic trash can.
If you choose to make your own plywood presser pusher for leaves, be
careful about safety WRT power tools, splinters, sawdust, rakes, and
tripping. Watch the video before and during the project, pausing as sensible. Good luck! Let me know what you made and how it's working out for you!
Plywood Resources
I referred to my plywood as being 3/8" thick. I recall that wood
dimensions tending to not be actual measured sizes. A resource with
table info is "Actual Plywood Thickness and Size". The actual thickness is 11/32". Not easy to measure 1/32" difference.
If you do night sky observing or astrophotography, you learn that
your eyes adapt to the night sky, but bright lights quickly thwart the
vision. Using red lighting is suitable for seeing objects and retaining
the night vision. Use a clear plexiglass sheet over a laptop screen to
achieve a night-sky user friendly interface.
If using a laptop during a session at night, some software tools have
night settings—changing white background to dark, and text to red. The
user can vision-adapt to the night sky or continue to not have night
vision disturbed. Other nearby astronomers can also be retain their
night vision.
Our rather old and lower-end laptop has limited capabilities for
night sky adaptations. The keys don't have red displays. The astronomy
software tools are not commercially developed specialized packages, but
open-source tweak-it-yourself tools.
Our Laptop Screen Fix—Red Overlaying
We picked the clear red plexiglass (details farther down, more
elaboration in the YouTube video). The minimal fix would have been to
order the best-dimensions pre-cut sheet and simply lay it over the
screen.
With an eye for frugality, we trimmed excess height, saving a piece
for possible future project(s). With consideration for secure fastening,
then drilled small holes for shoelacing the larger piece to the laptop
screen. View the video for guidelines on our overlay fix for the laptop
screen.
Laptop Screen Overlay Candidates
Online, we researched getting a clear red overlay for placing in
front of the laptop screen during astrophotography. Ideas for
See-through red screening included the following:
Red cellophane that florists use
Acrylic sheets from Michael's and Hobby Lobby
Acetate (polypropylene) sheets at Michael's
Rubylith (photographic plastic)
Red tail-light tape
Clear red plexiglass
After consideration, most of the items have downsides, which I cover farther down the article. First, the winner!
Also known as plexiglass, lucite, or perspex, acrylic is a
popular and versatile plastic for many applications. It is a common
substitute for glass as it is crystal clear, lighter, more shatter
resistant and easy to work with. Acrylic sheets can be laser cut or saw
cut, as well as machined with routers, drills and sanders.
The webpage provides good pricing info for the multiple precut
dimensions and thicknesses. (We picked 12 x 18 for laptop fit.) Other
interactive webpage options included custom dimensions, holes, edge
finishings, and shipping priorities.
Translucent red plexiglass red acrylic,with 2 pieces
of red acrylic sheet,This acrylic resin has excellent optical stability
and uniform thickness.
The term translucent nudged us away, along with two negative reviews that indicated shortcomings of using the product.
The No-go Reds
The other red transparent items under consideration were food for thought, but didn't seem suitable enough.
Red Cellophane Wrap, Used By Florists
It took some doing to find out what the item was called. Wound up
with reasonable finds when googling "Cellophane wrapping paper for
floral arrangements" and "floral arrangement red transparent wrapping
mylar sheets". AI showed reasonable info for the product—"red
transparent wrapping mylar sheets, often called red cellophane wrap"
An Amazon find further helped with info—"Vanhench Red Cellophane Wrapping Paper, ...". Color and transparency were winning points, however, the product looked too flimsy and scrunchy.
Acrylic Sheets from Michael's and Hobby Lobby, Acetate (polypropylene) Sheets at Michael's
These products are bundled with additional color sheets and tend to
be smaller than laptop screen sizes. It didn't look feasible to buy
package deals to obtain a onesie-twosie (red) item.
Rubylith, Used in Photography Masking
In the distant past, I used rubylith for printed circuit board
artwork layout, particularly analog circuitry. Technology has long made
manual layout obsolete; however, photographers and artists still buy the
product.
Rubylith consists of two films sandwiched together. The
bottom layer is a clear polyester backing sheet; the top layer is a
translucent, red (ruby) coloured sheet. The top layer can be cut and
peeled away from the bottom layer.
Idea discarded—
Color translucency reduces clarity and readability of screen info.
Colored sheet could be easily damaged, letting light bleed through and reducing effectiveness for user.
Red taillight Lens Repair Tape
The tape comes in about 2" width rolls. We considered taping a small
piece onto a scrap piece of 7 mil clear mylar to test transparency. Even
if the small sample looked OK, idea of pulling and taping SEVERAL
aligned rows was not appealing. Also, transparency might less than
optimal because of tape's intended use on taillights.
Advisory Webpages for Buying, Cutting, and Drilling Plexiglass
"How to easily drill plexiglass, lexan and acrylic sheets", 3:10
My gist:Clamp plexiglass to scrap board, then use step drill
or twist drill with tape protection and lubricant. Additional drilling considerations--slowness, light pressure.
"Simple Solutions: Tips for Drilling Through Plexiglass", 0:44 My gist:Sandwich plexiglass between two layers of
quarter-inch plywood ... mark the holes ... line plexiglass with plywood
... drill right through all three layers.
Related: Keyed-in text and image of PLASKOLITE Plastic Cutter for cutting plexiglass.
Starting out viewing the night sky? This article briefly describes three items recommended for beginner astronomers (recent astronomy club presentation Navigating the Night Sky). Resources for more info follow.
Planisphere—a handheld flat, circular item for identifying stars and
constellations that are visible in the night sky for specific time and
date
Star atlas (aka sky atlas)—a map of the night sky, to locate and
identify celestial objects. Can be in book or chart form that maps the
positions of stars, constellations, and other celestial objects in the
night sky.
Stellarium—free open-source planetarium software that provides 3D simulation of the night sky
Planisphere, Star/Sky Atlas
This section covers both planispheres and star/sky atlas' because of interrelatedness in Google results.
YouTube video— "How to use a Planisphere" (9:09), latitude version shown—40° to 50°
From video description:
Step by step instructions on using a planisphere for
locating objects in the night sky. This is a useful tool in astronomy
for locating constellations and other notable features.
Stellarium is free software for Windows, Mac, or Linux. Download from main page https://stellarium.org
Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your
computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with
the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope.
Note the system requirements to ensure if you can install on your device.
Read features section to discover sky items to see, when you can see them, and various other info. (Before you look for sky objects, you must set the tool for where you are and the date/time.)
"How to Stargaze" includes handy titled sections as follows:
Stargazing for Beginners
Start by Looking Up
Locate the Big Dipper
Locate Other Bright Star Patterns
Helpful Stargazing Tools
Star Charts or Stargazing Apps
Grab Binoculars
Borrow a Telescope
8″ Dobsonian telescopes with very good eyepieces and all the needed
accessories to have a good visual observing experience or to test your
next scope upgrade!
My previous topic was a New Mexico century plant, a peewee compared
to the Americana this time around. I'd pic'ed the peewee in 2012 and
forgot about the images. Peek into "Forgotten Fotos of New Mexico
Century Plant (2012)" (video, article)
besides diving into the giant century plant (pix from spring 2009. I'd
recently looked into a folder named "Ancient" and found these images.
I took the Americana pix in 2009 starting from the end of March to
end of June, mostly weekly. The first eye-catch was the stalk starting
to grow upward. The plant had reached about 10' high already. By early
May, it already reached 20' and displayed branches and flower clusters.
The following resources provide some basic orientation of the Americana century plant:
Once the century plant has completed its blooming process,
it gradually begins to start dying off. ... it puts all its energy into
producing a spectacular flowering stalk just once in its lifetime,
before gracefully bowing out.
"What to Do When Your Agave Blooms"
provides overall info about the BIG EVENT. The site shows a partial
close up view of stalk with flower clusters. The flowery display, if
similar to my pix of most-robust clusters, indicates the show to be
within 80% complete.
I still have agave pix I'd taken over several years that I plan to
blog about. This one century plant project brought back memories of
having seen numerous agaves bloom. Alas, the 2023 Arborgeddon seemed to
have killed off many of them. FWIW, I have not spotted rising century
plant stalks or branchings like I used to several consecutive years.
Last month I perused my computer for images of sky objects,
predominantly moon shots. During my file manager tour, I ran across a
series of pix of a smallish century plant that inspired me to make it
this month's topic. It already showed its stalk pointing upward from its
base of leaves, aka rosette. The stalk's branches and bloom clusters
progressively grew in quantity and size.
2000 or 2012?
The pix date stamps indicated March 2 through May 8 2020. I went down
the wrong garden path when I considered the pix to be from 2000. My
title would have been a spiffy-sounding " Y2K Century Plant, 25YO
Forgotten Fotos". I kept getting some naggy feeling about time frame, so
to speak. I happened to also spot a folder that I apparently did some
low-level edits, such as rotating, then resaving to png. Those images
had date stamps of July 4 through September 8 2012.
I pored over folders and camera-issued sequence IDs. The agave pix
numbered from 1875 through 2077 (year saved, 2000). I recalled that I
have some pics with 1861, 1862, and 1866 numbers for sequence. The saved
date was June 28, 2012. I ran across some other pix in the number
sequence neighborhood, but they had 2000 for save year.
Google Maps Nudging Time Frame
I poked around Google maps to find the address where I'd seen the
plant. I saw the most recent property image from April 2024, but also
saw images from March 2022, July 2019, February 2015, April 2011, June
2009, and Dec 2007. Lucky me! The agave showed up in 2007, 2009, and
2011. However, it was nonexistent in 2015, 2019, and 2022.
I decided that July 2012 was reasonably more likely a time frame for
my set of pix than 2000. A small brain nudge was a Google image screen
capture July 4 2012—good enough for me to consider that date as an
origin.
How Special Was this Agave?
What was so special? It was smallish, shorter than some other century
plants that have rosettes taller than people and seemingly wider than a
roundish car. This agave was a peewee that I could approach closely,
its height maybe only 8' high. The diameter of the base (rosette) was
about the diameter of a manhole cover. An oddity I've not seen before or
since is the stalk's initial angle about 33° from the rosette, then its
continued growth aiming skyward.
I searched the web for smallish agaves. Two sources had images and
descriptions that lead me to conclude it was a New Mexico agave.
"New Mexico Century Plant (Agave)" includes rudimentary info resembled my specimen. The following physical info piqued my curiosity:
Note: The images of the rosettes do not show stalks. Thinking
that the height dimensions refer to distance from the ground to the tips
of the tallest leaf/leaves.
Agave parryi subsp. neomexicana is an ornamental succulent
that forms rosettes of ascending, lance-shaped, gray-green leaves with
sharp teeth along the margins and a dark brown terminal spine. The
rosettes grow up to 1.5 feet (45 cm) tall and 2 feet (60 cm) in
diameter, usually accompanied by offsets around the base. Leaves are up
to 1.5 feet (45 cm) long and 2.4 inches (6 cm) wide. This subspecies has
slightly thinner, shorter leaves than Agave parryi subsp. parryi. Also,
it has more open rosettes, larger flowers, and a greener, less glaucous
coloration.
The mature rosettes, 8 to 20 years, send up an up to 10 feet
(3 m) tall spike adorned with tufts of flowers on many lateral
branches, usually in summer. The flowers are yellow to yellowish-green
and red to orange in bud. Fruits are oblong, up to 1.4 inches (3.5 cm)
long capsules with black seeds. The rosettes die after setting fruits.
Some time, I plan to do one or more pic tour of an americana century
plant. I just rediscovered a folder of such pics from 2009! More
recently, I collected daily pics of a century plant in 2017 from March 7
to May 5.
The pix in my YouTube collection
are from having used mostly two point-and-shoot cameras. Incidentally,
smart-phone cameras also have capabilities for taking similar sky pix.
For people who haven't considered photographing sky objects, look, up in the sky. It could be Supermoon! Build your own pic collection for day or night moons! Also, pick other sky objects that catch your fancy.
I recently perused my cloud account for pix I've uploaded there
within maybe 10 years. One folder that caught my
eye—"NearSkyObjects-Canon PowerShot ELPH 190 IS". It consisted of eight
images from 2020 and six in 2021. I poked through my computer listings,
seeing additional sky images I could include in my slide show.
Most images are of the moon—day, night, various phases. Several are
in plant views. The final item is my time-lapse slide show of May 16
2022 lunar eclipse. Final tally of my sky objects for this blog topic is
23. (The count does not include YT videos from 2023 and 2024.)
A mysterious title, eh? The cake is a followup to "Raspberry Con-fusion Cake".
I "deconfusioned" by using the amount of gelatin fluid I intended
originally—1/2 cup of water and 1/2 cup of milk into a bowl with a packet of
sugar-free raspberry gelatin. The newer cake tastes as good as the first
one, nice density and no crumbliness. The layers' heights don't seem
much different.
During the six days of consumption, the newer-version cake was consistently moist and without the frosting becoming more gooey.
If you try a similar gelatin with cake recipe, this one is improved.
If you happen to follow the gelatin's directions for gelatin instead of
halving the liquid, the result won't be a disaster. Consider consuming
the cake in less time before frosting gooeyness. I don't recall the rest
of the downsides of the first cake; I don't plan to repeat my mistake.
Calories and Sodium
Note: Using sugared Jello instead of sugar-free HCF adds about 320
extra calories (~27 C/svg) and 320 extra mg of sodium (~27 C/svg) to the
cake. Between the two sugar-free brands, the amount of calories is
negligible. The amount for sodium is more significant. The following
abbreviated table compares calories and sodium for HCF, Royal, and Jello
raspberry gelatins.
I missed putting out a Valentine item in February. March roared in
like a lion. I'm beating April Fool's Day with my Valentine-theme video
and article. Inspiration started with kin's visit on February 14.
The relatives brought flowers. I'd baked Valentine theme cookies
made from Red Velvet and Strawberry cake mixes. I searched for kiddie
Valentine cards and found one card, no envelope. A few days later, after
they'd left, I found a stack hiding in plain sight.
My journey in creating the Valentine blog theme started out small,
but became gargantuan when I collected hearty items to group together,
created kid-like artsy photographable items, and integrated videos in my
mix. The journey was quite an adventure in inspiration, organization,
and implementation.
Heart Use as a Verb
Hearting is an obscure but increasingly creeping use of heart as a
verb. Creeping, as in slowly moving, not creepy as nervousness inducing.
Consider "I heart NY" and "I heart radio", which seem normal in use of
heart as verb. As a thought, maybe "I heart [something]" can seem less
tension than the "L" wprd.
Indoor Shots
My video includes indoor images and also outdoor images. I got in
touch with my inner creative child for cutouts, punches, arrangements. I
also rustled up images for Valentine cookies that I'd baked
occasionally over many years. BTW, cake mix amounts in boxes have
downsized over the years that cookie dough dollops were less mannerly
this time around.
Outdoor Shots
I mentioned creeping use of heart as verb. A piece of my video shows a
hybrid of Halloween creep and hearty Valentine approach. Numerous other
outdoorsy shots include archives of heart-shaped prickly pear plants
from February 2010 and also February 2025. Eh, the 2010 ones were more
plentiful and cuter; the more recent environment wasn't as, uh,
fruitful. For my non-prickly pear plant shot, the red bud tree with a heart-shaped bloom had caught my eye.
What arose when the sun set down at the dark site we went to? Dark
skies and objects (constellations, star clusters, nebulae, ...) that
don't show up well in light-pollution, densely populated areas. What
three items am I talking about? A TV tray table, a transparent cookbook stand, and a thin, portable gaming monitor.
We met with another astronomy photographer (AKA astrophotographer) at
a dark site, both parties for a nebula 1000 light years away. Our
friend stayed long enough to also photograph a set of galaxies 60
million light years away. BTW, astrophotography is not merely taking one
pic and seeing loads of details. Each session for each target tends to
take hours, sometimes multiple sessions, specialized equipment for
taking out-of-the-world pix, and cooperative climate conditions.
Portable Gaming Monitor
Our friend showed a new acquisition for showing audience members at
outreach events—a portable gaming monitor that he read about in a NYT
Wirecutter article, maybe "The Best Monitors". Arzopa seems eye-poppingly low cost, compared to other reviewed monitors. "Arzopa Z1FC 144Hz Portable Gaming Monitor Review"
lists the measurements as 8.2 by 14.9 by 0.5 inches, weighing 1.7
pounds. (The traditional dimension reference is 16.1 (corner to corner).
Table Slots Between Slats a Hindrance to Stable Monitor Support
Anyway, he is understandably concerned about the monitor's thin
foldable corner support falling through slots on his display table
(square with narrow gaps between slats). Noting the monitor's thinness, I
mentioned having a plastic, transparent cookbook stand that would
probably work with such a monitor.
Another idea was trying a different table. I thought of our foldable TV tray table
that measures 14.5 x 19 and has no gap hazards. BTW, Google images
search shows good results for "acrylic cookbook stands" and "foldable TV
trays". BTW, a quick, low-effort, low-cost solution to preventing
monitor support fall-through, using a square piece of cardboard the same
size as the square table would help.
Music Stand as Monitor Support? Nah!
An idea for stable displaying of the monitor briefly arose—using a
music stand. It has variable height and tilt adjustments and horizontal
lip. Downsides, however, are heaviness from metal weight and feet that
take up space during transport. Furthermore, securing a monitor to avoid
tipping or toppling it is concerning.
Musing Monitor Support Using No-slat TV Tray Table and Cookbook Stand
The next day, I thought about taking pix showing my cookbook stand
and TV tray table. I took a set of pix—one of the stand (with open
book) atop the table, one with additional items, and several showing
different-angle views.
It occurred to me that I had the makings of a blog topic that
included some idea exchanges about items not specific to astronomy.
Also, I got to thinking of how to organize and create a helpful
slide-show video.
Besides Monitor Musings
Some additional items in the video are are a yardstick and a set of trekking poles. The yardstick provides dimensional references. The
sticks were mentioned during the imaging session. FWIW, a dark site can
be challenging for those unfamiliar with the terrain. Even more
challenging is navigating after the sun goes down. Better to have sticks
and not need them than need them and not have them.
Update: Additional Info After Video's Upload on Feb 28 2025
After publishing the blog article and uploading the movie, our friend
sent an image of his table and portable gaming monitor with the
monitor's support leg. His fix for possible leg fall-through was a
bottle cap.
A bottle cap does the job for the leg and the display is too thick to slide through. The [table's] gap actually cradles the bottom of the display! ... I added a couple of bits of foam insulation to the bottle cap to keep the leg centered in it.
The video's thumbmail shows the initial suggestion, the friend's pic,
and additional ideas. The newer items include bungee cords for better
securing a monitor for display and avoiding pit falls.
I wanted to Kool-Aid my cake using Raspberry Kool-Aid, but the
supermarket didn't carry that flavor. I thought about using Jello, maybe
make a poke cake.
Fortunately, I found info for helping integrate raspberry gelatin and
cake in a non-pokey way. The result was my raspberry con-fusion cake
(details farther down).
No Hokey Pokey Cake for Me, but Something Else
When I read elsewhere that a poke cake would deteriorate in a few
days, I abandoned the idea. Besides short life, the recipe looked like
more work than I wanted to do. I later thought about making something
with raspberry gelatin and cake. Did some poking around supermarket
prices and availability. Jello's small size cost nearly as much as the family size. I noticed that the store carries both Royal and Hill Country Fare raspberry sugar-free brands.
I found a few resources to use gelatin in cake besides making poke
cakes. Several commenters recommended merely following the cake box's
instructions and mixing in the gelatin powder. I've run across info
about enhancing cakes by adding an extra egg and using milk instead of
water, In my zeal to try a few different details, I put in too much
fluid.
My Con-fusion
My con-fusion with this cake resulted from using the amount of fluid
called for if making a small gelatin batch. For integration into a cake,
I needed to put in only half the fluid. Regular instructions for
small-package gelatin calls for 1 cup of boiling water and 1 cup of cold
water. Normal box cake recipes call for 1 cup of water total. Sooo, I put too much fluid. I decided to just carry on and see how the cake turned out.
To adjust for too much fluid, I baked the cakes for several minutes
longer, hoping evaporation would help. The cake layers baked; the
toothpick test came out well. However, they did not rise. The finished
cake cut cleanly with no crumbs. The mouth-feel texture was dense, like
pound cake. Within the six days of consumption, the cake became more
moist, even watery. The frosting seemed to almost liquefy to saucy
consistency.
If inclined, Google "what happens if you add too much fluid to cake
batter". The next time I retry the recipe, I'll remember to use only
half the amount of fluid.)
The calories and sodium differ on whether you use sugar-free or sugared Jello gelatin powders.
Note: Using sugared Jello instead of sugar-free HCF adds about 320 extra
calories (~27 C/svg) and 320 extra mg of sodium (~27 mg/svg) to the
cake. Between the two sugar-free brands, the amount of calories is
negligible. The amount for sodium is more significant. The following
abbreviated table compares calories and sodium for HCF, Royal, and Jello
raspberry gelatins.
My previous video and article
included decorations for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and even a smattering
for Christmas. For this touring, I saw a few decorations that served
dual-holiday purposes, the residents having creatively adorned them. Got
most of the images from a few days of drive-byes. Surprisingly, seems
fewer places had decorations than previous years.
Most decorations I imaged were inflatable balloons, which included
Santa, snowmen, reindeer, penguins, a few dogs, live white-tail deer,
... Many goodies images were of candy canes and red/white or green/white
round mints.
One video section includes a collection of Halloween/Christmas
visuals that I culled from other clips. Look for these items in the
neighborhood sections among the more obvious Christmas-theme figures.
Happy touring! Also look for Halloween/Christmas in my blog and YouTube channel.
Halloween this year was on a Thursday. I incorrectly guessed that
people would keep their Halloween decorations into the weekend. Besides a
few people having already started taking in items, a few balloons were
deflated.
Imagining I might take good daytime images, initially hoped to
capture more striking nighttime versions. Having less stamina than in
the past, and also seeing dismantling of decorations lessened ambition
for an evening pic excursion.
In the last day of movie-making, I shoehorned a few clips and pix
from the rest of November during the rest of November. Look for a li'l
Thanksgiving and Halloweenish Christmas peeks.
Lesson learned for 2025—take pix and videos a few days before
Halloween (daytime for one session, nighttime for another session).
Upon moving in, the cedar trees numbered 11. Arborgeddon (in 2023)
wiped out maybe five. The last cedar became weakened maybe a year later;
it could fall and harm or worse in a bad moment. Got it cut and
removed mid-September.
The video revisits some memories of Arborgeddon damage. A segment
shows abbreviated cutting and removal of the last tree. Besides wanting
to document the majestic tree's demise, I wanted to closely view the
cedar stump surface.
Based on meandering to view previous cedar stumps, I wasn't sure what
the surface would look like. The center part is heartwood, prominently
"ringed" by the sapwood.(It measures about 9" x 12".) Anything about the
shape and colors remind you of anything? For more info about tree
anatomy that also mentions barks and cambium, with ID-labeled image,
visit "Anatomy of a Tree".
The irregular perimeter made me wonder how weak the trunk itself
might have been. That stump doesn't resemble the nearby one, also a
cedar. They both look like their trunks had been lacking in solid mass.
Visit my other articles and videos of cedars, now in the past. No
longer any cedars to hack at errant branches and their needly, junipery
foliage.
"See Dere Cedar Stumps, Plus One, Sizing Up" article | video
My first batch of lemon poppyseed mini-cupcakes was in June 2012. Coincidentally, I used the same lemon cake brand and poppyseeds. The two emphases were as follows:
Regular-size vs. mini-cupcakes made using aluminum pans that had round wells
Separation methods between the cake batter and pan wells
This time, I triedd using silicone pans with square
wells. One panful, I used scoops/spoon to dispense batter. The other
panful, I pitcher-poured. (Pitcher dispensing is so much faster!) I also
enriched the recipe with an extra egg and used milk instead of water.
Richer flavor and body.
Wellll, the session did not go anywhere as well as I'd hoped. Various
websites touted non-stickiness of silicone, and that the physical
flexibility would allow quick release of baked items.
Alas, throwing caution to the wind, my un-oiled pans, filled with
~95% batter, yielded cringeworthy amounts of baked cake in the wells.
The hoped-for flick-of-the-wrist cake releases kind of worked. They were
fugly, better served in dim lighting.
The video
shows straightforward steps that worked well until I got to the
dispensing, baking, and cake extractions. (Pay attention to the kitchen
versions of road caution signs.)
Calories and Sodium
The yield was from filling the cupcake wells higher than I should
have. I have a recollection that I'd wound up with 77 at another baking
session. Another wrinkle to the calculations is that much of the cake
stuck to the pans. More units, fewer calories each. Same amount of units
but successful detachments from pans, more calories each.
I did not list poppyseeds in the table. Google results show
negligible stats for calories, sodium, or practically any other
noteworthy nutrient.
Silicone Pan Resources That Seemed Persuasive at the Time
It'd been awhile since I'd baked cookies using cake mix. Betty
Crocker caught my eye with the Butter Pecan cake flavor. The sale price
of $1 was compelling. I tried to duplicate La Moderna Marianita pecan
flavor cookies, cheap at about 68 cents for a roll of 28 cookies (6.5
ounces).
The Marianita cookies are crunchy and don't contain actual pecans.
The flavor has a hint of pecan nut skins, smidge of bitter aftertaste.
For attempting crunchiness, I had hoped baking at 325, not 350, and
baking cookies longer than typical cookies would work. I also hoped that
the BC's reduced amount of powder (from 15.25 to 13.25 oz) wouldn't
affect the outcome.
Wellll, the lessons learned for the next time will be to raid some
other cake mix box for two ounces of powder to add to the recipe. The
dough didn't firm up like in other cake mix cooky dough. It was stickier
and harder to load into my cooky press and dispense. Also, next time,
I'll try baking the cookies at least 13 to 14 minutes. Sure, I like soft
and chewy, but I was trying to obtain the Marianita crunchiness.
View the video
for step-by-step process. See the final image for comparison of a
plateful each of BC Butter Pecan cake mix cookies and La Moderna
Marianita pecan flavor cookies.
Making cookies at home take way more time and energy than buying
shelf-stable store cookies. Be sure to block out time for gathering
ingredients, equipment, mixing, dispensing, baking, and cooling. Oh,
yeah, remember cleanup time and effort!
Cookies and other wheat-dominant products have gotten pricey over
time. On the good side, the ingredients for the project came to less
than $2: $1 for box of cake mix, 29 cents for 1/3 C oil, and 50 cents
for 2 eggs. The yield was 42 cookies. FWIW, cookies baked at home seem
to take longer to consume than store-bought. More appreciation for the
effort expended? Definitely tastier!
Calories and Sodium
As a side thought, I considered adding chocolate chips. Doing so
would have added extra calories (~30C/cooky) and cost ($1.50 additional
for project). Mmmm, butter pecan flavor with chocolate chips! Related:
"Low-effort Choco Chip Cake Mix Cookies" (article, video)
La Moderna Resources
La Moderna cookies are a niche item at HEB. I've not been inclined to
seek other products from this Mexico-based company. Memory aid that
Moderna is one of the big-name Covid-19 vaccines.
La Moderna manufactures pasta and soups as well as cookies. Amusingly, La La Maderna's cooky page does not include the pecan flavored ones.
"La Moderna Marianitas Cookies", 71 cents for 6.5 oz Nutrition info claims 6 servings, 5 cookies per serving. I counted 28 cookies.
Got frugality inclinations? How about extracting the last of shampoos
and lotions near the bottom of their bottles? My topic is primarily
modifying and repurposing suitable size/shape plastic bottles so they
can hold those almost-empty bottles upside-down. With gravity, the
positioning of dispensers with remaining slo-mo fluids does away with
numerous bottle tip-overs, shakes, and/or flow waits.
Additional slo-mo fluids besides shampoos and lotions include
mustards and liquid hand soaps. (The liquid soap hack is repurposing a
soda bottle top into a funnel, described farther down.)
Cutting A Prospective Empty Bottle for "Cradle Cup"
The modifications of bottles require careful handling when cutting. I used an xacto knife and pair of scissors (not shown).
I rinse and air-dry a suitable empty plastic bottle. (Suitability
means the empty "cup" cradles the product bottle vertically with only a
little extra gap.) With an xacto knife, I slowly poke short, horizontal
slits into the upper portion of the bottle until the top portion
detaches or becomes loose enough to easily remove. I then use a pair of
scissors to gingerly trim the cup's edge neatly.
Rant about Some Shampoo and Lotion Dispensers
Ever wonder if shampoo and lotion companies deliberately package
their products to have the consumer waste the last drops? Most bottles
have press open/close lids or fliptops for easy dispensing. Less
convenient dispensers are screwtop caps and pumpers. Least convenient
are bottles that manufacturers have attached snapped-on dispensers.
J & J Baby Shampoo exemplifies the worst of dispensers--snapped
on pumper. The top requires prying off, and the straw is too short,
making end-of-product extraction difficult. Suave shampoo is flip-top,
but the top also requires prying to remove it.
J & J travel size shampoo is cute. It has a flip-top dispenser.
However, the mouth diameter is so small that only an eyedropper would
fit, making refilling impractical.
My advocacy for cuppish bottles doesn't address snapped-on dispensers
for some shampoos. About all I can advise is the following steps:
Use as much of the shampoo as possible. Inverting the bottle is helpful, maybe even with a modified cup.
Pry the dispenser off.
Add a little water to make the shampoo easier to pour out.
If the bottle is a suitable size/shape, cut it open and reuse it for holding inverted product bottles.
Beyond Shampoos and Lotions
I have emphasized bottles for shampoos and lotions. Another item that
is suitable for upside-down cradling is a mustard bottle.
Coincidentally, I found a salad dressing bottle to be a good size and
shape for the cradling cup.
A specific use I have for another cradle cup is for placement of a
small bottle of baby oil at the sink. The cup's slightly larger size and
wall prevents the smaller bottle from tipping over.
Prospective Cradle Cups
If you already stand your low-supply bottle upside down, do you
position the bottle amongst other containers? Lean it into a corner? Use
a cuppish item? Want ideas? Look the kitchen, pantry, and bathroom for
prospectives for plastic bottle cradles. Some existing and prospective
examples:
Soda Bottle Funnel Frugality
Liquid hand soaps, imho, are way too concentrated. Undiluted, they
tend to run out fast. For a long time, I used a standard funnel to pour
half of one bottle into another, then add water. The process was slow
for both pouring the full strength liquid and adding water.
It occurred to me that a 2-liter soda bottle might have a mouth
diameter that fit the liquid soap bottles. Voila! If you dilute your
liquid hand soap and haven't tried this hack. the video includes the
info.
My method for making the funnel is similar to making previously
mentioned holders. The soda bottle material is much thinner than
previously referenced plastic cradle cups. (I made a second funnel as an
example for method, which I discarded afterward.)
The modifications of bottles require careful handling when cutting. I used an xacto knife and pair of scissors (not shown).
I rinsed and air-dried an empty 2-liter soda bottle. Halfway up the
bottle, I used an xacto knife to slowly pierce some touching horizontal
slits. The gap became long enough for pressing the wall and easily
slipping in scissors. I then cut and neatly trimmed the edge.
Ready to squeeze out more of your liquidy products? Hope I've provided some food for thought.
This topic is a followup to March's "See Dere Cedar Stumps" (article, video).
At that time, I noted nine cedar (ashe juniper) stumps. Six of those
trees got damaged and needed removing only last year because of
Arborgeddon in my area (article, video).
During a recent backyard weed-pull session, I saw that I overlooked
yet another cedar stump. I took a new set of pix. For good measure, I
used primarily an 18" transparent drafting scale and a wooden yardstick.
Previously, I used a metal tape measure that was unwieldy although
doable enough.
For this set of images, I emphasized ascending cut-surface spans,
scaling the images in reference to each other and also including span
dimensions. View the images from smallest to largest spans, which range
from just under 8" to almost 23". (The plus-one stump is mid-range
size—~12 1/4.) Note the stumps' irregular perimeters, and lack of
roundness and symmetry.
"Ashe Juniper"
mentions "easily recognized by its irregular shape, fluted, twisted
trunk". The site describes it in deeper detail for characteristics and
environs. Various images round out the info.
Why only 44 seconds instead of reported totality of 2 minutes and 35
seconds? Clouds interfered with and distorted the capture, eventually
totally obscuring the corona after ~43 seconds. My entire recording was 2
minutes and 26 seconds, but the viewfinder showed only darkness from
about 44 seconds till the end. The video shows real-time speed (~44 seconds), then half speed.
Eclipse Day Decisions Made For Better or Worse
I couldn't order the weather. It was fickle for a good amount of
Texas, including my viewing site, Austin. Weather forecasts and updates
seemed to constantly change. Inclinations to travel were tempered by
fears of encountering vehicular multiple-dimpling and hail-caused car
window smashings. Also, destinations required real time to reach;
available time required for traveling eventually evaporated. We stayed
put.
From hearing stories about past eclipse events. area population
swelling and travel would be challenging for residents and visitors
alike. Highways and smaller roads could result in no-gos from traffic
overflow or collisions or combinations. News frequently broadcast alerts
about having certified solar glasses, stocking up on food, ensuring
full gas tanks, and preparing for hours-long departures afterwards. We
took the advisories seriously.
I should have thought of using a tripod for my Canon IXUS 180
(PowerShot) camera. As much as I tried to hold it steady, it shook.
After I truncated the recording from 2 minutes and 26 seconds, I
manually aligned the frames using GIMP. The process was similar to how I
aligned the October 2023 annular eclipse frames.
Another should-have-done was aiming the camera downward a few
seconds before totality, turning it on and starting to record, then
aiming the camera upward. I would have captured the timer beeper for
start of totality. (I did manage to capture the timer's end-of-totality
beep.)
GIMP and OpenShot Image Processing
In short, I used GIMP, with grid display to align the images in layer
views. The task was much more difficult than October 2023 annular
eclipse because of moving-clouds distortions and obscuring. Several
times, the view transitioned from disk to arc to smudge, in different
directions and varying focus qualities. Clouds! Consolation is that some
of the corona was viewable, and we got no rain.
As for OpenShot, I had help with converting the clip to individual
frames, then re-assemblling the edited frames into a view-stable
disk-centric movie. Turns out that trying to use OpenShot to assemble
the frames froze the tool. We used ffmpeg in a command window.
Extra Touches
Some features I hadn't tried ever, or in a long time:
I used some OpenShot's capabilitiese to crop, scale down, and move an inset movie of a kitchen timer.
I extracted about 50 seconds of audio in OpenShot, then opened and
edited it in Audacity. I added it to the video, along with the image of
the graph.
I created an outline circle to note the major visible prominence at 4 o'clock position.
If I Knew Then, ...
I discovered many of my actions generated a lot of heat before light.
Glad to have learned shorter steps eventually. A thought kept me going
for creating the video. I'd never think about processing another eclipse
set of images. Not inclined to go to another eclipse site any time
soon.
The next U.S. taste of totality comes in 2033 when an
eclipse brushes Alaska and Russia. And in 2044, one will cross Greenland
and western Canada, touching swaths of North Dakota and Montana. ... An
eclipse on the scale of Monday’s event won’t happen again until Aug.
12, 2045.
"Future Eclipses" provides some info in tables for future solar and lunar eclipses. Long haul to get there.
While recently pulling out spring weeds, I noticed some of the cedar
stumps didn't have round, smooth perimeters as I'd expect. Turns out
that all nine stumps looked different from typical cylindrical tree
trunks of live oak and Spanish oaks. Interestingly, these cross sections
also looked different from each other.
While poking around on the web, it turns out that these trees are
also known as ashe juniper trees. (A long time ago, I was told that
these trees were cedars.) I'm keeping the theme title, but keeping in
mind that the tie-in to junipers is the foliage.
Cedars and Junipers
The following resources indicate that the cedar tree and stumps in the backyard to be ashe junipers.
"Cedar vs. Juniper: Why we call it ‘cedar fever’ when cedar isn’t to blame"
focuses on "fever". The accompanying video provides good videocam
panning of the trees. About 15 seconds into video, the tree resembles
the lone remaining backyard "cedar" tree. Notable: "the tree was finally
formally identified as ashe juniper in 1932."
"How Austin’s most hated tree benefits humans and the environment"
states "Though not technically cedar, the Ashe Juniper trees have been
referred to as cedar since the first settlers arrived in Texas, and the
name stuck." The accompanying video shows several trees that resemble
the ones in my yard from pre-arborgeddon in 2023.
"Ashe Juniper" shows a good image of tree bark, accompanied by description that suits the cut-off trees well.
The tree is easily recognized by its irregular shape,
fluted, twisted trunk, and dark green foliage. ... Its bark is gray or
reddish-brown often with white patches. ... Another identifying
characteristic of the bark, especially on mature trees, is its shredding
into long narrow strips.
"CEDAR 101" explains mountain cedar as "technically, it is Ashe juniper (Juniperus ashei).
The name 'mountain cedar' comes from its visual similarity to Eastern
Red Cedar and its preponderance in the Hill Country, or Edwards Plateau
ecoregion, of Texas." The image of stacked logs provides various looks
of cross cut edges. The site describes how the lumber is sized and
graded for selling.
"Numerous Juniperus, but Neither Were Cedar!"
is longish and detailed. About 2:29 into the video, the narrator holds
up a small branch and states "This is an ash(e) juniper. This is the
most common tree in Austin."
"7 Types of Cedar Trees in Texas: Identification Guide (Chart, Pictures)"
provides info on seven types of cedar trees. I initially thought that
my cedars were alligator cedars. I changed my mind when I saw the bark
resembled organized mosaic tiles. BTW, the rock cedar (Juniperus ashei) apparently is another name for ashe juniper.
My profession had been technical writer/editor. Through TheWriteJob clublet (blog at http://thewritejob.blogspot.com), I have been exploring my inner creative writing, which includes mostly language enlightenment, entertainment, and a-muse-meant. Over time, I have become more active with images and my YouTube channel.
