Category: Is that the way it is?

It’s not called the wheel, it’s not called the carousel, it’s called the donut.
Mister Donut [Japanese relict version] in Hong Kong.

  • December 1, 2024
Categories
Grubbin' HerpDerp Is that the way it is? The Diary of Lupin Pooter
Part of the LED sign outside the recently-opened ‘Mister Donut’ shop in the K11 mall in Tsim Sha Tsui. Starting in young adulthood, my once robust sweet tooth and my propensity for consuming junk food in general (bagged snacks, carbonated sugary drinks, etc.) gradually faded away. A slice of cheesecake or a pint of ice […]

Knock, knock. Winter is coming has come to Hong Kong

  • November 22, 2024
Categories
All My Friends Are Insects HerpDerp Is that the way it is? The Diary of Lupin Pooter
For the majority of the year, Hong Kong weather is sweltering. But there are a couple of months where it gets cool enough that you’d do well to wear a light jacket or a hoodie while out and about. Not very long ago, I was celebrating the arrival of cooler weather. Thirty-ish days later, I’m pleased to report another seasonal step-change. We’re seeing low-60s °F (high-ish teens in °C). Hong Kong’s version of winter has begun.

The Case of the Slumping Polystyrene Foam (Question for the Experts)

  • September 16, 2024
Categories
HerpDerp Is that the way it is? Makin' stuff and breakin' stuff Mucking About With Things Questions for the Experts The Diary of Lupin Pooter
Recently, I mounted a few pairs of metal chests of drawers piggyback-style, which entailed drilling some holes. To keep the point of my drill from skittering away, I used a center punch to create a tiny dimple at each of the intended hole locations. Intending to clean the drill and the deburring tool that I’d used on the holes (a hex-shank deburring blade in a hex-shank handle as you can see in the photos below) once I had unpacked the tool-cleaning stuff (WD-40, Fluid Film, etc.), I laid them both — along with the center punch — on a fragment of one of the polystyrene foam sheets in which the metal drawers had been packed for shipment.

Pink beams of light, at sunrise

  • July 7, 2024
Categories
HerpDerp Is that the way it is? Spitting Images The Diary of Lupin Pooter To see a world in a grain of sand
At approximately 5:38AM, dawn had taken the form of three wide pinkish beams of light. A photograph is worth a thousand words, but I’m not an especially skilled photographer and my attempts at capturing a sunrise or sunset, as it appears to my eyes, always seem to go awry and end up inadequate at best […]

Tin-can time capsule

  • June 19, 2024
Categories
HerpDerp Is that the way it is? Mucking About With Things The Diary of Lupin Pooter
Lid of the can of 2008-Olympics-themed band-aids. In the course of some tidying up, I happened upon this can of 2008-Olympics-themed Johnson & Johnson band-aids. They were manufactured in China but the labeling on the tin is Japanese. Front of the can of 2008-Olympics-themed band-aids. The can and all of the band-aids are adorned with […]

New vs. used T130-2.0SK ATTEN soldering iron tip

  • June 8, 2024
Categories
Bizznezz HerpDerp Is that the way it is? Mucking About With Things Sodding soldering The Diary of Lupin Pooter TØØLS
New-in-tube ATTEN T130-2.0SK soldering iron tip. This is a mostly-photos followup to , which concluded with some photos taken of a lightly used T130-2.0SK ATTEN soldering iron tip, described online as a knife tip. It gets inserted into a corded handle that, in turn, plugs into an ATTEN GT-series soldering station (such as the ATTEN […]

Fingertip Microscope iMicro Q3 (late-2023 Kickstarter project from Shanghai)

  • May 30, 2024
Categories
Is that the way it is? Mucking About With Things Sodding soldering Spitting Images The Diary of Lupin Pooter To see a world in a grain of sand
Phone-camera-microscope’s-eye view of the surface of the wrist wrest pad glued onto a computer keyboard. Phone-camera-microscope’s-eye view of the surface of the wrist wrest pad glued onto a computer keyboard. A 2023 Kickstarter project for a high-magnification mobile-phone-camera microscope that closed to new backers last December (iMicro Q3 – A Fingertip Microscope toward the Optical […]

Treated with LILs, NILs, ZOLEs

  • May 24, 2024
Categories
Grubbin' Is that the way it is? The Diary of Lupin Pooter
Empty bag of M&S Seedless Extra Large Oranges from Spain. Another post about oranges. Last time, . This time, we’re talking about a different cultivar, the Midknight Valencia Orange. The bag shown in the photo above originally contained four big oranges and was purchased at great cost (HK$ 65 or roughly US$ 8) from a […]

Cara Cara oranges: thinking about citrus fruit coatings
[and close-up images of their Sunkist-brand poly bag design]

  • May 20, 2024
Categories
Grubbin' Is that the way it is? Spitting Images The Diary of Lupin Pooter To see a world in a grain of sand
Clip-on phone camera microscope view of a section of orange-skin-pattern from the design printed on the bag of Cara Cara oranges Last month, we tried a type of orange that was new to us: Cara Cara. The origin of this orange cultivar is a fascinating story and the way that citrus farming works in general […]

More conical? Or more trumpet-shaped? Result inconclusive.

  • May 10, 2024
Categories
HerpDerp Is that the way it is? Mucking About With Things Sodding soldering The Diary of Lupin Pooter
Post-soldering, post-cleaning pic of the protoboard and rows of pin headers used in this little test, labeled with the solder wire used for two pairs of 2×4 pin header blocks: 8 pins soldered with no added flux and then 8 pins soldered with Chip Quick CQ4LF liquid flux, done for each alloy. I’m saddled with […]

Never forget that rubber bands eventually go bad.
AND, if you need less-ephemeral, non-messy rubber bands, use silicone rubber bands (FREE ADVICE #002).

  • May 4, 2024
Categories
Free Advice HerpDerp Is that the way it is? Mucking About With Things RECCIES The Diary of Lupin Pooter
Fragments of deteriorated rubber bands. At upper left: bits from rubber bands that were, IIRC, bluish-green originally. Or were they purple? They’re bluish-green now. At lower-right: parts of what were once white rubber bands. Rubber bands (here taken to mean solid, non-woven elastic rings) degrade. Whether they’re made from natural rubber or synthetic rubber (e.g. […]

Testing fresh solder wire: various flavors of flux-cored K100LD and Innolot

  • May 2, 2024
Categories
HerpDerp Is that the way it is? Mucking About With Things Sodding soldering The Diary of Lupin Pooter
Post-soldering, pre-cleaning photo of the protoboard and rows of pin headers used in this little test. Numerous punishing soldering sessions have left this solderless breadboard stained, scorched, and cracked and it is not long for this world. Recently, I posted about picking up soldering again after a hiatus () and I’ve gotten some fresh spools […]