Dusted

My recent interest in carbon steel knives has naturally progressed to even sharper edged blades. Enter the straight razor. I now have four. 4, 5, 6, and 7/8. It takes me about an hour to sharpen a new razor. 50 strokes per side on 1000 grit (with slurry), then 3000, 6000 and 10000 (no slurry). Strop between grit’s.

Now that’s all good but you still have to actually put a cut-throat razor to your face. I no longer need to shave in two minutes with an electric razor before going to work. Good thing.

Tried the shaving cream whipped with badger hair brush first. Well, you can’t see anything with that stuff on your face. Very patchy result.

Oh yes, then there are the shakes after trying to not cut yourself for 10 minutes. Put it down and rest before continuing.

I’m starting to get the hang of it using a shaving oil instead of a lather. You can actually see what you are doing.

I don’t use scented products and had forgotten about “after shave”. I thought I would use my unscented hand lotion as an after shave. Everything is fine for hours and then I start to see bright red lines appear on my face. Every slight improper blade touch to my face had become inflamed. Got worse, lasted for days. Found an unscented after shave called “Snake Bite”. Ethanol, water, IPA, menthol crystals. It makes my balls shrivel thinking about putting that on my freshly scraped face. Maybe tomorrow.

I generally go on a mini-spending spree in the winter. Before Christmas I looked around and asked myself “what do you do daily that irritates you?” Ah ha! Preparing and cooking food with 40 yr old knives and cookware.

Reading reviews on cookware I always see one at the top. Very expensive 5 ply alternating SS and aluminum. Two sauce pans, one skillet, and one stock pot later equals $1k Canadian.

Knives next. I looked at traditional Japanese blades, but they are designed around fish, so I went with Western style Japanese knives. Made the mistake of ordering a High Carbon SS (AUS10) blade first. I was not that impressed. Did some reading and found I probably wanted Virgin Carbon Steel blades instead. I now understand the passion for this kind of steel. Five knives later equals $1k Canadian.

Oh well. It was cheaper than some years hobbies.

A different thread made me think about growing in the early 70’s. Possession was a criminal offense. Growing was trafficking a narcotic. If High Times wasn’t seized at the news stand you might find a copy. They mentioned a scientist named Rosenthal who researched pot. Try to find his stuff at the University library, only the books where stolen or reserved a year in advance. Kids think Goggle always existed. Life is simpler now, or more complicated

The last 7-10 days of flowering are so boring. By now you know every flower on every plant, but nothing happens, except the slow death of the big leaves. Check trichomes, nope still no amber in the last hour. At least seedlings grow, albeit slowly.

Since retiring I have come to enjoy a midday nap. I just read this habit increases my chance of stroke by 25%. Crap. Well, I can see lots of house cleaning and more walks in my future

How do I balance my scientific beliefs without contradicting some our sponsors? Some of the stuff is snake oil. I don’t mind that they sell stuff that isn’t required since there are willing buyers out there. But when they start to believe their own propaganda and argue with science I start to vibrate

Things you did in your youth that might kill you now. When oil first came out in the 70’s we for some reason used two hot knives to vaporize the oil that had been spread on tin foil and folded over. I quit doing that when I noticed the tin foil getting smaller after every use. You would also think we would dedicate two knives out of the kitchen but oh no every one ended up blue

My house is starting to stink and I have 5-6 weeks to go. I was hoping these wouldn’t be as bad as the Blue Cheese but oh well. I wonder how bad the Super Skunk will be when I get to those seeds?

Have you been to a playground recently? They have made them childproof. How can you have fun with no risk? OK so we can’t allow unfettered Darwinism, but how long before it weakens the species.

SHIT now that sounds like eugenics. Sorry that is not my point. Polarization of opinion without common ground will destroy our democracy. But screaming louder doesn’t make you the winner

My faith in modern society has been confirmed. I was told today by General Hydroponics that my garden was unique. No other growers have my situation including the responder to my inquiry (employee). Wow I am a special snowflake!

PH drop from 6.2 to 4.5 over four days using their Bloom N source. Never happened to me in 30 years of making my own N source out of Calcium Nitrate.

I spent 20 minutes composing an appropriate response to their canned bacterial contamination blurb. Hit send. Blocked. They project an interest in your feedback but don’t really want to hear it.

Either marketing is censoring the scientists or they are just not aware of the real world. A lot of book smart people are pretty stupid. I mentored several Ph.D.’s out of academia into commercial laboratory settings and it’s painful how ignorant they are about anything outside of their specialty. But the marketing people quote them as Gods.

AAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGG

Dilemma. I want two grow rooms. One is just not enough. The trouble is, it is illegal to have more than four plants here. I have grown illegally since the early 80’s and never been caught. My grows are for personal consumption and there has never been a reason for the authorities to look at me. I did freak out the first time I had to pay my utility bill at the bank after first turning on an old mercury vapour street light I had put in my grow room. They showed graphs of usage!!

Cons: Lose my house, go to jail, die on the street on release

Pros: endless daily entertainment, prevention of SADS through high intensity light therapy, humidification of the extremely dry winter air in my house. Maybe cloning. Maybe breeding (not me).

Now that I am flowering I can only look for 12 hrs a day at emerald green. If I had two rooms life would be much greener

Geese I hate having to deal with stupid non-metric measures. General Hydroponics, an American company, lists their nutrient feed rates in mL per USG. Pick a system for goodness sake, and be consistent. I’m sure their scientists gave the info in mL/L to marketing and then they went and changed it. Science is done in the metric system!

Nuke crackers (Triscuits, stoned wheat thins, etc) for 15 secs before use. It drives out moisture and warms them

It’s snowing. Thankfully I put my summer car to bed for the winter just yesterday. I only drove it twice this summer which is a shame. It’s a 94 Mazda RX7 which I have upgraded over the years. I’m not used to driving it anymore and it can be scary doing a wide open throttle run with almost double the factory horsepower on an already fast car. At least the suspension, brakes, wheels, steering and tires have been upgraded as well. I really should take it to the race track which is nearby.

I also just put my roses to bed for the winter. Hybrid tea roses aren’t supposed to grow here. I ended up chatting with the owner of the nursery I buy my roses from last year. She says I have been preparing them for winter wrong all my life. It’s what my mother did. I have been chopping them a few inches above the ground, then covering with buckets and a tarp. They survive but only just. This year I stopped doing any trimming after the first few weeks in Sept. I now have just mounded soil up around the base of the plants and will allow them to freeze from the top down. We shall see if we should trust Science or Mother. I’m guessing science will win.

So,, I listen to a lot of music on a nice sounding system. I also subscribe to a streaming service that provides cd quality music. I can’t stand listening to remastered albums. I just heard a new Abby Road remastered song and sure enough the bass is boosted way too much. When I download music I will always choose the original over remastered. Maybe it sounds better on a shit system but the massive bass boost on my system is overpowering. Sorry just an old man whining

So why are all the PM’s showing here? Thankfully they fixed the media download times. For a while it took 30 mins to download 8 pics

Anticipation can be more enjoyable than immediate gratification if you have masochistic tendencies.

Duct tape and binder twine can fix most things.

https://www.420magazine.com/community/threads/form-over-function-sucks-but-duct-tape-helps.455603/

Wants can be turned into needs with just a bit of justification.

Having too much, and not using it, is better than too little, and wanting more