What have you bought recently?


I went on a bit of a shopping spree last night. Picked up some very high quality cat food to see if the furballs like it after they finish the stuff we have been giving them for a while (see Caring Corner for my cat stories). It is mostly fish, with a bit of raw stuff mixed in, plus vitamins and nutrients. Also got them and the dogs some wet food, which we give as occasional treats.

I stopped by Best Buy on a whim while driving by to see if they had the semi-soft clear cases for the New 3DS, so I picked up one of those. Also stopped by Target to grab a few household items and found a baseball cap to replace my favorite one that was damaged (as discussed in the test the Pyra keymat thread). It is a wool/poly/nylon blend in light heather grey, and despite all those strange combinations I like the way it looks. Even brand new (such a strange phrase I will research the history of) it feels much better than the other two I have been wearing. In addition to some other household and hygiene items we picked up a nice looking retro styled desk fan. It blows. A lot. On the lower setting it keeps me cool, so next summer the higher setting should be helpful. Also grabbed a plasma globe made to look like a skull with some fake wires attached to the side from the Halloween section. I will use it as year round decoration, because plasma globe and human skulls are fun. It is called the Electropathic Vessel "made" by Bonefingers Spectral Equipment Co. Sure, the label is a bit cheesy, so for me that adds to the appeal. Oh, also got a couple cheap t-shirts, one that looked like the Super Mario Bros. box and a Golden Girls one.
 
I found a wonderful Twisty mask while out browsing a Halloween store today that has found a place in my collection. It is just the bottom part (see below). It was rather affordable, so It is highly recommended for cultists that can't afford a custom mask. We all know better, but we can pretend it is only for Halloween use.
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I tried it out with my wooden masks. I was told that the one I generally prefer for comfort was too creepy, and told to take it off. While my other one has teeth (and squishes my nose, so I rarely wear it, despite the smile) I was told the combination is creepier with it, although if I arrange things so it doesn't shove the top of the mouth into my septum the top Twisty teeth are too low and show a bit. I recently shaved my face for my other half (she loves it) although I am letting it grow back, so this should work until then while I am in public (as long as cops don't give me problems).

We also got things like a coffee cup and and some Jason and Joker/Harley ice trays.

I bought a camera so I can take more affordable Polaroid type pics. Not sure how many of my bare faced pics I will take and share, although I wouldn't mind a few with my new Twisty mask, or that combined with my wooden ones. I also have a plan for a series.

Due to the light and clean edges of my new mask I might need to do some minor painting if I can make it not look worse.
[doublepost=1507252701,1507251946][/doublepost]Oops, I meant to leave a could links for John Carroll Lynch's current series. He returns as Twisty in this season of AHS, and also is in the new season of Channel Zero. No link, but he was briefly on The Walking Dead a season or two ago.
http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/american-horror-story

http://www.syfy.com/channel-zero-no-end-house
 
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Got two "computers" to my old computer collection, from a man who was cleaning his garden shed:
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It came out that these are not computers, one is some mainframe terminal, second is telephone Minitel-like terminal built around microcontrollers.
After quick cleaning, repairing (power supply units were unusable, problem with one TTL chip making telephone terminal not wake up with button) and restoration:
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And the second one, probably some IBM mainframe system terminal (not RS232, coaxial connector) with MC6800 and 64K of RAM:
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To be prepared to the 3 Long Time Games that are about to come on Switch in November (Mario Skyrim Farming Simulator) i ordered a interesting Battery Case for my Nintendo Switch:

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I ordered a cane. I have had some days where my leg has been giving me a lot of trouble lately, and the one we have, a typical ugly one, is not to my taste. I have looked at the aluminum ones in drug stores in the past, and those are even worse. I figure if I like it I am more likely to use it. I was going to make my own, however the material I was going to use may not be reliable, so I decided to go with one by people that specialize in such things.

It is the hawthorn one with a hame by Brazos. Other than the spiral they sand into it, which I am not that fond of (natural spirals from vines and such are really nice though), this is pretty close to what I wanted to make with better wood and by people that know what they are doing, plus a warranty. If there are advantages to having wood that isn't lacquered I probably would have preferred that. It should be here Wednesday or Thursday, so I can get a better feel for it. It would be nice if it had a bend like the one from their site:
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rygD said:
I ordered a cane. I have had some days where my leg has been giving me a lot of trouble lately, and the one we have, a typical ugly one, is not to my taste. I have looked at the aluminum ones in drug stores in the past, and those are even worse. I figure if I like it I am more likely to use it. I was going to make my own, however the material I was going to use may not be reliable, so I decided to go with one by people that specialize in such things.

It is the hawthorn one with a hame by Brazos. Other than the spiral they sand into it, which I am not that fond of (natural spirals from vines and such are really nice though), this is pretty close to what I wanted to make with better wood and by people that know what they are doing, plus a warranty. If there are advantages to having wood that isn't lacquered I probably would have preferred that. It should be here Wednesday or Thursday, so I can get a better feel for it. It would be nice if it had a bend like the one from their site:
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Click to expand...
Just started making this over the werkend, 4th one I've made since my motorcycle accident 2 years ago, gave 2 away. Ironwood is nice
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When I was searching for wood online I found a nice piece of ironwood on Etsy. I wanted to use a piece of holly root that got ripped out of the ground during a storm about a year ago. One of my dogs decided to chew up a piece of it right after I snagged it, and the rest is too bent/crooked, with one area that flexes a bit. I have a piece of pine, which is a bit too boring and common, and I feel like I am saving it for something, and this wasn't it. I might have a piece of oak in an unknown condition.

I want to get a piece of elder for another project, however if it seems like it could work I may make a cane out of that. I can't find where I saw elderberries growing locally, so I would need to order it, and I don't know if it would be strong enough to be used in that capacity.

I would prefer a branch or root that has something natural that fits like the hame on the one I ordered so it can be one solid piece. Brazos and others offer various options like that, however I would need to try them out in person before committing. My holly root would be prefect if I felt like I could trust it (I actually really like how bent up it is, both the look and feel where I would hold it).
 
I can't quite imagine what sort of hawthorn bush that cane came off of. The ones round here are taller than me, but still rather spindly all over. I suppose it must have a trunk to achieve that height, thinking on it, just I've never gone specifically looking for it, just found it thornily in my way when coppicing trees in that general area.
 
Recently while researching a few "trees" I found that there is a lot of variation between species and individual plants based on their growing conditions. From what I read it seems that over in Europe the trees have been manipulated for centuries to grow as hedgerows, so many examples have a more shrub like appearance than is natural. This one is a different species (in North America there isn't consensus on if two plants are different species or not even between experts) than what you guys have. From what I gather it is local to Texas and has a history of being used for things that need a tough wood. Wikipedia or something tells me that there is a story suggesting that hawthorn was used a couple thousand years ago for walking sticks, possibly on those islands which you live amongst. Another source that I feel is unreliable stated that hawthorn was used for weapons in ancient Greece (specifically a spear shaft). Supposedly it is a hot burning wood that was once preferred over oak for metal working or something, and in some parts of Europe was used for funeral pyres.

As for elder, in the US many are under the impression that it is also too spindly and shrub-like for a cane or walking stick, yet after agreeing with me initially on that point, the person I contacted said she has a piece that might work. I also found a stick maker in Ireland that offers them made of elder. In addition to the size of the branches, the soft inner part would seem to make it not strong enough for these purposes. I have found a book from a few hundred years ago somewhere in Europe (forgot the exact country, but probably Italy) where it was said to be used for a staff.

Back to the regional names and different species, I ordered some antelope knucklebones a while back, which I will discuss in a different thread later. The name "knucklebones" is not accurate, but they are the bones that in some places and times are used as four sided dice. Antelope is also not correct, despite that being what we call them over here. It would be more accurately called by the common name "pronghorn". Some person much more knowledgeable than me decided that back in the Classical world they based the value in the face that was down. Since the convex sides have a higher score (suggesting they were less likely to come up...or down) that makes sense to me. The problem is that it is easier to calculate a score based on the sides you see, so the ones that are on top (so maybe the rarer ones were thought of as "bad" when they cane up, this the convex sides up are worth more points). I am still undecided, so for now I am calculating scores based on the side up.
 
Hmm, I was thinking antelopes don't have knucles, less knucklebones. I guess they might still have metatarsals and the like above the fused digits the make up the hooves though, although four sided with a curved side suggests to me they might actually be kneecaps.

Yeah, many different trees are called hawthorn, even within the old world here. Plants and birds are often given the same name despite being completely distinct lifeforms here, in the Americas and in Australia. But I think these days they can DNA sequence everything, so they do know absolutely what's what, and have a good idea what lives in what genus and so on. All hawthorns I've seen here tend to grow roughly in the way the one near me has, and while it's not short of nutrients where it is, it was under the shadow of the tree I took out. According to wikipedia though, everything that bears the common name of 'hawthorn' about the world is shrublike, or at most a small tree.
 
It is actually the astragalus. I got them for use as dice, not the jacks style game. (I have read of some other games tried out and written about by an anthropologist that uses drilled and weighted ones, as well as various games and other uses in Asia). Wikipedia seemed off compared to several other sources, including a German gaming site, some archeologist and reconstructionists, and some books. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knucklebones

The "antelopes" I am talking about are not a traditional source of these bones (usually sheep or goats, sometimes pigs, although pig ones are shaped differently). I chose them since they were gathered from corpses of animals that died naturally, not hunted for fun by humans, they are from a region where some of my ancestors are from, and they are smaller than other options in that area, so four fit in my hands easily.

The hawthorn this is made from is/was sometimes used for tool handles and fence posts in Texas (and probably other nearby areas) according to the card that is included with the cane (it also has a picture and a could sentences about the individual maker of it). It is very straight and has some knobby spots, so still interesting and showing some characteristics of the raw material that I enjoy. It is much thicker than I expected. A nice thing about the spiral, even if it is somewhat gaudy, is that I get to enjoy the look of the bark and the exposed wood, so kinda the best of both worlds. The handle was coated so it would stay shiny. I don't like shiny, and I prefer brass to age naturally, so I sanded it a bit and tried to give it a brushed look. Pretty nice for the deal I got on Amazon.
 
bought Super Mario Odyssey since it was weirdly cheap on amazon :3 and a new bread machine since a part of the old one broke off and i'm not confident in hot glue when it comes to fixing something with large rotating blades.
 
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just got myself a cheap projector. Panasonic PT-LB50NTEA
1024x768. picked it up for $40AUD. then just thisafternon i got another for $10 !! cheap spare lamp, but it works perfectly so i might clean it up and flip it..hooked it up to my Acer Netbook running debian jessie ( so i can get used to it) and watched a movie using vlc...
 
Use one for games/computer/television/movies and use the other for music videos or interesting visual stuff.
 
was wondering last night if there was a way to split a screen up between the projectors.... so instead of2 x 4:3 screens i could make it a 8:3 screen.. 2.66 to 1 ratio. not quite cinema but interesting
 
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