dangermouse.net – Page 37 – David Morgan-Mar

Definitely spring flowers around

Adding to yesterday’s observations, today I noticed some cherry blossom trees in full bloom, with bees lazily collecting nectar. Spring definitely felt in the air as we got up to 21°C today, and tomorrow should be even warmer. It was lovely being out and about.

I took Scully for a drive to Allambie at lunch time, where I got pies for lunch. It’s a bit of a drive, but they’re the best combination of excellent pies and reasonable distance. And it has the advantage of being very close to a playing field where Scully can run around and get some exercise. It’s a soccer/rugby field and often very muddy after rain, but it’s been sunny for the past two weeks and the ground was nice and dry today.

Today marked the 14th day in a row where it hasn’t rained! It’s been so lovely not having any rain. It’s a constant refrain among people I meet on the street while out walking Scully: “Thank goodness for this lovely weather and no rain.” “It’s so nice that it hasn’t been raining.” “It’s good to get some sunny days in a row.” You can really tell we’ve had a ridiculous amount of rain in the first part of the year by how many people are super happy and excited by the fact that it hasn’t rained for several days.

And an amazing thing happened this morning. I was just pottering around and heard an awful raucous screeching outside, which at first I thought was a sulphur-crested cockatoo, and then as it continued in a distressed manner I thought it might have been a cockatoo that had been caught by a cat or something. I raced to the window to see what I could, and realised it was indeed a cockatoo, but not a white sulphur-crested one… it was a yellow-tailed black cockatoo! And not just one, but three of them! Feeding in a banksia tree right outside my living room window.

This is a rare species in this area, so close to the middle of the city. I’ve only ever seen them around here once before, in 2017. I raced to get my SLR camera and take some photos, but when I pulled it out the battery was dead, and the spare battery was dead too! So I quickly put one in a charger and hoped the cockatoos would stay there long enough for the battery charge up a bit.

The cockatoo making all the noise—and it was an almost continuous screeching, over and over and over without interruption—must have been a newly fledged juvenile, begging its parents (the other two) for food. I watched them and waited impatiently for my camera battery. After a few minutes I tried it, and it hard just enough charge for me to grab some photos!

Pretty cool!

Tonight I started the new ethics topic on Fishing. I have plenty of questions, which is good, as I ran out of time before getting to the end in the classes.

And for dinner I made a quiche, trying a mixture of half butter and half margarine in the pastry, to try to cut down on the saturated fats a bit. It worked okay, but was a bit sticky to roll out. I’ll see how the second half goes after it’s been refrigerated for longer.

New content today:

Spring already?

Today I did some comics stuff, and worked on my lesson plan for the new week of ethics classes, on the topic of Fishing.

For lunch I took Scully on a big walk to get her some exercise. She didn’t get much yesterday and was a bit restless and cheeky, so today I really wanted to tire her out. We stopped at St Thomas Rest Park where Scully could run around a bit off her lead. I practised some recalls with her, getting her to sit and stay while I walked away, and then calling her to come to me. We also said hello to some other dogs (and their owners).

Then we went to Maggio’s Italian Bakery for lunch. I got a pizza slice and a sour cherry danish, and grabbed a couple of Napoli biscuits for snacks tonight.

Near the bakery is a cafe called The Laneway Cafe. They serve a coffee brand called The Cat’s Pyjamas, and have signs for it on the barriers around their tables. Seen here with Scully:

Now… I’m disturbed by the fact that the cats on the sign are wearing clothes that are not pyjamas.

Yesterday I assembled the Lego Dungeons & Dragons tower with the tavern and the other castle-like bit, and this afternoon I took photos of the whole lot so far.

So this is all stages 1-24 put together. It’s huge! I managed to put it into my display cabinet, where it just fit, thanks to me having moved the shelf a while back specifically to accommodate it. Hopefully it’ll still fit when the dragon is constructed and added.

And finally, I’ve stared noticing signs of spring flowers and foliage already. There are several magnolia trees starting to flower, and even a few azaleas, and I’ve seen new green shoots on some plants too. I’m a bit surprised, as the weather is still really cold. Although we are forecast to get up to a pleasant 23°C on Thursday. So maybe that really is the first sign of spring…

New content today:

Satay pizza for dinner

Monday morning was busy with ethics classes. I had three new students across a couple of classes today. It takes up a couple of minutes doing an introduction to the class for new students, but I’ve done this so many times now that I can pretty much recite it without thinking.

At lunchtime I took Scully to the post office to mail off some more Magic cards. The weather wasn’t too cold and it looks like warming up to 20-21°C later in the week, which is much more bearable than temperatures in the teens.

This afternoon I photographed the second half of that batch of Irregular Webcomic! strips that I started last week. That gives me a total of six weeks of new strips, although the first week has already been published last week.

For dinner tonight I made pizza. We had some leftover fried puffy tofu from a str fry on Saturday, so i wanted to use that, and we had broccoli. So rather than make the pizza with tomato sauce, I made a spicy satay sauce with peanut butter and chilli and some other ingredients. It goes really well with broccoli and tofu, but I wasn’t entirely convinced about tofu on a pizza. But it turned out pretty good and was delicious.

New content today:

Two Chaps and Marrickville Organic Market

This morning I went for a 5k run in the cold. It was a bit tough backing up from yesterday’s 7.5k. My legs are very worn out now. Not sore, but I can definitely feel them when walking around.

To make up for this, we went on an expedition, driving over to Marrickville and Two Chaps cafe for lunch. It was very busy when we arrived just before midday, and we had to join a list of people waiting for tables. But they said that the waiting list was for indoor tables, for which half of them in an annex were okay for dogs, while the outdoor tables on the street kerbside were up for grabs as soon as we saw one free. After waiting a few minutes we saw people leaving an outside table, so we grabbed it.

Here’s Scully enjoying the cafe ambience.

We ordered our meals. I got sourdough crumpets with peri peri, fried cauliflower, capsicum salsa, and smoked almonds:

I’d never really considered crumpets for a savoury dish like this. At home I usually just toast them and have them plain with butter, or with honey. I have tried melting cheese onto them a few times, but generally I think of crumpets as more of a sweet topping carrier. But this dish was spicy and really delicious.

My wife got the quinoa porridge with warm lemon and plum compote, mixed fruit and nut granola, topped with rose petal and pistachio:

The food here is all vegetarian, and insanely delicious. We really enjoyed the lunch. They do pasta nights on Fridays and Saturdays, and we keep thinking we should try that one time.

After eating, my wife asked if there were any markets nearby. I found the Marrickville Organic Farmer’s Market, just a block or so away. We walked over there and found it was larger than I expected, with a lot of outdoor stalls selling both produce and also assorted bric-a-brac. And dozens of food stalls doing a brisk lunch trade. Plenty of people, many with dogs, walking around. It was pretty cool. My wife bought a bag of freshly made plantain chips, and a cheap bag of mandarins.

After this we drove back home. I made up a sourdough loaf to use for lunches during the week and did my early evening classes online. For dinner in between I made fried Brussels sprouts with mushrooms, garlic, chilli, and miso. And now later in the evening I’m baking the bread and will head off to watch some TV soon.

New content today:

Frigid cold snap

We’re in the middle of another nasty cold spell for this winter. The temperature is actually not as low as it could be, but it’s extremely windy. We’re having averages around 60-70 km/h with gusts up to 100 km/h. A lot of Saturday activities today—such as markets—have been cancelled because of the high winds. The mountains are expecting blizzard conditions over 1500 metres. It’s bad enough here near sea level.

Yesterday I had my ethics classes and mailed off another package of Magic cards that I’d sold on eBay. The current class topic of Psychic Policing is generating some very interesting discussion among the kids. The older class age group in particular is showing some pretty deep thinking about the consequences of police having psychic abilities.

Last night we went up to the local pizzeria for dinner. It was chilly, but they have a nice cozy “outdoor” area where we can take Scully, which is under shelter and enclosed by fences and a heavy wind-breaking curtain covering the entrance from the outside.

Then after we got home it was online games night with my friends. We played Space Base, and then a new game for me: My City: Roll & Build. This is a roll-and-write type game, where everyone has an identical square grid map with features including a river, trees, and rocks, and you roll random building shapes and have to fit them into your map. You score points for covering empty squares and stones, but lose points for covering trees. At some point it becomes difficult to place more buildings and you can either skip a building and lose points and keep playing, or declare your round over. If you keep going, you may cover more squares and score more points, or you may roll badly shaped buildings and have to skip again and lose more points, so there’s a bit of press-your-luck. After each round, a new rule is introduced, such as scoring bonus points for putting buildings of the same type next to each other, or giving them access to wells, and so on. After a few rounds there are plenty of bonus points on offer, but the criteria are often contradictory and you have to decide the best option to take. It was fun, and also a sort of laid-back relaxing kind of game.

Then we played Just One, and got through the first 13 rounds without anyone making a wrong guess. 15 would have been a perfect score, but it was messed up on round 14 when two of the clues duplicated and were removed, making it too hard for the guesser. The 15th round was guessed correctly, so we scored a record high score of 14.

Today I braved the cold and wind and went for a run. I decided to push myself and go for 7.5k instead of my usual 5k. I took it a bit easy so as not to get too worn out early, and completed the distance in 43:15. I didn’t feel too bad, so maybe I’ll do this distance a bit more often.

Scully had her annual check-up and vaccination today. The vet declared her very fit and healthy, which was good! The vet said her teeth are very good for a poodle of her age.

New content yesterday:

New content today:

Lego D&D tower complete

I’ve completed stage 24 of the Lego Dungeons & Dragons set construction. This completes the tall tower. It’s pretty impressive.

This section of construction adds green-flamed candle details to the upper floor of the previous stage, and builds it up higher to a tower top level with flags.

But all of this goes on top of the previous ground floor room!

That’s a total of five storeys of levels!

It’s pretty impressive. And I haven’t even assembled it next to the previous castle wall and tavern sections, which it connects to horizontally. I’ll try and do that at some point and take more photos. The next stages are all building the giant red dragon which sits atop the castle walls.

I didn’t do much else of note today. Five ethics classes, and two trips to the post office, to get a packing box first, and then later to mail two more packages of Magic cards to buyers. On the way home I grabbed a snack from the pie shop, and they had something new – a spicy vegan roll, stuffed with couscous, tofu, and vegetables. I tried it and it was not bad.

New content today:

Psychic policing

This morning I wrote my lesson plan for this week’s new ethics topic, on psychic policing. There are some tough questions in this one for the kids:

If police can precognitively predict that someone will commit a crime, should they stop them before they do it? (the Minority Report question)
Would it be okay to use mind-reading to interrogate a suspect?
Would it be okay to use clairvoyance to search a suspect’s house without them knowing?
Should someone be arrested and/or punished for planning to kill someone?
For thinking about killing someone?
What effects would psychic policing have on society?
How are these questions relevant for real world technology such as surveillance cameras, or hacking into suspects’ computers?

At lunchtime I mailed off another package of Magic: the Gathering cards to an eBay buyer. Then I took Scully past the pie shop, where the daily special today was a beef & Guinness pie. I’ve had this before—they also do it for St Patrick’s Day—and it’s delicious, so I got one of those. And then after walking back home I worked on a deal for more Magic cards with a person on a Discord server who is looking for some specific cards to buy. (When I say it like that it sounds a bit dodgy, like trading in something illegal! Except it’s not, of course.)

For dinner I made a pot of pumpkin, chick pea, and cauliflower soup. With coriander seed and a bit of chilli for spice. It turned out really nice. And warming, as it was another very chilly day today. I’m not enjoying the cold at all, but at least we haven’t had any rain to speak of for a while.

Tonight I ran the first three classes on the psychic policing topic. I think this is a good one as there was a lot of very interesting discussion with the kids. One very perceptive kid pointed out the contradiction inherent in having a vision of a future crime, and then doing something to prevent it, thus making the vision untrue.

New content today:

Learning about hair conditioner

This morning I finished up writing some new comic scripts for the new batch of Irregular Webcomic! Then I photographed them after lunch. I only managed half of the batch, but that will be enough to last through this week. I assembled some and uploaded them to the server, just in time for the automated update!

At lunch I walked Scully up to the Greenwich shops. On the way we dropped off the last of a series of novels that my wife wanted to get rid of at one the small street libraries. Each time I’ve added more, the old ones have gone, so someone is obviously appreciating them, and probably keeping an eye out for more of the same series.

For dinner I made some roasted cauliflower, cauliflower leaves, and brussels sprouts. I found out a while back that all the green bits of cauliflower are edible, and have been cooking with them. Roasted in a bit of oil and seasoned they’re delicious. Some of the thicker stalks are a bit tough to chew, but the small tender ones and the leafy bits are great.

In other interesting events, out of sheer curiosity I tried using my wife’s hair conditioner a few weeks ago. I’ve never used conditioner before in my life, and didn’t really know what to expect. When I was growing up we only ever had shampoo and I sort of assumed that conditioner was a fancy thing that only rich people used. So I’ve spent my whole life ever since washing my hair daily with shampoo and never using conditioner.

After trying it once, I could feel that my hair was less squeaky clean and more moisturised and silky soft. That seems to be a positive thing, so I’ve kept using it. But just now I decided to do some research and find out if I really need to use it or not. After all, if I’ve lived this long and my hair has never given em any problems, maybe I don’t need conditioner?

Turns out there’s a lot of very conflicting advice on the net. Ranging from “If you shampoo, you have to use conditioner. Everyone. Every. Single. Wash.” to “Anyone with hair less than ear length doesn’t need conditioner.”

Digging a bit deeper, I found some explanations of what conditioner is really supposed to do and how you’re supposed to use it. This old thread from the subreddit r/haircarescience was very informative.

So, apparently conditioner is meant to rehydrate and physically smooth hair strands after shampooing, because the shampoo strips away natural oils and causes the strand surface to roughen. However, It seems to be advised to use conditioner only on the hair strands themselves, and not get any conditioner on your scalp, because the product can build up there, even with rinsing, and cause skin irritation, itchiness, and flaking. The hair strands within “a couple of inches” (five centimetres or so) of the scalp will naturally be more oily due to the proximity of the skin, and so the best method of using conditioner is to apply it only to the hair strands more than 5 cm away from the scalp. This avoids getting any on the skin itself.

Okay, so this is definitely not what I’ve been doing. My hair is not even that long. So… from this research it seems like I should actually not be using conditioner at all. I’ve been using it the past few weeks, but now I’ll go back to not using it and see if it really makes much difference outside of the immediate aftermath of a shower. I’ll report back here, if I remember.

New content today:

Another blast of winter

It was definitely one of the coldest feeling days of winter so far today. The actual temperature barely reached 16°C, but the “feels like” temperature maxed out at 8°C due to a stiff wind that was blowing all day.

My morning was spent inside doing ethics classes, but my hands were frozen. At 1pm I was glad yo take Scully for a walk, even in the cold, simply to get my blood circulating and warm up a bit from the physical movement.

We went up to the shops and I got some sushi for lunch, which I ate at the small park there while Scully sniffed around on the grassy area. On the way back I pondered grabbing some gelato (it’s never too cold for gelato). But when I went into the place I took a good look at some of the baked things they also have there. Iv’e never tried any of them before, but I noticed they had a crème brûlée cronut which looked very attractive with a very brûlée-like glaze on top. So on an impulse I got one of those instead. It turned out to be really delicious, with a custard filling inside the pastry. I might have to try some more of their pastries.

This afternoon I did some more work on new Irregular Webcomic! strips. I didn’t finish writing a whole batch, so I only ended up photographing one strip for tonight. I’ll try to get more done tomorrow, at least to last the rest of this week.

New content today:

Carbonara Sunday

Well, I end my week of food-related headings with an interesting story.

I had two ethics classes tonight from 6-8pm, which is inconvenient for dinner. I’d had a late lunch so wasn’t hungry before hand and my wife wanted to eat before 8pm, so she made herself something while I did my classes. After finishing at 8pm, I made myself some spaghetti “carbonara”, with just the egg and Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, no meat. I don’t make this much and found a recipe online to follow. It suggested warming the plates before serving to maintain the warmth in the pasta while eating. And it said you can warm plates by putting them in the microwave….

Now I’m pretty sure that won’t work. But my wife had just made a cup of tea, and I had pulled out a shallow bowl to eat from, so I thought I’d warm my bowl by pouring in some boiling water.

I boiled up the spaghetti, mixed it with some molten butter, a beaten egg, the grated cheese, and a lot of black pepper in a frying pan, and made a passable carbonara-esque sauce. Then I dumped the whole lot from the frying pan into my bowl… Which was still full of hot water.

After a moment of panic I managed to salvage most of it by quickly holding back the pasta with a fork and tipping out as much runny hot water as I could into the sink. But half the sauce went with it. Oh well. It still tasted pretty good.

Around lunch I did a 5k run. It was still very cold then. We’re getting another polar blast which should make the next few days very chilly again.

I also worked on writing scripts for a new batch of Irregular Webcomic! I’m approaching concluding strips for a couple of the themes and have figured out the endings for them. Just need to write them up into scripts.

New content today: