Blog & White

Just another ale, a bit bitter. Contains Marris Otter malted barley, torrefied wheat, crystal malt, English grown hops.

Wooden Hand Brewery, Truro, Cornwall, England. 4.3% alcohol.

Thanks to Niko's help, I managed to measure the current drawn by the Yepp while playing an MP3. The trick was to use a voltage source set to 1.2 V, and then read the current from the power supply's display. The first method I tried, using a simple amperemeter, doesn't work, unless the meter is set to measure 10 A currents. According to Niko, this reduces the amperemeter's internal resistance and minimizes the voltage drop it provokes, allowing the Yepp to get enough power to boot, but it also reduced the precision of the measurement to 10 mA steps. Here are the measurements:

• 60 mA with no headphones or volume set to 0.
• Between 60 and 70 mA with 13 Ω impedance headphones and volume to maximum.
• 20 mA when paused.
• slightly over 100 mA with the LCD backlight on.

From these values, one can easily calculate that while running, the Yepp consumes about 72-84 mW, and only 24 mW while paused. Moreover, with a 2500 mAh NiMH battery, it should run 35 hours.

However, NiMH batteries have a high self-discharge rate of 5-10% the first day and 0.5-1% the following days, so my 2300 mAh battery used over approximately 6 weeks (charge it, store it charged for 3 weeks, then use it to replace the old battery and use it for 3 weeks) has an actual capacity equivalent to 1400 – 1800 mAh, which in turn should give about 20 – 25 hours or usage.

“Cock a Hoop was a long established tradition at our brewery on the banks of the River Cocker, where the master brewer revoved the cock from the barrel and rested it on the hoop of the cask prior to tasting.”

Just another ale, not bitter. Made of malted barley and wheat.

Jennings Castle Brewery, Cockermouth, Cumbria, England. 4.6% alcohol.

Je suis passé au magasin asiatique dans la galerie marchande du Citymarket de Seppälä, et par curiosité je suis allé voir les thés qu'ils vendent. J'ai hésité à prendre un pu erh en vrac, jusqu'à ce que je me rende compte qu'il provenait de l'Anhui, ce qui n'est pas vraiment la région d'origine du pu erh. En revanche, j'ai acheté un wu long du Fujian. J'aurais pas dû.

Il est très fortement torréfié, en fait beaucoup trop. J'ai l'impression de boire une infusion de pain grillé beaucoup trop grillé tellement le goût de quasiment brûlé occulte tout le reste. On distingue un goût légèrement sucré, et absolument rien d'autre. Enfin bon, à 3,20 EUR la boite de 125 g, on a ce qu'on a payé.

Wikipedia.org

From Wikipedia:

“Two brilliant aesthetes, Brandon Shaw and Phillip Morgan, plan the perfect murder inspired by lectures on the art of murder once made by their erstwhile housemaster, Rupert Cadell. They invite a former classmate, David Kentley, to their apartment for drinks, strangle him, and hide his body in a chest, thus, they believe, demonstrating their superiority. Straight afterwards they throw a party in their apartment. Among the guests are the victims father and aunt, his fiancee and her former boyfriend. Rupert Cadell also attends.

To impress Rupert and to gain his approval, Brandon subtly drops hints throughout the party about the murder of David, and begins a discussion on the art of murder. David, his connection to the guests and his curious absence forms much of the conversation during the evening.

In contrast to Brandon, Phillip gets more and more nervous throughout the party. Rupert quizzes him over Davids absence and some inconsistencies that have been raised: Phillip denied strangling a chicken at the Shaws farm when Rupert knows that he did. Phillip later complains to Brandon that he had a rotten evening (a reference to Ruperts probing, not Davids murder).

At the end of the party Rupert is handed another persons hat by mistake. In it he sees the initials D.K. (as in David Kentley) and becomes rather uneasy. Highly suspicious Rupert returns to the apartment after everyone has departed, claiming he has misplaced his cigarette case. When he arrives back in the apartment, he plants his cigarette case, finds it, but then stays to theorize about the murder of David, encouraged by Brandon who seems eager to have Rupert discover it. When Rupert lifts open the chest to reveal the body still tucked inside and realizes that his two former students have indeed murdered, he is horrified and ashamed of his own rhetoric that had led them to perform the morbid deed. He then takes Brandons gun and fires several shots into the night in order to attract police attention.”

© Amazon.fr

Fourth and last book of The Dreamers series, The Younger Gods was published by David & Leigh Eddings in 2006.

The Vlagh has decided to attempt a last time to take over the world, this time launching all her bug-children through the Long Pass in Aracia's domain. In order to keep Aracia out of their way, the allies pretend that the attack is going to take place on her temple, and Sorgan and his Maags are sent there to build makeshift forts, while Narasan and the Trogites build real forts in the Long Pass. Sorgan discovers that a woman-looking bug has become a priestess very close to Aracia, and discovers that she tries to compell her to kill her dreamer. Aracia eventually complies, but ceases to exist, because she tried to break the Law forbidding her to kill living being. Meanwhile, Omago discovers that he is not a simple farmer, but a God, the mate of Ara (who is also a Godess), and has erased his memory and started to live as a human to try and understand mankind. In order to get rid of the Vlagh once and for all, he takes Rabbit and Longbow with him to the nest of the Vlagh, impersonates her Voice, and tells all her bug-servants to eat her newborn children, while preventing her to procreate anymore. The Vlagh will then cry the loss of ther children forever. Finally, Omago and Ara change the past so that Longbow's girlfriend is not killed by the Vlagh's servant, and erase the whole story from History.

“cask ale in a bottle … naturally enhanced with a late addition of aromatic Cascasde Hops. Malts: Pale & Caramalt; Hops: First Gold & Cascade.”

Fruity taste, very slightly bitter. The empty glass smells of flowers, maybe violets, and slightly like pee (well…).

O'Hanlon's Brewing Company Ltd, Devon, England. 4.2% alcohol.

© Amazon.fr

Eighteenth volume in the Discworld series, Masquerade has been published in 1995 by Terry Pratchett.

Agnes Nitt (who'd rather call herself Perdita X. Dream) doesn't want to become the third witch along with Granny and Nanny (although she has the necessary talent) and leaves to Ankh-Morpork, where she finds a position in the chorus of the Opera. Recently, the phantom of the opera has started to kill people, but even though people are frightened, the Show Goes On. Meanwhile, Nanny and Granny come to Ankh-Morpork in order to recover royalties on Nanny's cookbook. They notice the presence of Agnes in the city, go to the opera, notice that something is wrong, and decide to meddle. Thanks to the money the witches took from the publisher, Granny buys posh clothes and pretends to be a patron of operas, donating a small fortune. They soon discover that the odd job man, Walter Plinge, who is simple minded, actually becomes the ghost as soon as he wears a mask. But the killer is another person and actually the director of music who has been embezelling money for years (which explains why the opera never makes any benefit) and started to get rid of people who discovered his scheme. The witches unmask the killer during a performance, while the audience still thinks it is part of the show. Walter had written musicals while he was hiding in the cellars, the manager loves them, and decides to change the orientation of his opera. The two witches go back to Ankh-Morpork, and Agnes joins them soon and becomes the third witch.

I tried to make a block (12x12 cm) of polyurethane foam with a cardboard shape, but what I got was this mushroom full of air and wet on the inside. Moreover, it leaked during the night, so some amount of the PU inside came out, increasing the size of the inner cavity. I'll let it dry a bit before throwing it away, but I'll have to find another way to make my blocks of foam. Maybe making a 6x6 shape out of wook? Note to self: don't fill the shape up to the rim, the foam expands about twofold. Less foam would dry quicklier.

I've decided to build a dice tower. Not the same as everybody else is building (not that it's not good, I'm just being posh there), but a tower where the dice roll in every direction, instead of in only one vertical plan. Drawing the plan took two evenings and a bit of a headache for the middle part, but it's done and the plan looks correct. The core is going to be 36cm tall with a 12x12cm base.

For the building, I've decided to carve it out of polyurethane foam. I've bought a can of liquid PU foam, and I'll have to make three cubes out of it. I'll use a cardboard box as a form, and carve the cubes with saw and knife. The I'll glue the cubes together and add side walls and a tray at the bottom for the dice to roll into when coming out of the tower.