latest hobbies
Jun 13 7:16 PM #163 3 min Four Millimetres Today Three Centimetres by December
Coral Fragment MicropropagationDropped a coral fragment by accident. Turns out that's the entire propagation technique—Dr. Vaughan discovered it the same way in 2006.
Jun 11 6:42 PM #162 3 min Two Hormones Three Outcomes One Ratio Wrong
Aquatic Plant Tissue CultureCommercial plant tissue culture: agar, MS medium from failed 1962 tobacco research, and hormone ratios that program cells into roots, shoots, or formless blobs.
Jun 10 7:06 PM #161 4 min Twelve Centimetres Between Drowning and Drought
Paludarium ConstructionStared at dragon stone for forty minutes. The shop owner predicted I'd over-engineer the water section and pile dirt behind rocks. He was right.
Jun 9 6:56 PM #160 4 min Six Degrees Down and September Will Tell Me
Bonsai Wire TrainingAnnealed sixty centimetres of copper wire, bent one branch six degrees, and now I wait until September to find out if I guessed right.
Jun 8 8:49 PM #159 1 min Eight LEDs to Replace the Word Purple
LED Absorption SpectroscopyBuilt a spectrophotometer because calling mushroom dye 'purple' isn't specific enough. Eight discrete LEDs, one photodiode, and the end of subjective colour.
Jun 7 7:07 PM #158 6 min Point Zero Zero One Per Five Degrees
Reef Aquarium KeepingWent for brass fittings, bought a refractometer and 25 kg of salt instead. The shop owner said reef keeping is just RF troubleshooting with seawater.
Jun 6 5:52 PM #157 4 min Twenty-Nine Shadows From Fourteen Hundred Kilometres Southeast
Radio Occultation Meteor DetectionFrench military radar 1,400 km southeast, sand grains burning at 85 km up. Twenty-nine meteors logged without looking at the sky.
Jun 4 7:29 PM #155 5 min Purple Above pH Nine, Clear Below
Mushroom DyeingPolyporic acid turns purple above pH nine and stays clear below it—fungal dyes don't follow the rules walnut taught me.
Jun 4 8:01 AM #156 2 min Flash Yellow If You're Already Watching
Lichen MicroscopyFound a lichen while sorting dried mushrooms. Touched it with drain cleaner. It flashed yellow in half a second and I almost missed it.
Jun 3 7:59 PM #154 4 min Four Days at the Bottom Where the Oxygen Stops
Kombucha BrewingDiane's three-year-old culture sank in eight seconds. Turns out boiling water doesn't remove chloramine—only kills the bacteria that needed oxygen to survive.
Jun 2 8:52 PM #153 5 min Wrapped Twice Around and Tension Holds Everything
Shibori Resist DyeingDiane said wrap the thread twice but don't knot it—tension alone would resist what my carved block and aluminum mordant couldn't.
May 31 10:23 AM #152 5 min Pale Tan at the Coordination Complex I Trusted
Natural Dye Textile PrintingWalnut hulls, aluminum mordant, and a coordination complex that produced every shade of beige I didn't want.