July 2024 – Page 3 – dangermouse.net

Calzone Monday

Not much to say today – it was a busy day with 6 online classes. In between I went to the post office twice, to get some packaging, and then send it off, another Magic card sale. I also sorted out a whole bunch of cards that I still had partly assembled into decks, putting them into piles based on expansion set, so that I can reintegrate them into my collection before preparing to sell them off.

For dinner I made calzones, stuffed with pumpkin and ricotta, with a tomato sauce to spoon over the top. It’s a nice variation to make with pizza dough.

New content today:

A make-up class, a make-up sale

This morning at 10am I had a make-up ethics class, replacing one that is normally scheduled on Fridays, but which I had to postpone this week due to the clash with the Standards Australia meeting I had then. The class normally had three kids in it, but two of them couldn’t make the shifted time today, so it was just me and one student. Thankfully it’s a good student who gives in-depth answers, so we didn’t run out of material to talk about.

And also this morning I sold an eBay item. This was a sealed booster box of Magic: the Gathering cards that I put up for auction a few weeks ago. It originally went for a final bid of $150, but the winning bidder never paid for it. I offered it to the second highest bidder, but they never replied to my offer. So last weekend I reposted it as a new auction. And this morning it sold for $180! So I ended up making an extra $30 due to the non-payment shenanigans.

The good thing this time was the buyer contacted me straight away and asked to do a local pickup as he also lives in Sydney. When I confirmed that we could meet tonight to hand over the cards, he paid via eBay immediately. And after my last class tonight I walked over to the meeting spot I’d designated, at the nearest train station, and he was waiting there. So the transaction is finalised and overall I’m happy how it turned out.

Before lunch I did another 5k run. I was convinced during the run that I was going faster than yesterday, and I pushed hard to sprint the last 100 metres or so in an attempt to beat yesterday’s time by as much as I could. When I checked my time… it was 1 second slower than yesterday!! I have no idea how that happened. Do people really have no accurate idea how fast they’re running while doing it?

Finally, Stage 23 of the Lego D&D set. This adds walls, windows, and roofy bits around part of the wizard’s workshop.

New content today:

Pub meal, schnitzel and banoffee

This morning my wife went out early for an appointment, and then I took Scully up to meet her at the dog grooming place to drop Scully off there. She got a wash and tidy, but not a cut, as her hair wasn’t really too long. But when we picked her up she was super fluffy from the blow dry and looked really big compared to normal. But the hair will flatten out agian and she should be fine until the next groom. It’s midwinter anyway, so she can use the extra insulation!

On the way home from the groomer we stopped at Moon Phase for croissants. I actually had a black sesame bun, another new item. I keep trying new things and haven’t had the same thing there twice yet. The sesame bun was really nice.

Back home I changed to go for a 5k run. I thought I was still taking it fairly easy, since I’m a little out of practice, but I clocked a time nearly a minute faster than last weekend, at 27:15, which is on the lower end of my usual times, so that was good.

In the afternoon I worked on some comics stuff.

And then for dinner we all walked up early to Naremburn and the Flat Rock Brew Cafe. We grabbed a table outside. Everyone else except other dog owners were sitting inside out of the cold! I got a chicken schnitzel and they had a chocolate milk stout on the beer specials, so I tried that with it. After the meal I pondered idly if they had any desserts, because I hadn’t seen any on the menu. My wife asked a staff member who was walking past, and he said they had a banoffee pie. Well… that’s one of my favourite desserts, and I wasn’t too full already from the meal, so I ordered a piece. It turned out to be obviously hand made, with a really thick biscuit base, slathered with sticky toffee and banana slices. It came with a scoop of ice cream on the side. The base was so thick that it was difficult to cut it with the spoon! It was really delicious and I’m very glad I decided to get it.

After that it was a walk home to walk off some of the food. And we sat down to watch the final episode of Disenchantment, which we have finally got to after a drawn-out process of working our way through the episodes after not realising for a few years that seasons 4 and 5 had been released!

New content today:

Standards, Lego, games

This morning I had to move an ethics class to make room for a Standards Australia Photography committee meeting. I’ve been serving as the chair of this committee for 9 years come December, and the tenure limit is 9 years, so we had to have a discussion about finding someone else to chair the committee. This shouldn’t be a lot of work, as I confirmed with our committee manager that I can continue to attend the ISO international meetings and compile reports, while someone else chairs the committee. That’s 90% or more of the work involved. So hopefully someone will nominate to serve as the new chair while I continue to do the work that I want to do. if nobody does, then I don’t know if the committee will be forced to fold, leaving me unable to do the work any more.

Here’s stage 22 of the Lego Dungeons & Dragons set build. It fills out the upper floor with a cool looking wizard’s chamber or something, with books and candles and a cool skull.

Tonight is online games night with my friends. My wife is out having dinner with her friends, so I just walked with Scully up to the fish and chips shop to get some dinner there. We’re currently playing the quantum trick-taking game Cat in the Box.

New content today:

A weird weather record

Australia set a new weather record today. The highest barometric pressure ever recorded in the country, at 1044.6 hectopascals. Here’s a news story about it. Clearly this is an unusual weather event. The high pressure system is enormous and basically stalled over the country, meaning the cold and rainy weather we’re having isn’t going anywhere for several more days.

Besides the usual ethics classes, I did online grocery shopping for pickup tomorrow morning, and I submitted that standards proposal I mentioned yesterday. I ran out of time to do it yesterday because it needed to be done via an online portal, and I had to ask my contact there where to find that. I got the information this morning, so sent it in.

I also sold another Magic: the Gathering card online, and had to dash up to the post office to send it off. And took Scully for a longish walk, down to the wharf and back. Thankfully the rain seems to be concentrated in the evening and overnight, and the day was actually pleasant around lunchtime.

And I did stage 21 of the Lego Dungeons & Dragons set. This completes the exterior rustic staircase and adds a roof over the first floor, with a cool little balcony at the top.

New content today:

Tradition, innovation, and standards

This morning I wrote up my lesson plan for the new week’s ethics class on the topic of “Tradition vs Innovation”. I decided to include the story about how Kodak in the 1970s and 80s suppressed digital camera technology by buying up patents and not developing the tech themselves, in order to keep their photographic film business profitable. Of course eventually other companies developed alternative digital technology and the genie got let out of the bottle, resulting in a rapid uptake of digital cameras and the collapse of the film market, and ultimately the bankruptcy of Kodak. I use this to frame several questions about the conflict between old methods and new innovations.

In one of my classes tonight on this topic, I had a new student, from Saudi Arabia, my first from that country. That brings my total list of students’ countries to 54. Unfortunately he was a bit too young for the class, and I think overwhelmed by the discussion. I had to advise his parent to remove him from the class afterwards, and maybe try again in a year or so.

I also worked today on writing up a form to propose a new revision of an ISO photography standard to be adopted as an Australian standard. I was supposed to do this asap after the last meeting we had, but hadn’t got around to it. Since our next Australian committee meeting is on Friday, I thought I better do it!

Today was again very cold, but the rain held off for the most part during daylight. Scully and I did cop a light sprinkle while out for a long lunchtime walk. But the clouds opened up around sunset and now as I type this it’s pouring down out there. Not looking forward to taking Scully out for her pre-bedtime toilet.

New content today:

A day of comic writing

I concentrated today on getting ahead in Darths & Droids writing and strip production.

That meant I didn’t do a lot else, except take Scully for a couple of walks and make sourdough. And fried rice for dinner.

It was very cold, but the rain held off in the daylight hours. I think we are likely to get more overnight.

New content today:

The cold and wet continues

Sometimes I think the weather is all I talk about here. I suppose it’s something that can be different every day, whereas some days what I actually do is just routine, without anything especially unusual or interesting. Anyway, yeah, the predicted cold and wet spell has well and truly begun. it wasn’t actually raining all day and we had a few bursts of sunshine, but it was pretty cold.

I walked Scully up to the pie shop for lunch. Normally I sit in the nearby park and eat Scully roam around a bit while I eat, but today she headed off towards the path home and wouldn’t come back. Clearly she’d had enough of the cold weather! So we walked back and I ate while we walked.

I have 6 ethics classes today, but several of them were low in numbers, because a lot of the kids are taking summer breaks in the northern hemisphere. And the morning classes are mostly US kids, and several of those have things going on this week with the 4th of July coming up. So some classes where I normally have 3 or 4 kids were down to one student.

Stage 20 of the Lego D&D set! his adds a rear wall to the first floor, and a rustic staircase that leads up to another floor above.

Hidden under the stairs is a spider!

And a rear view, showing an upper level door. I’m not sure yet why it makes sense to have a door here. Maybe it connects with the upper level of the castle section previously built.

New content today: