I’m still here!

I haven’t forgotten about this blog, in fact I’ve felt bad for neglecting it! I’m not sure how many people read this blog, or what good is taken from it, but looking at my stats, I average 20+ views per day, so people are stopping by… at least that’s what the numbers tell me.

I’ve been getting life together over here in my corner of the universe, and it’s taking up much of my time. I’m hoping to continually better things in my life, organize and prioritize, and make some more time for this blog. There are lots of thoughts and things that I like to share, I just need to give myself the time! I’ll be posting more and more as the summer goes on , and into fall, winter… and forever until I’m plant food =)

On a side note, did you notice how many times I used the word ‘I’? That’s not necessarily a sign that I’m selfish, but I am. Working on that as much as I’m working on my grow.

About to indulge in some cannabinoid modulation therapy with the misses.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to shoot them my way. Let’s learn together.

Best wishes, until next time.
Basil.

Skyrim Inspired License Plate Frames

“My other car is a dragon”.

That’s the inspiration for this blog.

My girlfriend and I are always cracking skyrim jokes both on and off the court. We often speak accented just like the Nords, and will quote NPC sayings for days. (“I used to be an adventurer like you, until I took an arrow in the knee”, “Is that fur coming out of your ears”, and the tender but firm “I’ll kill you if I have to”. Okay, so we only say things like that last one during fights in the game.

Anyways, a few weeks ago during play, Codalion turned to me and said in a very Nord/Schwarzeneggian voice,  ”My other car is a dragon”.

Freaking hilarious.

If I would have been drinking milk it would have come out of my nose.

Perhaps even my butt. [TANGENT ALERT]

Was that too much? Probably. Is that even physiologically possible? Probably only if you had diarrhea, of which  would have to have some amount of milk metabolites in it to qualify as anything remotely milk-like.

Even then, it retains the likeness of milk in one way, in the way that it is the waste products (solids and liquids) of the milk. Surely not in the conventional likeness of milk in all of its fatty, white and cold (unless had fresh from the udder perhaps) glory. I love milk. Sorry for talking about diarrhea. I digress.

Anyways, we thought it was a good idea to use a saying like “My Other Car is a Dragon” on a license plate frame, or a bumper sticker for those that appreciate said items. If we had enough money to burn, perhaps we’d even order a plate frame with that saying, since we’re such Skyrim nerds.

Maybe some people already have custom made skyrim license plate frames already. They’re easy enough to special order, and Skyrim is understandably very popular.

In fact, here’s a website from which you can custom order license plate frames. http://www.plateframesonline.com/

It’s really easy to quickly make one up too, just add text or graphics and adjust parameters (such as size, font, color, rotation) according to your needs.

Here’s what I created inspired by my dear Codalion.

Very simple, to the point. There’s even a small white dragon silhouette that I modified from googled skyrim screenshot using Adobe Illustrators Live Trace function. Seriously, it could have been really tedious to achieve the same affect without tools from Adobe. Savin’ my time all over the place. Thanks , homies. <3Adobe.

I guess that’s about it for now. Perhaps later on I’ll post up the modified source file of that neat little dragon silhouette.

If anyone has any ideas for Skyrim inspired license plate frames they’d like to share, feel free to comment.

Cheers.

- Basil O.

Irrigation/Source Water and Plant Tissue Analysis @ Clemson University

Found some interesting links recently that I’d like to share concerning the field of agriculture and plant nutrition.

Clemson University apparently offers its lab services to the public, of which the prices are very friendly. I found this site by looking for labs to test our source (tap) water, so I can have a better understanding of what minerals and levels are in the water.

By knowing the reasonably exact (as the mineral levels will slightly fluctuate from sample to sample) levels of ppm of minerals in the source water, you can simply add those numbers to the known ppm of minerals in your mineral fertilizer so that you’re left with an accurate numerical representation of your plants diet.

$25 for a the *special* irrigation water analysis, which includes results for pH, salinity, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, copper, manganese, iron, sodium, chloride, boron, sulfur, nitrate nitrogen, bicarbonate, carbonate, and the sodium adsorption ratio.

Also, their plant tissue analysis is even more affordable at $12 for an out of state sample. Clemson’s basic plant tissue analysis includes phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, copper, manganese, iron, sulfur, and sodium.

Irrigation Water Analysis @ http://www.clemson.edu/public/regulatory/ag_svc_lab/irrigation_water/

Irrigation Water

Irrigation water can be tested where a problem with salinity is suspected. Growers who would also like to check the plant nutrient content of their water or pinpoint a specific element which may be causing a toxicity problem due to excessive levels can also benefit from an irrigation water analysis. This service is not intended for assessing water for drinking purposes.

Analyses Available	Cost/Sample
Standard1	$6
Special2	$25
Fax Report	$1

1. Includes pH and salinity
2. Includes pH, salinity, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, copper, manganese, iron, sodium, chloride, boron, sulfur, nitrate nitrogen, bicarbonate, carbonate, and the sodium adsorption ratio

Plant Tissue Analysis @ http://www.clemson.edu/public/regulatory/ag_svc_lab/plant_tissue/index.html

Plant Tissue

Plant tissue analysis can be a valuable guide for crop fertility management. Following the sampling guidelines the analysis results can be used as a fertilizer application guide for perennial crops such as peaches, or the results can be used to diagnose nutrient problems with both perennial and annual plants.

Analyses Available	In State*	Other*
Standard Minerals1	$6	$12
Orchard Leaf2	$17	$34
Total Nitrogen	$6	$12
Boron	$5	$10
Soluble Chloride	$5	$10
Nitrate Nitrogen	$5	$10
Fax Report	$1	$1

<sup>*Cost stated is per sample.
1. Includes phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, copper, manganese, iron, sulfur, and sodium.
2. Includes phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, copper, manganese, iron, sulfur, sodium, total nitrogen, boron, and aluminum.</sup>

Happy Testing =)

<3 Basil O.

Soluble Silicon: Its Role in Crop and Disease Management of Greenhouse Crops

Hey all.

Custom Hydro Nutrients Logo

I was doing a bit of research on dry hydroponic nutrients, and I came across a real gem of a website. Custom Hydro Nutrients, located at www.customhydronutrients.com has a great selection of affordable dry nutrients that you can mix and match to create your own custom hydroponic fertilizer.

There are many cool things about that website, but for now I’ll focus on an article that I found on their site describing the highly beneficial role that potassium silicate plays in the health of a wide variety of greenhouse crops. The article in question is titled, you guessed it, ‘Soluble Silicon: Its role in Crop and Disease Management of Greenhouse Crops.

Here’s a link to it in .pdf format.
Soluble Silicon: Its role in Crop and Disease Management of Greenhouse Crops

We’ve been using a potassium silicate supplement for a few months now, and I can really see the difference in pest and fungal deterrence, more erect stems and leaves, and a higher tolerance to environmental extremes. If you’re growing cannabis (or any other plant, really..) and are experiencing spider mite problems, get yourself some silicate, and call it a day.

I’ve got more to say on this, and more off-site articles to share. Soon! Soon. This [linked] article is a really informative one though, you won’t be disappointed. It is in black and white, but it’s better than nothing.

Keep those thumbs green,
<3Basil.O

Just now: Jail-broken iPhone 3GS (iOS 5.0.1) Easily Updates to iOS 5.1 with iTunes

iPhone 3GS 32gb

So for my last birthday, my 27th, I was graciously given an iPhone 3GS by my might-as-well-be-mother-in-law. I hadn’t had a cell phone in years, so this was a huge upgrade for me. I’m glad I received this slick piece of ‘Designed in California’ tech goodness, rather than one of its many android-based competitors, but that’s neither here nor there.

Within hours of having the phone, a bit of googling arrived myself at a very efficient and easy way of jailbreaking my phone, and proceeded to do so. I don’t remember what piece of software that I used, redsn0w perhaps? Anyways… it was a quick activity, and after downloading Installous I was exposed to a virtual sea of free full version iphone apps. I’ve taken advantage of Installous a few times, but since I don’t do much with my phone other than surf the net, text and call, having my phone jailbroken really hasn’t given me any benefits. If I was going to need any paid apps, the few I would need I would rather purchase, since that goes to support the maker. Good shit. I think it’s okay to preview full version software, as long as if you use it for real that you actually pay for it if you can. Try before you buy.

After not having taken advantage of features that come via jail-breaking my iPhone 3GS, I decided that I should just kill the jailbreak. If I’m not using it, and have no reason to in the foreseeable future, I’d rather just return it back to stock-like condition.

Last night I noticed that there was a new update, for iOS 5.1. I love updates, most of them. Very few software updates of any kind have gone south on me. There’s a fair amount of confidence here, but also an equal amount of suspicion. Trying to update via the iPhones internal software was a no-go for launch, as it kept giving me a very vague error message saying that the update could not be applied. Damn. So much for reverting from the Jail-Break, or so I thought.

Some more (albeit limited) googling rendered a bit of info about reverting to an older backup through iTunes, which I would then upgrade to iOS 5.1. After having some problems with my PC recognizing the iPhone, which seemed to clear up after a minute, I had everything set to go. Then I realized that iTunes could update my iPhone as well, as it gave me the specific option to update to iOS 5.1. Cool. I don’t have anything important on my phone, so I’m not worried about any possible data overwrites.

Clicked the update button, iTunes downloaded the update, and installed everything just like it should within a couple of minutes. My iPhone 3GS is good to go, freshly updated to iOS 5.1 from a jail-broken iOS 5.0.1.

That couldn’t have been a cleaner break back into jail.

Cheers.
Basil.

Problem with optical mouse lag? It could be your cats.

Steampunk Mouse by Unklian. http://www.unklian.co.uk/

Hey friends =)

I’d like to note that the mouse in the picture to the right is a custom one-off mouse designed my a modder named Unklian. His works may be found here, http://www.unklian.co.uk/. As far as I know, these aren’t for sale, and never will be. The design is a few years old (circa 2008?), as is the website. As far as I know, there’s no way to contact this guy from the website. So, if you want a mouse like this one, your best bet is to build one or hire someone who will.

So, for the last couple of weeks we’ve been having a problem with glitchy mouse-lag, and today is was really starting to get on my nerves.

I was in the midst of several software hangups coming to an peak, and then on top of that the mouse was being extra-non-responsive.

A bit of googling, as I’ve done very similarly in the past couple of weeks brings up results of the same problem, with few answers for solutions, and none if any that work. After just a few different windows 7 forum threads I was about to tab out, but then I came across a post where someone suggesting cleaning the sensor. Of course I already thought of that, and if the sensor was ‘dirty’, then why did it only glitch when the mouse does wide sweeps? And on top of that it only happened 50% of the time. No dice. We correlation.

What could it be? I decided to flip over the mouse, to see exactly what I thought I might find. Nothing. Nothing visible, yet.

I gave a hearty, wolf-like blow to the recessed sensor to clear off any larger bits of debris. Upon doing that, a hair that was lodged inside the housing had been swept out by the air current, exposing possibly the sole problem.

And guess what color the hair was? White, with possibly some light grey striping? Who in this house has hair like that? No one. Well, not a person. It’s from one of our cats. I’m not sure which one, as we have at least 2 cats who would produce hair like that. It was either Katsan or Comphrey. They have the white and grey hair. Then there’s Edelweiss who’s chocolate and cream, and then Canada who’s a smaller and female chocolate and cream kitty.

[i should post pics of these kitties... later]

Anyways, I grabbed my fiancee’s tweezers and went to work pulling that hair out. It broke off twice, but I’m pretty sure I removed most if not all of it. Now there are no more temporary mouse glitches. Fan-freaking-tastic!

And for any of you that might have this problem, the mouse glitches doing ANYTHING in windows, from web browsing to gaming, sometimes seeming worse than other times. Mostly glitching when moving the mouse swiftly in any direction. Blow in the sensor. Compressed air works well, too. If all else fails, get a new mouse! This Logitech mouse was had for under $10 on newegg.com.

Happy de-furring =)

<3Basil

San Joaquin, California’s State Soil

Real quick..

Doing some research on soil and organic crop production, I came across an interesting pdf document about California’s State Soil.

The ‘”State Soil” of California happens to be from the San Joaquin valley, where I currently reside.

I found the link on a USDA State Soil page, which can be found here: http://soils.usda.gov/gallery/state_soils/

It was only available in PDF form, so I converted it in Photoshop so I could post it here easily for your convenience.

San Joaquin, California's State Soil

Document in question, in PDF form on the USDA’s FTP server: ftp://ftp-fc.sc.egov.usda.gov/NSSC/StateSoil_Profiles/ca_soil.pdf

One thing that I thought was interesting about the small document was that it mentions a profile of San Joaquin soil  is displayed in the Netherlands World Soil Museum. Sweet =)

Gotta run, still reading!

<3Basil.O