Wednesday, December 29, 2010

High CRI BBQ

Contributed by Sam

Light: Ra Clicky 120w CRI93

For my brother's birthday we decided to have a BBQ.. It got late and dark, and our porch light was ruining the mood, so I pulled out my Clicky 120 to work by. It rendered the color beautifully, and allowed us to cook the steak to perfection.

Monday, December 27, 2010

Light-Fi 2010

Lights: SF L1-R, Ra Clicky 100wwCT (17670), Ra Clicky 140Cgt, Princeton Tec Apex.

Went for a walk on the ranch with Joe and Teresa. Used the red SF L1 for much of my walk out, then handed it off to Teresa to use for most of the rest of the trip. I used Apex and warm Clicky after that, but I think both started blinking to indicate battery depletion. Think I mostly used the other Clicky for walk home. Joe used his Fenix P2D and a generic 7x5mm light. While out there, we discovered a gas leak from a pipe next to the upper fire road trail, now noticeable due to the saturated ground it was bubbling out of. Joe called it in and Cambria was saved.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Michelle joins the club

After a year of her playing with my Tasman, I decided it was time for Michelle to have her own. Picked one up at a good price and gave it to her tonight. I'll be interested to see how she uses it.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Christmas eve unwrapping

Ended up at a Christmas Eve dinner and had to open some presents. Most people do not spare the scotch tape quite the way I do, and glossy, untearable wrappings are pretty common, so the best way into them was to cut the tape. The little Ladybug Salt was perfect for this and drew no comments.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Christmas tree hunt

Light: Ra Clicky 140Cgt
Knives: Ladybug Salt, Military

The rain broke and my dad was finally ready to go out and get a Christmas tree. I went along to Morro Bay to help pick and to do some shopping at Albertsons. My dad needed to cut a coupon out of his mailer and asked if I had a knife. Of course I immediately reached to my back pocket for my new Military, but I realized that I was in the middle of the produce aisle and a 9.5" knife would probably get some looks. I instead used my friendly little Ladybug, which I carry as much for polite use in situations like this as anything else. I really love the Ladybug, and it makes for a great pairing with the Military.

After shopping we went over to pick up our tree (got a nice, fresh one of about 6.5' for $12.50). By this time the sun had set, so my Clicky provided the lighting as we carried it from the dark area of the lot where they were stored to the car, then as we tied it into the trunk. The Military's only use was to cut the paracord I used to tie the tree in, which it did with an almost insulted effortlessness.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Final studying

Lights: SF L1, SF/Milky ML1, SF L2, Ra Clicky 100wwCT, Ra Twisty 70Tr

In the last few days while studying I had to use lights for reading due to my terribly inadequate room lighting.  I burned through the 14670 in L2, RCR in L1, used ML1 on primary for a bit, and killed I think two 17670s in the Clicky, with the second one stepping down when I went to use it as car lighting after class. So I guess that means I used the lights for something like 6-7 hours total of reading, which was mostly a waste since by the end of it I'd remembered that reading the book mostly is a waste. Still, I did pick up a few little details that ended up being helpful.

Warm tint was nice to read by, but diffused 70lm was actually just ever so slightly low in a lit room with a large book. The 100+lm burst was pretty much perfect though. The 110ish of the L1 was perfect. I had the Twisty hanging above to provide area lighting and killed at least one battery in that too. Burning the midnight lithium.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Samy report

A report from Samy in Humboldt.

"It's a story a day here. There's always the ordinary, yet within it the unordinary. My knives get used for cutting fruit and vegetables. My flashlight shines only briefly here and there.

Kitchen stories... .. kitchens are strange places, where someone's hungry mind is conveying its intent and our body is haplessly finding solutions to create whatever product. I tend to eat simply. Often times I am splitting avocados by splicing the body in half and rotating them apart into two halves, lightly copping into the seed and twisting to remove it. Other times I resort to a 'chefs' knife in the kitchen, which i bought at ace hardware. That's for cutting tomatoes and heads of cabbage."


And some commentary on my usage.
Me: I think the only story I have is using my Aqua to spread peanut butter.
Samy: wow. you're like, the expensive bladery that does velvet duty.
Me: yeah I know....  It's funny, looking over my knives you can see heavy wear on the tiny Ladybug... and then most of the rest looks almost perfect.
Samy: what does that say about you?
Me: that I mostly have small cutting needs, or that food cutting puts more wear, or maybe just that I'm more careful as the price goes up, or just that H1 scratches really easily. I tore down a bunch of boxes with a UK a couple weeks ago, but it still looks perfect just because S30 doesn't scratch easily.
Samy: small cutting needs sounds like it.
Me: mostly. lots of opening light packages and spreading peanut butter.