Whew, what a long post! Thats about 4000 words[if a picture was really worth a 1000 words!]. So, thats my tank, 100 days old. Specs will be posted in my next post!
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Tank pics
Whew, what a long post! Thats about 4000 words[if a picture was really worth a 1000 words!]. So, thats my tank, 100 days old. Specs will be posted in my next post!
Friday, November 17, 2006
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Mixed bag
Well, today wasnt a particularly bad day!
Well, had a little bit of leftover work on the car. The seat cover work wasnt fully over yet. By the way, red and black artificial leather seat covers look kinda cool on the red Wagon R!
I did do some running around today, nothing spectacular enough to mention or even remember. I did bump into a pet freak, when I accompanied Shanmugam, when he went to see a car that was up for sale.
This person, whose name wasnt mentioned to me too, showed me around his place, when I expressed interest in a few pigeons that were feeding. He had some interesting looking pigeons. One of them had upturned feathers from the neck upwards. Another interesting strain had a funny throat that he/she was blowing up like a ball[the way a puffer fish or the bull frog does], as part of the courting ritual.
He then showed me a few Bantams, and some other exotic varieties of chickens. He even had 4 miniature pinschers. One of them had won a lot of cups at various shows. He proudly displayed the cups to me. He even had a fish tank. Obviously a sad tank. I hate to even see badly done up tanks and pity the fishes the most. He wanted a few good bettas, once I told him that I do deal with 'good' fish.
And as I drove home, I was wondering how I feel about a few things. One was aeration, and the other was osmosis.
Aeration has a major significance! Right from aerating wine[yeah, its done] to improving the way your soap lathers, using aeration. When a bottle of wine is opened, and a glass is poured for you, you should actually gently rotate it a few times, to aerate it, before you taste it! Thats supposed to make your experience better, and thats the way, so shut up and listen!
And, have you tried using a loofah? Your soap when you wash your hands lathers a bit. Try the same soap, with a loofah, or scrunning pad, or even a shaving brush! Lathers rather differently. Thats the difference made by aeration.
Ok, what I really wanted to convey was the real meaning of aeration in a fish tank. There is no need or necessity to use an airstone[with airpump] to aerate your fish tank. The bubbles by themselves dont mix with the water, to provide oxygen for your fish. What really happens is, these bubbles travel to the water surface and break it. This helps in gas exchange at the water surface, and thats how oxygen enters the water.
A lot of people look at my tanks and ask me if my fish dont die, as I never use an air pump. All you need to do is use a power head, or something to ensure that your water is turned well, so the surface is broken somewhere. This will ensure adequate oxygen levels.
And about osmosis. Its really funny. I will admit that I learnt this quite recently. Do you know what will happen if you put a few goosberries in salt. I mean, take a small bottle. Pop in a few gooseberries, and then cover them with salt. Leave them for a few days. You will see water in the salt. Wheres the water from? Its actually osmosis, when water flows from a lower concentration to a higher concentration.
I use brine shrimp eggs. These are normally stored dry, and hatch when I put them in water, with very little salt. A really interesting thing is that, to dry out some brine shrimp eggs, I put them in a super concentrated salt solution. I am referring to decapsulated ones, where I remove the hard shell. Isnt that super cool? To store those eggs dry, they are stored in water[super saturated with salt]. The concentration is so high, that they such every water molecule out of those eggs!!!
Well, I should call it a day!
Well, had a little bit of leftover work on the car. The seat cover work wasnt fully over yet. By the way, red and black artificial leather seat covers look kinda cool on the red Wagon R!
I did do some running around today, nothing spectacular enough to mention or even remember. I did bump into a pet freak, when I accompanied Shanmugam, when he went to see a car that was up for sale.
This person, whose name wasnt mentioned to me too, showed me around his place, when I expressed interest in a few pigeons that were feeding. He had some interesting looking pigeons. One of them had upturned feathers from the neck upwards. Another interesting strain had a funny throat that he/she was blowing up like a ball[the way a puffer fish or the bull frog does], as part of the courting ritual.
He then showed me a few Bantams, and some other exotic varieties of chickens. He even had 4 miniature pinschers. One of them had won a lot of cups at various shows. He proudly displayed the cups to me. He even had a fish tank. Obviously a sad tank. I hate to even see badly done up tanks and pity the fishes the most. He wanted a few good bettas, once I told him that I do deal with 'good' fish.
And as I drove home, I was wondering how I feel about a few things. One was aeration, and the other was osmosis.
Aeration has a major significance! Right from aerating wine[yeah, its done] to improving the way your soap lathers, using aeration. When a bottle of wine is opened, and a glass is poured for you, you should actually gently rotate it a few times, to aerate it, before you taste it! Thats supposed to make your experience better, and thats the way, so shut up and listen!
And, have you tried using a loofah? Your soap when you wash your hands lathers a bit. Try the same soap, with a loofah, or scrunning pad, or even a shaving brush! Lathers rather differently. Thats the difference made by aeration.
Ok, what I really wanted to convey was the real meaning of aeration in a fish tank. There is no need or necessity to use an airstone[with airpump] to aerate your fish tank. The bubbles by themselves dont mix with the water, to provide oxygen for your fish. What really happens is, these bubbles travel to the water surface and break it. This helps in gas exchange at the water surface, and thats how oxygen enters the water.
A lot of people look at my tanks and ask me if my fish dont die, as I never use an air pump. All you need to do is use a power head, or something to ensure that your water is turned well, so the surface is broken somewhere. This will ensure adequate oxygen levels.
And about osmosis. Its really funny. I will admit that I learnt this quite recently. Do you know what will happen if you put a few goosberries in salt. I mean, take a small bottle. Pop in a few gooseberries, and then cover them with salt. Leave them for a few days. You will see water in the salt. Wheres the water from? Its actually osmosis, when water flows from a lower concentration to a higher concentration.
I use brine shrimp eggs. These are normally stored dry, and hatch when I put them in water, with very little salt. A really interesting thing is that, to dry out some brine shrimp eggs, I put them in a super concentrated salt solution. I am referring to decapsulated ones, where I remove the hard shell. Isnt that super cool? To store those eggs dry, they are stored in water[super saturated with salt]. The concentration is so high, that they such every water molecule out of those eggs!!!
Well, I should call it a day!
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Had a nice day!
Well, today has been a pretty nice day. I did something I love doing. I installed a music system for my dad's new Wagon R. It was a pretty easy decision on the head unit. I had somehow decided that I will force myself to think of Sony, though I am a hardcore Pioneer fan, as I believe you get real good value for your money, especially if you dont have a budget, and need to work within it. I tried my best to convince myself to install a Sony 350S, but then, the Pioneer DEH 5850 won hands down, as the Sony did not have a dedicated sub woofer out, and so no woofer control from the head unit. Now, this woofer thing has really caught onto me, and I just cannot imagine myself even recommending a non woofer setup to anyone.
So, then I decided on the Pioneer DEH 5850. The tweeters, as usual were my all time favorite, the Pioneer TS 20. I seriously believe that tweeters may come, and tweeters may go, but the TS20 will go on forever. I do know that things like the Nokia 5110 and the Yamaha RX 100 and the old Maruti Zen and some other products are killed by their own makers, just because they want to sell their newer products! And we did not have much choice for the front speakers, as I thought that Pioneer was pretty good in the 4 inch speakers too.
Now came the tough part. I knew bass could be delivered by the woofer well. I did not need any more speakers to deliver bass. So I thought I would ditch the usual 6 by 6 ovals, and decided on 6 inch round speakers. Later I realized that these were teh only ones that could be fitted in the boot. Thats because as this Wagon R had a gas tank in the cavity meant for the stepney, the stepney was fitted in the boot! So, no space for the ovals anyways! The round speakers I decided on were JVC, as I got more wattage in this brand, than Pioneer, and the build quality was better. Then, I decided on a JVC amp, to drive the sub, as the Sony amps we get here are of lousy quality, as they are made in China! I do have 2 other Sony amps, that are made in Japan that I picked up in Singapore, and they are both very good.
So, I got a JVC amp, and a SoundStream woofer. In this department too, I usually lean towards Sony a big deal, but this time, I thought lets give it a shot. And after some hours of waiting, I got to hear the music. It sounds pretty cool. I did not really miss the ovals, as the smaller speakers and the front speakers really took care of the mids, and the highs, the TS 20s handled effortlessly. The woofer is really cool, with no drag at all, if you know what I mean!
And then the day ended. I did meet quite a lot of people today. Kiran came in to fit a pair of ovals in his Wagon R, when I was getting my job done. Nelson dropped in to say Hi. Saravannan was just going somewhere, and we met him quite accidentally. Shanmugam as usual met me in the evening. Overall it was a day, well spent!
Forgot to add, the SoundStream Woofer was from their Tarantula range, and so has a cool Tarantula standing right in the middle!!!
So, then I decided on the Pioneer DEH 5850. The tweeters, as usual were my all time favorite, the Pioneer TS 20. I seriously believe that tweeters may come, and tweeters may go, but the TS20 will go on forever. I do know that things like the Nokia 5110 and the Yamaha RX 100 and the old Maruti Zen and some other products are killed by their own makers, just because they want to sell their newer products! And we did not have much choice for the front speakers, as I thought that Pioneer was pretty good in the 4 inch speakers too.
Now came the tough part. I knew bass could be delivered by the woofer well. I did not need any more speakers to deliver bass. So I thought I would ditch the usual 6 by 6 ovals, and decided on 6 inch round speakers. Later I realized that these were teh only ones that could be fitted in the boot. Thats because as this Wagon R had a gas tank in the cavity meant for the stepney, the stepney was fitted in the boot! So, no space for the ovals anyways! The round speakers I decided on were JVC, as I got more wattage in this brand, than Pioneer, and the build quality was better. Then, I decided on a JVC amp, to drive the sub, as the Sony amps we get here are of lousy quality, as they are made in China! I do have 2 other Sony amps, that are made in Japan that I picked up in Singapore, and they are both very good.
So, I got a JVC amp, and a SoundStream woofer. In this department too, I usually lean towards Sony a big deal, but this time, I thought lets give it a shot. And after some hours of waiting, I got to hear the music. It sounds pretty cool. I did not really miss the ovals, as the smaller speakers and the front speakers really took care of the mids, and the highs, the TS 20s handled effortlessly. The woofer is really cool, with no drag at all, if you know what I mean!
And then the day ended. I did meet quite a lot of people today. Kiran came in to fit a pair of ovals in his Wagon R, when I was getting my job done. Nelson dropped in to say Hi. Saravannan was just going somewhere, and we met him quite accidentally. Shanmugam as usual met me in the evening. Overall it was a day, well spent!
Forgot to add, the SoundStream Woofer was from their Tarantula range, and so has a cool Tarantula standing right in the middle!!!
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
The Hero Honda CD 100!
This happens to be my very first entry in my very first blog!!!! Been thinking if I should start blogging, but finally got my lazy self to do it, and so here I am!
For quite a few days, I had been contemplating on getting myself a bike with an acceptable mileage. Anyways, I already have two bikes, one a Royal Enfield Bullet 500, thats just about 2 years old, and a RoadKing thats about one year old with me, and most of the bike too, as I restored her to mint condition with all new parts when I got her a year ago. Both the Bull and the King return something like 35 or lesser to a liter of petrol. Thats definitely not considered consumption, but guzzling, looking at the kind of inflation thats refected in the fuel prices, in my part of the world.
Of late, whenever I do a lot of running aroud[obviously with 2 wheels between my legs], I have been thinking that I should buy myself a bike that gives me something above 60 kilometers, to a liter. I hate the lean burn bikes that are produced nowadays. They burn so lean that they die so soon! Or should I say, they burn their inner sides themselves, for lack of fuel! So I thought I should probably get myself a bike of the yesteryears, preferrably a four stroke, as they are slow drinkers, relativley.
So, after a lot of thinking, I decided on a Hero Honda CD100, postponing my dream of getting an RX100, and restoring her. After discussing with Shanmugam, we began our hunt, and pretty soon, identified a bike, 1992 model. She was ok, and I liked the sound of the engine, and the way her documents were preserved. They were like my college books, at the end of my year! Even the new smell hadnt gone. I mean, in my college books! And the star attraction. Life tax[heard of], and life insurance[Unheard of, I mean insurance for the life of the vehicle]. This meant I dint have to pay the insurance every year for her. I first dint believe it, and then went on to check the documents. It said Valid from ...Feb 1992 till CANCELLATION OF REGISTRATION OF VEHICLE. That was really cool!
I bought her. This happened about 3 days ago. I was so happy. It felt really nice to ride a bike without having to stop often to refill! Just the thought, was really cool. Had a few things to do, to get her to my liking. Cleaned the carb, replaced the valves and valve oil seals, replaced the spark plug, brake shoes, all cables, and also an oil change. For people who dont know me, I do spend a lot of time in bike and car workshops, just because I like to!
And today, just got myself a can thats used to test fuel consumption for 2 wheelers. Its an inverted traslucent plastic can, with markings to help you read the volume of fuel inside, with a tap at the bottom, and a long tube. To use it, the can is hung on the hanle bar of a bike, and the tube is connected to the carburettor, and the can is filled with 100 ml of petrol, and is ridden, after noting the odometer reading. When the bike stops, the odometer reading is again noted. This gives you an idea of how much the bike can run on 100 ml of petrol.
Guess what mileage I got, for 100 ml of petrol? I got 8.5 kilometers! Thats a whopping 85 kilometers to a liter of petrol, and that too with me and Shanmugam riding. I guess it was a very good buy, and some good thinking !
And, one more nice thing happened today. Finally GPRS has been introduced by my mobile operator, and yeah, I accessed the internet from my mobile for the first time in Coimbatore! I have done it in Singapore, and in Thailand, but it was kind of reassuring to me, that this small town is slowly getting better, at last!
I guess I should call it a day, and thanks to whoever is patient enough to read my looooooong post!
For quite a few days, I had been contemplating on getting myself a bike with an acceptable mileage. Anyways, I already have two bikes, one a Royal Enfield Bullet 500, thats just about 2 years old, and a RoadKing thats about one year old with me, and most of the bike too, as I restored her to mint condition with all new parts when I got her a year ago. Both the Bull and the King return something like 35 or lesser to a liter of petrol. Thats definitely not considered consumption, but guzzling, looking at the kind of inflation thats refected in the fuel prices, in my part of the world.
Of late, whenever I do a lot of running aroud[obviously with 2 wheels between my legs], I have been thinking that I should buy myself a bike that gives me something above 60 kilometers, to a liter. I hate the lean burn bikes that are produced nowadays. They burn so lean that they die so soon! Or should I say, they burn their inner sides themselves, for lack of fuel! So I thought I should probably get myself a bike of the yesteryears, preferrably a four stroke, as they are slow drinkers, relativley.
So, after a lot of thinking, I decided on a Hero Honda CD100, postponing my dream of getting an RX100, and restoring her. After discussing with Shanmugam, we began our hunt, and pretty soon, identified a bike, 1992 model. She was ok, and I liked the sound of the engine, and the way her documents were preserved. They were like my college books, at the end of my year! Even the new smell hadnt gone. I mean, in my college books! And the star attraction. Life tax[heard of], and life insurance[Unheard of, I mean insurance for the life of the vehicle]. This meant I dint have to pay the insurance every year for her. I first dint believe it, and then went on to check the documents. It said Valid from ...Feb 1992 till CANCELLATION OF REGISTRATION OF VEHICLE. That was really cool!
I bought her. This happened about 3 days ago. I was so happy. It felt really nice to ride a bike without having to stop often to refill! Just the thought, was really cool. Had a few things to do, to get her to my liking. Cleaned the carb, replaced the valves and valve oil seals, replaced the spark plug, brake shoes, all cables, and also an oil change. For people who dont know me, I do spend a lot of time in bike and car workshops, just because I like to!
And today, just got myself a can thats used to test fuel consumption for 2 wheelers. Its an inverted traslucent plastic can, with markings to help you read the volume of fuel inside, with a tap at the bottom, and a long tube. To use it, the can is hung on the hanle bar of a bike, and the tube is connected to the carburettor, and the can is filled with 100 ml of petrol, and is ridden, after noting the odometer reading. When the bike stops, the odometer reading is again noted. This gives you an idea of how much the bike can run on 100 ml of petrol.
Guess what mileage I got, for 100 ml of petrol? I got 8.5 kilometers! Thats a whopping 85 kilometers to a liter of petrol, and that too with me and Shanmugam riding. I guess it was a very good buy, and some good thinking !
And, one more nice thing happened today. Finally GPRS has been introduced by my mobile operator, and yeah, I accessed the internet from my mobile for the first time in Coimbatore! I have done it in Singapore, and in Thailand, but it was kind of reassuring to me, that this small town is slowly getting better, at last!
I guess I should call it a day, and thanks to whoever is patient enough to read my looooooong post!
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