Your current pet projects/hobbies?

[Loop2kil]

+1

MTB until you hit your head a couple of times.


RSW

Well last year I broke my collar bone and had a stage 3 groin pull...but still enjoy it

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[Bardock]

I went over the bars at Highland mountain bike park, it happens.

 

[highland145]

Well last year I broke my collar bone and had a stage 3 groin pull...but still enjoy it

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

Uh, I feel it. 3 bad spills, 2 were my fault. Wear your brain dome. Best advice evar...

:love;

 

[Loop2kil]

Uh, I feel it. 3 bad spills, 2 were my fault. Wear your brain dome. Best advice evar...

:love;

Yeah I never even think about riding without it. I probably need to get some of that full body armor the downhillers wear.

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[Kaido]

Always interested to know what people are working on and their pet projects.

I have ADHD. Along with that comes "hyperfocus". Which means I randomly laser in on projects and overdo them.

Current pet project is creating New England-style thick & chewy ice cream. I've been making a batch or two a day for like two weeks now, trying to perfect the result & streamline the process. I think I've already blown my month's food budget on eggs & heavy cream, lol. 50 more eggs to burn through in the fridge...

 

[Paladin3]

I don't have very many hobbies but I do like vintage computing and brewing beer. I'm also into gardening both flower and vegetable.

This pic is one of my vintage rigs. It's a DEC Venturis486. I've upgraded the ram to 32mb, upgraded the Vram to 2mb, and installed a POD83(Pentium Overdrive 83mhz)cpu. As you can see it plays Duke Nukem3D nicely.
I also installed a 3COM network card so I can access the internet with it.
This is the pride of my vintage rigs but I also have others in somewhat working order. haha

My first Windows PC was a Pentium 60 with Win3.11 on it. I eventually got Win95, dropped an overdrive chip in that supposedly turned it into a Pentium 120, put two 4mb stick of ram in and then upgraded the video ram to 2mb. I played a lot of MechWarrior 2, Diablo 1, Duke Nukem 3D, and Quake on that thing. I used that machine until Half-life and Counter-Strike came out and I had to buy a new system.

 

[Thebobo]

I have ADHD. Along with that comes "hyperfocus". Which means I randomly laser in on projects and overdo them.

Current pet project is creating New England-style thick & chewy ice cream. I've been making a batch or two a day for like two weeks now, trying to perfect the result & streamline the process. I think I've already blown my month's food budget on eggs & heavy cream, lol. 50 more eggs to burn through in the fridge...

What do you do with all the ice cream?

 

[Kaido]

What do you do with all the ice cream?

The batches are actually pretty small. Even the "large" ice cream maker I have is only 2L max (Cuisinart ICE-30BC, freezer-bowl model), which translates out to maybe 3 adult-sized bowls of ice cream. I have a large deep-freezer for long-term storage (-20F) & have a half a dozen of these Tupperware containers:

https://www.amazon.com/Rubbermaid-FG7M7100CHILI-5-Cup-Food-Container/dp/B003BH0090

I used to use disposable pint containers for storage, but switched to long, flat reusable plastic containers after reading these two articles:

http://sweets.seriouseats.com/2013/10/the-best-way-to-store-ice-cream-in-your-freezer.html

&

http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/06/how-to-make-chocolate-chips-swirls-ice-cream-mix-ins.html

They basically give you 3 benefits:

1. Because you have a large, flat surface area, the ice cream freezes faster than it does in pint jars, so it stays more creamy instead of getting ice crystals.

2. It makes it easy to do swirls & mix-ins because you can swirl ingredients in along the length of the container & layer in the mix-ins.

3. Scooping is soooooo much easier because you just run your ice cream scoop down the length of the container to get a nice ball of ice cream for a cone or bowl, instead of having to dig straight down into a pint jar (plus because the rectangular Tupperware jars aren't very deep, letting them sit out for 10 minutes makes the entire amount of ice cream easier to scoop).

Plus, not only do you have full control over the flavor, ingredients, and quality of the ice cream base, but also of the quantity & quality of the mix-ins. Here's a picture of my latest Super Chunk batch, which has chocolate ice cream (using melted Ghirardelli bars), chopped walnuts, and fudgy brownie bites made from scratch. I put in 3 thin layers of ice cream & 3 layers of mix-ins and it came out pretty dang awesome: (this is a mid-layer shot, as I'm filling the tub)

You're not going to get something like that unless you either live near a farm with an ice cream stand or have a really good ice cream store near you. The process itself is easy but time-consuming; it takes a couple days to make a batch, although the actual hands-on time isn't too long. Right now, I'm using a custard base (lots of egg yolks, heavy cream, etc.) with some additional thickeners (arrowroot starch & corn syrup) to make it thick & chewy, while staying creamy. So you have to cook the base to 170F (I use my Instant Pot, which has a nice induction heater in it so I don't scald the ice cream base), which requires nearly half an hour of stirring (I cheat & use a battery-powered pot mixer so I don't have to babysit it), then chill the base overnight in the fridge. The next day, you churn the ice cream in the ice cream maker, which simply adds air to the mix & gets it colder, then you have to freeze it overnight (well, 6 hours minimum) to get it hard so that it becomes scoopable (the ice cream machine can only make soft-serve).

Is it worth it? Well, the ice cream is pretty good, but you can also just get some high-quality Haagan-Daaz vanilla ice cream from the store & do whatever you want with it at home with zero effort, as far as toppings & stuff goes. I would estimate that each batch costs at least five bucks to make (whole milk, heavy cream, 8 egg yolks, etc.), so it's not like there's any real cost-savings involved. So it's more about customization & ingredients control & having fun making it at home. Plus you can do crazy things with it, and do stuff like make whatever kind of toppings you want. This dulce de leche sauce made with both cow's & goat's milk is divine:

https://joepastry.com/2010/dulce_de_leche_recipe/

I've been picking a lot of blueberries lately and have gotten into making compotes for ice cream, waffles, pancakes, etc. This recipe is amazing:

https://www.pressurecookingtoday.com/pressure-cooker-blueberry-compote/

Although I reduce the lemon juice to 1/2 tablespoon of the bottled stuff. Comes out great:

 

[Darwin333]

Monica Lewinsky??? Boo this man!!!

Real pics of slutty girlfriend?

 

[shortylickens]

Monica Lewinsky??? Boo this man!!!

Real pics of slutty girlfriend?

 

[Darwin333]

You sure she is a female?

 

[vi edit]

I remodeled my basement early this year. Late spring/early summer I put up a treehouse for the kids. My project right now is to get my ass into half marathon shape for the Bourbon Chase in mid October. It's a 12 person, 201 mile relay across Kentucky.

 

[jtvang125]

I'm building my own version of the party speaker. It's a mix of spare parts and new. Everything came and I bench tested it last Friday. Everything worked and sounded pretty good but a little bummed out that the sub amp I decided to add will be cutting the runtime down more than half. I was hoping it'll last atleast 2 days but probably won't if I don't decide to add additional batteries.

I was planning to cut out the holes for some of the speakers last night but go sidetracked by youtube and by the time I knew it it was too dark to see to safely use power tools. Gonna start cutting tonight and get on the wiring too.

 

[purbeast0]

Fishing, lots and lots of fishing. Mostly targeting bass, which is kinda new for me. We've had a nice run of smallmouth bass at the lake where I work, with a smattering of pike and walleye in the last few weeks. Lots of crappie, perch, bluegill and assorted trout as well. Normally I bait fish a fair amount for trout I eat, but it's all been catch and release lure fishing this year so far. Catching a big smallmouth on an ultralight pole with 4lb test line is a trip, way more fun than towing in trout.

Small mouth bass are a lot of fun to fight. Smaller ones will put up a much better fight than a larger large mouth bass. I've caught a fairly large small mouth bass, probably 18-20 inches, and I thought my pole was going to snap in half.

 

[SMOGZINN]

I'm building my own version of the party speaker. It's a mix of spare parts and new. Everything came and I bench tested it last Friday. Everything worked and sounded pretty good but a little bummed out that the sub amp I decided to add will be cutting the runtime down more than half. I was hoping it'll last atleast 2 days but probably won't if I don't decide to add additional batteries.

I was planning to cut out the holes for some of the speakers last night but go sidetracked by youtube and by the time I knew it it was too dark to see to safely use power tools. Gonna start cutting tonight and get on the wiring too.

I've thought about doing something like this as well, but my problem is that all I have read have suggested that the sound of drivers are really affected by the cabinet they are housed in. Have you taken that into account in any way?

If I did something like this I would want to be able to use the battery as a USB charger as well. Have you considered adding some circuitry in there to do that as well? What sort of battery are you using?

 

[jtvang125]

I've thought about doing something like this as well, but my problem is that all I have read have suggested that the sound of drivers are really affected by the cabinet they are housed in. Have you taken that into account in any way?

If I did something like this I would want to be able to use the battery as a USB charger as well. Have you considered adding some circuitry in there to do that as well? What sort of battery are you using?

Yes, a speaker's performance is given by its parameters. You plug these into a speaker box design software and it'll give you some designs that will match for the best SQ. This is quite complex but for just a BT speaker or party speaker that's often used outdoors I don't really think that's necessary. I just blindly mounted my speakers into the sub enclosure last night and they sounded great. I think once the sub is powered as well (not yet), the air pressure from it may affect the smaller speakers but I don't think I'll really be able to hear the difference. So as long as it's not too small or too big then you'll be fine. And this mostly applies to mid to large speakers only because of the amount of air pressure they can generate.

The amplifier board (Dayton Audio KAB-250) I'm using has an optional module that has 2 USB ports for charging and an AUX input. However it's only 2A max shared between the two so just limit it to one device at a time and that should give enough juice to charge most smartphones these days. I was thinking of rigging up circuit to do fast charging but ditched the idea because it seem overly complex. The amplifier board also has an optional battery charger module designed to hold 3 18650 Li-Ion batteries. When plugged in it'll balance charge the batteries with over/under protection and when unplugged it'll run off the batteries. Runtime will depend on capacity of the batteries you use, volume levels and if there's any additional power draw (charging phones...etc). One major shortfall of this battery holder is that it only provides 12.6v max when fully charged and at that input voltage you're not getting anything near its rated power output. This is why I opted for a 10Ah sealed lead acid battery with a step up converter to get 24v out of the 12v from the battery.

For right now I'll stick with just one battery and see how things go and if the runtime is just too short then I'll look into another SLA in parallel or rig up a Li-Ion pack. LiFePO4 would be ideal but just too expensive at the moment.

 

[IronWing]

Pondering a black cherry shaker style wall clock. The cherry came from a tree at my Grandmothers. Part of the delay is that it's 1" thick and I don't have a way to halve it short of planing it and that's a waste of good wood.

What the hell is a black cherry shaker?

 

[highland145]

What the hell is a black cherry shaker?

This one's black, red and yellow.
http://cdn.smosh.com/sites/default/files/2014/10/educational-gifs-how-to-harvest-cherries.gif

 

[IronWing]

This one's black, red and yellow.
http://cdn.smosh.com/sites/default/files/2014/10/educational-gifs-how-to-harvest-cherries.gif

Shens.

 

[highland145]

Shens.

Damned cherry's have evicted the peas. WTH?

 

[ImpulsE69]

God damn you Kaido.

 

[zinfamous]

God damn you Kaido.

I wish this phrase was his custom title.

 

[Kaido]

I wish this phrase was his custom title.

 

[sdifox]

Reporting spammers. It's a losing battle.