Microscopic!

I used my birthday funds to buy a microscope...I can hardly contain my excitement. I know exams are less than 2 weeks away, but I just want to look at EVERYTHING! The first thing I looked at was a hair, which was even cooler because I taped it onto a slide and even the tape made these awesome little bubbles and ripples. I really want to look at blood, and I have a haemocytometer so I could even count cells, but I'll have to pluck up the courage to jab myself. 

In the meantime, I've emptied out a ton of tea lights and I'm going to use the tins as tiny petri dishes so I can start culturing things. Not terribly sterile, or large, but they'll do for now! If I end up incapacitated in the coming weeks, it will surely not be because I've decided to go for it and consume something I've cultured......for science!

I am trying to figure out how to get a good picture of what I can see, I have a trinocular head but no camera attachment. Hopefully I can figure something out, because even the strangest things, when looked at up close, are just so cool.

I've covered up the brand with a Firefly sticker, I knew that would come in handy one day. It's made by Omano though, and really quite good quality, I would certainly reccomend them. And it came with plan lenses (the best sort!). I am almost giggly with excitement; really, it's indecent. Anyway, that's enough for now, back to schoolwork for as long as I can resist the temptation to take another peek...!

The Season 3 Premiere of BBC's Sherlock

It's finally here! Just a few minutes and the wait will finally be over to find the secret to how Sherlock survived his fall 2 long years ago.

...For people in the UK, that is: those in the US and Canada will have to wait until the 19th to catch up, but if that's just not soon enough for you, you can go ahead and install Media Hint as a Chrome extension (all the instructions are on the page - very easy install, even for those that aren't all that tech-savvy) and head on over to the BBC iPlayer to watch the premiere of the third season, The Empty Hearse, directly after it airs.
In the meantime, check out the mini episode released on Christmas, or this interactive trailer, which offers an intriguing glance into what the future of TV on the web might look like.

Cheers!

Goram Kinder Surprise.

When I was younger, I used to love Kinder Surprise. The chocolate itself is pretty disappointing, but I cared more for the prize hiding inside. The toys themselves are admittedly rather useless, but you don't buy a 99 cent chocolate egg expecting a remote controlled helicopter or a transformer - it's the excitement of opening the egg to see what you've gotten and assembling the pieces, adding stickers, etc., to end up with your tiny creation, that is why they were so cool. Bonus if you actually like the plastic chocolate.

I'm not sure if it's because I've grown up and become a little disillusioned, or if Kinder Surprise has just stopped producing good toys, these new ones are honestly lame. Most of them you don't even get to build anymore, it's all one piece, along with a confusing illustration that usually involves a couple kids having a great time chucking their new bit of plastic at a wall, or trying to throw it at their friend's equally useless bit of plastic. Most of the time the thing that tells you how to play with your toy requires you to have a friend with a toy from the same set, meaning you both have to go buy eggs until you each have one, and then proceed to play what appears to be one of the most boring and pointless games ever conceived.

Just the other day, I walked into my the cafeteria at my University, and they had a bunch of Kinder Surprise eggs. Hoping for a tiny car or perhaps a many-pieced animal I bought one, only to find a little plastic yellow thing that vaguely resembles a lion, and these instructions:
Step 1: Find a friend unfortunate enough to get one of these amorphous animals as well. Put your toys on a table, then blow on them.
Step 2: If your toy falls over, you win. Congratulations.

Gee, what a thrilling time. Sounds easy enough, right? The only problem is, aside from the fact that I could have just as much fun blowing on rocks or bits of wood, I couldn't even get the darn thing to stand up in the first place.

Shown here: my lion sitting on its head. I guess I won...?

It seems like the only things that you are able to 'build' from modern Kinder Surprises are tiny 12 piece puzzles. Because kids just love puzzles, am I right? This is what happens when child safety goes so far as to suck the fun out of things. Whatever happened to the little toy cars and boats and dragons with 8 pieces and stickers? I miss my childhood, and I feel sorry for the kids growing up in today's world of plastic playgrounds and rounded edges.

I am addicted to typing games

93 words/minute
Here's the link if you want to try!

Granted, the words they use are I think some of the more commonly used words in the English language and they're presented randomly, without sentence structure, so you don't have to use much punctuation; still, it's a nice, quick test to at least give you an idea of whether you might need a personal secretary, or have a future as one.

Mutants, not zombies!

I grew up using Mavis Beacon teaches typing like it was a game, so don't feel too bad if I've destroyed your score. If you're interested in improving your speed with something that actually is a game, go for The Typing of the Dead: they took an old arcade shooter and replaced the gun with your keyboard. The words you have to type are pretty entertaining. Blood and curses abound, and the storyline is ... interesting, to say the least!

Cake Decorating

Yesterday was my 19th birthday, so really I should be posting pictures of all the alcohol I can now (legally, anyway) drink - but, in the spirit of celebration, here are some sweet cakes I've come across.

I can't imagine how long it must have taken to make this! So much fondant.

For some reason, I imagine this was made in Japan.

Snorlax cake! He's clearly the best pokemon, and I'm sure
he would make a delicious cake as well.

This one just made me giggle.

In Soviet Russia, cake eats you!

Alright so I snuck the last one in there, I made that one when I was a cake decorator at Dairy Queen during high school. I miss that job ... nothing better than coming home every day smelling of ice cream and chocolate. Unfortunately I completely lost interest in eating icing ever again - even smelling it makes me feel a little sick. I don't think ice cream will ever get old, thankfully.

Shaved Bieber

Results when searching with Shaved Bieber

Sick of Justin Bieber popping up everywhere you look? Well, you're in luck, because the people at the Free Art and Technology Lab have developed an addon for Firefox and Chrome users that blocks out all Justin Bieber content for your surfing pleasure! Download here:
Firefox
Chrome

Barrarror Pancake

Well this is just straight up adorable. Why won't my cat barrel roll?? Obviously it's defective...