I was a bad boy today. Mojo Dave had a nice Jones Tactical belt in Multicam in large, so I jumped on it. I’m not going to get too heavy into the technical details, since you can go to the Jones website or probably find a boatload of reviews online. It is 1.5†wide. My waist is 34, and there is like another inch, maybe inch-and-a-half left on the loop Velcro for the adjustment tab. The body is made from heavy coyote brown webbing overlapped on both sides with printed Multicam webbing with the joint nicely hidden and finished. The adjustment webbing is 1†printed Multicam webbing with Multicam printed loop Velcro under the tail. The buckle is a 1†Cobra buckle. At $75 USD, it is quite spendy as belts go, more toward the price range of some designer Italian trouser belt than a run-of the mill single-layer scuba webbing tactical belt. The material and build quality justify the price in my opinion. Continue reading ‘Jones Tactical Cobra 1.5†EveryDay Belt’
I was rather shocked when I stopped by Shirokiya after work and saw that the sweet potato filling had made a return visit after overstaying it’s welcome a couple of weeks ago. Did they find some leftover potato filling? How was it that potato was still around and last week’s strawberry cream cheese flavor ran out before its two weeks were up? Luckily, hidden between the signs on the counter was a new rotating flavor – anko cream cheese. After having last week’s strawberry cream cheese, I was in, and I was not disappointed. The sweetness of the anko was nicely balanced by the creamy sourness of the cheese. This definitely falls into the classification of otona no aji. I’m glad I got two! Continue reading ‘Akimune-an Anko Cream Cheese Taiyaki’
The spring season shows are now well on their way. Here’s our thoughts on some of them.
Uchuu Kyoudai (Space Brothers)
As kids, two brothers make a pact to become astronauts. As adults, one actually is an astronaut, while the older has found himself fired from his automobile engineer job. It becomes a chance for him to revist those aspirations and he finds himself going through the JAXA selection process. Streaming on CrunchyRoll. Continue reading ‘Anime Briefs – Spring 2012’
Is there some new addition to the HRS that I haven’t heard of? I think it’s an intentional falsehood meant to freak people out. I’m sure if a law regulating this actually passed, the news media would have been abuzz about it for at least a week. In any case, hasn’t the danger of phone/gas pump interactions has been thoroughly debunked, the most familiar example being by Mythbusters? Of course, I took the picture with my phone while filling gas!
I half expected going into this one to immediately have to shout, “Uuhhh~! What the hell is this krapp!†I was thankfully surprised. The flavors were subtle and the strawberry flavor did not taste artificial. The cream cheese filling was only slightly sweetened. Biting into the taiyaki, it appeared to be somewhat deflated and borderline hollow and underfilled, but I guess that’s the consequence of a softer filling – a firmer filling like anko would resist being squeezed down and the batter would instead be displaced out of the finite mold space. Although a little volumetrically challenged, the taste was very good. I’ll get another next week if I go by the mall. Continue reading ‘Akimune-an Strawberry Cream Cheese Taiyaki’
The rotating seasonal flavor last week was purple (Satsuma-imo) sweet potato flavor. In fact it had been the “two weeks only†special flavor for over three weeks now, much to my disappointment. I didn’t really rush posting this because it was so underwhelming. I’d easily go for the standard anko over the sweet potato any day. It was better than the chocolate crème though! Continue reading ‘Akimune-an Sweet Potato Taiyaki’
Saturday after a long break, had the SCCA RallyCross out at KRP. As always, insane fun! The space we had to work with was drastically cut, but we made do with what we had.
Here’s one on car view of one of my runs:
It sounds pretty good run like this, I like! The new CV shafts held up, looks like the main nut also at the bearing stayed tight. Only big problem I had was the generic made in Chine silicone hose on my intake failed. Duct tape to the rescue! I’ll have to find some real hose and fab up a good mounting bracket. The little FX that can is a contender here, with some good driving I know it can place in the top. Only major tweaking that would be nice is if I could find a set of the mythical TRD FX rally springs and some good struts to go with them.
On my way back from hanging out above Hanauma Bay watching for whales, I saw HFD 1 buzz by and head over to Koko Head. What is with helicopters and that point on the other side of Hanauma Bay? I have some pics about a month ago of another unidentified small helicopter hovering & touching down there. This time though, HFD 1 headed on over to Koko Head District Park. If I were at home I’d be thinking, oh geeze, HFD pulling someone out of Koko Crater “Stairs”, again? Looks like it was a couple & small child, the mother was the victim. Didn’t seem to be too bad as when the male & child arrived in the second trip on HFD 1 they didn’t look too distraught. 
Hope all is well.
I needed a mortar and pestle to grind up spices for masala chai, and I just so happened to see one in the knife display case at McBike, so I picked one up. The price was right at $29.98 USD plus sales tax, which is pretty much what it goes for online (MSRP is $50). The mortar body is made from a white glazed ceramic and measures about 10cm in diameter and about 6cm high. The glaze is absent from the foot of the bowl as is normal with ceramic ware. It would be nice if there was a ring of silicone there to keep it stable on a countertop, but the size and shape make it perfect to hold in the hand while using. The inside of the mortar is ridged like a traditional Japanese suribachi, but the ridges are glazed over to provide a slightly less aggressive surface. The nihongo labeling on the box identifies this as a “mini-suribachiâ€, but the overall shape is more hemispherical rather than the conical shape of typical suribachi. Continue reading ‘Kai Select 100 Mortar and Pestle’
Whew, been working on the rally FX the past week to get it ready for the SCCA display at the First Hawaiian Auto Show this weekend. I went at the paint with the DA polisher and had to find some new polishing pads for it. Time for a plug for Pak Shak, an auto detailing supplies shop right off of Sand Island Road. The dude was very knowledgable, and helpful. He knows his stuff and gave excellent suggestions, and never tried to push anything. I picked up a backer and some pads for my Porter Cable. If you’re picky about country of origin of your tools, you can get from them German made polishers, although you will paya good premium. Anyway, after a full day of work, the paint had quite a shine, probably not seen since it left the dealer! I can’t imagine doing this without power tools. And micro fiber towels. What the heck did people use before these? They work awesome! If you’re not doing anything this weekend, come check out the show. I’ll be working the SCCA booth on the second floor from 7PM on Saturday. You can check out the most awesomest FX16 in Hawaii. Or possibly the last of two in this state that hasn’t completely rusted away anyway, yet.