Right Brain Feed

 There should be a bird in this photo. But by the time I got my new digiscoping adapter all hooked up to my spotting scope with my phone camera,  he was loooong gone. Getting the camera all lined up is pretty fussy, and the visual quality ain’t great (but this was taken thru a screen, so I didn’t expect much).  I think I’m getting close to convincing myself that I should buy that new camera I’ve been researching to death forever.

 Every potter has their nemesis, one of mine is potters hump. Potters hump is the annoying frustrating ring of raised clay at the bottom of a thrown bowl. It’s even annoying for users of the bowl, finding a bump in the bottom of a bowl of ice cream as you dig your spoon in. I dug out a glaring example for you: Look at that big ugly ring of clay right at the tip of the spoon. The lesson I learned is to listen to friends advice.... a friend recommended I use my big fat wooden rib in the bottom of the bowl, and it worked! I was able to get the bottom of the bowl nicely compressed, and also get it nice and smooth after throwing the walls of the bowl. Sweet! Here’s the rib, and one of the bowls I threw yesterday. Nice smooth bowl interior. Yay! I’m looking forward to a bowl of ice cream out of one of these, and being able to scrape out every last bit of ice cream.

 Laser cutter technology has really brought back old style Victorian wooden puzzles in a big way.  It has enabled exquisitely precise laser cut pieces that fit perfectly.  I’ve tried a few different brands, Liberty puzzles, Wongo, and Unidragon. None were cheap, they are pretty pricey.  Liberty has more traditional pictures that they use, we got ours as a gift years ago. My hazy memory of it was that the pieces were pretty cool, but that it also took us  a while to finish.  Recently I splurged and got a Unidragon puzzle. They are vivid colors, and not a square puzzle. Here’s how vivid they are: I got the medium size fish. It was really fun and didn’t take long. I think the funnest thing was flipping it over after I was done to see the cuts that made up the puzzle: I thought they did an excellent job of making the cuts appear like an ocean scene with waves. Also notice the smaller fish made up of multiple pieces in the middle. After I did the Unidragon fish,...