Entry Six: Three Bottles of Acid

This time we'll be looking at a trio of items that I don't think deserve entries on their own. These are three old bottles of acid. Left to right they are; Dilute Nitric Acid, Citrate of Magnesium, and Sulfuric Acid.

Ok, I shouldn't lie. The bottles are old, but they're full of water. And Citrate of Magnesium was never an acid to begin with. Although it could cause horriffic diarrhea if used improperly, which probably makes it worse than acid.

So, why do I have these things? Well, the Nitric acid bottle I won as second prize in the WVWC Chemistry Group Bowling Tournament. Yes, you read that right. We were dorks. Anyway, I thought it looked neat so I kept it. Unfortunately, people saw that I had it, and they assumed that I wanted more. Now, occasionally people just buy me these things for birthdays and such. I've had to stand between my mother and a shelf of these things to keep her from buying me another one.

So, what have we learned? Right. Don't buy me any more of these.

Unless they are actually full of acid. Then I might take one more.

Entry Five: A Large Meat Cleaver

Today's item of interest is in my kitchen, or more precisely in my Injectible Drugs Memorization Flash Cards. It's a large butcher's cleaver, maybe 40 years old, imbedded three inches into a stack of cards that angered me. I've had it for several months now and I've only used it twice. The first time was to cut a steak (Which was actually very difficult. There is no good way to just slice the steak with it, and hauling back and hacking with it is a good way to break your cuttingboard and leave a gash in the kitchen counter) and the second time left it where it is today.

No really funny stories associated with this one yet, unless you count unreasonable violence towards a learning medium as funny.

Oh, when the repair guy came in to fix my dish washer the first time, this was the only thing he touched, and that was to carefully move the whole thing across the room. I think it made him nervous because it was sitting right above where he had to crouch to look under the sink.

Entry Four: Dictionnaire Botanique et Pharmaceutique

Today I thought I'd make my entry about a book. I have quite a few of them sitting around that are worthy of writing about, so I should space them out. This is a copy of 'Dictionnaire Botanique et Pharmaceutique' bound in calfskin and published in Paris in 1768. I've had this book since sometime in early 2008 thanks to eBay and my own inability to keep Christmas money for more than a month.

The book is entirely in French and is basically an alphabetical listing of any animal, vegetable, or mineral compound believed to have medicinal uses at the time. My favorite part of the book is that it was written before the current classification system for animals and even before the periodic table of elements was organized, so there's a little alchemical chart at the beginning to explain things. Here's a picture of part of it, though it didn't turn out very well. (EDIT: replaced my picture with a better one I found from an online scan.)

There are some very interesting things listed in the book, including cats (ground cats teeth are good for curing herpes), Mandrake (mixed with ammonia and tobacco eases the pains of childbirth), and Powdered Mummy (something about curing phlegmatic blood disorders that hasn't made sense in any language for two hundred years). It makes me very happy that now we have nice little pills and syrups and such for curing our ills.

I hope I never have to fill a prescription for Powdered Mummy. . .

Entry Three: Ten Pound Granite Thing

As the description states, this is a ten pound thing, made of granite. It was one of my Christmas gifts this year, and the only one that I managed to injure myself with. Anyone who is reading this should take note: Always verify that the giftwrapped box under the tree is safe before you pick it up in a sleep-addled haze. Toes are precious things and you only get 10.

With a little investigation, I've figured out that this is a carving of either a Shiisa or less likely a Fu Lion. Either way it is a statue that's supposed to help ward off evil spirits. I'm thinking about either putting it on a stand next to the door or leaving it sitting on top of my textbooks when I'm not using them.

Or maybe putting it in the fridge to ward off food spoilage.

Entry Two: The Diving Helm

This is my diving helm. It's an antique diving helmet made of copper and brass with glass viewing windows on the front, both sides, and the top. All the tubing and rubber gaskets and such are missing, so if I ever want to really use it I'm going to have to do a whole lot of restoration work, but as is it makes a pretty good doorstop. My rough guess at the age is sometime in the 1960s or 70s. I've had this since Christmas 2007 when I received it as a Christmas present.

Not a lot of stories attached to this piece yet. I was ordered to wear it as best man at my cousin's wedding once, but that plan fell through when the theme changed from 'Ocean' to 'Traditional outdoor wedding because the bride was going to kill him if I came dressed as a diver.' Someday I still hope to wear this thing to a wedding, even if it has to be my own.

I'm going to need a very understanding bride, I think. . .

Entry One: A Large Brass Crab

Behold, the first object in my appartment to make its public debut! (Sorry about image quality. I'm taking these things with my phone camera because I do not own any other form of camera.) This is a brass crab about six or seven inches across. The arms are attached on pivots so they rotate a little bit, and the top of the head hinges up to reveal an ashtray inside. I assume you're supposed to rest the cigarette in the crab's pincers to make it look like it is smoking. It is currently holding a UV penlight in its right claw and there is an eight sided trapezohedral Flourite crystal inside because I didn't have any other place to put it.

I've had this crab for longer than most of the things I'll wind up putting on this page. I'm not sure as to the exact date that I aquired the brass crab, but I'd estimate that I've had it since late elementary school. That puts its addition to the collection at around 1992-1993 maybe. I found it in the basement of my Grandmother's old house while we were helping her move out. My Grandfather died long before I was born, but he was apparantly a prolific smoker as well as a double amputee, and this was his favorite ashtray. I will probably never take up smoking myself, but this little guy almost makes me wish I would.

Look what you made me do

Alright, here it is. You wanted me to do a blog, so I've done one. I couldn't think of anything to write about, so I've decided I'll just start taking pictures of everything in my appartment and writing a short entry about them. This may take a while, so it'll keep me busy. I'll start later.

For now, voila. I have a blog