As you may already know, this blog is now powered by WordPress completely. The Serendipity platform became too cumbersome and consumed considerable amount of unnecessary resource ultimately warranted the switch. Expect to hit a few missing or invalid permalinks while this blog settles down during the next few weeks.
If you arrived here from a link referring to a certain entry, check the categories on the left to find what you're looking for. Alternatively, you can just search for keywords.
A new and relatively expensive hobby has entered the arena. Instead of pursuing a marine aquarium like I originally intended, I'm going to plan and eventually build a Nature Aquarium.
What is a "Nature Aquarium"? According to Takashi Amano, the pioneer of elaborate aquascapes:
Nature Aquarium is a concept of the planted aquarium hobby, and it combines the plant layout techniques, and creation of the natural ecosystem in a confined space of the aquarium. Many essence learned from the Mother Nature is condensed here. Please enjoy "the grand nature in a glass"
Aquascape designed by Takashi Amano. Photo copyright Takashi Amano.
I will source the entire project from Adana USA, distributor for Aqua Design Amano products, with a projected cost of $3,000.00. This includes the tank (80+ gallon tank), the stand, the substrate, jet canister filtration system, CO2 injection system, glassware, fishes and plants. The project is long-term and will extend through November of this year, considering the fact that I'm also rebuilding the Russian tortoise habitat and revamping the red-eared sliders tank to a 120 gallon fully equipped ecosystem.
The choice of fishes that will occupy the Nature Aquarium will be discus fish of a single color variation. The plan is to add 6-8 discus fishes, a plethora of bee shrimps, some Chinese algae eaters and a shoal of neon tetra.
As with the previous projects, I will post diagrams, photos and how-tos to compliment the progress. The Russian tortoise habitat will start at the end of January to mid-February.
For more information and photos, visit the Aqua Forest Aquarium web site: http://www.adana-usa.com/index.php?main_page=album&album_id=82
I received a complimentary set of custom-fitted LED replacement interior lights from Anthony at exLEDusa for the Acura RSX a few days before I embarked on my end of 2011 road trip to the northern California coast. Prior to being introduced to exLEDusa's customized interior LED replacements, I've used Putco PURE LED lights by Xenon Depot / KBcarstuff for about two years as of this writing.
While the Putco LED lights served me well and were brighter than any replacement lights I've ever seen, the Acura RSX-specific replacement LED lights from exLEDusa trumps the light output even from the Putco LED I've used. And the best part is it is 100% customized for the Acura RSX for a complete plug and play installation. Let's take a look at what the package includes.
exLEDusa ships the LED replacement lights in anti-static bag, bubble wrapped and by USPS. The lights are actually LED waffle boards machine-peforated so that each piece may be broken off from the main board with ease and installed into their respective lighting compartment. Each piece maximizes the surface area of each lighting compartment with a whopping 9 LEDs for the map light replacement LED and 15 LEDs for the main dome light replacement. The LEDs on each replacement board are evenly spaced out to ensure maximum light coverage.
Unlike the Putco PURE LED which are strictly manufactured with universal plug-n-play in mind (i.e. each LED replacement kit comes with an adaptor for an array of lighting connectors to ensure indiscriminate compatibility), the LED from exLEDusa are custom machined to fit the Acura RSX application only. Because of this, you can expect a 100% guaranteed plug-n-play fitment without the need to deal with various connectors nor the use of double sided tapes to adhere the universal LED board onto the lighting compartment. The exLEDusa replacement LED snaps right into the power connector and the LED board fills up much of the surface area of its respective lighting compartment.
The set I've received are cool in the color spectrum because they are designated as 6000K output. If you prefer something a little more subtle, exLEDusa offers the LED in warmer outputs, such as 5000K white or 3500K white (for an additional $5.00). If you want to customize your interior to match a certain color scheme, LED outputs of red, blue and yellow are also available as an option.
To give you a general idea of how these replacement LED lights illuminate your cabin, I've taken a series of photographs of several settings, all on Av (aperture) priority at 4.0/f stop. I took the photos around 7:30PM PST at a semi well-lit garage with fluorescent lights.
Here is a shot of just the exLEDusa dome light illuminating the cabin. It's pretty bright as it is:
Here is another shot of just the driver side map light on; no other lights are on in this photo:
Similar to the previous photo, the proceeding photo depicts the interior with just the passenger side overhead map light on and no other lights on:
This photo demonstrates the lighting capacity of exLEDusa (3x3)x2 LED boards installed into the Acura RSX's overhead map lights; both turned on:
Finally, this is how bright the interior is with all three exLEDusa replacement lights turned on (i.e. dome and two front overhead map lights). It is so bright you can see the foot well of the passenger side and even see the debris on the all-weather floor mat:
From the hatch area, the cabin looks like this with all interior lights switched on:
The exLEDusa replacement LED lights are so bright it literally illuminates the interior and immediate surrounding, as illustrated in this photo:
To compare the Putco PURE LED lights from KBcarstuff versus the customized Acura RSX LED replacement lights from exLEDusa, I've cropped up a side by side comparison:
The top photo depicts LED from KBcarstuff's Putco PURE LED series while the lower picture depicts the Acura RSX-specific LED replacement lights from exLEDusa. At first glance, the Putco LED lights may appear brighter, but it falls short in terms of overall surface area illumination in comparison to the LED replacements by exLEDusa. Just look at the foot well of the passenger side on both photos. How the individual LEDs are positioned on their respective circuit board affects its illumination . The map lights from both brands, for example, employs a 3x3 LED configuration. However, the Putco series LED squeezes these 9 individual LEDs within a 1.5"x1.5" square waffle board while the exLEDusa replacement LEDs space out the 9 individual LEDs onto a 2.5"x2.5" waffle board. The result is a concentration of light akin to a spot light (Putco) vs. a floodlight covering a wider surface area (exLEDusa). The comparison photo above clearly illustrate the aforementioned analogy.
Everybody can use a little boost in cabin lighting, especially when it comes to fumbling for items in the dark. I'll be the first to vouch for that. Just two weeks ago when I was on a road trip to the northern tip of California where everything was black at night (i.e. Del Norte county and Humboldt county), the LED lights came in handy when I tried looking for my phone in the dark, which fell out of my pocket and went MIA in the cabin. To make matters worse, I was pretty much in the middle of nowhere. With the illumination provided by exLEDusa's LED replacement, I was able to find the phone with ease. After going through all sorts of interior lights, I can tell you that the OEM interior lighting just won't cut it. I've gone from OEM, to Polarg Hyper Whites, to Putco and now exLEDusa. I have to say the exLEDusa provides sufficient amount of bright light without compromise - i.e. blinding you. Unless of course, if you stare directly at the light itself.
At the price tag of $54.99, it is a win-win situation. To get your hands on your own set, order it directly by clicking on the following link:
http://www.exledusa.com/index.php?dispatch=categories.view&category_id=179
I just returned from our 10-day road trip to Northern California. Suffice to say, it was a refreshing and respite retreat from the hectic life of Los Angeles. Shaggy, our adopted guinea pig survived the 1,600+ mile round-trip and was glad to be home. I am surprised to find that all the plants and all the fishes, with exception to one in the aquarium, survived the absense of human intervention for 10 days. The albino pleco unfortunately did not make it, but its carcass provided food for the other 8 fishes in the Fluval. I'll need to pick up another pleco soon as the algae growth is visible due to the evaporation of the water. One of the ghost shrimp also molted and grew in size.
So today is the first day of the new year and also the first day of my final quarter at Cal Poly Pomona. Lots of things to work on this week and I look forward tackling each task, one by one. First line of business is to review a new set of LED replacement bulbs made just for the RSX. Anthony Vickrey of exLEDusa sent me a set of custom RSX interior light kit and when I tell you that I was amazed with the LED set I am using from Putco, I am totally blown away from exLEDusa's kit. I've used it for about 2 weeks now, most of it was during our 10-day road trip and it came in handy especially in Humboldt county. I'll follow-up with a more thorough review later this week.
I will also be writing a short do-it-yourself guide on cleaning the Acura RSX's idle air control valve (IACV). I ran into a small, but nerve wrecking mishap with it during the road trip and experienced major idle problems after any lengthy drive. Fortunately the problem occured at a residential street of San Francisco instead of a busy intersection. I had to park the RSX temporarily to punch in a route on my Garmin GPS. However, when I tried to start the RSX after a 10 minute stop, the RSX would fire up and the RPM jumped to 1k and immediately drops down to 0 and stalls out. The whole ordeal lasted for about 40 minuts while I tried to diagnose the problem. Eventually I ended up attempting to clean the throttle body and examined the stock air box, all at an area 400 miles away from home. The car did not have to be towed, but as a last resort, that would be an option.
Fortunately I embarked on the road trip prepared with tool sets. After all else failed, I drove the RSX for a block and as expected, the engine stalled out on neutral at a stop sign. I took the RSX for a longer run (5 blocks) and the IACV resumed normal operation. I stopped the car and restarted it and it fired up as normal. Another situation involving the IACV occured on our return trip home. When I was driving back home from Northern California, we stopped at a Carl's Jr. in Coalinga after a marathon 300 mile none stop drive from Mendocino County for a break and to gas up. Same thing happened when I tried to start the car. I replicated what I did in San Francisco and got the car up and running. So I concluded that the following symptoms will trigger an intermittent IACV failure:
The labor involved to clean the IACV may be costly if taken to a shop so I'll write up a detailed guide on how to do it yourself.
So after a failed attempt at migrating to WordPress blog platform from s9y Serendipity earlier this year, I am going to attempt the task again. Since there are no direct Serendipity -> WordPress importer, at least not one that is compatible with newer versions of both softwares, I am going to need to manually transfer the entries over. Fun! I am migrating because WordPress is much more versatile, user-friendly, highly configurable and less clunky in comparison to Serendipity. It's faster and the control panel is also more intuitive and nicer to the eyes.
A few articles back, I wrote about my plans for revamping the habitat for our red eared sliders and putting the Russian tortoise habitat in the backburner until mid spring. Because the planning, costs and logistics required to create the habitat I envisioned for my red eared sliders will be quite involved and the construction process being highly meticulous, I'm putting the project off until February. For now I am jump starting the Russian tortoise habitat.
It will comprise of a 75 gallon tank + stand combo, complete with substrate (Eco-Earth), UVB fluorescent lighting, basking lamp and nightime observation/heat lamp hooked up to a Zoo-Med automatic timer. The total cost of the project is approximately $400.00 with the tank/stand set being $150.00 alone (from Pet City in Whittier, CA). The tank measures a perfect 48"x19"x18" providing plenty of surface area for the two tortoises to roam freely. I'll be attaching two CPU cooling fans on the mesh screen top to circulate the air. Finally, a 3D background will be installed. I found a new source for 3D backgrounds and it is "Design by Nature" (http://www.designsbynature.net/). The background that caught my attention is the "BJ881 Ledge" design:
J881 Ledge 3D background by Design by Nature.
Russian tortoise's natural habitat is Central Asia (e.g. Iran, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine) and the climate is relatively arid, desert-like. I am trying to create a habitat that will closely mimick this environment. Project estimated completion time frame is estimated to be February 2012.
I'm pretty particular with the condition I keep my gadgets and books in. So it surprised me to come across this:
An Amazon Kindle 2 USB charging cable, left intact and still wrapped in its original wire tie, after 2.5 years. The cable sustained cracks all over the place. It appeared that the cable cover has become brittle and chipped away. Keep in mind that this cable has never been abused or even moved around extensively. I can understand if the cable sustain such wear from abuse and harsh usage, but this cable has been stationary for the most part of its existence. My iPod Touch (2nd gen) USB charging cable began to crack, but only at the joint between the cable and the charging connector, and after much abuse.
Here's a short video demonstrating the Targus TGT-SP travel tripod. The camera used was a Flip Cam Mino HD.
To maximize my preparation for the trip, I'll also be applying Rain-X rain repellent before we embark to Shelter Cove and beyond.
If you like to take frequent road trips like I do, then you may have driven through certain section(s) of your trips that you wished you'd capture on video. It could be a scenic drive, an urban utopia, a coastal drive, a desert stretch or even simply within your city of residence.
I've tried several option, including hand holding a camera while driving (pretty dangerous), having a passenger hold the camera and even mounting an actual weighted tripod on the back area of my car to support my Canon 5D Mark II. I found these options cumbersome, especially driving around curves or roads with frequent stops.
The answer to my woes is the Targus TGT-SP travel tripod:
Since this dashboard mounted tripod is secured with a suction cup, a smooth surface is a necessity. You can mount this on your winshield, but that would mean mounting your camera upside-down or side-way as well. To solve the mounting problem, I adhered a spare Garmin Nuvi GPS dashboard disk onto the surface of my dashboard, then mount the Targus travel tripod onto the disk.
The setup works like a charm and is very secure. At a little over $8.00
