This starts to get good about 2 minutes in.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Monday, January 04, 2010
Bumper Stickers
I don't like bumper stickers. I don't mind the ones that are a logo, or flag or whatnot. If you're part of an organization and you want to display that, then fine. Just make sure the shit is on there straight.
I've seen some real good ones and I've also seen some real bad ones. The quality of the bumper stickers doesn't really matter to me, it's the concept of them. You apparently think that your idea is so awesome that you need to tell me, a total stranger about it. Not only that, but it's not really your idea. It's something witty that you weren't smart enough to think of so you paid someone else to think of it. You're basically telling me that you spent $10 or so because you thought some anonymous person was witty and that you share their sentiment.
Congratulations. You've established that you're pushy and boring without ever having to meet me.
Oh, we've also established that you don't give a shit about the paint job on your car. Peel that off in 2 years and I'll give you a dollar if the paint matches.
What really irks me though is the people who decide to spend money to seem humorous or deep and then they put the stickers on crooked. You're putting something on a car. Even if you don't own a level or any sort of straight measuring device, this is a CAR! I guarantee that there is a straight line somewhere very close to where you want to put that sticker. A crooked ass sticker, especially right below or above a straight line, makes you look like a retard. It makes me think that you're pushy, boring, and that you lack even the basic skills to survive.
Having a bumper sticker on your car is akin to stepping up to a podium; you're preaching something to me. You could be preaching about how we should all love each other or you could be pushing something about how all Mexicans are actually chupacrabras, I don't want to hear it either way. I can move past that that though; you're pushy, I get it, I'll just avoid you. However, having a crooked bumper sticker is akin to stepping up to a mike while choking on your own vomit. I don't care if you're giving out the secrets of life; if you're shitting your pants and drooling then I'm gonna walk away.
Don't try to make a point while picking your nose and walking in circles. You may be entertaining yourself but I'm just getting pissed off.
I've seen some real good ones and I've also seen some real bad ones. The quality of the bumper stickers doesn't really matter to me, it's the concept of them. You apparently think that your idea is so awesome that you need to tell me, a total stranger about it. Not only that, but it's not really your idea. It's something witty that you weren't smart enough to think of so you paid someone else to think of it. You're basically telling me that you spent $10 or so because you thought some anonymous person was witty and that you share their sentiment.
Congratulations. You've established that you're pushy and boring without ever having to meet me.
Oh, we've also established that you don't give a shit about the paint job on your car. Peel that off in 2 years and I'll give you a dollar if the paint matches.
What really irks me though is the people who decide to spend money to seem humorous or deep and then they put the stickers on crooked. You're putting something on a car. Even if you don't own a level or any sort of straight measuring device, this is a CAR! I guarantee that there is a straight line somewhere very close to where you want to put that sticker. A crooked ass sticker, especially right below or above a straight line, makes you look like a retard. It makes me think that you're pushy, boring, and that you lack even the basic skills to survive.
Having a bumper sticker on your car is akin to stepping up to a podium; you're preaching something to me. You could be preaching about how we should all love each other or you could be pushing something about how all Mexicans are actually chupacrabras, I don't want to hear it either way. I can move past that that though; you're pushy, I get it, I'll just avoid you. However, having a crooked bumper sticker is akin to stepping up to a mike while choking on your own vomit. I don't care if you're giving out the secrets of life; if you're shitting your pants and drooling then I'm gonna walk away.
Don't try to make a point while picking your nose and walking in circles. You may be entertaining yourself but I'm just getting pissed off.
Keris
As a preface, I don't know much about keris. There have been entire books written and lifetimes of study devoted to them. It's possible that I'll say something that is untrue; my apologies in advance if that proves to be the case. Crappy pictures are compliments of my iPhone.
The keris an Indonesian weapon with enough tradition and mysticism behind it to make the biggest religious nut piss his pants with either interest or rage. Some will argue that it's an actual weapon used by the Indonesian people while others will say that it has never been used as a physical weapon but was instead is used as a magical weapon against spirits, demons, and whatnot.
My thoughts on the matter? It's sharp and pointy, therefore I imagine that somebody has stabbed somebody else with one at some time. Used day to day as a weapon though? I doubt it; it's not that great of a weapon. If you're going to pick an Indonesian weapon, give me a golok (Indonesian machete) or a recong (Acehnese dagger). Some people argue that their silat styles fight with the keris, others say that they would never even THINK of doing that. I met a very experienced silat guru who was hesitant to even touch a keris that was not his own due to the spirit that (according to him) lived within each keris. On the other hand, there is a certain American silat "master" that has made up an entire keris fighting curriculum. Different ends of the spectrum, I guess.
I don't care about the use of the keris as a weapon; we don't practice with them in our style of silat. The reason that I care about the keris is because it is indicative of silat.
I have never met a silat practitioner who didn't know what a keris was. Whether or not they fight with them, they usually understand the importance of them to Indonesian culture. Important family keris sometimes become "pusaka" (heirlooms) and are passed down from generation to generation. They are treasured.
I never really wanted a keris. As I said, we don't practice with them and I don't have much desire to collect weapons that we don't use. I've purchased karambits, goloks, and kuku macans because these are the weapons that we routinely practice with in our school. However, I do own one keris and it is one of my more prized possessions.
My keris was made by an Empu (a master Indonesian weapon maker) named Alti Chahaya, and it was made in Cikaengan, Indonesia. My friend and silat teacher Bobbe had it made for me while he was in Indonesia a few years ago and he surprised me with it when he got back. He had it made in the style and likeness of his keris. It went through the Indonesian keris rituals, being anointed and prayed over. It was rather coveted by Bobbe's teacher at the time, Bambang Suwanda, and I'm lucky he didn't snatch it. He is brother to the late Herman Suwanda who was one of the greatest and most influential silat pendekars that the US has ever seen. You can still see where the ash from the forge was burnt onto the blade and it still smells of the oils used during the anointing.
A silat student receiving a keris from his teacher is no small deal. It being a keris that was specifically made for that student makes it even more special. For the teacher to model the keris after his own and to go to the extent that Bobbe did bumps it up even another notch. However, having that teacher be one of your best friends? That is what really makes this keris significant to me. It's the only one I own and I imagine that will always be the case. I'll continue to collect and gather other Indonesian weapons but I can't see the need of owning another keris after receiving one like this.
I treasure my keris but do I think it has any magic powers? Nope. It is wood and metal. That is all it needs to be.
The keris an Indonesian weapon with enough tradition and mysticism behind it to make the biggest religious nut piss his pants with either interest or rage. Some will argue that it's an actual weapon used by the Indonesian people while others will say that it has never been used as a physical weapon but was instead is used as a magical weapon against spirits, demons, and whatnot.
My thoughts on the matter? It's sharp and pointy, therefore I imagine that somebody has stabbed somebody else with one at some time. Used day to day as a weapon though? I doubt it; it's not that great of a weapon. If you're going to pick an Indonesian weapon, give me a golok (Indonesian machete) or a recong (Acehnese dagger). Some people argue that their silat styles fight with the keris, others say that they would never even THINK of doing that. I met a very experienced silat guru who was hesitant to even touch a keris that was not his own due to the spirit that (according to him) lived within each keris. On the other hand, there is a certain American silat "master" that has made up an entire keris fighting curriculum. Different ends of the spectrum, I guess.
I don't care about the use of the keris as a weapon; we don't practice with them in our style of silat. The reason that I care about the keris is because it is indicative of silat.
I have never met a silat practitioner who didn't know what a keris was. Whether or not they fight with them, they usually understand the importance of them to Indonesian culture. Important family keris sometimes become "pusaka" (heirlooms) and are passed down from generation to generation. They are treasured.
I never really wanted a keris. As I said, we don't practice with them and I don't have much desire to collect weapons that we don't use. I've purchased karambits, goloks, and kuku macans because these are the weapons that we routinely practice with in our school. However, I do own one keris and it is one of my more prized possessions.
My keris was made by an Empu (a master Indonesian weapon maker) named Alti Chahaya, and it was made in Cikaengan, Indonesia. My friend and silat teacher Bobbe had it made for me while he was in Indonesia a few years ago and he surprised me with it when he got back. He had it made in the style and likeness of his keris. It went through the Indonesian keris rituals, being anointed and prayed over. It was rather coveted by Bobbe's teacher at the time, Bambang Suwanda, and I'm lucky he didn't snatch it. He is brother to the late Herman Suwanda who was one of the greatest and most influential silat pendekars that the US has ever seen. You can still see where the ash from the forge was burnt onto the blade and it still smells of the oils used during the anointing.
A silat student receiving a keris from his teacher is no small deal. It being a keris that was specifically made for that student makes it even more special. For the teacher to model the keris after his own and to go to the extent that Bobbe did bumps it up even another notch. However, having that teacher be one of your best friends? That is what really makes this keris significant to me. It's the only one I own and I imagine that will always be the case. I'll continue to collect and gather other Indonesian weapons but I can't see the need of owning another keris after receiving one like this.
I treasure my keris but do I think it has any magic powers? Nope. It is wood and metal. That is all it needs to be.
Friday, December 18, 2009
To the skies!
The bulb that I used for my Mag623 is on the left. The bulb on the right is one that someone put in their Maglite mod.
Well, it's technically a Maglite mod, even though there's not much of a Maglite left on there. The only thing from a Maglite that is still there is the silver head.
Mine runs at 16ish volts, his runs at 40ish. 150 Watts for mine vs 540 Watts for his. About 4,000 lumens vs somewhere close to 20,000 lumens. I think that I'll stop at mine (at least for now). The fun part is having it look like a normal Maglite; it loses some of the appeal for me when it starts looking like a ray gun.
Still though, props to people like him. Find an envelope and push it, I guess.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Mag 623
I've posted about my Maglite modifications before, specifically my Roar of the Pelican mod. I've done a couple of other mods to Maglites since then but nothing very spectacular...until now!
Some of the pictures that I'm posting are going to be stolen from various sources; others are crappy ones taken with my iPhone. The reason for this is that I've lent my camera to Bobbe, I'm typing in the dark, I'm tired, and I'm lazy.
Here's the light.
It looks just like any normal 3D Maglite, except its awesomeness level is damn near unchartable.
What makes the light so awesome, you ask? Well, here you go.
The Lens: I replaced the normal plastic with a glass one. More importantly, a Borofloat lens. This glass is similar to Pyrex® in that it is a borosilicate type of material and able to withstand extreme thermal shock. Why is this important, you ask? Because my light gets very fucking hot.
The Reflector: The plastic reflector has been replaced with a good quality aluminum one. As with the lens, this is important because of heat. This maglite would melt the stock reflector within seconds.
The Bulb: Ah the bulb. This light uses a Osram 64623 bulb which is normally used in certain dental equipment or projectors. Your typical 3D maglite bulb is run at about 3.6 volts and less than 1 amp. This bulb is overdriven to run at 15ish volts and draws about 10 amps. About 3 Watts for the normal maglite; about 150 Watts for mine.
Take a look at the typical maglite bulb vs this one. Check out the size of that damn filament! This new bulb won't fit into the maglite switch, so I had to replace that as well.
The Switch: The switch needs to be able to handle over 150 Watts without melting. And, it also needs to be able to house a very large bi-pin bulb vs the tiny potted bulb of a typical maglite. I decided to use this switch,
Whereas, this is the normal maglite switch:
It is made by a cool guy in Hong Kong and can be purchased from him off of Candlepowerforums.com. The nice thing about this switch is that it's a direct drop-in replacement for the stock maglite switch. It won't melt and it can handle various different size bulbs. It has a slow start feature which means that it takes about 1.5 seconds for the bulb to get to full brightness; this helps protect the bulb from breaking due to a rush of voltage to a cold filament. This switch also is able to run the flashlight at different brightness levels, Low-Medium-High.
The Batteries: The batteries for the Roar of the Pelican mod needed to supply 7.2 volts at only about 4.2 amps. The batteries for my Mag623 need to supply about 15 volts at about 10 amps. That is a significant jump in power needs. While the Eneloop AA batteries are very good quality, they can't really handle more than about a 5 amp draw without suffering too much voltage loss. You would also need to cram about 13 of them into the maglite which could prove to be a hassle. Because of this, I decided to go the Lithium route.
The light is powered by four of these bad boys. They are called IMR 26500 cells and they are about the size of a C battery. Depending on their state of charge, they supply between 3.7-4.2 volts each and they can easily supply the 10 amp draw. Because the batteries are C sized, they are a smaller diameter than the maglite tube. Easily remedied with 1" sized pvc tubing.
The Spring: Well, the batteries are a little long to fit 4 of them in a 3D maglite. To fix this issue, we cut about 1/3rd off of the maglite tailcap spring. We then de-anodize the inside of the maglite tailcap (easily done with lye; just wear gloves!) and position the spring so it makes electrical contact with the end of the tailcap.
That's about it!
Charge up the batteries (since these aren't really commercially available batteries, you have to use a LiPo hobby charger, like the RC car guys use) Oh, be careful in charging them. While this chemistry of batteries is safer than normal lithium batteries, there is still some risk. Put them in the maglite. Hit the button!
I can't really take a picture of the beam, it's a bit too bright to capture well. My ROP mod that I linked above puts out somewhere around 800ish lumens. This light puts out between 4,000-5,000 lumens. Putting that into "normal people" context, a 3D maglite with normal bulbs and batteries will put out about 40-50 lumens which means that this flashlight is about 100 times brighter than it should be.
The batteries will only last about 8 minutes on High. That's ok though, because it only takes about 2.5 seconds for this light to start paper on fire. Don't believe me? Lets see if I can do this without my wife divorcing me and/or setting off my building's fire alarm.
Well, I'm bound to catch some flak when Amanda reads this and notices that I set fire to something in our kitchen, on purpose. I hope that the argument, "But Dear, everything turned out fine!", will cover my ass. We'll see...
Anyway, it took about 5 seconds for the fire to start in the video. Bear in mind though, that it takes the bulb about 1.5 seconds to get to full brightness. I did get a piece of newspaper aflame in 2 seconds one time, but it had a lot of black ink.
I tried to take some pictures of the beam with my iPhone but they just don't turn out well. I did take a video though, that somewhat shows the relative brightness of the light vs a normal maglite.
In the video, I'm sitting on the couch and pointing the maglites at the ceiling. First is a 5D maglite, which would normally be quite a bit brighter than the 3D maglite that it's being compared to. You can barely see my white socks as I turn the light on and off. Then, I turn on the mag623. I also show the different brightness levels, Low-Med-High.
Fun times.
Some people ask me what I plan to do with this light. My typical answer of, "I'm going to drunkenly roast marshmallows with it while I'm camping!", has elicited a few different responses. Most people don't seem impressed. My usual camp-mates find it to be awesome; probably because they're afraid that I'll burn them.
Their fears are not unfounded...
Some of the pictures that I'm posting are going to be stolen from various sources; others are crappy ones taken with my iPhone. The reason for this is that I've lent my camera to Bobbe, I'm typing in the dark, I'm tired, and I'm lazy.
Here's the light.
It looks just like any normal 3D Maglite, except its awesomeness level is damn near unchartable.
What makes the light so awesome, you ask? Well, here you go.
The Lens: I replaced the normal plastic with a glass one. More importantly, a Borofloat lens. This glass is similar to Pyrex® in that it is a borosilicate type of material and able to withstand extreme thermal shock. Why is this important, you ask? Because my light gets very fucking hot.
The Reflector: The plastic reflector has been replaced with a good quality aluminum one. As with the lens, this is important because of heat. This maglite would melt the stock reflector within seconds.
The Bulb: Ah the bulb. This light uses a Osram 64623 bulb which is normally used in certain dental equipment or projectors. Your typical 3D maglite bulb is run at about 3.6 volts and less than 1 amp. This bulb is overdriven to run at 15ish volts and draws about 10 amps. About 3 Watts for the normal maglite; about 150 Watts for mine.
Take a look at the typical maglite bulb vs this one. Check out the size of that damn filament! This new bulb won't fit into the maglite switch, so I had to replace that as well.
The Switch: The switch needs to be able to handle over 150 Watts without melting. And, it also needs to be able to house a very large bi-pin bulb vs the tiny potted bulb of a typical maglite. I decided to use this switch,
Whereas, this is the normal maglite switch:
It is made by a cool guy in Hong Kong and can be purchased from him off of Candlepowerforums.com. The nice thing about this switch is that it's a direct drop-in replacement for the stock maglite switch. It won't melt and it can handle various different size bulbs. It has a slow start feature which means that it takes about 1.5 seconds for the bulb to get to full brightness; this helps protect the bulb from breaking due to a rush of voltage to a cold filament. This switch also is able to run the flashlight at different brightness levels, Low-Medium-High.
The Batteries: The batteries for the Roar of the Pelican mod needed to supply 7.2 volts at only about 4.2 amps. The batteries for my Mag623 need to supply about 15 volts at about 10 amps. That is a significant jump in power needs. While the Eneloop AA batteries are very good quality, they can't really handle more than about a 5 amp draw without suffering too much voltage loss. You would also need to cram about 13 of them into the maglite which could prove to be a hassle. Because of this, I decided to go the Lithium route.
The light is powered by four of these bad boys. They are called IMR 26500 cells and they are about the size of a C battery. Depending on their state of charge, they supply between 3.7-4.2 volts each and they can easily supply the 10 amp draw. Because the batteries are C sized, they are a smaller diameter than the maglite tube. Easily remedied with 1" sized pvc tubing.
The Spring: Well, the batteries are a little long to fit 4 of them in a 3D maglite. To fix this issue, we cut about 1/3rd off of the maglite tailcap spring. We then de-anodize the inside of the maglite tailcap (easily done with lye; just wear gloves!) and position the spring so it makes electrical contact with the end of the tailcap.
That's about it!
Charge up the batteries (since these aren't really commercially available batteries, you have to use a LiPo hobby charger, like the RC car guys use) Oh, be careful in charging them. While this chemistry of batteries is safer than normal lithium batteries, there is still some risk. Put them in the maglite. Hit the button!
I can't really take a picture of the beam, it's a bit too bright to capture well. My ROP mod that I linked above puts out somewhere around 800ish lumens. This light puts out between 4,000-5,000 lumens. Putting that into "normal people" context, a 3D maglite with normal bulbs and batteries will put out about 40-50 lumens which means that this flashlight is about 100 times brighter than it should be.
The batteries will only last about 8 minutes on High. That's ok though, because it only takes about 2.5 seconds for this light to start paper on fire. Don't believe me? Lets see if I can do this without my wife divorcing me and/or setting off my building's fire alarm.
Well, I'm bound to catch some flak when Amanda reads this and notices that I set fire to something in our kitchen, on purpose. I hope that the argument, "But Dear, everything turned out fine!", will cover my ass. We'll see...
Anyway, it took about 5 seconds for the fire to start in the video. Bear in mind though, that it takes the bulb about 1.5 seconds to get to full brightness. I did get a piece of newspaper aflame in 2 seconds one time, but it had a lot of black ink.
I tried to take some pictures of the beam with my iPhone but they just don't turn out well. I did take a video though, that somewhat shows the relative brightness of the light vs a normal maglite.
In the video, I'm sitting on the couch and pointing the maglites at the ceiling. First is a 5D maglite, which would normally be quite a bit brighter than the 3D maglite that it's being compared to. You can barely see my white socks as I turn the light on and off. Then, I turn on the mag623. I also show the different brightness levels, Low-Med-High.
Fun times.
Some people ask me what I plan to do with this light. My typical answer of, "I'm going to drunkenly roast marshmallows with it while I'm camping!", has elicited a few different responses. Most people don't seem impressed. My usual camp-mates find it to be awesome; probably because they're afraid that I'll burn them.
Their fears are not unfounded...
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