These hormones are important to burning fat, especially belly visceral fat
cortisol: stress hormone, fight or flight response, should peak in morning, gradually reduce in evening, melatonin increases to aid sleep, decrease.
-Long and slow cardio workouts boosts cortisol,leads to muscle loss, so avoid, increases cortisol levels, increases appetite
-lack of sleep: increases cortisol
-low carb diets increase cortisol
estrogen: female hormone, suppresses T, decrease
insulin: keep insulin levels low, reduce carbs and sugars. intermittent fast resets insulin levels
testostrone: burns fat, give us energy, builds muscle, boost
-you need cholesterol, which turns into T; low fat diets shrink T
-resistance training: short metabolic workouts, burns energy after
-T is created at night, so need good night’s sleep
I have seen this joint in old wooden barns and houses in Britain on TV, and always wondered how and why it was done. Was it difficult to do? A random youtube video showed me how. While I do not build houses, from an engineering viewpoint it is educational to understand why it is so strong. No sources state the origins of this joint.
The scarf joint is elegant and also strong. The joint can be planed down flush. There is a lot of long grain glue surface area.
Bostitch btfp02011 Pancake air compressor, 150psi,6 gallons
Picked up I did, a Bostitch BTFP02011 Pancake Air Compressor. It needed some work, but seems to be intact. As I have no compressor or air tools experience I needed to learn form the ground up. Here’s the start of my air tools journey. This compressor looks robust and made of metal. It has the capacity of 150psi. The canister is 6 gallons.
Docs
The user manual is easily found, and actually quite short. I do read all manuals, especially tools. It was a short read.
I have heard about wabi-sabi before but have not grasped the meaning. This article grasps the concepts.
Originating in Taoism during China’s Song dynasty (960-1279) before being passed onto Zen Buddhism, wabi-sabi was originally seen as an austere, restrained form of appreciation. Today it encapsulates a more relaxed acceptance of transience, nature and melancholy, favouring the imperfect and incomplete in everything, from architecture to pottery to flower arranging.
Wabi, which roughly means ‘the elegant beauty of humble simplicity’, and sabi, which means ‘the passing of time and subsequent deterioration’, were combined to form a sense unique to Japan and pivotal to Japanese culture. But just as Buddhist monks believed that words were the enemy of understanding, this description can only scratch the surface of the topic.
Bumble bee, Toronto, Canada, 2 cm long, in cup. Photo by Don Tai
I heard this loud buzzing and thought my furnace had some issue, but the furnace wsa not on. It was a large bumble bee, buzzing inside my house, trying to break free. My front window was tricking it. He was beautiful.
I heard it yesterday in my house. How it found its way inside I do not know. By the time I thought of a plant to capture and release it outside, he had stopped buzzing and could not be found. Today near my front window he buzzed for a couple of seconds, then landed on the ground. I used a cup and captured it, and used a piece of stiff paper underneath to right the cup. With a transparent Pyrex plate on top I shot this macro at 3.5x.
The Oukei TW-2700-E1 Table Tennis Training Machine is a consumer grade serving machine. It stopped working due to an out of aligned spring. Photo 1 by Don Tai
My neighbour is hard working and has few hobbies. She loves table tennis but has no partner, so she bought a table tennis machine, which shoots balls at her. This machine, an Oukei TW-2700-E1, she loves, allows her to return balls without help from the family. It was unfortunate when the machine began jamming. I opted to fix the machine, and she was grateful to have it back in service. It turned out the fix was very simple, but rendered the machine unusable.
Leather highback chair needed two leather patches on the seat. After the repair was completed and new metal gliders added. Photo 1 by Don Tai
This leather chair was cast aside, but it beaconed me to come closer. It took little time to determine that it was leather covered and in need of a major repair. Once done, however, the chair was returned to service, and comfortable it is.
Glaringly obvious was the huge gash 6.5″/17cm gash in the seat, as well as a smaller 1″/3cm cut, also in the seat. After I determined that the backing material was actually the very reassuringly natural matte fibers of real leather, I knew the repair could be done.
SMAW Stick welding repair of a metal chair. Thin slats of metal welding to tubular side rail. The slats are very thin. I blew through the metal, so had to use a washer to make up the difference. Photo 2 by Don Tai
Enjoy I do, wood working. Usually not loud, it can be very relaxing and most times, not dangerous. Touching wood is warm and natural to work with. Metal is the exact opposite. metal is cold but very strong. When you heat it up it can badly burn you. There are sparks that fly when you grind it, which can start a fire. And in a whole ‘nother world, there is welding. I do shielded metal arc welding, or SMAW, or stick welding. I am a terrible welder but I do get the job done.
Very simple jig to cut tight dadoes: just a rectangular piece of wood and a metal screw. Photo 1 by Don Tai
Obsessive, I sometimes am, but for getting tight dadoes it is crucial. Without tight dadoes joints are not as strong. I do not have nor cannot justify a dado set, so need to use my single blade. I was going to build a 2 part kerfmaker, when I found this very simple kerfmaker design that uses a single piece of rectangular wood and a screw. Well, I just had to try it. It works exceedingly well, resulting in tight dado joints.
