Blog
A digital outlet to talk about everything: projects, recipes, guides and reviews are just a start.
Tech & Office | Audio, Photography & Video | Kitchen | Workshop | Life
Tonkotsu Ramen
Tonkotsu ramen was always a dish I wanted to try out but I was afraid it was going to be super-involved, super-intricate and require a lot of ‘hands on’ work. Turns out I was wrong and there’s actually a lot of waiting around. Which is great as it makes this so much more approachable.
Buying a House, Part 2
In general, insurance isn’t a fun process for anyone - it’s a necessary evil that we all need to have. But we can certainly look at it from a more data-centric perspective.
Keeping Inventory
Maintaining a home (or business) inventory can be as simple as a yearly walkthrough with a camera or an involved process that involves barcodes and NFC tags or in my case, somewhere in between - but definitely leaning on overkill.
Mango Chicken Wings
Unless I’m in a specific mood for it, I’m generally not a fan of super sticky/saucy wings. Even when I’m in the mood for sauce, I’ve never been a fan of the sauce packets - so this was a first attempt at trying something slightly saucy and a step up from sauce packets.
Build Log: Planter Boxes
Our shed was looking a bit bland so I built a couple of planter boxes to give it some contrast. This was a pretty easy project to knock out (with lots of room to simplify further!)
Build Log: DIY Truck Bed Divider
While Ford makes a fantastic bed divider, it’s lightweight and snaps in and our of place easily, it’s also expensive as hell so I figured why not make my own bed divider? Check out this build a 2x4 and plywood bed divider build!
Lobster Bisque
Made using leftover lobster shells, this soup is rich, creamy and might taste more like lobster than lobster. The best part is that lobster shells are very affordable and most of the effort involved in this recipe is sitting around a simmering pan.
Buying a House, Part 1
So we got our first house and this means it’s an awesome opportunity to do data collection on the process and experience as a whole. This is a fun new chapter that should synergize well with all my other hobbies!
Build Log: Table Saw Work Surface
My table saw has a hole on the right wing (many saws have this ‘feature’). Some users have taken to mounting a small router table in this gap, but I wanted a small work top to close off the cap and a small vise.
Cheesy Beer Bread
If you're a fan of bread, cheese and butter (let's be honest - who doesn’t?) check out this easy to bake loaf! Having a mixer is convenient but totally not necessary -- I made this for years mixing by hand: this is a super beginner friendly bread to make and is great for munching, as a potluck or as a gift. As you get more comfortable, there's a lot of experimenting you can do to make this loaf your own!
Build Log: Miter Saw Station (Mk II)
I built a pretty basic miter saw station at the last house. Revisiting this a few years later, I set out to rebuild the miter station as I had originally hoped. Check out this build diary to see this build come together.
Guide: Video Encoding, Part 2 - Deep Dive
In the previous post, we laid the groundwork for how the encoding process comes together, This week we'll put all of that to use and dive into which codec and configuration might be best for long term archival. H264? H265? AV1? GPU? CPU? What settings?
Guide: Video Encoding, Part 1 - The Basics
Every year, new cameras and phones come out, all promising to make it easier to capture sharper, brighter - better video. By far and large, manufacturers have delivered on this promise to make it easier to capture high quality video - anyone can pull out a smartphone and start rolling 4K footage. The downside is that all of this incredible footage has to go somewhere! This post lays the groundwork around video encoding before I can talk about ways to make your limited storage space go further.
Meatballs with Coconut-Lemongrass Sauce
If you like your meatballs on the softer side, these meatballs are perfect for you. After the initial sear, these are effectively steamed in broth and all of this is served on a bed of rice making for an easy, filling meal.
Salmon en Croute
Delicious, healthy, filling and most importantly, deceptively easy to pull off, the salmon en croute is sure to wow your taste buds without working up a sweat.
Fixing the Problem with Recipes
Ever get annoyed at how recipes in cookbooks or on blogs can't just give you the recipe without first making you trudge through paragraphs of boring drivel? Or how you constantly have to scroll back and forth between the instructions and the ingredients list? This irks me enough I want to make a better template to start from.
Weekend Getaway to San Francisco
I took a 4000-km weekend getaway to San Francisco to get engaged. I rented a camera and a couple of lenses and we took some photos while we were there.
Build Log: Convertible Picnic Table
When we moved from our previous place, we were unable to take the picnic table I had built with us. This time around, I'm going to make a picnic table that can easily convert to a pair of seated benches. Check out this build diary to see how this went down.
Guide: Getting Better Video Calls
Building Skype Station was the easy part - getting value out of the equipment takes a bit more trial and error. In this post, I talk about three common mistakes holding your video call or streaming setup back.
Build Log: Skype Station
Like many people working remotely, my wife needed to be able to have video calls. We settled on using a part of a spare room to be converted into a dedicated video-call space. In this build log, I focus a bit more on the equipment that make this a possibility.