Plaster Cast Experiment concludes after 20 weeks

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When things around you start crumbling... the plaster cast evaluation experiment of 2010...

At the start of March, a week before Jon and Corinna went to Texas, we decided to check the ability of some builder's plaster to form a cast of impressions in mud, in case Jon wanted to immortalise any tracks while in Texas.

I wetted some sand and then, for testing purposes, pressed a skull into it. Then withdrew it, and poured plaster in.

We weren't very impressed to find that, on the day that Jon and Corinna left the UK, it still wasn't dry. Easter came and went, and then the MayDay holiday... and it was still soggy.

I just left the tray to do its own thing, just to see how long the stuff really did require to dry. In June, it reluctantly summoned up some rigidity, and a couple of days ago I plucked the firmly-set plaster cast from the tray of sand and left it on a nearby bin, to let the July rains wash the sand off.

The next day, I found a crumbly pile of soggy gunk, that looked like a heap of guano.

So, a long-running evaluation of this potential CFZ resource finally came to an end after 20 weeks, and my official verdict on it was not very polite, when I told Jon about it.

Interestingly, Jon suggested we keep the rest of that bag of cement "in case it comes in useful, one day."

Perhaps we can run a CFZ competition one day, and find out the Top Ten best uses for the stuff. In the meantime, it's up in the workshop, if anyone wants to put in a bid for it!

Computers - staying in control

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Staying in control, when running an unfamiliar operating system on an unfamiliar machine, can be a bit difficult sometimes.

Recently, I found myself getting increasingly exasperated by Windows 7 on my first laptop, where the touchpad would keep dragging things where I didn't want them to be dragged, or closing a viewing folder when I merely wanted to finger-tip-move to an adjacent folder.

It was like the system was second-guessing me, or making decisions on my behalf. Turned out that, all I needed to do was

disable tap-to-click on laptop touch pad

Now, when I googled the problem, I'd never even heard of tap-to-click, so I googled for "mousepad second-guesses me," or "touchpad anticipates my clicks," or something like that, and found many pages about this damned "tap-to-click" thing.

All that's needed to cure it is START > Control Panel > Mouse > Device Settings > Settings > Tapping > disable tapping.

So it wasn't the laptop being rebellious, or Windows 7 being a pile of rubbish. It was just a default setting that didn't suit me.

It made me wonder, though:

I wonder how many people buy a computer from a shop and then struggle along with a problem, not realising that their life needn't be like that, and that computers are supposed to obey our every whim. We shouldn't have to accomodate ourselves to the computer's whims.

CFZ Grows a Pointy Bit

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The CFZ is going in for some of that vertical growth that economists often speak about... but this is structural.

The tent-like shroud is there while I do some roof-patching, and keeps the sun off me while I'm there, and also affords protection from showers, should any come sweeping by.

At the moment, the weather looks set fair... but that's always a dangerous thing to assume, in the UK.

The Big Wildlife Garden scheme

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A scheme to encourage gardening in a wildlife-friendly manner strikes a chord with me, as the CFZ grounds already have a fair range of wild plants such as brambles and stinging nettles.

This project, organised by Natural England (the government’s conservation advisory body) seeks to increase the diversity of plants and animals in every garden.

"Be a part of England’s newest nature reserve," their website suggests. "The Big Wildlife Garden can help you turn your garden into an oasis for plants and animals."

Sounds a pretty good move.

There's more on this at the www.bwg.naturalengland.org.uk site.

Is it time to Ban the Vuvuzela?

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For many football (soccer) fans, World Cup 2010 has added a new word to their volcabulary: vuvuzela.

When literally thousands of these plastic trumpets are being blown in unison, the droning blankets all other sounds.

I've seen a few defenses of the vuvuzela, and here's a look at some of them.


It's part of the South African culture...

No, it's not. It's a fad that's been around for ten years or so. Singing and dancing is part of the RSA (Repulbic of South Africa) culture, in the same way as the Brazilians have their samba. Imitating the sound of a million angry hornets is not a widespread African tradition.

It adds richness and atmosphere...

Not at all. It makes every game sound identical, and makes every single minute the same as any other minute of the game. We end up with total uniformity of 'atmosphere' for the whole 90 minutes.

Here, we have 32 diferent nations in one tournament - and we have one single atmosphere!

It's a South African tournament, so they get to set the tone...

No; it's a world event that just happens to be staged in RSA this time around. If it were the RSA Cup Final then yes, of course they can do what they like. And, in a similar vein:

They're the hosts, so it's their decision what they do...

Etiquette demands that hosts should respect their guests and see to their needs.

Other fans have their own noisy bad habits too...

Yes, but not across all games and not in unrelenting fashion for the whole 90 minutes. Some people find England's raucous brass band annoying, but it doesn't play all the time, and it doesn't drown out everything else. Also, that band doesn't play during games where England aren't taking part!

They damage hearing and spread germs...

'Elf & Safety is a handy stick with which to beat your opponents, but I can't quite stomach a ban on these grounds!

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FIFA should never have staged the World Cup there. The ideal arrangement would be, South Africans blast away on their vuvuzelas as much as they want, and the rest of us enjoy the international festival of football in a country where diversity of celebration is tolerated and not smothered.

Lookalike Contest: Biggles as an angle-poise lamp

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Biggles is feeling a bit hindered after his operation, so I don't want to poke fun at the poor fellow.

However, I couldn't help being struck by the similarity between his anti-nibbling protection and my bedside lamp.

I first heard of these protectors when I was a child - an Enid Blyton story described how Timmy the dog needed to wear one for a while, and his owner, George, got so upset by people laughing at him that she stormed off in a huff to her island, taking Timmy with her.

Biggles is getting a bit tired of this collar, I think. He wants to count his blessings, so to speak... but can't.

Watching the Grass Grow

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Further garden improvements here... returfing.

The lawn gets pretty hammered by the Weird Weekend outdoor party, and it hadn't really recovered from the 2008 trampling when along came the 2009 one - in fairly wet weather, too.

And, yes, there's the Biggles Factor as well......


A recent donation to the CFZ coffers enabled our buying rolls of turf, and the weather's nice at present (gasp) so that's enabled the "2010 lawn enhancement project" to get underway.