Prosthetic Conscience

Sick again today

I’m sick again today, sinuses again. I think I didn’t fully get rid of my sinus infection before, but just dropped it down below the level where it was impairing me. I’m sleeping today, taking the garlic tea and decongestants.

On the up side, I did get an excellent shave this morning, with a new Dorco (Dongyang Razor Company) blade. I’m leaning towards buying these in bulk once I go through my sampler pack. They are the cheapest high-quality razor blade, and they also have the most environmentally-friendly packaging. Each blade is wrapped in two little nested paper envelopes, and the whole package of ten is a small cardboard box. No plastic dispenser to go in the landfill. The downside of this is that I will have to make a blade vault for safely disposing of used blades, but that’s really okay; you can make one out of an empty soup can.

[ Posted: 14:36] | [ Category: ] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]

Crystal razor blades

2007-11-28 Wed

My last three shaves have been on a Crystal razor blade, and they’ve been very comfortable. Not quite as close as the European Gillette, but quite presentable, and they’re much cheaper and easier to get in quantity than the Gillettes. My only problem with picking these as “my brand” would be that they’re made in a country I probably should be boycotting. Fortunately, Dorco are even cheaper; I’ll probably want to give those another try next.

[ Posted: 17:30] | [ Category: ] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]

Second really good DE shave

Today I got my second really good shave with my double-edged razor. Baby’s Butt Smooth with absolutely no irritation. Surprisingly, it was with a Dorco blade that yesterday (when it was new), I thought was simply too dull, because it pulled rather than cut when I was starting with it.

Factors that came together for a better shave today:

1. More prep. I had time to soak in the bath this morning, and to condition my beard with hair conditioner.
2. Changed passes. I added an XTG pass back in before my ATG pass, because I decided that I was trying the ATG pass before enough stubble had been removed.
3. Blade angle. After looking at this thread and this thread on Badger and Blade, I decided that dialing down on my Fat Boy was not the way to go, and that to improve my technique in terms of blade angle, I would be better served by using only a low setting on my razor, for all passes. I used setting 2 for all four passes, and setting 1 for final clean-up. I would have used 1, but I think the razor has been dropped and slightly bent, so that the two ends of the razor do not maintain the same gap between the guide and the blade, and because of this, 2 is closer to the ideal described in the thread above.

I hope in time that this will become repeatable.

[ Posted: 18:10] | [ Category: ] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]

Feather

Today I tried shaving with a Feather, which is held to be the sharpest blade on the market. My first reaction was that I was in love — it passed over my cheeks without the slightest hint of drag. Unfortunately, things went a bit downhill from there. I cut my neck up quite a bit — not nicks, just what they call “weepers” where you shave off the surface of the skin. I ended up with quite a bit of irritation from this, and a surprisingly not-that-close shave in my problem areas (jawline, mainly). There may be technique issues here. Where I tore myself up was a spot where my lather was too dry and was drying up on my face. It may be simply that I’m not ready for Feathers. I’m going to go for two more shaves on this blade, and try something else. I’m going to reserve judgement on these, though, and come back to them in a few months.

If I had to choose a razor blade right now without trying the Dorcos, Crystals, or Wilkinson Swords, I’d go with the UK Gillettes. But I’m going to give the rest a chance.

[ Posted: 19:40] | [ Category: ] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]

Second day on Derby Extra

Got a less irritating shave than yesterday. It was fairly close, though I had to work at it. I’m going to try a different kind tomorrow.

[ Posted: 19:00] | [ Category: ] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]

Quick shave blog

Tried a Derby Extra blade today. I don’t know if it was the particular blade, or if my technique was off, or what, but I did not have a good shave with it. It felt “hot” from the very beginning, and while I ended up with a fairly close shave, it was a bit irritating. Will try again tomorrow with the same blade, then try a new kind.

[ Posted: 18:00] | [ Category: ] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]

Doing things the old fashioned way

There are a few things that I do “the old fashioned way,” by which I mean I use tools that are generally considered obsolete. The main ones are writing with a fountain pen, and shaving with a double-edged safety razor. I also use a lot more hand tools when woodworking than other people do, but that’s only partly by choice; there are a lot of power tools I’d use if I had room to store them and a place to use them. But sticking to the writing and the shaving, I find two advantages with the old-fashioned tools.

1. The results are better.

   I can get a better, and less irritating shave with a double-edged safety razor than with a cartridge razor. Even when I was using a cartridge razor, I got a better shave with soap, mug, and brush, than with canned pressurized shaving cream. Writing with a fountain pen produces a darker, wetter, and more even line than a gel, rollerball, or ballpoint, though some gel pens are close. If you write in a script that uses line variation (e.g. italic or copperplate), then you need to use a fountain pen (either italic or flexible) to get that line width variation.

2. It’s cheaper and more environmentally friendly

   Bottled fountain pen ink is much, much cheaper than refills for common gel pens. When you replace the ink in a gel, rollerball, or ballpoint pen, you also replace the nib and the vessel that contains the ink. When you replace the ink in a fountain pen, you just replace the ink, nothing else. The ink comes in a glass bottle from which you can refill the pen dozens of times, saving on packaging each time.

   Double edged razor blades are also much cheaper than cartridge razor blades. Even high-end blades bought in a sample pack (much more expensive than buying in bulk) are only about half the price of store-brand cartridge blades. Compare buying double-edged blades in bulk to name-brand cartridge blades, and the factor increases to ten-to-one. When you replace a cartridge blade, you also replace the plastic head of the razor, and there is quite a bit of packaging. When you replace a double-edged blade, you only replace the blade, and the blades often come in minimal packaging, though that varies by brand.

   My father tells me about his father honing double-edged blades on the inside of a water glass to get more use out of them, because he could not afford to buy them very often. By today’s standards, even using a DE razor at all is thrifty. It would be even thriftier and more environmentally friendly to use a straight razor, but those have a steeper learning curve than safety razors, and are, frankly, scary. Another possibility is a single-edged safety razor with a permanent blade which can be removed and sharpened, such as the Rolls Razor.

Why is it that these older technologies are both better and cheaper than what we use today? Why do we use clearly inferior technology? I think the main answer is marketing and packaging. Modern pens and modern razors are designed primarily to sell refills or replacements, not to do a good job at their nominal tasks. Part of this marketing process is including more packaging with everything, and therefore more waste. Older technologies were more designed to be sold on their merits, and so had to do a better job in order be competitive. Unfortunately, they’re less profitable almost by definition. Maybe one day soon, we’ll all start demanding quality in what we buy, and expect properly made tools to last for generations.

[ Posted: 19:29] | [ Category: ] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]

Sick still

Still sick; slept all day. Hopefully I’ll be well enough to work tomorrow, and to write a worthwhile entry.

[ Posted: 17:00] | [ Category: ] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]

Sick today

I’m calling in sick to NaBloPoMo today. I had a ton of things I wanted to get accomplished this weekend, which made it a bad time to be sick. It’s lousy being sick on a day you’d have off from work anyway, too. Going to be out sick from work tomorrow, but maybe I’ll be able to post something.

[ Posted: 20:29] | [ Category: ] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]

First shave from blade sampler

The blade sampler I got yesterday includes Merkur, Feather, Crystal, Derby, Euro-Gillette, Wilkinson Sword, and Dorco blades. Though I’ve heard Feather are the sharpest, and Crystal are the most generally popular, I chose to start with the Gillettes, since my razor is a classic Gillette.

I got a good shave, but not a great one. It felt really smooth, but left a fair bit of tiny stubble behind. I was able to clean most of that up, but got a couple of little nicks doing so. I’m going to use this blade for three more shaves, and then try a either a Dorco (cheapest) or Merkur. West Coast Shaving recommends Dorco -> Merkur -> Derby/Crystal -> Swedish Gillette/Wilkinson Sword (UK) -> Feather, but I’ve already violated that all to hell. Maybe I’ll go with Feather next just to be contrary.

[ Posted: 18:05] | [ Category: ] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]

Blade sampler arrived

I ordered a blade sampler from West Coast Shaving this past weekend, and it arrived today. No time to write much more about it now. Shaves with the generic blades I’ve been using have been variable. One blade gave me very bad shaves; I switched, and the next one has been giving me decent shaves, but not matching the one really good one I got before.

[ Posted: 18:30] | [ Category: ] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]

On my new old double-edged safety razor

I had a lot to write about following my parents visit for my birthday last week, but I have been very busy since then, and haven’t had a chance to process my experiences. I really enjoyed having them visit. As I get older, I find myself having a closer relationship with my parents than I did in my teens or even in my twenties.

This visit, they brought me a present that is very special to me: my paternal grandfather’s double-edged safety razor. It is a Gillette, of a model that was produced between 1958 and 1963, generally called a “Fatboy” today by collectors and enthusiasts because of its short, thick handle. It is an adjustable, twist-to-open razor. There is not really any antique value to this razor; mint-condition ones are sold on eBay, cleaned and sanitized for about $20, and in-box ones can be had for a bit more. But this particular one is special because of the family connection. It is something I have in common with a relative I never knew; something besides the receding “widow’s peak” hairline I seem to have inherited from him.

I had been planning on getting a double-edged safety razor for some time. I have been shaving with soap and a brush with a mug made by Lori’s mother for a few years now, but I have been using a cartridge razor with them. I “downgraded” from a Gillette Mach 3 to a Gillette Sensor a while back because of the cost of replacement blades. The generic Sensor blades cost about half as much as the Mach 3 blades, but give as good a shave. I wished I had not gotten rid of my Trac II handle (the first razor I shaved with), because Trac II blades are still widely available, even cheaper, and probably give a more predictable shave given good technique. But now I have a double-edged safety razor, and even premium-brand blades for those are significantly cheaper than even generic cartridge blades.

I have been shaving for a week with this razor, with generic blades, and until today, the both close and non-irritating shave that many DE enthusiasts extol has been elusive. My first shave with the razor was smooth but not close, and I was mainly grateful to not have nicked myself. Since then I’ve messed with the adjustable setting, tried various combinations of passes, and so forth, mostly achieving shaves that were close but irritating, with more razor burn than I had gotten with my Sensor.

Today, though, I got my first really good shave with this razor. I did a first pass with-the-grain (WTG) on setting 1 to remove long stubble (I didn’t shave yesterday). Then I did another WTG pass on 7, which is the setting I found during the week that I needed to use to get a close shave. Then I finished up with an against-the-grain (ATG) pass on 1, and some clean-up on 1 along my jawline and chin. No across-the-grain (XTG) passes, which I had become accustomed to using with my Sensor, and had tried to do with the Fatboy following the advice of various on-line articles. I had no irritation with this method, and it was at least as close a shave as I ever got with a cartridge razor.

I’m looking forward to trying to repeat this shave tomorrow.

[ Posted: 14:49] | [ Category: ] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]

National Blog Posting Month

So it’s National Blog Posting Month, and I’m supposed to be posting something to my blog every day. This is a backdated filler post, on account of I didn’t hear about this thing until after it started. I’m not going to put in a backdated filler post for the second, but I’m going to try to keep things up to date from here on out.

[ Posted: 19:30] | [ Category: ] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]

Latest quiz – What kind of reader are you?

[ Posted: 08:44] | [ Category: ] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]

Caterpillar

I saw the most beautiful, huge caterpillar this morning, on one of our tomato plants on the side of the house. It was a tobacco hornworm, just like this one, but the biggest one I’ve ever seen. Since that tomato plant is done producing, I didn’t pick it off or anything. I’m a softy that way.

While I was unlocking my bike back around the back corner of the house, I watched a male cardinal land on the tomato cage and pick off the caterpillar. It took it several tries to pull it off of the plant, but finally it got it and flew away with it. Guess that’s why I haven’t noticed any of these caterpillars this summer.

Author: Jason F. McBrayer <jmcbray@carcosa.net>

[ Posted: 17:30] | [ Category: ] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]

Watching the local wild/feral edible plants

Walking home from the bus stop today, I took notice of some wild and feral edible plants, and how far along they are in terms of availability. Some of them I had been familiar with, some of them I noticed for the first time, even though I’ve walked this route many times. Here’s what I found, in order of my path from the bus stop:

1. A fairly large fig tree in a vacant lot. The lot is seprated from all the surrounding houses by fences or the street, so probably no one will object if we pick from this one. It has green figs on it; I expect they’ll be ready middle of next month, but I’d better check back weekly so I don’t miss them. The ants here get into the figs as soon as they’re ripe, and overripe figs are ruined fast.
2. A really big fig tree, in another vacant lot. This lot is separated from the street by a partial fence, and the neighbours on either side park their cars in this lot. Odds are they’ll probably want these figs for themselves.
3. Maypops or passionflowers, growing alongside the road at the powerline. We collected fruit from these last year, I guess in the late summer. The fruit is hollow, but has seeds covered in juicy pulp, unless you wait too long to harvest them, and they dry out. They didn’t have any flowers yet, much less fruit. This is a native species. Apparently the best use of the fruit is for making jelly.
4. Wild black cherry, also native. This is all over the place. I just noticed that the fruit is suddenly ripe. This is good for casual snacking, and it’s probably good for jellies, too I’m kind of considering trying to make cherry wine, but I doubt I’ll have the time to get the equipment and so forth.

[ Posted: 18:22] | [ Category: ] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]

Sorry for no updates

I realize I haven’t been updating regularly for a while. There are a few reasons for this. One is that I am wanting to eventually replace my PyBlosxom-based blog with one custom-coded in Django, so that I can unify the code running my blog with the code running the rest of my site. I haven’t had time to work on the new back-end, so I have lost enthusiasm for posting on the old one. I have also been journalling more personal things on paper, which reduces my Need To Write here. Finally, I’ve been really busy with home and work projects, so I have a tremendous backlog of things, of which blogging is at the tail end.

Sorry; will have more eventually, and I hope to do more in keeping the news on carolinapeace.org up to date in the meantime.

[ Posted: 10:45] | [ Category: ] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]

Cascade Failure

One thing I don’t understand is why when something goes wrong, seemingly unrelated things start going wrong as well. For example:

1. The toilet stops up and overflows, despite there being no obvious reason for it to do so.

2. While I wait for the water level in the toilet to go down enough that I can use the plunger, I go to the kitchen for a glass of orange juice. Getting the orange juice, I notice that some oatmeal from a breakfast inexplicably preserved in a roll of aluminium foil is clinging to it, but that’s not relevant yet. As I get a glass for the orange juice out of the cabinet, I knock a wine glass off the counter top. I almost, but don’t quite, catch it before it hits the floor and shatters.

3. After I clean up as much of the broken glass as I can find, using a broom and dustpan and at no time, as far as I know, I head back to the office. On the way back, I notice that I have somehow gotten oatmeal (from the refrigerator, remember) on the bottom of my sock, and am tracking it around, so I clean it up and go back to the kitchen to trash it.

4. I clean up some more oatmeal that I find on the floor, and notice a small dark-brown smudge on the floor. Figuring it is somehow oatmeal-related, I wipe it up with a finger to find that it is, actually, not dark brown, but red, and, in fact, it is blood. But whose? Careful examination of my hands shows that it is mine, and that a very small cut on my left index finger is bleeding profusely, and that I have already gotten blood all over my favourite pair of pants.

5. The bandages are in the bathroom, where the toilet has recently overflowed. I get myself bandaged and then unclog the toilet with a plunger, and blot most of the blood off of my pants with a cold, damp washcloth. I hope that the string of minor misfortunes ends here.

This kind of thing tends to happen much more when I am already depressed or anxious. I suspect that this implies that lack of mindfulness is somehow involved, or possibly I just get clumsy when I’m upset.

[ Posted: 16:32] | [ Category: ] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]

Gender role quiz

Here are my quiz results:

Note that the quiz was written in the 1970s, so gender roles have changed since then, and it’s certainly testing gender roles rather than gender identity. But it’s still a fun and interesting quiz. Also note that, although this quiz is from an online dating site, I came across a link to it on a political blog, so don’t get the idea that I’m available.

[ Posted: 23:55] | [ Category: ] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]

Which Middle Earth Race are You?

Entish

To which race of Middle Earth do you belong?
brought to you by Quizilla

[ Posted: 14:00] | [ Category: ] | Permalink | Comments: 0 ]