I’m still here! been over 2 months since I’ve posted, but I’m working on improving how I juggle all the things that are going on, and hopefully I can work it to a point of efficiency that allows me to stay up to date with everything. Well, I don’t have much time to fart around and think to much about what to write, as I have to go teach in an hour, so I’ll just start throwing some recent developments at you. (actually, I didn’t finish writing the post before I had to leave, so I’m finishing it now, at 11:30pm, 5/18)
Finally got around to doing some tank maintenance. The refugium could still use a little more purging, but it is so excessively large that it still keeps the water clean and chemically stable despite such long periods of neglect.
As many of you way be aware, Taiwan experienced some rough earthquakes in April. The Initial one rocked the Hualien area the hardest, but it also managed to do some damage to the circular line in Taipei. Three stops are no longer accessible, and the repairs are estimated to take about a year to complete. I relied on this line to reach many of my students, so as a result, I am riding my bicycle almost everyday now. Although the damage and suffering that was caused by the quake is unfortunate, I’m glad that positive things can happen as a by product. I’m getting a lot more exercise now.
My little balcony garden helps to keep me busy, as if I didn’t already have enough to manage and do. It attracts lots of interesting critters, but luckily the pests tend to stay away. The little lizards love to hang around and snatch up the tiny insects attracted to the plants, and quite frequently I come across some rather large beetles. I love the shiny green ones (rose chafer), pictured above on a dragon fruit cactus.
I’ve been trying to remake my planters, as the previous one that I made has fallen apart and slumped down, reducing the soil depth to only a few inches. I made a nice deep planter frame and lined it with extra thick HDPE plastic, gusseting it, and creating a custom bulkhead fitting for drainage. Now it is growing some newly sprouted star fruit seeds, as well as a rosemary cutting that had been sitting in the bubbler for close to a year, some green onions, and a few dragon fruit cacti.
I have a wide variety of projects that are always in progress. Quite often I am creating different kinds of materials to be used in my lessons and activities, like the hedgehogs and bowser figures that you see there. Those were used along with other objects in a group class featuring a ‘sense of touch’ game. I printed the Eevee for my wife’s niece’s birthday. The paintjob was a bit rushed, so, it has brush strokes showing, as well as some layer lines from the print, but overall I think it came out pretty cute.