Protein Ball experiment #1

 So, I made the first batch. Basically used the ingredients that I had on available:

• Sultanas, chopped up small. About two tablespoons worth of bits. Would have done more, but started chopping and kept going until I got bored.
• Cup of oats (I used quick oats, which are pre-chopped relatively fine. Rolled oats would be too chunky)
• 2 & 1/2 cups protein powder (started with two, added a bit more)
• About 1/2 cup of peanut butter
• About 2 tablespoons of honey

I found the ingredients mix was a bit dry in the bowl while I was mixing so I also added a sprinkle of water to help to ingredients mix. I made them late last night, made the balls and popped them in the fridge to firm up.

In the morning I tried one to see how it came out and found it to be a bit dry. Tasted ok, nothing to brag about. Mostly tasted of peanut butter and protein powder, couldn't even detect the sultanas. Not much pointing eating them when standing around, so next part of the experiment was to go out for a run and take some with me.

I put two into separate mini ziplock bags as I honestly expected them to collapse into powder and crumbly bits and loaded them into my off-brand camelbak along with a 2L water bladder and my bluetooth speaker for some tunes.

I had the first one at the 5km mark, and the second at around the 7.5km mark. The first one was easier to eat as I had stopped to take a Pokemon Go gym. The second one had been slightly squished out of shape but both had kept their structural integrity. When I ate the second one, I put the whole thing in my mouth - that was a mistake! Very dry, couldn't drink, made it hard to breathe. May need to make them smaller or make sure to take bites. Not sure how much having them along with me made a difference but I was able to do my 10k run in 1h 11min. A bit slow off my personal best of 1h 1min, but I also hadn't done a long run in around a year.

Changes for next batch: I want to try and work out a way to make it more moist. Maybe add butter? Less protein powder? Egg would give it more protein and make a good binding agent but would probably need to bake them a bit which would make them firmer. If I can make the base mix sticky, I can then coat the individual balls with desiccated coconut to stop them sticking to each other. I also want to add sugar, for that raw energy. And possibly a pinch of salt, since I tend to carry water instead of electrolytes when jogging. Would help on the longer runs.

Time test part one

Posting this 0542 in the morning, Monday 31 January to see how it gets time stamped on the server. Not sure if Blogger automatically converts and shows local device time, server time or timezone in settings time. Fingers crossed I remember to do part two this evening!

Wacom Graphire4 Tablet - always draws

I have an old Wacom Graphire4 drawing tablet that I've had for many years (and hadn't used it for several). I recently started trying to use it again but kept coming up with a fault. Anytime I used the pen, it registered as drawing, even if it was hovering over the tablet.

I tried every driver under the sun and even did a complete clean install on a fresh system. Nadda.

After a lot of hunting around online and reading other people who'd had similar symptoms, I determined that it was a mechanical issue with the pen. I'll post the fix I found here, and my notes and results below.

Online workaround:

Utilising the Universal Low-Tech Gadget Fix method (aka "Hit the bloody thing"), I've managed to get my pen to work properly again!

1. Plug in your tablet, and remove the tip from your pen if possible (don't worry if you can't though).
2. Open the Tablet control panel in System Preferences.
3. Hold down Opt (or Alt, or ) while clicking the "About" button to get to the diagnostic screen.
4. Hold the pen near the tablet (not touching it) so it registers on the info pane. Check the "Pressure" reading. Mine was hovering around 50, some other people had it up around 220.
5. Actual solution: Bang the pen, side on, against something (the original solution called for a table top, I chickened out and used my thighs to lessen the risk of other damage to the pen). Try 10 hits for starters.
6. Hold the pen to the tablet again. The "Pressure" reading should have drop a little. Sometimes it might not change, but be patient!
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6. Eventually the stuck pressure sensor would loosen, the pressure drop to 0, and the tablet will work properly again. Remember to replace your pen tip if you removed it in step 1.

I hit mine a total of maybe 100 times, gradually using more force at the start until the "Pressure" reading started dropping, then using a similar amount of force thereafter. The pressure dropped slowly from 50 down to 25, then suddenly back to 0, so check the readings often so you don't hit the pen more times than necessary. It is a rather delicate gadget, after all!

If your sensor's stuck under 60 (eg, 50 for mine), and you don't want to hit your pen/can't drop it to zero, you can adjust the "Pressure offset" from 0 to 59; put it to something just above your stuck sensor value (eg, I'd put it to 55 for mine), then you can at least use the tablet, albeit with a slightly reduced pressure sensitivity range.

Disclaimer: YMMV, and this method probably won't work (in fact, will probably make it worse) if your pen actually has a broken magnet/coil/circuit board rather than a stuck pressure sensor. I'm not responsible if you break some other part of your tablet/pen/computer/table/thighs while attempting the repair. If it's under warranty, best to return it to Wacom

End of online workaround

For me, I found the Diagnostic Screen by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking on the "About" button. Initially, my pressure was reading around 268! Definitely not good. I don't know if it is the same with newer drivers, but the one I was using (an older one for a Bamboo tablet) has a maximum software offset of only 59, so that didn't do much for me.

After around half an hour of hitting the pen (initially against my palm, then my thigh, then the mousepad, then directly onto the table edge) I was only able to get my no-tip pressure down to around 180. Still no good for drawing. #SadPanda

No idea how many times I hit it, somewhere in the region of 500 to 1,000 times I figure (I was hitting it quite fast at some stages, and hard enough to worry about leaving marks on the table surface) but that's as low as I could get it.

I might try again, but at the moment I'm really tempted to declare this tablet dead and just chuck it. I could buy a replacement pen, but being an older model they are hard to get hold of and when they do come up on eBay they are more expensive than a whole new tablet. I might try and save up for a new low-end tablet at some stage down the track but I don't see the benefit in investing around $100 on something I'm not going to use much. So for the time being .... back to the drawing board?
badum-tish!

Giving it a try

Today I tried a new feature for the website. I am seeing if I can get the current (latest) post on my blogger blog to show up on the front page. Yes, this can be done (I've already done it). I may even write up a bit of a tutorial on how to do it as well later on.

At any rate, the purpose of this update is to test the image function. Here's an image:



And here's alinks list:

• My music site
• My story site
• My main site (redundant in this case)
  

Whee! Now to see if it worked...

gOS

Just installed the spanky new gOS - the supposed "Google" Operating System.

Technically, it's a distro of Ubuntu but it is geared to integrating with a lot of the applications and services offered by Google. This means that the computer it runs on can be less powerful (I've put an old PC to work) and it uses the new "cloud computing" fancy stuffs.

Half the point of getting it was to make it easy to use Blogger, but the "Blogger" function in the system just launches Firefox to the blogger site.

We'll see how it goes.