As I recently said: "A good knife is probably the most useful tool any person could carry on them; and I usually have a few on me". Well.. my knife just became an even more usefull tool
Up until now my main knife was a Buck 450RD Protégé, which served me well for many years. However, I felt that it was time to upgrade and update my Every Day Cary a little, which means that some things were up for replacement. One of the things that was up for replacement was my knife. After browsing, drooling and comparing many knives I finally made my choice: a black Victorinox Workchamp.
At 11.1 cm long, 3.15cm thick, 2.9cm wide and weighing 205 grams, it's by any means not a lightweight or small knife, but that's because it has a shitload of features: A large locking blade, a set of pliers which doubles as a wire cutter and wire crimping tool, a large Philips screwdriver, a metal saw which has a coarse and medium metal file on the sides, a wood saw, scissors, a small Philips screwdriver, a bottle opener which doubles as wire stripper and large flathead screwdriver, a can opener which doubles as a small screwdriver, an awl / reamer, a corkscrew, a mini flathead screwdriver, tweezers and of course a toothpick.
My Workchamp is firmly seated a fancy leather sheath on my belt, and a little paracord lanyard makes it easy to remove it from the sheath. In my opinion it's a very decent and highly versatile knife, and I totally love it
"And said God let there be light, and there was light" (Genesis 1:3). And light there shall be: 180 lumens of it to be exact!
A few years back I bought this no-name flashlight at a gas station for a few bucks, and I thought it was pretty amazing. It was nice and bright, worked fine on one AA battery, it was pretty compact and easy to carry; and in general I was pretty happy with it. When I got the Fenix E05 as a backup light on my keychain a while back, that changed quite dramatically. It was quite embarassing really... My tiny backup flashlight completely blew my main flashlight off the table when it came to brightness. It was time for an upgrade!
I had some good experience with the Fenix E05, so the Fenix brand had a light preference. Eventually my light of choice was the Fenix PD20 R5.
It's a very compact ( 7.85cm long and 2.22cm thick) and light (39 grams without battery) flashlight that runs off a single 3-volt Lithium CR123a battery. It can burn continuously at 9 lumens for 66 hours, 38 lumens for 10 hours, 90 lumens for about 4 hours and a whopping 180 lumens for about 1 hour and 40 minutes. Asides from the continuous burning modes, it also has a fast 15Hz strobe mode at 180 lumens and a 90 lumens S.O.S. signal mode.
Fenix claims it can throw light up to 102 meters and that it's waterproof up to 2 meters of depth. I don't plan on testing the waterproof claim unless I absolute have to; but I can definitely confirm the 102m throw. I thought the Fenix E05 was bright, but the amount of light this little fellow is able to produce is just plain rediculous
Needless to say, I'm very, very satisfied with my new flashlight
Because I like to hang out in abandoned and/or derelict buildings, and said buildings tend to be full of sharp, rusty and moldy things; I thought it would be a good idea to add a little first aid kit to my every day carry. Daniel picked up on that and got me a Tatonka First Aid Mini for Christmas.
The kit is very small but sturdy. The content of the kit on its own is pretty ok, though the manufacturer could have done a better job with the form factor of some items. For example, the medical tape that comes with the kit comes on a rather bulky roll that takes up the majority of the space in the kit. I decided to optimize it a bit by wrapping the medical tape around an old credit card; which meant that the kit now had a lot of empty space that could be used to hold additional stuff. I added quite a bit of stuff, and customized the contents to my own liking.
The kit is just 10x7x4cm, but at the moment it contains 2 large waterproof bandages, 6 medium waterproof bandages, 1 waterproof knuckle bandage, 2 waterproof butterfly bandages, 10 moleskin patches, 1 large oval Glacier Gel patch, 5 antiseptic wipes, 5 alcohol swabs, 4 safety pins, 4 Paracetamol pills (fever or headache), 4 Antacid pills (heartburn), 4 Diphenhydramine pills (allergic reactions), 4 Loperamide pills (diarrhea), 4 Bismuth Subsalicylate pills (nausea or upset stomach), 4 Ibuprofen pills (painkiller and inflammation inhibitor), 1 small pack of antibiotic ointment, 5m of medical tape and a tick remover.
It can easily tackle most problems that could ruin one's day without any problems; and if the pocket first aid kit can't solve the problem, I've always got a larger first aid kit in my car which contains even more stuff.
The Dutch dairy producer Campina organized an open house event at some of the farms where they get their milk from. I'm always interested in how stuff works, so I decided to check it out.
It was quite crowded, but it was fun. They had some little stands where you could try some yoghurt drinks, milks and puddings, there were some girls that were handing out free products to the visitors; which is always nice. I also took the opportunity to shoot some stills of the beautiful women that work at the farm
Click here for the full album.
All in all it was a nice event. I got some nice photos, I've got some free dairy products and it kept me busy. On April 25th, there's another open house session which I will attend as well.
Nature is cruel, but very awesome. While my family was enjoying nature in the form of a nice cup of tea and oatmeal cookies, suddenly a sparrow hawk landed on a fence post in the backyard to enjoy it's lunch: a freshly caught blackbird.
I rushed towards my camera bag and took some snapshots from the bedroom window. Since the sparrow hawk didn't seem to mind that my dad and me were hanging out the bedroom window with big zoom lenses, I decided to sneak into the backyard for some close-up shots.
Click here for the full album.
I managed to get within about 1 meter of the bird. At first it seemed that the sparrow hawk couldn't be bothered with my presence, and continued to nibble on the blackbird. After a while it had enough of me and flew off with the carcass still in its talons.
My mom had some coupons for free pancakes at a restaurant called D'n Berepot in the village of Nieuwkuijk, The Netherlands. We decided to go there with the whole family including my sister, her kids and her new boyfriend Danny.
This place totally revolutionized my view on pancakes. They had pancakes with pretty much anything you can imagine. I had a pancake with bacon, onions, mushrooms and cheese (as shown below), but you could also get pancakes with ragout or with shawarma meat or with pepperoni, tomatoes and lettuce.
If there was any downside to the pancake then it was its size: it was humungous! It took me quite some effort to eat it, and I'm known as a big eater.
Happy new year everybody! This is going to be a great year... I hope! The year started out quite misty though. At least I had some time to gloat at the misfortune of people that spent hundreds of Euros on fireworks, and were unable to see any of it.
Hmmm... come to think of it, the year started off pretty good! *grin*
It's widely known to the general public that I'm not a big fan of the United States of America. It's not the people I dislike; I know plenty of American people that are very cool. But the "system", the government... that I don't like. The whole "patriotism" is just a bunch of bullshit to me, and as John Dalberg-Acton wrote: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely". The United States of America claims to be the most powerful nation on the planet; So you do the math.
However, I do love traditional American made products like Zippo lighters and Buck knives. As is widely known to the general population, America has this ridiculous justice system that allows you to sue someone for whatever reason you see fit. People sue McDonalds restaurants because the coffee is too hot and they burn their mouth, demanding millions of dollars in compensation; and more crazy stuff like that. This justice system, ridiculous as it may seem has some benefits though.
Companies that manufacture products in America will make sure that their products are safe and easy to use; after all, they don't want to get sued because some idiot couldn't figure out how the product works and got injured in the process. So you can be sure that any American made product that makes it to the shelves in the store will have passed a very stringent quality control check. A lot of the products are made "idiot proof", so they are usually fabricated using pretty solid and sturdy materials.
Another thing I like about American made products is that a lot of the manufacturers offer a life-time warranty (also known as "forever warranty"). Buck knives and Zippo lighters are a fine example of it. If they break down, you just send it to the factory and it will be fixed or replaced free of charge; no questions asked. ESEE Knives, formerly known as "RAT Cutlery", takes the life-time warranty to another level. As their waranty page states: " No Questions Asked Warranty. If you break it, we will replace it. Warranty is transferable. In other words, we warranty the knife no matter how many times it's been traded, sold or given away." See, now that is what I call good customer service!
Manufacturers that give their products life-time warranty have confidence in the quality of their products; which in turn gives me confidence that my money is spent well when I buy one. It also gives me confidence to actually use the product.
A good flashlight ought to be mandatory for everybody's keychain. In the past, I used those cheapo mini flashlights that you can get at any toy store for € 2,- but the problem with those is that they fall apart as soon as you look at them, and the batteries are empty by the time you've left the store. It was time to cough up some coin and get a decent one.
After some research I found the Fenix E05 R4, which was € 24,95 and throws a good amount of light with just one AAA battery.
Fenix has a reputation for making excellent flashlights and this one is no exception. The E05 throws a decent 30 lumens of light with a duration of about 2.5 to 3 hours with a normal AAA battery that you can buy pretty much anywhere. I know there are AAA flashlights that are much fancier and throw even more light, but they are at least double the price and don't have the specific feature that this E05 has, and even this 30 lumens is already super bright!
Most flashlights have a real bright center "hotspot" with lower light around it. The E05 has a special diffuser lens in front of the LED bulb that spreads the light out evenly over a large area, which makes this light much more useful than most other flashlights in my opinion.
A good knife is probably the most useful tool any person could carry on them; and I usually have a few on me. Aside from my main knife, a Buck 450RD Protégé, and the Victorinox SwissCard Lite in my wallet, I wanted a nice backup knife to put on my keychain. You never know when it might come in handy.
The character "Soap" said in the world's greatest movie, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels: "I think knives are a good idea. Big, Fuck-off shiny ones; Ones that look like they could skin a crocodile." While I totally agree with Mr. Soap there, the weight might be an issue if I put one of those on my keychain.
My new Victorinox Classic SD has everything but a weight issue. At 22 grams it's hardly noticeable, yet this little baby is packed with functionality. It has a nice sharp blade, a little nail file which doubles as a screwdriver, a pair of scissors, a toothpick and a pair of tweezers. All this goodness, stuffed in a tiny pocket knife which is about the size of a AA battery.
The Victorinox Classic SD is a perfect companion for the little Fenix E05 flashlight that also resides on my keychain. They're both black, they weigh about the same, and they are more or less the same size...
But above all else... they just look absolutely adorable together I think anyone should have them on their keychain.