Today I attempted to write a short D&D campaign using the Homebrewery. It was a total failure. I was incredibly tired, and didn't manage my time well.

Today I hacked together a simple but servicable Go game. It uses chinese scoring, and you have to manually mark dead stones at the end of the game. You can play a demo here. Source code is on github.

Right now you have to sit down with someone else to play. I plan to spend a day adding multiplayer to a few games, if I have time.

Can't Stop is a push-your-luck style dice game designed by Sid Sackson in 1980. I've found it to be fun on BoardGameArena.

I wrote my own version for hack-a-day. You can play online. The source code is on github.

I'm pretty happy with this one. I didn't get to online play or even AI opponents, but you can play on your own or against friends in the room.

Today's project was to make a healthy, shelf-stable food that I could eat every day, and take care of meals for the rest of the month. In the process, I realized my initial goals didn't quite make sense, and I also (again!) ran out of time. But I made a little progress.

First, I spent a couple hours researching foods like what I wanted to make. I started with "survival" foods -- hard tack, military rations, disaster food, pemmican and wasna. Commons themes I saw were:

• The foods lasted a long time
• They were cheap to make (then, not now)
• They were dense (physically compact) and could stand being thrown around
• They were high-calorie.
• They didn't need cooking, and often you could get by with no heat or utensils if needed.
• They were something people would eat (and often, the bare minimum standard)
• They contained some reasonable macronutrient balance, although usually not an ideal one
• They were often meat-heavy

Then I branched out a little to other calorie-dense foods:

• Trail mix
• Fudge
• Energy bars, meal squares, and granola bars
• Biscotti

I started realizing my goals didn't quite align with what I was seeing. I didn't really need my food to last years -- one month outside a fridge would be fine. I cared a lot more about taste. And eating calorie dense food was not really a great idea, as someone mostly sitting in a chair rather than than hauling gear cross-country all day.

I did a circuit of local stores -- a grocery store, a restaurant supply store, an indian grocer's. I also picked up enough frozen food at Trader Joe's to last me most of the month, rather defeating the point. Oops!

I came home with a lot of flours and flour-adjacent things. Very carb-heavy. I had several flours: corn, chickpea, and wheat. I ground up a few more.

At this point, I had a wide variety of cheap ingredients. I went to the USDA food database and wrote some notes about macronutrient balance, and did the math on how much things cost.

Then, I started experimenting. I had previously made hard tack, which I found kept forever and I liked pretty well. So I started by experimenting with hard tack, using non-wheat flour recipes. I was worried (rightly so) that non-wheat flours would not hold together as well.

I tried ratios of quinoa and wheat flour, and also tried adding a few ingredients. I found that 1 part in 3 of wheat flour was plenty to hold things together--it just wouldn't be puffy any more. That seemed fine. I also discovered that it was really important to aim for a consistent thickness, because some of the pieces ended up soft and some hard or burnt. Luckily, non-wheat flours are a lot springier, so this was easier in the second batch.

In the second batch, I kept the same 1:2 ratio, but tried a wide variety of flours, as well as the rest of the additives.

My findings, and my ending point for the night:

• A 1:2 ratio of wheat flour to another flour seems to consistently hold together well. The amount of water needed varies just a little. The squares cook with 20 minutes per side.
• Quinoa, green pea, oat, and chickpea flours are neutral to good. Corn and wheat flours are excellent. Lentil flour smells too strongly. I forgot to test pigeon pea or make rice flour.
• Coconut (un-powdered) is also excellent. I like the smell and a little fat. Shortening was not as good, and I didn't test other fats.
• Adding extra salt didn't change the flavor.
• Adding fat (via coconut or shortening) makes the wafers a little messier.
• Sugar is great. Whether a dusting on top, a little added, or chocolate chips, it's a definite winner. Sugar mixed in should improve shelf life.

I was originally trying to invent a single food I could eat every day, which if you know me was a very stupid mistake. Instead, I'm going to have the final version be something more like my experiments--a wide variety to pick from.

If I continue another day (and I likely will), I'm going to further optimize taste. The most compelling result of all is that I didn't eat the leftovers--I went for frozen food instead.

I like a meal substitute called Meal Squares. The company recently switched from version 1.0 to version 2.0. They're basically different products in terms of taste and texture, although they're both trying to be complete, whole-food squares.

1.0 are bready, don't keep as well, and aren't as appetizing. 2.0 has more of a snacky, fruit-leather feel more typical of meal replacement bars. Personally, I prefer the 1.0 version (snackable is a negative for me).

The CEO, Romeo Stevens mentioned during the new product launch:

We'll be open sourcing the 1.0 recipe for those who want to bake them at home.

After emailing him a reminder that it wasn't posted anywhere, he kindly emailed me the recipe back. I'm posting it online for anyone else that wants it in the meantime. Thanks, Romeo!

Meal Squares 1.0 Recipe (.txt version)

Makes: 24 squares ( 4-square silicone mold available from Michael's )

Date syrup

• 225g Date paste
• 120g Vegetable glycerin
• Small amount of water if needed for consistency

Liquid:

• 5 eggs
• 1.5oz Orange juice concentrate
• 2 cups Evaporated milk
• 100g Applesauce (unsweetened)
• 100g Pumpkin puree
• 135g Coconut oil
• 77g Olive oil

Dry:

• 500g Oat flour
• 300g Whey protein concentrate (unflavored)
• 200g Chocolate chips
• 160g Sunflower seeds
• 135g Rice bran
• 85g Carrot powder
• 20g Garbanzo bean flour
• 25g Iodized salt
• 5g Sunflower lecithin
• 5g Pumpkin spice
• 2g Baking soda or 8g Baking powder (warning! Baking sodas vary quite a bit by brand and whether it includes aluminum, we used the less potent aluminum free baking soda for mealsquares, experimentation needed for small batches.)

Optional:

• 15g Potassium citrate (can be omitted for small hit to potassium content)
• D3+K2 drops (varies by brand, add enough for ~500% your DRI since this is about 5 days of Mealsquares)
• Liquid calcium folinate (same as above)
• Niacinamide (same as above)
• Lactase (added to condensed milk if lactose intolerant)

1. Over low heat, combine date syrup ingredients. Stir until homogenous.
2. Mix liquid ingredients, including date syrup.
3. Mix dry ingredients.
4. Combine wet and dry ingredients. Consistency should be like peanut butter or slightly thicker. Add (small amounts) liquid water if too thick.
5. Bake at 350, time varies wildly by oven design, and edges may overcook while centers undercook. You will likely need to pull them out of the oven at the 2/3 baking point and flip the molds around to avoid this and get even results.
6. Packaging: remove as much air as possible to avoid them going stale in the fridge.

Notes:

This recipe could likely be optimized with the substitutions of some milk protein powder for condensed milk and some tapioca syrup for vegetable glycerin. These optimizations were only discovered as we were moving towards production of Mealsquares 2.0 so were never implemented in 1.0. Would require experimentation for water content and baking times etc.

I wrote a player for #ircpuzzles, a yearly puzzle hunt hosted on IRC. Many people who might like to try the puzzles don't know how to use IRC. So, now you can replay past years online.

I didn't have time to finish this one. It only has one year, and is missing a little polish. I'd call it about 80% done. It worked as a warmup for hack-a-day, my yearly project to complete one project a day in November.

Demo is here. Source is on github.

Oops. Everyone, in the entire world, forgot what time it was. Maybe we all forgot the change the batteries for 500 years.

Today's question is:

How do you figure out the exact time, down to the millisecond, without referencing a running clock?

This question courtesy of ems

Feel free to send answers to me by email. I'll add interesting answers to the post.

Ingredients needed:

• Foam paintbrush (Home depot, $0.80)
• Black tea (I used Meijer brand, 100 bags for $2.50)
• White flour (for multiple-page scrolls)
• At least one cookie-baking sheet

Optional extras:

• Gold washi tape, or other decorative tape ($8)
• Ribbon ($15 for 36 colors) to tie the scrolls shut
• Wax ($10), and a seal ($8), to add seals to the scroll
• Lathe, hand saw, dowel rods ($5 for 1" x 4ft / 25mm x 1.3m), paintbrush ($3 for 20), stain ($8) and varnish ($17) to make your own holding rods. If you don't have a lathe, see other suggestions.
• String ($3-7 for 500ft / 200m) or steel rope ($43 for crimping tool, $13 for cutting pliers, $22 for 1/16 inch x 300ft / 1.5mm x 100m rope) to hang the scroll
• Paintbrush ($3 for 20) and stencil ($7-$15) for decorating the back

First, I aged the individual sheets.

1. Soak 8 black tea bags in 2 pints boiling water. Let it sit at least 10 minutes.
2. Print the paper you want to stain.
3. Dip the foam paintbrush into the tea. Let large, splashy drops fall onto each piece of paper. Cover 30-50% of the paper. Leave it out until dried (several hours). This is the slowest step, but yields a pleasant, uneven look. For an even better look, place a teabag on the paper repeatedly, then let it dry, then repeat again in the empty spaces and let it dry again.

   

   

4. Take each dried sheet, and place it on a cookie tray. Again dipping the brush in tea, paint over it several times, making sure to cover the whole sheet. Use varied directions for brushstrokes. You may not be able to see any visible stain. You don't need to soak it fully, but you can.

   

5. Take the cookie sheets, and place them in the oven. I baked them for 250°F for 6 minutes. This was just enough so the sheets were dry to the touch. This not only dries the sheets faster, but activates the tea and makes it take on a much darker tone.

   

6. If desired, you can paint a second pass on the back--the tea will only stain one side at a time deeply. I recommend doing the back second, because each bake makes it a little darker.

   

7. Press sheets flat under a large, heavy book.

In theory I think you can iron the sheets flat. If I did this project again, I would try it. It's hard to line up and glue wavy sheets.

I tried painting on the back, using a paint I made myself. I wanted something subtle, like the faint patterning on decorative paper. I tried tempura paint, using coffee in place of water, and flour-based tea paints. I got something that looked how I wanted.

I liked the effect, but I had a hard time reproducing the paint the next day. If you want to experiment, my recipe used something like 1 bag of tea, one cup of water, and about 2 Tbsp flour.

Next, I glued together the sheets to make a continuous scroll. For reasons you'll see later, I needed an extra strong glue. So as my first step, I made wheatpaste glue, which is very strong.

1. Combine in a paper bowl:
   • 25g flour
   • 75g water
2. Stir thoroughly with a fork.
3. Microwave for 1 minute, then stir again. Repeat.
4. Once it's thick enough you have a harder time moving a fork through (2-3 minutes with my microwave), let it cool.

   

I glued together the sheets with wheatpaste. For some projects, it's easier and better to apply warm. But my paper was already fragile from the aging process, so I found it worked better all the way cooled.

I took a fingertip of glue, spread it evenly on the bottom of the page. Repeating, I covered the whole bottom. Then, I placed the next sheet over it, and laid them down so they matched. Since the aging process warps the paper, you may not get a perfect fit.

Then, use the pad your your thumb to press the sheets together firmly. Make sure to use rolling motions, don't drag your finger along. That can tear the paper.

My research suggested Zip Dry paper glue might also work.

As a fun fact, real scrolls were made by gluing together sheets, and they actually used wheatpaste glue! Scrolls were often glued left-to-right (volumen) instead of top-to-bottom (rotulus), but I thought the fantasy stereotype was more fun.

After the glue hardened, I cleaned off both sides and trimmed the edges to match exactly. Then I applied a gold tape on the edges. I had decorative borders printed already, so it was relatively easy to get tape pieces to match. I found the key was to go slow, and use many pieces of tape. After laying one down, I pressed it smooth with the back of a fingernail, flipped it, and did the same of the back. The washi tape I'm using is relative easy to remove again, but also shows defects pretty clearly.

I turned dowel rods to hold the scroll on my lathe. The middle segment is the width of a piece of paper. Then I added as much decoration as I could on each end, but my lathe is very small, so not much fit.

Then I stained and finished the dowel rods.

If like most people you don't have a lathe, you could glue something decorative on the ends of dowel rod pieces, cut bamboo segments, or decorate a paper towel roll.

It's also totally fine to just roll up the scroll and tie it closed with string or ribbon. No holders are really needed.

I made another batch of wheatpaste (much better this time).

I glued the scroll onto the dowel on the two ends.

The glue was very strong, but the ends only look okay. I trimmed the last couple inches of washi tape so the glue would stick.

If I did the project again, I'd try to keep the sheets flattened (wrinkly sheets after aging causes all kinds of problems). I'd also leave a little blank space on the top and bottom for attaching them to the rods.

I picked up some stranded steel rope, which I turned into a line with two loops at the end.

I looped them over the holes in the dowel. Voila! Now you can hang the scroll on the wall.

It's possible to make the wire hangers secure, but removable. For the first couple I made they're just secure--those suckers aren't coming off.

I dripped wax on the scroll and pressed down a seal I got on Amazon. It matches the theme of my D&D game very well, I was happy with how it looks.

The final scroll looks amazing.

One one hanger, it takes up the wall.

Between 6 pages and a dowel rod, that's why the glue between pages needed to be so strong!

By using two sets of hanging wires, you can show part of the scroll without taking up the whole wall. Here I'm showing the top of the scroll.

You can roll one dowel as you unroll the other, to show any part of the scroll. That's why long scrolls have two rods. It's also where the term "scrolling" up and down on a computer comes from.

I let each player pick the color of the wax for the seal and decorative ribbons. They didn't know exactly what they were giving me colors for.

I'm sure my players will love them!

By the way, if you're curious about the contents, this is a prophecy the players found in parts around the world. Underneath each of the 50 lines, are their player notes about where they found each piece. It's a souvenir for a campaign which ran for about 2 years, and is finally wrapping up.

I've been keeping track of my daily exercise using a checklist on the wall.

I wanted a nice small printable one. I looked around, and there were several for sale for $2. I made a free one, instead.

Here's the download link: 26 row. Or if you hate blank rows, here are some with less rows: 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

And of course, I customized one with my own workout routine.

Lately I’ve been messing about in Godot, a framework for making video games (similar to Unity).

I wanted to make a 3D game. In my game, you live in a geodesic dome, and can’t go outside, because mumble mumble mumble poisonous atmosphere?.

A geodesic dome, I learned, is related to the icosahedron, or d20 from RPGs.

A simple dome is the top half of the icosahedron. As they get more complex, you divide each triangle into more and more smaller triangles.

So to make a nice geodesic dome, we could find one (I failed), make one in Blender (too hard), or use some math to generate one in Godot. And to do that math, we need to know the list of 20 icosahedron faces. Which basically just needs the list of the 12 vertices!

Now, obviously you could look up the vertices, but I thought of a more fun way. Let’s put 12 points on a sphere, make them all repel each other (think magnetically, I guess), and see where on the sphere they slide to. Maybe they will all be spaced out evenly in the right places. Well, here’s what it looks like:

So… kinda? It was certainly entertaining.

By the way, the correct coordinates for the vertices of an icosahedron inside a unit sphere are:

• the top at (0, 1, 0)
• the bottom at (0, -1, 0)
• 10 equally spaced points around a circle. they alternate going up and down below the center line.
  (±1/√5, sin(angle), cos(angle)) [projected onto the sphere]