the Kyuri protocol

I'm in one of my cooking moods now, and yesterday I went grocery shopping. I've always liked grocery shopping, with due emphasis on freshness, of course. Stale produce makes for dull dishes. As I only had limited time I really have to rush for most of my shopping since most of the time is needed for preparations. It was there that there was a Kyuri promoter, a somewhat elderly lady promoting fresh produce.

Kyuri is a Japanese cucumber, its much smaller, dark green in color, and has a creamy taste that is very unique, and great for salads, since it has a soft, crunchy texture. So the promoter said, 'Do you want to try some Kyuri?' referring to the samples on the pedestal. I said, 'No thanks, I already bought some,' in Cantonese.

I don't know if she saw it in my basket or not, but she went on and on about the goodness of Kyuri, and I basically said, 'Yeah, I know. It has a crunchy, creamy texture, its very good.'

Then she asked in Cantonese, 'Uh, are you a chef?'

I suppose I am, since I'm cooking. But my culinary skills are just because I happen to be in front of the stove at that particular point of time. Just as how if you get behind the wheel, and somebody asks you, 'Are you a driver?' yes, I suppose I am. But my guess was that there weren't many, well, any males for that matter, of my age doing grocery shopping at that time, or at any time for that matter, now that it's been brought to light.

So I stood there for a few seconds pondering about the paradox of that question, and replied, 'Nah, I'm just cooking for myself.' She replied with a slightly amused, 'Well, that's a good practise.'

But I should have replied, 'Someday, I will be.'

BLVK announces new products!

BLVK Carpentry today announces the development of 4 new products; Sunset, xJoint:beta, glsQb, and caché.

Production of Sunset and xJoint:beta has been successfully completed and they are currently being tested for quality while glsQb is awaiting new materials and project caché is still at its design stage.

Sunset is currently being tested in highly aquos environments to test its resilience towards water. Created using 1.5" thick Selangan Batu boards, it utilizes cross and stopped housing joints and is designed initially as a bath rack, but it was constructed so sturdily that it could also be used as a stool. The idea was to create a simple design so that only the essentials go on top whilst the lesser used items go on the rack beneath. Anything that is extra is deemed to be unnecessary. Sunset essentially eliminated a whole bag of toiletries that I haven't used in years.

xJoint:beta is a test project that incorporates a custom F-groove joint that is extremely tedious to fabricate. Its design is derived from the traditional Japanese groove joint and the Indian joint methods. I fused both methods into one simple design and wondered if it would work. xJoint:beta is the result of that test and it turned out to be fabulously sturdy, which will eventually be used in a myriad of other BLVK projects as the base structure of choice.

glsQb is currently awaiting new materials so when that occurs I'll start on it. Otherwise the drawings and measurements are already done. Yes, it's 'glass cube'.

Project caché is the most exciting development along the line. caché is French for 'hidden' and that is the basis for the entire project. Material acquisition is almost complete except for a few accessories. I hope that it'll be available soon, there had been nearly 3 major revisions ever since the initial drawing, and I expect that there'd be more. I'm not proceeding with it yet because I think that it can still be improved.

Finally, the look for BLVK Gallery changed today with standardized product buttons instead of the irregularly shaped wireframe models previously. Many more products will be released in the next few months so stay tuned!