Bordeaux vs. Pinot Noir

The other day I was sitting on the patio enjoying a fine summer evening. Vidaldi's Four Seasons playing on my iPod, a good Giuoco Piano opening game of chess played out to an interesting draw, a cool onshore breeze, a glass of locally produced Pinot Noir, and a towering Sunflower above me.

Who could ask for more? But I did have more. As usual I was working on my maze.

Well, anyone that knows me can tell that this is a posed picture. What gives it away is the glass of wine. I'm far more likely to have an old Taco Bell cup filled with Diet Coke in front of me. I confess that the pictures are just a set up for an important research project.

The August Ink Drop included a sample of Montgrappa Bordeaux ink. Bordeaux is fine wine produced in France reputed to be some of the best in the world. BevMo has a Chateau Ausone 2007 St-Emilion for a mere 1059.99 dollars a bottle (that 1059.99 instead of 1060 is to make you think it is cheaper). That seems a bit steep, so why not see if some of our California wine could work as well as the Bordeaux? It seemed like a question that needed to be answered, so I set about doing just that.

It turns out that I didn't have to open and possibly waste a new bottle of wine. I had a partly filled bottle of well aged left over wine which had be in the fridge for sometime before being move to the top of the fridge. It was left over from a Thanksgiving dinner a couple of years ago. I doubt if it was even potable any longer, but I wasn't going to drink it.

I was going to fill a fountain pen with it and draw a maze with it. Here is a picture of the filling process. The 'wine' is so corrupted it is actually brown.

The Montegrappa Bordeaux in my Ducati Limited pen worked great, It flowed smoothly and shaded even with a fine nib. The Concannon Pinot Noir was less satisfactory. In fact is was almost invisible. It could be the pen's fault, but somehow I doubt it. The Pinot Noir is not dark enough. Maybe I should have tried a Cabernet Sauvignon.

Under UV light the Pinot Noir shows up a little better as you can see in this a picture.

It was too difficult for me to draw with invisible ink, so I decided not to finish this one.. Besides, an invisible maze is getting close to useless. I'm not saying it is totally useless, just sort of.

The results are fairly conclusive; the Montegrappa Bordeaux is much better than the Pinot Noir when it comes to drawing with it.

Jonathan

Mirror Maze on Cannery Row, Monterey, California

Not far from the Monterey Bay Aquarium on Cannery Row is a little known attraction. This is a place called Mirror Maze. Here is their web site. I saw this on our trip down to Monterey last year, but it wasn't until this year that I decided to see what it was all about. What it is is a wonderful maze made with mirrors.

It is quite fun for adults, but probably especially so for kids. It is not impossibly difficult and there is nothing in it to frighten kids (or adults) too much. There are a couple of Ninja type figures and a policeman figure that tries to arrest you. There are no death pits, snakes, giant spiders, dropping cages or any other booby traps. So you don't need to worry that your kids will disappear. If your kid is the Beaver or Dennis the Menace that might be disappointing, but there it is.

The lighting and mirror reflections create a bewildering number of illusions and dead ends. There are glasses you can wear to make it even more difficult to find your way out. There is Blacklighting which makes the columns glow, but the lights go off briefly on occasions to create total darkness and then flash with a strobe effect.

Here are some pictures:

I went thru the maze four times. First using the Right-hand Method, then the Left-Hand. I tried to do it without touching the mirrors, but you really must keep a hand in front of you to keep from smacking your face into a mirror. Apparently the workers must clean the mirrors four or five times a day. The final time I went through from exit to entrance.

It is cool how you will sometimes see another person down what looks like a long hallway and then, lo and behold, that same person appears right next to you from behind a mirror wall. Amazing! If you get there and there a lots of kids going thru it you will have more fun, because they clearly enjoy it so much. I loved it as well, but then I love mazes in general.

It is a bit pricey, but the pass lasts all day. Get there early before going to the aquarium and you can go back later. The workers when we were there,Cortland and Christina (I could have that last wrong), were friendly and helpful. They do have special rates for groups over 12. This is designed for birthday parties.

This maze was designed by Adrian Fisher Design. They have created several other mazes including one in San Diego. Here is their web site.

On the other side of their space is a Bank Heist game. In this you try to foil a laser beam alarm setup like in Mission Impossible. For me it is impossible. I'm not even close to flexible enough for this one. There is a separate price tag for this side.

Here is a picture of the monitor for this one.

The bottom line it that this is a fun attraction which will be more fun the more friends that try it together.

Break Time Activity

Need a break from the maze?

To pun, or not to pun, that is the question.

Well, I suppose one must always choose the lesser of two weevils.

If you happen to recognize the the second of these statements, I can say with some certainty that you are a Patrick O'Brian fan. His Aubrey-Maturin adventures are the basis for the Russell Crowe movie, “Master and Commander”. These naval yarns are very different from Alexander Kent's Bolitho novels. Instead of the three or four sea battles typical of a Kent book, a Patrick O'Brian book may not have a single battle in it at all. Or it might have one described as an aside over a dinner of Spotted Dog Pudding. Then again, there are some in which the great guns hammer away throughout.

What make these books fascinating is the relationship of an odd couple living in a wet and storm tossed apartment at sea. This pair consists of the Lucky Captain Jack Aubrey and his particular friend, the sometimes, I should say usually, morose Doctor Stephen Maturin. They make a great team, once they have both had their morning cups of coffee, which can be difficult in the rum and tea drinking English Navy.

I gather that almost all of the events described in the books come from actual real life events. O'Brian used original logbooks and other documents of the period to build the framework within which his characters live. And they do live. After finishing the twenty volume series, one feels as if one would be perfectly at ease at the Captain's table. At least, once one's glass had been filled once or thrice.

I have always thought it would be a blast to read through some of these log books. It would be like a virtual voyage. Well now we can. Maybe not those of the Age of Sail, but never fear, the Age of the Dreadnought is good too.

The same group that brought us Galaxy Zoo, now has a Data Project called, old Weather. This is a transcription project using the log books of British Ships to gather weather observations. This data will be used to improve the Weather Models scientists are using to predict the weather. More power to them, because I want to know if it is going to rain on my next day off or not.

I looked at several thousand (at least it seemed like it) galaxies in Galaxy Zoo, and I am really looking forward to delving into these log books.

Check it out, here. Just remember to come back to the really productive work of maze solving.

There is another page coming tomorrow!

Jonathan