September, 2007 Archives

Ok, this is totally random, but here’s a sea bean that I’ve had since I was a little kid.

My grandparents brought me somewhere on vacation (don’t recall where) and it was at a gift shop. They bought me it.

I don’t remember whether it was one of them who told me it or if I came up on it by my own, but I was convinced that it had some sort of magical powers… lol. Hey, don’t look at me like that… I was a little kid :) Anyhow, a few years past and I found it again. I had reached my science-loving phase, so I would try to smash it against the sidewalk to discover its inner mysteries…. No such luck. I had roughed up the outer layer of it but wasn’t any closer to figuring out what the heck it was. It got packed away somewhere until quite recently when I was going through some of my old things…

I had planned on washing it in some hot water and then seeing if I could smooth it out a bit (was a bit rough from my abuse of it as a child). It ended up sitting in a glass of water for at least a week or two because I had apparently gotten side-tracked. Well, I was shocked as heck when I saw what had happened to it. At first I didn’t notice anything different. I just knew the water was cloudy and that I had forgotten about it in the water. When I pulled it out there, there was a “growth” on one end of it. What the heck? It ended up coming off quite easily.

Upon closer inspection, it seems as if a portion of the outer shell had worn away a little bit (only in one corner). It looked like someone had taken a small nibble from a giant M&M candy. lol. But it became clear that it was indeed a seed that was trying to germinate. It was so old, I don’t think it actually would have, but that piece of the seed was designed to erode in water after a while, I guess.

Ok, well, that’s enough rambling for now….

[Update: AWESOME! I found out which type of seed it is. Check it out!]

Sea Bean

This is freakin’ sweet. I’ve had it for a few years now and am still entertained by it. It’s a cell phone jammer in a poorly disguised ‘cell phone’ looking case. The range isn’t all that great outside, but every now and then I’m able to knock someone off their call if they are driving really slow in front of me because they are paying too much attention to their conversation than on the road.

It’s also great fun indoors. Nothing beats wandering info the cell phone stores in the mall with it turned on and in my pocket… Turning it on and off while the store employees are on their cell phones outside the store is even better. Making them say, “Can you hear me now? Sorry. My cell phone signal keeps dropping” in front of the customers is quite enjoyable. It’s also pretty good in movie theaters to ensure people don’t talk on the phone during it. lol. Only downside about keeping it on for long periods of time is that the battery gets hot in my pocket. Oh, well. It’s a small price to pay to take down some “cyborg” with one of those annoying bluetooth-enabled headsets on :)

Cell Phone Jammer