DIY Foam Swords, Part 2: Playtest and Improvements

The 12 foam swords used for the playtest, mostly intact!

Hahaha! So four of us went to the park the other day just to try out the foam swords. Of course we brought some extra swords along (to duel wield and whatnot) and some nerf guns. But then the kids in the park kept coming up to us wanting to play too! Eventually, we had outfitted pretty much all the kids in the park with foam swords and we starting running "missions" like capture the flag (waterbottle) from the fort and escort the VIP from one end of the park to the other. Oh man, it was a blast! At one point we had at least 16+ kids out there whopping and hollaring and dueling it out on the grass (we need to get a picture of this!). We even got a group of highschoolers who were watching/chilling on the side to join in. All-in-all an excellent playtest with a wide test population, which lead to improvements in the foam sword design. Read on to see how to make the swords better!

DIY Foam Swords, Part 1: Construction

Here's my take on foam practice swords, which are more commonly known as boffers. They are basically foam insulation or pool noodles with a pvc pipe core. Since you can find plenty of boffer construction articles online, i will be focusing on the design options which make it suitable for martial arts practice. Also, my approach is minimalist, what is the minimum work/materials needed to make it because i am making 23 foam swords for a group battle. The material cost per sword is ~ $3 making it cheaper than official martial arts practice swords or nerf swords (at least $15)

Qual-line Skateboard Upgrade Review

This is a bit departure from the usual maker stuff i post but there aren't a lot of reviews on this on the internets, so here are my two cents. If you don't know what Quad-line is it's basically replacing the the skateboard wheels with roller-blade wheels which are larger and softer, which equates to a smoother ride. I thought i'd give it a shot! Read on for the review!

Kitchen Hacks: Carrots in Sushi

mmmm delicious!  carrots, imitation crab, bok choy and SPAM!

The problem with adding carrots to sushi is that it's usually too hard to put it in as carrot sticks. It's too crunchy-tough to chew compared to the rest of the stuff (rice, crab meat, cucumber, etc) and it throws off the texture of the sushi. Typically, you can get around this by manually cutting very thin carrots sticks yourself (time-consuming) or buying pre-shredded carrots (they look like match-sticks) which works but it's not ideal, they fall out easily after being cut because they're short pieces.

steamed carrots and bok choy

Here's the solution i figured out which allows you to use the carrots cut to the same size as the rest of the ingredients (size as in cross-sectional area). Steam them! If you have a steamer basket with your rice cooker you can steam them at the same time you cook the rice for the sushi! Here i tried it today, and it worked great! Interestingly the large, steamed carrots imparted a sweet flavor to the sushi.

Best Background Music for Tabletop Miniature Gaming

For Arcane Legions: Hans Zimmer, hands down. Que up some Hans Zimmer in GlooveShark, play all, and enjoy a night of thematic music for your epic conflicts! Actually, Hans Zimmer is probably the best background music for any tabletop miniature game, but maybe more for historical/fantasy themes like Warhammer Fantasy.

For Mechwarrior or sci-fi themed games (WH40k), the soundtrack for MechWarrior 2 (old computer game) is excellent. Lots of slow and heavy beat tracks that just exudes a 100-ton walking robot.

For Star Wars Miniatures: John William's Star Wars soundtracks of course!

Board Game Review: Dominion

"DOMINION" he said with a gleam in his eye

Dominion is basically our new favorite game bypassing Settlers of Catan as the most frequently-played. Yes, it's THAT good.

Kitchen Hacks: Pickled Carrots

Finished a jar of pickles and don't feel like wasting the juice? Try this! Reuse the pickle jar juice for carrots! Cut up a bunch of carrot sticks and let them soak in the pickle jar! After a few days you've got pickled carrots! I find it's usually good for 2x batches of carrots.