i checked out my new neewer 10.6" flapjack led light that was sent to belmont. my father thought maybe it was a grow light. it came in a nice soft material zippered carrying case. it was heavier than i expected, sturdy, made from some kind of metal. i plugged it in to see how bright it was. even at 1% you need to squint your eyes to directly look at it. however, after about 50%, you can't really tell that it's getting brighter. i also played with the color temperature, from 3200K to 5600K. as-is, it's hard to use because it also needs to be paired up with a light stand. i was hoping it'd be brighter. at a distance of about a foot it's plenty bright, but beyond that there's noticeable drop off in the light intensity. for lighting food, i still wonder if it isn't better to go with a large soft box. i'll do some research, see how much those things cost. right now i'm leaning more towards returning this flapjack light. i'll play around with it some more, take some test photos.

my father made some jiu niang soup for lunch. the two jars i gave them on thursday (my sister dropped them off), my mother gave one of them away to my 2nd aunt. but they still had an older jar i gave them over the weekend, and that one is super sweet because it's been aged for over 2 weeks. there was sesame paste glutinous rice balls but i still prefer the plain rice balls. sesame has a tendency to overpower the natural flavor of the fermented rice.

afterwards my father and i went to the garage to install the replacement clutch cable on the snowblower. he'd already taken off the cover earlier, and it was a simple matter of swapping out the cable. after we put everything together we ran the blower. it seemed to be working, but the clutch wouldn't full disengage when released, so the drive was still spinning and so were the blades, just very slowly. later i went back outside and released some of the tension on the clutch cable, maybe that might fix the problem.

i researched getting internet service for my sister's godmother when she moves into her new apartment. i had the online application basically all filled out, just needed to know when she's coming back so i can start her service beforehand.

my sister came home briefly with hailey. whenever hailey comes over, she just wants to either eat or go outside in the backyard. if she gets bored she'll sleep. on rare occasions she might get a drink of water. i went with her outside to throw some snow around. she seemed to be waiting for my sister to come out but she never did.

we grilled some food for dinner: marinated drumsticks, italian sausages, steaks. even though it was still 40°F, it felt much colder outside due to all the snow on the ground and evaporated moisture in the air. the chicken took the bulk of the grilling time, seared at high heat before slow cooking on medium. the sausages were left on the top rack to slow cook. while we waited for the food to cook, i straightened out the solar-powered backyard string lights, so it stretches across more of our backyard fencing.

when we tried to raise the temperature back up to grilling (400-500°F), the barbecue simply couldn't get any hotter no matter how long we waited. the highest it went was 400°F, and seemed to be going backwards, done to 350°F. you can't cook steaks on that low a temperature, and it basically ruined them. there was no sear, the steaks looked awful. slicing them open, they were still raw inside. my mother ended up grilling them in the pan, but it pretty much lost all flavor by that point, only made edible with leftover dabs of A1 steak sauce. at least the drumsticks were cooked to perfection, and the sausages had a delicate crispy skin (although i would've liked to see them cooked on the lower grill, for more charring). my parents opened a bottle of roscato, a sweet sparkling red wine. i tried it, very sweet, very delicious, very easy to accidentally get drunk on. the name made sense afterwards, a play on "red moscato."

my parents ended up getting some money from the state pandemic grant. they sent the e-mail a few days ago but nobody checked, although my mother said she saw something but didn't know whether if it was real or a scam. i took a look and sure enough it was authentic. my father signed the edocument, all he needs to do now is submit some identification and his bank account info.

because of the snow tomorrow (anywhere from 3-9" is expected), we decided i wouldn't come to belmont tomorrow. instead my mother packed a box full of leftover drumsticks and sausages for me to eat tomorrow, as well as some scallion bread. i brought the neewer flapjack light with me, it fit perfectly in my rear bike basket. i pushed the bike back into the basement, as it didn't get it to get snow covered.

when i got home i played around with the flapjack light some more. using the handle of a swifter mop as a stand (it was the perfect size, even had the right-size screw hole), i took some sample shots. what i want is a light that can mimic natural sunlight, but the only way to do that really is to get a bigger diffused light. the neewer light can also run off of batteries (not included), i think that'd make this light even more portable, since as of now it has to be tethered to a brick power supply. a working light stand is also a necessity. i'll play with it some more, maybe i need to order a stand to fully test out the light, as the mop handle isn't going to cut it. it was nice that i didn't have to use a flash though, lot easier to compose with visible lighting instead of a split second of flash lighting. i noticed the body of the flapjack light was getting warm the longer i used it.