It was not a completely distress-free experience, the amount of plaster provided is not quite enough and does not allow for mistakes. Sure enough, we made a mistake on the first attempt, we waited too long between mixing the plaster and pouring it in the mold, and finished up with a mess. The solution was to go to the local store to buy a box of plaster of Paris, which allowed to make 2 volcanoes without worrying about running out.

After pouring the plaster and letting it set, the mold is taken apart to reveal the “cracked” surface of the volcano, which looks nice. The chimney remains inside, that’s where the mix of soda and vinegar will go. That means the kit is not intended for making more than one volcano at a time. That was a small problem to address when making the second volcano, I cut out the spout of a water bottle and used it as the chimney for the other volcano. Worked well.

Once both volcanoes have hardened and dried, then came the arts part of the project: using the watercolor, make the while plaster look like a volcano. The colors include red, yellow, blue and green, and by mixing colors one can figure out how to make the desired colors. My mom and I had different styles, I went for a more authentic look with brown and green at the bottom, and orange “lava” at the top, and my mom went for a more hippie-looking volcano. They both looked fantastic. The finished volcano is about 5 inches tall.

Since we were plotting on filming and photographing the volcano eruptions, we did some experimenting with soda and vinegar in the sink using small glasses. We figured out the quantities we liked, and added some food coloring to make the lava orange instead of a white foam. The result was fantastic.

And then came the fun part: it was winter time in Canada, so we place the volcanoes on newspaper and the newspaper on the snow, took plenty of pictures (there were plenty of pictures at every step of the project as well), then proceeded with the eruptions. The whole family was outside to attend. They were spectacular, the lava erupted and flowed down the mountain…

We had a fantastic time with this kit, and apart from the limited quantity of plaster it is excellent quality and well made. That would be a fun thing to do with kids, there are several skills involved in building and painting the volcanoes, and making them erupt.

Highly recommended.

While I had no expectation of audiphile quality sound from my laptop, I was hoping that the volume would be loud enough to hear in a room that otherwise is silent enough to hear a pin drop. This is not the case with my laptop.

I looked at a number of possible options for adding hearable sound to my laptop, but I knew that I wanted something as small and portable as possible while delivering decent enough sound so that I could play a DVD on my laptop and be able to hear it. I nearly bought something else, but at the last minute I happened upon these J-Lab speakers. They fit my bill of being small and no hassle to install. Just plug em into an available USB port and Vista recognises them with no problem. I am really satisfied with the sound of these speakers for what they are. I didn’t buy them for a surround sound experience; I just wanted to be able to clearly hear DVD playback and these speakers don’t disappoint.

You’ll notice in the photos of these speakers that they are shown plugged into a USB port and that the weight of the speaker is supported by the port. Though the speakers are light enough, I still reckon that they could stress the USB port and circuit board over time so I recommend twisting them so that the speaker rests on a surface rather than relying on the strength of the USB port to support them.

Overall I am very satisfied with these speakers and recommend them for the purpose of providing adequate sound solution for anyone who has a laptop that has speakers that are on a par with the horribly crappy speakers built into the Fujitso A1110 lifebook.

The spot of light is perfect for the mysteries I just can’t place down, yet it doesn’t disturb a sleepyhead. Bulbs are long lasting, light is bright, and it has an automatic on/off.

Sweet dreams!