What Does the Cake Win?
15Today when I was out shopping for the family groceries I got a call from my father informing me that a large box had been delivered today. Perplexed I questioned him about its particulars, not recalling what I might have ordered for Saturday Delivery, and then it hit me! My prize for designing one of the most popular Meh cakes had arrived in a 15x15x15 cubical carton.
‘Hooray!’ I thought, ‘It’s big, bigger than my fukubukuro was, it must be chock full of stuff!’ Boy was it.
What you are looking at there, ladies and gentlemen, is fifty five double-bags of Texas air along with 16 double bags from which the air had, sadly, escaped. Much as I enjoy a good bag of Texas Air (it does wonders for my complexion) there was more to behold within the box.
I must admit, I got a wee bit excited when I saw what it was. I’ve kind’ve always had a secret desire to own a Lava Lamp (I feel like it would be good to watch when you can’t fall asleep to help turn your brain off, IDK) but never pulled the trigger. Here it was, Meh had somehow read my mind and provided that which I would not purchase myself.
But wait, there’s more! Nestled within the warm embrace of Texas air was a mystery package! Whatever could it be?
So, my giant 15x15x15 box contained …
- A Lava Lamp
- A Mystery Package
- And 71 double airbags, 55 of which contained Texas Air
Time to dig in! Let’s start with the Lava Lamp! It had a price sticker on it.
It’s not the cost of the item that counts, right? But wait… this doesn’t bode well…
Someone’s opened this before… and that hole in the middle looks like it’s meant to hold the top of the lamp… it’s suspiciously empty, what gives? I dug in and found the expected blue ‘lava’ vessel, a dented base…
…which I was able to straighten easily enough and… that’s it.
I am the proud new owner of a lifeless lava lamp with no cap. I shall have to ponder on this, perhaps the bulbs are sold somewhere. Who needs a cap anyway?
Let’s move on to the mystery package. After clawing my way through the layers of tape and bubble wrap I was left with a lovely note from the Meh staffers:
And a picture frame featuring unrelated subject matter en espanol containing a stunning print of my winning birthday cake.
So there you have it, my prize! Thanks @gaelmagi! Does anyone know anything about lava lamp bulbs?
P.S. - Sorry for hoarding all of the Texas air guys, these are probably the bags that were earmarked for shipping Bubba vacuum bottles in!
- 9 comments, 11 replies
- Comment
Ceramic cups, actually.
The bulb is a 25w, E17 (aka intermediate) base.
When I was in college, the lamps were very sensitive to the brand of bulb. Using the same rated wattage and bulb size, the wax might sit in at the bottom barely melting or do a monotonous single stream up the center. That was a long time ago, in a dorm room far, far away. I am guessing there was a lot of variation in the true wattage of various brands.
You can experiment with different wattages by using a light dimmer and a 40 watt bulb.
The air bubble at the top looks too big. Make sure it doesn’t leak when it gets hot. Or run it on a dish to catch any escaping liquids.
@darkzrobe refurbs lava lamps…perhaps some insight could be gleamed from the cloaked one?
You can find the bulbs you need here:
http://lavalamp.com/replacement-bulbs
I think you need the 15 watt ones (However your base does say 25 watt max… So not sure).
Also that thing is really cloudy and tiny. The tiny ones have all the issues.
May I suggest fulfilling your inner lava lamp with a good sized one?
https://www.amazon.com/Lava-Lite-5225-16-3-Inch-Silver/dp/B001MWSVP6/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1470597249&sr=8-9&keywords=Lava+Lamp
That is the 52oz one. They arnt that much bigger than that one and flow so much better.
If you really want to do this right find your way to a local spensers and find one you like. Before buying it open it up and make sure the water is clear and not cloudy.
If you have questions let me know.
And if you REALLY want to go down the rabbit hole, check out this place:
http://www.oozinggoo.com/
@darkzrobe it’s just one of those things I’ve never seen fit to actually drop money on. I know this lava lamp isn’t anything special, it’s from Walmart from what I can tell, but the price is right
That oozing goo site is interesting though!
@darkzrobe Is the liquid really just water? I have this fuzzy recollection (it WAS ~35yr ago; I’ve slept a few times since then) that I once tried to replace the original liquid with water after an incident/accident caused leakage, but the wax would no longer float.
/giphy lava lamp liquid
@jbartus This is what I found on eHow: Need to adjust water salinity to nearly match density of wax compound, then add a drop of liquid soap.
@compunaut @jbartus
Yep Insides are water, wax, soap, and salt. I use something called a goo kit cause it takes a lot of the guess work out of it.
Now I must have one.
Meh?
/image the cake is a lie.
So… I guess I’m up today. At least I hope.
that print truly is stunning.
/giphy stunning print
@jbartus I thought you would know how to spell my name.
Dear Irk,
How come everybody misspells my name?
– @galmaegi
@narfcake #storyofmylife
@galmaegi Your story will get skewed even further. Has Irk pronounced anybody’s name correctly in the Ask Irk segments?
@narfcake All of them, I think
@galmaegi I had to do a double take like 15 times before I figured out what you were talking about, I’m so sorry!
I swear to god I know how to spell your name, I have no idea how that happened.
Can I plead the 3:37 AM posting time as an excuse? It was the end of GISHWHES week too! I probably looked like this while writing it:
Sorry!
@jbartus haha no worries! Again, story of my life.
So… did I send you an incomplete lava lamp? 
@galmaegi yeah, sadly. I’m gonna try to track down a bulb, dunno what I can do about the cap, but it might not look so bad without it once I can fire it up.