Neuronify is Back, on iPadOS! Analyzing and Comparing the Efficacy of Two Common Learning Methods - Immersion Versus Self-Quizzing.

 Originally published: 09/21/2021

Every now and then, I get quizzed on knowledge base, perceptual acuity , memory tasks of contexts pertaining to occurrences and developments in my life, and of “seemingly” random tidbits of learning, taxonomy, culture, or lore (otherwise), in my remote-sensing environments which happen upon me.

This sort of thing happens on a regular basis. The remote-sensing quorums are attended by various classes and types of individuals, yet commonly, the topic basis is one of a civil complaint against me, and I find myself chronically stressed out, in life, of various sorts of consequences. The pursuit of an ever more leisurely outlook and disposition, in life, is an obvious lure for me, and unfortunately, I find myself deprecating in to former and legacy modes of behaviors, such as seeking novel or imprudent sorts of entertainment online, for example, rather than using my strengths, and building upon gainful and productive aspirations in life. 

 The app I have in mind, in this instance, is a simplistic one, although I would strongly presume that the merits are founded, and sure. 

Why an app? 

Mobile development is an industry that had a significant heyday leading up to the time of the Pandemic, and by all means, it’s an industry that will see growth, to come, as various demographics see a rise and fall in their social and class status underpinnings; I’d suppose that would happen, based on much of the “conjectural” (perceptual?) confessionals and Freudian Slips that I’d been privy to, as we’re all under interrogation by the higher authority, until we become the highest authority, when it comes to a remote sensing tech and lifestyle sort of, uh, lifestyle. 

Within the gold rush timespan, leading up to the era of high-powered mobile device hardware, we saw many shining stars emerge in app development, which fulfilled many of the needed purposes to be seen through in app development in an ever-increasingly more compact, more large if need be; more graphics, higher data throughput and storage capability expectation and demand, on our devices. Activities and pursuits of merit, once confined, largely, to the classroom environment and to libraries, were suitably accommodated and made much more accessible to the layperson of an aspirational creed, who would shrug off the influence of pirating goods (and jailbreaking,, etc.), and go with the program, as far as discovering what was available and being offered through mainstream big tech app stores, offered by Google, Apple, and now Amazon (does Microsoft do an App Store for their mobile devices? I don’t know, off-hand, but I’d assume so). 

The point is,

is that many developers and programmers had staked their worth and product offerings, early on, and they’d established themselves, app-wise, as the go-to solution that people would come to discover, and support, for menial scrum pay - that many App Store offerings were given to people as, with archetypes such as the iTunes Store’s $0.99 offerings of parted-out pieces of what could, would, or had been full albums, previously; many of such apps, themselves, offering a similarly compartmentalized concept of what productivity and development, or “work,” on mobile devices could, and ought be, as it was envisioned and carried out. 

My go-to app, for learning about neural networks, all learning and literature (mostly) aside, came to be Neuronify. Was it free? Did I pay for it? I don’t quite remember, but if it cost anything, it was a couple, or several dollars, or so. It seemed to do the job, as imaginable as it might be, for a dilettante entry in to app-attainment goals, for my arrays, choices, and learning-basis inclusions on to my mobile devices, and for that matter, SSD hard drive space, on an iPad, even more so than on a mobile phone device - it goes a lot further than on a desktop environment (as well as better than phones can offer). I’ve currently (September 2021) got 569 apps, 6020 photos, 346 videos, 168 songs, on my device, which features 256 GB of SSD storage, and I’m only down to about 161 GB remaining. I do anywhere from a 4+ hour to 8-hour screen time daily average, given a week, on my iPad Pro device, particularly now that I’d lost my Google Android Pixel 4a 5G, which is part of a great series of mobile phones, for the cost, by the way. For that matter, the Google Store also features the Neuronify DIY neural networks mapping (doing) app, as well. 

The premise of a neural network is fairly basic, in essence. There aren’t all that many parameters and objects that would be featured in Neuronify, but the significant feature of having development and productivity, on mobile, playing out, at the speed of whatever measure of achievement that could be wrought out of the device and app, through the user’s input, as a moving visual image: interactive, and engaging that it is, playing out on the screen, is part of an attainment, in mobile device development, particularly on the iPad (Pro), which would have formerly only existed in richly-resourced study and research learning and development environments, and tracing even further back, in static image renders, of the calculations involved, and even further than that, in people’s imaginations. At some point, the technology falls back in time, in to philosophical codices, with the basis and need for the science of neurology being a pursuit, study, and investigation of what comprises the mind, itself, and it’s functioning, at the most critical points of investigation and discovery that could be had. What works? What doesn’t? What is the most effective cause and effect cycle and premise? Which types of decisions and behaviors are harmful, or wasteful? These sorts of questions could be proven, to as best the researcher could prove, to the scientific community, whom, in turn, would be capable of producing the same results, in a lab setting, thus validating the discovery. 

Within the app itself, as I’d mentioned earlier, there are only several parameter objects and icon type tools, or actions and feedback mechanisms, in other words, of the interface. The interface, in and of itself, is a node-based class of workflow environment.

The Neuronify app interface, on a 2020 model iPad Pro.

Here, then are the various user interface tools of the app:

Leaky excitatory neuron

Adaptive excitatory neuron

Leaky inhibitory neuron

Adaptive inhibitory neuron

Voltmeter

Spike detector

Firing rate plot

Loudspeaker

DC current source

AC current source

Irregular spike generator

Regular spike generator

Visual input 

Touch activator

Note

My hypotheses:

Premise 1: innovative skills arise out of need, as well as out of rote. 

Some findings and observations, upon that basis:

• Needful skills could only possibly attend to the problem which arises. In this case, I’m choosing productivity as the title of merit. Takin time to discern and decipher, as well as determine that the problem is resolved, and move forth, is hampered by products of neural activity that could rely on lesser or greater electrical pulses, at a more accommodating timing, if the problem at hand were capably handled by a more singular and fluid, unique mind, rather than a mind of more randomness. Electrical efficiency is the requisite object of attainment.
• My preference, for deciphering that engaged and interactive learning, for example, is the superior backdrop to a greater productivity, is that the problems are being resolved in an engaging, real-time environment. Calculations happen quicker through methods gained in using hand-eye coordination types of skill sets - gestural and procedural industriousness, of various other enterprises of life, which pertain to economics, could be translated over in to the argument for an active learning environment basis to a more capable and effective problem-solving style, compared to a “flash card” setting, of completely randomized data sets, this being the cards. 
• The goal of this hypothesis would be to employ certain scientific control environments of my own study, ask individuals for their input, and analyze their statements and claims, as well as their preferences, and discover, within the control environment, whether or not they find similarity, or comparability, in their input received, when calculated against my personal findings. On one hand, it takes a high Intelligence Quotient (IQ) to discern valid mathematical truths about a visual environment, of an insightful nature, yet - I would assert that we, as intelligent and rational creatures, would pursue and develop upon gainful, rational, formal structures, rather than something more founded upon chance, randomness, (even within a finite series of choices), memory - which would alter the resonant section, even, of the brain, itself - a costly transformation; I would say more so, than if the knowledge were understood by an actively engaged mind, of rote discipline, and familiarity, set about in a workflow and industrious setting and environment. 

I’ll pause here, in writing, because I’ve arrived at my destination, of where I’m going, for this part of the day.

Update: 02/09/2023

Hello, I apologize for the abandoned blog article, here - ha ha… a silly way for me to appear, in front of others in the scientific community, but I had abandoned this blog article, due to ongoing challenges in my personal life, which still persist. Aside from that, the app no longer loads on my device; I believe that the app is no longer available for iPadOS, for that matter.

Update: 03/25/2025

I’ve recently gotten a new iPad Pro, and, with my new desktop interface, I checked out my complete apps list, of former installations that I’ve had, and I got to look over all of the apps that I’ve ever had, on every iOS / iPadOS installation that I’ve done, so I checked back on Neuronify, as a download, after finding that I had to abandon this thread of my research, due to the app not working for me, temporarily, as the previous update I made on this article will state. This being the case, I can now work on speculative research projects of relevant subject matter, as for my neurological subject matter hypotheses. 

What’s the difference between a damascenone and a damascone? A Personal Journey Through Fragrance, and the Literature.

 You might be tempted to research and add one of the damascones to your cart (or wish list), instead of trying out damascenone total, itself, but the reality of the situation is that: these aren’t typos that snuck in to the supply chain of retail aroma compounds, although that might be the most common folly, in this situation; it got me, for example, and for years I went about not knowing and discerning between a damascenone versus the various damascones that there are - in other words, I thought that these were typos (the difference in spelling, between one and the other), and that these two distinctions were part of the same family and classification of fragrances. Not until just several hours prior, before preparing this blog article, in fact, did I truly learn and discerned the distinctions and differences between damascenone and the various damascones.

First of all, the difference in use case scenario is fairly large, in this case. I recall a nameless mock-up perfume composition that I threw together with a new haul of fragrance ingredients that I’d procured, and I was relatively new at composing fragrance mock-ups. As such, I had much less familiarity, or sense, for that matter, about the suggestions and or significance of the IFRA limitations upon many various fragrance and flavor compounds, offering guidelines and limits, in percentages, or in “parts per” (million), for example. For that matter, damascenone is used as both a flavor and as a fragrance molecule. In this mockup fragrance composition I had made, years ago, implementing damascenone, I had employed what would be considered an “overdose” amount - the compound is very powerfully fragrant. Here is what the literature has on damascenone.

The article feels timely, seeing as how we’re on the heels of the latest Valentine’s Day, this year (2025). 

As well, here is what Google’s AI-augmented search came up with, when I asked what the difference was/is between damascenone and damascones, since I had gotten things mixed and mushed up, in my mind, until just earlier:

Here, although, absent of smelling the aroma compounds in question “in person,” it would be a far cry from simple, to really invoke the senses in a way that would constitute that the readers could mock up damascenone, for one, and the damascones (there’s a few, at minimum). Regardless, we see that it is the case, that the two distinctions are inherently separate families, separate molecular forms, and different classifications of materials, both chemically and in an olfactory sense. I personally have had a former in-person sampling of damascenone 93%, which I employed in the fragrance composition I had touched on, earlier, and, as well, I recently purchased beta-damascone, thinking that that was the compound that I had employed, previously (without checking my receipts, as notes; therefore, I was wrong). Damascenone is, as well as damascone, distinguished, in composition and form, in the “beta” distinction (it’s known as beta-damascenone, and there are different aesthetics, dependent upon the degree of purity of the beta molecule, versus other variants of the same compound). 

The original haul in question, where I purchased Damascenone 93% from the now defunct CreatingPerfume.com (they’re now at CreatingPerfumeStore.com).

Now, having made my recent mistaken step, in trying to reclaim some of the scent legacy that I had once created, just for the olfactory nostalgia’s sensibilities of the situation, but also, that I felt that that particular historic nuance of the fragrance composition I made would be a distinguished role to fulfill in my latest composition, Eau Pigeonoid (I lost my fragrance collection, years ago, when my belongings, including over 300 fragrance ingredients and oils, were swiftly removed from my possession. As such, I “miss” some of my fragrance compositions that I’d made). In this case, I’d been feeling that my latest make of Eau Pigeonoid (my latest fragrance composition) is “pretty good,” meaning that it’s tolerable for myself, and, conceivably, for others, as well. I can tell, because I sometimes have to admit that I find myself stuck, at times, with fragrance compositions that make me a bit nauseous or embarrassed, being that they don’t smell all that refreshing. Here, I have a pretty good composition that doesn’t make me sick or fatigued; I just feel that the composition could use a bit of smoothing out of some of the slight let-downs that it has, as-is, so I wanted to audition Damascenone Total next to my working composition of Eau Pigeonoid, even though I might only use just a slight amount for it, in the end, I just wanted to sample the two fragrances together, as well as Hedione HC, in which case, I’m opting for the cheaper (and equivalent) Methyl Dihydro Jasmonate HC. Despite that Eau Pigeonoid is touted, currently, as a men’s fragrance, and these are floral-esque (or, moreso floral) effects, I’m just whittling away at slight facets of the fragrance, Eau Pigeonoid, at the moment. Most of the primary and formative work has already been done on it. 

Updating…

02/17/2025 10:11 p.m.

I placed my order for the materials, finally, and I threw in some patchoulol crystals, to see how they are. The price worked out to be just right, for my budget. 

As an aside, I have some other oils on order from Sheer Essence, on Amazon. I checked out their website, as well, to view their full catalog, and, in this case, I ended up going with a bottle of cardamom essential oil, as well as Melissa officinalus. Right now, I have a fairly (what I might estimate to be) aldehydic fragrance, with recent additions of vanilla, pink pepper, beeswax absolute, and a “named” aldehydic mandarin scent, with Mandarinal. It’s somewhat reminiscent of the type of quality that a Dior fragrance might have, yet it brings out the sensual side of my days, as a quick reminder, here and there, of an animalistic nature, lying beneath the surface (probably also owing to that I haven’t done laundry in a very long time - although, I did a quick run, to make sure I wasn’t too bum, just the other night). What I mean is that body odors would arise, in my senses and periphery, yet, fragranced with the sweetened odors of beeswax absolute and other components, I found it compelling (I know, doesn’t everyone, of themselves?). Anyways, I’m currently cleaning my room. I ordered a new mattress, and it’s a size upgrade, so I have to move and repurpose a bunch of stuff in my room, on this evening. 

“Dior?” You might be remarking. “He compares himself to Dior?” And I know, sure, it’s a bit youthful and unrefined a composition, yet, as I stated, my composition, I would say, to reiterate, that it simply has “some of” the qualities that some Dior fragrances do have. I found it a bit affront, to have landed, stylistically, in a fragrance space that’s already occupied; that’s why I’m seeking new ingredients, perhaps; I’m seeking to surge forth and find my Eau Pigeonoid niche, with a finished prototype, something fantastic and unique enough to stand on it’s own, even though - <_<… it’s not bad, as it stands, right now. 

In fact, I suppose, on second thought (now that I gather my thoughts, a bit), that Eau Pigeonoid was slightly built upon a supposition of that I could, at this stage, in my perfumery knowledge, make a slight mockup of something that smells somewhat like Dior Homme Sport, so I guess that that rightly stood as some of my formative inspiration, in crafting Eau Pigeonoid. Now I’m going with some Cardamom and Melissa, some damascenone and Hedione, with a dash of patchoulol crystals, if it suits; attempting to craft a bit of spicy, a bit of lemon freshness, and I want to fill out and round out the woods, with an aim to barter good intentions for near-cosmonaut euphoria highs, upon smelling my own fragrance (Hopefully? That’s my goal, anyways, with this stuff). I’m hoping that Damascenone and Hedione HC are perhaps the missing actors in making my fragrance composition a fine show of things.

The reason I reopened this project was a drive to explore the undiscovered (by myself), which is always the case, when procuring and experimenting with new aroma chemicals and fragrance compounds. Even if it’s a familiar scent, that I’ve encountered, or know, from experience, smelling it as a bottled product, ready for mixing, is a whole other experience. By the way, I do highly recommend Sheer Essence for procuring some fundamental essential oils, carrier oils, etc. You might be thinking, “well, they ship from India, how do I know it’s good? What if it takes a long time?” The answer to those fears are that, surprisingly, the packages take a much shorter time than expected, and the quality of their oils is fantastic. I recommend that readers try them out. They’re perhaps one of the best bargain merchants in the entire world of natural fragrance materials - not that bargain, here, means “cheap.” As I said, it’s surprising; both the quality of the oils, as well as the promptness in receiving the shipment. Perhaps a week or two, at most, to receive it in the United States. As you can see, from the screenshot below, I ordered a fragrance on the 6th, and I reviewed it, after receiving it, on the 14th of the same month, or earlier than that, that I received it and reviewed it.

Update: I received the fragrance ingredients, and I added them to my fragrance composition, which I tentatively call “Eau Pigeonoid.” Even with around only 1/4 to 1/3rd of a milliliter, of the Damascenone, that I added, it stands as a very prominent feature of the composition, with a relaxing, natural, fruity floral effect to it. I feel that I rested better, after spraying some of the fragrance in my room, as I slept. I’ll plan on waiting for the cardamom and Melissa essential oils to arrive, from India, before I plot out the final and finishing touches on the fragrance, once again. So far, it’s been through it’s fourth cycle of development, since the formula was originally concocted, out of 8 ingredients (now, there’s more like 20 ingredients, some of them just trace amounts, but I wanted the damascenone effect, that I remembered, from my past compositions, and Perfumer’s Apprentice’s Damascenone Total (Firmenich) doesn’t disappoint. 

Recipe: chocolate clove (mint) flavored cigarettes.

 With the battering that the flavored tobacco industry took, in California, it's prudent to begin flavoring cigarettes on your own.

On one hand, the industry was very youthful, with hundreds of flavor startups vying for a market share in the smokeless tobacco industry.

Cigarettes just "feel" better (when smoked), with natural and organic flavors added to them.

Vaporizers, while nice, just have a bit of something lacking to them, compared to the enjoyment found in a nice cigarette, especially a flavored one.

USP nicotine is a strongly toxic chemical to wield around, and to entrust someone else, in a youthful industry, to manage appropriately, in vaporizer solutions.

Chocolate clove (mint) flavored cigarettes have a mild, relaxing hit to them, with a pleasurable flavor and experience, throughout. Simply order some simple ingredients online, and prepare your tobacco, upon settling in, for the night, after purchasing a pack - this project does take some foresight. 

Flavor concentrates versus fragrance components:

- some flavor concentrates are dissolved in a solution of propylene glycol, which is favorable for adding to both nicotine salts solution concentrate (vaporizer) mixtures and directly on to cigarettes, alike, although, when working with tobacco, in this case, the residues from the unevaporated propylene glycol, which is a food grade antifreeze, and which imparts the effect of "smoke," when used in a vaporizer, just might be additional fluff, so to speak; unnecessary, in other words, in a tobacco smoking setting. Fragrance ingredients are nearly all mostly volatile compounds - their volatility is actually intertwined with their worth, hence, the fleeting and transient nature of fine fragrance, whereas a lingering scent becomes a headache, in many cases. 

- fragrance ingredient extractions are time-worn and standardized procedures, with some manufacturers and supply chains practicing stringent, internationally and historically recognized, traditional chemistry procedures. Not that this isn't the case with flavor ingredients, as well, it's just that we don't "smoke" inhale our food; food is eaten, drinks are drunk, and tasted, whereas there is a fragrant aspect to smoking which could come in to consideration, in this context.

The Cocoa absolute, being a somewhat scarcely found product, is well-to-do, to be ordered from Liberty Natural. Their ¼ oz. size comes in a good, deep-well container, to which solvent may be added, to make concentrations varying from 50% to 10%, depending on the virginity of the solvent solution. I chose isopropyl myristate for my solvent, which is, essentially (or nearly) a fragrance-free version of isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol. In addition, IPM is fully volatile, and it will evaporate completely, while also dissolving a good portion of the fragrant and flavorful components of this Cocoa absolute. Just note that the solution is a fully liquid thing, so dampening your cigarettes, with some slaked-on droplets of solution will make the cigarettes fragile. I recommend doing this project when you're calm and settled down, for some long stretch of time, given a day or more, of productivity, by comparison.

The clove bud oil, which I like, as a throwback to Djarum "cigarettes," (they're actually labeled as cigars), gives a nice, mild and satisfying smoke, when directly applied to a cigarette (white paper portion).

A pack of Djarums.

The oil does not need to dry, before lighting up, but if you add the Cocoa absolute with IPM, I would strongly recommend fully drying out the cigarettes, in front of a fan, or under gentle heat, as inhaling isopropanol-type compounds, acutely, can cause temporary blindness, an unpleasant and hazardous condition to bear. For my choice of supplier: in this case, I went with Whole Foods' Aura Cacia Organic Clove Bud Oil, which came out to around $8.50 or $9.00, or so, after a 28% Amazon Prime member sale discount, from around $11.00-$12.00, or so. Just one or two droplets will do - no need to overdo it, and try to make a saucy, soaking cigarette, here. The flavor and fragrance components, here, are well concentrated, on their own merits.

That's it! As far as a mint flavoring - it would be nice, but I just haven't implemented it, in my flavoring outsets, just yet, so I won't jump the gun and write on it, for now. 

Update: some time had passed, and there was some discussion on the topic of mint, such as:

"I know you know what the best mint is, ... what is it?"

It took a while for me to recall the name of this special mint oil, but I knew that it was something good. Rich, fresh, smooth, and cooling. Then, I remembered that I was particularly fond of cornmint, which I had ordered from Perfumer's World, a couple of years back, or so. I believe that Liberty Natural stocks cornmint oil. Yet, even so, someone had commented that an oil of mint isn't all that agreeable, and that menthol crystals themselves ought to be used. This brought up the discussion of flavoring tobacco to a more primary sense, and someone mentioned cigarette filter crush balls, which are akin to the formerly stocked crush cigarettes, which, in southern California, were mainly Marlboro NXT and Camel Crush. I've tried this configuration, recently, in a cigarette butt that i picked up, to smoke, and it came out tasting just like the original crush ball cigarettes. I don't quite recall where I saw the crush ball flavoring pods online, maybe it was Amazon or eBay, or something, but I'm also not sure if the pods can be ordered and sent to a California address, due to the legislation that banned flavored tobacco products such as crush cigarettes.

Update: I traced back my previous browsing find, regarding end-user, DIY cigarette filter flavor pods. I found this machine on eBay for $10, that will insert the flavor capsules in to the cigarette filter, so that the cigarette can be flavored. There is also a link for 2,000 flavor pod capsules, priced at $40.00. I'll definitely try out this product solution, at some point soon, and I'll keep people updated as to how it works out.

The eBay listing page for the cigarette filter flavor pod / capsules installer machine, which has a link to another listing for the flavor pods themselves, as well.

Enjoy!

Some lightly dampened Cocoa and clove cigarettes, drying out, in front of a portable waist fan - an essential step, especially if you're in a hurry.

An Autumn Equinox Eve Hydrosol Elixir (Fragrance Recipe)

 

An Autumn Equinox Eve's Hydrosol Elixir 

This composition is for a 2 fl. oz. spritzer.

The starter oil was a bottom-of-the-bottle ring of leftover oil from a trefle magnolia citrus hydrosol. It had an impression of a fresh shampoo.

I added, to begin with:

2 drops of patchouli oil

This shifted the composition to heavily woodsy. I wanted to make a light, feminine, playful floral citrus fragrance, out of it, with a touch of spice:

6 mL IPM

50 mL water

14 drops magnolia

¼ mL Calibrian Bergamot BF

½ mL 10% Tonka bean absolute in IPM

¾ mL 10% Cocoa absolute in IPM

⅛ mL 10% blackcurrant Bud Absolute in IPM

5 drops Rose Otto

2 drops Carnation essential oil

7 drops cashmeran

⅓ mL coniferan

¼ gram Ambroxan 

¼ gram Exaltone

⅓ mL Limetol

¼ mL Fixateur

4 drops Anther

⅛ mL Canthoxal

1 slight drip vetiver oil

2 drops Cinnamon Flavor (maybe try 1; I used 2, and it's a bit prominent)

½ drip Black Hemlock Absolute

⅙ mL Rhubofix

2 drops 10:1 Water to Lavandin mailette Absolute Oil

⅒ gram Prismantol

⅓ mL Coumarex DB

This composition was fairly satisfactory and nice smelling, perhaps a mellis fragrance, citrus fresh, with rich, sweet, and sensuous floral effects to it. I found that spraying it a sensible amount didn't quite feel like enough, so maybe it has some stimulating and addictive features to it.

After carrying the fragrance around for a couple of hours, the fragrance oil, which had grown from ¼-⅓ band of oil on top of water, in to the ⅔ band of milky emulsified lipophilic layer, in water, as pictured.

If you get around to creating this fragrance, yourself, enjoy!

My favorite take, from out of Amazon Prime Day 2024.

This one just feels serendipitous to me, yet I can't share on other social media channels, from this hotspot. People have got to try this wacky UFO orb thing out! Yikes! 

Hint: look up "Dorom" on Amazon, whether it's the website, on a browser, or on the app. I had better luck on the web. Then buy one! If you don't see it's then it's probably done, his inventory. But the guy might be one of my buddies, from university days. Neat, huh? There's no deal like it...

My Android YY-35 Tablet's Chrome browser.

iPigeon.institute Recipes: iPigeon Udon Noodle Soup - a Curry Ramen.

 I do this one, here and there, as a fancier take on noodles (at least), compared to a standard bargain ramen noodle soup. This one will rate more around a standard Asian restaurant's offering of "some kind" of noodles; I just threw this dish together, with some influences from Thai food, and their hot and curry soups, with Udon noodles, hoisin sauce, which is Chinese, and a splash of vinegar, of your choosing, or selection (I had malt vinegar, which I purchased from Whole Foods, separately, but the rest of the ingredients for the soup are available at my local Ralph's - perhaps yours, as well). 

(Most of) The ingredients in iPigeon Udon Noodle Soup.

Ingredients:

1 pack udon noodles (2 in pack)

Golden Curry: 1/2 slab

Soy Sauce: 2 Tbsp.

Hoisin Sauce: 2-3 Tbsp.

Green Onions: 3, finely chopped, whole bulb and stalk

Cilantro: 1/2 bunch

Jalapeño Pepper: As desired, for spiciness 

Kara Coconut Cream Powder: ~ 1 Tbsp. (Work out 4 servings, per package)

Lime Juice: 1/2 lime, squeezed

Butter: 2-3 Tbsp (I used butter, which works fine, although toasted sesame oil would be more fitting)

Malt Vinegar: 2-3 splashes

It's fairly really simple, just follow the instructions on the udon noodle soup package, i.e. throw the noodles in boiling water, give it a minute or two, while you slice of scissor your greens, break up some curry solids and throw them in to the boiling water, put some coconut cream in there, throw the greens in (note: by this point, you'd want to stop cooking, nearly immediately, so that the greens still have some substantive form left of them), then, add in vinegar, soy sauce, lime and hoisin sauce. Perhaps some salt and pepper.

That's it! 

A tasty late night soupy meal.

iPigeon.institute Local Botanical Item Spotlights - Mitica brand honeycomb, from Gelson's.

Update, and quick note: yipes! This product could potentially cause severe eye irritation! Be very wary about using the product described in this blog article, as far as cosmetic use goes. 

 One of my more recent fragrance fascinations was with the raw material, the honeycomb. I'd once had a great sample of Beeswax Absolute, which I highly enjoyed, and, which I'd mixed in to some fragrance compositions, with some slight attainment about them. I found the material very overpoweringly dominant, in what I felt, at the time, were small portions (I was just beginning to investigate and experiment with perfumery materials, having come from a background in making fragrance compositions with essential oils and absolutes that are more commonly found in local retail stores. 

In any case, I was fascinated by the physiological, or psychoactive (bioactive, perhaps, at least), effects of Beeswax Absolute, and, once I had run out of my sample product, I'd sometimes obsess over the ingredient, and I'd spend a lot of time, here and there, trying to find out new things to know about the product, itself, and I also developed a fascination with producing the absolute, myself, as well. 

Recently, I came across a great retail product beeswax honeycomb, by Mitica brand, which I found at Gelson's grocery store. I made sure to pick one up, since I had lots of money on my Food Stamps account, still. The item comes in its own frame and plastic box (which, for aroma chemical extraction, might not be the best material, but this is just my first try at producing my own agricultural fragrance ingredient from this material).

A top view of Mitica brand's honeycomb box, which includes a frame that the beeswax and honey, contained within the honeycomb, is built upon.

A diagonal view of Mitica's honeycomb box and frame. I felt that the product was ideal, over other choices in retail honeycomb availability, particularly on account of that a box and frame are included with the product.

I had not much knowledge base to work from, as far as discovering literature in regards to the chemical and molecular composition and form of honeycomb and beeswax material, so I had to do some looking up, of things. I had some notion that I could try to produce an alternative product to an absolute, using regular cooking vinegar. I tried it out, by soaking the honeycomb frame, in the box, and I felt that it could take weeks, or months, or more, perhaps, for a full extraction, as limited as with vinegar, solely, as the extraction fluid, although evaporation would be fairly reliable, I figured, and there could be useful compounds produced, with acetic acid thrown in to the equation, given that I be patient. 

At this point, it's been a few weeks, or so, and I noticed some slight changes - almost of that the beeswax seemed almost alive, in and of itself, even under vinegar, since I felt that some of the beeswax seemed to have creeped along, further out, on to the frame's top edges, where I don't remember seeing beeswax establishments, previously. The vinegar solution, itself, slowly became yellowish, but there wasn't a whole lot of action, in this instance of experimentation. 

Upon investigating the solvency considerations of the material, it was learned that the extraction would be best done with a polar solvent. I don't have any of the standard solvents, on hand, but, at one point, I became reminded that I have dimethyl octenone on hand, of which, I'd had previously employed a similar (somewhat) product, in doing an extraction and production method, as an experiment, with 3-octanone, as part of the extraction. Dimethyl octenone has a fairly relative olfactory scent profile to 3-octanone, and I figured that it is a polar solvent, in and of itself, perhaps as a scarce fraction of some other, more gross product of some other agricultural crop, in being separated, for qualitative purposes.

With a 15 mL bottle of dimethyl octenone, I was capable of pouring around a third, or less,  of the bottle out, in to the vinegar solution, and still cover the entire top surface area. Immediately, I noticed that the two layers didn't immediately mix; it was like oil and water, so I felt that my decision to employ dimethyl octenone was justified. This was yesterday. The liquid in the box became very vaporous, so I felt that perhaps a timeline of an extraction, in this experiment phase, would work along a much quicker timeline. If you'd notice, in the first photo, some of the honeycomb cells are destroyed, over on the top left. There are also some "breathing holes" that had developed, as a result of introducing the dimethyl octenone to the solvent solution (I shook the box, so the liquids became a more thorough solution). I figured, dimethyl octenone, pungent and musky solvent-smelling that it is, it'll eventually evaporate off; I should seek to establish more generalized visible similarities between what I produce, regardless of what it is, specifically, and if the viscosity, or consistency, in terms of the product's thickness, or solidity, becomes a familiar and standard sort of outcome, it would be easier to sit and wait for this type of portion of patience being necessary, being that dimethyl octenone might only dissipate over several weeks, or so, perhaps. 

Part of the challenge would be discovering what becomes of the wax, itself. I would typically take a "hands-off" approach to playing with my extraction experiments, and just stick to observation, and just the slightest of mixing, or disturbance of the solution, but, in this case, I touched the corner of the beeswax, and it melted like cake frosting, so I knew, then, that the extraction would be successful, from here. Only time will tell, as to what the outcome of this experiment will produce.

Update:

This honeycomb / beeswax project continues to reveal delicate mysteries about its form, within the acidic, polar solvent liquid At this stage, 4 days later, following the original post, the Mitica honeycomb's plastic box proves to have taken on acid damage, bearing leaks, and penetration, through the outer layers of plastic, whereas the now emulsified lipophilic liquid, which has incorporated the beeswax, as liquid beads, as an outer phase of emulsifier, wherein the solvent layer acts as the inner phase, with the dimethyl octenone / acetic acid, perhaps mixed with the plastic, somehow acting as a surfactant, to make the emulsification fairly molecularly small. Have a look! 

This (not so delicate) bulge is pretty resilient, in fact - almost like a rubbery latex, in texture, but definitely bendable and flexible, with the plastic walls having disintegrated, due to the particular nature of the acidic polar solvency of the solution. I'd suppose it would be a perfumer's hand at pulling off this trick; some of it is just gestural artistry, since I didn't know that this would happen - although if you did the same extraction, it very well could happen for you, also.