The Website/Articles
For the people that want just a little more information. introducing... the website articles subpage! anyways, here's the cool stuff!
blog/article #1: "the pizzano"
Quite Sugary Text #1
i was making donuts as usual today, but around 12:00 this weird guy in a blue suit came in and announced himself as the "pizzano." i had no idea of who he is and had had no clue what he was talking about. he came in on skis and pretended like he was on ice. i was fine with him until he tried to do what looked like a home budget recreation of an action scene.
He tried jumping out of the windows of the building like it was on fire. i think he may be insane. the two other customers in there at that time were also startled. nobody minded his presence until he came up to the counter, and asked for pizza. we don't sell pizza at our local candy shop, so i told him to order something candy related. he then proceeded to bawl his eyes out and throw somewhat of a fit, begging me for pizza as he claimed he "hadn't had it since this morning." i kinda felt bad for the guy, honestly...
i didn't ask him to leave, though. i baked him a candy pizza and tried to convince him it was a real pizza, and he seemed to be upset but content with the effort i put into it. he also tipped me twenty dollars! who knew people in superhero shirts were so rich?
anyways, i drew this as a depiction of what he looks like. i'm sure he'd probably like this drawing too.
blog/article #2: "Wilka & You"
Quite Sugary Text #2
"Wilka" is that one brand of chocolate everybody knows. it's the only brand anybody talks about as well. i personally make my donuts with homemade chocolate made from cocao beans, because Wilka chocolate is just chocolate-flavored wax. it sits on a throne of lies. i say this because some sugar-hungry customer walked into my store today, and asked for two chocolate donuts. i made them as usual and handed them off, but they were horrified because it wasn't sweet enough for them. they want more chocolate. i doused two new donuts in chocolate for them, and handed it over. it was not enough. nothing was ever enough for this guy.
they wanted PURE sugar on that donut. enough to give the extremely dead and extremely elusive Dilk Wilkam himself a heart attack. so... i did what any self-loathing candymaker would do, and took out some Wilka chocolate i had left over, melted it, and put all of it on the donut. the whole bar. i was ashamed of myself, but knew it'd probably satisfy the customer and give me a big tip. i also doused it in my chocolate again just to be sure. there was so much melted chocolate on that dount that the bag I gave him looked like a makeshift piping bag. it was a terrifying amount of chocolate...
Wilka, if you're reading this, please don't sue me. those ten dollars were well worth it.
(attatched is that disgusting chocolate bar i hate so much.)
blog/article #3: "empty lot"
Quite Sugary Text #3
there's been this site that's been under construction recently, and it's massive. bigger than anything me or my wife have ever seen constructed ever. it makes me wonder what could possibly be there. maybe a mall where i could by everything in the world? a grocery store? a hospital? sadly, i don't know the answer to this. it seems to be some form of secret project, so i asked my wife to spy on it for me. she came back with all the information she cool. all she described it as was a really tall building. that was it. that's all the information she gave me.
anyways, here's a sketch of my candy shop as a really cool skyscraper. candymakers can dream big too, right?
blog/article #4: "april fools"
Quite Sugary Text #4
this post was supposed to go up on april 1st but i got sidetracked and forgot about it for a while. it was gonna be something along the lines of "i made a fun little iq test game", but i'm not too worried about the joke now i guess. happy belated april fools, and i'm working on that fan art gallery i mentioned before.
blog/article #5: "bricks"
Quite Sugary Text #5
bricks have been around since at least 700 bce, and were made of mud hardened by the sun. over thousands of years later, and we’re still using a form of brick to build our houses, schools, and government facilities today. the way we make bricks now is a bit different compared to how the ancient phrygian people did, but that doesn’t mean it’s a completely different object now.
the making of a brick starts with the mining for materials. while older bricks used mud or basic clay found near rivers, modern bricks are mined out of the earth, obtaining a mixture of surface clays, shales, and even some fire clays. the materials are then separated into separate storage facilities in order to ensure that the clay blends into an abundance of its specific material. the key to production of bricks is abundance of each material. by allowing the clay to blend by itself, it creates more uniform material, resulting in more consistent color, and manufacturing control for creating sturdy brick bodies. in order to break up the large clay chunks, the materials are each processed through size-reduction machines, before being mixed together. usually each material is also put through inclined vibrating screens, in order to control particle size.
after all the preparation is done, the next thing to do is to start forming the brick. the first step is called “tempering” where water is added to the clay inside of a pug mill, a mixing chamber with one or more revolving shafts with blade extensions. this produces a homogeneous, plastic clay mass, and means the clay is ready to start forming. there are three different processes that are used to form bricks: stiff-mud, soft-mud, and dry-press, and each will give a different result. the most common process to form bricks however, is the stiff mud process, which accounts for 90% of the bricks produced in the united states alone.
in the stiff mud process, water measuring to about 10 to 15 percent of the clay is mixed into the clay to produce plasticity. after pugging, the now tempered clay is sent to an airing chamber that contains a vacuum of 15 to 29 inches of mercury. this removes any air bubbles, and gives the clay more plasticity, making it stronger. the clay is then extruded through a die to produce a column of clay. through this process, clay may be given textures or surface coatings. an automatic cutter then slices through the clay to create each individual brick. these cutters and die must be carefully calculated by the manufacturer to compensate for the shrinkage that happens during the drying and firing process.
after the forming process, but before the firing process, the clay bricks must first be dried. clay bricks are usually dried in drying chambers at temperatures ranging from 38 to 204 degrees celsius, for one to two days after formation. usually the heat for the drying chambers comes from exhaust produced by kilns for maximum thermal efficiency, but it can also be generated specifically for use in the drying chamber. either way, the heat and humidity of the area must be maintained carefully in order to prevent cracking within the clay. after drying, the clay bricks get loaded into a kiln car, and are transported to the firing kiln. the brick’s appearance may also be affected by how it’s placed, though machines take care of the work, so they’ll all look mostly the same.
the final step for creating the bricks is the firing stage. bricks are typically fired for around 10 to 40 hours depending on kiln type and other variables. the most common type of kilns used include tunnel kilns, and periodic kilns. fuel for the kilns can include gas, coal, sawdust, or even a combination of some sort. in a tunnel kiln, bricks are loaded into a kiln car and travel through a tunnel at various temperatures. heat conditions in each zone are carefully controlled, and the kilns are continuously operated. dried brick are set into periodic kilns, which is a kiln that is loaded, fired, allowed to cool, and then unloaded. clay, unlike metal, softens slowly and melts gradually when subjected to rising temperatures. a process called vitrification, in which the temperature is risen from 871 to 1,316 degrees celsius, allows the clay to become a hard mass with relatively low absorption. after the firing stage is done, the clay is allowed to cool for no more than 10 hours at the maximum, and is then de-hacked by robots. the majority of bricks today are packaged into self-contained cubes.
i find the process of brick making very interesting, and it reminds me that almost everything that might seem mundane can be a very involved process. i consider bricks art in a way, a kind of token of what we can do with our technology now. it gives me a joy i cannot really describe when i think in depth about these things, something as simple as a chair can be a journey to create. whenever you see a brick building, even if you don’t fully remember or understand the process, i hope you can get that same feeling now, understanding that it takes a lot of hard work, and maybe we can take that for granted sometimes.
blog/article #6: "overworked and overheated"
Quite Sugary Text #6
it was really hot out today, so everybody was trying to beat the heat. at around 10:30 am, just as i had opened the shop, a local mechanic walked in. he was covered in oil and looked like he was already about to pass out from heat exhaustion.
he went on to say that he was making some device that automatically put somebody into a suit or something. one of his clients apparently desperately needed the device, and was hounding on him to finish it as soon as possible. the guy was really stressed out and looked like he had been up for hours already. i felt really bad, and give him a free ice cream. he thanked me a bunch of times and then walked out, leaving a trail of motor oil behind him.
since it's still really hot out today, i'm daydreaming about not burning to death. here's a drawing of me with some really big shades on.
blog/article #7: "hacked?"
Quite Sugary Text #7
as of recently, it's been harder for me to log onto this site. i had to change my password to get in and write this blogpost today. every time i tried to log in before this, it'd just tell me that my username was incorrect, which is weird since i've never bothered changing it. the people who i bought the website from told me that it's probably just a glitch in their system or something, and that they fixed it for me after i changed my password, which was nice of them. i also tried logging into my email the other day, and it wouldn't let me use that either. i asked my wife for help and she told me it might've just been our internet connection or something. i don't know if that's the reason, but i'll take her word for it.
anyways, here's a drawing of me screaming at my computer. i wish computers were able to just fix themselves sometimes.
Gallery of the Blogs
The depiction of The Pizzano that Pizzelle made.
The Wilka bar Pizzelle rants about.
Pizzelle's depiction of her shop as a really cool skyscraper.
A brick being thrown into Pizzelle's mouth.
A depiction of Pizzelle with shades, presumably a cold drink, and a fan.
A depiction of Pizzelle smashing and yelling at her computer.
Extra
Pizzelle wearing a huge pair of green shades with a faintly visible human face behind it. Seen when clicking on the 6th blog's drawing.
A higher quality version of the "Confectionery Suzette" logo as seen in the "empty lot" blog. Posted by Welegi.
