I did the Peachtree City Sprint Triathlon today. It was a blast. I had fun and Jenn took a lot of great pictures! You can see them at the flickr set. The above is my favorite of the day. Run your mouse over the picture and note the title.
Month: August 2011
-
Things of Note
- Dragon*Con is coming! We have 17 people coming in from out of state. I should get a tax credit for boosting the local economy
- Jenn and I are starting a new podcast. First episode will be up on Friday, September 2. There’s a reason why Friday which will be explained when we start “AMP”ing up the podcast advertisement ((The quotations would make much more sense if you knew the name of the podcast, hahahahahahahahahahahahaha…))
- Work is crazy gangbusters busy. Better than the alternative
- I have my first, and last, triathlon of the year on Saturday. I won’t be breaking any time records, but that’s ok. Going to use this as an opportunity to experiment with some pre-race nutrition
- We had two days this week where the morning temperature was below 70 degrees F. It’s like the end of the world
-
Dead Electronics
Our CD player is dead. Long live the digital media player.
Our 400 disc changer seems to have given up the ghost this evening. I pushed PLAY on random when I got home because I was too lazy to go get my iPod and, hey, it’s there after all, filled with music.
“Tick. Tick tick. CHUNK,” it said.
“Shit,” I said.
So, it looks like I’ll be enacting the CD storage plan ((I had 10 50-count jewel cases marked “1-50”, “51-100”, etc. ready and waiting for the next time we had to move the CD player. Number 401-450 is already about half full and 451-500 may never get touched because I haven’t bought an actual CD in a long while)) I’ve had in place for a while and decommissioning another piece of electronic equipment. I’m having a hard time feeling bad about this one. We’ve had it since 2001 or 2002 and it’s got a lot of moving parts. It survived a long time. Plus, we hardly use it anymore, relying on our iPods to carry our music around. For the price of getting this thing fixed or replaced, I could probably purchase a last-generation iPod touch and load our entire collection of music onto it, plus videos, plus podcasts.
I think we’ll be ok.
But, shed a tear with me tonight for another glorious piece of hardware that has served its time in battle.
-
Couldn’t Do It
I am a recreational reader, generally. I do have a few quirks about reading that people think weird ((I read engineering texts for fun)) but usually, if I’m reading something, it’s for distraction.
On Saturday, Jenn and I went to the Library to get some books. While I was walking past the paperback rack, I noticed 1984, the oft-touted work of George Orwell regarding Big Brother and government intrusion. I decided to read it, having never done so.
Argh. I couldn’t get more than 20 or so pages in. It’s not that I don’t appreciate the work, or that I think it’s not a good story, it’s just that it’s so depressing. If I want to be depressed, I’ll go read something in the Oprah book club, or watch the news, or sing sad songs by myself in my closet.
I’ll try this one again later, when I’m not needing distraction.
-
Sewing Machine Problem
We have a problem. Our problem is this:
This is a Singer Model 347, built in the sixties (it looks like) and it seems to be a sewing machine that can do what we need. However, it has exactly three speeds:
- Off
- ON!
- Manual
The ON! is the problem, in the sense that there are times when you don’t want the sewing machine to go full blast through your project; sometimes delicacy and slowness is required.
Here is the root of the problem:
You can see in the image, to the right, the switch which is actuated by the foot pedal itself. This pulls the contacts from the left to the right, bridging the gap and completing the circuit. Here’s a pic with some annotations.
I do not see how, if no parts are missing, this switch was ever intended as a graduated speed foot switch for a sewing machine. There are only two cables. I’m assuming one is hot and one is return and therefore this translates to an on, off switch writ large. Where the gap is bridged and the copper contacts touch, there’s no room for “play” in the touching or not of the contacts. I screwed around with this by hand and while, yes, there was a tiny bit of speed control just at the interface of contact, it was so minuscule and twitchy that I don’t see how it would be useful to a sewing task.
Possibilities:
- I have no idea what I’m talking about with respect to circuits. Quite possible true
- There’s a part missing which does the speed control. Doesn’t seem likely, there’s no obvious room for something that isn’t there anymore
- The foot switch is just so old and used that the functionality I’m looking for has given up the ghost. Well, yes, but then I should be able to fix it. This seems a really simple device
Any advice is appreciated.
