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Sara spelled without an h
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| Crawling back on my knees |
[Dec. 1st, 2009|04:21 pm] |
So hey. Let's pretend I haven't been away for as long as I have, ok? I mean, yeah, I've been hanging out a lot with Facebook and my new friend Twitter, but come on, LJ, baby. You know I love you. I was thinking the other day that I've been with you longer than I was with Diaryland (ok, we won't talk about that phase of my life, that's cool).
So, what's been going on? Geez, where did I leave off. Looks like September 18th, so about two and a half months to catch up on. Grab a coffee, let's do this.
Arts
- I had the opportunity to get back together with my local estuarine affiliate society band folks for a tribute to our drummer who passed away during the summer. We played a memorial clambake. It was wonderful.
- I went into the recording studio with my MARS buddies to record some vocals on the title track of their album (out this week!) I can't wait to hear it. I went to see them play at Precinct a couple weeks ago and they said the track sounded really good, so that's nice to hear.
- I went to hear John Irving do a reading from his new novel and answer questions at the Coolidge, sponsored by Brookline Booksmith. He is just as fantastic as I imagined and loves Dickens and Hardy and dislikes Faulkner and Hemingway, which makes total sense. The book is pretty great too (I am savoring it and thus reading it much slower than I otherwise might.)
- I got back together with yet another scientist band, this time it was the one from the larger national estuarine scientist group, although a bunch of us were from MA (me) and RI (two others) anyway (a blurb about what we did in 2007.) We performed at the conference farewell event and it was unbelievably fun, and our setlist was Beatles-intensive with some Tom Petty, Elvis Costello, the Clash, etc.
- The Chants sang at a nursing home on the South Shore, which was kind of sweet and amusing all at once.
- Joe and I went to see the Pixies play Doolittle (plus a bunch of B-sides) at the Wang Theater (now really known as the Citi Performing Arts Center, but please. It will always be the Wang.) That was so cool. It felt automatically classy being in the theater instead of an arena or a club. Kind of a nice twist.
Science
- I went to Portland, OR for a conference, which was really cool. I presented a poster and saw a lot of great talks. I explored the city and went to some cool bars (Tugboat Brewing, Doug Fir and randomly ended up at The Roxy (DinerSense Activate!). I also sang in a band (see "Arts") and ran a 5K (see "Personal").
- I went out to survey culverts with some volunteers and we found a mink in a trap that was angry and starving to death. It was in there with a long-dead muskrat, but whether they both got caught or the muskrat was the bait, we weren't sure. We let it go (I think that it might have been illegal to do, but the trap was unlabeled and obviously hadn't been checked, which is more illegal.)
Personal
- In September Joe and I finally tackled our finished basement (the lowest level of our house has two separate basements, one finished, the other unfinished, never the twain shall meet.) We pulled up the carpet, scrubbed the glued foamy pieces off, and laid down a nice floating cork floor. That room is now our library! We moved the futon down there and got a big new couch for our family room (if you want to call it that - it's the room with the TV and gaming systems.)
- My buddy Liz, who was my roommate sophomore year and overall great friend otherwise, has moved to Massachusetts and now lives in the next town over. I've been going over to her house about once a week to hang out and visit her and her sons. Yay for friends moving back!
- Joe's dad and aunt came to visit us for Columbus Day weekend, which was fun. We got to do some touristy things and we made lobster for them, which went over pretty well. They left us with an abundance of Italian cookies, which went away pretty quickly.
- I had a bad day, where I thought I had something wrong with my eye(s). It may have been a migraine, but since I had never really had one and haven't had one since, I'm hoping it was just a fluke (the random thing, not the parasitic worm.)
- Halloween was kind of a bust, because we only had one trixortreator. That said, I did have the opportunity to dress up as a Great Blue Heron for the watershed association's annual meeting the night before, so that at least got it out of my system. I made my own mask and wore a blue dress that in retrospect may have been a little short (still looked good, but perhaps not work attire.)
- I ran a 5K at the conference I attended in Portland, OR. The course was a "there and back" thing along the Riverwalk, which was pretty cool except that at the end I had to run up a ton of ramps and then up a hill to the conference center. It turns out that the race was actually 3.25 miles, not 3.1, so while it took me 45 minutes, it was equivalent to a 42:55 race time. Still very slow, but hey! I ran over 3 miles! I ran for 45 minutes straight!
- I went to the Plymouth Thanksgiving Parade, which was great as usual. It made me proud of all sorts of things like living in Plymouth and being from Massachusetts, plus I got to see a lot of brass bands, and a Hawaii volcano float broke down right in front of me.
- Thanksgiving itself was great. Joe and I (really Joe) made the turkey and stuffing. The night beforehand we went to my sister's (L) house for a little party, then the day of went pretty smoothly. The day after my other sister (H) got sick, so we ended up playing cards and then going Cosmic Bowling at Harvard Lanes with her boyfriend. I also walked pretty much every day with my sister (L) which was good for dealing with food bloat.
I think you are all up to speed now! |
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| Leave Imogen Heap alone! |
[Sep. 18th, 2009|02:14 pm] |
This morning while getting coffee in a chain that has a reputation as the Hooters of Coffee but makes good flavored coffee (this sentence contains the word "coffee" 3x not including the one right there), I heard a song that sampled Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek", which is a very beautiful and somewhat heartrending song (listen to both at that link.) I typically enjoy sampling - I think it's kind of cool. However, I felt kind of insulted by this particular effort, mostly because I really have an emotional response to "Hide and Seek".
Facebook is the new Twitter, yo. |
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| September is a beginning and an end all at once |
[Sep. 1st, 2009|09:51 am] |
The breezes taste
Of apple peel.
The air is full
Of smells to feel-
Ripe fruit, old footballs,
Burning brush,
New books, erasers,
Chalk, and such.
The bee, his hive,
Well-honeyed hum,
And Mother cuts
Chrysanthemums.
Like plates washed clean
With suds, the days
Are polished with
A morning haze. - John Updike, September
I wonder if September will ever arrive without making me long for academia or want to head to somewhere with orchards full of apples. I suppose the positive things we spend a majority of our childhood doing (learning, reading, being surrounded by trees and apples) never leave us. Fortunately I have a new autumn tradition of going out to the camp at Queechy Lake with Joe for our anniversary, with lots of reading, kayaking, playing with the dog, buying fruit at farmer's markets, and generally enjoying this wonderful liminal time of year that always stands out as the best time of year until May arrives, and then the opposite declaration occurs.
Soon it will be time to be "rugged up in coarse woolen jumpers" (a quote from my friend Ryan that I think of every time I put on a sweater.) |
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| Because gays have a reputation for making messes |
[Aug. 10th, 2009|01:46 pm] |
I have had the unfortunate "opportunity" to be part of a two separate conversations (one very recently, the other about 2 years ago) about rental properties wherein the people discussing it have mentioned something along the lines of being concerned about the condition in which the property would be left if it was rented to someone gay. Both conversations also included concerns about the bedclothes being somehow left "dirtier" which just blows my mind.
I called out the people who made these comments on both occasions, and they dug themselves deeper into whatever hole they started out with, including commentary about parties, the likelihood that more than two people would be sleeping in the bed, and so on. They actually rationalized their previous opinions! I'm sorry, but the last time I checked, there were plenty of rentals being ruined by heterosexuals and their parties. (Oh, sorry, I forgot. Heterosexual parties aren't like homosexual parties. The latter apparently includes all sorts of furniture- and sheet-ruining activities.)
I just don't get it. The other people in these conversations were what I would consider relatively liberal people living in a relatively liberal and gay-friendly state. What the hell? |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 16th, 2009|01:30 pm] |
Oh boy. I keep having lots of fun. This is a good time in my life. :P
Friday: I headed up to Allston to meet ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) kitsushan for dinner and to hear her boyfriend Dave's band play. We went out to Zocalo with her friends Jo Jo and Tara (did I get that right?) and had delicious Mexican food - I had a chicken tamale and ensalada de aguacate (avacado salad). We went back to Dave's apartment, I briefly met the other band members, we hung around for a while while the band left to set up, and then we headed to Porter Belly's. It's a great Irish pub (with expertly poured Guinness, of course) and Dave's band, Tori Pyne has a Monday night residency there (although we were there for a special Friday show.) We were there well-past midnight, then went back to Dave's apartment to hang out more - I ended up getting home pretty late, which is fine.
Saturday: Despite my late night, I summoned the energy to get up and go to a yoga program hosted by my employer. That was fantastic and I will hopefully be able to do it often. (I wrote about it on my "work blog" that just started - you can find it on the main page of the 'shed's site.) I returned to the Marshfield house (where I had stayed the night before) and ended up going out to Arthur and Pat's with my sister. I couldn't stay at the beach because I had to get home to do some random house stuff, go grocery shopping, and then head to Wellfleet for a bonfire with the Cape Cod Wahines. As I drove east on Rt. 6 there was a wall of fog ahead. It was sunny and warm across everything but the outer Cape (the forearm of the Cape), where it was cool and foggy. Although the fire (and grilled sandwiches) kept us warm, it wasn't as pleasant for everyone as we all had hoped. I didn't get cold (of course) but everyone else pretty much did. My contribution to the food (other than 2 six-packs of Mayflower Golden Ale and Newport Storm Summer, of which I drank one of each and nobody else drank anything) was meat and cheese for the sandwiches and peaches cooked in foil on the fire and served with ginger ice cream (classy.) I ended up getting home at a much more reasonable hour than anticipated.
Sunday: I suppose it's a good thing I got a good night's sleep, because Sunday morning I headed back out to Wellfleet for a surf clinic. That went well - on land I really felt good about being able to pop up, but once I was in the water I kept making mistakes that are recurring bad habits of mine like grabbing the rails and looking down instead of ahead. I'll get it with some practice. I was pretty tired though - in the clinic we stayed mostly inside [the break zone] and the waves were constant. I am used to spending a little time sitting and waiting for waves. The walk back up the dunes is a killer too. For the rest of the day I just hung around the house doing some chores, listening to music, and watching Heroes on Hulu (almost done with season 3.)
Here's the rundown for the bit of week that has occurred so far, and my plans for the rest of it (mostly sampling!) Yesterday I taught a class in Cohasset, today I collected and processed a water sample in Cohasset (and have rehearsal tonight, with future song arrangement proposals, which I love!), tomorrow I'll be doing a full sampling round on the rivers, Thursday I am going water/habitat sampling in Scituate, and Friday Joe is coming home (yay!) and we're going to Cambridge to hear Mars at the Cantab. Come to the show! I will be singing/playing tambourine on a song and listening/drinking a beer otherwise. |
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| More adventures in rock (or "music self-played is happiness self-made") |
[May. 28th, 2009|03:44 pm] |
I bought myself a Fender Standard Stratocaster, in electron blue.
Here's what it kind of looks like (one has a better picture of the color, the other has the correct white knobs.)
Of course, as one of my goals is to play surf guitar, I need a good tube amp for that proper "wet" reverby sound. So, I sent off the following missive to my Dad, who as you may or may not know is a vacuum tube fanatic and premier radio restorer:
Hi Dad.
I decided to buy a guitar for myself - it's awesome. I can't wait to play surf rock. :P
One of the big parts of playing with a surfy 50's/60's sound, as you know, is a tube amp. If I managed to track down a vintage amp and it needed some fixing, is that something you would be interested in?
Let me know.
I love you!
His response?
Sure! We could soup it up!
Check out AES , Antique Electronic Supply Tempe AZ. They have vintage amp parts, Fender, Marshall, wahwah pedals, reverb delays, all that stuff! They have moved from a tube supplier to a supplier of support stuff for this kind of setup. There is also a book set out of NH on “Vintage Amps’ that catalogues a lot of them.. “Fixing up your Vintage amp”—titles like that. Some of what is in it is BS, but helps w info/pictures ..
Marshall amps look pretty good to me, on design, but TBD—your call...
E bay would be a good place to look for an amp.. No matter what is wrong, I can fix it. find a popped one cheap? Or whatever?
What you want is one with two or 4 6L6 or EL34 in it , two may be better, the 4 6L6 will be big and heavy..but POWERFUL.. 6L6 is also known as 5881, KT66, may be some letters after 6L6 . 6L6 GC or 6L6 W/GTC being best. But readily available from Russia now.
Love,
Dad
I love him (and my new guitar...) |
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| When it's over, what can I say... |
[May. 21st, 2009|11:58 am] |
Well, overall the gig was fantastic. I got to the Midway freakishly early because I made good time and also probably aimed to be there too early anyway. When I got there everyone was still loading up the gear at the house (I didn't go help because the gig was in a southern part of Boston and I was coming from the south, while everyone else was coming from northwest of Boston). I went to a park across the street from the bar/club and read for a while, then wandered back to the bar and had a beer (Sam Summer - yum) while waiting. One of the other bands arrived and I hung out with them for a while, then *my* band arrived and we went to Doyle's for burgers. I tried to convince everyone to get bison burgers (because they're good) but there wasn't a lot of interest in that. We ate and then went to set up, since we were on first. There isn't much to do when you're just singing so I mostly tried to stay out of the way, other than making a little pile of percussion items (tambourine, claves, shaker) next to my microphone. After some technical difficulties we started rocking out. :P
It was awesome - obviously singing in a club is different than singing along with mp3s alone in your car or playing in someone's basement (once) and things came together really well. We were kept to a pretty tight schedule so we had to cut a couple of songs, but I did get to sing "Kiss Me On the Bus" which made me really happy (although I think I sang the beginning of the third verse at the beginning of the second verse - I'm hoping nobody noticed.) The bassist recorded it so hopefully I'll get to hear the whole thing eventually. We had to break down quickly and in trying to help I mistakenly grabbed some cables that belonged to the club, and the sound tech got really pissy about it. I got a little sad because as the "new person" it sucks when you do something wrong.
The band on after us was a pair from NC who each play multiple instruments at once, including some scorching electric violin and classical guitar. We hung around and listened to them, and people slowly had to leave (babysitters at home and other "real life" things drawing rock stars away from the "rock life") but I stayed through the third band along with the lead singer/rhythm guitarist and his wife, and we danced around. I spent a lot of that set playing drumsticks like claves (and dancing.) There was a drunk guy with weird small hands who kept yelling at the band to play some Rolling Stones, and there was another guy dancing with us who was pretty fun.
I think we left around 12:30 or 12:45 and I got home (well, to the beach house which is 30 mins closer than "home") at 1:15, which was cool. Now I am kind of waiting to see what happens. I am going to go to the next gig (in Cambridge) and be a "special guest" for some songs and I'm going to also help figure out and record harmonies for the album. I also want to try to book some gigs for the band on Cape Cod.
So, today I am feeling a little bit of withdrawal. It's a problem I tend to have - I get really excited about things and then feel a little bummed out the next day, and then eventually get excited about something else, like:
- long weekend
- Joe coming home tomorrow for the long weekend
- a cappella gig in Waltham on 6/5 and potentially Boston on 6/7
- a couple of other small events
- gig with the band in Cambridge 6/19? |
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| Oh, if you knew how I felt now, you wouldn't act so adult now... |
[May. 20th, 2009|11:09 am] |
Tonight is my debut gig with Mars (http://www.myspace.com/marsrockband) and hopefully not the last. I'm trying not to get my hopes up but it's hard when it's so much fun and I'm so excited about it.
I'll be singing backup and playing tambourine/shaker/claves plus singing a couple solos ("Kiss Me On the Bus" by The Replacements and "Money" by the Beatles) and essentially co-singing (harmony throughout) three more songs.
I'll report back tomorrow. |
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| The best-dressed backup singer |
[May. 3rd, 2009|09:35 am] |
Yesterday I had 2 events to attend. One was a work thing (an organic gardening expo) and the other was a party (the Spring Pa'ina/ball) held by my women's surf club.
So, the work event went ok. I was put in charge of managing presentations and despite the fact that I specifically asked people to prepare their presentations to be Powerpoint '05 compatible, not to bring their own computer (especially a Mac), and not to bring movies unless they tell me first, the presenters did all that and more. One of them was a) late for both his first talk and a reprise and b) ran over time despite my increasingly insistent efforts to get him to leave. He was also kind of rude. I don't know. He creeps both me and my boss out, and I'm kind of convinced there's something really not right about him.
The good part of this expo was that I met a new friend. She's a fantastic gardener and knows a lot about agriculture, and is going to help us with our raised planting beds. To add to that, she lives right around the corner.
After that was all over (I got out of there asap) I went home and changed into a bridesmaid dress that my friend Kristen had given to me when she was cleaning out her closet. (I have 2 of my own, but they don't fit anymore.) I grabbed my "Chicken Provencal Salad" that I had made out of the fridge and headed out to Chatham for the party. I got there early and helped decorate a bit, and then took part in a hip-hop dance class that they were holding for fun, which was pretty cool. I think having had a little bit of various kinds of dance (ballet, tap, even belly dancing) helped, because I knew how to do a pas de bouree and step ball change when the instructor told us what to do.
We all hung around and ate delicious food and chatted until the band came on. When they showed up I was a little bit blown away because the night before I had dreamt about a guy wearing thick rectangular frame glasses and had woken up trying to figure out who it was (Ira Glass? John Flansburgh? Rivers Cuomo?) It turns out it was the bassist from the band. I'm apparently prescient. They started playing, and were fantastic. They had a tambourine that was being passed around a little bit, and when I got it I just kept dancing and playing it, and I could see they were all looking at me and nodding and smiling. Then they asked me my name, and said the sort of thing like "Let's hear it for Sara rockin' on the tambourine." Then they called me up to play the egg (an egg-shaped shaker filled with sand). That progressed into me singing harmonies and playing the egg (and at one time, singing, playing the egg, and playing the tambourine.)
After they were done, they told me how impressed they were by my rhythm and voice, and they've invited me to a) record with them for their new album b) join them for the next couple of gigs they do in Boston. I am so excited. They're so fun and talented. After the party ended, the band and some other friends and I went to a bar and hung out, where we danced in a conga line, saw a bar fight, and generally had a fantastic time. I wish I could have stayed there forever (the group asked if I wanted to stay in Chatham instead of driving home, which is ~45-60 mins) but I had to get home to Bacchus. :P
The other big event of the night is that I also won a big "best dressed" trophy with little doll surfers on it. :P |
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| The intensity of the weekend makes for a blurry Monday |
[Mar. 23rd, 2009|01:05 pm] |
I had a busy and excitement-filled weekend...
Saturday was primarily our kayak, canoe, and surf show. My job was to oversee the kids' corner, which had a touch tank (full of algae, mussels, and periwinkles that I had collected on Friday), a water cycle puzzle (that I made last year) and a model watershed (that I also made last year.) It wasn't super busy, although one little girl hung out there for a long time. She was super smart, and we mostly just chatted about books and kept the periwinkles from escaping. I got a chance to chat with the owners of the two local surf shops and will probably seek out a new wetsuit and/or an attempt at stand-up paddleboarding at some point. After the expo was over, I helped carry chairs back to the cafeteria and gave myself some pretty fantastic bruises. The bruises may also have come from lugging various items to my car and then from my car into the office. After the heavy lifting, I went to the beach to return my creatures to their home in the intertidal. I was pretty beat by the time I got home.
On Sunday I went for a jog/walk along the Cape Cod Canal. I've been trying to do this about once a week in lieu of doing jog/walk intervals on the treadmill because it's just so much better to be outside where I can say hi to the mergansers and eiders and seagulls and smell the ocean. However, there was a rough head wind coming back which took a lot out of me. When I got back I realized that when I took my car key off my key ring (not really a ring at all, but whatever) I did so inside my house, and therefore was locked out. Joe wasn't home because he was at work and painting traps (and therefore not at his desk at work), so I left him a message on his work phone and cell phone and tried to figure out how to get back in the house, if I could. I couldn't find the key I had semi-buried under the deck years ago (the deck is now gone, who knows where the key went), so I ended up trying to break into my own house. I was successful. I won't tell you exactly how I did it lest you decide to come try it yourself, but the end result was that I climbed through a window (and was greeted by Bacchus, who is probably not a good guard dog at all.) I felt kind of badass. After a shower, I hopped in the car and headed down to RI to sing with the geeky estuarine scientist band I am in. I always have a fantastic time. We're performing at our spring conference in a couple weeks. After that was over, I had a little bit of time - not enough to have a sit-down dinner but too much to just grab a quick snack. I ended up going to the Providence Whole Foods for something from the hot bar even though I kind of wanted East Side Pockets because a) I didn't feel like dealing with finding parking near Thayer St. (although in retrospect I could have parked at Barus and Holley like I always used to do when visiting on weekends, or I could have parked on Charlesfield, but I had a "not remembering where to park near Brown" brain spasm) b) I had no cash and couldn't remember if ESP took cards. I got some teriyaki salmon and then drove to Jamaica Plain for Chants rehearsal. I drove through an intense and quick snow squall that I could see coming from miles away (big black cloud ahead while I was under blue skies.) I made fantastic time to JP, had a good rehearsal, and headed home.
When I got home, Joe was asleep. When I got up this morning, he was just leaving. We're both busy these days, but I generally have free evenings this week so that's good. |
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| A decade of self-indulgence |
[Mar. 1st, 2009|04:50 pm] |
I realized the other day that I have kept some form of online "blog" for ten years now (starting 1/26/1999). In tribute to that, I bring you ten years of journal entries - the best entry (potentially also the best memory) from March of each year.
( Wavy time travel lines... )
2009 - I did not write a single entry in February, which leads me to believe that the things I have heard about Facebook (which I do) and Twitter (which I do not do) killing these types of ventures may be slightly true. Why write a blog entry if you can change your status? It makes me a little sad, given the previous retrospective. That said, I will keep writing here, because I have a lot more to say than just a single line, I think. |
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| Ah, how times change... |
[Jan. 26th, 2009|11:06 am] |
This is from around this time of year, 2005:
Recent forays into thefacebook.com which involved a high school search has made me feel old. I found 2 people from the class of 1995, just me from 1997, and the next class to have people there are from 2000, which is my younger sister's class. The site is overrun with enthusiastic '04 kids who are in the middle of their freshman year.
Was it originally called The Facebook, or is that just some weird extra "the" in there? It makes me sound like my grandmother, who regularly appended an unnecessary "the" to various words (especially with regard to illness or problems.)
At the beginning of last week I had a 24-hour bug, and apparently despite that sucking it has propelled me into a massive breaking of a weight loss plateau. It's normal to lose a ton of weight when you're sick, but you gain it back. I really haven't gained it back, and have lost more, and I think that's because I feel like I have a head start on something and don't want to waste it so I have been very good about diet and exercise since then (better than usual, which is already pretty fantastic.) I hope it keeps up. It may also be that my body was clinging to the weight I was before, and now it knows I won't be dead if I lose more weight so it gave my metabolism the go-ahead to burn stuff up. (That's some real science right there.) |
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| Gift Meme |
[Jan. 16th, 2009|12:37 pm] |
From ltlbird
The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me. It will be about or tailored to those five lucky "victims."
This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
- what I create will be just for you.
- it'll be done this year
- you have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a poem or story. I may make something all craft-y like. I may cook you something and mail it to you - though probably only if you live on this side of the globe. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.
The catch? Oh, the catch is that you have to put this in your journal as well, if you expect me to do something for you!
P.S. If I don't have your snail mail, you'll need to send it to me, so drop me a message. |
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| Microsoft Songsmith |
[Jan. 14th, 2009|11:34 am] |
So, you may have heard of something called Microsoft Songsmith, or seen the video that the internet is going a little crazy about...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oGFogwcx-E
I went to school with the "Dad" in the video. He lived in Techhouse, and we used to hang out together and sing. Now I feel like I should try the software and send him a song.
Until I do that, you'll have to be satisfied with this slightly embarrassing mp3. Who could that be singing both the high and low harmonies? (Hint: Someone with a fantastic voice who can sing both high and surprisingly low.)
http://techhouse.brown.edu/~dmorris/music/mp3/flowersspg2.mp3 |
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| Dad's Old Calculator |
[Jan. 8th, 2009|01:45 pm] |
Today I bring you a priceless e-mail from my Dad. It is formatted exactly as he wrote it, but I annotated it with a couple of comments (in brackets).
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http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/texas_instruments_sr-10.html
· This is what designed poly C [the cardiac cath lab that my Dad designed], I still have it. It cost me a fortune when it came out , a week’s pay, first one with real exponential notation, powers of ten. Dumped slide rule that day. Everyone at Picker X ray [my Dad's first job, I think] gathered around, amazed at it. Me too, I was amazed! Like ten digits!!
· SR-10 meant electronic slide rule, how they sold it ; World beater!
· 3 years before, a Wang calculator with NIXIE tubes to do this LEASED for 160 a month, was as big as a cash register. I replaced switch on this,(wore out switch!) redesigned battery charger setup (it was BAD!), charge cord got broken wires from so much use, it now has li ion batteries, but after nursing it along for 35 years +, it died last week. I spent 2 nights on it, could not get it to work, super bummed me out. Passage of an era, and all that. Really got to me that it died---
But I left it charging, with 3 new batteries , after taking apart, trying to measure circuitry, figure out without a print..Display power volts =zero, figured that much out, using “Feynman method”. How I found this site, looking for a print for it.-As I remember, it sometimes would work again with a full charge. Apparently it shuts itself down to protect old NiCad batteries, below a certain voltage .
I got up this AM --- IT WORKED!!!! Like getting a second life or something. I cannot let it go... A big up for today!!! So, sharing it..!
“back in action—better than ever!”
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In other words, my Dad is awesome. |
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| Vocabulary and a depressing song |
[Dec. 16th, 2008|10:15 am] |
I have been torn on whether or not the following words should be used : "jimmies" for sprinkles. This is apparently a New England thing. It is also, apparently, not offensive, even though I had been told at some point that calling chocolate sprinkles "jimmies" is racist. One one hand, I don't want to lessen any regional vocabulary I might have. On the other hand, I don't want people to think I'm being racist. Ugh, political correctness. On that note, is it wrong to say someone "gipped" ("gypped") you? I heard someone say it the other day and was momentarily conflicted, but then I said it unintentionally to a guy this morning so I must not be that conflicted about it (I did feel a little conflicted after I said it, but it was an old guy on the South Shore so chances are he's way more offensive than I am.) I feel like somehow it's less offensive if spelled with an "i" (more distant from the "Gypsies cheating you out of something" etymology) but it's not like anyone can tell how you're mentally spelling something when you say it.
On another topic, there has been a song playing on one of the Christmas music radio stations that is really awful. It sounds like a parody of a crappy song, in fact. I somehow have never managed to hear it before, but it's a Dan Fogelberg song from 1981 called "Same Old Lang Syne". It's very repetitive but not in a good way. It also concludes with one of the most depressing and pathetic sounds on Earth, which is the sound of someone boozily playing "Auld Lang Syne" very slowly on a saxophone. ("Have a bummer of a New Year.") |
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| The weather is neither frightful, nor is it a storm |
[Dec. 7th, 2008|05:16 pm] |
Today we had our first "sticking" snow and it's still kind of going. It's not going to require shoveling but it makes everything look pretty and is apparently slippery enough that Bacchus lost traction running back to the house after peeing (he's fast but doesn't corner well.)
I finished almost all my Christmas cards, which is a nice accomplishment.
I plan on maybe building a fire and doing some reading.
Ahh...a lazy snowy Sunday. |
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