Pants Planet

As senility approaches, it becomes necessary to write stuff down.

The Lighting Project III

Since moving out of my condo I've really missed the Edison Bulb lights I had installed (The Lighting Project II):

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I tried installing similar bulbs in my dining room light in the house, but they're far too dim for that (even five of them). I've toyed with adding some lamps in there, but that would still be pretty awkward. So the Edison bulbs didn't work in the main light, I started to think about moving them off to the side.. The wheels began turning.

The ingredients:

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We have some bulb holders (ceramic), metal junction boxes, lamp cord (and plugs), and the bulbs (not pictured).
First thing I did was add the plugs on the end of the cords (each cord is 10 feet):

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Then I wired up the sockets, which will be attached to the top of the boxes.

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And the result:

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What's cool is that each box is wired separately, so I can change the configuration:

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But I think I like them the best as a clump, especially on the end like that. Those bulbs (each one is 60watts) give off a fair amount of heat, so I think it's important to keep them out from under the painting.

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Overall I'm pretty happy with this - they make an awesome accent in my dining room. Now I just need to become a better cook, so I can have people over to dine! (Although I don't think anyone minds Candlelight Pizza :) ). Cameron.

Credit Card Security?

Sony just had to shut down the Play Station Network because it was hacked and all the customer data was stolen. This is just the beginning. People are putting more and more of their lives online, and putting more and more trust in "cloud" and "social" services (Google, Facebook, iTunes, etc). Over the last 20 years the "big annoyance" with computers was viruses and mallware. That's nothing compared to the privacy issues that are coming. What gets me is how unprepared we all are. The banks all pretend that they help keep your money safe, but what are they doing that's any different?

Credit cards now seem to have change little in the last 20 years - even though the usage has changed immensely. When buying something online now, you will inevitably be asked for the "security number" on the back of the card. How on earth does that make the transaction any more secure? If some steals my credit-card then they have that number. If they break into the online database, then they have that number. If they sniff (or log) the data as I type it, then they have that number. It's useless. What about letting us (the customer) make up that number? It would essentially be like an extra four digits that we can set; different for each online retailer. I see it working like this:

1) I buy something online, and enter the credit-card number.

2) I also enter a four-digit number of my choosing.

3) The on-line retailer makes the charge (with the four-digit number), but the transaction is held in a pending state.

4) I go to my bank's website where I see the transaction. I enter the four-digit number and from that point on the bank will only accept charges from that retailer with that four-digit number. If my data is ever stolen from the retailer then I can just go to my bank's website and delete that four-digit number - any other charge that comes in with it would be refused.

Basically this system allows me to set my own security code, unique per retailer. It's a little more work, but only for the first time I use a new retailer; but it's so much safer.

Late winter walk..

Myself and many other people were out today, deluding ourselves that it's Spring! March/April is the absolute worst time of the year in Chicago, with weather ranging from days of cold drizzle, to days of cold drizzle with wind. But not to worry, the people of this great city never let anything as mundane as pneumonia keep us indoors!

I love walking, and since moving into the new house I have been interested in walking south, into Chicago and down to Devon ave. Only about 5 miles round-trip, but with all my little detours I was out for about 2.5 hours. It was really nice - except for two spots of drizzle, and of course the wind. :)

I started heading south down Western Ave and grabbed a sub at a little sandwich place on the corner of Western and Lunt, which I ate just around the corner in the awesome Indian Boundary park. This part is fantastic, with a big pond, awesome wooden playground, animals, basketball courts, and a stunning old field-house:
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The ducks were showing off, being ultra-cute. Swimming around, quaking. I think life is pretty good for a duck.
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Less cute are the goats - although seeing them peeking out the door like that was a little bit adorable; even if they are goats.
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The park was created in 1916 (100 years after a treaty was signed with a Native American tribe). Some of the buildings around the park are just fantastic. I'm in-love which this one...

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It is of course right in the middle of Hot Bungalow Action! There is block after block lined with stunning (and well-kept) Chicago Bungalows. These would have been built around 1920. (This picture isn't staged .. it really is block after block).
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They're not all Bungalows though; there are many Tudors, and then just stand-alone awesomeness like this. It's tough to tell in the picture, but that top section is all green glass.
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Many, many two/three-flat buildings too. These would have been built in a similar era, and you'll notice that they are basically several Bungalows stacked on top of each other. These buildings are stunning. (There's a little cat in the left (of three) window of the yellow building - tough to see, but he was adorable).
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I could walk the streets for hours (in fact, I did!) - but I quickly find myself on Devon Ave. This is a heavily Indian neighborhood, and some of the buildings are really interesting.
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Need some live poultry?! If you find yourself walking by this place in summer you will most definitely want to hold your nose..
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I know it's a cliche, but Devon Ave really is a different world. No chain stores here (except one stupid Subway), all unique places selling amazing food, clothes, DVDs, 240v appliances, etc. Every block has several little grocery stores, and meat markets. The atmosphere along here is always terrific, and the smells are amazing!
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Great Indian food for lunch.
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I'm digging these solar-powered trash compactors which are starting to show up around Chicago. (GET IN MY BELLY!)
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One store is selling Audrey II sweets! Feed me, Seymour..
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A staple along Devon Ave is fresh squeezed (crushed?) sugar-cane juice, so of course I had to pick one up. Yes I watched the guy pressing the sugar-cane, and then he adds a little lemon. It's delicious! Interesting is that the drink was cascading, like when you pour a Boddingtons :)
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One of the many meat and grocery stores. 
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Buy a goat leg, and a hookah!
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All of the streets which cross Devon Ave are lined with tall beautiful (not in Winter!) trees, and lovely old apartments and houses. Devon Ave is itself crazy busy and lively, but these streets are nice and quiet.
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This parking garage is definitely odd..
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No idea if it really is the first Indo-Pak bakery in the USA - but who cares, it's cool.
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Random street-scape .. restaurants, appliances, banquets, etc. Just a typical block on Devon Ave.
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Yet another meat-market .. however there were loads of restaurants boasting vegetarian food too.
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OMG OMG OMG - Look what I found!! It's the secret ingredient for [censored]. Within walking distance!! I guess I no longer have any excuse for not making it..
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Walking home now, north of Pratt and east of Western, more amazing buildings.

And there we go - first nice walk of the year. Summer is beckoning, and while it's not evident in the photos the trees are in fact getting ready to wake up. Just two or three more weeks to go.

 

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Snow Day!

There are two snow-storms which really stand-out in Chicago's history, one is the blizzard of 1967 and the other from 1979. The storm we just had over-night was not bigger than either of those, and that annoys me quite a bit. I have only been in Chicago since Fall of 1995, which means I missed those two storms (I actually wasn't even alive in 1967). However every time any amount of snow falls, I have to hear about how "it's not as bad as the blizzard of '67". Yeah Yeah Yeah - blaa blaa blaa - You think you're so great with your blizzard of 1967! I really want to beat those storms :)

Whinging aside, the storm we had last night was seriously spectacular. At some points it was snowing 4 inches an hour, which is just obscene. Add to that 80MPH wind gusts, and actual thunder and lightning - which is called (and I'm not joking): THUNDER-SNOW!! [Cue dramatic music here..] We had early dismissal yesterday from work, and then had a snow-day today - MY FIRST EVER SNOW-DAY! I fell asleep last night listening to the wind outside, and dreaming about what sort of wonderland I'd awake to find..

This sort of wonderland!

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With such strong winds all night, the snow did not build up evenly; instead we have snow-drifts. In same places it's not even 3 inches deep, but in other places it's up to four feet. My back-yard really filled up with snow - the above picture is looking out from my back door.

 

At about 8am the storm seemed to subside - and in fact people had already begun to shovel. However there was more on the way: a band of lake-effect snow about 10-miles wide, which made one more pass across the Chicago area and dropped another 3-5 inches. This photo shows the view outside my front window in the height of the lake-effect stuff. The wind had died-down considerably, and it was actually quite peaceful.
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By 11am I was finally ready to get to work. Fortunately I had the foresight to bring my shovels into the house last night (they normally live in the garage). This photo shows my back stairs - just a ramp.
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The snow was the highest up near the house, as you can see in this photo I took after shoveling the very beginning of the walk. Notice that the chair in the background is buried up to the arm-rest .. This is pushing 4-feet deep.
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It only took me about 35 minutes to shovel the walk.
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Looking back towards the house. Before starting, the snow was level with the third-bottom step on the back stairs.
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A large drift formed on the side of the garage - I cleared up to the gate .. you can see the snow "wall" remaining once I opened the gate. All that needs to be cleared out..
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I wasn't sure what to expect when I turned the corner into the alley - I wasn't too thrilled at the 4+ feet of snow against my garage door. The alley was full of snow too, and Evanston doesn't plough alleys. 
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Over an hour later and I'm still shoveling the alley. My neighbor Mike took this photo for me. My garage is the first white door on the left (behind the tree and large pile of snow). I had dug this all out by hand. Fortunately it was warm out, so it wasn't necessary to get too rugged up. I was actually really hot, in just a light hoodie and a sweater; and I had to go back inside several times for water.
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Still digging! Mike and his partner cleared about the same area as I did (they are down-alley from me and cleared in front of their garage and out into the street). Even with two of them working, and one with a snow-blower, I still kept up ... Just call me John Henry!
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The ploughs had started to come down to make rough passes in the side-streets. There is actually a second plough just off the right-side of the photo, and it nailed a mostly-buried car as it went by.
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Ta-Da! Took me 90 minutes to clear this alley and my garage. There is no need to make it any neater than this for the cars to get through (and the R32 is all-wheel-drive anyway).
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Looking at my now clear garage door. Yes that pile of snow is blocking part of the door, but that's OK since there's only one car in there.
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Looking down the alley from my garage to the street showing all I shoveled (to just beyond the three wheely-bins on the left). Don't worry about the snow I piled up against the brown garage on the left, there are no cars in there (it's just used for storage). My garage is to the right (out of frame).
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After a quick break and some lunch, it was time to tackle the front of the house. Rob is my neighbor from across the street and he offered to make one run down my side-walk with his snow-blower to help get me started (this is actually a huge help).
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A real social and friendly atmosphere in the street as everyone helps everyone else dig and push their cars/walks clear. I met several new neighbors. In the foreground you can see the walk I had just finished shoveling.
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My clear side-walk, notice how high the snow is on the sides. There is an elderly lady who lives on the corner who has hired someone to clear her paths.
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With all the shoveling done I came inside to watch the movie Groundhog Day - it is February 2nd after-all! And even though this was "only" the third biggest blizzard in Chicago history, I still had termendous fun. Plus now that I'm a home-owner I can still smugly talk about how much I love snow-storms, without everyone yelling "YEAH WELL YOU DON'T HAVE TO SHOVEL!"

I Know An Old Lady..

I Know An Old Lady

When I was a kid, I really loved the poem "I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed A fly". Early in the development stage for Cirqus Voltaire, I began to think about building a mode based on this fun little song. The mode was never implemented .. I didn't want to even start working on it until we had the rights to the words and music. Turns out the copyright holders wanted an insane amount of money, so we quickly ditched the idea.

Following is a transcript of my notes, which are dated September 1996 (before the first white-wood was even drawn). Remember that these are rough notes, nothing more than me thinking aloud, and do not reflect input from any team members.


I know an old lady mode:

One shot is lit .. maybe the same shot each time, or have it change after every hit.

The display will show the lady's head/face on the left, with the words scrolling by (vertically) on the right. Each shot will yield an animation of the animal heading into the lady's mouth. The animations will get bigger and more involved/comical as the mode progresses. The lady will follow the ball (with her eyes) while the player is trying to make the shot. Scoring and timing to be worked out once the mode has been implemented.

The following (rough) script describes speech ideas to possibly use during the mode. The speech (especially the longer lines towards the end of the poem) will be played over the music while the ball is in play. The speech can be interrupted when the next shot is made (so that the player doesn't have to sit there and listen to the whole thing all the time!). Maybe the speech can speed up (in a comical way) as the mode progresses. Note that (N) = Narrator (male voice), and (L) = Old Lady; old lady will say different things each time.

  • (N): I know an old lady who swallowed a fly,
  • (L): MMmmm crunchy!
    or:
    (L): It has an interesting, sort of wriggly texture..
    or:
    (L): There's good eatin' on one of those..
  • (N): I don't know why she swallowed a fly, I guess she'll die.
  • (N): I know an old lady who swallowed a spider,
  • (L): Spiderliscous!
    or:
    (L): I stopped the spider! (Reference to Stiff)
    or:
    (L): Eight legs of fun!
  • (N): That wiggled, and wiggled, and tickled inside her.
    She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,
    I don't know why she swallowed the fly, I guess she'll die.
  • (N): I know an old lady who swallowed a bird,
  • (L): Hide your birdies!
    or:
    (L): It was going cheap
  • (N): How absurd to swallow a bird!
  • (N): She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
    That wiggled, and wiggled, and tickled inside her.
    She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,
    I don't know why she swallowed the fly, I guess she'll die.
  • (N): I know an old lady who swallowed a cat,
  • (L): Feline lickin' good!
    or:
    (L): A Siamese sammach!
  • (N): Fancy that, to swallow a cat!
  • (N): She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
    She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
    That wiggled, and wiggled, and tickled inside her.
    She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,
    I don't know why she swallowed the fly, I guess she'll die.
  • (N): I know an old lady who swallowed a dog,
  • (L): A little dog named Snuggles.
    or:
    (L): Poodle pot-noodle!
    or:
    (L): Now there are only 100 dalmatians..
  • (N): What a hog, to swallow a dog!
  • (N): She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
    She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
    She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
    That wiggled, and wiggled, and tickled inside her.
    She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,
    I don't know why she swallowed the fly, I guess she'll die.
  • (N): I know an old lady who swallowed a goat,
  • (L): Yum Yum Yum
    or:
    (L): Fresh goat-meat costs a fortune at expensive restaurants!
  • (N): Just opened her throat, and in walked that goat
  • (N): She swallowed the goat to catch the dog,
    She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
    She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
    She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
    That wiggled, and wiggled, and tickled inside her.
    She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,
    I don't know why she swallowed the fly, I guess she'll die.
  • (N): I know an old lady who swallowed a cow
  • (L): I'm still hungry!
    or:
    (L): Moooo
    or [rarely]:
    (L): There are no cows in pinball machines..
  • (N): I don't know how she swallowed a cow!
  • (N): She swallowed the cow to catch the goat,
    She swallowed the goat to catch the dog, She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
    She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
    She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
    That wiggled, and wiggled, and tickled inside her.
    She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,
    I don't know why she swallowed the fly, I guess she'll die.
  • (N): I know an old lady who swallowed a horse
  • [Death march begins]
  • (N): She's dead, of course.

The final shot will be made someplace the ball can be held. The display will show an image of the old lady's face/head, which will rotate 90 degrees while the camera quickly zooms out to reveal that she's in a coffin. The coffin lid slams shut, points, fan-fair (extra ball and/or multiball) follow.

My day as a Brewery Girl!

I was extremely fortune on Thursday December 23rd in that I had a day off work, and Tom and Lynne were planning to brew. Not only were they planning to brew, they were planning to brew the delicious Black Corridor - their chocolate stout. I love a good stout, and I love a good chocolate stout - particularly Black Corridor (it's easily one of my favorite F8 beers) .. so I was there, with bells on! Well ok, no bells, but I was there - very very excited to be there too :)

Unfortunately the lovely Anne was out of town for The Holidays, so it was up to me to fill her delightful shoes. I hope I did an adequate job!

As I mentioned, I was extremely excited to be given the chance to play ... err I mean ... to help out on what I had been told is a long and exhaustive process. I was out of bed at 6am, and pulling into Figure 8 World Head-quarters just after 8.

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Tom was already there, and had set the boiler going..
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This is the large Brew Kettle .. basically a very big water (or beer) boiler. At the moment it's full of water that is being heated to 190 degrees (F), but later on the beer will "cook" in there. 
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This is the tank which will eventually hold this new batch of Black Corridor, and it's where the beer will ferment and become awesome.
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A lot of setup is required before we begin. Here is a pile of plumbing that will be necessary to pump liquids between the various tanks.
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Tom is already attaching some of the said plumbing. Most of the hot water will be transferred into the mash tun - which is where most of the ingredients are mixed into the hot water. The remainder of the water is pumped into some tanks up in the rafters, and will be used later.
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But first, some of the hot water is circulated through this heat-exchanger to sterilize it. Later on, once the beer has finished cooking and is being transferred to the fermentation tank, it is run through this heat exchanger in order to be cooled down.
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As Tom continues the setup downstairs, Lynne and I venture up-stairs to start fetching the grains. The super-secret recipe calls for specific amounts of several different types of grains and malts, and Lynne and I have to load everything into the grain hopper.
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This is the grain hopper, into which all of the grain will be poured. The blue device at the base is an auger which pushes the grain down chute into the mash tun. Yes the hopper is home-made .. Tom and Lynne built most of the equipment by hand - they did a stunning job.
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Here I am pouring a bag of grains into the hopper. The mask is necessary because of the dust.
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Lynne is measuring the last few pounds of grain-X into a bucket in order to ensure we have the exact amount.
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This is a CHOCOLATE stout after-all! The chocolate malt looked awesome. (I have been promised one of these grain bags for my basement :) ) 
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As Lynne and I fill the grain hopper, Tom is filling the mash tun with the water from the boiler. You can see the silver grain chute obscuring Tom's right hand. No, it's not a dryer duct :)
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Here is the grain hopper full of all the pretty (and lovely smelling) grains. The dark-brown stuff is the chocolate malt.
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Proud of my work so far, I pause to check out the awesomeness of a hopper full of grains.
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Lynne does the same .. of course she has a lot more to actually be proud of. She and Tom continue to work amazingly hard on this project, and it is really turning out to be something special.
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As soon as Tom is ready downstairs, we fire up the auger and the grain starts flowing!
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I'm having just too much fun taking care of the grains in the hopper - making sure everything goes smoothly.
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As the auger turns, and the mash is mixed, the hopper slowly drains. This was quite spectacular to watch - the grains slowly disappear in a sort of slow-motion whirlpool. (I've been beyond the whirlpool!)
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Meanwhile Tom continues to mix downstairs - never stopped stirring. The wonderful smells have already started to fill the air.
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Even once the grain hopper is empty, Tom keeps mixing. It already has the rich, dark colour of an excellent stout - and did I mention it smelled great?!
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Meanwhile Lynne and I start melting chocolate. Yes - actual melted chocolate goes into the mix! (Although it won't actually be mixed in until the boiler).
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Tom is still mixing, but Lynne and I prepare the hops. The hops have a very strong smell - pretty much exactly like an IPA beer! We load up the required amount of hops into big bags (like tea-bags), which will be dropped into the boil. The hops actually disintegrate quite a bit in the hot water, which is why Tom and Lynne prefer to keep it all contained in these bags. 
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With the mash sufficiently mixed, it's time to filter it out and pump it into the boiler. The mash tun is drained through a strainer, and you can see the suds which form ... It's tradition to dip ones finger into the suds, they taste delicious!
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As the mash is nearly completely trained, additional hot water is flowed through the grains to help get every last bit of flavor out of them. This hot water flows down from the tanks in the rafters which we filled right at the start of the process. I had mentioned that Tom and Lynne put most of this brewery together by hand - well the mash tun was once a dairy tank, for storing milk! It required significant modifications in order to be suitable to this new task.
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This is looking down into the brew-kettle (the boiler) as it slowly fills with liquid being pumped out of the mash tun.
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As we wait for the kettle to fill, Lynne and I start to prepare the retail area. It's still about 5 hours until they officially open, but they never turn anyone away who shows up looking for carry-out. Tom and Lynne are amazingly friendly and welcoming, which is a part of their success.
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Once the mash has drained, Lynne and I start the process of cleaning out the used grains.
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Meanwhile Tom drops the bags of hops into the boil. The rising steam smelled SO SO SO good!
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Lynne and I continue to shovel the grains. 

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You can see the line which marked the top of the grains - that was full solid! It took a good 30 minutes to shovel everything out of there.
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Once Lynne and I had finished, Tom took over for the final cleaning and sterilizing.
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And Lynne and I took all the used grains over to the city compost heap. Sometimes Lynne takes these over to local farms to be used as feed. Those buckets were *heavy*, and the grains are still very hot (and steaming). Yes there is a tail-gate that is attached to the back of the trailer, we wouldn't want to drive off without that - oh no!
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At the city compost center, we were able to dump the grains directly into the bull-dozer! You can see the steam rising ..
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Once we returned we actually had a bit of a breather, a nice little rest while the beer "cooked". We took this opportunity to wash some of the plumbing fittings, and just sit for a minute ... because it was soon time to remove the hop bags. As amusing as this looks it is actually pretty tough .. Tom has to fish the bags out of liquid that is literally boiling, hence the gloves and heavy shirt.
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But he never fails to find them!
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With the hops removed, and the beer boiling, Tom starts to prepare to transfer it to the fermentation tank. He is routing an oxygen line, and in the foreground (the bottle with the white liquid in the bottom) is the yeast.
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Pumping the beer from the boiler into the fermentation tank. The thick grey pipes are carrying the beer, and the thinner clear/white hoses carry cold water. The cold water cools the beer as it flows through the heat-exchanger. Tom is checking the temperature gauge, and making sure that just the right amount of oxygen is being added (it's tough to see, but there's a glass window which shows the bubbles). If the beer is too warm, then the yeast gets mad and doesn't do its job!
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Pitching the yeast into the beer as it fills the fermentation tank!
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Every time one of the hoses is disconnected, some beer spills. Checkout the awesome dark/stout colour!
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With everything safely in the fermentation tank, it's time to clean the boiler. This takes over an hour, and includes Tom actually getting inside with a scrubbing brush.
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As the beer ferments, and the yeast works its magic, the gases will come out of this tube and bubble up through the bucket of water. When I went back to F8 two days later, it was bubbling like mad. Very exciting!!
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Cleaning continues .. hosing down the pump. We also pump clean hot water through everything to flush it all out.
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With the beer in the fermentation tank, and at least half the cleaning done, it was time for a lunch break. Joel joined us for some food, and later some pinball too. It was about 3pm by this point, and we'd been on the go since 8:30.
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Back to work again, and I'm cleaning out the hop bags.
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This is what used, boiled hops looks like!
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One of two piles of fittings for all the plumbing. It's important to stay on top of keeping this clean because it's 4pm now and the tasting room opens in an hour! We have to get this all cleaned and out of the way so that we have room to clean glasses and growlers.
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Shortly before the tasting room officially opened, one of the regular customers arrived and let us try some of his own home-brew. It was delicious!
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But we can't sit around drinking all day! People started to show up early, so we scrambled to turn the taps on and get ready to sell beer.
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But not before I was able to taste the beer we just brewed! Of course it's not even close to done yet (no alcohol, no carbonation, etc), but damn it was good!
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Then the people came .. we were **slammed**! It was one of the busiest days at F8 since opening, and I spent the next 4 hours in back washing glasses and growlers. This is just a very small percentage of Growler Madness I had to contend with..
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By the end of the night (9pm) I had been on my feet for 13 hours, and had only eaten one little (but very tasty) sandwich at 3pm. Fortunately one customer had brought in this platter of cheese, sausage and crackers! Figure 8 has a very cozy and welcoming feel, and the growing number of regular customers only add to this; Tom and Lynne get little gifts like this regularly.
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 Overall I had a terrifically fun day! I'm not sure I could do this every day, but I really loved it. Thanks so much to Tom and Lynne for letting me help out - I already can't wait to do it again.

 

 

Awoken...

it's 1:30am on Sunday night (Monday morning) and I was just awoken during a pretty deep sleep by .... well it's tough to explain this sound. At first I thought it was just annoying, and that I would simply go back to sleep again. But then, as my mind actually began to wake up, I realized that this wasn't a normal noise and it would require some immediate investigation. Standing up I tried to first work out if this noise was even coming from inside my apartment. I padded into the living room, and then the kitchen; yes it was definitely the loudest in the kitchen. What can make such a shrill, almost alarm-type sound in a kitchen?

It's the fridge. Oh great - could I really need a new fridge already? I mean I know new fridges are built to fail, but come on this one is only a few years old! No, the dish-washer? Nope. Wait it sounds like it might be inside the cupboard .. but that's impossible, as glasses just don't make that sort of noise. Oh, it's the microwave! I pulled the plug and the noise stopped instantly. How could the microwave make such a noise? I mean it does have the little buzzer in it to beep when it's done and such. Doesn't matter anyway, I'll worry about it in the morning. And then I crawled back into bed.

Five minutes later the noise started again. I actually thought for a minute that someone was playing a joke on me, but my friends are all very serious and sensible - no-one would do such a thing! :)

Back in the kitchen now, and it's definitely coming from the (now unplugged) microwave. Is it something in the wall? It definitely stopped when I unplugged the microwave, so maybe it's something in the electrical socket? No, that's impossible, nothing electrical makes a sound like that. It's almost like a cricket or cicada. Ah hah, that must be what it is! Oh man I hope it's not inside the wall...

Carefully I pull the microwave away from the wall, and sitting on the now-revealed counter is a little green insect. This was a tricky moment as this little guy was really quite small, but it must have been what was making all that noise, but he's so tiny, but what else could it be?! I was still half asleep, but I knew I didn't want to kill it, so I decided I'd take him outside. I needed to get dressed, but I didn't want the now-exposed cricket to walk off and hide somewhere else; I mean sure he would start making noise again, but I wasn't going to (for example) move my fridge to get to him. I grabbed a plastic cup and put it over the bug while I went to get dressed.

Clothed and somewhat less indecent now, I went back into the kitchen and slid a sheet of paper under the over-turned cup (trapping the bug inside). I flipped the cup over (keeping the paper firmly on top), grabbed my keys, and went downstairs. I know the bug might have been happier in the courtyard, but I opted instead to leave him outside the back door in the empty lot (less doors for me to navigate through).

On one hand I am quite seriously annoyed at having my sleep interrupted like this, but on the other hand it's these extremely odd and random little episodes that make life so much fun.

-Cameron.

Clock work..

My Self Winding Clock Co clock is currently one of my favorite things. I picked it up 18 months ago (off eBay), and it has been running like a champ. (Read more about the story of this clock here: http://buzzneon.posterous.com/self-winding-clocks )

A few months ago the clock began to have problems winding, which of course would cause it to stop running. The winding mechanism works like an old mechanical bell: a magnet is energized which pulls in an armature that mechanically winds the spring slightly; however the movement of the armature opens a set if contacts that turns off the magnet. With the magnet off the armature falls back into place, which causes the contacts to close again and the magnet to re-energize. This is very wordy, but the system is actually very elegant; the armature vibrates rapidly back and forth, and winds the clock. Once the clock is sufficiently wound, another set of contacts opens which turns off the entire system (until the main spring winds down again). This winding happens about once an hour.

The problem I was seeing was that the magnet would staying energized. I could see the armature move and open the contact, but the magnet wasn't shutting off. If the magnet stays on the whole time then the armature doesn't vibrate, and the clock doesn't wind (and the battery drains really quickly). It was quite puzzling to see the contact open but the magnet stay energized, it meant that the fault was probably deep within the guts of the clock. To make matters worse, it was very intermittent; I had the clock at a repair store for 2 weeks and the guy never saw the problem.

Finally I contacted a guy online who specializes in fixing these clocks, and I asked him for some advice. He offered up a number of possibilities, and suggested that I remove the movement from the case and send it in. I really didn't like the idea of shipping the movement, but the process of removing it from the case was really simple (I am continuously impressed with the engineering of these clocks). Once I took the movement out I noticed that there was a second end-of-stroke contact on the back!

The large black cylinders are the coils (electro-magnets), and the screw (with the black insulation around it) is attached to the moving armature. When that moves towards the coils, it opens the contact.

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Here I am holding it in the position where it has pushed the contact open.

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A keen eye might have noticed that the black insulation on that screw is all broken, and that is exactly the problem! If the metal screw touches the metal of the contact, then the magnet stays energized (even though the contact is open).

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Here is the piece in question, with the broken insulation. I switched it with the same part that's on the front of the movement (there are two sets if contacts remember), so that the good one is buried inside and the broken one is on the front (which is much easier to access).

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As a temporary fix I have wrapped some electrical tape around the broken insulation, but I know that won't last long; it's a pretty high-action part of the movement and the electrical tape is slamming into the metal contact. Hopefully I can find a replacement part online somewhere, or even buy an old broken movement (which show up on eBay from time to time). In the meantime I'm so happy to have the clock working again, warming my whole apartment with it's awesomeness :)

Europe 2010

Here’s a list of all the posts from the Europe trip.

The Italy posts:

The amusement park posts:

And finally, by popular request: The Euro Mir song.