Darkoshi

I'd like to someday finish recording my and my mom's audio cassettes to MP3 files. But all my cassette players have encountered problems. The last one I used for the task still works, but started making a rattling noise while playing which gets carried over into the MP3 recordings too. Another boombox with dual cassettes has that same rattling noise problem, as well as its speakers not working.

I watched some videos of people replacing the rubber belts in their cassette players. In one video, after the belt was replaced and the cassette deck was being tested, I heard it making the same sound as mine! So even replacing the belts might not help with that problem.

Each time I go looking online for a new cassette player to buy, however, I am scared off by reviewers who say NOT to get this one, because it eats tapes. Every single one I look at has at least one, if not several reviews like that. Or other deal-breakers are mentioned, like the player being mono rather than stereo.

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I got my 2nd Shingrix (Shingles) vaccine shot.

A bit of my rear molar chipped off. I went to the dentist and had the edges smoothed.

My thumb still does not bend.

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A section of the garage ceiling panels, which I had lately noticed was sagging, broke and fell down before I could reinforce it. Luckily there was nothing underneath that area, so no collateral damage. But the cellulose insulation on top of the panel came down with it, making a big mess. I cleaned it up.

Did I ever mention the reinforcements I added to the other garage ceiling panels which had been sagging? That was 5 years ago. I attached wood boards along the seams of the panels. I still remember it feeling like quite an accomplishment. It was tricky, bracing the boards against the ceiling on both sides, while I screwed the screws in. Those sagging panels were a problem that I'd noticed and worried about for quite a while, and I couldn't find anyone to fix it, and then I figured out how to fix it myself!

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Today it was very rainy. Happy Lunar New Year!
I succeeded in getting the new mailbox post in the ground. Perhaps tomorrow I'll get the mailbox transferred over to the new post, in between working for work.

One of the gateposts on the gate that got knocked down last summer has concrete anchoring it. If it weren't for that, I'd probably have been able to get it out and replace it myself by now. I keep going back and forth between thinking I can do it myself, and thinking I will hire someone to do it. Then other things take precedence for a while. Now I'm wavering again, because I was able to rock the post back and forth a bit. Maybe if I can just get leverage... I had a couple ideas to try... I could get it out of the ground. But I really ought to just hire someone. Yeah. I really should.

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In the past, I used a product called Tub Grip to add traction to the bottom of my tub, to make it less slippery. It works very well, but it seems to capture dirt and makes the tub harder to get clean-looking. It also wears away over time.

Before applying a new coating of it, it's best to remove the rest of the old layer.
This time I used a product called "Citristrip" to remove it. It got the residue off, but also etched up the tub surface. Oops. It's a synthetic tub, fiberglass, I think. All the comments I found indicated this Citristrip works fine on fiberglass without damaging it, but no, not in my case it didn't.

The tub being etched makes it less slippery now even without applying new Tub Grip. But in some directions it still feels slippery so I probably still should apply new Tub Grip on top.

Prior episode.

I've now taken this LED light strand outside to put up on the porch for the holidays. It has bulbs of 5 alternating colors (red, blue, green, yellow, pink/purple).

When I plugged it in outside, there were several bulbs in the strand not lighting up. I think these same bulbs weren't working inside anymore either, but I didn't check it carefully before so am not certain.

4 of the non-working bulbs were at the far end. I pulled out the first of them (the one next to the working bulbs). The other 3 that were out came back on. Hrmmm?

The strand had 2 spare bulbs. I plugged one if them into the empty socket, and it worked.

In the middle of the strand were 2 more non-working bulbs next to each other. I pulled one of them out. The other one came back on. Hrmmm. I put the 2nd spare bulb in the now-empty socket, and it works. I am now out of spare bulbs.

Near the beginning of the strand are 2 more non-working bulbs. These are the 2 mentioned in the prior episode, which would sometimes flicker on and off. I pulled one out. Again, the other one came on. I pulled the 2nd one out... the whole strand goes out. Apparently that happens whenever 2 bulbs are out. You can have one out but not two.

I put the first bad bulb into the 2nd one's socket, and the 2nd one in the 1st's socket. The strand comes on again, except for those 2 bulbs. I try pulling the next light on either side of those 2 out. Each time, those 2 remain out, as well as the pulled-out one now being out.

Curiously, all 3 "bad" bulbs I pulled out are pink ones. I saw the last one flicker on and off the last time I put it back in, so I think they're not completely bad. But they may have a bad connection inside, as previously suggested by randomdreams.

I do a web search, but find no page discussing a weird LED light strand problem like this, where one bad bulb makes another one (or another 3) not turn on.

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Earlier I did find something useful, though. I'm putting up 2 different strands on the porch, and they would fit best if there was an extension cord of about 6 feet put between them. I tried a normal indoor extension cord, but its plug is polarized and therefore doesn't fit into the end of a light strand.

I searched online for a 2-prong extension cord *without* a polarized plug, but didn't find any.
But I found these tutorials on how to make your own, from an old strand of lights. I have some of those actually, which I'd been planning to recycle. But now they can still be of use to me!

The first of these videos seems much simpler than what's described in the 2nd, but I think they are basically doing the same thing.


Video title: How To Make a Christmas Light Extension Cord (HowToLou.com)
Posted by: HowToLou
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOw8TgRVJ70
Date posted: Nov 23, 2012



Video title: How to convert Christmas Light strings in to FREE extension cords for Light O Rama
Posted by: Leechburg Lights
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrQMTEVb3JU
Date posted: Dec 29, 2012

The mailbox had many items in it today, surprising me. I didn't check the Informed Delivery page first. One item that was supposed to arrive Monday is still missing; it was again nothing important, a charity appeal. I wonder where these missing items end up. In someone else's mailbox?

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The big lantana bush is so pretty, full of orange, red, and in-between colored flowers. It's as tall as I am. To think that it started out from a few small plantings. There was a monarch butterfly flitting between flowers. A smaller orange butterfly, not a monarch, chased it away... and was still chasing it when they'd flown beyond the fence.

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My mom made an audio cassette recording of her, my sister and nephew when he was one year old in 1993. I recorded it to the computer into an MP3 file. It's cute listening to them from so long ago; I plan to give them a copy. There is absolutely no noise in the recording, no tape hiss or static or anything, and I didn't even have to do a noise reduction on it which is amazing compared to all the other cassettes I've transferred to MP3s.

But after that one, the tape player started making a loud rattling noise when pressing Play, even without a cassette in it. The rattling noise comes through on the recordings too. So I need to open up the player to see if it is something I can fix or not.

The timer for the Christmas lights on my porch, the timer I used without a problem last year, isn't working. It came in a 2-pack, and the other timer still works, so it's okay sort of.

But I wanted to fix the non-functional one. Leaving the timer plugged in for a while didn't fix it. The package says that it uses a Ni-MH battery for backup, so maybe the battery went bad. The timer unit has triangle head screws. Do I have any triangle head bits in my tools? No. Not unless there are any in the tool case at Q's house, but I doubt it. And it is cold and rainy, and do I want to go outside for that? No.

Why do they keep coming up with different screw heads? It doesn't stop people from getting the screws out; it only makes them keep having to buy more tools, and makes it more of a pain.

An online video suggested using a flat screwdriver on the triangle screws, and that actually worked. So I got the timer unit open. It does have a button-battery looking object inside.

I get out my pocket voltmeter, but discover that it isn't working! ::my mood drops another 5 points:: (I've got so much to do, and mucking about with the timer wasn't even on the list.) Are its batteries bad? I use my battery tester on its 2 button batteries. They seem fine, their level shows up in the green part of the scale. But maybe they are bad anyway? I check if I have replacement batteries of the right size; I do, what luck! I put them in the voltmeter, but it still doesn't work. :-( Why would it just stop working? It's worked fine all these years. ::meh::

The can't try my battery tester on the battery in the timer unit, without getting the battery out first. It is wedged in quite tight, and might break if I tried to get it out. It's obviously not meant to be replaced, what with the triangle screws.

I stare morosely at my voltmeter. Its backside says "No user serviceable parts. Do not remove this cabinet cover." I decide to give it some whacks (when all else fails...).

I whack it against my hand, and then lightly against the floor. I turn it on, and it works. Yay!!

I use the voltmeter to check the battery in the timer unit. The battery seems ok; at 1.2V. I don't see any broken or corroded connections, so I guess there's nothing I can do.

But I feel relieved that at least my voltmeter still works. Not because they are hard to get, and not that we don't have other ones at Q's house. But this one is special to me because I've had it for quite a while, and it is nice and small.

One of my CFL light-bulbs has been acting odd. When I turn the light switch on, the bulb comes on. But after about 30 seconds, it goes dark. I tried swapping its position with a different bulb, and it did the same thing in the new position.

I found this stackexchange page: Why would a CFL bulb dim by itself after 60 seconds? which suggests the bulb may be a hybrid halogen/CFL.

These bulbs have a halogen bulb inside the CFL swirl. The theory is that the halogen is used when the light is first turned on, providing instant light. The waste heat from the halogen bulb helps to warm the CFL, allowing it to reach full brightness quicker. The halogen is turned off after the CFL has warmed up...
once the CFL fails, you'll have a bulb that lights for a minute, then turns out on its own.

I don't remember buying any hybrid halogen CFLs, and that is something I think I'd remember. But sure enough, when I turn the bulb on, it gets bright in the middle, and you can see the darker shadows of the CFL swirl around the center brightness. The 2nd of this set (I originally bought a pair) still works normally, and I can see its CFL swirl brighten whereas the broken one's doesn't.

This article on the bulbs includes a photo of the packaging: GE Lighting to promote halogen-CFL hybrid bulb with Target.
The packaging (the front side, at least) doesn't mention anything about the bulb being a hybrid or containing a halogen bulb in addition to the CFL. So at least I wasn't inobservant when I bought these. I remember being drawn to them due to their having a smooth glass capsule around the CFL, similar to incandescents.

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This article mentions something interesting that I hadn't heard before: Burned Out on CFLs? We Address the Real Issues and Solutions

projected CFL lifespans are based on a three-hour run time per start. In other words, during CFL testing, bulbs are cycled on for three hours and off for 20 minutes until half the samples have failed. If you turn them on frequently for less than three hours at a time — as I do in my bathroom — you’re in for a surprise.

"Incandescents are somewhat immune to the number of times you switch them on and off," Leslie says, "but the electrodes inside a CFL are stressed with each burst of starting voltage, and will eventually degrade and fail. With a CFL, the number of starts is the primary factor for determining how long it will last; the number of burning hours is secondary. A CFL rated at 10,000 hours in the three-hour-on standard test might last only 4,000 hours if left on for only 15 minutes per start."

So that may explain why in my experience too, CFL bulbs seem to have a much shorter life span than advertised.

My hybrid bulb that stopped working can't be older than 5 years, as it wasn't even available until Spring 2011. It may have even burned out a year or more ago, as I remember seeing it going out before, but as it kept "working" again, I thought it was just a bad connection or something.

LED light bulbs are also advertised as having long lifespans. I wonder if frequently turning them on and off reduces their lifespans too.

This regards the lamp that I nearly electrocuted myself on (though Qiao, having more experience with such things, thinks it unlikely that I would have gotten more than a nasty shock).

After taking the lamp apart to replace the socket, I discovered that the socket didn't actually have a contact missing, and it wasn't actually intended to take a 3-way light bulb. The socket does have a 3rd terminal, but it's not for controlling the extra filament of a 3-way bulb as I expected.

The old socket has 3 screw terminals, whereas the replacement 3-way socket I bought has only 2. Four wires come up out of the base of the lamp, and 2 wires were connected to one of the 3 screws.

It turns out there is actually a little bulb in the base of the lamp, which Qiao and I never knew about! The base is ceramic, with a lot of cut-outs in a nice pattern. The inside of the base had a paper lining, hiding the stuff inside. Inside that, there was a little Christmas tree type bulb, which must have burned out long ago. Turning the knob once would turn on the little light in the base, twice would turn on the top light, and thrice would turn on both.

Not sure what I'm going to do with it now. I think it would look neat to replace the little bulb with a short string of white LEDs, but I'll have to figure a way of hooking that up.



(Nearly every time I take a photo in the above room, I'm chagrined to later discover a roll of toilet paper in the picture. I use it for blowing my nose, as it has a higher recycled paper content than facial tissue. It even managed to sneak itself into the above photo.)


I love how these socks look together with these shoes! (Kudos to you if you can figure out how this photo was taken).

I bought a new surge protector and have not figured out the reasoning behind one of the cautions which is listed for it:
"DO NOT install this device if there is not at least 10 meters (30 feet) of wire between the electrical outlet and electrical service panel."

So I did some searching.

This page lists the Underwriting Laboratory (UL) requirements for 4 different types of surge protectors (SPDs). Type 3 SPDs include the above requirement. It seems to me that all plug-in surge protectors would be considered Type 3 SPDs, so apparently that warning would apply to all plug-in surge protectors. But why?

This document says "Note: If the distance is less than 10m, a Type 2 SPD (or a Type 3 SPD tested to Type 2 requirements) must be used".

This thread seems to hint at the restriction/requirement being somehow related to cascaded surge protection devices.

This document ("Driving High Surge Currents into Long Cables: More begets Less") seems to have been referenced by the previous thread, and also seems related to cascaded devices.

Admittedly, I only scanned the above links, as it would take effort to try to understand all of what was written there. But I'm left wondering, is the caution which is listed for my SPD only truly applicable if it is used in conjunction with a whole-house surge protector? If so, why doesn't the caution mention that part?