Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Is there value in self-promotion?

I'm trying a small non-scientific experiment tonight that you're a part of.

I've been struggling with the question of the value of linking to my blog posts on twitter.  It feels narcissistic to me to post every link on twitter.  Isn't anyone who cares about what I've written going to find my stuff in their RSS reader of choice or come back to the blog periodically anyway?  If my posts are good, they will get shared on twitter and/or facebook naturally, so I shouldn't have to link to them myself, right?

My primary audience is myself, so I shouldn't have to link to anything.  But, I do hope that somethings I say are useful, or else I would not bother to put them online. Plus, I know many people don't use RSS readers, and in lieu of the feed readers prefer to use twitter to discover blog posts.

So, I'm looking for thoughts from my loyal (also smart and attractive; did I mention I don't mind kissing up?) audience.  How do you prefer to find out about my blog posts?

Since this is a non-scientific experiment I am conducting, I will do the most non-scientific thing I can think of: state my hypothesis that I am testing.  ;)  My hypothesis is that my audience is too small (and smart, attractive and polite; there is no adulation I will not give out to you; I have no shame here, only on twitter) to give me any meaningful results of this experiment.

If I'm wrong, though, please feel free to leave me feedback via your preferred channel.

Thanks!

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Andrew wins 510-212

First +500 game for Andrew. Two bingos: testing and torrents. Plus zoea and juking on TWS.


Sunday, December 18, 2011

Fixed lamp

Fixed lamp by achmorrison
Fixed lamp a photo by achmorrison on Flickr.

This is what the fixed lamp looks like back in its rightful place.

I was able to find a pull chain at the home improvement store. It was 3 feet long, so after I attached it to the lamp socket I cut off the excess with diagonal cutters.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Lamp repair

Renae has a lamp from Ikea that she uses in her room. The poll cord broke recently, so I took the lamp apart to see if out could be fixed.

It was pretty easy to get the lamp apart.  The shade was held in place by a screw-on piece. Then, the bulb base was held in the stand of the lamp by another screw-on piece which was only finger tight.

By feeding the cord up through the stand, I was able to gain access to the base and reveal the point where the pull cord connects to the switch on the bulb base.

I'll be able to replace the pull cord, but I want to replace it with a chain that will not wear out so quickly.





Here's a close-up view of where the new pull cord will be attached.
It's not obvious from these photos, but
the silver sleeve where the pull cord is
coming out of the base was not aligned
to the white bushing on the outer part of
the lamp. This is what caused the cord to
break: by rubbing on the sharp edge every
time it was turned on and off.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Plumbing problem

I have two embarrassing things to write about today.  The first is the length of time since an update on what's happening with the house.  Yeah, it's been awhile.  I'm not going to dwell on that, though.  The other embarrassing thing is related to the first, though: A few months (more than 2, less than 3) ago, I heard a drip under my bathroom vanity.  I just now (last weekend) got around to fixing it.  Now you know my shameful secret.  :-)

The drip wasn't from the faucet, it was from the drain.  I had repaired a poor install in the kitchen last winter(?), and I'm starting to suspect the previous owners weren't the best plumbers.  When I looked at where the drip was coming from, it seemed to be coming from right at the drain in the sink itself, so I suspected that the plumber's putty used to seat and seal the drain had failed.  When I actually undid the drain, I found out it was a bit worse:

From Plumbing problem
Looking at the pieces I also notice that it didn't seem that whoever installed it had used any teflon tape on the threads, either.  I doubt that alone caused it to fail, but I suspect that the threads were over-tightened which caused the part to crack and fail.

So, I went back to the hardware store and got a replacement part, which was identical to what I had taken out:
There wasn't a whole lot to getting it back into position and reconnecting the trap and the drain plug mechanism. I did notice that I think the trap part was not exactly under the drain plug assembly.  The additional stress that the part may be under might cause it to fail again sooner than it should, although I have my fingers crossed that it will last longer than the previous part.

If it does fail again prematurely, I'm going to add a flexible pipe section between the replacement assembly and the trap.  I'm starting to believe that DIY plumbers that don't measure accurately should use at least one flexible fitting in the plumbing to relieve stresses on the glue joints.  Only time will tell if my fix was good this time around.   

Monday, March 14, 2011

World's worst wiring?

No matter how goofy the electrical might be in our house, it's nothing compared to this:


Worst Automatic Garage Door Opener Installation Ever - Watch more Funny Videos