Category Archives: General

General, Technology and Society

Well, That Was Fun

25 Comments

The BMW has been running rough, and the OBD says that it’s misfiring on #6. I changed out the plugs, and swapped the #6 coil with #5, to see if that moved the problem. It didn’t.

Next step (since it’s two decades old, with 180,000+ miles on it) was to check out and clean the injectors. So I spent a couple hours figuring out how to get them out, cleaned them, put on new O-rings, and reinstalled. Now #2 and #4 are leaking at the rail. Now I’m wondering if it was a mistake to change the O-rings, but I’m just scratching my head at how, as hard as they were to get in to both the port on the head, and the rail, they could be leaking.

General

Big Sur

8 Comments

Welp, the road was washed out again, this time at Rat Creek.

Trying to figure out how that happened. Presumably there was a culvert under the road to allow the water to pass through. Did it get clogged with debris? Fortunately, no one was hurt, but who knows how long Big Sur will be cut off from the south?

[Sunday-afternoon update]

Yup, as I suspected, the debris flow clogged the culvert.

As I note in comments, this was one of many washouts waiting to happen.

General, Popular Culture, Social Commentary

Silent Night

4 Comments

…by Gabriella.

She recorded this a couple weeks ago. I love the little harmonic at the end of the stanza, and the ones at the end of the song.

If you go all the way to the end, it segues into her amazing cover of Sultans of Swing, that she did a couple months ago. She’s getting a unique sound on that one with steel strings on a classical guitar (usually they’re nylon). They’re probably light ones, because of the weaker neck, but it also makes it easier for her to bend them. I like the brushes with the left hand. You have to appreciate that she’s playing both guitar parts from the Dire Straits version simultaneously on a single instrument. It’s clearly an open tuning, probably DADFAD.

General, Social Commentary

Second Cativersary

14 Comments

[Christmas-morning update]

Merry Christmas (and other holidays) to all of my readers.

[From yesterday]

On this day two years ago, on Christmas Eve, we adopted the kittens.

We originally thought they were sisters, but a few weeks later we discovered that Ashe and Ember were sister and brother. He was the dark kitten who fell down the stairs. He was the runt of the litter, but he’s now outgrown his sister, weighing 15 pounds to her 13. She still scraps with him, though.

They’ve turned out to be pretty good cats, very social and almost too friendly. Ashe likes to lounge on my lap after painfully kneading my right upper leg, but only at my desk. Ember likes to lie on Patricia’s desk while she’s trying to work. He also likes to help out in the kitchen, but he’s not as helpful as he thinks he is. Anyway, here are the Christmas kittens, at age two.

They’ve both obviously grown a lot. Stretched out, he’s almost three feet long, from ears to tail. I didn’t have to put him in that position. They’re both characters.

Business, General, Space, Technology and Society

Yesterday’s Launch

8 Comments

We drove up to Lompoc yesterday to watch not just the launch, but the landing. We had clear skies for both events. When I saw the boosters land from the Falcon Heavy flight in Florida, I didn’t see them until they were almost down, but yesterday, we could see the deorbit burn, and then follow it all the way down to the pad. After entry, it dropped like a rock until it arrived near the pad, then rapidly decelerated and set down. We weren’t as close as we wanted to be, but it was on a hill by Vandenberg Village that gave us an unobstructed view. Despite the distance, the sonic boom of the booster coming in was impressive but, unlike the ones in Florida, where I was much closer and heard a pair of triple booms, I only heard a single one. I suspect the other two were too weak to carry as far.

[Update a while later]

Interestingly, this story doesn’t even mention the landing, even though it was historic. I think it was the first time they’ve landed there in the day time.

[Friday-afternoon update]

Here’s video of the landing.

[Bumped]

General, History, Law, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

Thanksgiving

5 Comments

James Lileks’ obligatory essay.

I am not just today, but always thankful that I was born in this Republic, and for the opportunities that we will continue to have to preserve it. Speaking of which, Sidney Powell delivered the Kraken for Thanksgiving.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Also in my home state of Michigan which is, apropo of nothing other than the Lion’s loss today, having a very bad football season.