After about 2 1/2 years, I finally got around to fixing my wristwatch.

Way back when, I accidentally dropped it and when it hit the floor, the second hand popped off, and was rattling around under the crystal. Second hands are so incredibly thin and fragile that I was worried if I kept using it, the second hand might get trapped between the other hands and get bent or jammed up.

So for about 30 months, the watch has been sitting on my workbench, waiting for attention.

Then I found myself going into my watchmaking toolkit as I needed one of the micro screwdrivers, and that’s when I found myself looking at the watch. So as soon as I finished the other project, I got the watch, case wrench, tweezers and loupe, and went to work.

It really didn’t take much time – most of the time I spent was trying to remember how to release the stem. Some of them you have to unscrew a set screw slightly, other ones have a push-release. This one is a push-release.

Then it was pretty straightforward to get the second-hand with the tweezers and press it back onto the spindle thing.

I forget the correct terms. It’s been 5 years since I was into watchmaking, I’ve forgot all the terminology.

But now my watch works again!

Now I’m the sort of person who wears a watch.

Sometimes.

This damn problem is back again! Grrr!

Wordpress Calendar Borked

I had screwed around with the Wordpress files back in November and had it fixed. That was on Wordpress version 2.8.6. Then they came out with version 2.9 in December, and that reintroduced the bug, and I screwed around with the files some more and it fixed. Now 2.9.1 is out and it’s back again.

The infuriating thing is it’s not just the simple fix that I thought it was – I don’t know how or why, but just implementing the one-line repair doesn’t fix it. First you have to break it worse, then after that the one-line repair works.

It’s very annoying – I actually use that calendar a lot.

Just so nobody thinks that home camera repair is all fun and wine, there are the occasional FAIL moments.

My Lomo Lubitel 166 was in need of some work – when I got it, it was filthy (“refurbished” my arse) and the Bulb mode did not work. A simple cleaning was easy enough and I was sort of prepared to live without Bulb mode since it didn’t come with a cable release socket anyways. (Though wierdly, it actually came with a cable release.)

The final straw came when I had loaded it up with the second roll of film, then the back flopped open and ruined a couple exposures. At that point, I figured I’d fix the Bulb mode and see about doing something to improve the way the back closed.

Repairing Bulb mode proved to be pretty simple. But putting it back together… well there was the kicker. I could get it back together, but the shutter wouldn’t cock. Or I could get it so the shutter cocked, but it wouldn’t go back together. It was frustrating. I fiddled with it for a few hours then gave up and set it aside for a week or two.

Last night I tried again, but found myself to be still frustrated – I have no idea how they hooked the cocking gear to the winding gear. I can hook them up in a dozen different ways, but none of them work.

In frustration I “removed” one side of the camera, to see if I could get at some of the gears. I got at the gears, but still no luck. The camera body is mainly plastic, and the outer bits were ‘welded’ in place so getting at the gears meant breaking some of the outer casing.

At this stage, it’s pretty much a write-off. All I can do now is scavenge it for parts. Sigh. Well, you can’t win them all. And I did get one roll of film through it. Still… after spending 29 years waiting in a box, it found me, shot one roll of film, then I killed it.

Mind you, a little failure is good now and then, helps to keep us mindful of consequences and helps us learn.

Ever gone picking rasberries or strawberries, and as you’re filling your pail you find a rotten one? What do you do? Odds are, you don’t get angry at the berry. You just toss it aside and pick the next berry. Ever opened a carton of milk to discover it had gone sour? If it was brand-new, you might get cross with the grocer, might even take it back for a refund. Or maybe you just pour it out. You probably don’t get mad at the milk itself, though. In any event, you get another carton of milk. Or have you opened a bottle of wine, only to discover it was corked? Again,  you typically wouldn’t get angry at the wine. You might be disappointed, or upset at the loss if it was a particularily special or expensive bottle. But it could have been corked at the winery, at the shop, or while it was in your cellar. No way to know, really. So you just pour it out, and get another one.

The berry, the milk, the wine, they’ve all gone bad. They aren’t to blame, it’s just the luck of the draw. Things happened to them, or their environment, and the outcome was that they went bad.

What about people? Bad people?

Read more »

Lately there seem to be a lot of ads on TV for places offering to pay you money if you send them your broken gold. Broken gold? WTF is broken gold? Is it worth less per ounce if it’s broken? I don’t think so. These guys are just going to melt it down anyways, so what the heck?

I think they are preying on ignorance and desperation, and I think it puts a bad taste in my mouth.

This probably goes in the ‘impossible never happen’ files, but I’d like to see honesty in advertising. Yeah I know they can’t outright lie, but they certainly can manipulate. Perhaps that is the whole point of advertising? Manipulation?

Hi there, I’m On TV, and I’ll pay you pennies on the dollar for your damaged jewelery because it’s old or damaged. In these difficult economic times, I know that people are desperate and waving a little cash around on your TV screen helps to dull your judgement and senses. So, send me those dusty old heirlooms your great grandmother carried all the way from the old country, send me that silly sentimental jewellery your spouce gave you, and I’ll melt it down and sell it for US$937 per ounce!

Yeah that’s what your old dusty broken gold is worth at the time of this writing: US$937 per ounce. You can find the price at the time of this reading, by following this link: GoldPrice.org

The difficult economic times won’t last forever. Don’t let the vultures manipulate you into thinking you’ll get rich by giving them irreplacable jewellery. Maybe I’m too sentimental, but really – if you have to sell something to get some short-term relief, get rid of the mass-produced consumer objects. Sell the TV or the car if you can, take public transit and use the library. Your great grandmother will thank you.

Not long ago, I was pondering the correlation between aches and pains, and weather. While I don’t have any further data or revalations to add to that post, I figured I’d explain a bit more about why my back hurts like hell at times… You see, back when I was 18, my friend called me up and asked “Hang Gliding or Parachuting?”

It didn’t take too long to figure that one out. Hang gliding is insane crazy dangerous, where you risk your life hanging from a bunch of aluminum tubes and nylon. Whereas with parachuting, your life hangs from nylon and rope. When you crash with a hang glider, you risk impaling yourself on aluminum tubes. When you crash with a parachute, there’s nothing to impale yourself on (other than stuff on the ground.) And finally, if you go parachuting, at least you have a parachute!

Read more »

What do you mean, the Warranty doesn’t cover this sort of thing?!