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cap swapping II
Monday, April 23 2012
A couple days ago the more-reliable of my two five-or-six-year-old SyncMaster 204B monitors started manifesting the typical symptoms of capacitor plague, producing a flickering image for the first ten or twenty seconds after powering up. 25 months ago, I'd had this problem with the other 204B monitor, and had easily fixed it by swapping in new Japanese-made electrolytic capacitors to replace the crappy ones made by CapXon. I'd bought enough capacitors to replace them in both monitors, so I had what I needed to do the repairs. So that was one of the things I did this afternoon. I didn't actually replace all of the electolytic capacitors; I concentrated on the two obviously swollen by plague as well as the big high-voltage one. Part of the problem was that one of the new capacitors didn't have any labeling to tell me which of its leads was negative and which was positive, so I had to assume the long lead was positive. But if I ever salvage that capacitor, both leads will have been cut short and be of identical length.
Despite occasional rains and continuing chill, this afternoon I went down to the greenhouse and opened up the attic from its east end by removing a piece of plywood. I wanted to see what it looked like in there so I would have a better idea of what I would be up against if I were to attempt to raise its roof. Despite the fact that there is no floor in the greenhouse attic, cats (particularly Nigel and Clarence) have made multiple nests in the exposed fibreglass insulation between the joists. For me to go in there, I had to lay down some two by fours. This allowed me to look for any fasteners attached to the roof structure so I could remove them. Eventually all such fasteners will have to be removed, but the most important ones to remove at this point are those that cannot be reached from outside the attic.
This evening Sarah the vegan came over with another dinner she'd made, this one based on millet, tomato sauce, and a flatbread she had made. It was good, though I couldn't understand the function of the whole hot peppers floating in it like dead Sperm Whales. They contributed nothing to flavor but were toxically hot if one were to bite into them. I don't think I'll ever use a vegetable that way in any food I ever prepare, even if the directions call for it.
Later the three of us all went upstairs and watched The Sitter, yet another Jonah Hill comedy. The Sitter is an "escalating disaster" type of comedy, made all the funnier by the presence throughout of three pre-pubescent children. Noah, played by Jonah Hill, is a hopeless slacker who ends up in a babysitting assignment. His bitchy and exploitative "girlfriend" calls him claiming to arrange an elusive booty call, though it's clear that all she wants is for him to be a cocaine delivery service. Not wanting to miss out on some actual sex (as opposed to always giving, but not receiving, oral sex), he "borrows" a minivan and brings the kids. Along the way, we're treated to repeated interactions with Karl, a flamboyantly-eccentric drug kingpin and his army of rippling body builders. (Karl seems to be a send-up of similar characters in Boogie Nights and Blue Velvet). The Sitter was funny at times, although occasionally it showed itself to be a deeply-flawed movie. How could it be that that incredibly hot vaguely African-American woman from Noah's astrophysics class would give him the time of day? And why would she (spoiler alert) "regularly go down on him" (and why would we even want to know)?, which is what we're told she is doing during the movie's closing credits. I thought The Sitter was pretty good, but Gretchen found it such a delight that she had me make a bootleg copy (something that American law forbids but which is easy to do).
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