Tea, Lots Of It

Throughout this blog, there is mention of Nestea, a brand of iced tea with which I have a long history. For many years now, I’ve been satisfied with the imported Canadian Nestea from Amazon.  It ain’t cheap, but it’s the real deal.

Something else that I’ve recently kind of been obsessed with is seeing how long things last in my household.  Being a household of one and not really having the unfortunate financial burdens of the younger generations, I buy the largest size of things to get the most product per ounce or whatever unit of measure it is.  I figure, I’m going to use it all eventually and it’s not going to spoil, so if I buy something that will last a long long time, I just won’t have to go to the store as often.

So, I buy the 100ct of garbage bags, when I use one a week.  I buy 350 dryer sheets when I do load once a week.  I buy the bulk packs of soap and the largest shampoo I can find.  The funny thing about doing this is that buy the time I repurchase an items, the branding design has usually changed and shrinkflation has also usually  occurred.  I’ll write the date I started using the product on the package with a sharpie.  Just for note, I recetly found can get over 9 months out of the largest shampoo bottle.

But anyway, this is about tea.  I’m not going to bother researching how long a canister of tea lasts me, because there’s really only one size and it’s whatever.  It’s not something I’m going to shop for alternatives on.  But I am going to measure something else.  I do not make my tea to Nestea’s specifications.  I make my tea light.  And I mean really light.  Like tea flavored water.  So here’s the numbers after counting the number of servings I just made from my latest can.

A canister is reported to make 68 servings.  I counted 154.  I might have been able to scrape another out of it, but because of the constant absorption of moisture as the can is opened over and over, you have to use more mix at the end than at the beginning, and honestly, the quality isn’t as good.  So 154 is close enough for my needs.  So right off the bat, I’m getting double the servings, so I’m using half the recommended amount of mix.

But wait.  I said I like my tea light.  These servings on the can are 16oz glasses.  I drink my tea in a 32oz beer stein (my teacup).  So my servings are double the recommended as well.  So I’m using a quarter of the recommended amount of mix.  The hard math on this is: a canister will make 1,088oz of tea.  I made 4,928oz of tea.  I am using 22% of the recommended amount of mix.

Now, let’s look at the downsides to this.  Each serving of Nestea has 31g of sugar, which is 31% of your recommended daily intake (how convenient).  So you can drink like three glasses a day.  Yeah, yeah, I know that’s not how recommended intake works.  Just play along.  So each of my servings is 6.8% of the recommended daily amount and I can drink four of my servings to match one of Nestea’s servings. So I can have 12 a day.  How many do I drink?  Well, I don’t think it’s 12.  Could be more than 6, though.

And you probably think that’s bad, especially since I’m not in great health.  But I’ll tell you something.  When I worked in an office, I didn’t have Nestea there.  I had Coke.  And I drank lots of it.  Not as much as my tea, because Coke is very heavy and my tea is like water, but still, a lot.  And since I’ve been working at home for the last 3 years or so, my A1C has dropped significantly very likely due to this change in intake.  So, there, it’s not bad, relatively speaking.

Fashionably Uncool, Functionally Awesome

I was kind of surprised this is not something I’ve written about before.  I only mentioned it in passing like five years ago.  It’s something that I feel I’ve talked about often, but I guess that’s just an explanation when I have a passenger in my car.  The topic: driving gloves.

So let me start with a story.  One day, I’m commuting back home from work and as usual, traffic is just at a standstill.  I’m driving the MX-5.  At that time, I had the GPS/dashcam mounted in it.  The dashcam can also pair with your phone for Bluetooth hands-free bullshit.  I don’t enable any of that junk.  But in this moment, the GPS randomly picked up someone else’s Bluetooth transmission and broadcast it to me.  Apparently, the truck in front of me was interested in my business.  I don’t remember if I’d done something to ruin his day, but it seems I was a target for criticism.  The statement that came through the Bluetooth suggested he had plenty to say about me.  The only piece I got to hear?  "Oh my god, he’s wearing leather racing gloves!"

Even with that lone commentary to consider, I have worn driving gloves consistently since initially deciding to do so.  And when I recently decided to expand my horizons on gloves, the first review site I visited gave a pretty good rationale of why you should wear them.  Now, I could have used other words like justification, or defense, seeing that most people would need to be convinced to take that step, but since I’m already a convert, it just confirmed what I already knew.

Very quickly, those reasons are: better grip on the wheel; more relaxed grip on the wheel because of said grip, resulting in less fatigue; and preserving the condition of your interior.  I agree with all points, and the last one is the primary reason I began wearing gloves, because the leather on my steering wheel had dried, cracked, and rotted away, requiring replacement of the whole steering wheel.  The replacement has remained immaculate.

But anyway, this post is about gloves.  When I started this habit, I didn’t have any experience at all.  So I just went to Amazon and looked at what was highly rated for the price I was willing to pay.  What I ended up with was Pratt and Hart gloves for about $30.  I’ve been through five pairs of those gloves over five years between two cars.  And I felt it was time to see what else was out there and build comparative knowledge.  And that led me to the article previously mentioned.

I got the names of two manufacturers that I was willing to try.  Ferrari was not one of them, because while having suede gloves does sound awesome, I don’t see myself spending $450 on gloves.  But Riparo and Harssidanzar seemed like good candidates.  One sounds vaguely Italian and the other vaguely German, both automotive powerhouses.  Both, I am sure, are made in China, so what’s in a name? (Correction, Riparo is made in Pakistan.)

So I spend about $30 bucks on the Harssidanzar and about $60 bucks on the Riparo.  That will give me two fresh brands to learn about, with one brand being double the cost – will it be double the quality?

Before I get into the details, I just wanted to comment that I did try "fingerless" gloves, that are actually like half-fingered gloves.  I thought I would like them more because my fingers are slightly long and bump into the ends of the gloves, which sometimes is annoying.  But, the fingerless style are terrible to take off.  They just turn inside out, which is an even bigger annoyance to have to push each half-finger back through before putting the gloves back on.  So, that style is not for me.

The first pair to arrive was the Harssidanzar.  I immediately put them on and felt disappointed.  I don’t like my gloves tight and I felt I should have sized up.  It was the recommended size and was the same size I’d bought of Pratt and Hart.  Nevertheless, I would at least try them out until the other pair came in.  In the next couple days I wore them driving, my opinion changed pretty quickly.  They had a very good grip on the wheel and they slid on and off my hands very easily each time.  I expect they will stretch out a little over the coming weeks and form to my hands, becoming as much, if not more comfortable than my Pratts.

Design-wise, they are pretty similar to the ones I already have.  I got tan color instead of black and I like that a lot.  The Pratts had a nasty habit of bleeding dye if your hands were wet – to the extreme that I would hand wash each new pair in the sink and wring out the extra dye (which was always impressive).  They both have holes at the knuckles, both have seams and stitching inside.  The Harssidanzar has more venting perforations, which may help, IDK yet.  Otherwise, the construction around the thumb seems to be a glove standard – no innovations there.  Both have snap closures, and the Harssidanzar has a thinner strap for the button, which I think I like, and it seemed to fit further down on my wrist than the Pratts.

Overall, I like the Harssidanzar more than the Pratt and Hart (also purchased as Silverstone).  So how does the more expensive Riparo compare to Harssidanzar?

When the Riparo arrived, I opened them up and quickly noticed the difference between them and the others.  First, the materials.  The leather was noticeably thicker and had a visible grain to it.  Of the three pairs sitting in front of me, this is the only one with a leather grain.  Then the packaging.  These are the only ones that had shipped with cardboard inserts in the gloves and paper wrapping.  To be honest, that was all sort of lost on me in the excitement to see how they fit and felt, but the extra attention is nice.

The Riparo are what they call reverse-stitched, so all the seams are on the outside.  This makes the gloves appear flatter and more angular, especially on the index and pinky finger, where the leather just sort of appears like an envelope.  Width-wise the gloves fit just fine, length-wise, the fingers were just a little short for me.  But I didn’t let it bother me much and got to work wearing them to stretch and form them to my hands.

The first drive with the Riparo, I noticed what I had suspected at first sight.  The leather is not grippy like the Harssidanzar, most likely because of the grain.  But I did persist and just had to grip the wheel better.  The snap closures seemed very obtrusive.  Normally, I don’t snap my gloves closed, but on this pair, the straps were so thick and substantial that I felt I had to close them or they just flopped around.  But on the plus side, they had plenty of room when closed – not tight at all.  I could almost slip the gloves off while closed.  The coverage of the gloves was right between the Pratt and Harssidanzar.  The Pratt being the shortest, feeling like it didn’t cover my hand fully when closed, the Harssidanzar feeling like it was closed around my wrist.  I certainly can’t complain about the Riparo construction.  The stiches are clean, the edges are rolled well and since I bought a design with dual tan/black color, the contrast is well done.  There are substantial vent holes, like the Harssidanzar and unlike the Pratt.

So here’s the closing.  I can’t stand "best-of" comparisons because there is rarely ever a "best".  It’s all in what you prefer.  So I’m just trying to highlight the differences and if a difference means something to you, that’s something you should take into consideration on your own.  Also, I will say that if the Riparo were the first pair I’d ever owned and used for years before trying something else, my opinions as to what "normal" should be would be totally different.  Maybe I’d be complaining that every other brand’s leather was too thin, not as durable, had inside seams that poked your fingers.  But that’s not my experience, so the Riparo is the foreign one here. 

For me, I prefer the Harssidanzar gloves for three reasons: the fit, especially around my wrist; the color is the lightest and the design looks more dressy and less sporty; and the leather provides the best feel for driving.  The Pratt didn’t measure up to either alternative because it’s always felt too short around my wrist and the dye always bleeds onto me when my hands are wet.  The Riparo probably would have won out and probably will outlast the Harssidanzar because of the better leather, but having gloves that last longer but aren’t as comfortable isn’t much of a sell.  If the Riparo lasts twice as long as the Harssidanzar, I can buy two pairs of Harssidanzar and get the same lifespan for the same money.

The final observation is that the names feel kind of misleading.  The Riparo – the classy Italian sounding name – is the more sporty and aggressive design, which you might associate with German autosports.  The Harssidanzar – the German sounding name – is more stylish and refined, like Italian fashion design is known for.  If you put the gloves side-by-side, told someone the brand names of them and asked them to guess which was which based on design, I’ll bet they’d guess backwards.

Final, final observation.  I did not make any bad decisions with either of these choices.  I did make a good decision to try a different brand.

Ctrl-Alt-Delete

So it’s been a number of years that I feel I’ve just been hibernating, just running out the clock.  I’m finally just getting around to making a concerted effort to undo that.  Make a new start.  Reboot.

If you dig far enough back in this blog, you’ll find a pretty low point in my life where it didn’t seem like the next day was worth getting to.  That was when social media was in its infancy. in today’s social media, I’ve learned that you shouldn’t make pronouncements like that online, at least not in real time.  It’s just a big bother for everyone.  And while I don’t have anyone in my life that would follow me to such a degree, it’s still never a good thing to just bring everyone down.  Kinda like a Green Day sentiment, ya know.

So anyway, I did have another one of those moments a while ago – many years ago, and it was many years in the buildup as well.  And it was coinciding with the quality of my health at the time.  I had been keeping up with my annual Dr visits and each time was warned of my condition, but I refused to take any action on it.  The turning point was when the doc started asking some pointed questions, and every time I answered he’d make a big huge checkmark on his notepad.  Come on, doc, I see what you’re doing.  I know these questions.

So he suggested a drug to help me.  And just like every other drug he told me I should be taking for my health, I resisted.  "I will never accept being on a maintenance medication."  He kept insisting and reasoning with me, and I caved.  Not really caved, I literally gave up.  I said, whatever.  I don’t care about anything anymore, why should I care about taking some medicine?  It’s going to be over soon anyway.

And here’s what I meant.  For a number of years, I was 100% convinced I would be dead before I hit 50.  Absolutely sure of it.  As the date drew closer, I was making plans.  I have all my affairs in order.  Everything that someone would need to know in my absence was recorded.  And had the date passed without realization, well, I could remedy that.

(obviously I’m still here, 4 years later)

So I go on this SSRI med, and I get a combination of other meds for my issues.  Let me give you the honest truth about my experiences since that change.  First, the SSRI drug was like magic.  Not in the sense that it made me feel better – I did not immediately feel better and I never did while I was on it.  What it did do is eliminate "that thought".  And that part is completely magical to me.  How, of all my thoughts in a day, could it just remove that one?  I could think about it actively if I put my mind to it, but it had no emotional effect on me.  It’s unbelievable.

So, then, all’s well?  Not at all.  I wasn’t any happier and I knew I was an emotional zombie.  I had no lows, but also no highs.  Nothing meant anything to me.  And I suppose this was just fine while my thoughts kind of reorganized themselves.  But after a couple months, I was sick of it and told the doc I wanted to wean off of the drug.  I had what are termed "brain zaps" while dosing down and that’s an unexplainable sensation.  But my thoughts have remained relatively clear ever since.  A success story?

Well… when you spend so many years planning your end and that has been taken away from you, and the treatment and cessation of the treatment for that condition has not made any changes to your day-to-day mood and attitude, life is still a chore.  For a long time, I’ve been referring to my life as "playing on extra credits", harkening back to arcade games where you are given extra play time for some success, but once that’s gone, the game is done.  I’m not making any long term plans, I’m not empire building, have no plans for a relationship, have no plans for anything, really.  As I said, running out the clock.

But now, I’m actually beginning to see a little into the future.  It’s not sunlight and roses, but I’m starting to see that this extra play could go on for a while.  And part of the realization with that is that the game is actually easier than I thought it was.  I have no responsibilities, my expenses are low and stable, and I’ve got a lot of time to use.  If I choose to spend that time doing nothing, that’s ok.  If I choose to go out into the world and be pleasant and interactive, that’s ok, too.  There are no longer any expectations for me other than what I set for myself.  And that’s always been true, but when you’re in a relationship, you have to compromise and work together.  Not that I’ve been in a relationship for many years, but I somehow forgot that.

And now it’s baby steps trying to get back to the (at least) pleasant, approachable person I used to be.  I’m feeling a bit embarrassed about being so morose and withdrawn all the time.  I’m still of the mindset that every acquaintance is a potential anchor and I guard my freedom and privacy zealously, but, you have to reach out to make a connection, right?  I’m still pretty confident in my ability to identify compatible people.  I don’t know, maybe I can sense auras.  But I let a number of people slip by because I didn’t feel it was worth the effort.

Going Paperless

Did you know that Microsoft Money still works, 20 years after it’s been discontinued?  Quite the impressive feat.  Not so impressive to admit you still are using MS Money 20 years after it’s been discontinued, though.  The world has moved on, old man.  We don’t need to track our money anymore, everything’s online!  And while at the same time, no one seems capable of managing their finances.  I don’t know why.

But this is about me, not every other financially-challenged person.  I still use MS Money, and I’ve faithfully asked for and walleted my paper receipt with every single purchase.  And then I take the time to log those entries in Money, giving me a running balance of my purchases and allowing me to see what I’m spending or overspending on.

The thing is, and this is shameful bragging, I don’t have to worry about that anymore.  It’s just as much due to my financial situation as it is my spending habits.  I don’t spend needlessly, and at the same time, I’ve made purchases of things that last and aren’t causing me to have to repurchase them or repair them or whatever.  And my income is solid enough that it affords me the luxury to buy pretty much whatever I want.  And the key to remaining like this is, I don’t want a lot anymore.

So, bragging completed, why do I still track my individual purchases even if I don’t need to?  Well, it’s still nice to have a diary of sorts of the places I’ve been and the things I’ve done, and sometimes it helps research how old something is.  And there’s the helpful side effect of being able to identify fraudulent purchases and tip-modifications when they should happen.  So I will continue the process.

But, you know, it’s tedious.  And I’m honestly sort of tired of it.  I end up with weeks worth of receipts in my Costanza wallet until I pull them all out and dump them on the desk and have to log a months worth of transactions – like 150 – in a sitting.  So I don’t really want to do it anymore.  But, I think I can finally made a modification to the process to ease the pain a little.

Everything truly is electronic now.  And as part of my anti-fraud process, I have all my cards send me an email notification when a charge occurs on them.  This has been in place for years and I never really put these pieces together.  So with these emails coming in, why do I need the paper receipt anymore?  I can just log them from the emails.  I get a date, a total and a payee – everything I need.  So I set up Outlook to move all those notifications into a dedicated folder and flag them for follow-up.  When I log them in Money, I clear the flag and my wallet stays light.

In fact, I’m mulling over writing a program that can read Outlook, find those emails and parse them, then send keystrokes to Money to make the entries for me.  Wouldn’t that be efficient?  Have I mentioned lately that I LOVE being a programmer?

The Happiness Of Having No Timeline

One of my growing hobbies is synth repair.  Buying broken devices and trying to fix them.  In the early days, it was because I wanted to play these devices.  I was building my studio and I needed and wanted these devices to work right now.  Now that my studio is filled, that urgency kind of drops off and things can sit around for as long as they need to before they get fixed, if they ever get fixed.

This Kurzweil keyboard I purchased over a year ago has been waiting for a donor board for a year, and when I finally got one, it had problems too.  So now I have two unusable boards.  But, due to the lack of urgency to fix them, I’m able to take the time as a learning experience and allow myself to make mistakes and try to learn as I go.  So while the end result might be that neither of them work, I’m learning things that lead up to the final diagnosis of unfixable.

When I started, the one board sad it had bad ram and the other said it had a bad CPU.  These are not solvable problems (for me).  However, there are other problems that I can try to solve in the interim.  For example, both boards have bad backlights in their display.  I’ve discovered they use CCFL bulbs instead of EL sheets.  This is new to me, so I’ve learned about the parts and repair of those. 

After swapping the bulb, there was no real change.  I could have given up right there, but based on past experience, a symptom like that suggests a power problem.  The vast majority of electronics problems are power-related.  The extent of my knowledge on that topic is changing capacitors.  I had recently purchased a capacitor tester to support this limit of my knowledge and my tests showed that yes, a cap was bad near the backlight assembly as well as on the power supply section.  Parts ordered. Days go by.

After replacing the caps, the backlight was better, but still not perfect.  So I was on the right track, just needed more digging.  Something most techs start with, but isn’t really in my troubleshooting list is using a multimeter to test voltages.  I usually bypass this step because I don’t really what is good or bad.  I test the voltage at the cap I just changed.  It’s like 4.8 volts.  I have heard and read that most devices either use 12 or 5 volts internally, so it looks to me that there’s an underpower situation.  I probe farther back and its the same low voltage all the way back to the main power section.  I test some of the capacitors in that area and find one that reads bad. 

One of the things I’ve started doing is buying excess of any part I need, assuming that if I needed it once, I’ll probably need it again.  And sure enough, I have a replacement for this cap on hand.  When I flip the board over to unsolder it, I see the soldering points for the voltage regulator right beside it are darkened.  The pieces are starting to fit together.  Capacitors fail from exposure to excessive heat.  Voltage regulator nearby getting hot enough to discolor the circuit board.  Voltages are not to spec.  I pull the voltage regulator and order a replacement (and spares, of course).

So all this time, I have all these parts and tools scattered all over my kitchen table.  It’s a disgusting mess, but I live alone, so who cares?  If I had another spare room, I could have a workshop, but all my rooms already have purposes.  And again, this may be all for naught.  Maybe I do get the backlight working fully and it doesn’t matter because the mainboard is shot.  But the value in learning has been gained.  I did some troubleshooting steps I hadn’t done before and identified issues that I might have made me give up before.

Rack Redux

Last year at this time, I was building my studio and acquiring gear at a pretty good clip.  Some of the new synthesizers I was buying were rackmountable. and I was a little turned off at the cost of buying a prebuilt rack to house them in.  After consideration, I thought maybe I could build one of my own.  It shouldn’t be hard.  It’s a freaking box.  It’s got four sides.  You have a saw and screwdriver, you should be able to do this.

I do have all the tools you would need to accomplish this, and I had a few minor woodworking projects under my belt already.  I had built a shitty platform for my washer and dryer.  I had built a couple of sunglasses racks as well.  I think I was ready to try this.  Spoiler alert, it’s not exactly cheaper to do it yourself, but the satisfaction sort of makes up for it (that’s always what they say, isn’t it?)

And so I built my first rack.  It was 12U rack with an extra shelf.

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Oddly, the stain I chose was supposed to be a light grey (kind of like the floor) and was actually blue.  Whatever, it’s fine.  It’s not like once I started applying the stain I could just undo it.

And this rack served me pretty well for that year.  I outgrew it quickly, though, and I wanted more space.  I needed more space because I was starting to gather up rackmount effect units.  So I began making mental plans to build a second rack.  This old rack would then be dedicated to effects and the new larger rack would be all synthesizers.

The old rack had a capacity of 12U.  I decided to go big this time and bought 22U rails.  Another thing I didn’t like from v1 is that the floor and shelf of the rack are from some extra scrap wood I had around and this time I wanted the whole thing to have the same wood finish, so I bought extra panels to cut up.  I ended up using 3 of the 4 sheets, so my wood cost went up by only 50%.

I got by by using my 20v tools the first time, but the circular saw was pretty underpowered for the job.  More than once it stalled out cutting through the wood and it never seemed to keep a straight cut.  So this time I bought a high-power corded saw, which is an additional up-front cost, but will be used much more in the future, I’m sure.  I also have a corded drill and when I need that level of power, it’s very nice to have that option.  And the saw did a tremendous job.  i was able to cut the slant on both sides sheets at once, so they are perfectly matched.

I have wheels from a previous project that I can use, and I’m going to use pocket screws again because they seem really strong, and also because I have a lot of them on hand.  I’m going to double the number of screws I use for extra strength this time.  I’m not going to forgo the wood glue this time.  It makes a world of difference.  I have poly sealant from last time, but I didn’t think I had enough blue stain to cover the new larger size (48" high instead of 38"), so I bought some new stain.  This time, red.  Not red like cherry wood, I mean cherry RED.

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Taking some cues from Nord Keyboards, for sure.

Once this is done, as is tradition, it’s only the start of the purchases.  All the equipment from the old rack will be moved to the new one, and that will work as-is.  but when I add more devices, I’ll need to add a second rack mixer.  There’s going to be more devices to power, but I already purchased a larger power strip for install from Woot, who listed one recently, conveniently enough.

Then, looking at the population of the old rack with the effect units that are piling up in my closet, I need to buy a new patchbay to route them.  I have a power switch that I had purchased a while ago from the same place I bought the Roland U-110 and my 32 channel mixer.  And additional power will be available from the power strip already installed in it.  Other than that?  Cables.  Bunches more cables.  Cables to connect the effect units to the patchbay, and maybe some mid-length cables to route between the synth patchbay and the effect patchbay.

And here’s the new rack:

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With all the gear swapped out and organized

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Of course, like every picture, it’s always out of date.  The FX rack now has a patchbay to route to the synth rack and an improved power switch.  The synth rack now has a new entry as well.  So now it’s time to update the 2024 studio purchase log.

The Kurzweil Money Pit

A little over a year ago, my purchasing of keyboards for the studio was peaking, and I was grabbing whatever struck my fancy.  One of the things that came along at that time was a Kurzweil PC3.  It "had problems".  Professional diagnosis said that the main board was bad and would need swapped out.  So I left the device in my rack and waited for another PC3 to come along that needed repair so I could merge the two into one working device.

And it took over a year for something to appear.  This one was the PC3x, which is the 88 key version of the model I had – the 76-key version.  The description, along with demo video, said and showed that the display did not work.  And that was ok with me, because I had a display that did  work.  The asking price was $450, which is a little more than the $300 I paid for the first one, but if these things only appear once a year, I guess I have to get it and go.

I arranged to pick up the device the next day and explained I didn’t care about the screen, but I wanted to know if it had sound.  Time moved slowly and eventually, the seller said they couldn’t confirm if it had sound or not because the display problem prevented any testing.  Well, ok.  I’ll still take it.

And I really overpaid.  I didn’t get what they were saying if I wanted it, just come and get it.  And when I tried to pay them the $450, they were like, no, no, we don’t know if it works or not.  They wanted to give it to me for free.  I drove a hard bargain and gave them $300 instead.  Hindsight is painful, but I’m still ok.

First thing this morning, I started it up.  Initial diagnosis, the screen works.  There’s no backlight.  However, the device is stuck in a rebooting loop.  That’s the repetitive clicking the seller was hearing.  Later in the morning, I have it all disassembled and am running the built-in diagnostics.  The device spontaneously reboots when testing the RAM, but all other tests pass.  Audio can’t be tested because it relies on the RAM, so it reboots on that test as well. 

Ok, so let’s get device #1 and see what we can transplant.  I disassemble the 76-key version and take out the screen.  I figure it will be at least easier if I can see what I’m looking at while testing.  The backlight for the screen is hard-soldered to the main board.  Ugh.  I desolder both, then solder the working screen into the new 88-key.  I go to plug the display board to the main board and… fuck.  The ribbon cable is too short.  Because, duh, a 76-key board is not near as long as an 88-key.

Ok.  Plan B.  Let’s replace the backlight.  I disassemble the display and am very nervous because there’s like no wires to the screen.  It’s some kind of conductive rubber sheet that connects the circuit board to the glass screen.  Then I find out that there’s no EL sheet there – it’s just a big white box with two wires going into it.  I don’t know what that is or how it’s getting lit.  So I go drastic and cut the leads to the existing light and solder them up to an EL sheet I have.  I have to make significant modifications to the metal frame to accommodate the placement of the wires.  Lots of dremel work and hot metal.  This is spiraling out of control.  I get it all put back together, enough to fire it up and… no light.  That was a damn waste. 

Let’s step back a little bit and do some isolated testing.  I take the 76-key display and wire up the power with some extension wires.  I power up the board and the backlight comes on for a brief moment, then goes out.  Hmmm.  Maybe my old display is flaky too?  Or is it possibly a problem with power delivery?

I go back online and do more searches for replacement displays.  Like everything else PC3, there are NO replacement parts available anywhere.  But I found a post of someone who had fixed their backlight and actually provided pictures.  And the replies had even more good info.  Using this info, I bravely cracked open the box on the display board to find the light inside.  It’s not LED, it’s actually fluorescent (cold cathode fluorescent).  Weird, but you know, a lot of computer monitors used CCFL for backlight before LED became cheap enough.

I had cut the leads completely off, so I resoldered the leads back, then soldered that disassembled display to the 88-key board.  When I turned it on, I could immediately see that the bulb was only about a third lit and what was lit was extremely dim.  And like their full-size counterparts, this bulb had the telltale signs of age with the darkened ends.  This is replaceable.  And if I hadn’t found that post and the replies, I would have been simply stuck again.

A site called CFL Warehouse, stocks these bulbs, and they’re not expensive, like $11 each.  And shipping is obscenely cheap, like $2.  So I bought two.  Maybe I’ll fuck one up, and if I don’t, I can replace the bulb in the other display too.  And when parting out the remnants, that should be a decent selling point.

So for now, I’m waiting on parts, like I’m waiting on parts for two other devices sitting around.  And once that’s done, will I be able to go to the next step of swapping components or will both devices have different failures on the same board, making it all pointless?  That remains to be seen.

Studio Buying Spree Continues

It’s a new year and Brainfield studios shows little sign of letting off the GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome).  I filled up my rack and had 1U of space left and figured I’d add an effect unit, because why not?  And then, why stop at one?

I’d been mulling it around and never really saw anything that caught my eye until one day in mid-February at a pawn shop, I saw a Lexicon Alex for some ridiculously low price like $30.  So I snapped it up and my journey began.  No surprise, the pots were absolute garbage, blasting noise on the slightest adjustments, but a soaking of Deoxit D5 cleaned them all up.  I’m willing to bet 80% of people don’t even know about this cleaner and think when the pots get scratchy, they just have to pitch the thing.  God knows, I was that ignorant not so long ago.

Unit 1 acquired.  But that fills up my rack, so now what?  Well, as a future post will explain, you build a second rack.  But for now, it’s time to build up the inventory for this new rack.  Checking the usual places of Ebay, Craigslist, and FB Marketplace, I landed a couple of buys from FB marketplace in March.  One was a beat up, rusted guitar effect unit, the Rockton Chameleon, and the other seller had a Digitech DSP 128+ and Alesis Microverb.

The Chameleon, like the others, needed the pots cleaned, and for this device, I did a refinish of the case, which turned out quite well.  Otherwise the unit is great and sounds awesome.  The other two devices from the other seller, well…  The Digitech doesn’t work.  It has no wet signal, only dry.  I’ve submitted that to my usual repair shop for repair, because I can’t bear to take a loss on it.  I’d rather pay more for a working unit.  The Microverb works fine, but one of the buttons was superglued back into place and when I pushed it for the first time it just snapped off.  Quite annoying, but it doesn’t affect the usability of the device – just looks crappy.  So one fair seller and one less fair.  It left a sour taste in my mouth about buying for a little while.

But hope springs eternal.  Today, still in March, I went to purchase a Lexicon unit and walked away with a jackpot.  So this guy works at a thrift shop and the staff there don’t know anything about electronics and don’t really want to deal with them, so they just…  give everything to him.  And recently, someone came by and donated two shopping carts full of studio gear.  He took it all and now he’s refurbing it and selling it.  So, it’s a situation that kind of really pisses me off, but here I am anyway and can I get something out of it.  Well, the Lexicon is great, but in this pile of other gear, I see another Alesis unit and a rack shelf with another unit and a Rockman Distortion Generator mounted in it.  OMG.

I try to stay cool about it and casually say I’d be interested in these other devices if you want to bundle them.  He asks how much they would be and I calmly say, "oh, $80-$100 each, probably".  He says he hasn’t tested them yet, so maybe $60 each?  Absolutely.  I came ready to buy one unit for $80 and I’m leaving with 4 units for $200?  And ok, that Rockman is selling online for $500 right now.  Not that I’m a flipper, but I really enjoy getting a good deal.

They’ve all been tested out and all work.  All will need major cleaning and liberal applications of Deoxit, like every other device I’ve ever purchased, but this is a great jumpstart to my upcoming effects rack.  In fact, when you add in the power strip and the patchbay, there’s only 3U left available.  That went fast.

To summarize the devices and their values so far:

  1. Lexicon Alex ($100)
  2. Lexicon LXP-15 ($300)
  3. Lexicon LXP-1 ($200)
  4. Rocktron Chameleon ($150)
  5. SRD Rockman Distortion Generator ($500)
  6. Alesis Microverb 4 ($150)
  7. Alesis Quadraverb 2 ($250)
  8. Digitech DSP 128+ (pro repair unrealistic.  Waiting on parts for self-repair attempt) ($100)

IMG_20240320_202707_HDR

In March, 2024, I found a listing on EBay for a Korg Poly 800 II.  The listing said some keys didn’t work.  That sounded like something I could repair so I made the purchase.  It had no problems and only needed a new battery.  *shrug* 

In April, I had been trying out the Kawai K1m that I had and was surprised that it sounded better than I first thought.  I had the idea that I could buy a K1r (the rackmount version) and sell the K1m (the tabletop version) to recoup that purchase and I could save space, too.  I made an offer on an as-is listing that said three times, "will not power on".  Got it and the listing was accurate.  It just needed a new fuse.  *shrug*

Shortly after that a listing for an Alesis Nanosynth came up.  Once again, has problems.  The seller was only asking $75 for it, so I put it in my favorites.  He sent an offer for $60, which I accepted.  IDK if I can fix this one, so it may not end up in the final list.  And finally, I got a second Kurweil PC3 and I’m attempting to merge the two broken devices into one working device.  It’s a journey.

2024 Hike Log

Last year’s hike log was a modest success, at least in that it kept track of each of my hikes.  So let’s do it again for 2024.

Date Location Distance Notes
1/13/2024 Green Swamp 4.3 mi
1/27/2024 Blackwater Creek 4.3 mi

…In The Way That Best Works For You

In my many years, I’ve had brushes with that hobby called fitness.  Somewhere in here is my short-lived attempt at appreciating CrossFit, which ended in puke.  I also have many instances of hiking, which is probably the most consistent of all my exercise methods.  I used to love to bicycle and in my later years when I would purchase a bike (happened a few times), the spark never caught, so it went nowhere.  I’ve owned and gotten rid of weights before like probably many people have.  But the one thing that has eluded me is enjoyment and consistent application of aerobic activity.  I know aerobics is important to building stamina, something I desperately need; something I’ve always needed.  But every means of getting it was not resonating with me.

Probably about 15+ years ago a product came into popularity that did pique my interest.  It was the rebounder, a durable mini-trampoline.  All the claims seemed to make sense to me, so I made the purchase and started a routine.  It didn’t last and the device went into storage.  Recently, I pulled the same rebounder out of the garage, dusted it off and started again after 15+ years of not using it.  My experiences then and now have been parallel, so I only need to explain this once.

Rebounding can be easy and it can be extremely hard.  The workouts that came with my device fooled me each time I’ve tried to make progress.  I’m going to try and be more motivated this time since there’s more at stake, even though the required effort is going to be much higher since I no longer have youth on my side.

To explain the rebounding activity, there’s two ways to do it, the easy way and the "real" way.  The easy way, which is the version you do in the first timers workout, you can just use the weight of your body and bounce on the rebounder.  Maybe you have to push a little bit with your legs to get back up again, but the telling part is that your butt is going up and down as you bounce.  That’s actually not the way you should be doing it, but because of the tempo of the workout, it is easy to do.  The first timers workout is under 15 minutes and I’ll be honest, it took me about a week or so to build enough stamina to get through it.  It was humbling.

I made a deal with myself that I wouldn’t settle for just staying on the first timers workout, but I knew what was waiting for me when I would advance to the beginners workout, since I’d been through it before and the memory was painful.  As memory serves, I eventually did get through the beginner workout and even added the abdominal workout afterward before I burnt out.  But, baby steps first.  The tempo of the first timers workout is at 100 bpm, like I say, it’s enough to just bounce on the device.  The beginner’s workout starts at 120 bpm for the warmup and then hops up to 126 bpm.  At this tempo, and absolutely at 126, you cannot fall fast enough to simply bounce and you are forced into rebounding the correct way.

To do it the correct way, you are essentially levitating.  Your butt is in near the same position the whole time and your legs are pistoning down into the rebounder.  It’s hard.  It’s really fucking hard to keep that tempo and not get winded.  But that’s what stamina building is all about.  So like I said, I finally made it through the first timers after days of trying to get to that level and now I hit another wall.  So far, I can get 7 minutes into the 30 minute beginners workout.  That the full warmup at 120 bpm and maybe 2 minutes at 126 bpm.

One more thing about rebounding at any level.  If you have a gut, which I’ve developed over many years, you’re going to notice some quick improvements.  Bouncing up and down is pretty crappy when you have a gut and you will instinctively clench your abs to prevent any flopping.  It’s also thrown out as reminders and encouragement during the workout to "engage your abs".  So what you get is sort of a mini-plank throughout your whole workout.  And it works, really fast.  My pants started fitting better in a very short time and I definitely have less floppiness and protrusion, so +1 for that benefit.

Now, on the topic of masculinity and rebounding, I’ve grown up through very weird times.  Aerobics was a craze in the 70’s.  And while you would see men participating in aerobics with outfits that were not very manly, those men were kind of mocked behind the scenes.  Real men worked out like Arnold Swartzenbanger and did feats of strength, not endurance.  But regardless, the aerobics men were fit and often really ripped.  They probably did weights as well, but were still stigmatized by working out with women in leg warmers.  While gay culture was growing in the 70’s and 80’s, it was still not accepted and men had to be careful how they presented themselves to avoid being accused of that.  (And it seems we had made so much progress and are quickly losing it again.)

I work remotely and my work computer is in my living room, which is also where I do my workouts.  Usually, I clean up everything before work starts, but one day, I did not put the rebounder away and it was visible in the background during a team meeting.  I got called out on it.  That stung just a little bit.  But my reflection on that feeling is pretty much is driving this post.  It doesn’t matter how you are getting your fitness, all the roads lead to the same destination.  If you are doing something you don’t enjoy, you’re not going to stick with it.  So I encourage you to try anything and everything until you find the method you like.