I didn't have the patience to take in progress pictures, however maybe I can tempt you with the replaced joysticks?
Here's the stick bit(one looks lovely but has the worst right side drift I've personally seen)
And the backs.
The first one has no text on it. Instead the holes make a triangle along with the two holes that every one has.
The second one has 1DPj6.
The third one has 2LAk6.
The fourth one has 3EKk6.
I didn't check for markings on my last repair blitz. These could be batch numbers or factory numbers. I have no idea. As I'm currently typing this at The AM Hours and haven't slept, I will not be checking. But they're still neat!
I have a few more in the backlog. Alas, I'm out of parts. I'll let the people know I'm out and see if they'll pool cash for parts. Otherwise they'll be waiting because I'm saving up to repair my dang sink.
I will be taking them apart to clean because sometimes just getting the gunk off fixes things. Especially the SR and SL buttons. I haven't had to replace a single one
My repair spot is pretty much set up. My electronics repair kits need to be organized. I'd say organized better, but that would imply any sort of organization.
And I assure you, there is none.
I'm quite happy with this batch as out of 10 joycons, only 4 needed replacement parts. And that is stellar. 6 only needed cleaned up.
my friend just told me that there's a secret second dashboard that solely contains posts from people you've turned on post notifications for, and when i click the link in the messages it opens it within the tumblr app, so the tumblr app also has a secret second dashboard for post notification blogs, and the only way to access it is to open the link for it within the app.
Sometimes cleaning is repair. Today's example, solar lights for a project.
There's a bulb missing and five bulbs weren't lighting up. The price of these reflected that and my budget is grateful.
First I separated the lights from the panel. It had a twisty thing. I love disconnected electricity. I don't like messing with anything even vaguely dangerous.
Then I cleaned this off(imagine this but covered in various Outdoor Dust, that's how it was before)
Cleaned the light bulbs metal bits off with 91% isopropyl alcohol.
With that same 91% isopropyl alcohol I cleaned off the connections.
And all the bulbs work!
I'm quite happy. I thought I'd get one or two more working bulbs from the cleaning. The whole lot is a treat.
I have a silly plan with these. If it works, then y'all will get an update.
I'm mid art stuff moving. Which has other projects misplaced. Again. However!
I have a storage solution now!
I had to crop it weirdly, but y'all can see the vision. I'll be able to have everything sorted!
I read a study once on the fuel efficiency of various types of commuter vehicles (car, bus, train) on a per person basis and the number of people needed riding public transit to match the "efficiency" of cars is shockingly low. A bus needs to carry like 3-4 people to be fuel efficient, and trains require 2-3 per train car. Both often carry two dozen or more during peak hours, more than justifying any perceived requirements for efficiency for the train or bus to provide service the entire day.
also our regular reminder that as a pedestrian or cyclist, your most ecological choice is to always give way for big vehicles like trucks and buses, because they use the most fuel when restarting from a stop - so please do your best not to make them stop unnecessarily
I'm watching a 1930s film made with dogs. Some of them spontaneously started singing a barbershop quartet, but there were only three of them.
A little hard to stitch to because I need to look up fairly often to understand what the heck is going on. Look down, stitch, look up, dog court. Pardon?
I didn't like how the fabric was rolling. Sure, the fix was good enough for over a year. But what if it was good for years?
Here's me. Stitching all the blue bits in-between the stitching I've already done. Partway done.
The difference in the amount of total added stitches is a bit. I'm only doing about 3 cm/a tich over an inch. I'm doing the longer lines of stitching as 1 out of 3 lines in the denim. The shorter bits are doing the other 2 out of the 3 lines.
Short political note. Fuck ice, if you're maga, block me. Otherwise I hope y'all keep safe and have a good day.
i want to add a fun little thing you can do for finger dexterity, as well!
place one hand just above a flat surface, palm and fingers relaxed. could be a tabletop, a chair, your leg, whatever. just make sure your fingers are reaching toward the surface.
then, very slowly, reach down with each finger individually and tap the surface, like you’re hitting a piano key. but make sure to do it one at a time, ok? start with your thumb and work toward your pinky. keep your wrist and arm as steady as you can, and your fingers arched but not rigid. when you get to your pinky, come back toward your thumb in the same way. do this for a few sets, whatever feels good, then switch to the other hand and do the exact same thing for the same number of sets.
while you should start slowly because it can be awkward to do this at first, the goal is to gradually increase your speed. this is absolutely a beginner piano exercise, and one of the reasons why scales as part of your warm-up is so important. you’re also building wrist strength at the same time. plus, i always think it’s just plain fun.
if you play a lot of video games, especially with a game controller, this is one you should think about adding into regular rotation to help keep your fingers strong and flexible, especially after potentially hours of holding them in the same position with a controller. nobody wants Gamer Claw.
EDIT: THIS IS A CARRD NOW! it's updated and organized!!
use overdrive, libby, hoopla, cloudlibrary, and kanopy instead of amazon and audible.
use firefox or librewolf (open-source fork of firefox) instead of chrome or opera (both are made with chromium, which blocks functionality for ad-blockers. firefox isn't based on chromium).
use mega instead of google drive
get rid of bloatware
use libreoffice instead of microsoft office suite
get free stuff with the help of r/FREEMEDIAHECKYEAH, r/piracy and r/roms
use trakt (for shows and movies), letterboxd (just movies), or TMB instead of IMDB (owned by amazon).
use storygraph instead of goodreads (owned by amazon).
use darkpatterns to find mobile game with no ads or microtransactions
use mediahuman or cobalt to download music, or support your favorite artists directly through bandcamp
make youtube bearable by using mtube, newpipe, or the unhook extension on chrome, firefox, or microsoft edge
use search for a cause, ecosia, or ocean hero to support the environment instead of google
use thriftbooks to buy new or used books (they also have manga, textbooks, home goods, CDs, DVDs, and blurays)
use flashpoint to play archived online flash games
find books, movies, games, etc. on the internet archive! for starters, here's a bunch of David Attenborough documentaries and all of the Animorphs books
burn your music onto cds
use pdf24 (available online or as a desktop app) instead of adobe
use thunderbird, mailfence, countermail, edison mail, or tuta instead of gmail
remove bloatware on windows PC, macOS, and iOS X
remove bloatware on samsung X
use pixelfed instead of instagram or meta
use project gutenberg for free public domain books, and librivox for public domain books and audiobooks
use the seal app (android only) to download video and audio
use ellipsus instead of microsoft word or google docs
use mastodon instead of twitter
use peertube to create a network of small video hosting providers (disclaimer: not a 1:1 alternative to youtube)
use threema and signal for encrypted communication, on mobile and desktop
use qwant and startpage for secure internet browsers
use syncthing to securely transfer files between devices
learn how to jailbreak your kindle/ereader if you have one (wiki and video walkthrough)
use riseup’s email and VPN for secure communication (aimed towards activists)
use cryptpad and collabora instead of the microsoft office suite
use google takeout to export the data on your google account
use library extension to look for books on online stores and find them at your library
remove paywalls with removepaywalls
install the open-source adblocker ublock origin
install sponsorblock to skip sponsored segments on youtube videos
use bookfinder to look for the cheapest available listings of books, including textbooks
learn a language through mango (duolingo laid off some of its employees and now relies on AI translations) for free with a library card or through your school
edit photos with photopea
edit pdfs with foxit and sumatrapdf
download music with doubledouble
take notes offline and collaborate securely with obsidian
for android tv, use smarttube and cloudstream (ad-free, open-source)
change your OS to linux
changelog:
removed ground news (uses AI to summarize articles)
removed unroll.me (sells your data)
removed proton mail and drive (AI assistant feature, claims of CEO Andy Yen supporting Trump, please DM if you have proof I can add here)
removed NCH suite (only has very basic free features, puts watermark on anything saved)
notes:
this post blew up while I wasn’t looking (the end of my semester was hellish, and i recently came back from a 3-week family vacation). thanks so much for all the suggestions! <3
i included Ecosia because of their financial transparency. It’s physically impossible that they plant a tree for every search, but their profits still go towards projects including reforestation and solar energy. i view their actions as a net-positive
feel free to add more alternatives, resources or advice in the reblogs or replies, and i'll add them to the main post <3
The two missing clips are somewhere. Who knows? Who cares?
Not me! Because I was doing some spring cleaning and I found some of the tie-dye supplies I was looking for. Including... The dyeing clips!
When/If I find the plastic clips, I'll put them back on. But until then, I have two more clips!
Apologies for the potato lighting. Everyone else is asleep and I worry the light could wake them. But I was too excited to wait until morning!
Honestly I did this around the same time as the rack's repair. It's the same as it was here and it's working fine. I did get an update that the jerk that walloped my drying rack is now in anger management. Good for him. That will be great for future interactions with people who are not me. Because no thank you. I'm good.
I did at one point find one of the plastic clips, but I cannot remember where I put it. When I find it again, then I'll post it. I think i put it with the dyes and metal clips. I'm sure it'll turn up eventually.
If you're in Maine or Philly or wherever the fuck Vance claimed DHS is going next, I BEG you to look at the rapid response and mutual aid networks and how they've been built in Portland, Chicago, and the Twin Cities, and start building your own version NOW.
Download signal if you haven't already. Pick a resistance pseudonym. Make a proton email that has no indicators to your real name. Start buying and printing whistles and whistle zines.
Organize your school patrols and foot patrols NOW. Talk to your community and your mercados and your Hmong and Somali grocery stores, ask them what support they need. Get "ICE are not welcome here" signage for businesses and homes. Familiarize yourself with the difference between an administrative warrant and a judicial warrant.
Learn how to take down a SALUTE report. PRACTICE salute reports. Learn, memorize, and embody radio etiquette for rapid response work.
Pick your lane: rapid response or mutual aid-- you can't do both, because rapid response often puts you in direct contact with ICE. They've been taking down plate numbers and leading responders back to their own homes here in the Twin Cities.
Remember that being under siege is a marathon, not a race. Try to remember that while your neighbors are being kidnapped in their underwear, from their own homes.
Meet your neighbors. Attend your city council meetings and demand separation ordinances NOW. Tell your congress people and representatives not to give ICE more money.
Prepare yourself to see high school children being stopped and harassed. 5 year olds being used as bait for their mothers. Old men being dragged out of their houses in underwear and Crocs simply because all of them are not white.
Be flexible, be ready to pivot on a dime as situations change. Be ready to be paranoid. Be ready to be distrusting of every Texas, New York, California, or Illinois license plate. Be ready to be suspicious of EVERY out of state license plate. Dark sedans and SUVs with extremely illegally tinted windows. Unreadable or missing plates.
No one will save you, save us, or save our neighbors but ourselves. No one is coming to help or protect us but us.
Hey, Angeleno here to add: look for or start mutual aid groups that buy out your vendors, jardineros, tradespeople, helping support the most vulnerable members of your community from making the choice to stay home and safe or provide for family. We’re still doing this here and it helps.
“ICE NOT WELCOME” signs are great for solidarity and breaking morale, but please make and help pass out signs stating a home or business is private property. Make sure your business has an area explicitly for employees only. What we’ve seen in the last week makes all this seem like sticking a post-it on a viper and none of us know where we’re headed now, but it’s easy to do and could make a difference. It’s made a difference here.
Ignore the worn edge for now. It's on the list. Both pockets have worn edges. One side has clear, "I'm the wallet pocket," wear lines and the other(pictured) has off sections from keys catching on it.
I may add more lines on the worn sections. I really, REALLY need to get these back to the owner before February. It'll be entirely dependent on how long the knee patch takes.
(If you see this twice, the first attempt to post it suffered from user error and I think I accidentally deleted it instead of scheduling it. I didn't see it in scheduled posts. But yep, good ole human error)
Here's the full view. Which uh, doesn't look like much so I'm adding two closer views.
It's honestly bigger than I thought it was.
Hold on a moment. I have rulers under the TV.
The best measurements I can offer as I had to support the rulers with one hand and hold the phone to take a picture with the other. It looks like the engineering alternative for Excalibur (Perhaps Excalipar would be a more accurate creation). The long one is 30cm and the short one is 20cm.
The table is coated with papers ranging from now to 2009. I offered to help and have no regrets. Except my lack of table. And perhaps my lack of time.
I have two regrets.
I forgot just how dang difficult it is to take flat pictures on a lap, in a rocking chair.
I'm pretty sure this is almost done. There's like, 15cm x 10cm left? I have zero idea how many stitches that will be.
I'm sure there are more technical ways to color match thread to your object. I hold my various bobbins up to garments until they match close enough. This can be challenging for certain colors. Especially neon colors.
The visibly different color blanket stitch
Same mend, different colors, different looks.
As always, whatever mend you'll use is the mend you should do. I love visible mending. I also recognize it will never be something everyone loves. Nothing is. No biggie.
But you can get a pretty decent look by matching the color of what you're fixing. This may be especially important when it comes to work clothes.
Important note, if you are repairing clubbing clothes, test that the repair thread illuminates similarly to whatever section you're repairing. Unless you want it visible, in which case do the opposite.
