July 27, 2011

Well, I'm about to attempt some old school, pirate A/V wiring in the Viewing Gallery. See, we have this room, called the Viewing Gallery, which has a control system controlling (duh) everything. It done crapped out the other day. Went “tits-up” as it were. I have many things in the room set up in such a way that the place is still usable, but there is no manual control for the main curtains which open up onto the NOC dispatcher floor. Guess what, that’s what everybody wants to see! In fact, that’s WHY it is called the Viewing Gallery. Anyhoo, when the service dude came and took the dead controller out, he showed me how to short-circuit the Phoenix connector to make the curtains work. I started thinking, “What if I just put in a switch?” Well, while I was thinking along those lines, I remembered that the “pickle” remote which came with Kodak Ektagraphic III 35mm slide projectors was just a simple contact-closure switch. I also remembered that AMX used to make a wireless device to control 35mm slide projectors through the “pickle” plug. “Hey!” thought I, “If I had a wireless ‘pickle’ I could control those curtains from the front of the room!” More importantly, the idiot monkeys here at the railroad would be able to open and close the curtains and I'd hear a lot less bitching about the system being down. Well, to make a short story long, I dug through the old gear in the storage area and found an AMX wireless pickle kit. It didn't have the power supply but I found a “wall wart” with the right plug and voltage similar to another AMX power supply. I doubt it’ll let the magic smoke out, but we’ll see. Now all I have to do is finger out the wiring to the pickle’s plug and hook her into the Phoenix connector in the rack. I'm not going to do anything until after lunch though. Hell, I might not even do it then, knowing me. But enough of that, on to the shop. John told me, after reading the rant where I admitted to not being a “Bike Guy,” that if I sold my bike he’s probably going to buy a Hardley. I told him, “Well, we had a good run. When are you going to come take your junk out of my shop?” He called later to ask if I'd really disown him for buying one. I hemmed and hawed until he admitted that what he’s thinking about is an old bike like an Indian. More importantly, he’s talking about a big single cylinder “Thumper” and not a single-pin twin like a Hardley. I told him I'd be on board for that... as long as it didn't sound like a broken lawn tractor, AKA a Hardley. I fucking hate Hardlies. Of course he’s free to buy whatever the hell he wants, I ain’t his mother, but I'm going to roll my eyes at him a lot and bitch about it if it ever show up anywhere near my shop. Oh, and I hope he doesn't expect me to ride with him if he’s on one. I guess I could tie a rope to it and drag it behind Fifi if he ever needed to be rescued, which with a piece of shit like a Hardley, is more than likely. But don't think it will ever ride in the bed of the truck. By the way, what do hound dogs and Hardley Dumb-assed-ones have in common? They both have the initials “HD” and both spend a lot of time riding in the back of pickup trucks. Oh yeah, and if there’s one thing I hate more than a Hardley, it’s a Hardley rider. Why settle for comfort, performance, or reliability when you can have a Hardley? Fucking idiots. I just had a thought, he’s probably already bought one and hasn’t told me yet. That would be a hoot. I'll have to give him a, “Hyuck! Once I felled offa mah uthur bike and hit mah head, I knowed I had to gets me a Hardley. Hyuck!” because brain damage is the only viable reason for anyone buying one. No, I won't disown him, but I'll give him as much shit as possible about just exactly how retarded it is to own a Hardley. Fucking hell, I hate Hardlies so fucking much! Fucking fuckedy fuck fuck! And on that note, I think I'm going to break for lunch and call it a rant.