A Few Updates

So a few updates:

CLOCK. The clock, which we discovered today is technically a "grandmother clock," is fixed. Brad from The Clock Dock down in Utah happened to be planning a series of service calls in our area and was able to come today.

It turns out that the little fork that held the pendulum attachment to the clock was indeed bent a little bit, but he had the experience to know how to bend it back into shape and to get the clock working again. While he was there he gave it a tune-up and a good cleaning. We didn't necessarily have the $350 to spend on it, but it made sense to have the work done while he was here and the clock was in pieces anyway.

I didn't take any pictures while the clock was being worked on, which now seems like a mistake.

I'm glad it's working again. I love hearing that clock chime.

Here is a picture of the clock, though.

And his business card, if you're interested.

HACKERS. The Hack on Canvas appears to be over, but as usual we don't really get to hear what actually happened. I don't imagine anyone paid the ransom that was being asked for - at least I hope they didn't.

HACKERS.

Got this from a student yesterday as the Instructure/Canvas hack started.

No word yet. Not that I'm all that bothered; I 've got lots to do without spending time on the second job.

I guess we're lucky at BYUI, with this happening at the start of one of our semesters, not at the end of the semester as with many other schools.

I feel a little dissed, though. I got a friendly message from BYUI when I tried to open Canvas, not this neat little message from the hackers.

I guess the hackers are trying to prove a point or something? Or they're dicks and just want money. Which, I guess, is a point on its own.

STOP THE SLOP

AI slop is getting old.

It's everywhere on Facebook, and, irony of ironies, being used copiously by people fighting against AI data centers.

Of course they're *not* fighting against AI data centers. They're posting ragebait to engage the masses and push whatever useless metric they're trying to push so they can farm likes and gather followers and virality and then sell whatever they have to the highest bidder.

Of course, some feign sincerity. But the irony of using AI to fight against AI eludes them.

So my rule now: I don't engage. I take screenshots, then I block.

It's like Whac-a-Mole, though. Block one and three vie for the space you just opened on your feed.

Doesn't matter. Will keep blocking until I wear our my mouse and keyboard.

This one's even more egregious to me, a space nerd. Don't mess with space to get likes, my friend.

Just Waiting for the Call

Isaac's successful first foray to the temple last night.

And inspiration to me to go more often.

Just waiting for the mission call now . . .

Who Should I Forgive?

 

This is why we're urged to study and study and study our scriptures and consider how we should apply them in our lives.

Then when the question of "where do I draw the line on forgiveness" arises, we already know the answer and how we should respond 

Nothing in this passage, or the entire section of Doctrine and Covenants 64 says it's going to be easy, but often things the Lord requires are hard to do.

This, from Matthew 18, applies as well, of course:

Another Matchpoint Drive Playlet

[Dad takes the dogs outside, because one is barking pathetically at the back door to be let out and the other one, a geriatric, has yet to produce an adequate poop for the day. So Dad is not merely sitting on the back steps doom scrolling, he decides to finish cleaning out the dead leaves and crabgrass from around the air conditioning unit.]

Emergency backup dog (the barker}: [Sniffs around for ten or so minutes, maybe takes care of business and generally struts around like she owns the back yard, as she always does.]

The geriatric, as yet undepooped dog: [Expresses deep interest in what Dad is doing and noses around in the dead leaves and crabgrass and generally makes a nuisance of herself as she and Dad go for the same pile of dead leaves handful after handful. After five minutes, she locks eyes with Dad, produces one of the stinkiest poops known to mankind about a yard from where he is working, then wanders off to leave Dad inhaling the deadly fumes as in haste he finishes up the last of the leaf-and-grass cleanup and staggers inside to get some fresher air.]

In M.C. Escher's House, Maybe

Potted this on the Facebooks this morning:

The idea, of course, is a good one, at least as long as people remember to put the plates back in the right place.

What I object to is the AI presentation of this scenario.

First of all, it's pretty odd to have a blank plate to cover a box in a wall. Sure, I've got a few in my house, but a junction like this isn't likely to be set up this way -- there should be a switch. Unless this was the result of a remodel, but even then, why not a switch if you're adding new wiring?

But on to the AI.

Look at the baseboard on the floor. Then look at the open box in the wall.

The perspective does not match. Behold:

It's clear the photo with the box was taken straight on, or near enough straight on. The lines for the box don't match the perspective line for the baseboard, which is probably a reason the plate covers the bottom of the box, which is closer to the baseboard.

Also, that hole in the wall is HUGE compared to other elements in the photo. A plate ain't gonna cover that.

I guess if you're hungry for content and engagement, AI is a good way to get people to comment on the slop, and then argue about it. Either way, it's sloppy.

A Plumbing Day

No, I have not finished the bathroom. I may never finish the bathroom. I have lost so much steam on this remodel it's not even funny.

But when I got a call from my wife as she was driving up to a day of training that doing something about the leaking valve in the shower upstairs, I decided, okay, I can at least replace a valve.

Ended up replacing two.

The one upstairs went really smoothly. No hitches at all. But I'd used the valve I had bought months ago to replace the leaky one in the basement.

So I went to a local hardware store to get a new valve.

I tried to install it, but should have known it was going to be trouble when one of the gaskets fell off as I was holding the valve. It put it back in place, greased it up and tried to get it in place, but it jammed. So I pushed and pushed but the stupid thing wouldn't go in all the way.

Getting it out was even worse, and by the time I did I'd torn both gaskets in half.

So I tossed the valve, went to the big box store, bought another valve had had it installed in about five minutes after I got home. Word to the wise: The big box store has the better valves, clearly.

While I had the water turned off, I thought I'd go for a trifecta and replace the faucet in the main floor bathroom, but that proved beyond my patience today.

A real plumber put in hard lines for this one. One of the valves is frozen open. And the honyock used some kind of metal clamps to hold the faucet to the sink and they're rusted and wouldn't budge. So I'll take two out of three . . . 

Now I want to go to bed. I'm pooped.

#IndictBugsBunny

Stolen from Facebook.

In regards to this.

I'm no lawyer, but personally I don't think this'll stick. At best, the meaning of "86" is ambiguous enough they're going to have a really hard time proving any evil intent.

I'd sure like to be able to read the date on this newspaper, but it's just too blurry.

The cartoon itself is from 1943, so some wishful thinking here.

A Little Something for the Clock-Minded Technical Writers

Over the weekend, my wife was winding our grandfather clock when the pendulum came out of the clock in her hands.

Being the intrepid souls that we are, we took the cowl off the top of the clock to take a gander at the innards to see what we could do to remedy the situation.

We quickly determined that a miniscule suspension spring had broken -- it lasted just shy of 50 years, pretty good for a tiny assemblage of plastic and metal.

Luckily, we had a spare spring included with the clock paperwork, so after a bit of trial and error and the use of a few pairs of tweezers, we got the new spring installed. No help to the instructions. We knew where the spring went because we could see a broken bit still in place.

Here's the envelope the spring came in. Good luck with the instructions. Note: the illustration does not match our clock.

But alas, when we connected the pendulum, we could see that the pendulum hanger and rod were now interfering with the chime bars that give grandfather clocks their charm.

I thought, "Well, I'll look online to see if I can find a video to help us out." That after a few glances at the paperwork included with the clock revealed that it was pretty hopeless to look at it for any help.

It's text-heavy. The illustrations are line drawings, a bit smudged, and upon further examination, were for clocks and equipment that didn't match our clock's innards.

Another example, on pendulum hanging. It not only doesn't match our clock, but it doesn't match the illustration on the spring envelope.

So the typical one-size-fits-all documentation we lament today was clearly alive and well in the 1970s.

Alas, an appeal to the Internet for help brings up a hodge-podge of similar material, none of it all that helpful because it doesn't quite apply to our situation.

As a technical writer, I say that stinks.

First, I guess clock repair people are guarding their secrets. It's a rare situation where you don't find some helpful video on YouTube showing you how to fix the exact problem you're facing with ancient technology, or new stuff for that matter.

Second, a lot of what I found is still in that "one size fits all" mold that we all know isn't really all that helpful when at the foundation of it all, the parts they're showing and the methods they're using don't translate to the real world.

So as I struggle with my own writing challenges, I'm given a fresh reminder that we need to be careful to write to the exact situation and not leave people frustrated and guessing and hoping the Utah "Clock Doc" hasn't made one of his semiannual runs to Idaho yet. We'll see.