State of mind

*prepares to post politically motivated spiel about how this state are a bunch of idiots, based on voting results*

*remembers that this is Florida, so calling it a bunch of idiots would be totally pointless and redundant*

*shitposts instead*

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Read it and be puzzled... Why does the right one still exist?

Train 261, slow clear to Port of Miami.

This is a fun little thing I built for the children’s museum.

The pool for the remote controlled boats always had this ledge at the back and two static cranes (made of really strong steel, may I add!) at the back.

The former director of exhibits decided this should be an interactive feature adding a goal for guests who are more skilled at controlling the boats to aim for.

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Bingo!

When you succeed, the amber beacon light flashes and the train rolls over like it’s going to pick up cargo. After a few seconds it departs.

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Controller in testing

Yes, those yellow relays are the ones equipped with the surprise diode 😉

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This is the solution I came up with for the train control. There are gaps in the third rail to allow isolation. I pulled the spaghetti out of the locomotive and wired the motors to the wheels. 

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Yack!

It works great. Or, if you put the locomotive on the track backwards, it drives its coupler right through the drywall. BANG!! 😉

Oopsie! That time travel thing happened again.

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Hey guys I accidentally came in contact with the HD-SDI jack on an AJA video processor set to change timecode and got sucked into the 1970s. Please send me ridiculous disco pants. Thanks!

And now, two mysteries:

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Greenies. Where do they go? Who takes them? World may never know.

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What is this beautiful thing? It’s about 3″ diameter and my best guess is it’s a flat, ironless rotor for a wound rotor induction motor. It’s video tape machine related.

For those of you Miami people at Hamcation:

You lucky jerks

You’re missing out on all the, uh, phun… With the Coconut Grove Arts Festival and the Miami Boat Show going on simultaneously, the greater Miami-Dade area is on rich idiot lockdown.

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Nope. It doesn't go back down from here anymore.

Last night I ran afoul of the grubbiest thing I’ve seen out of the Shitty of Miami for years: they had the exits from Watson Island blocked just beyond a city owned plot of land being used for valet parking for the mega yacht portion of the boat show. In preparation for the show, they wrapped the Miami Children’s Museum in ten foot chain link fencing to keep the pesky commoners away from the rich idiots going to see the multi million dollar floating poo barges*. Well… The Shitty of Miami cops erected a road block to ensure that nobody could drive out if they were not coming out of the $50 valet parking….

For several hours… They would let one vehicle out at a time, half an hour or more apart. I was first in line for the exit for 45 minutes. I sat there a very long time watching a quite unskilled valet with bad tattoos try to park a Rolls-Royce.

Screw you, Miami. Screw you and the political favors you rode in on. I’ll be over here avoiding paying more than my daily take home pay in parking.

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And looking like some biker dude who suddenly had to ditch the hog for a barely running NABI 40-LFW.

R7B in the wild

Well look what the 1980s dragged in.

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It’s the working zombie remains of a Ryko R7B car wash.

It’s in service but I wouldn’t use it! The brushes are toast. If they lose too many filaments, the hard plastic c-channel strips and the metal rollers themselves will hit the car spinning. No thanks, my paint is already Hialeah enough as it is.

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I used to want to dye my hair this color, but I feared bleach damage would leave it looking exactly like this in the end.

Note: the fact that I’m posting this does not constitute any invitation to harass me for further information. It’s at 123 street and West Dixie in North Miami; use at your own risk. I won’t. It’s just too far gone. You know who you are, wankers.