Work and Tall Ships
Jun. 27th, 2011 07:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tanarillWork:
So, on Monday, I did calibration runs on my rig. These went well, as in, the values I was getting for the standard were standard values. \o/
On Tuesday, I blew up my rig. Fortunately, the very intelligent rig-designer Tracy built in a part that is designed to fail, thus sparing the expensive parts. So that was fine, but it still took all of Wednesday to fix it.
On Thursday, I found that I'd friction welded the pressure transducer in such a way that it didn't seal but also wouldn't come out of the rig. No, I don't know either. Sometime during the rectifying of this error (it was removed in a way destructive to the rig but not to the transducer) it got borked up. Now it only reads a pressure of -294.6 bar >.o To make matters worse, the salesperson guy was out of the office.
On Friday, we figured out that there has to be some kind of temperature-dependent fail happening, since at low temperature it pressurizes fine but once I turn the heaters on, it begins to leak. So there's that.
Altogether, a disappointing week.
Today, Panda and JJ and I went to the Tall Ship festival. One of the things about living on the coast (or near it, rather) is that we can go do oceanic activities. This weekend, a bunch of old-school sailing type ships converged on the harbor, and so we went to go see them. I forgot to take my camera, though :<
I was surprised at how tiny they were, compared to the Balclutha. I mean, this was a privateer (i.e., a pirate ship that one king says is okay, because he only pirates other countries), or at least a scale replica of one. But it was incredibly small, even so. No cargo space at all.
We also saw a racing yacht c. 1920's, which is still in use today. Apparently it can berth nine, but I'd never try putting more than four on that boat. Also, we saw a new (launched in 2002) sailing boat, which has a crew of 28; it's purpose is to teach people who are interested how to sail by giving them a chance to. A pretty cool, mid-size boat, all told. Although my scale is only for tall ships and has the Balclutha on the big end, and tiny little single-person triangular-sail-boats on the other.
Also at the show were some period guns, canon, grapeshot, etc. There was this one guy who had a gun that his however-many-great-grandfather made, and it had not been in the family the whole time. He showed the Panda about the guns, including the largest single-shot I've ever seen. JJ and I wandered off into the Education Tent, whence I got some free cowrie shells that I shall turn into earring, and we saw some actual whale baleen.
There were also various shops for things, although not so many at the strawberry festival. I need either a pair of earrings to replace one where I have lost one of them, or I need someone who can make me a single mating earring on commission. One of the two.
Finally, there was the inevitable Captain Jack Sparrow cosplayer. I told JJ we'd see one and he did not believe me. I was right, and he was wrong. Although the cosplayer was not nearly drunk enough. Oh, well.
So, on Monday, I did calibration runs on my rig. These went well, as in, the values I was getting for the standard were standard values. \o/
On Tuesday, I blew up my rig. Fortunately, the very intelligent rig-designer Tracy built in a part that is designed to fail, thus sparing the expensive parts. So that was fine, but it still took all of Wednesday to fix it.
On Thursday, I found that I'd friction welded the pressure transducer in such a way that it didn't seal but also wouldn't come out of the rig. No, I don't know either. Sometime during the rectifying of this error (it was removed in a way destructive to the rig but not to the transducer) it got borked up. Now it only reads a pressure of -294.6 bar >.o To make matters worse, the salesperson guy was out of the office.
On Friday, we figured out that there has to be some kind of temperature-dependent fail happening, since at low temperature it pressurizes fine but once I turn the heaters on, it begins to leak. So there's that.
Altogether, a disappointing week.
Today, Panda and JJ and I went to the Tall Ship festival. One of the things about living on the coast (or near it, rather) is that we can go do oceanic activities. This weekend, a bunch of old-school sailing type ships converged on the harbor, and so we went to go see them. I forgot to take my camera, though :<
I was surprised at how tiny they were, compared to the Balclutha. I mean, this was a privateer (i.e., a pirate ship that one king says is okay, because he only pirates other countries), or at least a scale replica of one. But it was incredibly small, even so. No cargo space at all.
We also saw a racing yacht c. 1920's, which is still in use today. Apparently it can berth nine, but I'd never try putting more than four on that boat. Also, we saw a new (launched in 2002) sailing boat, which has a crew of 28; it's purpose is to teach people who are interested how to sail by giving them a chance to. A pretty cool, mid-size boat, all told. Although my scale is only for tall ships and has the Balclutha on the big end, and tiny little single-person triangular-sail-boats on the other.
Also at the show were some period guns, canon, grapeshot, etc. There was this one guy who had a gun that his however-many-great-grandfather made, and it had not been in the family the whole time. He showed the Panda about the guns, including the largest single-shot I've ever seen. JJ and I wandered off into the Education Tent, whence I got some free cowrie shells that I shall turn into earring, and we saw some actual whale baleen.
There were also various shops for things, although not so many at the strawberry festival. I need either a pair of earrings to replace one where I have lost one of them, or I need someone who can make me a single mating earring on commission. One of the two.
Finally, there was the inevitable Captain Jack Sparrow cosplayer. I told JJ we'd see one and he did not believe me. I was right, and he was wrong. Although the cosplayer was not nearly drunk enough. Oh, well.
