da: A smiling human with short hair, head tilted a bit to the right. It's black and white with a neutral background. You can't tell if the white in the hair is due to lighting, or maybe it's white hair! (Default)
da ([personal profile] da) wrote2007-10-16 04:03 pm

(no subject)

So our house is being haunted by the world's most Trivial Poltergeist. Particularly, the very pretty wooden clock in the dining room is haunted (see the top-right of this photo from d's citizenship party). The pendulum is entirely for show; it's powered by a battery. The Trivial Poltergeist will stop and start the pendulum at random intervals. Recently, the pendulum has been mostly still, and it bugs both d. and me that it won't work. For d., mostly because it looks bad, and for me because it looks bad for my mechanical abilities that I can't figure out a fake clock pendulum.

On Saturday, [livejournal.com profile] bats22 jokingly wondered what would happen if I doubled the voltage. Ding! (actually, *clonk*): two batteries increases the electromagnet's pull, but it doesn't change the frequency. So it swings rreeeallly wiiiide now. Next I'm nudging down the voltage, now that it's kept itself going long enough for me to know this isn't a transient fix (like the last 8 or so have been). Poltergeist bug us not!

There is a punchline, which is that this morning I was going to simply post this entry as a haiku:


The pendulum swings
Under doubled batteries
Faster than we'd like


...I reconsidered, on grounds that cryptic poetry in livejournal may look more dramatic than I intended.

...Not connected to the previous, a note to myself: If you find yourself saying, "I am a river of peace, water washes over me goddammit." You're Doing It Wrong.

[identity profile] melted-snowball.livejournal.com 2007-10-16 11:19 pm (UTC)(link)
So it has a wide stance? ;-P

[identity profile] da-lj.livejournal.com 2007-10-17 12:40 am (UTC)(link)
Not unless you're a cop, I think.

[identity profile] morgan-starfire.livejournal.com 2007-10-17 08:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Did you see the Ahmadinejad cover of the New Yorker recently? It appeared right after his speech at Columbia... Hee.

[identity profile] da-lj.livejournal.com 2007-10-17 09:15 pm (UTC)(link)
No, I hadn't. hee hee. Classic New Yorker.

[identity profile] morgan-starfire.livejournal.com 2007-10-18 02:44 am (UTC)(link)
Wow!! I hadn't seen the SNL. That's just too good. (Thanks!)

[identity profile] morgan-starfire.livejournal.com 2007-10-20 04:13 pm (UTC)(link)
According to NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!, Bush is just crushed, because his bosom buddy Putin is now seeing... Ahmadinejad. (*snicker*)

[identity profile] morgan-starfire.livejournal.com 2007-10-17 02:18 am (UTC)(link)
Speaking of DTWOF, I seem to recall a strip with a DTWOF in a gi sitting in lotus position, fists balled, teeth clenched, chanting the mantra, "I am trying to f*%$ing let go of trying to control the whole f&#^ing world."

[identity profile] da-lj.livejournal.com 2007-10-17 02:24 pm (UTC)(link)
What a mantra!

Wear that sword as long as thou canst, I suppose...

[identity profile] bats22.livejournal.com 2007-10-19 02:27 am (UTC)(link)
Awesome! Glad that my goofy advice has some use!

I was a bit afraid that it might be a case of goosing the voltage, firing up the pendulum, and then...

THWACK!

CRACK!

oops....

[identity profile] redsash.livejournal.com 2008-08-05 12:43 am (UTC)(link)
Save time!
Glitchy ghosts seem strangely squeemish
Bleed on it

~r