Waiting for the mechanic

Posted on January 8, 2020January 8, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Car, Head gasket, Life, Mechanic, Motorcar, Oil, Repairs, Rocker head cover, Rocker head gasket, Technology, WaitingLeave a comment

Our car needs the rocker head gasket replacing because its starting to weep. That means oil is starting to seep out of the top of the engine. It’s not serious but it needs fixing. The rocker head gasket is right at the top of the engine and sits above the spark plugs. Its where the top is bolted on to the body of the engine block. Not to be confused with the head gasket which is a bit further down.

Apparently its quite a simple job, and as long as the oil is only seeping out slowly its not too bad, but on the other hand it does need fixing.

When I rang up the garage I go to they said bring the cat in this afternoon. So we went down and waited, but no one is there. Its a bit worrying because our mechanic has not been well and he is a friend, so that’s even more worrying. I tried ringing but there was no answer. I guess all I can do is try again tomorrow.

What to do when your digital signal breaks up?

Posted on December 31, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Ariel, Life, Saucepan, Signal, Solution, Technology, TV, WeirdLeave a comment

This is a weird solution, thanks to my hubby. We have a set top ariel because there is a large building across the road with a metal covering. So we have found that we don’t need a TV ariel on the roof. We have hung it up by the curtains to get a stronger signal. With it there we have a good enough signal to get most channels.

But when the weather is clear, or we have high pressure it effects the TV. On a few channels the picture breaks up into lots of little squares and patterns.

What to do? First he wiggled the ariel about, then when that didn’t work he held a saucepan up with the idea that the metal of the pan would boost the signal – and it did! Now there is a saucepan hanging off the ariel now. Its a temporary solution. I don’t want it falling off and hitting the television! I might get a better ariel.

Trust me

Posted on December 10, 2019December 10, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Hospital, Leg, Life, Mystery, Robot, Sci fi, Short story, TechnologyLeave a comment

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She woke to a bright light shining overhead, blue curtains round a metal bed. The smell of disinfectant in her nostrils. Why was she here? She looked at her leg, a metal cast was round it. Bolts stuck put at the top and bottom near her knee and ankle. She realised she had a cannula in her arm. What else? No visible windows, just the all pervading glow of light. No sound of anyone moving, no drink on a cupboard next the the bed. She felt thirsty, hungry even, no idea what time it was.

She looked round for a push button or a pull cord to get attention, nothing. She called out ‘Hello? Can someone help?’

Silence… She felt tired and fell asleep. Later, she didn’t know how long, she woke again, strangely no longer hungry or thirsty. The cannula was attached to a big bag of pale blue fluid. She looked at her leg. Now it was wrapped in a plastic bandage, the splint or cast was gone? How, she didn’t remember time passing. She heard a sound, a human shape pushed through the soft blue curtains. She flinched as she saw the metallic face.

‘Trust me, I’m a Robot’ it said.

Fun with photos

Posted on November 9, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Black and white, Design, Fun, Life, Painting, photo editor, Photos, TechnologyLeave a comment

I like playing with photos, and why not? These were manipulated in the photo editor on my phone.

I like the way they almost look like x-ray images. With a slight 3d effect. I want to get photoshop again, see what’s new. Learn more, find out things I don’t know.

What is up with WordPress?

Posted on November 5, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Communication, Error message, Friend, Life, Message, Talking, Technology, WordPress2 Comments

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I want to reply to a friend who commented that some test results were good, which is great, but WordPress won’t let me reply. It keeps coming up with an error message. Something like ‘user cannot see your reply’ and ‘user approval not given’ or something like that. It’s very irritating when technology allows you to make friends over the Internet with people all over the world, then stops you communicating!

It might be something to do with my provider. I still have a ‘saving of draft failed.’ message that one of WordPress’s ‘happiness’ support workers could not resolve.

I’m not exactly sure what to do. This might be a one off between me and the other user, or it might be with everyone? We will see.

Barometer reading

Posted on November 2, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Barometer, Cold, Experiment, fair weather, Heat, High pressure, Life, Low pressure, Rain, Science, Technology, WeatherLeave a comment

My barometer pressures have dropped from about 1010 yesterday to 970 on my traditional barometer and 959 on my electric weather station. There is always a discrepancy of about 10 (millimeters of Mercury?) between the two.

What is ‘pressure’. Pressure is air pressure, the weight of the air pressing down on us from the top of the atmosphere downwards.

The guage on the traditional barometer has gone from fair (gold pointer) to rain with the black pointer.

How is pressure measured? One ‘bar’ of pressure is the average air pressure at sea level. It’s also measured in millimetres of Mercury. There was a historical experiment to find out about the air pressure. The experimenters put a tube of mercury upside down in a glass dish. This can leave a vacuum in the top of the tube. If you have the tube and dish at sea level the Mercury will be at a lowed level in the dish. This is because a larger weight of atmosphere is pressing down. Go up a mountain and the level in the dish will rise, because the air pressure up there is lower (less depth of atmosphere).

There is lots of information on sites like Wikipedia about air pressure. They probably describe how the air circulating in the atmosphere causes areas of low and high pressure. The weather is also influenced by the sea and its temperatures and the heating of the Earth’s surface by the sun.

Birdy

Posted on October 30, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Artrage oils, Bird, Design, Digital art, Digital drawings, Fun, Layout app, Technology7 Comments

When I drew this image in ArtRage oils, the free app, and then Layout to duplicate it, I didn’t really know how they worked. And yet I’m pleased with the results. I guess sometimes simpler things look better. My hubby reckons I overwork things, but I just think I want them to look finished, I am not exactly a perfectionist, but I know when somethings done…anyway I hope you like these….

Goodnight x

Faces

Posted on October 30, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Apps, Art, Artrage, Blue/green, Design, Digital art, Digital sketch, Faces, Sketcher free, Sketches, Technology, Three quarter portraitsLeave a comment

Each of these drawings were done slightly differently. The first and third in ArtRage app and the middle one used a photo which was drawn on with Sketcher free app.

Faces are interesting to draw, the first two are from life, the third is imagined. I’ve tried using free flowing pens and different textures backgrounds. Colours are tending towards the blue/green end of the spectrum.

I also thought about which side light falls on a face. I usually draw with light coming from the top right if I’m imagining an image, or from whichever direction it comes from if it’s from life.

More to follow as I create them.

Vacuuming

Posted on October 28, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blocked, Cleaning, Design, Dust, Filters, Frustrating, Fun, Humour, Technology, Vacuum4 Comments

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Filters. How many? I think about five in my vacuum cleaner. All of them get blocked up. So when you come to clean them out you have to clear each one. Having long hair and cats doesn’t help. Our old cleaner was a lot more efficient and needed less maintenance. I guess the twists and turns dust has to follow through the machine, causes the blockages, like blood clots in a branching venous system. Not to mention… Hubby’s socks that get left in odd places and cause more problems! Argh!

ArtRage

Posted on October 21, 2019 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Artrage, Artrage oils, Design, Digital drawings, Digital sketch, Fun, TechnologyLeave a comment

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For years I’ve used an app called ArtRage oils which is free, but when I got this new tablet I decided to go mad and get the full ArtRage app. I’m having a lot of fun with it, new tools to use, a colour picker, and various other things to do. Now I just need to learn it a bit more so I can try and do realistic art, and I have a stylus….that’s really much better than finger painting.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Technology