Birdy Num Num
The Poll I posted contained a trick question. You are not supposed to answer “Eat a Pancake in a Field”, because pancakes in fields are usually cow pats.
I was amazed at the number of people who have sensitive earlobes! It’s incredible. I can tell you that my earlobes are not at all sensitive. Indeed, how can earlobes be sensitive since they have so few nerves in them?
Now I would like to show you a picture of the single ended stereo tube amplifier I have been building for a few weeks, and completed at the weekend.
More pics
In this picture, number 132 in a series of 300 in my illustrated book “Things To Press With Your Finger”, I test a 6SN7GT tube for conductance, and see that it is “Good”.
On Saturday morning we were greeted by the sound of intense circular saw buzzing noises from next door, and clouds of sawdust filled the air. I assumed our neighbours were engaged in some woodworking project, perhaps building an ark for the next heavy rainfall in Pasadena. But then S noticed that the tree at the side of our house had fallen over against the fence and was leaning dangerously over into next door’s property. And our neighbour was frantically cutting it up and clearing the debris. I went around to have a chat. It turned out that the tree was a dead orange tree, whose roots had come loose in the soil with the heavy rains, and started to keel over. The fence was at a drunken angle, and this poor chap’s driveway looked like the aftermath of a hurricane. Why on Earth he didn’t come around to tell us, I don’t know.
He hired a couple of “Mexicans” to come round and finish the job. On our side this quite substantial tree is now lying on its side, waiting to be cut up for firewood. Trouble is, I don’t have a chain saw, and there’s no way I can tackle it with my hand saw. Moreover, the fence needs some work. I patched it up a bit, but it needs straightening.
Ah, the joys of home ownership 
Saturday afternoon I went off for a rummage at the Surplus Store. They had a box of old valves/tubes there that I started to sort through. I’m looking for some high wattage triodes to make an amplifier with. After a while I got fed up, and asked the owner how much he wanted for the whole box. He was charging $1 per tube, and there must have been a couple of hundred in the box. He wanted $25, and I said “Done!”. I was so chuffed!
(Previously posted by error in the fish_geek community!)
Yes, it’s the latest Pasadena Perversion. You take a whole set of electronic parts (resistors, capacitors, transistors, chokes, integrated circuits) that you order online from some chap in Germany, you sodder them to the circuit board, and connect up the mains, and Voilá! your Nixie Tubes light up like a Christmas Tree.
This is what I spent yesterday afternoon doing. I was exhausted and flushed with excitement by the end of it, I can tell you.
I should point out to any Americans reading that the word is “solder”, and it has an “l” in it.
Now I just need to mount my clock in a box. Why has this post degenerated into a collection of double entendres?
