Jim's Home Page

Russ and I went to Fry's today and I finally got myself a soldering iron and some solder to fix the brokenRFconnector on the TV. It has been frustrating me for far too long.

It was one of those things that you could fix momentarily by jiggling the connector, but as soon as you turned your back on it, the TV would lose the signal. What typically happened was I would turn the TV on, and I would tweak the cable to get a picture, and then lay down on the couch. As soon as I laid down - buzzzt - and I'd have to get up again. Of course, it would be perfectly fine as long as I stood within arm's length of the set ;)

I took it apart tonight and found a broken solder joint at the base of the connector, right where I expected it. A two second application of the iron, and the problem was solved.

Yay, me.

OK, I told Ned to go out and do something stupid next weekend. Considering he is going to uni today, and it's Sunday, he really needs to. Let's see how well he takes my advice.

Disclaimer: Stupid as defined by him. If he gets arrested, don't blame me.

I caught the Greyhound back to Sacramento. It was an uneventful trip back, and after getting off downtown, I spent a few hours at Pyramid Brewing having a few pints of hefeweizen with lunch.

After walking back to the appropriate street to catch the bus, and checking the time, I still had nearly an hour, so I went and browsed in a record store, and ended up getting a live Ben Harper double CD. Typical.

Getting back to the bus stop, I realised to my horror that I had forgotten it was Columbus Day, and the only bus that comes anywhere close to my part of town is an express bus that only runs during peak hours. And holidays are not peak...

One expensive taxi ride later, I got home. All in all, a very enjoyable weekend.

I got up intending to go over and have brunch at the Elite Cafe, but when I got over there, I noticed some flyers for Fillmore Big Band Duel & BBQ Cookoff. As this started at 11 AM, and that's what time I was going to do brunch anyway, I decided to go.

The event was held in a large parking lot, and while I could have spent all day there listening to the bands, there was no shade, so I called it a day after about an hour, so I wouldn't get too sunburned.

The bands where pretty good, and the bbq was not bad either!

I walked back over to the hotel and finished off Snow Crash, then went out to get another book and watch the repeat performance of the Snowbirds. Jets at 150 feet are awesome.

At about 6 PM, I headed out to Biscuits and Blues. After the poor report I gave them last time I was there, I have to say that everything is much improved. Else the better service and food were due to the fact that it was Sunday night and there were only about 30 people in the club.

Scott was amazing. I get the impression that they were just doing a gig as they had to be in SF to do something else (like catch a plane somewhere). They only played a single one hour and 30 minute set and then left. But boy, what a set!

The band was only three piece, so they didn't play any stuff off the first album (where hammond b3 featured heavily). Scott even plugged in the 90 foot guitar lead and went for a walk through the crowd, and out on the street! I would have liked to have seen the faces of some of the passers-by on that one.

I didn't stick around after Scott's set, because I didn't want to listen to more music, making me forget what I'd just heard. I headed back to the hotel and got a (relatively) early night.

Looking at my options to get to San Francisco today, it was either a 6:55 AM or an 11:10 AM bus from Roseville. I would have had to get up really early for the 6:55 option...

I caught a taxi to the Greyhound station and had an uneventful run into SF. On the way, I was readingSnow Crashby Neal Stephenson. I wonder what took me so long to get around to reading this book? It's got some great ideas in it if you're into computers. Needless to say, the book kept me engrossed the entire way, and the trip passed quickly.

The bus dropped me off in downtown SF at about 2:30 PM, and I walked over to the San Remo to check in. I hung up clothes and ran out the door to see what I could hear going overhead, which turned out to be the Canadian Airforce Snowbirds aerobatic team giving a performance over the bay for Fleet Week. Amazing stuff.

I timed it so perfectly it wasn't funny. I got to see the Snowbirds from Fisherman's Wharf while waiting for Lou's to open at 4 PM. Daniel Castro was playing 4 PM until 8, and that was a great way to kill the afternoon. Some great blues, and I even ended up getting his double live album that was recorded last year at The Saloon. Great stuff.

At 8, I tried to get into Scoma's for dinner, but the wait was over an hour, so I went around to Fog City Diner, and ate albacore cerviche and halibut. Mmms...

There was a rocket motor test at Aerojet today. Aerojet is a large defense contractor with a facility just down the road from where I live. The test was huge. I couldn't actually see the burn, but I could see the plume of smoke from the solid fuel rocket engine. And the sound carried big time. A ear-shattering crackling ROAR! I have to go see a shuttle launch when they get the program back on track.