Orange Blue White

Hey Everyone,

Ever since I was a kid and sat in the back of the car as my parents would drive me about I simply loved looking out the window at the trees and the clouds in the sky, I also enjoyed night time when all the street lights were lit; mostly orange though some are white and I could have sworn I saw a green one. A fun little thing I discovered was If you look through the blue sun strip built into the glass at the top and watch the orange street lights through the glass, the moment an orange light would pass through the strip it would turn a shade of white.

I always found it fun and fascinating even though I understood at that age that the sun strip absorbed the orange light and what was left behind combined with the blue of the strip formed the white colour but it's small things like that that kept me thinking and helped me develop my analytical mind for the future. I always enjoy remembering the things that influenced me as a kid; no matter how subtle or what some might consider meaningless.

Thanks for reading,
Ashton.

Repaired my Brother's Stereo Today

Hey Everyone,

I guess I'm kinda documenting what I've done here and there in my life on this blog; wasn't sure what I was going to end up posting here initially. One thing I enjoy doing is helping others with problems and doing everything within my ability to fix things before the unnecessary move to buy entire replacements which can cost quite a lot of money. I learn from each and every experience regardless if I fail; usually caused from over complex parts that are almost impossible to repair due to strange design choices to save money or overly complex moving pieces which I can't replace unless I had tools like a CNC or Laser printer to print new parts which cost easily within the thousands to tens of thousands of dollars.

Recently my Brother found that his stereo system wasn't allowing audio to reach the speakers after the head set was unplugged due to the headset mute feature and even when they were plugged in it required a lot of fiddling with the connector to get sound through the headset. I took an educated guess what the problem might be and headed outside with my tools and the stereo. After a few minutes I had the casing removed and examined the inside for damage or lose wires but I couldn't see anything wrong with it so I immediately went straight to where I thought the problem was; the stereo socket for connecting the headset. After carefully dismantling all the pieces that held the machine together and keeping the screws safe I finally reached the socket, I detached the circuit board it was attached to and immediately saw the problem; all the solder joints were visibly detached so it's no wonder why my Brother had such trouble getting it to behave.

Here you can see where the solder has shattered:

Stereo sockets can come with an optional extra connection that can be used as a switch to detect the presence of an attached plug from a headset which the machine uses to know when to mute the main speakers. Since the sense line was unattached the stereo system defaulted to assuming a headset was always attached; the switch inside would normally be connected until the plug is inserted causing a break in the connection, the fact that the solder was broken caused a permanent break so there was no way for the machine to know that the plug wasn't inserted anymore resulting in a permanent mute. As a fun side note to this you could attach your own switch to this sense line to create a custom mute feature and the option to have sound come through both the headset and speakers at the same time.

I got out my soldering iron, some spare solder and got to work replacing the solder joints with new solder making sure the socket had a nice and strong connection to the circuit board again. After I repaired the solder joints I partially put the machine back together just enough so I could make sure it worked before screwing everything back in and immediately I could hear sound coming through the speakers again. Turns out I was correct from the start and now my Brother can listen to music again; either through the headset or speakers without the need to waste money on a new stereo; at least for the time being.

Here's the end result of the circuit with a new set of solder:

Thanks for reading,
Ashton.

Creativity at the Most Inappropriate Time

Hey Everyone,

This is just something I experience but wanted to share with other people who may not be aware of this.

I never knew that this was a semi-well known thing since it was something I discovered on my own; but there is a curious time just before you go to sleep when your really tired; it's almost like the brain can dedicate all its energy into one specific task, the task in question is raw creativity; the ability to imagine. This might also be related to the hyper active thinking which can lead some people to insomnia before sleep when you just can't stop thinking of stuff. I actually found an article recently that from memory said "Back during the ancient period of our species we didn't have much up time; the bed was regarded as an important location (which I take to heart since I love sleeping too) they noticed this phenomenon and called it the hour of creativity / imagination." At the time of writing I can't find that article so I'm most likely miss-quoting. There's a few articles out their that associate sleep with increased cognitive flexibility due to the way relational memories are integrated into your long term memory during REM sleep but that's related to unconsciousness whilst my post is a complementary to that in the conscious state.

Interestingly enough I would have guessed the imagination centre of the brain took a lot of brain power, probably from that fact that you can imagine pretty much anything and gives off the illusion that it is taxing on the brain but from further evaluation I've realized that it actually takes extremely little, either that or the pathways of the brain that allow you to imagine are easy for the brain to access without additional energy which is why it's all you are left with before sleep. Pretty much any additionally complex part of your brain's abilities besides seeing, smelling, touching and hearing takes a lot of effort to re-enable like trying to budge a heavy door to open with rusted hinges. When I am within this zone I'm so tired I could just drop at any moment but amazingly I can imagine things much clearer; with higher vibrancy and detail etc without much effort at all like a movie that I can direct. Things just flow so naturally that I use it whenever I can to improve the stories I write as well as refine things I've been working on.

So the next time you are at that stage where you just want to lay down and sleep the night away; no need to worry about falling asleep during this moment: just lay there and have a go at day dreaming, thinking about your art if your the artist type? or perhaps the story you've been writing? your current musical composition? what ever you want and see if it flows easier for you too. I can only speak from experience so this may not work for everyone but have a go just in case as it's an opportunity one shouldn't miss, you might be pleasantly surprised. Just remember to leave a notepad with writing equipment nearby or your ideas might keep you up all night.

Ironically it comes at the most inappropriate time, go figure.

Thanks for reading,
Ashton.