ava @aurora@social.bau-ha.us

ich...äh...was?
umfragen von studis sind immer wieder...bemerkenswert.

they: the building will be torn down next week, you can take everything that's left
my friends: take electronics, furniture, lights
they: so ava, why didn't you take anything?
me: uhhh...i did.

...look, i'm a basic art bitch. these are way cooler than your stupid shelves.

as much as i dislike traveling by car, it's nice to be able to just stop in the middle, and not just go from city to city like i do by train.

it's so cute! we left it behind the first time, but came back 4 hours later. can't wait to get it working again. doing an uni course on textile art this semester and i no longer own a sewing machine, so i have some sort of excuse for hoarding more stuff. 😅

today in hardware witchcraft: converted my thinkpad x200 to led backlight because the cathode tube wasn't really doing that well after 12 years. there are no schematics, and the inverter is an integrated nightmare with status leds and a microphone, but i...uh...poked around and improvised. cut off a part of the board to have enough space to fit the new board. works fine and is brighter than ever before!

ok so it's getting warmer and i wanna wear low-backed clothes again but i'm sure people will ask about my new scars. i need a good cover story, cause the real one is way too intricate for casual conversation (and sounds made up anyway). something about cyborgs? i escaped the matrix? i can't come up with a good one, any suggestions?
photo cw: it's my back. i'm pale af and there are lots of scars

i started doing braids again, that helps somewhat. just too bad you can't really do the really cool stuff on your own. 😑
CW: hair selfie, no ec

almost stepped on these two bees having sex. get a room or something!

i made an estradiol pillow! ......look, i don't even know, it seemed like a good idea at the time. #knitting

alright, this wasn't enough. on the 2nd lp the motor started cutting out randomly, every 5 or so minutes. it could be restarted, but it would stop again. i suspected the transistors i had "fixed", maybe they still had problems. had to open this sealed gdr "electronics tinkering kit" from the 70s as i didn't have any replacement pnp germanium transistors. the transistors in there are production rejects without any markings, might be ac128s, might be something else.

random things fixed today: friends bought a vw t4 and are trying to fix it up, i took care of the instrument cluster. speedometer was stuck at 200 km/h and both lcds were dead. replaced a bunch of leaking capacitors in the control circuits and salvaged lcds & a working stepper motor from another (incompatible) cluster.

tried to be productive, fixed a turntable. electronic speed control in this uses ac128 transistors, thats the ones that grow "whiskers" over the years and eventually short out. i was able to salvage the transistors by "burning" the whiskers with a high current, it works now. also installed a standard power connector, i'm not sourcing that weird thing thats on there. and i spent way too much time polishing that lid.

i fixed the #knitting machine once again and made a thing! it's, uh, a bit chonky, but it's very fluffy!

Heute vor 75 Jahren wurde das KZ Buchenwald befreit. Die zentralen Gedenkveranstaltungen wurden aufgrund der aktuellen Lage abgesagt, immerhin gibt es trotzdem noch ein bisschen Berichterstattung, auch mit aktuellen Bezug auf rechte Bewegungen: https://taz.de/Geschichte-einer-KZ-Gedenkstaette/!5635806/ #Thüringen und #Weimar tun sich immer noch schwer im Umgang mit der Gedenkstätte, unter dem neuen CDU-Bürgermeister ist es gefühlt noch schlimmer geworden.

while i'm at it, i hacked in a small pcb that replaces the long-dead ari-band with an aux-port. future-proof!

windows98, homemade programmer and some ancient software from polish messageboards to the rescue! and...*hacker voice*: i'm in.

so i just figured out why this thing is still in its box: there's everything in the box except the code card. they probably kept that at the register or something? no idea how that worked back then. so yeah, it is indeed brand new and never used by the looks of it, but the security code is missing, and it does not work without it. time to get the eeprom-programmer...

i hate unboxing, you hate unboxing, we all hate unboxing, so it stays in the box where it has spent the last 32 years. still, i like the design and the specs on it. open box, so you can touch it before buying. and it can play tapes! in stereo! and it has "sliding stereo effect"! whatever that is.

die wildbienen auf unserem balkon sind heute geschlüpft! der ganze balkon schwirrt, ganz viele kleine flauschige bienen, die sich überall (auch auf mich) hinsetzen und sich putzen. voll krass anzusehen & zu hören. zum glück hat so 'ne unsanierte platte ganz viele löcher für ganz viele bienen. 😁

developed & scanned some set pictures from last fall. "how not to greenscreen" aka "that time we accidentally built a sail".