Oh Shoot - Mechanical Inclinations

This post is mainly here so I don't lose a link. A "mechanical engineering" sort of link. Shocking, I know.

Ask the Builder is a site with plenty of information on how to perform various home remodelling tasks, from installing electrical outlets to washing paint brushes. It even has videos. I don't forsee um, performing in any renovations in the near future, but it's fun to watch the videos and read the columns (read: major slacking measure).

I blame this (unfortunate?) mechanical interest on my engineering coworkers - among other things, one of them recently showed me how to wire a switch downstream of a GFCI, while another showed me what teflon tape is for (other than sealing condenser joints, that is, which engineers won't know anything about, anyway). This stuff is, well, this stuff is actually kind of fun.

Don't expect me to suddenly turn engineer, though. They are too practical. (Somehow, I don't think they'll like the modified Dirichlet function or the proof that it's continuous at irrational values and discontinuous everywhere else.) Also, they are the kind of people who think that it's ok to use an epoxy-lined carbon steel container to store dilute HCl. After all, it has an inert lining, right? Sigh. (Yep - the lining flakes off and now I have all these iron complexes in my previously lovely HCl. *My* HCl because I make the reagent. There are precipitates, too, though no leaks yet. Another sigh.)