Chain whip, engage!
Free cassette
The new spoke
ew
Unicycle
Lily and I got to chill with Sam on our way home from the shops. I think s/he might've been the same cat I saw that night. Sam will lie in front of you until you move too close, and then will roll over for a tummy rub and then follow you for a bit before breaking your heart and leaving you.
I got around to fixing that (2nd!!!) broken spoke today after picking up the tool kit from Minh. Removing the cassette and re-assembling the QR would probably have been the hardest but if I had to do that again it'd probably be much easier.
The locking on the cassette has a little triangle printed on it, pointing in a direction to "lock". All I had to do to unlock it was twist it in the opposite direction while engaging the cassette with the chainwhip. Feeling ready and equipped with my plan, I quickly hit a stumbling block because I was too weaksauce. I ended up having the recruit Lily to help pull on the tool in the other direction and after she gave up, I did it a little longer before it finally loosened. From then on it was okay but that took way too long.
Reassembling the QR was also a hassle because I didn't note the order of the little eyelet bits so when I put it on, it didn't screw on properly/tight enough, meaning the wheel was all kinds of wobbly and unroadworthy. After lots of trial and error (mostly error), i noticed a spare piece that I forgot to put onto the nut end(??? terminology?), and then did more noticing when I saw that both sides had the same part. Mirroring the other side, which remained in the right order, proved successful and I landed myself a functioning wheel.
I'm not entirely sure if the wheel is true though - it probably isn't; the spokes got a couple of flicks and I just listened to them singing the song of their people. The verdict was that it sounded close enough - I have all my spokes and they have similar enough tensions so it's good enough for me. I'll figure it out some day but for now I'll take it.
Today's been a good day.
Fuck 2821 though. Our report's taking shape and I've done my writing parts so I'm pretty pleased with how we're going so far. We've still got a few days left to finish it and prepare for our presentation, which I am slightly more worried about. Its significance was completely diminished though when I found out it was only worth 10%. I say that, but for this subject I'm probably going to need every percentage I need. The small incremental assessments have lulled me into a sense of complacency but now that the semester's ending they're going to start adding up. Hopefully all goes well.
I'm not too worried about the oral assessment, though I'm not sure if i should be? Some part of me is kind of excited to do this but that's probably too optimistic, from what I've been hearing about it. Then again, stressing out won't do much good either. Preparation is going well for that.
And once my time frees up, maybe I'll be able to get my drawing back on.
Aaaand that's all for this news update.
