![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
susandennisMy sewing machine is an under $100 Brother model I bought at Target or Walmart 10 years ago. It was never intended to do any heavy duty serious sewing. Until a month ago, it lived in a cabinet and came out very infrequently. I never changed the bobbin enough to remember how to get into where it is housed. I had a post it note with instructions on it.
In the month it's been out and working hard, it's done ok for a cheap machine. When run hard, it really sounded like a bucket of bolts but it did ok. Today I finished up my banners and then had a t-shirt to hem. I decided, on a whim, to change the needle. I'm not sure I had ever changed the needle before. That sucker was probably as dull as a (I honestly cannot think of an analogy here that wouldn't offend ... but, trust me... dull).
Since all my sewing stuff is now so amazingly organized and readily accessible, I perused my supply and 1) found a bisillion and 2) found about 5 ballpoint ones (good for knits like t-shirts). So I tossed the old needle and put in the new one. And wow. Clearly, I should have put in a new needle last month. The bucket of bolts now sings! Sweet.
I also put a can of air in the scissor drawer and now give it a good blow job every time I open up the bobbin area and before every job. Maybe this cheap puppy can and will perform above itself with some love and care.
The banners are in a tight hallway so I can't get a great photo but I can at least record for posterity.
Lots of great memories here. That's the 1992 Folklife festival. In 1987 I went to the Porche Club of America national conention in Montery, CA and was a volunteer at the track (via guy I was dating at the time). Aruba and St. Thomas were part of the twice a year trips to the Carribean I made in the early 80's with my buddy, Earl. I have no clue why/how I got the Car Guy's shirt from KPLU in 1994. That green shirt is also from the Porche Club Montery trip. Vitessa was one of the dot com's I worked for. It went under when all the other bubble dot coms did. The red strip is from New Zealand and then there is 1994 Folklife.
The Bedlam DL3/Me, too! was from when I worked at Microsoft. My job was to handle internal communications for the IT department. This was about 1996/97. We had about 20,000 employees world wide. Most were connected via email on Microsoft's Exchange product which was not quite baked (at least the version we were using wasn't). People didn't really understand email yet. Most people at least once or twice a day - at Microsoft - got a phone call from another employee asking 'did you get my email'. Half the time you had gotten, half the time not. It was a real chewing gum and string operation.
One day, some yahoo was looking at the mailing lists attached to his account. He noticed that he was on a mailing list called Bedlam DL3. He didn't know what it was so he sent an email to it saying "I don't know that this list is. Take me off of it." Pretty soon, everybody who got that note, sent a reply "Me, too". And the entire email system for went down for 3 days.
Bedlam DL3 was a distribution list of every single employee at Microsoft. It was created as a test and was supposed to be hidden. When everyone in the company sent email to everyone in the company, oh what a meltdown. It was epic.
I spent the following 6 months putting together an action plan for what happens when we don't have email, what happens when we don't have phones, what happens when... At least I got a t-shirt.
I love New Zealand - and bungy jumped there on my second trip. I smoked Virginia Slims for 30 years (Benson and Hedges the 10 years before that but I never got a t-shirt)... Something happened to my chicken order the first or second time I went to Ezell's and they gave me a shirt!
I'm delighted with these banners. Makes a nice, memorable hallway.
In the month it's been out and working hard, it's done ok for a cheap machine. When run hard, it really sounded like a bucket of bolts but it did ok. Today I finished up my banners and then had a t-shirt to hem. I decided, on a whim, to change the needle. I'm not sure I had ever changed the needle before. That sucker was probably as dull as a (I honestly cannot think of an analogy here that wouldn't offend ... but, trust me... dull).
Since all my sewing stuff is now so amazingly organized and readily accessible, I perused my supply and 1) found a bisillion and 2) found about 5 ballpoint ones (good for knits like t-shirts). So I tossed the old needle and put in the new one. And wow. Clearly, I should have put in a new needle last month. The bucket of bolts now sings! Sweet.
I also put a can of air in the scissor drawer and now give it a good blow job every time I open up the bobbin area and before every job. Maybe this cheap puppy can and will perform above itself with some love and care.
The banners are in a tight hallway so I can't get a great photo but I can at least record for posterity.
Lots of great memories here. That's the 1992 Folklife festival. In 1987 I went to the Porche Club of America national conention in Montery, CA and was a volunteer at the track (via guy I was dating at the time). Aruba and St. Thomas were part of the twice a year trips to the Carribean I made in the early 80's with my buddy, Earl. I have no clue why/how I got the Car Guy's shirt from KPLU in 1994. That green shirt is also from the Porche Club Montery trip. Vitessa was one of the dot com's I worked for. It went under when all the other bubble dot coms did. The red strip is from New Zealand and then there is 1994 Folklife.
The Bedlam DL3/Me, too! was from when I worked at Microsoft. My job was to handle internal communications for the IT department. This was about 1996/97. We had about 20,000 employees world wide. Most were connected via email on Microsoft's Exchange product which was not quite baked (at least the version we were using wasn't). People didn't really understand email yet. Most people at least once or twice a day - at Microsoft - got a phone call from another employee asking 'did you get my email'. Half the time you had gotten, half the time not. It was a real chewing gum and string operation.
One day, some yahoo was looking at the mailing lists attached to his account. He noticed that he was on a mailing list called Bedlam DL3. He didn't know what it was so he sent an email to it saying "I don't know that this list is. Take me off of it." Pretty soon, everybody who got that note, sent a reply "Me, too". And the entire email system for went down for 3 days.
Bedlam DL3 was a distribution list of every single employee at Microsoft. It was created as a test and was supposed to be hidden. When everyone in the company sent email to everyone in the company, oh what a meltdown. It was epic.
I spent the following 6 months putting together an action plan for what happens when we don't have email, what happens when we don't have phones, what happens when... At least I got a t-shirt.
I love New Zealand - and bungy jumped there on my second trip. I smoked Virginia Slims for 30 years (Benson and Hedges the 10 years before that but I never got a t-shirt)... Something happened to my chicken order the first or second time I went to Ezell's and they gave me a shirt!
I'm delighted with these banners. Makes a nice, memorable hallway.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-06-22 07:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2015-06-22 07:55 pm (UTC)