muleboy

Dear Co-worker,

No, you have not won an iphone 4 on the Internet.

Whoever was asking about Mexico there, you can take a private vehicle into Mexico or a rental depending on the company policy. The thing is, you have to have yr own Mexican insurance or the rental co should be able to organise it through a broker of their own. It's a daily rate. Crash yr vehicle in Mexico without Mexican insurance and you face an indefinite period of residence in the grey bar hotel - likely not yr preferred destination. Tourists can enter Mexico without a permit if they are staying less than 72 hours (from memory) and they do not go beyond the border zone (about 70 miles). Travel anywhere near the edge of the border zone and you will be stopped at military checkpoints and yr vehicle will be searched. Here's the fun thing about those - sometimes you can't be sure if they are legit or set up by cartel members - and regardless of who's running the show you will be murdered if you try and evade them. Just take a deep breath and hope you got the right ones.

Most of the north of Baja is a wasteland, which was just the sort of thing I liked. Random acrid roadside burning and rubbish and the like. Well I didn't care so much for the rubbish. It's an interesting place though. The speed limit everywhere is 80 kph though Mexicans are always doing double that it seems. But you can't unless you like paying corrupt cops for yr freedom. The roads in the major cities are more senseless than even those in Sydney and can be a terrifying and thrilling experience in their own right. I passed two roadsigns (one on each side of the road) on a slow highway section advising the speed limit as being both 40 kph and 40 mph.

I can recommend Ciudad de Juarez for a night just for the thrill of it (tho it's a bit of a distance from where you indicated going). There's a La Quinta hotel in the tourist zone about 8 miles from the border which has guards and razor wire perimeter etc. Indeed it was cheaper and better appointed than about every US hotel I stayed in.

One more thing - crossing back into the US, when a border control member asks for yr I-94 they are referring to yr visa and none of them seems yet to have been educated that this is now an online document (and has been for about three years now).

it was important enough for the abc to hype as 'for the first time on television', but not enough to find a slot to show it in it's entirety?

that's bonkers.

hello, world!

''stuck a pin in your backbone''

I reckon that's a case right there ripe for calling out for an emergency repair up to the value of $1000. In Victoria anyway. It's all in the little red renters book, which, if yr real estate didn't give you when you moved in needs to be reported so they can be fined for that too.

Hot water is deemed an essential service.

Check it. And check if yr real estate has an after hours emergency number, for all the fucking good that's ever done me.

digwemust said 2 hours ago:

i bought a rega p1 about a year ago but have never managed to balance the tone arm correctly. i've set the little weight thing at the back to the recommended setting and even bought a little balancing doo hicky from the hi fi shop but all i can get out of a rekkid is one rotation and then it skips back to the beginning of the same groove again. i'm starting to think i should have just bought something second hand which doesn't require such fiddling about. does anyone have any hints?

i don't know what weight doo-hicky you refer to, but is it the original stylus/cartridge? if it's different you should find the recommended weight for the new cartridge and work from there.

or try a different record. hech hoch.

seriously yr best bet is to set the weight by eye, and work from there. the info is out there. remember on most counter-weights the numbers don't always refer to the weight you've set either. the counter-weight should be zeroed first and then adjusted. don't know if this is true of the rega?

that's better.

annehelena said 17 hours ago:

I have a beautiful Pioneer PL-100 for $130 from eBay (including postage, YEAH). Seller only deals with audio gear, has 1548 sales and 100% positive feedback.

I can't get sound out of my speakers, though I can hear the rekkid playing when I put my head near the stylus. I suspect there's a problem with the phono input on my amp, and will be testing it with saucyjack's amp, but in the meantime, does this sound like an issue anyone else has had? Am I right to suspect the amp?

I'm thinking perhaps there's something wrong with the RCA lead, maybe, if it's not the amp.

i haven't checked the specs on this one, but you might look to see if you require a preamp. many turntables do - depends on type of stylus etc.

annehelena said 17 hours ago:

I have a beautiful Pioneer PL-100 for $130 from eBay (including postage, YEAH). Seller only deals with audio gear, has 1548 sales and 100% positive feedback.

I can't get sound out of my speakers, though I can hear the rekkid playing when I put my head near the stylus. I suspect there's a problem with the phono input on my amp, and will be testing it with saucyjack's amp, but in the meantime, does this sound like an issue anyone else has had? Am I right to suspect the amp?

I'm thinking perhaps there's something wrong with the RCA lead, maybe, if it's not the amp.

i haven't checked the specs on this one, but you might look to see if you require a preamp. many turntables do - depends on type of stylus etc.