Pictures of the dishes with which I grew up are in d/archive/history/dishes/ . barcode.jpg This is the barcode reading equipment from Videoman. I bought it from the company and kept it all these years because it was cool and I might have a use for reading barcodes again some day. But now there are better ways to read barcodes anyway, so there's no reason to keep it around. The three Bonafide units came with the store. One of the Bonafide units splices into an AT keyboard cable. I.e. you plug the keyboard into the unit and cable the unit to the keyboard jack on the computer and then when you scan a barcode, it makes it look to the computer like you typed the barcode value. The other Bonafide unit is similar, but splices into an RS-232 cable attached to a terminal. The Variant Microsystems unit is identical except for the brand. I suspect I found that at Weirdstuff Warehouse and bought it for a backup. Another theory is that one of the Bonafide ones broke and Hank got that as a replacement. The American Microsystems unit is another RS-232 unit. I bought this from B&B Electronics. I think I did this so that I could run a third terminal for the new system in parallel with the two for the old system while I was testing and transitioning. I do remember having a terminal on the back counter for a while. The silver things are reader wands. Some staff member wrote "not a pen" on one because he was annoyed by customers picking it up to try to write with it. The thing on top of the American Microsystems box is a laser scanner - an alternative to the wands. I used that at my desk in the office. "BMS" (from the label on the scanner) is the name of the company that made the original POS system (which was just an assembly of a bunch of off-the-shelf part such as Wyse 50 terminals and their video store software). Discarded 22.07.05 batmobileParts.jpg Here are some of the pieces of the Batmobile I kept when it went to the scrapyard. The guages on the bracket (which I made) are oil pressure (top) and vacuum (bottom). This sat on top of the steering column, just in front of the dash board. It fit quite well. I had nearly every possible kind of gauge on the Batmobile, plus lights showing the state of some of the relays. I scoured the J.C. Whitney catalog and bought everything I could think of to put on the car. The third brake light was installed on the rear shelf. I really did want to install that in the Big Red Truck, because a third brake light is a really good idea, but never got around to it. One reason is that I tried to observe a discipline of not modifying the truck so as to avoid some of the stress I had with the Batmobile. The other device is the vacuum actuator for the cruise control. It is what pulls the throttle. The cruise control was the most important addition I made to the car and it worked great. I was actually quite surprised when I first took it out for a test and it actually worked. I installed it over the course of about a month of evenings and weekends in Tucson, and had a lot of fun doing it. I still have the jeweler's screwdriver set with the melted plastic case from sitting in my toolbox in the Arizona summer heat. While I didn't try to take the entire cruise control off the Batmobile, I did keep the actuator because it seemed like something that could be useful for a lot of things. But I never found any use for it. I purged this stuff on 19.09.29. bb_serial.jpg This is a two-port RS-232 card from B&B Electronics. I don't know why I bought this, and I don't think I ever used it. I may have expected to need it to connect to the various RS-232 devices I bought from B&B, but ended up needing more than two ports, so got the Rocketport instead. B&B was a great company. It made a lot of stuff I needed. I purged this card on 19.09.29, as ISA cards don't work in modern computers and USB is a better way to get an RS-232 port than an add-in card anyway. bikeframe_rampar.jpg This is all that was left of my venerable orange Rampar bike that served me so long. See 'd/archive/history/bryannote/bicycle' for details. I kept this in case I wanted some of the spare parts still attached and because it wasn't easy to dispose of, but ultimately had it taken away by city curbside large item pickup. Photographed in front of the bike shed. Purged 22.06.17 book_barrons.jpg This is Barron's How To Prepare for College Entrance Examinations, 1975 edition. This was discarded by the counseling department at Timberline and I took it because I thought it would be fun to go through it and answers, especially the vocabulary. Well, I never got around to it until 2020. I kept coming across it and keeping it because I still thought I'd go through it some day. In April 2020, it was finally time. Of course, by then, I was unable to memorize hundreds of vocabulary words, and any words I didn't already know probably weren't very useful. I did spend a few hours reading it, though, including doing one of the practice math tests. I was able to do all the math questions except one, though it took well over the alotted time and the only reason I could do some of them was the tutoring I did in my 40s. I did learn a few choice things about English grammar that I might remember. Discarded 20.04.24 book_appliedElectromag.jpg College textbook, Applied Electromagnetism, by Liang Chi Shen and Jin Au Kong. This covered things like transmission line reflection, which was the subject of my greatest lab project. Discarded 19.06.26 book_circuitTheory.jpg College textbook, Basic Circuit Theory with Digital Computations, by Lawrence P Huelsman. This covered Thevenin/Norton circuit models and inductors and capacitors in circuits. It did not include diodes and transistors. The "digital computations" part was useless and we didn't study that. Discarded 19.06.26 book_commSystems.jpg College textbook, Modern Digital and Analog Communication Systems, by B.P. Lathi. This covered Fourier transforms, bandwidth, and AM and FM. At $48 new, this was one of the most expensive textbooks I had. Discarded 19.06.26 book_electricPower.jpg College textbook, Introduction to Electric Power and Energy Devices and Systems, by F.R. Bergseth and S.S. Venkata. This was a self-published text specifically for the EE 344 class by its instructors. I really liked this class. I had Bergseth. I kind of regret not making a career out of power systems. Discarded 19.06.26 book_french.jpg College textbook suite, Ensemble: Grammaire, Ensemble: Culture et Societe, Ensemble: Literature, and Ensemble: Grammaire workbook. By Raymond E Comeau, Francine L Bustin, Normand J Lamoureux. book_microElectronicCkt.jpg College textbook, Micro-Electronic Circuits, by Adel S Sedra and Kenneth C Smith. This covered diodes and transistors. Discarded 19.06.26 book_probability.jpg College textbook, Probability & Statistics for Engineering and the Sciences, by Jay L Devore. This was the textbook for Statistics 341 by Wellner. I seriously considered doing a third degree in probability. I actually used this book once after college. Some years after college, I found myself confused as to what probability even means. I took out this book and read the first few pages, and it all became clear. Discarded 19.06.26 book_semiconductor.jpg College textbook, Modular Series on Solid State Devices, Robert F Pierret and Gerold W Neudeck, editors. Four volume set: I) Semiconductor Fundamentals; II) The PN Junction Diode; III) The Bipolar Junction Transistor; IV) Field Effect Devices. These books are really well done, and I liked this class a lot, though some of it was pretty hard for me. I used these books after college. Many years after college, I had forgotten how a transistor works, and that was a fairly novel thing at the time and I was rather annoyed by it. I took out these books to refresh my memory, and I relearned it quite easily. In fact, I remember thinking I knew it a lot better after the refresher than I had originally. I'm not sure at the end of the class I actually understood the role of diffusion. Discarded 19.06.26 book_maupassant.jpg Cinq Contes the Guy de Maupassant adapted by Jean-Paul Tauvel La Maison Tellier by Guy De Maupassant I bought these at a used book sale at the UW Book Store while I was in college. I never got around to reading them. Actually, I did read La Maison Tellier on the bus when I was commuting to campus from Northgate. I used the advertisement for book shelves that came inside it as a bookmark. In 2020, I found it placed about a third of the way through the book. There is nothing special about these books. After a while, I planned to read them only because they had become an institution in my belongings. But I did discover in 2020 that Cinq Contes is specifically translated to simple French, so I went ahead and added that to my reading pile for the shuttle bus. Discarded, added to reading pile 20.04.24 book_napkins.jpg Folding Table Napkins by Sharon Dlugosch Sixth edition 1982 This is a book I kept for about 40 years thinking some day I'd like to learn neat ways to fold napkins. This was a gift from Mom because one day at dinner in a fancy restaurant, I had been intrigued by the fancy folded napkin (probably an iris fold) and had the waitress show me how to do it. Unfortunately, as of 2020, I don't have the mental capacity to remember any folds I might learn. And where would I ever be able to use the knowledge anyway? I did take the time to learn the first fold in the book, the iris fold (but the description was impossible to follow) and I might remember that one. Discarded 20.04.24 brownCord.jpg This is one my oldest extension cords. I believe it was a family cord when I was a kid, but don't remember it specifically. It is not polarized, so not very useful in the modern world. The molded plastic of the plug broke early on and I repaired it with silicone. I finally decided it was not useful enough to keep around and discarded it on 25.03.13. The only older extension cord I can remember is a similar cord (unpolarized, multi-receptacle) that was gray and was behind the refrigerator when we moved from Lexington. I don't know if it was used to plug in the refrigerator or just to access the extra receptacle behind the refrigerator, but I remember thinking it was a treasure. burgessbatterycharger.jpg I got this charger for carbon-zinc and nickel cadmium batteries as a gift when I was around 10 years old. I used it weekly to charge the D cell nicad batteries that powered my bike headlight for many years for my commute to work, until AA NIMH batteries obsoleted the nicad. I kept it around anyway, in case I ever wanted to charge C or D carbon zinc or nicad batteries (it did AA, C, D, and 9v) again, but I never did. Burgess Model 17. Discarded 22.10.21. calicenseplate.jpg These are the license plates the Big Red Truck wore in California from the time of the reregistration after the wreck in early 2021 until my move to Lacey in November 2022. I didn't have this license plate number long enough to memorize or even recognize it. candydish.jpg This sat in the living room shelves for years; I believe before that it was with the mixing bowls in a kitchen cabinet. Chun got it somewhere. Discarded 22.06.14 cordlessHeadsetPhone.jpg This was a great telephone, which I used when I lived on Coy Drive. I can remember transacting Giraffe Data Systems business on it in 1996. It was my first headset telephone, and I remember how much easier it was to talk on the phone using a headset, because I wasn't concentrating on talking on the phone, but just sitting on the couch talking. I don't remember why I bought it; I presumably still had the cordless phone I bought in Tucson, and I know I also had the Panasonic Ease-a-phone desk phone, because it always had Jay Raley's phone number on it. Maybe I just saw an ad for this and wanted to try a cordless headset phone. I moved from Coy Drive to the room in Mountain View, where I didn't have phone service, and I don't recall ever using this phone after that. I finally decided it was taking too much room and it is unlikely I will ever have a non-mobile phone again, and since I still have another simpler POTS phone anyway, I just purged it. Discarded 25.05.02 digitalComputerKit1.jpg digitalComputerKit2.jpg This is just the box, which I kept for 40 years because I thought I might need a box this size. In fact, it's a pretty useless size and a pretty low quality box anyway. But it's a nice reminder of this toy, which I got for Christmas one year. It looks like a really cool toy, but it was just junk. All it is is an and/or gate network, which is a far cry from a digital computer. And it's in mechanical electrical switches; no electronics involved. Each of those brown rectangles at the bottom is the handle of a slide switch; the springs are the terminals of the switch. There are light bulbs behind the white rectangles at the top. You just wire in a Boolean formula. Science Fair is the same brand that made 65-in-1. I purged this box on 19.09.29, part of shrinking the box collection as a whole since I do more high quality organization now than can be done with recycled cardboard boxes. dishes.jpg This is two settings from the four-setting set of dishes Mom sent me when I was in my first apartment in Tucson. I don't remember if it was a birthday gift or just a housewarming gift. Two of each size of plate have broken and one remaining small plate now has a crack and there are some chips in the large plates. I purged two of the cups when I moved from Mountain View. I purged the remaining two 19.09.27. The cups simply aren't useful. I never used them once. They are quite small. Mom also gave me a frying pan, a sauce pan, the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook, and a few utensils. I still have all of that except the frying pan, whose coating wore off and I discarded in 2004. elvisplate.jpg I think Chun got this Elvis Presley collectible plate as a gift. I don't know why else he would have it; he was not a Elvis fan. It was made in 2008, when we were living together. It is made to look like it might be worth something some day, and that probably influenced him to keep it if not to acquire it in the first place. He agreed to let it go during his visit at my retirement. Discarded 22.06.14 flashlight_yellow.jpg I don't know where I got this flashlight, but it was really nice, with a clip and a rotating head. I kept it in the entertainment center at Litchi Grove Court. Ray-o-Vac brand. But corrosion or something happened to it and I'd have to reseat the batteries and clean it every time I wanted to use it, so I discarded it on 22.07.31. francesticker.jpg This was a gift from Emmanuel Porte, our French exchange student. I decided on 22.03.27 it had insufficient memories and I would never have a use for it. gpsMap330.jpg This was my second GPS receiver. The first was a Garmin unit that was one of the first available. It was meant for marine use, but had a detachable antenna and I put an antenna mount on the Big Red Truck so I could use it. I don't think I ever did, other than to test it. That unit did not survive the clock rollover thing that happened in GPS in about 1998. This Magellan MAP 330 is meant for hiking and driving. It was a Christmas present from Mom. I carried it in the Big Red Truck for about 20 years, but used it only twice -- once when I went over the mountains on my first trip to check out property in Okanogan County and then the trip Chun and I took to Eastern Washington, Pacific Beach, and Olympia. The unit was not very useful because the maps were not detailed enough. It utterly failed to stop us from getting lost on the way to Pacific Beach in the snow. This technology is well before GPS receivers had driving direction. I discarded it on 22.06.08 because by then I had an Android smartphone that could do Google Maps (I used that, successfully, for the first time other than a test run, on 22.06.08). headlightBattery.jpg This is the battery pack I made for my Petzl Duo halogen head lamp that I used to ride my bike. As I recall, the battery pack that came with it used C batteries and was unusable for my purpose for some reason. So I made battery pack that used 4 D cells, in a plastic battery cradle that fit perfectly in a Taco Bell miniature fanny pack. I used that for years until the NiCd D cells wore out and by that time, NiMH batteries existed and had all the density I needed in AA cells. So I made the pictured battery pack from a plastic battery cradle and just stuck it in my back pocket. Over the years I had to fortify it. First, the original wires broke at least once, so I replaced them with the heavy-duty 18 guage zip cord pictured. It melted once, I guess from a short circuit, and it broke once or twice, so I reinforced it with metal. Finally, in October 2019, the zip cord managed to short out at a poorly controlled stress point while it was in my backpack and the resulting heat thoroughly melted the battery cradle, in addition to the casing of the batteries, and even fused the cradle to the headband. It's surprising it didn't start a fire in my backpack. But it was too far gone to repair, so I started over with a battery cradle with clip terminals. hp6980printer.jpg This was my 4th printer, coming after the Lexmark laser printer from IBM and before the HP M118dw laser printer. I got it used and it was a terrible purchase -- black and white never worked, ink cartridges always went bad, and it hung from time to time. I finally discarded it when I moved out of Litchi Grove Court, and at the time, it wasn't working, apparently saying it was out of ink. jetGazStove.jpg This is a backpacking stove I got as a gift when I was a kid. Probably around age 16. Though I never actually went backpacking, I was very interested in that and camping and collected every imaginable kind of backpacking gear. This butane stove was one. The butane canister forms the base of this stove. But I never owned any butane canister except the one that came with the stove, because by the time that ran out, you couldn't buy them anymore. The stove is imported from France, and I've heard the fuel canisters were much more available there; they might be available even now. The first time I ever went backpacking was around 1981 with Robin in Olympic National Park. We took this as our stove, and I bought 4 new canisters that looked like the right kind, but until I removed the one that came with the stove, there was no way to tell. Well, we discovered on the trail that they were the wrong kind, so we finished the hike without a stove. I kept the stove until 2019 in the hopes that I might some day find fuel for it, because I liked it so much. I especially like the piezo lighter. In June 2019, I finally gave up and discarded it. keypad.jpg These are all keypads that I acquired at some point when I was optimistic that I might some day use them for a project. I wouldn't necessary use the keypads as keypads; they could just be a collection of switches, e.g. light switches. The big one on the left is from a Univac computer console. I don't know where I got it, but I had the whole thing at one point -- I think I got it when I was in high school -- and discarded the main keyboard part of it probably in the college years. The hexadecimal keypad is brand new. I think I saw it in a surplus catalog and my eyes were full of ideas for using it. I probably expected to be able to access each switch independently, not knowing that these things have scanning interfaces. But I also probably planned to cut the PC board traces and access the individual switches separately anyway. The markings on the 14 pin DIP are National Semiconductor date code 7548 MM74C902N (hex buffer) and date code 7905 74C922 (keypad encoder). The calculator keypad came from a surplus catalog. This came from days when I was really poor and I know I thought this would just be a cheap set of pushbutton switches, but it has the same problem of not being able access individual keys. I kept these all for many years just because I didn't have any other use for the space, so when I consolidated into new plastic bins in July 2022, it was time to let them go. Discarded 22.07.06 lanternFlashlight.jpg Eveready flashlight/lantern. 4 AA batteries. Robin and I both got these for Christmas one year long ago. This was my emergency flashlight most of the time since then. At Litchi Grove Court, it sat on my bedstand. At Vista Village, it was on my windowsill. But before long, it started having oxidation problems and would have to be cleaned frequently. It got to where it never just came on when I picked it up, making it useless as an emergency flashlight. This predates LED flashlights, so really needed to be replaced anyway. One reason I kept it so long is the lantern aspect of it, making it particularly useful in a power outage. The problem may have been the Duracell batteries, because they were constantly leaking. In a final effort to save it, I applied dialectric grease to the battery contacts, but it didn't help. I gave up and discarded it on 24.04.02. marbles.jpg My marble collection from childhood, just before I purged it on 15.12.27 Nearly all of these were found. I did not buy any or get any as a gift, and won very few. microntaMeter.jpg This was my second electronic meter, and my first digital one. I believe I got this as a gift as a child. This clamshell shape was never convenient; Micronta was trying to be creative, but I never saw anyone else do this, so I guess others agreed it isn't good. The bezel prominently says "AUTO-RANGE"; I think that was novel at the time. My next meter was the Fluke meter I bought from IBM, which I got because I needed two meters. But later, I bought the ExTech clamp meter, and then I didn't need the Micronta anymore and rarely used it afterward. It was Radio Shack catalog number 22-193. The label on the upper left says, "10 uA in 20Kohm range; 110 uA in 2 Kohm range; 1 uA in ohm range. In September 2019, this stopped working. It may have stopped long ago, but I discovered then that it simply read very wrong voltages. So I discarded it. I discarded my first meter (also Micronta; one of my favorite birthday presents ever) on 00.08.07. By then I had a better meter I had taken from Timberline, and I had burned out the resistors in the resistance circuits long ago. mm103_modem.jpg Potomac Micro-Magic MM-103 600 baud S-100 modem from Project Enterprise, just before I purged it on 15.12.27. I never used this; it was part of my greatly optimistic plans - probably 10 years of work to do in a year - I had before I knew how much time things take. It was a top of the market S-100 modem, even boasting the ability to do 600 BAUD when 300 was really the maximum that could be done on a normal phone line with the simple FSK protocol. It was said if you had an especially good phone line (e.g. a short one), this would work. This was only shortly after it became legal to connect things to the phone line not made by AT&T, so this came with a thoroughly inspected and approved isolation box to plug between the card and the phone line. movie_trick.jpg I liked this movie a lot, but I'm not sure why I kept this screener tape of it from my Videoman days. I probably knew I would probably never watch it, but maybe thought I'd meet someone I'd want to show it to. I soon forgot I had it, though. It was a complete surprise when I came across it in October 2019. Considering that it's an ordeal just to hook up a VHS player now, it seemed time to let it go and I discarded it. navySweater.jpg This is navy blue wool British Navy Sweater. It has elbow patches, shoulder patches, and a pen holder on the left shoulder. Robin brought this back as a gift from his trip to Scotland that Dad gave him as a college graduation present. He shipped it to me in Tucson, arriving 84.09.06. I still have the accompanying letter. Most of the time since then it was stored in a box because I kept forgetting I owned it, and I had another lighter sweater I wore normally. But soon after I moved to Litchi Grove Court, my regular sweater wore out and I wore this sweater every day every winter. Several times when I was out in public wearing this sweater someone asked me if I was in the Navy. The yarn wore down in places so that I had to repair holes about 25 times, mostly where the cuffs fold over. But I eventually noticed that the yarn was so thin throughout the sweater that it just wasn't as warm as it used to be. There was a time when I could wear this sweater and a windbreaker as a substitute for a winter coat. By this time, one of the elbow patches was close to wearing through as well. So I discarded it on 21.11.20 and started wearing the hooded sweatshirt Laura gave me for Christmas 2020 instead. oldwatch.jpg I kept all my old wristwatches for historical purposes, but finally decided to purge them 22.03.27 to save space. The one the left is a Waltham and was my first digital watch. I got it for some birthday or Christmas and wore it throughout high school. It finally broke and I upgraded to the calculator watch next to it, with Casio module 166. That was a really nice watch. A label on it said it broke 1994.12.18. I then upgraded to the Aegis Tele-pad touch screen watch by Casio, which I found in one of the many surplus catalogs from which I bought toys in those days. It was a great, highly advanced watch, except that it did not have a backlight, which severely limited its usefulness. It think they did that because it drew such much power anyway that the battery life would have been unacceptable with a light. I started carrying a tiny flashlight in my pocket just so I could look at the watch in the dark if I had to. I think the LCD display finally broke. The big red watch is a Casio G-Shock (module 1659) sport watch that Chun gave me as a gift. Like many of his gifts, I have no idea why he thought that was appropriate for me. It was much too large for my wrist. I tried to wear it occasionally out of courtesy, but eventually had to stop. It gave me a rash. I replaced it in 2008.04 with the Casio W96H-1AV (module 2499) to the right of it. It had a cheap acetate band that broke several times and eventually could not be repaired. It lasted only a 2 1/2 years. I then (2010.11) bought a Casio A178WA-1A (module 2519) with a metal case and band, which I still wear as of 22.03.27. But the crystal is cracked and the backlight button does not work well, so it will probably not last much longer. The pocket watch is a gift from Chun's father. It says "SHANGHAI" in English and Chinese and "17 JEWELS CHINA MADE" in English. I never had any use for this. Before I had the Waltham, I had a mechanical diver's watch that I got for a gift. I'm not sure why Mom or whoever picked a diver's watch. It had a glow in the dark face and hands and a timer ring. It was supposedly water proof to several meters. I think it had the date. The only watch I remember before that is Mom's old watch -- a tiny women's watch that I once traded to Phil Harjo (elementary school) for a padlock, and Mom made be trade it back. She said the padlock was worth about $1 and the watch about $20. ottoman.jpg We had this ottoman in the master bedroom, in this position, most of the time we lived at Litchi Grove Court. We found it at a garage sale (probably one we encountered on a walk). The garage sale was giving everything away for free but accepted donations and I paid something for it. It was supposed to be for the armchair in the master bedroom. I purged it in June 2022 via the city's large item disposal curbside pickup service. The white ottoman next to it was also there most of that time. It goes with the white armchair in the guest bedroom. After I disposed of the other ottoman, I moved the white one to function as an actual ottoman for the armchair in the master bedroom and used it many times. partsCabinet.jpg These parts cabinets were major organizers for me from the time I got the first one at around 12 years old to when I got better ones upon moving in to the Litchi Grove Court house. I got these one at a time, mostly as gifts. I believe the small metal one was first. The large metal one I took from Timberline (I traded Timberline a bunch of stuff for my Swtpc terminal). Each of these parts cabinets was a bin in my bin system, Bins 51-55. There is one more in the set that I kept: Bin 56, a gray 30-drawer cabinet with smaller drawers. When I moved to Litchi Grove Court, I bought 4 large uniform parts cabinets to consolidate all of these, part of the same project that was supposed to replace all the IBM paper boxes with polypropylene totes. I kept these around, empty, for years for some reason, and finally discarded them (actually set them aside to see if I could find somewhere to donate them) in October 2019. patiojunk.jpg This is a collection of things purged from the patio on 22.06.21. The green drinking cup was the first cup I ever owned - I bought it when I moved to Terry Hall in 1986 and needed something from which to drink. I had been using it on the patio for watering plants. The wide coffee mug had lucky bamboo in it until 2022, as did the two square glass containers. The other coffee mug help some plant on the patio at some point over the years. The wide mug once said "Feliz Navidad" in gold on the side, but it had mostly worn off. The leaf-shaped plate was in the living room shelves. The pitcher started off as a charcoal filtration pitcher -- there was a blue charcoal compartment at the top. I may have bought it when I lived at Ingram Court, thinking it would make the water taste better. On the patio, I used it for a watering can. peachcage.jpg This is the cage I used to save one peach every year from the squirrels on Litchi Grove court. (I usually had chicken wire protecting additional peaches where it was convenient). It is held together with hog rings -- my first experiment with hog rings. September 2022. rocketport.jpg These are RocketPort multiple RS-232 port ISA cards. The one on the left is a PCI card that has 16 ports, which you hook up via that box. The one on the right is an ISA card with 8 ports that you hook up via the octopus cable. The connector on that card is DA-78, the only one I've ever seen. The connector on the other is DB-25. RocketPort was one of two companies (Cyclades was the other) that made cards for people to use in public dial-up computers, before the Internet. One of the original plans for Giraffe Data Systems was to have a dial-up computer, so I was very interested in these. But I never got far enough to buy one for that. Instead, I bought one in order to connect lots of peripheral devices to the Giraffe computer. At the time I purged these two cards, I owned one more - still installed in the recently shut down Giraffe computer. That one is 8 ports, with octopus cable, and I believe I used 5 of them at one point. At least one of the other cards, and maybe both, were sent to me for free when I ordered another one because flooding in the city where the eBay seller was made him ship it very late and the free stuff was compensation. I purged these on 19.09.29. saberSawFront.jpg saberSawBack.jpg This Sears Craftsman saber saw was my first power tool. I got it as a Christmas/birthday gift as a kid; I don't know exactly when. But I know I had it in college, because it was the subject of the conflict described below. I cut the cord down in my usual way. For many years, it was my only power saw, so I used it for a lot of things it really wasn't intended for. I did not get a circular saw until 1999. At one point, I had it set up mounted upside down with a lever to actuate the switch so I could use it as a jigsaw. This model of saw must have had a long life. In 25.02, I searched the web for the model number Model 315.10721. Stroke is 5/8". Variable speed. Takes U-type blades. Called "scroller saw", possibly because it has the knob to turn the blade. This is from before orbital saber saws existed. I kept all my tools with me in Terry Hall, and people would borrow them. Doug Kinoshita borrowed the saber saw to use on a project for a friend near the end of the year. He hadn't returned it by the end of the year, but told me he would return it to me in McMahon Hall over the summer. Time passed and he didn't call me. And then I needed the saw for something. I called him once or twice and he didn't return my messages. Though Doug and I were friends, I got paranoid and thought that he was really planning to keep it and that I had just misunderstood our relationship. I left him a final message telling him this. The next day, when I returned from classes, I got a message he left at the desk at McMahon saying he had every intention of returning the saw and that we would _always_ be friends. (I still have that note in my archives). He returned the saw soon after. But when I used it, I found the variable speed did not work. But it was indistinguishable from my saw. I called Doug and told him it was a variable speed saw when I lent it to him and now it was a single speed saw. He then said it was time to come clean, and explained what had happened. The saw was for building a rabbit cage, and one day, the rabbit chewed through the cord. He expected me to be very agitated by that, so wanted to get it repaired without me knowing. He ordered a new cord from Sears, and had to wait for it to come in. That was what all the delay was about. But the cord is part of an assembly with the switch, and he apparently ordered the single speed version of it. So he said he would order the variable speed switch and fix it. When it came in, he called me and invited me to come with him to Sears to pick it up and he installed it there in the Sears catalog office in south Seattle. That fixed it. But ultimately, it was that switch that broke. On 25.02.24, I was working on my temperature display console and made one cut with it, and after that it would not turn on. saltshaker.jpg This was from a set that Mom gave me for Christmas or birthday when I was just starting out. They never worked well, and the plastic top of the pepper shaker cracked a while ago and I believe I discarded it as part of the move from Litchi Grove Court. They were on my table until I lived with Chun, at which time they went into storage. I used the salt shaker for cooking at Vista Village until I switched to using a candy dish. purged 23.05.17 scalpel.jpg I stole this from Timberline's biology lab and kept it in my desk drawer for 40 years, using it frequently as my primary knife. I also 2-3 blades, but though I tried a few times to find replacement blades after I used those up, I couldn't. So I continued using it long after it was too dull, and finally gave up. The blade was #20. I replaced it with a yellow Xacto knife I had which was probably a stocking stuffer. I liked the scalpel because it reminded me of Timberline and my days as a scientist. Discarded 20.09.19 screwdriver.jpg This was one of my first tools. I don't remember where I got it -- I didn't buy it or receive it as a gift; I must have found it somewhere. But I believe it was always stripped, which is one cause of my early hatred of phillips head screws. It was my only phillips screwdriver for a long time, and I remember when I finally spent the money to buy a replacement, a Fuller that was a little smaller and had a lifetime warranty. I spent a long time choosing it. I believe I kept the package with the warranty documentation for many years, though I must have discarded it before I started keeping track of discarded property. When I received the Screwball as a birthday/Christmas gift, I no longer needed a large phillips screwdriver, but kept this one because it looked like it might work on smaller screws or if I needed to get into a smaller space. I finally figured that since I hadn't tried to use it for about 20 years it was just taking up space in my toolbox and I could certainly buy a good screwdriver if I ever needed on this size, so I discarded it. slippers.jpg I got these slippers for Christmas, maybe ca 2010. I had never worn slippers before that. A year or two ago, the hole wore through the right one's heel, but I kept wearing them. They were always a little too big, but just the right size with boot socks on, which is how I wore them in the final year in the winter. Discarded 22.06.24 spatula.jpg I believe this spatula was part of the kitchen equipment my roommate supplied for Terry 221 in college, being surplus from his family's kitchen. I turned a whole lot of pancakes with this; it was my only spatula except when I lived with Chun and he had a bunch. I believe this was one of the few pieces of kitchen equipment of mine that was actually in Chun's kitchen; none of his spatulas could do what this one does - the size and the flatness. Toward the end of its life, when I was living in Vista Village, I left it in a hot pan and the bottom melted; I had no idea before then that it was thermoplastic. I sanded it down and continued using it. On 25.07.04, it snapped as I was pressing down a hamburger. The brand name stamped on it was "Foley". Discarded 25.07.05. stampalbum.jpg Grandma and Grandpa collected stamps for each grandchild and presented them along with beginner stamp albums and stamp hinges on the child's 9th birthday. There were two albums - one for US stamps and one for world stamps. I still have the US stamp album, which is augmented by the plain paper album, but only a few of my world stamps, even from childhood, were pictured in the world album, so I moved all of the stamps from it to the plain paper album as part of my retirement activities in 23.03. Adding to the stamps Grandma and Grandpa supplied, I bought some cheap foreign stamps from ads in the back of Boys Life. Discarded 23.04.01 stamphinge.jpg This is the packet of stamp hinges I got with my stamp albums (see 'stampalbum.jpg'). I continued using the stamp hinges until removable adhesive tape came out and that was superior. I stored the stamp hinges with the original stamp albums, after I had moved to using plain paper (because my stamps were too new for the starter albums) and discarded them as part of finishing up my childhood stamp collection and merging it with the current one. I never came close to running out of this packet of 1000. But some stamps I bought came with a smaller package of not-prefolded hinges that I used too. Discarded 23.04.01. starTrekCalendar.jpg This is a calendar Robin gave me for Christmas 1988. I loved the pictures (from classic episodes), but as I didn't use wall calendars, I never used it. For some reason, I held on to it for another 31 years. I don't know if I thought I'd look at the pictures or just wanted it as a souvenir of a TV show I really liked, but it seemed entirely unnecessary in October 2019, so I dicarded it. tachometer.jpg This is the tachometer I installed in Chun's Oldsmobile because the speedometer was broken and it's impossible to replace a speedometer but easy to hook up a tachometer. When we finally trashed the Oldsmobile (probably around 2003), I kept the tachometer in case I ever wanted to put it on another car, but of course there's virtually no chance of that, so I purged it on 19.09.29. teacup_insert.jpg This is a teacup with an insert in which to put tea laves to steep. Chun got it from China somehow. This was in the living room shelves. Discarded 22.06.14 teacup_steeper.jpg This is a pair of ceramic teacups, with a compartment for tea leaves and lids for steeping, that were in the kitchen cup cabinet the whole time Chun and I lived together. I don't recall ever using them. Discarded 22.06.14 teacup_tilt.jpg Dad's wife Mary gave us tea equipment several years in a row, from a tea shop in downtown Olympia (I think it was called The Tea Lady). There were some ingenious devices for making tea. This one is a cup that tilts and has a compartment on the side for tea leaves. You tilt it back to steep, then tilt it forward to drink. We had two - one for me and one for Chun. We never needed them, so I eventually donated the one still in the box and discarded the other. Purged June 2022 thomasguide.jpg This is a copy of the vaunted Thomas Guide street atlas that performed the role now performed by GPS navigators. I got this when I lived in San Jose the first time, and it was quite a luxury for me. I don't know what made me decide to get it; it is the 1993 version, so I had not only been living in the area a long time, I had been travelling around socially for quite a while too. In fact, until I saw it was 1993, I thought I had bought it as soon as I moved to San Jose. I know I used it a few times, but I don't think I ever used it to find my way when I was lost, which was what I thought would be its greatest value when I bought it. I carried this in the Big Red Truck the whole time I lived in the Bay Area, both times. Street atlases have the same major drawback as GPS navigators: You cannot see a lot of area at once. Purged August 2024 tiger.jpg I bought this, in a cheap frame, early in my residence on Ingram Court. I got it from the flea market, because it was really cheap. It hung on my wall until I moved to Litchi Grove Court, where Chun had higher quality pictures. The glass in the frame broke on the moving van from Litchi Grove Ct (I purposely didn't pack it well, since it was not worth keeping), so I discarded it 22.11.20. uwdaily70s.jpg This is a special issue of the UW Daily from January 28, 1983 all about the 1970s. I saved it for the historical value of the information in it, because I realized at the time that the 70s were the first decade I lived through. It was kind of silly to be doing a nostalgic look back at a decade that was only 3 years past, but as college age people, we found that to be a pretty significant passage of time. I reread this issue all the way through, ads and classifieds, and everything in mid-April 2023 before purging it because it didn't merit the weight and volume of storage. I don't think I had read it since the first time, but I did remember the introduction and some of the article on Expo 74 came back to me. (I misremembered the climax of the introduction that touched me when I first read it -- I always thought it was ".. you'll tell him, 'the 70s were the first decade I lived through.' And then maybe he'll understand." I made that up; the real line is "... the 70s were a decade that was ten years of my life." The prices of housing in the classifieds were quite familiar, as was my favorite abbreviation, "walk U". The UW Daily was a huge part of my college life. I read it every day (every week during the summer when it was a weekly). I saved one other copy for many years -- the Englebert Humperdinck concert joke (pranksters had substituted a fake front page covering the upcoming Englebert Humperdinck concert as a satire of a major upcoming Rolling Stones show). It was part of my comedy collection. One other great issue was the coverage of the war between the UW and Mercer Island, a satire of the Falkland Islands invasion. (In retrospect, I'm not sure which of those two was a prank and which was a regular issue -- I recall part of the Humperdinck joke was that the Daily had not covered the highly newsworthy Stones concert at all. I know the prank was a substitution of the front page only). visibleV8.jpg Visible V8 engine model I built in about 5th grade. Just before I purged it 15.12.27. craftsmanDrill.jpg This was my first power drill. It must have been a Christmas/birthday gift, probably from young adulthood. Because it's a Sears Craftsman, I assume The Home Depot did not yet exist. I stopped using it when Mom gave me the Ryobi cordless tool set, since the drill in that was superior, but I carried this in the Ryobi bag for many years because sometimes you need two drills, loaded with different tools. But I never actually used it that way. In late 2024, when I was working on the Sand Simeon trailer, I kept this in the trailer so I wouldn't have to carry my regular drill back and forth. I was totally amazed that the battery would still hold a charge, and I got a lot of use out of the drill in the trailer (together with my spare drill bit set). And then, as if it knew its job was over, it stopped working when I moved the trailer to Sand Simeon. It appears that the battery will no longer charge.