ASSAULT OF BATTERY

: "chewbacca." supernova.

yesterday evening, i dutifully went upstairs to practice and reprogram those parts before we leave on Thursday. deciding i would record the parts first before practicing the live stuff (as they were relatively simple and then i'd have it out of the way), i set things up the way i wanted and began.

only the parts wouldn't record.

figuring that it was probably the battery that the memory on the MMT-8 relies upon (which is lithium, and thus lovely and long-lasting, but this sequencer is, after all, about 13 years old...so unless it's the battery of the gods, it was bound to die at some point), i got the appropriate screwdriver and opened up the case.

according to the very helpful MMT8.com, there are two sorts of 3.6v lithium batteries used in the MMT-8. one's a fairly common flat, round battery...much like a watch battery. such a battery could probably be found without too much difficulty at a Radio Shack or someplace similar. the other is this weird pink cylindrical one with axial leads. one which it seems people had ended up special-ordering in the past...at least, according to this site. which has been pretty authoritative thus far, so i wasn't thinking they'd be wrong on this, either.

guess which battery mine uses? XD

but in an odd fit of luck (which i seem to have in general), a place called Tri-State Electronics is mentioned at MMT8.com as well. someone in the midwestern portion of the US had in fact found them to be a good, reliable source of these batteries. which is all well and good, but i did get a little worried...i mean, a special order probably wouldn't do me much good if i needed to have the thing before we left on Thursday, right? and i REALLY don't have money to spend on overnighting anything anywhere. and the bits i needed the sequencer for weren't exactly vital, but they were important. and helpful. so i was a little upset.

but then i looked at the Tri-State Electronics page more closely. and found that they're located almost painfully close by. and in particular, located very close to where Spaz works. not only that, but they do have a physical store, as well as decent hours. so Spaz is going to pick up my battery today after work, and when i get home, we will happily solder it in place.

provided it's in stock, of course. it would really, really, really, REALLY suck if it's not. then it would just be taunting me. *.*;;;

although this does make me think that it's very likely that i actually didn't accidentally erase stuff this weekend, and that it was just the battery. makes me feel slightly less dumb, i suppose. XD

also, today's the last day of the farmer's market downtown! so i stopped by the mushroom booth. loads of different kinds (no, not those kind, Rob)...chantarelles, morels, regular button mushrooms, shiitake...and of course, portabello mushrooms. GIANT ones.

i bought two. they were HUGE. the biggest ones i could find that didn't have breaks or tears in their caps...they're much more impressive that way. i think they may have been a pound each in themselves. and i also think that the girl running the stand charged me less than she should have (i talked to her for awhile). lucky me. oh, are these beautiful.

Spaz will be excited. he is full of the mushroom love. what to do with them, though? decisions, decisions. i'm making tons of soup lately, but do i really want to use mushrooms this big and beautiful in soup? i don't know. maybe grilled portabello sandwiches are in order...? ^-^

'tis a tough, tough call to make.

(BTW, you might want to keep a lookout for strange large packages coming your way. as of around 9:45 this morning, in fact. ^-^ FINALLY. XD)