Jenn Dolari @dolari@driveinsaturday.org

It's all seasoned up. Looks way worse than before. Will get it restored whenever things get better for me financially.

Reseasoning panic #4

I went ahead and removed the comal from the water/vinegar soak, washed it to an inch of its life to make sure all the vinegar is washed off, and it's now reseasoning in the oven.

I've made the problem a billion times worse. I had small little orange patches of rust. Now the whole thing is orange. I'm only reseasoning it to seal the comal to keep it from rusting any further.

Once I get a job, I'm going to have someone profressionally restore it, and then put it away for good. I rarely use it as it is, (I make tortillas maybe once a year because I'm diabetic) and frankly, it's better I just have a cheapie non-stick griddle for stuff like that.

I just hope I didn't ruin it.

Reseasoning panic #3 - I just noticed that the comal has a tiny crack through it, and that means instant retirement anyways.

I'm going to wait until midnight (12 hours) for the rust to flake off, but if it isn't coming off, I'm going to reseason it, put it away, and once I get a new job, pay someone to restore it from scratch.

Reseasoning Panic #2 - The water-vinegar bath seems to be making the rust problem WORSE. It's definitely more orange now, and the rust patina isn't coming off.

Beginning to think I need to give this to someone to fix and then just put it away where I won't ruin it. I don't want to be the one who ruins an heirloom.

Listening to the Vesna album while working (procrastinating) on the office. Here's another good one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw-eFiBJ2ss

You know, I didn't think China was up to something, even when they started poking around Taiwan's airspace.

But the balloons over the US (who would come to their defence) and hearing about a balloon over Central America (which contain a few countries who still have official ties), have me thinking something is up.

I'm not so sure WHAT anymore, but at the same time, I'm not so sure about a non-invasion of Taiwan anymore....

Reseasoning panic #1. The rust removal gel wasn't a gel when I opened it. This wouldn't have been a problem if I'd found this out BEFORE I SCRUBBED clean the comal. And I didn't want to reseason it with the rust patches. But I couldn't just LEAVE it.

Found another de-rusting technique using water and vinegar, so the comal is soaking in that right now. Hopefully that will do the trick.

If not, I'll just reseason it with the patches and try again next year with de-rusting gel. And this time CHECK the gel before I start.

Sudden Instant Winter Advisory

About to re season my grandmother's comal. I'm actually terrified when doing this. This is a working heirloom, so I actually do use it to cook. But it's also incredibly old and I don't want to be the one who breaks this.

On top of that, when re seasoning cast iron, you do absolutely everything you're not supposed to to cast iron. Scrubbing with soap and water and everything.

It went well last time I did it other than not being able to scrub all the minor rust patches out. I'm hoping the rust treatment I have will take care of those patches this time.

Another reason I listen to these overseas radio is that I get to discover music I've never heard of. It was through Radio Prague that I learned about Manon Meurte.

This week they played the debut album of Vesna, who have a pop song in Eurovision this year. While the pop song didn't grab me several songs on the debut album, Pata Bohyne, were incredibly beautiful and actually got me to stop cleaning to listen.

Never heard of these folks before, but I very much want to listen to them now.

The full broadcast is here: https://english.radio.cz/broadcast-english-02122023-8774851

https://youtu.be/fRZYo9AljXQ

Most of the house has had a good deep cleaning. Everything but the office. Gonna work on the office tonight, but don't plan to finish it before bed.

Plan for tomorrow is to reseason the comal with some rust remover (it's not got bad rust or anything, just a light orange coloring, but I'd rather it be seasoned with no rust on it at all).

Was listening to Radio Habana Cuba while cleaning house today, and I stopped for a second when they announced they have a set of X-Men stamps. Then went into a deep dive of who and what the X-Men were.

Wasn't expecting that.

And the Games Database is complete. I have 1488 games, of which I've completed a paltry 106. I'm workgin on three games right now, and have officially abandonned one of them for being far too hard.

Wanna take a look?. Google makes the sheet look ugly, but it's far more readable in Libreoffice Calc on my end.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qkFBSWrdQ9vxgXUTV0CuHb5flNCDBpng_0k6M9I9GU4/edit?usp=sharing

Going through my old DOS/Windows archives, and forgot about this completely bonkers and massive tradrmark violation of a game: Rom Check Fail. Warning: staticky sound and random intervals (on purpose!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdcABPCjn0k

Last Night's Dr Who was "Father's Day."

I remember when I first saw this, it was the first of the New Who episodes I really felt I'd connected with, and I thought "Okay, this new show's gonna be alright."

On the re-watch the episode is actually incredibly powerful, and I might even put it above The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances as Eccleston's best. But really, it's not Eccleston that makes the show. It's the dynamic between Pete and Rose Tyler than sells it. And while Jackie is pretty unlikeable for most of the episode, when she comes around to Rose, it really does feel like an earned heartfelt moment.

A really REALLY good episode.

Since I was up this morning, I opened up the shortwave and checked to see what I was missing being a night owl. Apparently I was missing pretty much everything. Super clear signals, many overlapping each other, and several clear as a bell. I'm gonna have to see about setting up a time to record some of these while I'm asleep.

I got seven stations that were not just recognizable, but perfectly listenable like any local AM Station: Radio New Zealand (which comes in like gangbusters most anytime of day), KNLS out of Alaska, Voice of America out of the Phillipines, and China Radio International out of Jinhua and Shijiazhuang. Given that the only station I'd actually listen to was Radio New Zealand, it's not changed much, but my options are better.

My body WANTS to sleep from 8AM to 4PM. Even with the layoff, I'm trying to keep to 4AM-Noon. A wake up at 1PM? Close enough after the last 36 hours of sleep struggle.