MacGyverism

After many intollerable hours of electrical failure, I decided to fix the problem. The result is this:

The switch was always problematic. Normal switches have 2 states – on and off. This switch has somehow developed a 3rd state. Electronic equipments won’t work if it’s in either On or Off. It will only work when it hovers between On and Off. And usually, it stays there. Occasionally it’ll get a shock and flip to either On or Off, rendering our electronics useless, but a simple flip back to the mid point usually get things working.

Then last night, it flipped to Off and refused to flip back to the mid-point… We spent an hour trying fixing it, then I decided to give up and go to sleep. In my sleep, McGyver (in form of Colonel Jack O Neil¹) appeared and told me that I had nice hair and told me to get up and fix it. Then he gave me duct tape.

So of course, I woke up and tried to fix it (It involves test-cycling the switch as part of the fix). But I didn’t have duct tape, so I borrowed some from Kelsey (who had just came back from the lab). Eventually though, I couldn’t hold it. I got the concepts all right, but my fingers were far too pudgy to fix it, so Karen stood in and fixed it .

It lasted for a whole glorious 49 minutes² (during which, tea was made by boiling water). Then the switch flipped back to Off. Deciding it’s way too late (2 am), I went back to sleep.

This morning³, we called and electrician and now, the switch is fixed! Whee!!

Lesson learnt: duct tape is useful. Carry it everywhere. And also, a swiss army knife.

1. I watched more SG1 episodes than McGyver [↩]
2. long enough for a McGyver episode [↩]
3. I spent the entire day being miserable and watching season 4 of Battlestar Galactica on my iPod. Thank you Steve Jobs for giving us the iPod [↩]