Emily Velasco

https://social.afront.org/@MLE_online

"An avid builder of contraptions"

Arts-and-crafts supervillain. science writer. vaguely woman-shaped creature. Grandota muy linda.

youtubes: https://www.youtube.com/c/EmilysElectricOddities/
MakerTube: https://makertube.net/a/mle_online/video-channels
my website: https://mle-online.com/projects

Public Key

npub1jfvgud2r5kaypv5enw9uh6epk2u63qcnzgaeks53rlqke8xs954sa2gjhd

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsfykywx4p6twjqk2vehz7tavsm9wdgsvf3ywumg2g3lstvnngz62cpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsvqdf2k

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1jfvgud2r5kaypv5enw9uh6epk2u63qcnzgaeks53rlqke8xs954sa2gjhd

Show more details

Last Notes

2026-07-21 00:07:35 UTC

My sidewalk tomato plant is really coming to fruition now, in the literal sense of the word.
#streetplant
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/955/045/953/304/583/original/b065c6f7932bae01.jpg
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/955/046/142/996/628/original/3114f2d10d07af9c.jpg

2026-06-24 17:32:11 UTC

- reply

You say that like it would do anything to change her whining at me about it and being mad at me

2026-06-24 17:29:01 UTC

My neighbor gave me a cat tree her cats didn't want. My cats don't want it either. I've had it for two months and I need to get rid of it. I should have thrown it in the dumpster right before the trash pickup came yesterday. If I throw it in there now, she is going to see it and I'll get a call like, "Emilyyyyyy, i saw you threw away the cat tree I gave you? I thought you and your cats would have enjoyed it. Maybe I shouldn't give you things if you don't want what I give youuuu...."

2026-06-15 23:34:30 UTC

- reply

Does it replace the OS on your TV?

2026-06-15 22:50:43 UTC

- reply

I might have to set up some kind of annoying linux thing for streaming. I only just watch youtube and jellyfin with my roku anyway.

2026-06-15 20:10:06 UTC

- reply

I was looking at this very thing today, too. I don't want a google or apple device, so I dunno what I'm going to do

2026-06-08 23:06:36 UTC

I am going through one of those phases where I have no idea what to make for dinner. I need someone to come over and order me to make something. I need to be supperdommed

2026-05-18 20:26:55 UTC

It's a perfect day to be a cat with a semi-secret nest in the garden
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/597/456/537/531/943/original/0b6d0216720b0afc.jpg

2026-05-06 14:27:13 UTC

I still don't understand why pasting without formatting isn't the default on computers. I never want to carry over the font, the color, and the size of text. Why do they do this to us?

2026-05-04 01:47:46 UTC

- reply

Yes they do
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/513/783/848/304/316/original/c2456dba7fc7c5ad.png

2026-05-04 01:46:27 UTC

Wait, do mining and mineral come from the same root word?

2026-04-12 23:49:10 UTC

Not enough people in the news media are talking about how the guy who just won the Hungarian election has a last name that would be equivalent to someone named John American winning the presidency here.

2026-04-11 17:59:39 UTC

My craziest friend came up for air to tell me how amazing AI is and the she's been learning so much from it at incredible speed and that no one needs books or school anymore. Then she asked me if it's true the Grok can make porn of someone from a single photo of them, and followed that up to ask me for a photo of myself

2026-04-11 17:50:28 UTC

Some guy just had a food delivery driver bring him Sbarro's at the bus station. I didn't know anyone liked that pizza enough to want it except when it's one of a few limited options at the mall

2026-04-07 23:07:00 UTC

- reply

I finished greenware work on the first license plate mug and sent it off for bisque firing
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/365/930/883/029/252/original/ca054112c45b8f40.jpg
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/365/931/113/390/473/original/a2b78e4a8a4becb7.jpg

2026-04-07 22:52:01 UTC

I got another wild clay piece back from firing. This is 50:50 Salton Sea clay and Lake Elsinore clay. It's been mid fired. The glaze is something from the studio
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/365/870/856/015/278/original/9ff8abf8221fa7f3.jpg

2026-04-07 02:55:20 UTC

I can't deny that these rocket launches do look cool
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/361/167/613/548/387/original/dc7d86eda1c9e5ea.jpg

2026-04-06 17:33:37 UTC

- reply

Locally, we have Covina and West Covina. West Covina is mostly south of Covina.

2026-04-06 17:31:45 UTC

I just learned that North Yemen was southwest of South Yemen. I always assumed that North Yemen was the one to the north.

2026-04-05 03:13:56 UTC

I just popped a pimple I've been trying to pop for months and i feel very accomplished right now

2026-04-04 23:09:51 UTC

Started another license plate mug in the studio today and got two more mugs started
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/348/954/865/164/912/original/53a3a006459fd3c9.jpg
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/348/955/126/875/474/original/f6a72a1ae53a1e24.jpg

2026-03-31 22:54:06 UTC

- reply

no for real. some of the dumbest socal residents are on there spewing every day, including our former sheriff here in LA County

2026-03-31 22:40:35 UTC

- reply

Some chud in the comments suggested that the state would be better off if everyone besides the top 10 percent of tax payers moved to another state. The man clearly doesn't understand how an economy, or a society, actually works

2026-03-31 13:56:07 UTC

- reply

it would not suffice. I put a bunch of glass in my rock tumbler and ran it for a week. That produced just a little bit of ground glass. Maybe a couple of ounces at most.
For reference, the glaze i just mixed up used ingredients in half pound and one pound amounts

2026-03-30 15:46:46 UTC

A sharrow is an obsolete device used in the processing of hand-harvested wheat.
A stroad is a biological mass similar to a bezoar, found most commonly in bulls during rutting season.

2026-03-29 19:56:07 UTC

This ebike I'm working on doesn't have a bottom bracket because there's a motor there instead, so it needs a custom designed pedal assist magnet ring. Hopefully this works!
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/314/217/016/072/282/original/7e17964b6c3fc6a7.jpg

2026-03-29 04:44:59 UTC

I want to ride one of these sometime
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/310/638/116/255/045/original/22f6f3865f18ad5a.jpg

2026-03-29 02:08:57 UTC

- reply

For this glaze I'm going to try to make do without any materials from the studio, so, just this would clay as a glass former, wood ash for flux, and lake Elsinore clay as a refractory. We'll see how that goes

2026-03-29 00:02:30 UTC

Tired of fiddling with the e-bike project. I'm grinding wild clay and sifting fireplace ash to make glaze for ceramics
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/309/524/776/476/186/original/a944728413059f8d.jpg
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/309/525/287/018/468/original/d181da25e7bb517d.jpg
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/309/525/636/356/381/original/4fa91a420f94fc3f.jpg

2026-03-28 20:55:49 UTC

- reply

i tried it. It works, but that seems like a messy signal. I'm curious to see what the bike thinks of it
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/308/791/119/507/428/original/9c2526a41b577683.jpg

2026-03-28 19:28:59 UTC

- reply

I will give it a try

2026-03-28 19:10:36 UTC

- reply

all the resistor DAC schematics I've seen seem to require an op amp, and I don't have any of those

2026-03-28 19:04:30 UTC

- reply

yea, i think so. I'm going to have to get a solid-state potentiometer from a local friend to see how that does if it's controlled by an arduino

2026-03-28 18:59:14 UTC

- reply

I got out there and did some more testing and experimenting before it gets too hot. With a 1.2 k resistor between the positive and negative leads of the throttle wiring from the bike, the bike responds perfectly well to a varying voltage coming from my benchtop power supply, and even with just a potentiometer wired in place of the throttle.
It may be that the arduino's pwm output is just too ugly of a signal, even with filtering
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/308/328/447/023/149/original/4a775baf2dc9ddb9.mp4

2026-03-27 15:40:30 UTC

I want to teach a class on repurposing electronics. We could start out just taking some broken things apart and seeing if we can fix them, but every student would have to pick something to repurpose or revive as a semester-long project. Maybe they want to turn an old propane lantern into an LED lantern, convert a cordless drill with dead nicad batteries to lithium, or jailbreak an e-bike. Everyone should leave the class with a device or appliance with a new lease on life. A community college should hire me for this

2026-03-27 02:08:01 UTC

- reply

Omg, not working again. This is kind of frustrating!

2026-03-27 01:42:36 UTC

- reply

Okay, it's working again. I don't know what's different, but it's working
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/298/593/181/405/678/original/987022920cb3ccb4.mp4

2026-03-27 01:34:57 UTC

- reply

I briefly had it working without the throttle connected. I had put a 1.2K resistor between the positive and ground wires and that did it. The bike was under control of the Arduino. Then it just stopped working and hasn't worked since.
The Arduino still works, and the bike still works if I hook a regular throttle to it. Mysterious

2026-03-26 18:14:02 UTC

- reply

The neighbors within the large security zone who all had to move their cars or woke up to find them towed without warning this year will probably welcome this move

2026-03-26 01:50:04 UTC

- reply

I'm getting somewhere now. It's not giving full throttle but it is giving some throttle.
I had to hook up the throttle unit in parallel with the Arduino for the bike to accept inputs from the Arduino.
This might work out ok because i wanted to have a throttle lever and pedal assist anyway.
More testing to do still!
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/292/957/627/777/072/original/069d3f7fa471bc56.mp4

2026-03-26 01:10:54 UTC

- reply

As best I can tell, ebike throttle units put out an analog voltage without any kind of data signal, but somehow the e-bike knows the difference between a real throttle, and one made out of an arduino, or even made out of a bench power supply. It will only run when connected to an actual ebike throttle
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/292/803/769/495/451/original/c0654b74de4528f8.jpg

2026-03-24 01:44:36 UTC

My special primitive cactus that has leaves is blooming. It's pretty!
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/281/613/934/123/006/original/99cc8c6e6576f5c1.jpg

2026-03-22 15:37:12 UTC

- reply

People replied a lot while I was sleeping. I''m not going to give the same response to everyone who was asking what its for, so I'll just say it here. I want to use an arduino to spoof the 0-5V analog throttle signal on this ebike i'm building.

2026-03-22 04:14:32 UTC

Does anyone on here know if the capacitor-resistor combo attached to a pwm output pin of an Arduino gives a decent analog output?

2026-03-21 23:03:02 UTC

This is what I've been working towards for two years: a high-fire wild clay mixture without any store-bought or studio-supplied ingredients.
This mini bottle, minus the glaze, is made entirely from clays that i dug out of the ground, and it survived a cone 10 firing without melting or even slumping.
Now that I know it works, I can try actually making something big with it.
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/269/647/844/357/666/original/f96c01ad8f9ee029.jpg

2026-03-21 19:30:17 UTC

- reply

maybe it's just me, but I've never understood the meme of the Lego being the most painful thing you can possibly step on. I've stepped on them. I wouldn't do it for fun, but it wasn't blindingly painful. People talk about it like it's being shot by a gun

2026-03-21 17:13:01 UTC

- reply

I grew up in a house full of legos and random junk. Stepping on things was just a given and our feet grew tougher from it.

2026-03-21 17:12:06 UTC

- reply

They are! There are so many textures and sensations to experience through your feet. Imagine only ever feeling socks and the inside of a shower!

2026-03-21 17:08:07 UTC

I got stung dead center in the sole of my foot by a bee while watering my plants. A text a friend to tell them and they were like, "How does that happen?? Were you outside barefoot??"
Sometimes I forget other people don't casually walk around outside unshod. I'm a Tom Sawyer in a Becky Thatcher world.

2026-03-20 14:43:01 UTC

- reply

I'm emailing a guy at work who studies ant pheromones. If anyone can get to the bottom of this, it's him.

2026-03-20 14:21:57 UTC

Super weird thing going on this morning!
The cat brought in another one of those sphinx moths and was chasing it around the house just before dawn.
It appears to have brushed against the window in a couple places, leaving moth fuzz behind. Now that I'm up, I see that ants have gathered in the spots that the moth touched. They are not carrying anything away like it's something for them to eat. They're just sitting there on those spots!
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/261/934/211/773/480/original/aa9fd622f0e6e9f7.jpg
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/261/934/351/986/607/original/2a891b6ee1568ac0.jpg

2026-03-19 04:48:53 UTC

- reply

I've thought about that when it was bulky item night last week, but i already have too many bikes

2026-03-19 04:46:00 UTC

- reply

It seems like they've been getting harder to find over the last couple years! But on bulky pickup trash night, the junk guys seem to have dozens of bikes in the back of their trucks!

2026-03-17 16:56:41 UTC

I once told a friend of mine that I'm agnostic about quantum physics because we can't see it or feel it with our own senses and we have to use elaborate rituals conducted by a special class of people who say "we have the esoteric knowledge to interpret all of this" and that that's not that different than religious belief.
He got mad at me.

2026-03-16 21:24:56 UTC

I keep seeing articles like this, about how people choosing to drink less is hurting bars and restaurants, and it's almost always framed as people, especially younger generations, don't like to drink.
They never seem to bring up the fact that a cocktail is like $20 now unless you go to a really divey dive bar. It's the same kind of reporting they on how no one goes to the movies anymore. It's always about changing habits, and never that movie tickets just cost a lot now.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/16/dining/us-alcohol-restaurants.html

2026-03-15 19:47:18 UTC

Instead of me having to cut the plants in my yard back on a semi-regular basis, they should be allowed to just continue endlessly growing, and my yard should continually expand to make room for them.

2026-03-15 17:53:59 UTC

early 20-something kid lazily and slowly sweeping the floor at the hardware store asks me if I need help.
"Do you have plaster of paris?"
"Plaster of .... uh, no ..."
"You don't have plaster of paris?"
"uhhh ..... ummmm ..... no ... sorry about that"
Old guy who works there walks by and asks how I'm doing.
"Do you have plaster of paris?"
"Oh yea, it's right here," and points to it on the shelf right in front of the kid

2026-03-15 15:49:29 UTC

- reply

but then she would be a fediverse user and undateable :/

2026-03-13 17:52:43 UTC

- reply

a lot of the kids who tried really hard in school just seemed stressed out all the time. kids don't need to have that much on their minds

2026-03-13 17:27:58 UTC

- reply

There can only be so many rich people before the huge slices of the pie have to start getting smaller, right?

2026-03-13 17:26:08 UTC

- reply

My parents were told by my second-grade teacher that I was smart enough to be in GATE, but too lazy. This did not get me to work harder. I was just never in the gifted and talented progranm

2026-03-13 17:25:18 UTC

- reply

For reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elite_overproduction

2026-03-13 17:22:26 UTC

There are theories explaining societal instability and collapse mechanisms.
One of these theorized mechanism is that when a culture overproduces members of an elite or privileged class in such numbers that their privileges become diluted, it breeds resentment among that class against society itself.
With that in mind, I am thinking gifted and talented programs in elementary schools were a bad idea.

2026-03-13 16:17:34 UTC

- reply

wha?

2026-03-13 16:13:13 UTC

- reply

your server is sending me this message over and over!

2026-03-13 15:51:46 UTC

Some missionary girls in instagram tradwife girlie outfits with trader joe's totes under their arms just walked up to my house, stared at it for a moment, saw me here at my desk, looked long and hard at all the weird junk outside, and decided to keep walking.

2026-03-10 17:57:51 UTC

It's time to cut my bangs again, but I've got about a 50 percent rate of cutting them really cute vs. cutting them stupidly

2026-03-10 16:12:25 UTC

- reply

Not that close!

2026-03-10 15:42:42 UTC

Why do I constantly feel the urge to move near water, a feeling that increases when there's a lack of rain? This has to be some primal instinct at work.

2026-03-05 21:00:56 UTC

- reply

That's not what OP was referring to though

2026-03-05 19:38:27 UTC

- reply

Body builders are the male equivalent of beauty pageant contestants. I would consider that to be a cousin of this, but not the same

2026-03-05 00:18:59 UTC

Now that I've learned who Clavicular is, I'm classifying him as a male-to-male transsexual

2026-03-01 00:23:12 UTC

- reply

No, but I'm also not desperately trying to move to the pacific northwest

2026-03-01 00:00:16 UTC

- reply

I'm not working for a tech or logistics company lol. I would rather just live somewhere.

2026-02-28 23:03:40 UTC

- reply

I can't move to the middle of nowhere though. I need a job. That limits me to being near cities. I don't know where I could move up there that will have jobs, but also be affordable. I haven't seen much

2026-02-28 22:49:56 UTC

- reply

i think it's already too late for me to move to Portland. I can't afford a house there any more than I can afford a house here. I do hope to move north one day but it won't necessarily be to the Pacific Northwest and if it is to the Pacific Northwest it's not going to be Portland

2026-02-28 22:33:35 UTC

- reply

okay but the inverse is when it's the middle of a heat wave and you try to go to bed at 11:00 at night and it's still 86° in your bedroom, and then the power goes out because everyone turned they're air conditioners on to try and sleep. So now it's 86° in your bedroom and you don't even have a fan

2026-02-28 22:09:00 UTC

- reply

i want your weather

2026-02-28 21:46:42 UTC

Sometimes I get tired of griping about the weather, but not today. It's shitty that its 85 degrees in February.

2026-02-27 15:19:27 UTC

- reply

what does this mean!

2026-02-26 20:09:17 UTC

I'm glad someone working for LA Metro is getting to have fun at their job
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/138/740/398/700/247/original/b641a277eea7e8f1.png

2026-02-26 06:35:12 UTC

- reply

maybe you've never had a bunch of horny strangers trying to start a chat with you in your DMs

2026-02-26 06:05:37 UTC

- reply

It depends on the kind of rapport you've had with the person before that point, and the nature of the DM.
If I've had good interactions with someone a number of times, and they DM me, that's not weird. If someone follows me, liked 20 of my posts, comments on another ten in a row, and then sends me a DM saying, "Hi. I'd like to get to know you," I'm not going to want to talk to them.

2026-02-26 05:46:07 UTC

Do you use DMs on here?

2026-02-26 03:30:18 UTC

I'm at a contentious city council meeting and the city council scheduled a whole bunch of really dumb awards and commendations to drag this out before they actually discuss the issues at hand. They always have some of these, but there are way more this time. They've been recommending and commending people for a half hour and they're not done yet

2026-02-23 16:53:57 UTC

I haven't purchased anything from aliexpress from about a year, and boy howdy, have they made the interface much more deliberately confusing.
The listed prices are often sale prices that I'm not qualified for, and are drastically different than the actual price. Items get lumped into these bundle deals and dollar express categories instead of just going into my shopping cart.
What an annoying mess.

2026-02-22 21:53:48 UTC

- reply

Brute force works
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/116/503/023/633/395/original/75821b1109f0cd10.jpg

2026-02-22 21:37:46 UTC

- reply

Hey yeah! Esp32 pico!
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/116/439/293/198/059/original/32244730378c4c6c.jpg

2026-02-22 21:36:07 UTC

- reply

I'm not sure how that aluminum plate is held in. Pressed? Glued? Dunno

2026-02-22 21:33:33 UTC

- reply

Hmm. Ok. Some kind of esp32 looking thing
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/116/422/169/883/363/original/8b330ed99b5d7de0.jpg
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/116/422/462/441/363/original/87bf4d319de8d5a2.jpg

2026-02-22 21:31:14 UTC

- reply

Cutting it open to see what's inside
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/116/414/088/092/068/original/f9df3169233a3eb8.jpg

2026-02-22 21:19:00 UTC

I found an amazon basics color changing smart light bulb attached to a lamp my neighbor threw in the apartment dumpster.
Apparently you can only change the color by giving the bulb access to your wifi network and using the alexa app on your phone. Very stupid.

2026-02-22 03:48:45 UTC

How does a single can of chili cost $2.50 now? It's mostly just beans! Stupid rip-off economy

2026-02-21 21:26:47 UTC

If you haven't been keeping up with my latest quixotic endeavor, I am collecting these brass valves from the nitrous tanks for that people leave everywhere after they are done huffing them. It started as a byproduct of me building a wind chime out of the nitrous tanks, but now that I have quite a few of these valves, I'm grabbing them whenever I find their tanks lying in the gutter.
Once I have enough, I'm going to see if I can melt them down into one ingot of brass to be reused for machining
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/110/726/781/090/879/original/61088a2b65a71921.jpg
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/110/726/906/929/703/original/feced0436064ebb4.jpg

2026-02-17 20:58:05 UTC

- reply

A selection of things I've been scolded for on here:
- Saying cargo bikes cost too much
- Polling people about whether they write til, 'til, or till
- Saying that too-extensive profile bios on here are like aposematic coloration, but for personality
- Referring to curry spices as curry spices
- Saying I thought the etymology of muckety muck is more interesting than the etymology of pecan
- Saying most computer users are normies and won't want to deal with Linux
- Saying that it's silly to think that using bluesky makes you better than people who use mastodon, or vice versa
- Not agreeing that Tolkien invented the concept of a character arc
- Posting a video of my wind chime made of nitrous tanks without a CW
- Saying maybe the tariffs on China could do some good if it means we buy less cheap junk
- Saying that community college classes are a great bargain
- Posting that the pope said something good about the dangers of AI

2026-02-17 20:33:39 UTC

Maybe I'll keep a journal of all the things I get scolded about on here.

2026-02-15 01:07:37 UTC

- reply

A new sticker for the battery pack from @npub1nmx…fzp6
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/071/964/643/043/301/original/dd2917d5adf48f30.jpg

2026-02-15 00:59:38 UTC

I had not ridden my homemade e bike in months and i forgot how fun this little thing is
https://social.afront.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/071/933/218/937/186/original/45200937885d220b.jpg

2025-12-17 05:55:01 UTC

They keep showing one of those stupid Byrna banana ads while I'm trying to watch X-Files over the air with my antenna, and since the ad is AI-generated, the "actress" becomes a different woman in each cut, superficially similar -- same build, clothing, and hair color, but the face is distinctly different.

2025-12-14 17:39:17 UTC

I am not good at giving thoughtful Christmas gifts at the scale required for Christmas.
I can come up with like one or two really thoughtful gifts that are truly tailored for the recipient, but that's it. After that, I'm, uhhh, maybe they would like a mouse pad? or a whisk broom?
This makes me not like Christmas.