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Change of Command is this week, which means I get my 4th boss in three years (FML) so I decided I'd fabricobble the command gift. The outgoing skipper is a Navy diver who has a penchant for clapping to build morale. So I decided that I needed to work all that into the gift. So the rough motif is a replica Navy diving bell mounted to a plaque with our command logo and major project logos engraved into brass coins. but the kicker is that the helmet sits on an LED base that lights up and yes, can be controlled by a Clapper.

Progress report

A day late, but I moved. No longer in MAGA Warren county. Much relief, shoulder and neck tension down, anxiety down, blood pressure down, much relief...

This past weekend I went up to my Maine condo. Met up with an Audio friend for lunch in Portland, then worked my way South back to the condo. I ended up talking non-highway routes (Rt 1), and made stops coincidentally at several places Karen and I visited last Fall when we did a similar trip. Was both sad and wonderful, good memories but emptier without her. For anyone travelling to Southern Maine, some fun foodie places: The Cheese Iron in Scarborough - https://www.thecheeseiron.com/ Holy Donut in Portland and Scarborough (and a smaller location right near my condo!) - https://www.theholydonut.com/ Len Libby Candy shop Scarborough and home of Lenny the Chocolate Moose - https://www.lenlibby.com/ Maine is a beautiful state, lots of great small towns near and off the water. When we would go up, we'd literally feel the stress wash off and our shoulders relax as we crossed the bridge from NH into Maine. Gratuitous pic of Lenny the Moose.....

Took a Boat To The City Saw some controversial art. SF prices? Walked to a tech conference, where the zeitgeist is not just AI, but agentic AI. With phat/sick beats. And the expected A/V kit. Had a tech demo from a CEO, as one does. No need to be alarmed, citizen. Your timer starts now ... The conference ended with a nerd get together ( Code Block Party) Then some San Franciso Street Life And a First Thursday Gathering with one of many Waymos. Then back past the art, In time to catch the Last Ferry back a busy, but enjoyable day

Andrew & Amy took me out for a Father's Day celebration last night, since we'll see my dad today. A nice restaurant in Burlington MA called The Treasury. Restaurant sub-title is Indian and Greek Restaurant (!) but 1) on the online order form there is little to no Greek food, and 2) last night was a limited menu anyway, all Indian. Everything was delicious though! Beet w/Goat Cheese appetizer, 3 variations on curry dishes (2 chicken, one paneer), garlic naan, a mango lassi, and rasmalai dessert. Good food, great company.

Thanks, everyone! Really appreciate the sentiment, Al. Been a really rough time as of late, but birthday was a good day. Went to Bateau, a place @cetoole and I have been meaning to go to for over 7 years. Finally went, and while not the best steak I've ever had, it was really enjoyable. Started the evening with some local wines from the bike shop across the street, Metier. 5pm reservation, so we could get first choice. These were the options on my birthday. Pupperz Cowz Appetizer Onions on the side, obvsly Mmmmm, brioche Salted butter with burnt kale wrap, or some nonsense. The salt on top of this butter wasn't the best thing of the evening, but like... top 3. Beef-fat washed walnut old-fashioned Cheeseburger croquette... slider Colin version We got the 21-day dry aged 18oz bone-in chuckeye and the 126 day dry aged 5oz sirloin tip cap, both med rare. Lemon-herb butter on the chuckeye and bone marrow butter on the sirloin tip cap. Nori butter on the side for Colin. I tried it; not my scene. You'd probably all love it. Mashed potatoes. Milk, butter, potatoes, and gruyere. Some wine Colin knows the name of A little token from the place Finished it off with a little complimentary cookies and creme foam Rest of pix: https://imgur.com/a/birthday-dinner-2025-bs1yDDT

Had the day off yesterday (company has "wellbeing days" the last couple of years - thanks Covid!), so went to Stanford's Cantor and Anderson museums. Chuckled at this Tony Oursler animated sculpture-projection which seemingly judged you as you judged other works.

Got the mole....🤣

It's custard night. Quiche with chevre, potatoes, and chives. And a tarte with creme pat and peach compote.

My Sister in Law sent me a few pics. This one was from February 1981... My Mom looks so young! The only one's left are myself (blondy), and my oldest Brother, to the left of me. I miss that blonde guy. He could walk into gay bar and turn some heads.

Rode a horse for the first time (Tahoe). Esmé’s favorite photo is below.

And I'll add Paul McCartney's favorite. When I found out Melissa was pregnant, the first album I thought of introducing to future Esmé was Pet Sounds.

I have questions.

Slava Ukraini

Steve wanted a couple to action shots.

Cut some big pieces of wood into smaller pieces of wood, which will then be made into bigger pieces of wood in the end. Been a while. Felt good

^hmmm how would it work with a loaf.... Today's bake, happy with the oven spring this time. Simple country loaf with a bit of oat flower flour added. 36 hour fermentation process wild yeast bread.

Just purchased a MacBook Air M4 24GB 512GB to replace my 2020 MacBook Pro M1 8GB RAM 256GB. It'll be nice to have more RAM.

I've seen this a couple of times on a friend's FB page and I always giggle.

As others have reported, a bit of a heat wave here yesterday. What better time to stand in the sun and eat funnel cakes at a county fair (elephant ears were sadly out of stock - damn you West Coast)? In a sign of the times, about half the animals on display as normal due to the bird flu. As a stabilizing influence, every band still knowns Tom Petty. if you’re curious about the disadvantages of using an old lens without modern coatings…

Do pizza ovens count?

The griddlers in action again... They were absolutely delicious!

This With a new friend, "Mochi" She even got on well with Joanne But She had to leave with her parents to go to Truckee for the weekend. It was nice to meet you Mochi!

Relived first meal outside the house after the lockdown. Also annual heart stress test.

Happy Birthday, Brent!

Infecting the next generation. Andrew's new ride is a leftover Specialized Fuse Sport. Specialized stopped making the bike in 2022 but had made so many that dealers still had them and they were blowing them out. Original MSRP $2400, paid $999. Bought one for Lily two years ago for $1600 and thought that was a screaming deal. Can't wait to get him out on the trails if it would ever stop raining around here.

Jack White never misses.

For Alfred - Alfred Brendel was a big part of my early classical journey. Readily available from Columbia House on sale, they had the Phillips and Decca recordings. And since I was in full exploration mode and he recorded things that many people didn't record, I ended up with a pile of his albums. Brahms: Piano Concerto No.1 by Alfred Brendel (1980) https://album.link/fxnrsg7pgznc8 Example: and Beethoven: Für Elise; Eroica Variations, Op.35; 6 Bagatelles Op.126; 6 Ecossaises by Alfred Brendel (1985) https://album.link/v4df2crd6cksf (boy this page pretty much didn't exist) Example: This is an example of recording something that most people don't. People play Für Elise, they use it as an encore, and the audience goes 'awe', but most performers don't recorded it. So like Murray Perahia, Yo-Yo Ma, Michael Tilson Thomas, Vladimir Horowitz, he was a big influence.

Tried some new techniques for the dough and for cooking the pizza and happily gobbled up the results. Red sauce, mozzarella and parmesan, guanciale, corn and leeks.

Proper cooking this time, fried chicken breasts to make sandwiches for dinner.

Technically baking but I'm too lazy to go find that thread. Toasted coconut chocolate chip scones.

I re-created my favorite scramble from Hummingbird Cafe. Swiss cheese, bacon, tomato, avocado, spinach and eggs of course. Left a little avocado for Maki, as she absolutely loves it.

A few more from cleaning the drive.....

You either love them or hate them. I happen to love them. In a family of 6, just my Mom and I loved fried chicken livers. She made them for us maybe 4 times a year. I don't think I've had them in about 15 years. Today I decided that was too long. Cheers Mom. Fried chicken livers, mashed potatoes and country gravy. This takes me home!

The more I listen, the more I love this; unique sound and she still has so much passion in her singing. "This House" hits a bit hard, but all is great.

Veggie Curry and Fixin's

Damn, even condoms were cooler in the past. https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/press/press-releases/rijksmuseum-exhibits-200-year-old-condom-featuring-erotic-print

Dept. Q (Netflix) - An Edinburgh-based detective involved in a shooting gets re-assigned to a newly-formed cold-case department. A crazy set of twists & turns connects all the dots. We liked it alot. Hopefully there will be an S2.

Al and I are building a bathroom vanity, and a closet door for his Sister in law, and her wife. We've built many things for them in the past, including a full kitchen remodel. This vanity will be a modern, White Oak, 60" unit. Center mounted single sink, and three drawers on each side. If you've ever had to squeeze into a 14" opening to install drawer glides, you will have learned to measure and install them prior to assembling the cabinet. So that's just what we did today. Not too much head scratching, before figuring out the correct placements. Those are the interior dividers. The side pieces were done before these.

concrete!

Memorial Day BBQ with Claire's sibs and families. My offerings were tempura batter fried zucchinis with an amazing tonnato dipping sauce from Pasta Supply Co. and a couple racks of smoked and grilled baby back ribs. Forgot to take a pic after cutting them up.

Flourless Chocolate Cake 🍫 🍰

Where was I? A different crop of this photo was the background for the website for my lighting company in the 00s. I turned off auto-renewal for that domain last week. Soon it will redirect a gambling site, I'm sure. 1 second with the camera placed on the sound booth. A breakbeat DJ and tattoo artist I knew in the 00s. I put a 300W moonflower light with a yellow gel behind him. A actual turntablist and not merely a DJ. Same 300W moonflower. Hannah under the lights. 1/30th, F/2.8, ISO400. I should add at this juncture that I cleaned up most of these shots with Topaz Denoise AI, which is a very 2020s anti-noise app. 00s noise reduction apps and plugins left a lot to be desired. I don't know who this long haired woman was, but she was quite photogenic. In this second shot, I originally cropped out everything and it looked terrible. Almost 20 years later, the rest of the frame serves as negative space. A very slow Sunday evening. Originally I cropped out everything except for the lissajous pattern. Now the photo is an available light study. As I mentioned previously, 2006 was an insane year. There are quite a few photo sets I haven't even looked at yet. A DJ I knew turned 30 in May of '06. He threw a party at the expensive yet shitty club where I worked sometimes. I couldn't use fog in there.. ...because it set off the fire alarm. Pic from 2005 very related. Early in the night. 0.4" with the camera placed on the bar. I elected not to use noise reduction on this one. I didn't like this shot in '06, but revisiting it, I cropped it square and now enjoy it's near abstraction. Wise DJs bring at least one opening act. The birthday boy picked the fella above, which was a wise choice. 1/6 handheld, which was quite reasonable with a tiny focal length P&S. As above with different lights on. I really liked this one in '06. I still do. The party got kind of wild. Birthday DJ reacting to a request to play ...not house music. This was a meter malfunction. Notice my photo tag. This is an image I did not re-edit. A case where motion blur actually improves the image. 1/15th handheld. 0.4" handheld. I have no idea. It looks neat. 1 second handheld. I braced my back against the wall of the club and held my breath. The answer is still "no" even if you play with your hair. Sneak peak for next time. This is a project that's going to take the last half of forever.

I’ve got my ES2a for a while now. The biggest improvement over the ES1a, in my opinion, is the headband. With the proper clamping force, they don’t fall off my head like the ES1a. So, I ordered the new headband to replace the one on my ES1a. Now my ES1a feels like different headphones. It’s well worth the upgrade. 😄