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Got started on a diamond willow headphone stand today. Still need to whittle a bit more, sand with a finer grit paper, and then treat it with something, but you get the idea. Apologies for crappy pic.

Something new emerged last night.... Does look kinda cool in black.

A friend came to visit from Vancouver this past weekend, and brought me so much cheese. It is all amazing, each ranking as one of the best cheeses I have had. The Grey Owl is the only goat cheese I can remember liking, and like is not nearly strong enough a word.

I tried some local chorizo tonight, pan fried and made into quesadillas. It was very, very good.

Slayer/Suicidal Tendencies/Exodus in Atlanta I'm not super familiar with Exodus but know a lot of the old metal bands love those guys. They put on a great opening set, high energy, obviously happy to be playing music live. I've been listening to ST since I was a kid but have never seen them live. Happy to report Cyco Miko is still an animal, and the rest of the band are kick ass as well. A fast, solid, intense set. Muir actually had a lot of strangely inspirational banter, of the "you can do anything if you put your mind to it" variety but with a lot more profanity and anger, it was pretty great. Slayer of course killed it. Super clean stage setup, in fact one of the cleanest I've ever seen. Could hardly see any wires anywere, just neat rows of Marshall amps. Super loud, super fast, super intense. A drink got thrown at Tom Araya during the first song which clearly pissed him off, but he calmly told the crowd "thank you for the drink, but I don't drink when I play". During the Angel of Death closer, big Hanneman/Heineken banner dropped down, with "Angel of Death" and "Still Reigning" written above and below his name. Pretty spectacular moment. As an aside, we got a great rate at the Ritz Carlton a few blocks from the venue, so why the hell not stay there? When we arrived to check in, also checking in was the Cleveland Browns and their entire organization, who were met by a crowd of screaming Browns fans in town for the game. I've never shared a hotel with an NFL team.

Real, working turntable made out of Lego (click picture for link).

anything >+/-12 and < +/-35 the amp works fine with 15v or 20v power supplies i am using the power one linears, in 15v mode they typically can be turned up to 16.5 which works fine and you can't build anything for the price of those. or in a bigger box you can buy the 20V units (24v, turn down to 20)

to teach people the meaning of unhappy

that circuit flat out does not work for balanced amplifiers especially with dacs that have output dc. you want this http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/boards/protect3.zip

That's good news.

the mazda 5 is a ford c-max, the cx5 is a completely different vehicle.

Careful with the Mazda, Chris. My brother-in-law just had to replace the motor in their CX5, which might have the same motor as yours, and after doing some research they found out that it's not an uncommon problem but somehow hasn't gotten big enough to generate a recall or extended warranty issue. I think there's is an '10 or so but you might want to do a little searching on your own. All I really know is that it started with a head gasket and went very bad, very quickly.

yep

But do you like the famous New Hampshire style chorizo?

John: I would pretty much always hire someone to fix our repairs (I just don't know who to hire sometimes though). It's Tim who think we should try to fix things ourselves (he also insists on doing the lawn/gardening because it is "exercise.") Sigh.

As Michael Jordan once said, "I'm back!" Although the kids look a lot happier than I do. It was pretty hot. I'm going to have to start curling my mustache again. It gives me a "happy face" like I'm smiling even when I'm not. That, and my smile in general isn't a big one and doesn't really show any teeth, etc.

I saw Spirit of the West in Regina on Friday. They've been around for 30+ years, and are very influential on the Canadian folk-rock scene. I've been listening to them on and off for 20 years, and they're one of Eleanor's favourites. This song is a pub and social staple, and we Canucks consider it the undisputed national anthem of partying: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPJD3qcIL7s It was an amazing concert, super-energetic. A bunch of us who were stuck in the cheap seats ended up rushing the stage, so there were about 150-200 of us dancing in front of a mostly-seated room. John Mann, their lead singer, went public a couple of months ago that he has early onset Alzheimer's disease after battling cancer. He's 51 years old. He's still performing and even writing songs, but he doesn't play the guitar anymore and he uses an iPad through the entire show to help him remember the lyrics. It's really sad to see that happen to anyone, let alone such a talented musician who otherwise would probably have another 20 years of playing left in him, but it's really inspiring that his band is supporting him and helping him keep doing what he wants to do. His voice is still amazing, and his performance is still really passionate. I hope I get to see them at least one more time before he can't do it anymore.

Dang I see over a grand fleeing my wallet getting geared up