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I dunno if I've mentioned this before, but I'm a crazed redneck who lives in the woods. I have an artesian well and the groundwater here is hard as a black metal album. I have not one but two filters between it and what I drink. The first is a grit filter, the second is a taste & odor (charcoal) filter. They needed to be changed when I locked myself in 9 weeks ago, and I was out of spares Today I arranged pickup of new filters and replaced them. This is what the grit filter looked like when I removed it: The filters are pure white when new. For two decades, I have snarkily referred to the filter swapping process as "changing the house's tampon" because I haven't matured terribly much in the last ~35 years. Mr. Frog was not at all impressed the proceedings.

What's the opposite of porn? My dick tried to retract into my body.

The most jaded man I can think of: ”No fucking way.”—just in case you have trouble reading his very clearly enunciated lips

Don't want to enable anyone, but Walmart has the Kamado Joe at $350 off at the moment. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Kamado-Joe-Classic-I-Charcoal-Grill/126810886?

Thank you all for reminding me I have a pair of Grados. Even if just the SR-80, I forgot how good these sound.

No room porn in this one.

I've been testing all night with the Blue Icicle plugged straight into a (USB3) port. So far, the yammering idiots in Discord haven't reported me going robotic once. Also, I should note that after I wrote the above message I remembered that my HeadAmp Pico DAC uses Micro USB. "The size no one uses anymore" indeed. Hi, Justin! 😁

I spent 172 hours on my first Witcher 3 playthrough, and I'm sure there's stuff I missed. 🤪

Ooh - a Transcriptors Hydraulic Reference complete with sweep arm and stylus brush. The only thing that is not original is the SME arm - it should be the iconic Fluid Arm. I lusted after these in the early 70's in a way that was almost painful. https://www.transcriptorsengineering.com/

That's some high praise from Dr. Wood, and the rest of you, and I'm flattered. He did more than watch, of course, and working with Steve and with Doug has been a great education. Their different styles and approaches have each had an influence and I've tried to meld them into a hybrid. I wish I hadn't mentioned the lack of "perfection" because it definitely got overblown. I am extremely happy with the results, including the things that were challenging and didn't come out perfectly in line with the picture in my head. And as far as setting up a shop, the first order of business is a motion sensor that starts music playing as soon as we walk in to keep Steve's a cappella efforts to the minimum. 🤡

I have to say that the whole process, even with it's challenges, was quite enjoyable for me. I helped out when extra hands were needed, and did provide an idea or two, but Al was the real force behind the project. He has gotten so good, in such a short time. It's really amazing! Most of the time I set on a stool watching him work away (I just love hard work, I could watch it all day). I knew from the beginning that this would be a difficult project. Lining up four 8" mitered corners on boards that are twisted and warped is no walk in the park. But I also knew that if Al could pull this off, then he could tackle just about any project. It may not be a large project, but it encompasses so many woodworking skills! A fantastic learning experience, from which he had to correct some mistakes, solve some difficult tasks and come up with some unique solutions. I am really impressed with his abilities and perseverance. Al has also been a stand in for my company lately. As we've quarantined together, and I'm not yet comfortable working next to other crew members, Al has offered on three occasions to be my first mate, so to speak. We've installed a challenging set of kitchen cabinets, built from scratch four closet organizers and installed a floating bathroom vanity into a tiled wall, where the tiles were as hard as diamonds. He catches on so quick, and was just a blast to work with. I'm quite sure though, that he hasn't worked for such a paltry wage in decades. I've been teasing him about getting his pay to him as quickly as possible, in case he's in dire straights. 🤪 My dream is that one day two retired dudes can set up a decent shop and build beautiful stuff. I know how much he'd like this, because he can't get enough of my singing in the shop!

Nicest project I've ever had a hand in!

This morning I put the final touch on the silverware chest that Steve and I have been building by installing the insert that holds our silverware set. I bought it from Rockler and designed the chest around it. I'm proud of the chest and think it is beautiful even though it is not completely perfect in every way, and I certainly never could have done it without Steve. We made the chest from a single large board of jatoba wood and it turned out to have some twists and warps that were a bear to manage. Also, it has high mitered corners and my design idea was to wrap the grain from the left side, across the front and continue onto the right side. The lid is also mostly a single piece with sides formed by the sides of the box and an ebony border around the insert. It was by far the most complicated thing I have ever attempted and Steve claims the same for himself. I am going to post a bunch of pictures of the finished product, but not the blow by blow building shots as I did with the dining table from last month. I don't want to bore everyone and I don't have many photos anyway. The only two parts that I am going to highlight are the lid and the horizontal routing we did to make an ebony inlay on the edge of the drawer opening (which covered a mistake we made earlier). The lid piece was too big for my router so I had to build a router sled and route it that way. The first pic shows the setup with a dummy board, the second the jatoba board while being routed, and the third pic down shows the board after routing and a first sanding. It was a cool exercise. The horizontal routing was done on the router table Steve and I built, which can be tipped 90 degrees so that the bit extends outward horizontally, duh, and allows for tenons to be cut precisely. It worked great to make a slot for the ebony insert that is exposed when the drawer is pulled out. Lastly, here is the box when we glued it up with the lid still part of the box. Steve's plan all along was to build it this way and then cut off the lid an inch down from the top so that it would fit together with the box perfectly. It worked to an extent, but the twists and warps in the wood made it much more difficult to accomplish and not quite "perfect." So, the rest of the pics are just the chest in some detail to show the continuous grain wrapping around the three sides, and the ebony accents and the handles that we made from ebony as well. It was anxiety inducing and I definitely lost sleep along the way (covid is to blame as well), but the results are pretty fabulous imho.

The mineral oil worked fine for the HF-1 and HF-2 (thanks Bryan and Ryan) and it was easy since I had some in the house. The Alessandro MS-Pro will require more work so I ordered some linseed oil soap (thanks Doug and Al).

Good luck. Since this pandemic started, FedEx has screwed up numerous shipments for me. They have damaged things, lost things, sent stuff to the wrong place, or simply been late. And they have denied all claims ("You can't prove that that damage happened while the package was in our possession - maybe your customer, upon receiving the package and before opening it, ran a spear through the box."), and refused to answer their phone. I would estimate they have cost me ~$3K at this point.

FedEx was supposed to deliver the re-manufactured PSU main boards yesterday. FedEx messed up the delivery (long story), I ended up calling FedEx customer support to straight things out. Wes put on hold for 40+ minutes, finally talked to a rep and confirmed address and contact info. Then, nothing - tracking info still shows "pending" due to incorrect address today. Called customer support again just now, went through the same routine. Let's see what happens next. It shouldn't be this hard!

RIP Moon Martin. He died the 11th I knew it yesterday. I listened a lot to his Shots from a Cold Nightmare in my teens.

RIP ken (eddie) Still missing Fred --

RIP Ken Osmond, aka Eddie Haskell.

Still assessing the damage from this weekend's electrical disaster. The Blue Icicle is kind of a piece of shit. I randomly goes into "ear shredding robot" which means I cannot use it for anything serious (like ranting about obscure electronic music.) I was in a Discord call last night and the Icicle acted up. The other people in the call began screaming and begging me to stop. Just as quickly, the Icicle began behaving again. It repeated this pattern 2-3 more times throughout the evening. I have to get a new USB audio interface, and I really need a new mic preamp (never buy Behringer.) This would be a relatively minor issue were we not in the middle of a global health an economic catastrophe. I have a good friend who is a studio nerd with a very good day job. For the last ...22 years I've advised him on synthesizer and other electronic music production gear. He's amassed a collection of over 100 EuoRack modules (he estimates he has "under 150" of them.) His gear budget is just a wee bit bigger than mine. I've asked him about getting an audio interface and when I told him "I mean under 4 digits in cost" he said he had no idea. 🤦‍♂️ Ideally I'd like something class compliant (meaning 2 channels, 16/44.1 max, but doesn't require drivers so it's future proof.) My experience with outboard audio equipment that requires drivers has been lousy at best. I should add: I have no idea what this means for future radio shows until I un-fuck the situation. I've worked out a bunch of different ideas in my head, but there's no real replacement for an audio interface ...except for an audio interface. SMH my head as the kids say.