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Cutting / cheese boards for the holidays, you say? These are for our French friends with whom we will be spending Christmas, and all are cherry, walnut and maple or curly maple. I just put a coat of Tried & True oil finish on them and when done with that they will get a linseed oil wax top coat.

The 45 of “The Last Train to Clarksville” was a 10-year-old me’s first physical recording. 😪

I have contemplated some cutting boards for the holidays myself. Need to come up with something to burn through lumber. Freshly planed walnut for the entry cabinet.

Amid all the impressive stuff on this list, I offer up the chopping board. My son phoned on Sunday, and asked if I could make one for a good mate of his, explaining that he was jealous of the one I made for him some years ago. So, although my preferred wood for a chopping board is beech, I could only get oak, Picked up a raw plank on Monday, and made this:

Nice list. And I fully agree with the concept, and have heard musicians say the same. Deftones maybe? I think they always try to close out their albums with the best tracks. I FULLY concur with "I Need I Want I Will" by Auf der Maur, that track is SO FRICKIN' EPIC. I tried to suggest that Al1ce put "Electrical" as the last track on their recent album, As Above, because it had that same "epic" quality to it that I also associate with the best closing tracks to albums, but alas they did not. (Their choice was more of the "haunting" variety, so I can't complain.)

Meeting a friend at a cafe I haven’t been to next week. I’ve never had coffee done this way before!

Nice, Sam! I think that looks good. Though I do suggest doing a longer shot. In a 58 mm basket I’m like 18.5 in to 45 out in a little under 30 seconds (if I do all of my stuff correctly anyway). That milk texture looks good; are you using whole? If you want a real challenge get some soy milk! And that coffee table was my dining room table (it’s just a work table from IKEA; it always had a table cloth, so why get something nice looking). I also live alone and haven’t, uh, thrown a lot of dinner parties in the last 2 years (no idea why) so I figured it was more useful for this than just being a place for cats to sit and stare at me! It has really made life easier, having the space, though I have too much shit to quite comfortably keep everything I use regularly on it, now.

Good stuff, Jacob! That's quite a collection. I need a work space that big...one day. Well, I am back at the espresso / cappuccino game this morning. I had a lovely cup at a local independent shop after lunch yesterday and I was inspired this morning. It was not as good, and I did purchase their recommended beans, but it was respectable and definitely better than Starbucks or Black Rock (portland chain that's been here a few years). My biggest challenge is the flow rate. I put in 20 grams and I stop at roughly 30 grams of espresso...the flow even centralized / balanced itself out of the basket/portafilter. But...it's coming out too quickly. Done at just over 20 seconds. My tamp will be slightly more next time, but I'm fairly confident it is my grind as I had the same issue last time with a more firm tamp. I set the Niche it to 14 this morning. I shall try a bit lower next cup. HS

Not close to calibrated out of the box (and there is a large safety factor between “calibrated” and chirping, but I don’t particularly want to grind coffee beans unto talcum powder, so that’s okay) but boy is that an easy calibration process. This is dead center in the espresso range after calibrating to the manual’s process. Lots of range there.

Here is another picture of my megatron something. Made the fifth board in this small project yesterday, seen at left side. Main reason for this project is that I had Mundorf capacitors just laying in a “good to have bin” and, I also have too many unused 2SC4686 and 2SA1968. You can build a similar amplifier with 4 x KSA1156, 4 x 01N100D and 4 x DN2540. Plus, tubes and a few passive components. The easiest electrostatic tube amplifier I’ve built so far.

We’re gonna need a bigger boat.

Three piece overlap.

Listened on and off for hours today. Only moment of confusion was some guy growling for seemingly ever. Otherwise, it was fun listening!

Listening to a playlist I put together of my favorite album closing tracks. I've found myself really drawn to a lot of these songs lately and I don't know what it is, but artists really have a knack for closing out albums with some amazing songs. https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/closing-tracks/pl.u-qAqMtzX4e5 This playlist on shuffle rarely disappoints.

This. It's pretty terrible IMO and not because of Alison Krauss. The highlight was hearing Robert plant sing Lucinda William's, Can't Let Go: It's over, I know it but I can't let go It's over, I know it but I can't let go It's over, I know it but I can't let go ...yes Mr. Plant, it is.

^didn't mean to imply that she was a bad person back then, just a bad* sing(?)er... that one convo they had when her & John weren't there was golden... & I would argue that she's a bad person now... *what's the word for when you want to rip off one of your appendages just so you know you'll have something to beat them with?...

I only made it a 3rd of the way in before I said "shut the fuck up" out loud.

Did it add warmth to the meowdrange?

I'm very sad to report that our very own Carl Stephen "ironbut" Koto passed away on July 2, presumably from the lung cancer he informed us about in late May. Several of us have been concerned about his absence and both Ric and I (and maybe others) tried calling him to no avail, eventually receiving notice that the line was no longer in service. I tried searching for information but did not find anything until this morning I finally found a death notice for Carl Koto in Eugene, Oregon at age 66, and that must be him. 😢 Steve was a great and gentle guy and a fantastic Head-caser. His reel to reel rig will be remembered as one of the all-time best headphone experiences for many, many people. I'm happy that he had a few years of retirement in Eugene when he could make music and take it easy, but it truly sucks that he didn't have longer. Just to prove how humble and unassuming Steve was, I couldn't find a decent picture of him so I hope others can find more to post here. RIP Steve, you will be missed.

RIP Michael Nesmith 🥲 https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/monkees-michael-nesmith-dead-1270079/amp/

R.I.P. Stephen Sondheim... 91...