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Went a little crazy today and in the morning while I had time I candied some chopped pecans for use later in the day. When I finally had more time, after making dinner, I made maple frosted pecan scones.

We came to possibly the lamest conclusion, all three are pretty awesome. We had way different rankings I preferred the lcd5 of the three amd Mike the he1kse. The lcd5 to me was the most revealing of the three and had the wettest midrange. When a headphone out details the HE1kse that's impressive and the lcd5 did just that. I love the other two as well and could easily and very happily live with any of these. Hifiman wins for comfort and least picky of sources while holding its own in every audio category we compared them in. I do think the adx5000 is the mofo steal of the century at almost half the price of the HE1kse and less than half the price of the lcd5. Very very fast sounding extremely dynamic but can be slightly thin sounding. Both the adx5000 and lcd5 improve with eq and take eq well the HE1kse doesn't need much.

Actually really easy to make if you need a flat pack of anything. Ping ponged the carcasses, and put together the first one. Started to make the HDF doors and found that the latest version of my cabinet software causes problems with cutting the doors properly. Nothing like having a $1800 year piece of software that ruins sheets of wood.

I think Bob was funnier than he often got credit for because a lot of his work was on the softer side of things. In the end what is most terrible to me (so far anyway) is him passing unexpectedly at 65. My comment to my wife was that I’m closer to that age than I am 21 and 21 doesn’t feel all that long ago.

A good summation of the state of headphones over the last five plus years. A gluttony of riches. And endgame for everyone.

That was a fascinating shot of espresso. I ground slightly too fine and pulled a little short, but it worked out okay. 5 bar, fast ramp up, slow ramp down, 21 in, 40 out in 50 seconds (including pre-infusion). 5 bar is more or less my standard on any machine where I can manage it with funky beans, and this one is certainly funky! I’m not sure it wants to be espresso, and I’ll likely not make espresso with it again, but I’m glad I did today. Making espresso with naturals is an adventure. I highly do not recommend it to anybody unless they are somebody I would recommend it to, in which case I highly recommend it.

*cough*

There was a documentary series a few years back when the host visited the hottest, wettest and coldest places that were permanently occupied. The coldest place was somewhere in Siberia, where it would get down to below -60C. The kids did not get a day off school until it was lower than -40 (when C or F is the same). To get diesel vehicles going involved lighting a pan of warm fuel under the engine to warm it up enough to start. To bury the dead in the permafrost, they had to light a fire on the ground and dig out a few inches. Repeat as necessary until the hole was deep enough. But the problem was the ground behaved so oddly between summer and winter that the coffins would resurface after some years. So there was a continuous process of reburying the dead.

Bummer that they got too distracted listening to the beautiful, beautiful music to answer

Lily answered the call.

LOL. Hope you didn't get burned, J. I've got the Niche set past the coarsest marked setting for the Chemex. I have far fewer issues with the pour over or French press than I do the espresso grind settings. Largely my own fault as I'm working through my coffee advent calendar still so I'm on constant rotation (left over beans from the morning pour over). The back to work schedule has me enjoying far less great coffee... Java du jour is a Columbia Juan Jimenez. Very easy cup to sip...sweet and sweet. HS

Went on a bit of shopping spree the last couple of weeks. Taking advantage of Holiday discounts on the FLM ball head. Nice design and very high quality product. The Canon 1D MK4 body is a prompt purchase - one in great shape came up at a good price. Only less than 34K shutter actuation. Shoot me a PM if you are interested in the mint condition 300MM F4 L lens. I bought a 300mm F2.8 last year so this one becomes somewhat redundant. I'll cut a good deal for longterm headcasers. Also has a Canon 1.4X ii available.

^^ My son is waiting for that....I am giving him my Elac Discovery endpoint, it does Roon (he can't use that when they move to their new apt.) and Spotify connect. I am also giving him a pair of speakers and a receiver. Sounded good with Spotify, but not as good as with Tidal/Roon.....

Furniture won’t arrive from Japan for a little while, but I have this thing ready to go. Final polishing will be after sharpening. Paint in the engraving is set. It’s a very beautiful Konosuke Fujiyama Sakai white 1 that happened to be in a fire. Saya and handle (went honoki with a blond ferrule) will be another “Milky Way” lacquer job. Three polishes and etches so far. I’m very bored, obviously. I even took a Rockwell hardness reading (see the notch in the edge: 62 on C), as I didn’t know whether the fire would damage the temper. I guess I’m making another Milky Way. Took the hardness reading on the belly/tip since that will be sharpened out. It looked less nice when I started: one big ol’ lump of carbon and oxidation. This doesn’t mean anything to anybody, but this is the kitchen knife equivalent of completely cutting out brain tumor without hurting the brain.

It’s 35 degrees this afternoon, so decaf-iced-coffee-on-the-patio weather. Yes; I wear a pinkie ring: I don’t think anybody here is surprised.

A little latte with my Breville. 2.5:1 ground on the Niche (I love this grinder since I fixed it; it stays calibrated grind to grind now) and oat milk. Could have done art, didn’t. Delicious. Aetopress is good coffee, Mike. Chemex is too. Different, though.

Looks like it found a good home. Slowly getting going on the cabinets, have the drawer boxes built. Not having to figure out any dimensions for them was really nice. Design the cabinet and have the machine cut the parts to size. Whatever that size may be.

You used to love my technique!

I wanted to show off the sign that Steve engaged Naaman to design and carve on the ping pong table. It is a beautiful piece of cherry that will age along with us, although unlike is it will look better over time. I haven't really organized the stuff on the peg board, it's just there temporarily because I'm trying to get everything out of the old shop space.

Steve, just saying, I had a really excellent shawarma at Splitrock in Fairfax while drinking beer with Al today and highly recommend you direct $12 of your stimmy windfall that way. Get the lamb.

From all the research I was able to do, I don't believe this is the case with this. But I'm still going to disappoint everyone, because I can't think of another cordless tool that I could use, or fit in the van. This will go to restart the savings that got decimated.

Quiche that is a little more rustic than intended, but still delicious. Roasted potatoes, grilled zucchini, chèvre, herbs, and crust made with whole wheat pastry flour.

Godspeed, Michael Lang... Co-founder of Woodstock. HS

R.I.P. Bob Saget... 65...

I have gone to school in -38 f. That's not the coldest weather I've been in though. That would be -65 f. To be honest, once you get below -35 f, there doesn't seem to be a lot of difference. The boogers in your nose freeze, and kind of hurt. Your jaw muscles are the first to numb, and therefore your mouth opens. That causes you to breath through your mouth, which in turn causes your breath to freeze your eyelashes together. Breathing in air that cold absolutely hurts.