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I’m sipping my first cup of this coffee this morning, made with my French press. Tastes fantastic, Dan.

This interview is amazing. I listened to the whole thing last night, and repeated large parts of it. The ending is particularly scary.

Thanks for the birthday wishes everyone! Looking forward to seeing more of you in the near future -- I was talking with JP about the need to schedule a Travel Team event soon. Maybe @Aura needs to dust off plans for a Chicago Canjam reunion now that it's been more like 12 years instead of 10 when he was promoting it back in the Before Times.

Nearly finished casing my Salas phono stage. Need to mount the transformer and raw PSU. I may use a vandal switch on the front, but some type of momentary switch board or at a minimum, a voltage select board will be going in as well. Also need to shorten transformer leads, and clean up wiring. Runs dead quiet in my system; no noise evident when turned up all the way at tweeters or via headphones. I've got the Antek steel transformer cover and a set of Mundorf Supreme caps, though the kids all seem to be going for the Clarity Caps these days. It sounds good with the BC polyprop and MKP1837 I have in there now. This is setup for MM at 42dB gain. Loading switchable to several different values via dip switches. Set at ~34K right now for the Ortofon 2M Bronze I was using (a bright cartridge IMO).

Senior HeadCase member MLA has lent me his Dynahi. A week listening to it have convinced me that one actually can listen to non-electrostatic headphones. So here is my first attempt... ... a balanced something with lsj689 and lsk489. And as always everything I make is based on a Kevin design. In this case on the famous Dynahi.

Ok, that changes things. Kinda like trying to boycott, Disney.

Agree, I'm well into my first bag and the roast is perfect and fantastic taste about covers it.

Should be an easy protest for me. I don't buy any of those brands.

The Night Manager (2016) Highly recommended

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Al!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday my friend have a great day. I am lighting up a cuban in your honor.

Happy birthday, Al. While there's NFLO there isn't anyone else like you either, bud.

Deck Brunch (With more 'nana flauntin', gov.)

Best lens is of course dependent on a lot including what you shoot, and some of these are only available to specific mounts and in specific mounts there are many other options, but favorite? That's easy. Ignoring the CV 50 APO-Lanthar (new and suffering due to second lens choice below) and CV 50 Nokton 50 f/1 (arrived Friday, but first results are encouraging**), the clear winner is the only lens mentioned twice (different mounts), but actually three times. I bought the Voigtlander Nokton 40 f/1.2 E for a Sony system with electric coupling. Although the A7III was my least favorite camera (skin tones under mixed lighting and controls from a Fuji analog control fan), that lens-camera combo was my favorite. When I moved to the M240 I went with the 50mm VM equivalent due to frame lines with the rangefinder. And then when I traded the M240 for a SL, I re-ish bought the Nokton 40mm f/1.2, VM version this time. And of course I haven't sold any of them 'cause I'm lazy. Those Noktons are the perfect balance between character and accuracy in my book. Just pick the 40 or 50 based on FL you prefer. And don't take my word for it. Take a glance at the longest running single lens review thread over at FM (if you run through all you'll even see a birthday boy's appearance in bubble popping fun). There's an argument the Noktons are when Voigtlander went from third behind Leica and Zeiss, to equals (and of course many of Zeiss lenses are also made by Cosina, Voigtlander's owner). And if you discount the Leica approved/branded Panasonics and Zeiss approved/branded Sonys, Voigtlander has released the most lenses and experiments in the last seven or so years. Less expensive is a plus too. Two lens prime option? A smarter person would spread out the focal lengths, but you're talking to me. I'd go for the Sigma Art 40mm f/1.4 (aka Beyond Art - one lens cine specs in a still body experiment - c'mon Sigma do it again!). The Noktons opposite. Big, heavy, 16 elements/12 groups, optically near perfect and will pull resolution out any sensor behind it. Also that auto-focus thing. And watch the pricing as it rotates mounts sales often. Currently Canon and Nikon users are in luck (Adorama a little cheaper than B&H). Check out the below video. I love talking about camera gear and hate doing comparison shots, but you can see examples on IG and less frequently updated Flickr. Same user name and lens always mentioned in IG description at least. Using rangefinder lenses without info sent to camera doesn't help on the Flickr side and again, did I mention I'm lazy? Ha! I'm a big believer in body-lenses combinations. Lenses are creeping up in price (approaching/matching older bodies used cost) and with sensor resolution jumps the old lens-body relationship isn't what it quite was ("date the body, marry the lenses"). If you don't mind using different systems, maybe find magic combos, instead of spreading out to all focal lengths. Or go with zooms which invalidates pretty much everything above. Please! I'm always curious about cases/bags/straps experiences. Recently for me it's been Clever Supply straps and Stone or LATZZ drawstring bags for each lens/body and then whatever non-descript backpack my company gave me or Timbuk2 messenger bag I picked up on sale, that doesn't scream camera(s) inside. ** This is one of the 13 shots I've taken so far. Momentary Roblox disruption yesterday. Again, this is mostly family stuff so anything I say has likely zero benefit to landscape, sports, street... pretty much everything, shooters. But typing this did allow putting off cleaning house for a bit!

Happy Birthday, Al! Get yourself something nice. Cheers

Happy Birthday, Al! Hope you have a wonderful day.

Nice Nate! So does that make Andrew Mr. DIY'er Jr.? 😊

My Memli order showed up just in time for the weekend. Sipping a Columbian El Vergel Lagoon Java pour over. There's a lot going on with this cup...very sweet and fruity. He also kindly roasted a Kenyan Kiunyu Washed for espresso that made a nice cup yesterday. I have to see the East African coffees are the sweet spot for me. I was a bit sloppy with the grind as I accidentally read a white wax mark I've made to ensure things stay in sink on the Niche vs the small chrome nipple. It'll be better this afternoon but it was still delicious despite my rushing. Love me a weekend... HS

@ktm - i feel your pain, almost literally. Yesterday, for the second time in six months I had the dryer almost fully apart. Midway thru: The last time I "fixed" it the problem was just that the belt had jumped the idler pulley. I did notice while I was in there that the belt had a good sized crack but the need to continue to do laundry trumped the need to fix everything. It's only about an hour to get to that level of disassembly. So when it started making a weird screeching noise last weekend I ordered a maintenance kit (belt, idler assembly, and some other misc. bits) for a whopping $40. Andrew and I started disassembling it yesterday around 8:30 and two hours later had a fully functioning, much better sounding, 12+ year old dryer.

Some of the parts suppliers have the Mk2 headpad for sale and it should be direct replacement. Now if the old elastic has streched then I'd just cut a bit off it. Works a charm

I hardly ever post here, but I just had an awesome dinner out with Karen. We went to a place called the Copper Door in Salem, NH, and I had their "Bourbon Bacon Beef Tips." So fucking tender, flavorful, and wrapped in bacon. The bourbon sauce was outstanding. As we got our check, I told the waitress, "This was fucking awesome...." She laughed, and whispered to me "You should try the fucking Shepherd's Pie!" It was a fuck-fest (verbally) the rest of the night with her, lots of chuckles. Her final wish to me was "Drive fucking safe...." @n_maher Have you been to this restaurant? There's one in Plaistow as well apparently.... Wish I had thought to take a picture....

96 year old Boris Romanchenko, survivor of four different nazi concentration camps killed last Friday by the Russians in his home in Kharkiv.

It may be bigger than a simple infographic. List of Nestlé brands - Wikipedia

How shocking that a Nestle subsidiary called Vichy Laboratories might not be doing the right thing.

You still have a possibility. KitKat is handled by Hershey, Nestle's rival, in the US. So maybe avoid elsewhere, but stock up from US and double the economic damage to Nestle. Map of countries where Kit Kat is marketed. Dark Red: UK (country of origin). Red: Countries with KitKat products owned by Nestlé. Light Red: Countries with KitKat products manufactured by Hershey (US).

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy accuses Nestle and Auchan of using 'cheap PR' to justify continued business in Russia. #FuckNestle