Leaderboard

Local live music at a cool venue. https://allevents.in/san anselmo/springfest-23-the-log-cabin/200024625147447 I wasn't expecting an Alanis cover

This made me think of

Actually two days ago. Went to see a play at Chichester, in the tiny Minerva theatre https://www.preevue.com/projects/minerva-theatre . The play was called 4000 miles, and we really went to see it because it has Eileen Atkins in it. A titan of theatre and movies. She was splendid, but looked a bit old (the character was of an old woman). It was only when we got home and checked: 88. Still treading the boards at 88! Hell she started as a professional leading actor in 1953 - three years before I was born. This is she - courtesy of Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eileen_Atkins

Most of the mashed potatoes will become tomorrow's potato pancakes.

https://youtube.com/@BlacktailStudio Via reddit Apparently another helicopter pilot turned YouTube woodworker. Is it something about the fumes?

So sorry, Todd. RIP Auntie Joyce.

RIP Auntie Joyce

Getting there.

Cut and started an onion for tonight's dinner of, steak, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, sautéed mushrooms and caramelized onion. I like to cook the onion really low and slow. I use a mixture of EVOO and butter. It'll take 1.45 - 2 hrs. But it's always worth the effort.

Condolences, Todd.

Please accept my sincere condolences, Todd (if I may...). Godspeed, Aunty Joyce... Sam

Condolences, Todd. RIP “Aunty Joyce”

Todd so sorry to hear about your loss, condolences

Condolences, Todd.

Sorry to hear Todd - RIP Aunty Joyce

My condolences Todd

Sorry to hear Todd.

Sorry for your loss Todd.

So sorry for your loss Todd. Sounds like she was a neat lady to have as an aunt.

Sorry for your loss, Todd.

Yesterday we took a day trip to Montreal so I could practice not speaking French. Visited the Archaeology Museum, had a nice lunch at an Asian bistro and walked around the city for a few hours.

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes! I had a decent day. Realized my license expired so I went to go buy some whiskey at the last minute, so I made a birthday cocktail. Had another band concert to play in (had one Sunday too) and a buddy in the section serenaded me with the HBD song, which was nice. 6 of us went out for dinner afterwards and they bought my dinner as a gift, and was nice meeting some new people/hanging out with others when we weren't just sitting in band. And, over the weekend, I got to have lunch/dinner with a good friend from back home while he was out instructing at a racing school in the PNW. Overall, been a solid time period since I turned The Answer.

A GT4 is the most balanced car I've ever ridden around a track. Amazingly forgiving and doesn't beat one up along the process. What a super experience you had...congrats!!! HS

I had fun tracking these two back-to-back at Exotics Racing in Las Vegas. Expensive to lap their cars, but where else are you going to get to drive them on track at pace? I can see why KG bought the C8 w/ z51. It is a riot to drive and the v8 sounds amazing. My lap times were quite a bit faster in the GT4 despite the horsepower advantage of the C8. Porsche cars are just so easy to get in and get up to speed and the GT4 is no exception. They make you feel like a better driver than you really are. The bigger, heavier 'vette felt like it might bite if you didn't keep a handle on it. I can't even imagine how quick the z06 version must be. I somehow was fastest of the day and 12th fastest of the month, which I am very happy about. I think it is because I know from auto-crossing how to find the limit of what the tires will do and use that to carry a more speed in the medium and slow corners than the other drivers in higher horsepower cars. I also am used to driving a pretty quick car so the speed doesn't scare me the same way it would someone who isn't used to what a modern sports car can do. My lines and brake points sucked, but the instructors riding along gave great advice. I've got to be a lot smoother on the big track than I am on the autocross given the speeds involved. Unsettling the car at 60mph vs 100mph feels pretty different! Rolling on to the pedals really helped vs just smashing the brake and letting the ABS figure it out. In case you wondered how they feel confident letting people off the street walk in and drive 700hp cars with a minimal safety briefing, each car had the brake pedal wired so that the instructor had their own brake pedal in the right side seat so they can save you from yourself.

Simplified explanation: There are multiple methods for changing how a transistor or valve conducts. You can vary the voltage on valve grid or current on the transistor base. Another way is to vary the current supply to the transistor emitter, collector or valve anode or cathode, another way is to vary the voltage at the valve cathode. .. Just because the valve grid or transistor base does not have audio directly applied does not mean that there is no audio passing through the device.... Q1 is constant current. Since its emitter has a constant load and voltage applied and so has a constant current available and the base also has a fixed resistor and fixed voltage. Rv1 can adjust slightly the overall emitter resistance and therefore available current to each half of Q1 so some current balancing can be done to compensate for mismatches in the halves of V1 and V2 etc. The Q1 current is shared between the second 6922 (V2) (the one which does not have its grids connected to the audio input) and Q4/Q5. If second 6922 (V2) pulls more current then less current must be available to Q4 and Q5 since the total current available is constant and visa versa is true if the 6922 pulls less current. So the current through Q4/Q5 is effected by the current pull from second 6922 (V2) whos current draw is effected by the audio on the grid 1 of the input 6922 (V1) . Since the second 6922 (V2) supplies the anode current to the input 6922 (V1). if Q4/Q5 are effected by input 6922, Q11 and Q12 must also be since they get their current directly from Q4/Q5 and the base of Q11 and Q12 is held constant by the resistor string .. R36, R49,50,60 If Q11/Q12 have current draw effected by the audio input 6922 then the voltage drop across R11 and R12 and current through R11/12 must also be based on the audio input... since the current through R11 and R12 is directly controlled by the current through Q11 and Q12 The current through R11 and R12 control the current at the base of Q8 and Q9 and therefore control the current through Q8 and Q9. Q8 and Q9 control the voltage at the EL34 cathode and that's how the audio gets into the EL34s and that's the AC audio voltage than can be measured with an multimeter at the cathode of the EL34s.

RIP to my "Aunty Joyce." She was great friends with my mom from their early teens, and they lived in the same hometown for a bunch of years when they first raised a family; one of my best friends is her son. She was a kind and smart woman who still had a wonderful and sometimes biting sarcasm; I suppose that made her one of my favorites, too. She went downhill quickly, after an Alzheimer's diagnosis; though the signs were there longer. Larry lost his older brother to cancer more than a decade ago. Several years back his dad passed; and now his mom. My heart goes out to him as well. RIP Joyce, will certainly raise a glass tonight.