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Love a Tank, I actually bought one recently (Must Solarbeat) "for my partner" and definitely not because I wanted to "borrow" it "occasionally". A couple of other random pics from the collection while I am here. First, the current daily driver. Love it. Been on a bracelet recently though. I'll save the bracelet look for a future post. And then there is my baby. Action shot. And yes, for reference my wrists are SUPER tiny. That Oris is a blessing as a 36mm dive watch.

OG is best. Everyone will tell you differently, just ignore them 😉 (Nova Signature is good, too. I am sceptical about the L500mk2 but it seems to get decent reviews)

Impressive and beautiful. The poor little Yamaha upright tried its best to keep up.

That GS is gorgeous. Oatmeal Johnny likes my dad’s watch.

Yes Wembley London 1978 Tourmato BBC: Wembley Arena in London on 10/28/1978. Recorded and broadcast by BBC Radio for their BBC Friday Rock Show series. Jon Anderson – lead vocals Steve Howe – guitar, backing vocals Rick Wakeman – keyboards Chris Squire – bass, backing vocals Alan White – drums https://archive.org/details/yes-wembley-1978-tourmato-london-bbc Oh hey - they have a little Archive player - not sure it will work: I came across this performance on youtube, where someone took this recording and made a concert video from from 16mm film cuts from the tour. Anyway, it sounded fantastic and a great version of the band and songs. I did a little more research and it was a BBC Radio broadcast. That led me to The Archive and happiness. They were in their full progyness, huge solos, huge mixing of songs, fun stuff for a Yesfan.

RIP Toby Keith, dead at 62 after battle with stomach cancer. I have mixed feelings about his catalog ("Red Solo Cup" is in the running for worst country song ever; "Boot In Your Ass" was the anthem of America going in exactly the wrong direction post-9/11) but his contributions to country music in the 90s are undeniable. This was list a guy on reddit put together: Whiskey Girl Country Comes To Town I wanna Talk ABout me You Shouldn't kiss me like this Stays in Mexico How do you like me now I'm just talkin about tonight Wish I didn't Know now American Soldier As good as I once was Courtesy of the red white and blue Should've been a cowboy Does that blue moon ever shine on you He ain't worth missing Dream Walkin A little too late beer for my horses I love this bar Made in America You ain't much fun Who's That Man I recognize a surprising number of those and I wasn't exactly a big of contemporary country in the 1990s. In any case, 62 is entirely too young. F cancer.

^ surprisingly good. Wish more people had watched it.

I survived the atmospheric river chicken curry https://patch.com/california/sanrafael/wind-gusts-topped-100-mph-marins-coastal-mountains

^^ thanks, It is an interesting thought. For me streaming has changed things fundamentally, but in the end it is an extension of things that I have always done. I never really read music journalism, of course that would involve reading (not my thang). I had some influencers, family friends, radio, but for the most part, I bought music. How did I know what to buy? I didn't it was on sale at Columbia House, so I bought it. Getting hundreds and up to thousands of records, and tapes as well. I really was the only person that I knew that was into Classical, Country, Jazz, Prog, Rock and of course Donna Summer. Listening to Kraftwerk and SRV on the same day. Now that may not be so unusual in this specific crowd, but it was in my teens in central California. All that to say. It took a lot for me to jump on the streaming idea, but I found how I can use it. I listen to a lot of new music. How do I know what to listen to? I don't. Yeah I get little bits from reading Stereophile equipment reviews (test songs), and Speaker Demo videos on YT (yeah, I know it is stupid to listen to someone recording speakers and playing them back on YT (let me have that one)). But the main thing that I do is I look at the recent releases and I start clicking. Yeah I could read a lovely in-depth article on a new band, or a new release (again, reading?!? yeesh, am I right?) Or I can spend that thirty minutes clicking through a small pile of new albums and see what clicks for me, and add it to my queue. And then I come back and listen to the album, I listen to a lot more than I ever post, mostly because a lot of things are not worthy. I always consider, if I am posting, it is something that I want to share. I think that before times it was more important (not that it isn't important) to have people with connections and knowledge to let you know what was out there so that you knew what to spend your hard earned $$$ on. But now, I can look at the releases and click click, I am listening to that new album. Now streaming has triggered something old in me, I want to listen to everything, and with 100 million tracks at my fingertips, that is an issue. Tis the reason that I end up with over 600 albums in my queue. Also because I still want to go back and listen to Rush Hemispheres several times a year. anyway... what were we talking about? ...

um yeah - this is what you want to see from the guy sitting across from you on the subway..

I made a SMD version of the Protector PCB for the CFA3, and after testing it this weekend I came up with some ideas for changes #1 - add blocking diodes in series with the power supply inputs. first thing I did was fry the V+ regulator by hooking up power backwards. other protection diodes for the regulators could be added, but I think they're less important #2 - add minimum load resistors for the regulators (R25, R26). I've previously noticed some 3-pin regulators can have an unstable output voltage if their load is too low. the resistors are so each regulator has at least a 5mA load #3 - option of getting DC voltage reference from the +/-12 regulators or the external supply. In this case, the +/-12 regulators could have as much as a 0.5V imbalance which requires hand selecting resistors to set the voltage reference (the voltage across R8 + RV1). if powering the protector with LT1021 referenced GRLVs, the voltage is going to be within millivolts for both + and - references. You would install either R1 or R9, and R2 or R10. the PCB could also be designed to allow switching between the two for two different range options. one feature of using the GRLV / higher voltage supplies for the reference is if those supplies were to become damaged and start outputting a different voltage, the reference will probably be thrown off more than enough to permanently disable the output jacks until the problem is found/fixed. #4 - added RV1 pot, the purpose is to adjust the range of the protection if it is too sensitive or not enough #5 - added dual indicator LEDs, for "Good" (D9/white) and "Protection On" (D10/orange). Not a bi-color LED, but 2 separate LEDs next to each other. The white "good" LED will be lit but very dim when the Protect LED is on, and the orange will overpower it. #6 - changed relay from 12 to 24V for 1/2 the current and to use more equal current from the +/-12V regulators #7 - added 4.4mm Pentaconn jack short protection. The 4.4mm jack has a switch in the back that only opens when the plug has been fully inserted. The relay keeps the L- and R- pins disconnected, which is every other pin on the jack, until the plug has been fully inserted + a .5 second delay, and then instant release of relay when the plug starts to be removed SMD version & in CFA3

We have so much spare electricity here that it isn't funny. Just the spare electricity from the largest plant (Karahnjukar) is enough to run all of the cars in Iceland if they were electric. This only because there has been a lot of snow the last few years so if that were to change...well.. not good. As for the DHT's, I just don't get it. People are stuck in late 30's tech when tubes did get a bunch better later on. The pencil tubes are excellent though they don't like high voltage all that much... I haven't tried the 300limited yet but out of the other ones, I like the L500 a lot and more than the 700's. They are not a bad place to start and so is the L300 frankly. I use them for testing and they are just excellent.

RIP Carl Weathers. He was 76.