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Tonight I watched northern lights dancing over the lake

RIP wallet. Ended up buying a Cannondale Synapse. I had about 7-8 people who helped advise on this (thanks, Brent, Al, Nate) and at the end of the day I decided to give an endurance road bike a try. There is so much good content on YouTube as well. I really liked the GCN videos to get me up to speed on everything. The single most important factor in my choice ended up being doing the demo weekend on the Specialized Diverge. I learned: I want something that feels faster than Diverge did on road I wanted a nicer group set than whatever came on the Diverge Carbon Comp I don’t particularly enjoy riding on dirt roads (at least so far) 54 was probably the right size to get for me That I wanted carbon That I didn’t like a 1x That I didn’t want suspension Putting all that feedback together, I focused in on endurance road bikes. A bike that is not the fastest but easy to control and comfortable for long distances on road sounded like just the ticket. The Synapse seems to be a well loved bike throughout the years and now comes with a slick tech integration where the shifting, light and radar all run off a single battery. I had no light and radar to bring to the table so getting them as part of the package seemed like a good idea. People hated the v1 of the tech stuff but they just refreshed with a v2 setup that seems quite a bit better thought out. The massive down tube storage also means I can fit all the tools in there and don’t need a saddle bag. I struggled with the e-bike vs. regular bike debate. I really wanted to demo a fancier e-bike for the weekend but after calling around for hours the only e-bikes available to demo were either eMTB or motorized beach cruisers. Neither would be a good test. A co-worker also said this, which has stuck with me: “If you are buying a bike for fitness, why the heck would you buy an e-bike.” Yes, that besmirches what modern e-road bikes are, but they also are not entirely wrong. I will be giving up a lot of rides until my fitness level improves, but that was a trade off I was comfortable making. I think if I still lived in Marin it would have been e-bike all the way, but climbing is optional in the Sacramento River Valley. I’m super excited to go out and log some miles! Already failed to clip out at a stop and “pulled a Brent,” so we at least have that out of the way. The shop helped me relax the pedal tensioner so now it is a little more forgiving. Finally, celebrated the first ride with an appropriate cake. 😉

Decided to push hard today. Got stuck in a little traffic but was still relatively speedy.

Casing installed. Next weekend will be the doors.

Oh, and disregard the customized "nose picker" finger tip in pic #1. It's my only imperfection, so I like to show it off so you know that I'm still human.

I enjoy thinking about different ways to accomplish the often-overlapping electromechanical goals of audio devices. Every few years I get to considering electrostatic headphone connectors, and every time I end up finding the same collection of vintage part numbers, shared experiences, and a few useful drawings that can be put together to probably lead to a functional socket or plug, if you want to make one yourself. I appreciate and have used that information, and now I'd like to consolidate it and create some actual specifications to help anyone trying to make a plug or socket. The most useful thing to start with would be plug specs. Pin diameter, length, pin circle diameter, and housing outer diameter, in case you want to make a recessed socket. Here's a drawing of a plug I got from Dan Clark (I can't guarantee that it's the same as his current production plugs) and a plug from the Hifiman Jade II. If it would be useful I could make a complete model of both plugs and share the STEP files. Next week I'll be able to add the dimensions for the Audeze CRBN2. Eventually I should be able to measure some Stax plugs. Found partial catalogs for Cooper and Amphenol 78-S6S socket and 86-71-6S/91MPM-6S plugs, but neither specified pin diameter. Standard pin diameter seems to be .093" or .094" (2.36-2.38mm), the same size as a 3-pin XLR contact or an octal tube socket pin, or a Size 12 circular connector contact. There is a standard housing layout for #12 contacts that matches the position of a 6-pin Stax plug, arrangement 16-6 or 17-6, but I haven't been able to find any documentation of the pin circle diameter. Neutrik also makes a crimp socket contact, HA-3FXX. The threaded socket most commonly used for electrostatic jacks and tube sockets (like this, or these) is good and conceptually simpler to design a housing for, but I would love to find a design guide or get some advice on the right way to make a hole for circular connector contacts or that Neutrik contact. They're probably not easy cavities to machine from a single piece of material, but 3D printing is useful, and I saw some mil-spec circular connectors that appeared to use stacked layers. Standard pin circle diameter is . . . something between the .406" (10.31mm) in the Cooper catalog and the .435" (11.05mm) of Kevin Gilmore's socket drawing. The Hifiman plug was closer to the Cooper at ~10.5mm. The Dan Clark plug seemed to match up perfectly with the KG drawing. My estimate of this Viborg socket from their drawing puts it closer to 11mm. If anyone has any dimensions to share I'd be happy to add them to a single reference PDF. Any other useful application information about connectors would be good to include as well, if anyone has had experiences with pins being too long or too short, or pin-to-pin clearance standards, or other things. Cable-related information would also be valuable. EstatPlugDimensions.pdf

Pretty sure it was Charlie Kirk's last assassination.

Mmm...shoegazey...

And I like that I could hide my Judy Garland, Babs and Patty LuPone albums in those acoustic ceiling panels!

...and look at those vacuum triangles. carpet porn... am I right?

Room porn, really.

But in all fairness this could have been much worse. A totally freak accident. I was running stock through the saw when all of a sudden the toe of my shoe got caught up in the expansion joint of the concrete floor and caused me to trip forward, pushing my thumb straight into the blade. I probably couldn't cause that to happen again if I tried. But $100 or whatever a cartridge costs is totally worth it. I've been here before. No Dr. visit today, just a Band-Aid. It's a little deeper than it looks, and it bled a lot before cleaning it up, but I'm very happy to have a thumb.

Peter Weller talks coffee: Also, he wrote his first book on a book on Italian painting from before 1435: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/leon-battista-alberti-in-exile/CA506C81F7296D3DB63B1EDC7A136E9E

Today I installed the door jambs that I milled up, for the bathroom the Al and I built the vanity and doors for. Unfortunately the GC didn't listen to me, and built the door opening smaller than requested. It was already the size we wanted, but for some odd reason he filled in the opening a bit. Not the end of the world. I had already discovered this before building the jamb. However the finished doors will now have to be cut down. As I'm picky about symmetry, I'll need to take a little off of each side. It's not a lot. Maybe 3/16" to 1/4" on all sides. The height also needs a bit off, but we anticipated this. I'll only need to remove some at the top, as the bottom rails are taller, which looks better IMO. I don't want to install the casing or doors until the GC builds out the closet system. He's expressed to me that he'll be very careful, but why make it more difficult for him and nerve wracking for me?

E-bike is gonna be it for me. Who am I kidding? I’m like the bare minimum of cardio fitness to do these rides and these are the easiest 25 miles will ever be because flat farm roads. I did 50+ miles on the Diverge and I feel confident this is the right choice. I will say, I am not sure people are on about with these 1x front chain rings. Nice to have a bunch of climbing gears but I never felt like I had exactly the gear I wanted for the public roads. I'm certainly fit enough to ride a road bike around on these farm roads but I get the feel that if I go back to Marin the constant up-and-down will end me. Going faster than my power output would otherwise allow also has some appeal.

Woodworker: An official title that one earns from buying clamps.

It turned out to be the four big caps had failed. I took it to a local hi-fi dealer who recently started carrying Stax and had it repaired.

I had some fun on my first longer ride (22mi) but I haven’t felt so exposed cardio-wise in a long time. I think I’m on a bike one size too big so I’m going to try and see if the shop can swap me for a smaller one for tomorrow. My hands and shoulders are a little sore from having to stretch a little further than is comfortable to reach the hoods and drops. Very much leaning towards an e-bike so the assist will be there if i want it, but I’m going to try another 20-ish mile ride tomorrow and see how I feel. https://strava.app.link/G4g98I3TrWb

I’ve got my ES2a for a while now. The biggest improvement over the ES1a, in my opinion, is the headband. With the proper clamping force, they don’t fall off my head like the ES1a. So, I ordered the new headband to replace the one on my ES1a. Now my ES1a feels like different headphones. It’s well worth the upgrade. 😄

Short version: Got the shit kicked out of me. Long version: There were two birthdays this weekend. My friend Kate turned 37 on Sept 11 (her 14th was the worst.) My (sainted, octogenarian) mother advanced one year the day after. I ate a number of things that I don't normally, to be sociable. I paid a steep price. I felt kind of ill on the 12th, but still drove my mother to the alpaca farm here on MV. We had done so previously all the way back in 2009. I took photos, more on that (much) later. I slept terribly that evening and woke up on the 13th praying for death. I felt weak, nauseous, and worst of all I had an icepick-through-the-temple headache. When I have these issues, I clench my teeth while I'm sleeping so hard it gives me a headache that lasts most of the day. The is enough of a problem that it's damaging my jaw. If I ever disappear completely, it will probably be due to some related catastrophic event. Yesterday I was only moderately ill. I managed to get a few things done ...including like a 3 hour nap in the middle of the day (which is very unlike me.) Today, I am not in pain (this is a miracle) but I'm fantastically weak. I had to move a picnic table bench that belonged to my grandparents from the front of the property to the back and I needed to sit down afterward. I cannot eat highly processed food anymore, especially store made desserts. They kill me. It's so bad I have to straight up say "no" when I'm offered.

Patrick E. McGovern, the ‘Indiana Jones of Ancient Alcohol,’ Dies at 80 https://www.inquirer.com/obituaries/patrick-mcgovern-obituary-penn-museum-beer-wine-20250909.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/obituaries/patrick-mcgovern-dead.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare https://www.wineenthusiast.com/culture/wine/patrick-mcgovern-wine-history/

SawStop safety mechanism not quite as advertised, but still worth it. The tiny little nicks you see in advertisements might not be totally accurate.