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Yesterday we went to a picnic put on by the Ligue Henri IV, which was a fraternal organization to support men and their families from the southwest of France for over 100 years until last year when membership was opened to women as well. I've been a member since I was 14 years old (age of admission) and my siblings and kids are all For the picnic, the Ligue provides grilled lamb and loaves of French bread for the princely sum of $5.00 per person. The members and guests bring the rest of their meals and beverages. I should have shown you the two trays of lamb we had -- a whole leg and multiple large racks of ribs -- along with six large loaves. It was excellent lamb and perfectly grilled.

Back at work today, feeling way better.

All this deferred resignation stuff has meant the departure of a few key staff members, one in particular I've worked with for nearly 15 years and deserved something more than an Irish goodbye. So I made him a little something for his retirement yesterday. That's the blank walnut, engraved/machined with the cnc machine. Finish applied, awaiting infill bits. Finished project. The middle bit is an original survey boundary marker for the island that I rescued from a demo project. It's likely way more than 100 years old. I thought he deserved to take a little piece of the place with him even if it's a little tarnished and scarred. I prefer things that way actually, probably because I resemble the description.

Thanks for the birthday wishes (and I love the pic, Al)! I'm spending the day grading finals but tonight, I am having dinner new restaurant, Camaraderie, with a couple of friends tonight. Then doing bowling dressed as The Big Lebowski characters tomorrow night with my lezzie crew!

Hope you have a great day even though you celebrated early! Cheers!

In the summer of 2007 I hiked up Mount Sugarloaf in Sunderland. I went up there many times in the '00s, both with and without a camera. The view from it is spectacular and really shows off a pastoral and idyllic perspective of the Happy Valley. The weather was fantastic and there were some hot ail balloons floating around merrily. Unfortunately for me, on this date I took the always terrible Canon 75-300mm lens and I did NOT know what I was doing. The photos came out terribly. I sat on them for nearly 18 years until last month when I sat down and processed them with some modern apps. I had to make deft use of Luminar 4, Topaz Sharpen AI and Photoshop to extract remotely decent results. The sharpening was key, and a faustian bargain. The 75-300mm is never sharp. I wasn't smart enough to up my 30D's ISO to improve shutter speed so a bunch of the shots have lens motion blur. The 30D isn't the most sharp thing to begin with in the best of circumstances. Too much AI sharpening makes for weird and very obvious artifacts. There is no perfect solution. With all of this said, the end results here aren't half bad. I rate this set a solid "Crank up that ISO you dumbass" out of 10. I did take a few shots with the 17-85mm, which is is a Leica rangefinder lens in comparison to the 75-300mm.

Who was responsible for the partitioning of India into India and Pakistan? Mountbatten, last British Viceroy of India (the same guy blown up by the IRA in 1979). The British Government in 1947 decided to partition India into a predominantly Hindu India and a Muslim Pakistan. Mountbatten rushed it through, announcing the partition in June '47 and the partition border put in place and the new states established on 15th August '47. With as usual little thought for the consequences. That rush to partition by Mountbatten caused mass migrations and hardship, with roads packed with people heading in both directions. And like all partitioning exercises - Gaza and Israel is another example - they inevitably end in tears.

Adam "MCA" Yauch died 13 years ago today. August 8, 1964 - May 4, 2012. His is one of the few celebrity deaths I mark every year. Kurt Cobain might be the most iconic Gen X musician, but I maintain that the Beasties were the true voice of the entire generation.

So you're not pregnant?

This was a weird collaboration, but ultimately I think it works.

Back when Kenny was cool. Can anyone point out another famous band member? He was in many well known movies including Slingblade. Also made multiple appearances on Home Improvement.

cuz

The Heat Is On by The Isley Brothers (1975) https://album.link/7hgzhp5b2zmd8 Example: 50 years ago as it is today. - I agree with the Brothers.

Man Cold?

Celebrating a few beautiful female trios.

Older (and Wiser) by Lizzy McAlpine (2024) https://album.link/wgwhc8wnv2w2n Example: I really appreciate this release. At Just over an hour and 19 total tracks this explores a lot of things that she wants to say. I appreciate the production, close mic work like normal, but I was surprised at least 3 times by the choices made, and I am not surprised easily by music.

mini margarita cheesecakes EDIT:

hehe - that is why it was funny... :} I'm a funny guy - just ask me... To which my normal reply is - "I'm funny Damn It!"

Small n Blueberry Pancakes 🫐 🥞

Wild and Clear and Blue by I’m With Her (2025) https://album.link/kkwxgxxchdbdn Example: Finally released today. First listen was at 2am before bed. Did not disappoint. Happy to have more I'm with Her music.

Happy Birthday Shelly! may your happiness increase exponentially: I could not figure out the source code to make the formula work in the forum, so sorry about the screencap. :} Cheers -

I’ll just buy at Best Buy and return the loser 🤷‍♂️

Mini Margarita Cheesecake.

I loved the Beasties and MCA turned into such a great human that is was extra tragic to lose him so young. Seems weird that was 13 years ago. I saw them twice, 20 years apart. In 1987, I saw them at small club on a the Licensed To Ill tour, their first headlining tour, with Fishbone or Murphys Law opening, which was fucking nuts. In 2007, they were at the Greek Theater in Berkeley, which isn't the biggest joint but still a very different experience.

Deck Blueberry Pancakes 🫐🥞

I think the RSV vaccine is pretty effective. I do feel just a little better today than yesterday.

Grayson Capps - Heartbreak, Misery & Death Neko Case - This Little Light Murphy Campbell - A Short Life of Trouble

Post https://svauthorsfest.org/authors-on-the-plaza/ Sonoma Picnic with the Brits.

Dorothy and Corrinne were already planning to drop off tests and food and I added mucinex and suggested the crazy idea of asking you what you want rather than guessing and overdoing it, which is their default.

Al's Sister Corrine is bringing me some easy meals, fruits, Musinex and tests. I'm guessing someone read and passed on the news. Good friends are my wealth!

I think I want a super automatic for the store. Thinking a Jura J8. What say y'all?

Re-reading a chunk of Isaac Asimov's stuff - Foundation series, Robot yarns etc. The Foundation trilogy was published in 1951-3 and have really stood the test of time. I became curious how Asimov died. Turned out a too early 72. But in his early 60's he had a triple heart bypass (in 1983), and was given a blood transfusion tainted with AIDS - and that was what killed him in due course. Same thing happed to the tennis player Arthur Ashe aged 49 - again following heart bypass surgery in 1983.

Happy Cinco de Mayo Deck 🦃 🍔 and Fixin's

Uhm, what? That was 1976 my friend.

^^ enjoyable - thx

In the summer of 2006, I got my first DSLR: an EOS 30D and its "better" kit lens, the EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6 IS USM (which shit the bed on me like 3 years later.) I went on a road trip with a friend from scenic western MA to southern Vermont. VT is a beautiful state, and I have many happy (if, ahem, somewhat hazy) memories of attending college there. I took along my shiny new camera and snapped a bunch of shots. I had no idea what the fuck I was doing. The photos were terrible, largely because me having not understanding exposure. I uploaded a few at the time, but ignored the rest for 18+ years. I revisiting them this past January and applied some modern editing tools and 20 years of photo editing experience. The view I had every day at Landmark College in the mid 90s. I had no idea how good I had it. Same view in 1996, taken by my then-girlfriend. Did I ever mention I had a red haired girlfriend from Maine? I still have at least one from her... We then went on and saw a logging operation that was on the VT/NH border. It was quite a spectacle of machinery, dust, smoke, sprinklers and of course huge piles of logs. I took a bunch of shots and they more or less all came out terribly. I particularly like the puff of smoke on this one. For all of these shots, I loaded them into Luminar 4 and spent quite a bit of time working them over. Luminar 4 applies pseudo-HDR math, but with careful tuning, it's possible to keep it out of the cartoonish territory most smartphone cameras reside in. For just about all of them I also applied a lookup table. I did some final edits in Photoshop and in a number of cases cropped them to 16:9. I am an absolute goose stepping Nazi about aspect ratios and 16:9 is not one I normally use. With that said, I didn't like all the empty space above in many of these shots. I did much of this work while still recovering from covid, which might have had some effects on my decision making process. In the end, I'm quite pleased with these edits. The old "F/8 and be there" adage looms large here. As long as a shot is even halfway framed and exposed correctly, it can probably be salvaged in editing. Tune in next time for more of the same, but with hot air balloons!

Poolside Picnic. With unexpected guests.

❤️

This Ain't The Way You Go Out by Lucy Rose (2024) https://album.link/zndjqpgj62k6v Example: Very much enjoyed as a new find.

They are OS film, but the 0.5 micron version was sold out last year https://hobbyspecialties.com/product/os-film/ Only 0.68 micron version of OS7 film is available now https://hobbyspecialties.com/product/os7-film/ If you can use Taobao, there is 0.9 micron version for sale on Taobao. Search: ’0.5微米 F1D’ and you should be able to find the store. Although the title on Taobao is 0.5 micron, the actual version sold is 0.9 micron though... They are all actually DuPont CW02 PET films with special customized thickness, which are also the base film of Hifiman 'nano-diaphragm' planars and the dust cover of their estats.

updated board file, 10k input resistors added (optional) and 25k changed to 17k cfaelectrostatschem2-4 - CADCAM.ZIP

Not even at my final twinkweight? Having a few issues with the guitar levels but I hope whoever miked the drums got an extra beer!

A little late to the party... "Simply the 10 BEST Cassette Decks ever made"... bold claim:

Wool - Hugh Howey. Fun book. They adapted the first half of this one in to the TV show "Silo". I do enjoy the story archetypes where they drop you in a world with lots of strange stuff where things start happening and you have to keep reading to figure out what the heck is going on.

One could say that the legs of BJT is shifted one step to the right. So I just bent the legs accordingly and put a pin header in the left hole and then mount the transistor with desired torque . As I do it the pin header is hold in place by the crossed leg. Solder and it’s done. Few pictures below. Hope they show how I did it. I've modified one T2 and one Blue Hawaii this way. And it works fine.