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Change of Command is this week, which means I get my 4th boss in three years (FML) so I decided I'd fabricobble the command gift. The outgoing skipper is a Navy diver who has a penchant for clapping to build morale. So I decided that I needed to work all that into the gift. So the rough motif is a replica Navy diving bell mounted to a plaque with our command logo and major project logos engraved into brass coins. but the kicker is that the helmet sits on an LED base that lights up and yes, can be controlled by a Clapper.

Progress report

A day late, but I moved. No longer in MAGA Warren county. Much relief, shoulder and neck tension down, anxiety down, blood pressure down, much relief...

This past weekend I went up to my Maine condo. Met up with an Audio friend for lunch in Portland, then worked my way South back to the condo. I ended up talking non-highway routes (Rt 1), and made stops coincidentally at several places Karen and I visited last Fall when we did a similar trip. Was both sad and wonderful, good memories but emptier without her. For anyone travelling to Southern Maine, some fun foodie places: The Cheese Iron in Scarborough - https://www.thecheeseiron.com/ Holy Donut in Portland and Scarborough (and a smaller location right near my condo!) - https://www.theholydonut.com/ Len Libby Candy shop Scarborough and home of Lenny the Chocolate Moose - https://www.lenlibby.com/ Maine is a beautiful state, lots of great small towns near and off the water. When we would go up, we'd literally feel the stress wash off and our shoulders relax as we crossed the bridge from NH into Maine. Gratuitous pic of Lenny the Moose.....

Took a Boat To The City Saw some controversial art. SF prices? Walked to a tech conference, where the zeitgeist is not just AI, but agentic AI. With phat/sick beats. And the expected A/V kit. Had a tech demo from a CEO, as one does. No need to be alarmed, citizen. Your timer starts now ... The conference ended with a nerd get together ( Code Block Party) Then some San Franciso Street Life And a First Thursday Gathering with one of many Waymos. Then back past the art, In time to catch the Last Ferry back a busy, but enjoyable day

Thanks, everyone! Really appreciate the sentiment, Al. Been a really rough time as of late, but birthday was a good day. Went to Bateau, a place @cetoole and I have been meaning to go to for over 7 years. Finally went, and while not the best steak I've ever had, it was really enjoyable. Started the evening with some local wines from the bike shop across the street, Metier. 5pm reservation, so we could get first choice. These were the options on my birthday. Pupperz Cowz Appetizer Onions on the side, obvsly Mmmmm, brioche Salted butter with burnt kale wrap, or some nonsense. The salt on top of this butter wasn't the best thing of the evening, but like... top 3. Beef-fat washed walnut old-fashioned Cheeseburger croquette... slider Colin version We got the 21-day dry aged 18oz bone-in chuckeye and the 126 day dry aged 5oz sirloin tip cap, both med rare. Lemon-herb butter on the chuckeye and bone marrow butter on the sirloin tip cap. Nori butter on the side for Colin. I tried it; not my scene. You'd probably all love it. Mashed potatoes. Milk, butter, potatoes, and gruyere. Some wine Colin knows the name of A little token from the place Finished it off with a little complimentary cookies and creme foam Rest of pix: https://imgur.com/a/birthday-dinner-2025-bs1yDDT

Had the day off yesterday (company has "wellbeing days" the last couple of years - thanks Covid!), so went to Stanford's Cantor and Anderson museums. Chuckled at this Tony Oursler animated sculpture-projection which seemingly judged you as you judged other works.

It's custard night. Quiche with chevre, potatoes, and chives. And a tarte with creme pat and peach compote.

I've been engaging in a bit of a photographic revisionist history/redemption arc. 2006 was a crazy year. I was working 3+ nights a week doing lights in nightclub (in addition to everything I did all day), and doing other sporadic events as well. It was mostly fun and I made enough money for it to be worthwhile. I cannot imagine doing it now. This was a time period right before LED luminaries became mainstream and most club lights were halogen or arc bulb based. This meant normal people could not operate or maintain them, so there was a niche I was able to carve out for a one man lighting business. All of that would change by the end of the decade. During this time period, I took a ton of photos. Many of them are really awful. To the point, the edits I posted were terrible. I operated under the misguided notion that cropping a tiny section out of a 5MP original (taken with a mid 00s point & shoot sensor) was a good idea. Also many of the photos were of the partygoers and in my opinion even the originals for most of those shots are just bad. In 2007, partially inspired by some scene drama, I privated ~1500 photos on Flickr and got on with my day. There's still a couple people from the mid 00s who have a grudge against me because of shots I took during that time. (There's a long story here about a garage house DJ I knew who had a very attractive and insanely jealous girlfriend. I had a photo of him ogling a go-go dancer, she saw it and got mad at him. He of course blamed me for his dysfunctional relationship.) Oh wait, I still have the relevant photos: ...but I digress. 2006 was also a significant year because it was when I bought my first DSLR (EOS 30D that I made heavy use of for entirely too long.) I bought the 30D because my PowerShot S60 died ...twice. Canon were real shitters about fixing it. I have been going through photos I took in the first half of '06, all taken with the S60. The process is slow and laborious, but it's therapeutic for me (and lord knows we all need some therapy these days.) I have been working from the original images (fortunately, I am a compulsive archivist and data hoarder), doing minimal edits and the then replacing them on Flickr. This is a process that no one besides myself will ever appreciate. Lucky for me I'm an only child and my primary audience. As I mentioned above, many of the shots are not salvageable. Using the built in flash on a ca. 2004 point & shoot while the club is full of fog is a benighted idea in the best of circumstances. I took a LOT of photos during this time period and it may well be years before I've finished this task. The following is a small sample: Spinning fire, Jan 2006. 0.4" handheld. I had no idea what I was doing. Re-cropped square but otherwise unedited. Same party as above. My friend Ed, who is a video artist and electronic musician. He has a tendency to hold still for long periods of time. 1.6 second exposure, with the camera sitting on ...some object (I no longer remember what.) I've got a long story about Ed I might tell some day. Re-cropped square, no other edits. A slow night at a Sunday event I worked in an expensive but ultimately shitty bar. 4 second exposure with the camera sitting on case. Cropped 2-3, but otherwise unedited. Same club a month later. Around that time Technics tried to compete with Pioneer in the CDJ market and made a really weird and poorly received product. They made for an interesting light source however. 4 second exposure again with the camera resting on an equipment case. Re-cropped 4:5 (my favorite aspect ratio) but otherwise unedited. Longtime reggae DJ. He's got a huge local following. I never saw eye to eye with him on a great many things (I could write a fucking book on that subject, but I won't.) 1/4 second handheld. I could hold the camera pretty steady for such a long focal length. The joys of a 5.8mm focal length... Part of the live kit belonging to Ed, the bald fella from a few shots above. Not a good photo at all, but the synth gear is too cool not to include. Sadly, in early 2012 Ed passed out drunk with a lit cigarette and burned his studio down. That was a very bad day. Alcoholism is the worst. Same show, available light. 1/6th, handheld. Re-cropped 4:5, but otherwise unedited. That blue LED Doepfer Schaltwerk was the stuff of legend. Same gig. Ed lit up by my 20mW 532nm green 3 mirror lissajous laser. 1 second exposure. No idea what I used as a tripod. Ricardo, the guy who helped me finish my Saturnine mix in 2009. Seen here in April of '06, using my CDJ and mixer combination. I could NOT find that flight case when I moved. That's somewhat concerning as it's kind of huge. Half a second handheld, cropped 4:5. All of this is the tip of the iceberg. I've probably re-edited ~100 photos at this point. More later.

“Wendt showed up as Norm over the years on St. Elsewhere, Wings, The Simpsons, Family Guy, Frasier and The Tortellis and as himself on Seinfeld and The Larry Sanders Show. He also had recurring roles on The Naked Truth and Sabrina the Teenage Witch and guest-starred on other series like Alice, Soap, Hart to Hart, Becker, Hot in Cleveland, Columbo, Harry’s Law, Fresh Off the Boat and The Goldbergs.“ That’s pretty impressive. Also in Hairspray on Broadway.

Several years back, I met a Head-Fi member from San Antonio, known as plaid platypus. I visited his home and was very impressed with his Genelec system. Today Genelec's pinnacle loud speaker is the 8381A. It's a 5 way adaptive point source monitor. At $32,000 per speaker, it's not cheap. But as a fan of the Genelec sound, I'd love to hear these speakers.

Did this today today – in full dayligt. Replaced EML 20B-V4 with 2A3 tubes in a Megatron with solid state constant current sources. Changes are filament voltage and cathode resistors (from 640 ohm to 3600 ohm. Only light is from blue and red LEDs and some light from the tubes themself.

And I'll add Paul McCartney's favorite. When I found out Melissa was pregnant, the first album I thought of introducing to future Esmé was Pet Sounds.

I have questions.

Steve wanted a couple to action shots.

Cut some big pieces of wood into smaller pieces of wood, which will then be made into bigger pieces of wood in the end. Been a while. Felt good

^hmmm how would it work with a loaf.... Today's bake, happy with the oven spring this time. Simple country loaf with a bit of oat flower flour added. 36 hour fermentation process wild yeast bread.

Ukrainian folk song performed by the wonderful Pelageya. This is why I own Grado RS-1 headphones, songs like this one become hauntingly beautiful.

Last step in fondant potatoes is to put them in the oven, so currently baking these.

In Petaluma for the Salute to American Graffiti.

This is hardly porn, but... I got a Velodyne CHT powered sub for the low price of "you're first in line, come pick it up" today. #MVLife

Slava Ukraini

As others have reported, a bit of a heat wave here yesterday. What better time to stand in the sun and eat funnel cakes at a county fair (elephant ears were sadly out of stock - damn you West Coast)? In a sign of the times, about half the animals on display as normal due to the bird flu. As a stabilizing influence, every band still knowns Tom Petty. if you’re curious about the disadvantages of using an old lens without modern coatings…

Do pizza ovens count?

The griddlers in action again... They were absolutely delicious!

This With a new friend, "Mochi" She even got on well with Joanne But She had to leave with her parents to go to Truckee for the weekend. It was nice to meet you Mochi!

Relived first meal outside the house after the lockdown. Also annual heart stress test.

Happy Birthday, Brent!

Infecting the next generation. Andrew's new ride is a leftover Specialized Fuse Sport. Specialized stopped making the bike in 2022 but had made so many that dealers still had them and they were blowing them out. Original MSRP $2400, paid $999. Bought one for Lily two years ago for $1600 and thought that was a screaming deal. Can't wait to get him out on the trails if it would ever stop raining around here.

I'm currently listening to an "Arcadia" album you might like better.

Six worthless posts in the first 30 minutes on Head-case is a recipe for pain. If there is still a welcome message, I suggest that you read it and heed it.

If you know, you know

Cleaning out the HDD a bit....

Banana bread for the birthday boy - somehow Andrew is 14.

Ed Smylie, Who Saved the Apollo 13 Crew Dies at 95 “If you’re a Southern boy, if it moves and it’s not supposed to, you use duct tape.” https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/16/science/space/ed-smylie-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Hk8.IFsM.u4gMmyOIc10U&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare (Gift article)

concrete!

Memorial Day BBQ with Claire's sibs and families. My offerings were tempura batter fried zucchinis with an amazing tonnato dipping sauce from Pasta Supply Co. and a couple racks of smoked and grilled baby back ribs. Forgot to take a pic after cutting them up.

Flourless Chocolate Cake 🍫 🍰

Chicken tinga enchiladas

Rest in peace big guy.

Day two: Copland: Appalachian Spring, Lincoln Portrait & Billy the Kid Suite by Henry Fonda, London Symphony Orchestra, Aaron Copland (1988) https://album.link/5msv0g08sjqc2 Example: A recording that I know very well. Bought it during the Columbia House days, and played it a lot. But has been many a year. A touch ironic that these recordings were all with the LSO. What's wrong with the 'merikan bands Aaron? I don't blame him, the LSO sounds wonderful on these recordings. These pressings were good not great in the 80s, but it is good to hear that the recordings are great.

Simple Sunday bake. Not as much oven spring as I would have wished for but it should eat.

Early 80s X.

The Go-Gos played the Warfield Theater in San Francisco last night. Kathy Valentine posted these shots to her Bluesky account: