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I don’t know if anyone still uses last.fm, but this year they did a cool visualization for when you listened to music the most. Time of day across a line representing listens for each of the 52 weeks. Looks like a personalized Joy Division cover.

Love me some Agnes Obel and I had never seen this performance before. Absolutely stunning. Apologies if it’s already been posted.

Luckily my wife’s family is safe. My sister-in-law and niece live in Lewiston, just outside the Bates campus, between the two scenes. And my in-laws are about 5 miles away in Auburn. It was a pretty stressful evening with so little information. Hope they’re able to track him down soon.

After all of the good feedback on the Black Cat, I gave it a shot. Got the machine pretty well dialed for it. Tried really hard to like it… Not sure how to describe what I don’t like about it, but I guess it’s just not for me.

Figured I'd post here... Checking to see if anyone has a FujiFilm X-T2/3 or X-T20/30 they're interested in selling. Lauren has rented a bunch of the mirrorless options and at this point has decided she wants to supplement the D750 as opposed to replacing it. So the Sony and Nikon options are on hold. And the size of the Fujis are nice.

Follow-up time. This cat is ridiculous. There’s still some drama between her and the other female cats, but it’s less and less every day. And the family ended up settling in Snickerdoodle, and she gets called Doodle most of the time. It fits. She’s getting very comfortable…

Fluff was my vote!

With the three cats bonded with three members of the family, Piper was feeling left out. So now we’re a four cat family. Picked up a female Flame Point Siamese tonight from the same rescue as our two other meezers. Just over a year old. We haven’t settled in a name yet, but with Nutella, Marshmallow and Jelly Bean, we kind of feel the need to stay on-brand. Tough to get a good picture because she won’t stop moving to get more pets. But she’s settling in quickly. We’ll keep her separated from the other kitties for a few days. And I think it’s safe to say we’re good on cats.

Just circling back on this. I know it's not for everyone, but JFC, this album still hits just as hard as it did a year ago, even after an obscene number of plays. It's dark and achingly beautiful. 5 stars.

Listened to the latest Death Spells yesterday and I liked it. A lot. Thanks for letting me know it was out!

They were on a track grime Kælan Mikla from their latest that I loved, and I grabbed Spiritual Instinct. I remember liking it but never really circled back. I listened to Hvítir Sandra again and it made me dig deep. Needless to say, it grabbed me this time. I’ll check that out. I do have Realms, which I like a lot, and Death Spells, which hadn’t clicked the same way. But I’ll remedy that ASAP.

Late to the Alcest train. Really like Blackgaze, thus my love of Deafheaven. But these guys do a lot more melodic stuff. The Apple Music Alcest Essentials playlist is a nice 22 song, 2 hr 42 min way to enjoy music across their catalog.

After 8+ years, we decided to replace the Barista Express. While it has been leaking for a while, the leaks recently got bad enough to affect the quality of the espresso. Based on the experience with it, we decided we didn’t want too big a change, and ended up with the Barista Express Impress. The dosing and tamping is much cleaner and it just took pulling a few shots to get it dialed in. I like that it still has the pressure dial, unlike some of the higher-end machines.

We just had to replace the tires on the Touareg with less than 30k miles. I hit a piece of metal, and it was non-repairable. But the rear edge of the inside had worn through just like the OE tires did with 25k miles, so they were already past due getting replaced. Each time I only missed on rotation. We ended up with a different Michelin than you posted about... I'll check when I get home but I think they're the Latitude Tour HP. They said at the shop that regardless of what we put on it, the Touaregs and the Porche platform-mates go through the rears like that regardless of alignment. He didn't say anything about the Lexus SUVs, but said the BMW and MB SUVs have similar odd tire wear and 25-30k is to be expected. Crazy. That said, the Michelins are much better than the Bridgestones they replaced. They are quieter, better over road irregularities and seem better planted. EDIT: Confirmed they’re the Latitude Tour HP.

Finished this up last night. Thoroughly enjoyed it. I can see how it was an unplanned addition to the three-book series, and it does a great job of filling in a lot of gaps. Just a minor issue...