Knuckledragger

It's as much room (and Herman Miller) porn as it is speaker porn, innit?

1972 Citroën DS.

We got hit by a major storm last night. Power was out for over 6 hours. 10 minutes after 8 until well past 2AM. I had all sorts of fun issues during it. My iPhone refused to connect to my laptop. I had a lightning cable handy and when I connected them, the iPhone went nuts spamming "trust this device" confirmation popups. The problem was that it the popups disappeared immediately and wouldn't let me click on any of them. It also made a chime noise every time a popup appeared, which quickly wore away at my already fraying sanity. Weirdly, the two devices did pair wirelessly and I was able to get on the internets, sort of. I checked my electric company's website and they had a handy map showing my house smack dab in the middle of it. There was a crew assigned, but the estimated time of power restoration was noon *today.* After half an hour of staring at slow internet on my phone/laptop pair, I had enough. I found my car keys, wallet, etc. (keep in mind I have not left my property in over 8 weeks at this point) and fired up the Fit. I have a "Battery Tender" trickle charger, so the Fit's battery (notoriously fickle) was full. I had also put air in the tires (which go soft after sitting for prolonged periods of time) two days ago. Happily, the engine started right up and purred like a 1.5L kitten. I got halfway down my street when I realized that I was only hearing music out of one set of speakers. I cursed, futzed with the cable, caused all sorts of ear shredding static to pop out of the speakers, but could not get actual music in both channels. I cursed further and drove back home. By flashlight, I located a spare 1/8" to 1/8" cable. The one I'd been using was in service constantly from late 2013, so it didn't really owe me anything. New cable found, I went back out to the Fit and installed it. Yay, music in both channels! I drove around my town and saw exactly what I expected. Other than my immediate area, everyone had power. This has been the story living here for 20 years. I went to a near-ish ATM and checked my bank balance. Not terrible. Funny thing, I haven't been spending much money apart from regular bills in the last 2 months. Not sure why. I got through the better part of X-Dream's landmark 1998 album Radio before I got bored. I also charged the iPhone a bit. I got back home and of course the power was still out. I was headed back in the house when a giant electric company truck went down my street. It had a bright AF searchlight on the roof and was scanning the wires. "Looking for the electricity" as a friend of mine described it. Depressingly, the went all the way down my street without stopping. I once again sat in my comfy chair with a couple candles lit and did some IP-over-telephone browsing. I took a nap earlier, hoping to sleep through the blackout. I didn't, but I was wide awake as a result. Sometime after 2AM, the power came back on. As it always does, it arrived with a surge. I've been through this before many times in the last two decades, so I have a small army of surge protectors. There's a whole house unit with a very low (that's better) clamping voltage that cost me a pretty penny. I also have 3 UPSes and countless power strip form factor surge protectors. Well, once of the devices NOT connected to a power strip was the PSU for my ca. 2001 class compliant (doesn't require drivers) USB audio interface. Of course, it died. It was only my laziness and ineptitude that kept it from being plugged into a power strip. Much foul language and rummaging later, I found a spare USB audio "interface." It's a Blue Icicle I bought off ...some Head-Caser around a decade ago. I never used it other than to test it. It plugged in and lit up, but Windows refused to recognize it. A google search later, I found an amazingly helpful YouTube video from a British fella who found out that some Hercules drives from 2009(!) called Hercules_2009_GMXLPLT3_2_Win7 worked with the Icicle with both Windows 8.1 and 10. There were a couple other casualties. The batter for the APC UPS I have powering my network hardware (essential) gave up the ghost. I need to order a replacement, which is a nontrivial task in the best of times. I also had some weird issues with a few other devices. I'm going to have to carefully test a bunch of shit over the next week or so. This weekend has gotten off to an amazing start. Obviously, I didn't do my radio show last night. To be honest, I'm not sure I'm going to do it tonight, either. After last night's debalce, I'm just not in the mood. I think I'm going to go outside and clear brush.

I gotcher vales righ cheer:

MASSIVE storm here in scenic western MA. Tornado warning. Power already out. House shaking from the thunder. Seriously doubt there will be a show tonight.

Icon Audio Stereo 60 MK III.

Kenwood KA-7300 x2.

This is pretty amazing. Also, Jerry has gotten so fat I'm worried he's going to die right before our very eyes.

Eww. Gross. Sorry. [Surprised Pikachu meme] Older borker with light sensitivity issues and his custom goggles.

Test Tone @ Home live right now: http://mixlr.com/illuminator/chat

Do I have to explain this one?

DIY Speaker stands: '

Arch Rock, Joshua Tree. Click for slightly larger. True words seldom spoken. "...and just like that, Blue Lives didn't Matter anymore." Taken with a pinhole camera. Fully-restored 1958 Golden Sahara II with Goodyear's Illuminated Neothane Glow-Tyres.