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Found out from our neighbors in India that Mr. Sundaram, my math tutor, passed away earlier this week of old age. He was 99. He was a retired Indian Air Force pilot and a retired professor at IIT (India's MIT). Up until 6th grade, I used to get A's in every class except for math and it turned into a problem in 6th grade when my teacher refused to let me slide by with less than mediocre grades. My parents found a tutor and I was told I needed to seek help. Going to a tutor in India was considered in a very negative light. I still remember walking up to him tiny home and being left at the door. He welcomed me in, taught me the first chapter and asked me to do the problems. I made my first of two mistakes with him by asking him which ones. He replied, "what do you mean which ones? All of them." Then he went back to tapping his fingers on the side of his chair while 3 other students and I started doing the problems. A few minutes later, I made the second mistake by asking him to help me with a problem I couldn't solve. He looked at me and said that he had already taught me the lesson and there were no tricks. I protested saying I didn't know how to solve it. He asked me how many times I had read the question. Irritated, I replied with some stupid number. He calmly said give it a few more readings. After 5 minutes of grinding my teeth and not really reading the question, I asked him again. He replied with the same response as earlier - read it a few more times, you will get it. The other 3 kids laughed at me under their breaths. I went home pissed thinking my parents were paying this guy to help me with math and he just sat there playing with his fingers and I was to go to him for an hour every freaking day and for two hours on weekends. I remember waking up in the middle of the night that night, scribbling down the answer to the question and proudly took it to him the following evening. Expecting praise, I walked in with a smug look and proclaimed that I had solved the question. He looked at it and said, "good. Now finish the other 119 problems in this chapter so you can go on to the next chapter. You have a lot to make up before you get to where the others' are." In the three and a half years I worked with him before leaving India, I asked him 3 questions after that first day (he answered only 2 of them). He taught me a lot of math but more importantly he taught how to think on my own and not give up if I couldn't find the solution in the first few attempts. He showed me how math could be incredibly beautiful and elegant. He taught me how to be patient not just with others but with myself. After working with him, I went from barely passing math in 6th grade to the 5th highest scorer in the 10th grade national board exam for math in all of India. It remains one of my proudest accomplishments to date. RIP Mr. SS. Thank you for all that you taught me and for being the most wonderful teacher I ever had.

I got to drive a pre-production hydrogen fuel cell vehicle (Toyota Mirai (it means future)) around San Francisco, briefly, today. The required infrastructure isn't really in place yet, and Elon Musk has said why are we even having this conversation (wrt. Electric vs hydrogen powered cars) but still cool nonetheless. TCO doesn't make sense for me but it does get you a white HOV Lane sticker. P.S. don't mention the Hindenburg

So, I got a chance to check out the L-700 last week end while at the local audio festival in Tokyo. I did not expect much really (I almost missed the show altogether but made the effort to go even if just to say to various friends). I was proved so wrong... Driven from Stax amp, the SR009 was almost put to shame by the new lambda. Their really listened, the voicing is much improved, full bodied yet very open and extended, bass is clean but present in the right amount. At 1/3 the price of the SR009 and cheaper than SR007, being apparently very easy to drive (it's still a lamdba after all), it's a no brainer. I predict Stax is going to make some noise with this one (haven't tried the L-500). Otherwise, I confirmed with Stax the driver is angled, just a bit (a few degrees) but enough to bring the soundstage a bit in front. I did not spend enough time to be able to even trust my own impressions, but it was enough to get me seriously interested in a proper evaluation / possibly starting to save up. My BHSE is dead atm anyhow so something that sounds better than the 009 through stax amps is a welcome news to me, especially if it's also relatively affordable! Cheers, Arnaud

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Waiting to see Al Di Meola electric at City Wine in Chicago. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I hate you. **BRENT**

It's officially hardtop season, so in addition to cleaning a bunch of grit and grime off of it from storing it outside all summer, I got Thule tracks mounted on it, the Thule towers and bars I kept from the last Jeep and the ski box test fit for the upcoming ski season. Also did a bunch of yard work, trying to clean things up before weather really turns.

Fuckin' hippies!

and it has 4G LTE

Spend the afternoon with the reunited FL crew: Mike, John, Gene, Raffy, Carl, Bonnie, me, plus three doggies. Just wonderful!

short version: went on a buddhist retreat last weekend. Haven't had meat since. I'm sure I will again, just not right now?

Thanks to an off-site employee being on-site today, This From here

Dusty, None more Dusty.

Happy Birthday!

brent, new bike for you, on sale today on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002E3KYTS?ref_=gbps_tit_s-3_0822_20d8b1a9&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Don't link to that bloke, he's clueless (only pretending!!). Actually, if you follow the thread a bit (borderline impossible with all the whinning) or just look for pics, you'll find the tuned absorber alright in one of jude's posts. It's stupid simple but I bet this is all that was needed indeed! Cheers, arnaud

Happy birthday dusty!

Late to the party, Happy Birthday Dusty, hope you had a great time

I'm still loving the strap on my new Tudor Black Bay, much more than any bracelet. However, I do think my GMT II and Explorer II look best on bracelets.

No I wasn't there, I was suggesting it as something close to you where you could do mindfulness on your own schedule TNH's sanghas are way less stringent than most other variants, from what I can tell.

nsfw

People stuck behind you on the trail don't Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

Funny this comes out right when I'm thinking about picking up the HD650 again. Maybe its nostalgia, but i want to hear the technics 1200 > singlepower supra > HD650. Used to be my setup but with a PPX3 instead of a supra. Vinyl + HD650 regardless of amp was always kind of a special combination.

Check this place out if you're interested: http://www.lakesidebuddha.org I'm having some steel cut oatmeal with craisins for breakfast. Woo, exciting

I hope they're excellent. I fear they're a black HD800 with the anaxilus mod and a useless cable.

I've lusted for this car since I was a wee boy: Luckily for me, it's a pretty attainable dream. To me, a more beautiful car has never been made. Thanks for the picture, Jeff!

I've got time.

Not up to Colin's spread but still tasty

When you say "we went", I'm assuming it's the person you hire to help you walk after eating all of this food?

Brunch Then we went to a tea market, and tried somewhere in the range of 20 teas. And later, dinner.

One for Dan, the Beetle Fanatic. This thing was a BEAST. Built 509 with a Procharger. Rattled all the windows. Awesome Skyline Another for my list of ugliest M cars?

The price is retarded and having Jude try and shill them is just sad. Well not for Jude as we all know he's a cunt but rather for Shure as they might have something good here. The amp has to be better than the POS KingSound are calling a portable amplifier... I do feel the sudden urge to make a super tiny KGSSHV and throw some batteries and a couple of DC to DC converters on it.