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It's a small and crazy world! Many of you know that I've semi-retired as a Carpenter, and am working at a Lumber Yard/Hardware store here in Fairfax, CA. I help a lot of Contractors locally, and being a small town, many have heard of my work, because of Jack Irving, who I worked with on Al's house years back. Some that I'm close to have seen pics of many of my past projects. Today I got a call from an older, local Contractor/Musician (there are many in the area). He was at Linda Ronstadt's house in San Francisco yesterday. He's been her Contractor and her friend for decades. She was telling him about some bookshelves that she saw at a bookstore in the Sunset district. She wanted to know if he could build some like them? So they went to look them over. Upon arriving, the store owner recognized Linda and struck up a conversation. Linda explained how she loved the custom shelving. The owner told her about the man that built them, but that he wasn't working with the same Contractor anymore. She showed Linda more of his work at the bookstore, and then invited them to her house a few blocks away for lunch, and to see all of the custom work he'd done there. During lunch she informed her that she still had his phone number and said she'd call to see if it was OK to give it out. In doing so she mentioned his full name. Her Contractor and friend Andy Giddings said "wait, I know him, he works at the lumber counter of my local lumber yard". Today Andy Giddings got my number from my employers after explaining the story, and he called me to tell me that Linda Rondstadt would love to have me build her some bookshelves, and maybe more. He told me that I was going to love her, and she me. We talked about possibly working together on that project. He was also impressed with my work. It's a funny world. I'm not actively seeking weekend projects, but who's going to turn down Linda Ronstadt?

For those of you so inclined.....my nephew (niece's husband) Chris is in Russia (Kazakhstan) now, and he will be launching EARLY local time on a Soyuz rocket to go to the ISS!!! Streaming is available at https://plus.nasa.gov/ 3 highlights (times are EST):

Had dinner with @cetoole and @MexicanDragon, who graciously drove out to meet me in Lake Forest Park. I am also convinced Seattle is entirely too cold for me. Get me back to sunny California!

Starting to look the part!

Bourbon pecan pie.

Congrats to Chris! Perfect launch.* *to time with my middle of the night switch from legs to breasts in the sous vide.

Fuck it. I made a full batch. Cheers Matt!

It’s still rocking. I just released the hookers and blow into the 6th floor.

I just got a colnago c50 with super record 11, but no pictures until Christmas because it’s under the proverbial tree.

Got a ride with the ANG two weeks ago to check out our remote project site in what southerners call Northern Maine (Bangor area). They had an issue with the first aircraft, but thankfully had a spare, and the delayed departure made for a convenient return time.

Indeed!! My mom said his kids took it hard when he left for the rocket but were excited to see him in the ISS itself.

Well, nothing has happened yet except a phone call from another Contractor. But I'm excited just to meet her. I watched her documentary a little while back and was even more intrigued with her life than previously. I'd be extremely honored to build anything for her, but there are some time hurdles to jump over before anything is going to happen. Still, I can't imagine not jumping a few hurdles to make this happen.

The funny thing is, I don't really find those bookshelves to be anything special. But people like what they like. But the bookstore owner is one of my favorite past clients. She and I collaborated on many of the things I built at her stunning $8,000,000 home. It's literally across the street from the ocean on the Great Highway. The bookstore she owns is a coffee shop as well, where I was awarded free coffee for life.🙂 It was my first big project after the pandemic, and she told my boss that on that project I would be her employee, so that we didn't have to run our ideas through the company. She paid me more than I made with the company, and we only grew closer in that time period.

Arrived

"I inherited my late father-in-law's system and need some guidance." says a redditor. The system: Some father-in-law. I married the wrong woman. "Knuckles, you're not married." That's besides the point!

This is just plain beautiful! All pales in comparison 💕

Glad that you got to see Colin.

Jumpstarted the holiday cheer (winterless necessity) with a trip to lights.

Thanks Ric! Something was meant to be, we had a power blip at ~3:45am EST and my alarm keypad beeping woke me up. Managed to watch the launch as well! Time for caffeine....a whole fucking bunch of it! 🤣 Have a 3.5-4 hour (if I'm lucky) drive in a bit.....

Bit excessive but I got an unworn Platona from EWC. Traded the Lange 1815 Chrono and a couple of other watches I wasn't wearing much. We're all going to die soon, might as well enjoy it. IDK?

Went to hear Wynton tonite .. spotted Paul Simon in the crowd

As for me... played with my kids all day (my back is broken from sitting on the floor). Rachel is helping her Parents move all weekend, so I'm solo. Just ate dinner and am cleaning up. May stream later, but may be too tired. Not a bad day, but no fucking 'contacted by Linda Rondsadt's people' kind of day, haha.

A few worthy photos from CAF this weekend…

Thanks all. Hope all is well with everyone! Trying to start a program related to my headphone correction research back in the day actually.

Decided to have a go at Chicken Korma. Bites while seasoning were pretty great. Naan is staying warm in the oven to go alongside.

Finally the PCB's arrived for the Kiwi Ears headphone drivers: Just three different PCB's needed, on the left is the diaphragm ring which is a 0.6mm pcb but with no solder mask so it is actually 0.51mm. This has to be ENIG to make it completely flat but most fabs require that anyway. Film is 2um mylar-c as that is so simple to get and relatively easy to work with. In the middle is the dust cover holder/spacer. I made this 1.6mm thick as that way it clears the stock lip on the baffle that was around the dynamic driver. I used the first one as spacer and then stacked up the driver sandwich. For the dust covers I used the same mylar as the diaphragms but not stretched as much Finally the stators, 1mm ENIG pcb's and this is the outer side with the inner side having a smaller active area, aka like the SR-007. Holes are a bit less than 1mm but that can easily be altered for another run. Here they are assembled with the only alterations to the baffle where I counter sunk the mounting screws. There were just the three holes there in a row and with the earpad mounting plate being flush to this, it had to be done. One second with a counter sunk bit will do this as this is nasty, cheap ABS plastic. Here they are assembled. Only mods to the chassis is that I enlarged the two holes there are on each side (cable entry and a port on top) to 5mm so the strain relief would fit and the solid plastic plug I glued into where the port is. The cable is the 6 core silicone wire that can be found everywhere now with a 3D printed Y-split and Stax plug made from an XLR plug and pins. Now for the sound... lets just call it work in progress. This is very much the first draft and one channel is slightly weaker than the other (I swapped out the diaphragm for another which fixed it mostly) so I need to look into that. I'll probably just build a second pair of drivers so I can match them into pairs as I have another set of the headphones. Massive baffle leak too and the housing... has issues... so bass is not their strong suit for now. That needs to be fixed but I might have to get creative with that. Still for a cheap project that took only a few hours to make and cost less than 150$ all in... there are worse ways to spend an afternoon.

When I was a kid my Mom made the same Thanksgiving dishes every year. One of them was green bean casserole. Probably like many of your Moms made too. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either. Canned green beans, French's fried onions and cream of mushroom soup. Like many vegetables and other dishes of my childhood I didn't know that I liked them until I was living on my own and tasted the fresh version. So I thought the concept (Trump joke) of green bean casserole was good. But what if it was elevated to using fresh ingredients? So today I set out to test that theory. I trimmed and sautéed about 3 pounds of green beans. Then sliced and sautéed a large amount of mushrooms in butter and white wine. I decided that making my own fried onions might not be worth the extra effort, so French's fried onions it was. In place of cream of mushroom soup, I used cream of celery soup, as I like the flavor better and had already incorporated fresh mushrooms into the dish. I have enough for a small army, as I had planned to take this to Al's before catching a cold. How is it? Well it has about 15 more minutes to bake, so I'll let you know later. You can't tell, but there are two layers of everything in the dish.

Hope you feel better soon.

A slightly different kind of speaker porn. In the early 90s I was prone to spacing out and doodling in class, in stead of doing what I was supposed to be doing. This pattern explains a lot about ...everything that has followed since. A month or so ago I was going through some of the myriad of paperwork that made it with me from the mainland. In it I found a really old school notebook. Most of it was fantastically uninteresting (I have not cared about the Sumerians for 35 years and counting) but I did find one page that had some amusing doodles on it: We've got a couple cars, an attempt at a Roland TB-303 Bassline, what might be a Marshall half stack and ...two attempts at one very iconic speaker design. That's a Legacy Audio Whisper. I was one of the cool kids, I tell you.

Some 18s:)...Don't know how Juan's celebratin'...

I'm afraid it'll start talking to me if I open it up... But perhaps there's a science project in my future to see what happens when I do.

Great shots. Back from another PhotoFair, just throw shit on the table edition. Also their 50th anniversary. I was good and only bought two $5 “tabletop” old tripods (the only type I seem to use anymore). That justifies buying the ridiculous new lens I really want, right?

Happy shared birthday Chris. Happy smoked salmon to me. opened a half bottle that has been kicking around for a couple decades. 1968 BV Burgundy cheers

The New AirPods Pro 3 are night-and-day better than the previous generation in sound, fit and seal (for me). Absolute no brainer upgrade.

Within my PLOWED whisky group we have an annual gathering called Ardbeggeddon (which some know about). It takes place in an undisclosed location. Many years ago this became known as "Dick Cheney's Secret Bunker" as a joke for posting purposes. I have proposed to the group that the location should be changed to "Dick Cheney's Crypt".

I saw the launch as well. Looked like a hell of a ride to be strapped to that thing. Glad he made it safe!

But hopefully not too far in the evening. https://theonion.com/astronaut-hates-long-nightly-spacewalk-to-iss-outhouse/

I, ahem, like to sing sea shanties, so I cheerfully pay for Proton VPN. Don't let the UK government back you into a corner!

That's awesome! Congrats to him on being the furthest from Trump one can get.

Zero Mattnog posts since 2023. What a sad state of affairs. I was just reminded that I failed to make a batch again and I am disappoint in myself. Anybody else make some or still have some in the back of the fridge? Is a month enough time for it to gel?

I'm not ready for a new espresso machine as the Lelit Bianca I bought some years ago is still doing a great job, but I found an announcement from Fellow interesting. I bought a Fellow Aiden I have been enjoying thanks to @luvdunhill , and have been receiving Fellow marketing emails. Here is an early review for the curious. I have to admit it piqued my interest, particularly how quickly it heats up. Looks like it can be bought for $1200 with an early discount and they toss in a credit for coffee beans. https://www.engadget.com/home/kitchen-tech/the-espresso-series-1-is-the-new-crown-jewel-in-fellows-coffee-gadget-lineup-170008473.html HS

She sure is, Key-Lime Pie Girl and I have been together since then. Good memory! Rachel remembers you as well and was part of the push for me reaching out to Renato et al. and coming back here. Takes good care of me. We actually got married recently as she wanted her Dad to walk her down the aisle (he has Parkinsons).

vinyl

Superb sound quality, especially for a live show. Barber isn't the only star of the show. The band is amazing, especially on Black Magic Woman. The guitar solo on that song is like some Allan Holdsworth shit, the percussion kicks in and none of it is lost in the crowd who show appreciation. Ex.

Famous Blue Raincoat. Songs of Leonard Cohen by Jennifer Warnes (1986) https://open.qobuz.com/album/0826663104905 Example: Very well recorded Jennifer.