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Happy New Year everyone! Bit bittersweet for me. The last few years Karen and I have had mixed celebrations: 3 years ago at some friends' place in NH, we went to bed early but watched the ball drop on streaming. Two years ago, same friends weren't feeling well so we skipped, but watched the ball drop. Last year, too tired, went to bed early. This year, I fell asleep reading, but woke up at ~11:40 to turn on the TV and watch the ball drop. When the clock struck midnight, I turned to the other side of the bed...and started crying. The sweet side was some of my closest friends sharing pics and texts for the New Year, our bonds are ever closer. Hoping that 2026 is a much better year....for me, for my family, for all of us here, and for our country and the world!

Kept it simple this year. Turned out pretty good...I shorted the cooking time, but I'd pull it off a few minutes earlier for a bit more rare goodness. Wifey made some great sides. I need a sugar detox.... HS

Went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch. Another Jewish friend joined, and a work colleague/friend who is Indian (and leans towards Buddhism). Was a fascinating 4.5 hours (!!) of conversation: religion, philosophy, jokes, and just good stories! Incredibly nice people!

Celery

I may have over ordered. Goat Vindaloo Samosa's (2pc) Lamb tikka masala Lamb korma Butter chicken

Santa brought me a shiny new A7V and some Batis lenses after the old D810 stopped working recently. Nice to pick up a camera again.

Just finished my first beer and street tacos at

I became full Vegan today. So no more dairy products as well.

Rack of lamb at the lake house tonight. Everything turned out perfect. Food coma, then pecan pie if I can fit it in.

colnago c50 with super record 11 and shamal ultra wheels. It’s officially the riders fault when I can’t go up hill or fast.

Merry Christmas I made the output board for D&G and tested it with +/-400V and 845 tubes. Seems to be working as there's 44v across the cathode resistor. I was planning on using +/-1250V but the C3M mosfet blew up on the circlotronps because 1n4007 diodes aren't rated for that voltage.

Hoping for a much better 2026 than its predecessor.

It won't last long but it is nice. Boxing day dusting.

I did Chinese takeout, as I do every year. It was delicious.

My existing direct-drive trainer had started to had multiple signal drop issues so Santa was kind enough to bring me:

... But her artistic mishap created an economic boon for Borja, a town of 5,000 inhabitants. Tourists flocked to see her efforts. Less than three years later, more than 150,000 visitors from Japan, Brazil, the United States and elsewhere had made a trip to Borja, paying one euro, about $1.20, to view her work under a protective clear cover. Local officials told The Times in 2014 that the tourism spike had stabilized the town’s restaurant industry and helped the area’s institutions. The nearby Museo de la Colegiata, which houses religious medieval art, experienced a rise in annual visits to 70,000, from 7,000. Vineyards in the region squabbled over the rights to put Mrs. Giménez’s Christ on their labels. In 2016, two Americans even staged an opera about the affair in the same church. Mrs. Giménez, once ridiculed, became a beloved figure, even handing out prizes for a competition of young artists who had painted their own “Ecce Homo” portraits. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/30/world/europe/spain-jesus-fresco-restoration-painter-gimenez-dead.html

Fall was pretty recent, it was also an eternity ago. I went out with a variety of different lenses, captured the colors and annoyed the local fauna. In 2009 I went to the MV alpaca farm with my (sainted, then-septuagenarian) mother on her birthday. I'm sure I posted a number of those shots at the time. I used the never good 75-300mm consumer zoom, and spent ages in Photoshop, masking, denoising and sharpening. I'm much more lazy less interested in such labor intensive editing these days. We went back to the farm for her birthday this year. I used the also not very good Tamron 28-300mm. So far I've only edited a few shots (see above). Llamas serve as guard animals at the alpaca farm. Gidget the kitty doesn't know or care about "color balance." Molly being characteristically unamused at the presence of humans. This is the only shot I've ever gotten of her where she was lit properly, in-focus and looking at me. Of course, she's glowering. Changes afoot as the Hathaway house. Again with the craptastic Tamron. I haven't used it that much, but it's a bit of a "bad penny" lens. The same taken with my radioactive 1970s Super Takumar 50mm F/1.4. It's crazy how pricey this lens has become. Mine it's not the most desirable version. The very rare first iteration, which proved too expensive to produce, is a collector's bauble at this point. My version isn't that rare, but copies of it have a nasty tendency to yellow (because radioactive.) My copy is bit yellow, but for now that means it has a permanent "warming filter" installed. That makes it ideal for fall colors. Same scene at twilight, taken with my beloved Canon EF 50mm F/1.8 Mark I. Honestly, in spite of all the lenses I own, I could shoot with a 50 the vast majority of the time and be happy. In the parlance of our times *laughs in Henri Cartier-Bresson.* Morning Glory Farm, or as it is known by the younger generation, "MoGlo" had quite a display of pumpkins. Even though I live in walking distance, I only managed to get there once. In my defense, this fall got ball-freezingly cold quickly. My OCD neighbor's yard, taken with the Takumar. It excels at golden hour shots. 17-40mm at the wide end. I used to love the super wide angle look, but a decade and a half of cameraphone photos have made me reverse that stance more or less completely. Now I greatly prefer the telescopic compression that happens at focal lengths greater than 100mm. Same idea with the nifty fifty. Taken at F/5, which is a little silly. In retrospect I should have committed one way or the other and either stopped down significantly or gone full retard at F/1.8. Tune in next time for more fat squirrels, Christmas lights and even some short lived snow. Spoiler alert: The EF 100-400mm is a goddamn bazooka is tiring as all fuck to handhold for any length of time.

Got to be honest, video makes me feel a certain kind of way.

We got an unexpected 3” overnight (that’s what she said) on top of the 4” earlier this week. First white Xmas in a good long time.

Lox Scramble Ratatouille @ https://www.oceanviewonfourth.com/

Thank you everyone. Had a nice one with my wife in our summer(winter)cottage. Now I’m preparing for Boxing Day +6. Birthday of both our children and one grandchild. Happy New Year everyone!

Artisan hand crafted whipped cream And Tiramisu

Ravel's Bolero in 8-Bit Merry Christmas, everyone! and some Christmas carols from The Petersens: Remember Sershen&Zaritskaya?

@Knuckledragger I'm sure you've heard this before, but I was triggered by this video to listen to the whole song

Hope you've had a great birthday Joachim! Cheers!

It's those Blue LED eyes, right?

It tasted shockingly like the apple pie. 😜

Chilaquilas for Xmas lunch.

Thank you everyone! Chill day with the in-laws. Whisky, apple pie and a rumored cake later. Hope everyone is having a Merry Midsommar!

I feel warm inside watching that

Wishing you a great birthday and many sequels to come! Cheers!

Test build of Super-Carbon up and running to see what is what: PSU angle brackets are recycled from a previous, very tight, build, where those cutouts made perfect sense . Two small issues worth mentioning on amp boards. First, TTC004b and PZTA42 have opposite pinouts (ECB vs BCE) so if using TTC004b, transistor front needs to face heat sink. Second, you need to add some current limiting on the CS LEDs if you intend to use them. Running at +/-550V. No listening yet; need to build a more permanent CS supply solution first and also tidy up in general.

https://a.co/d/dvFqpzY If she's an iPhone user, probably pretty hard to beat these - pun intended.

I don't know why anyone, other than the hardest core of audiophiles, would want any headphones with a wire anymore. So no specific recommendation (except that the B&Ws are overpriced for what they are, but you probably assumed that already) but a recommendation to look at Bluetooth phones.

You didn't list a pricepoint, but considering that she's not an audiophile I'm imagining the budget will be on the lower side? One of the guys at work owns these and they're impressive given the cost.

Resurrecting a random thread rather than starting another. I got asked for a closed headphones recommendation and I am out of it on the current market. She is not an audiophile and doesn't want to spend a ton, noise canceling is ok but not critical, and doesn't want ear buds. Any thoughts?

Happy AI Birthday, Ric.

No... it is not shit and fart...!! thank you very much... Now try to unhear that.

Because of this song every year will be a little 2017.

Have a great birthday Ken! Cheers!

A breakfast almost worthy of a Grehaem. Venison snausage and bacon hiding in the periphery. I would also like to note that this is what happens when you give the humble potato to the French. 🫣

In case y'all don't think I'm eating (enough) (Round a friend's)