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Today I became an official 'Old Fart'. In reality that happened on my Birthday in February, but since my local SS office was too backed up to do my Medicare application at that time, it became official today with a Medicare phone application. I'm now the proud recipient of Medicare part A. Since I'm still employed with medical insurance, I don't need to apply for Medicare part B until I retire or stop receiving outside medical insurance. I believe at that time I can have the part B cost pulled directly from my Social Security payments. I do believe full heartedly that I've absolutely earned said 'Old Fart' title. My Doctorate in wood remains 'til the time of my demise, so it's Dr Wood Old Fart from hense forward. Can I get that official title posted under my avatar please?

James Taylor in Lake Tahoe. He sings the songs he wrote as a young man, only now with an old man’s voice. He has still got it.

My very grown up kids (41 and 37) describe me as the old fart who shouts at clouds. I tell them that I once was a young fart who still shouted at clouds.

Signed up for my first (metric) century! I am a little worried about all the climbing, but it is split up into four climbs and a bunch of rollers, none of which are beyond my ability. Should be fun to train for. @Voltron want to come join? https://marincentury.com

I always feel like somebody is watching me...

And of course, Wagner's work with Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny was the peak of his career 🤣

Hemispheres by Rush (1978) https://open.qobuz.com/album/0060254724382 Example: Have I not listened to Hemispheres on headphones? Countless times on my main rig, loud, probably too loud. But on STAX tonight, so much movement and panning. Crazy things going on that I had not caught before. From one of my self professed favorite albums. The 24/192 probably helps as well.

More STAX testing. Sibelius: Violin Concerto - Lemminkäinen Suite by Ava Bahari (2026) https://open.qobuz.com/album/eipd34vton1nt example: Nice recording - performer I didn't know. And a leftover from listening to MTT (rip) Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 & Contredanses, WoO 14 by Orchestra of St. Luke's, Michael Tilson Thomas (1989) https://open.qobuz.com/album/g8dw9cvvp4q0a Example: Also a good recording it has been a long time since I have listened to it (all owned by Sony now).

I think friends should check on him.

Nooo, but I should 🙂 Peculiar things about Great Danes: 1º Like Rockwell, a Great Dane will never give you a moment of privacy. Standing nearly 1.90 meters tall on its hind legs, it can easily open doors—including the bathroom door. Sit down to eat, open the fridge... you’ll swear it’s watching your every move. 2. This thing, at 10 months old, already weighs 42 kg and eats almost 1 kg of good quality kibble a day, and despite that, it will always be hungry (remember that Scooby-Doo always had hungry? Well, it's true). 3. It has no idea how big or heavy it is… my ribs can attest to that. 4º It loves to spook postman, Amazon delivery drivers, and others...

Did you name your dog Rockwell? 😆

Wagner orchestral excerpts were one of my favorites to play when I was in an orchestra. But yeah, he was pretty abominable from all accounts. My handle comes from his last opera, Parsifal. The overture from that was a study in my music theory class. Sounds nice and demur, but was actually atonal as hell.

https://archive.org/details/mbroussard2026-04-29 https://archive.org/details/swaywild-20260429 Marc Broussard Sway Wild opening Bijou Theater, Knoxville TN 4/29/2026 dpa 4015gs->dpa d:vice balcony center front row

Not the worst Doors cover. Not the worst vampire movie. Call it even.

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I have a (not so) secret soft spot for yacht rock. That one blonde backup singer looks familiar, it's almost like she has... TV appearances that aren't lip syncs are a treasure.

Watched the OKC Comets (AAA Club of Dodgers) lose 3 - 2 to the Tacoma Rainiers. Have not been to a Baseball game in ages. It was a lot of fun.

I've been cleaning the house and doing some organizing. I'm maybe 5% of the way there..... 😮 Karen would always call me a hoarder....and she's right, for certain things (like audio gear). But today I gave the second of two sets of wicker baskets away. Twenty-seven baskets given. Twenty-fucking-seven! I have a long road ahead of me. But it's feeling good to clean, and lots of goodies being given away. I've had 8 visitors collecting things between yesterday and today. I think one, maybe two more tomorrow; and one Monday. That's if I don't add any more stuff, which will likely happen. Twenty-seven fucking wicker baskets....🤣 EDIT: pics of 21 of the 27 (a few look the same, but not repeats), the others I had in another area and brought them over when one person came by

https://altonbrown.com/recipes/homemade-granola-bars/

This contrast between a person and the music is often true. Wagner was a truly awful person, an antisemite, racist and overall shit. He put it about that Brahms' music was based on the screams of birds that he shot with "A Tyrolean bow". An outright lie just to discredit a rival composer. Somewhat interestingly he was a cross-dresser; even the usually staid and formal Wagner Society accepts this. He was also Hiter's favourite composer. 'Nuff said. If you could bring him back from the mid 1800's and interview him today, I'm sure he would be found to be an abominable person in many ways. In spite of all that, Wagners music, particularly the operas, is utterly marvellous. In addition to the epic 15 hour Ring Cycle (took him 25 years to complete it), there is Die Meistersingers, Tristan und Isolde, Tanhauser, Lohengrin just for starters. Seen them all. Awesome.

And nobody made a "from Head-Case to Basket-Case" joke? Yer slippin', HC! 🧺

Having delivered Margaritas, yesterday to our Brit Mother and daughter neighbors, Today I made good on our offer of the previous owners TV and mount, starting at a civilized time. So out with their previous owners old TV and mount (not shown). It was so old it was small, thicc, 1080, and had composite inputs on the back. So off it came Lasing ... Ok Time for lunch, a local Mexican take away plus Usual, and bubbles for the ladies. It all went well until disaster struck The previous occupants when making room for their TV had cut through the wall and studs to run the cables and just replaced / patched the dry wall - the brown area. So no studs / adhesion for any of the top right anchor bolts. 💩 🤬 I couldn't really abandon them, or rebuild the wall that day. What to do? Apparently there were still studs higher up in the wall. Maybe just maybe, A trip to Pini Hardware, and a conversation with some very helpful staff later ... It's like it was meant to be! You can't really tell in the up position. Watching position, just watch the TV, OK Ok, set up Wifi, Xfinity, etc. What's on Telly? WAT? At least I got some cadburys mini eggs and endless cups of tea out of the deal. They seem happy with it.

It was a good time.

It sounds like too much for my old body but I will be out of state then anyway. Good luck with the training and have a great time riding in West Marin.

Even further back.

Fireside dinner, Comrades!

I hope you didn't mix in any valuable antique Shaker baskets with the dime store ones. 🤓

Did I say twenty (fucking) seven wicker baskets? I MEANT thirty-fucking-one! Three more pictured here, and one that is being used as a base for a fake house plant. 🙄🤣

Controversial for certain, and an utter moron in every interview I've seen of him. A racist, a redneck and a convicted felon, but I'll argue the "decent songwriter" comment. The man could paint a picture like few others. How you can be so idiotic in interviews yet write such poignant lyrics is beyond me. Listen to "If That Ain't Country" and tell me if it set a vivid mood.

These guys are punks but Chloe schooled them like newbs: A few months later...

I hate that 2014 was 12 years ago already.

I would be more tempted to just replace the regs with the smd GRLV. Losing the Meanwells would mean losing their any-voltage capability. And it would be difficult to fit a transformer in there. Possibly one of the PC mount units, but then you have to accommodate voltage conversion, etc.

Fan made C&H remixes are brutal.

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It's a brilliant album. I hope it inspired people to check out Giorgio Moroder and other great musicians of the period.

The first band that I saw after lockdown -- actually saw in person, that is, I watched a lot of streamed performances -- was Zombi (yes, named after that great soundtrack). They did a pivot recently, into the world of yacht rock covers: https://zombi.bandcamp.com/album/zombi-friends-volume-1 Highly recommended

Random Access Memories by Daft Punk (2013) https://open.qobuz.com/album/0886443927087 Example: Some testing - so I might as well have fun.

It was a good day, a touch breezy at times, a very good engaged crowd. Some of the board members, {and my beard and belly} Many thanks all... cheers - Mikey

What’s Behind Battle of the Planets

Finished the right channel today. Feedback as suggested by Justin. Bias servo as suggested by Kevin. Red smoke – Super Symmetrical mode. Green smoke – Zero Feedback mode.

Up at the Maine condo this weekend, a cloudy & cold day turned into a stunner of a beautiful one! Went into Kennebunkport and next to no one was there. Had a great walk around, bought some arty shit, and stayed for dinner. Have always enjoyed Alisson's Restaurant for better-than-pub dining, tonight sat at the bar and had a Lagavulin 16 and my favorite of theirs, the Lobster Bisque Lobster Roll. Worth the $, along with a brief chat with a couple folks at the bar.

His 'n' Hers Indian ice creams

New headphone protector. Four layers board. Two LM4040 2.5V references. Limits set to ~ +/-20 mA.

Reworking my CFA3 for ZF/SS switching. Inspired by ang728's hat board, I designed a split-board version. It works fine with ZF but has issues with SS: R channel: 0.2V offset, fluctuating ±0.1V. L channel: <30mV offset, fluctuating ±0.1V. Bias: Stable. Tried those solutions from previous posts but unsuccessful to solve any issues: -Removed hat board; use original jumpers for ZF/SS. -Added 680pF between B-C of output transistors. -Removed C9, C10 (20pF). -Replaced all PZTA56/06. -Swapped THAT340 / K389-J109 / K170-J74. Changing R171, R211, R272, R322 from 300R(silkscreen) to 600R(schematic) fixed the 0.2V offset, but both channels still fluctuate. Suspecting trace interference, I directly wired the jumpers to SS mode. The fluctuation is gone. So I redesign the hat board. SS resistors(R44, R49) sit on hat boards. SS jumpers and SS resistors are removed from cfp3smt2splitpre. My final result to get stable and low DC offet will be: -Using the hat board -R171, R211, R272, R322 = 600R. -Remove C3, C7, C9, C10 (600pF & 20pF) Thanks ang728, his posts helped me a lot.

Son Andrew and I saw my favorite band The Chameleons again, his third time with me. This ranks as one of their best shows for me....incredible passion and energy throughout! First opening band was my second time seeing them, Lovina Falls. Lots of great music, and got a couple nice pics: one with Reg Smithies of The Chameleons; he doesn't pose for pics that much and when he does, he points his finger at his picture partner. I got to do the same. And Valerie Forgione from Lovina Falls took a nice pic with me as well.

Just beautiful. Is there any volcano Mjölnir Audio cannot climb?