acidbasement

^Oh myyyy.

We're finally into calving season, and as I was checking on progress I noticed this beauty. Sorry for the crappy photo quality. I'm pretty sure it's an oyster mushroom. I harvested it, and will hopefully get to eat it once I rule out any toxic species. It weighs two pounds.

Happy Birthday!

Fun times! Anything good under there? Sometimes you get oriented strand board, and sometimes you get solid oak, depending on the house's vintage.

Nice to see you posting on here, Kiro. I used to enjoy your shenanigans on HF, back in the day. I'm nearly finished this: He gives a broad and pretty shallow treatment (it's just one book, after all) of the nine major ways that humanity is making the planet unlivable for other species and ourselves, and suggests macro-scale solutions. He directs a lot of frustration toward the Green movement for getting in the way of pragmatic fixes, due to their unrelenting ideology and pursuit of utopia (opposition to nuclear energy, mostly). I'm really liking it, and I find I'm getting into an increasing number of arguments with people with whom I associated during my undergrad.

Dude, you are being way too defensive about this unreleased product not to be somehow affiliated with the company. We don't give a shit about whatever hype you're trying to generate. When it's released, people will decide. Until then, you're off to a piss-poor start on this forum.

Stay dry, folks.

I tried the Yamazaki 12 a few months ago, and it was delicious. Don't recall anything about it right now, but if I get the chance to try it again, I intend to capitalize on it.

Original 1986 vinyl pressing. It sounds kinda muddy (might just be the style they were going for), but it's a great album.

I pulled about 40 wood ticks off the dogs last night. They died in the flames (one more advantage to having a wood stove in the house). This year's tick season is brutal. I'm about to leave on the train for a few days in Edmonton. I've got to pull something out of my arse for a meeting with my graduate supervisor tomorrow morning, but after that I'm looking forward to re-visiting some of my old haunts in the university area. I might try to buy an old discman from a guy there as well, if I can get in touch with him - he was selling a D-777 last I checked.

Aw shit. I'm going to crank up the Blues Brothers now. That guy had serious groove.

Subscribed. In addition to the ones I listed above, which focused on peat, I also really like Glenmorangie - the Quinta Ruban (12 yo, finished in port casks) and Clynelish 14. Shelly, you asked about the Scapa 16 earlier. I used to have a bottle of the 14, and when I went back to the store to get another I was informed that the distillery was so short-staffed, they couldn't keep up with the bottling. The 16 was brand-new at the time, and presumably from the same distillation as my earlier bottle of 14 (I assume, but what do I know?). Though I didn't do a side-by-side comparo, it was very similar to Highland Park, but a bit sweeter with a stronger caramel flavour. I liked it a lot. The only reason I didn't buy the 16 was because it was twice the price of the 14, and I am somewhat poor and very much a cheapskate.

Thanks, I shall perform said search! I also just found an Arcam CD 73T listed pretty close to me for not too much dough. I'm gonna get a beer and think about submitting a proposal to household finance.

It seems to me that there should be bargains available on older DACs without the USB feature that all the cool kids (not me) are using these days. Can anyone (Dinny at least) suggest good ones from years gone by? The original DAC1 springs to mind, not that I've had the opportunity to hear it, but it's still going for $1000 on ebay now (wtf?) (edit: I know it's a bit cheaper elsewhere, but still outside the $500 range).

Macallan is a good Highland, but smoky/peaty it is not. I suggest: Lagavulin 16 if you can find it for a good price (ranges from $70 - 140 in Canada) Laphroaig 10 - best value Islay, IMO; quite a bit better than Quarter Cask and not much different from the 18. Oban 14 - a nice smoky (but not punch-you-in-the-face-with-peated-fist) western Highland BenRiach 12 "The Curiositas" - another nice peated Highland. Scapa - if you can find it; they do pretty limited runs I believe. Similar to Highland Park (they're next-door neighbours), which is also very good (I have the 12, never tried the 18). I've also gotten to really like the Glenlivet 12, even though it doesn't score the highest marks from critics. Not smoky, but it's got a really nice, smooth caramel flavour and it's one of the cheapest decent single malts. If you go with Bowmore, I'd suggest the 15 rather than the 12. They're both quite good, but the 12 is outshone by the other Islays in its price bracket (IMO of course).

Birthday greetings on your birthday!

Happity bippity!

We got the base model Panasonic plasma 60" last year, model TCP60ST50. It should be within your budget (maybe not in Canada, but I think I've seen them well below $1000 in the USA). The picture quality is very good, and we're very happy with it. Glare is only an issue if the sun is shining directly on it. Cons: no VGA input (have to convert VGA to HDMI externally), no 3D (have to go up a model for 3D), and cannot get bigger than 60" in the ST line. If you're thinking of 3D, keep in mind that the more expensive Panasonic TVs that do 3D use active 3D technology, which means left and right-eye frames appear in sequence, one after the other, and you need proprietary Panasonic 3D glasses to synch with the TV and only allow the correct image to pass to its respective eye. The Panasonic 3D glasses are way more expensive than the polarized glasses used for passive 3D TVs. Not only that, if you decide a couple years later that you need another pair of 3D glasses, there is no guarantee that the glasses they're making that year will be backward-compatible with this year's TV. At least, that's how the sales guy spelled it out to us.

Happy birthday, Shelly!

That sucks, Shelly. Airport security is one more reason that I always take the train if it's an option.

My goodness, this is a shock! Sad news indeed.

Herbie Hancock: Quartet With Wynton Marsalis, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams. I don't listen to a lot of jazz, but these guys in particular make me want to listen to more. There are a lot of "What the fuck are they doing?! How did they keep it together?!" moments on this record, which I really like.

HBD KG!

Korpiklaani - Ukon Wacka Very good Finnish folk metal, and recorded/mastered well to boot!

I mainly live here because I'm a pyromaniac. For some reason there was no question on the test about height-of-flame or area-burned preference.