Dusty Chalk

And banned Head-Fiers, too.

Yeah, I've got the same problem, only in my case, it's because of allergies. I'm seeing an allergist. You may want to also, as even if you don't have bad allergies, they may be exacerbating the problem, and if you treat it, it may go down to below the level of annoyance. Other than that, I have no advice -- don't clean your ears so violently, use the Murine system or something (liquid earwax cleaner). And yes, it does suck -- my sympathies.

Hey, Purk, when did you join? Welcome, sorry about your thin skin, 'n'all that... And yet another L3000 owner joins Head-Case...

Yeah, that sort of thing. Yeah, that's my price range. And yeah, one of the Fossils I was looking at was all analog (the wood one), though not because it's higher-tech...it's just more elegant-looking (to me). I guess when I said "high-tech", I meant "flashy high-tech". My dad used to have a watch that was digital, but emulated an analog hand movement -- now that was cool. And yet it still looked like a normal professional watch. That's the sort of thing I'm looking for. I'll probably get one of each (the mostly-black goth flashy high-tech one, and the woodface one), but Biggie's comment about his breaking all the time scares me. Does anyone know what sort of quality reputation Fossil has? I'll look at amazon for reviews -- thanks for the heads-up, Biggie. I don't know if I agree in general, but yeah, the one with the flaming skull or the one with the eight-ball, or the women's one with the hearts -- they don't strike me as appealing to anyone but bikers and pre-adolescents. I like the idea of the Citizen Eco-Drive -- I'll definitely look into them.

Anyone know anything about Fossil Watches? Good/bad/indifferent? Relic? I was initially looking for an LCD/analog watch of the likes of this, but ended up falling in love with the looks of this one, due to (a) its almost all-blackness, and ( the cool use of the wood, and the way the numbers drift outside of the face. Who knows, maybe I'll get more than one. I'm thinking of getting this one, too (again, due to its almost all-blackness), but I'm worried that the red "throb" might be visually distracting. Thoughts? Anyone know of any other companies that make that analog watch on an LCD face with the "throb"? I'm a high-tech guy, so I should have a high-tech watch. I'm happy with my Guess watch for every day use, but I want a nice one for meetings and dressing up and such.

Tube amp.

Thanks. I know two people with Meloses, I'll make sure that happens.

Unless something comes up, yes.

Happy Birthday to you and the USofA.

No, but if you do figure it out, please let me know, as I have yet to figure out a good amp to combine with it. The best I've found so far is the Creek OBH-11SE. If I can't wrap my head around this weird sonic signature, it's going. I need to find another headphone with similar prat, though, so that may be a tall order.

Nice! I like your yard, as well. Friggin' golf course!

I've heard it out of the HEV90 and the ES-1 as well, and I want to say I've heard it out of a KGSS, which is still one of the best electrostatic headphone amps I've ever heard. I also imagine it'd be good out of the Blue Hawaii, though I've never heard that particular combination. And because I have a lot of white noise in my environment -- air filter and fans at home, probably getting an air filter for work, in addition to computer and well -- lots of work environment type background noise. So I'm going for the 4070's eventually. Also, my criteria for "handling" hard rock might be different than everyone else's. My most primary two criteria are lack of congestion (which seems to be a real problem with most equipment) and lack of long-term listening fatigue (which is just plain practical -- I tend to do a lot of long-term listening). Prat, although important, is not as important as those two. Detail is way down there, but tends to be at least 'good' in cans that don't congest upon being thrown ridiculously "busy" music. Remember -- this coming from a guy who used to do all his heavy listening on an RKV.

Cheer Dark

It depends on the amp. I've heard it slay with rock. Alas, I can't use open cans.

Almost finished with Night Watch, volume 1 of that trilogy by Sergei Lukyanenko: ...is excellent. I was going to read them in synch (both the Russian version and the English version), but I'm already almost done with the first book.

Going back to your original post: Sounds like you just need the drivers. Here's what I'd do: if I was hell bent on running XP, and I had no-one to help me (in my case, I'm fortunate enough to have an intarwebz-savvy housemate, or I could go to Hirsch for help), I'd get one of those Linux try-before-you-install disks, and use that to download the drivers. Or just install linux and say fuck it to Microsoft. But I guess that depends on what you're going to use the computer for.

What are your favourite disks from this year so far? Mine: !!!, Myth Takes The Secret Meeting, Ultrashiver More that I'm forgetting, but these are the flyaway top two.

The main character victim in the third one made the cop look like Sydney Poitier in comparison -- I had zero sympathy going for him, he shoulda fell and broke his neck when he worked his way out of the box. I actually really liked the second one -- I thought it was on par with the first one -- maybe not Aliens/Alien good, but on par, at least. But now knowing how much you hate the cop and the woman so much, no wonder you liked the third one.

I am neither, but I'll answer -- probably because it's not an ASCII character. The database interface probably isn't set to store non-ASCII characters. Just a guess from a nosy bystander.

(bites lip and silently smiles) So, JBLoudG20, what did you think of it? How can something be interesting and ...well, you didn't say it wasn't good, neither...?

Because 99% of the time, the only thing I need it for is signing checks and stuff. It's not the pen, it's the pen operator. And that's not meant as a criticism -- I have terrible handwriting, worse than most, probably worse than yours. I just happen to know that to improve your cursive, you should probably just practice writing in cursive. Practice makes perfect. I held a pen on Saturday night that I actually now want. Ballpoint, too.

I want a Benchmade...

I can do it, but not in the digital domain: Alesis ML-9600 Masterlink One can also do the same thing one does with vinyl -- rip it to a computer with an external soundcard.

On a more serious note -- Elaine Walker from Zia was amazing. The first time I met her, I made the mistake of assuming she didn't have a brain because she was so beautiful -- I have since been corrected on the matter -- I almost joined her band just to learn from her. I wish there were pictures of her with her duct-tape outfit somewhere on the net. Unfortunately, she "retired" from the music business just before the age of MySpace -- I think that would have shot them into the next tier of popularity, at least. Alas, looks like all her sites are down -- best one can do is google her and find images in google cache.