Hopstretch

Happy Birthday!

The Cure -- Disintegration (Remaster)

Yessss.

I read that as 12”, dunno why. [emoji848]

The Clientele -- Alone and Unreal Great late night or early morning listening.

Always appreciate that you don’t just tell me to Google it myself! Owe you a diet soda ...

This is my wife's cogitation station. Supposedly it's a real one, but not sure how you would tell either way.

Let’s get this bandwagon rolling!

The Specialized Turbo Vado is, as expected, a blast to ride around on errands and makes short work of the (very) steep hill up to my house. Tech and main components seem solid enough but the "afterthought" bits are just horrible for a bike at this price point. Have ordered Ergon grips, a Thudbuster ST post and Brooks saddle to rectify this outrage.

Happy Birthday Jim! Mia San Mia.

John Ashbery, noted American poet. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/03/arts/john-ashbery-dead-prize-winning-poet.html? One of his finest works, I think, reproduced here in light of current trends.

Bleachers -- Strange Desire Close to a perfect pop album.

Tell us more about the S&M bit?

Gloriously messy in the best way.

Tri-tip with, uh, some more tri-tip.

Only in South Africa!

Meanwhile ... https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-18/equifax-is-said-to-suffer-a-hack-earlier-than-the-date-disclosed

Pound of steak, six eggs and a liter of milk. Back to the diet grindstone. [emoji6]

Yes!

Somewhat relevant to prior digression ...

Morrissey -- Vauxhall And I

Yeah, I want that!

Chipped cards are a lot more secure (approximately 7x) if you also require a PIN, which is how it's done everywhere else in the world. US banks and retailers didn't want to sink the money into becoming compliant when they could spend a fraction of the amount buying regulators and congressmen to keep delaying implementation of the standard. One argument frequently deployed by the financial services industry -- and I'm not joking -- is that Americans are too stupid to remember another 4-digit code. https://qz.com/717876/the-chip-card-transition-in-the-us-has-been-a-disaster/

Well, when in the Bay Area ...

Deer Tick -- Vol. 2 This I like.