Restart number...I lost count

Ok, so it's almost been two years since my last blog post. Let me tell you, it's nothing new for me to disappear from blogging for a while. I dunno, I suppose I just kind of lose interest, or forget about it, or I am not sure...

In any case, I do feel the need right now to start again. I will be filing several posts over the next several days. Different categories, different stories. Some photography, some fiction. Some rants, some ramblings.

What I need to figure out is how to better arrange my blog, how to connect it to twitter and/or facebook to get some traffic, and finally, whether I should move the whole thing somewhere else. Should I move to Wordpress or something like that? Is it worthwhile? Do I blog enough to even care?

All this, and more, to come! Aren't you interested?

Peace,

B

What a close shave!

At some time in the fall, my girl S won a shaving set from work, which she promptly
gave to me for Christmas. It consisted of a shaving brush, some shaving soap as well as foam from Proraso.

Well, I was intrigued by the brush and soap so I tried it and was duly impressed. I really liked the way it foamed up on my skin, and it allowed me to shave with my normal, 5-blade monstrosities that I have never really warmed up to over the years - anyone who knows me will attest to the fact that I just don't like shaving all that much, and usually carry a 3 day beard around :)

Anyway, I was so impressed by this discovery that I started wondering about possibly using a straight razor. The problem is (and anyone who knows me will ALSO attest to this) that I don't have the steadiest of hands. Whether it's some congenital defect and I did have some nervous system issues as a child) or just that I drink too much coffee, the fact is that I simply do not trust myself with truly sharp instruments anywhere near major blood vessels.A discussion of this with S led her to tell me of a friend of hers who swears by his safety razor. A googling of safety razors, and weekend's worth of reading led me to send my order out to an online shaving gear site for the Merkur Futura. This little German-made marvel is a real wonder! It is fully adjustable, allowing you to change the rake angle of the blade. It is well balanced, and even though I have the chrome version it never feels slippery or anything. It is also extremely easy to use - just pull the top cap off and pop in a new blade, and you're ready to go!

Shaving with this system has really changed my shaving life. I still don't shave all that often, but now it's more a matter of time, rather than the fear of pain from poor shaving foams and even poorer blades.

I will NEVER return to the disposable blade, ever. If at some point safety blades are no longer made, maybe I will try the straight razor - or, I will start my career as the new Grizzly Adams J
Peace.
Jojo

Episode X: A New Hope

Okay friends, I have a new mission: I am going to relax a bit, reconsider my position, and sanitize my world view. I will attempt, despite myself, to see the positive side of things. I will have some hope that altruism is not dead, that people really do care about other people and the world around them. I will take comfort in the warmth of the friendship and caring of those people who've reminded me that the world isn't a bad place, but rather that my world is what I make it.

You might ask “Jojo, what has caused your turnaround"? or “What evidence have you seen that has changed your mind”? If you've been reading my posts, especially my last one, you know that I was trying to find evidence of goodness and/or rightness to possibly give me some hope. Well, I haven't really seen it. I mean, sure, I have heard some nice stories (mostly on CBC, especially the Vinyl Café for some reason!) of selflessness and love, but have not witnessed them on my own. On the other side of the coin though, I have also heard stories of anguish, and violence, and greed. If the truth be told I have not really witnessed them on my own either.

What I am saying then, to my own astonishment, is that the past week of thinking about it has given me no evidence that people are “good” or “evil” as a rule (I use those terms only as a convenience, because at the root of it, I try to abstain from the recognition of any absolutes). And as a caveat to all of this I must say that I put extreme criteria on my findings: I mean, for me to consider something to be noteworthy, it really had to grab me. People behaving as they normally do (examples on each side include holding a door open for others, or cutting people off in heavy traffic) did not count because I find those acts hard to notice (and count) in any real way…and they probably balance each out anyway! In light of this zero-sum situation, I have to think there is at least some advantage then of remaining hopeful.

Of course, I do think that there is at least some risk involved. There is a naivety in hopefulness. There are those who can identify this naivety and take advantage of it. This is almost without question, for there is much evidence of it. I will, however, also assume (again, probably naively) that there are also those who will stand up for what is right, who will protect each other, and fight for a common good. I have had several people try to convince me that people at their cores are good, and altruistic, and have the world’s best interest in their hearts. Of this I am not convinced. I still continue to believe that, as human beings, we necessarily have our own best interests at heart. It is a necessity of survival. I have also, however, been at least partly convinced by some that our society is evolving and that we should remain steadfast in our belief that things can change for the better if we work hard at creating the world we want.

There it is, my mantra for the coming days. Again, wish me luck.
Peace,
Jojo

My Anger

I need to control myself. My levels of stress and anger at the world, at times, seem to be spiralling out of control. It seems that the smallest infractions (of others, of course) affect me in a big way and I am not sure how to reconcile it with my world view.
What is my world view? Well that I am not too sure about any more.
In the past I have tried to believe that people are good - that people are not selfish, or greedy, and that they are reasonable intelligent and aware of other people. More recently I have come to feel that most people are very self-centered, greedy, and completely unaware or perhaps just uncaring towards others. A complete 180 from the past.
Is it just me? Is there something that's happened in my life that's made me take on this view? Have people really become terrible overnight? I can't for the life of me figure it out.
Every day I see evidence that people are, at best, completely ignorant. I see evidence of greed, racism, pure hatred, self-interest and at the same time I also see less evidence of kindness, selflessness, charity and awareness of what is right, or good.
I think what I need to do is to start journalling what I see and building a case for either side - if anyone is reading this perhaps they can weigh in on what I've seen and written - let them judge it and tell me what I am doing to see things so negatively.
Wish me luck - I really hope that I can start to see the world more positively. I want to enjoy the world, and living amongst the inhabitants of it. I want to try to spread joy, not anger. I want to reming people of how good they can be and not remind them of the rules they've broken.

The Neko Audio D100 DAC

Digital hi-fi, in my opinion, is in the midst of a mini-revolution. The arrival of hi-resolution (24-bit, 96kHz and 192kHz) music files means that audiophiles are finally able to really see what the digital realm has to offer. Not that standard 'Redbook' CD are all that bad , but I have always felt that the performance from digital has always left me wanting. Wanting more detail, more warmth, ambience etc..all the things that in my opinion vinyl offers in spades.

With the increasing availability of hi-res downloads, and an increasing number of audiophiles moving towards the music server as a way to listen to digital files, a number of manufacturers have started releasing new DACs to ride the hi-res wave. One of these companies, a newcomer, is Neko Audio, run by Wesley Miaw. It is about his new product, the Neko Audio D100 DAC, that I am writing today.

I will not go into any details regarding the fit and finish, or build quality, etc, except to say that it's house in a standard case and appears quite solid, with some heft to it as well. Nice.

The DAC itself has two input choices, both SPDIF inputs – optical and RCA. It has balanced outputs, but since I do not have a balanced preamp, Wesley was kind enough to provide XLR to RCA interconnects.

So, how does it perform? Quite well, thank you!

For the first sample in my testing sessions I listened to Rimsky-Korsakov's "Dance of the Tumblers" from the Tutti! Orchestral Sampler (Reference Recordings). What struck me immediately is the sense of ambience that this thing was portraying. A very spacious soundstage, both in terms of left-to- right, as well as depth, is evident. There is a very nice spaciousness around the instruments, giving them very good separation. There is an excellent amount of upper and midrange frequency detail, which contributes to the ambience as well as true-to-life portrayal of instruments, especially horns and strings. The blast of the horns in this piece really has a wonderful timbre, a 'brassy' quality (duh!). On the downside, the visceral impact during the crescendos of this piece is missing a bit. If you know the piece, you know what i am talking about. I am not sure quite what is causing this – I have a feeling that because the D100 uses a transformer-based rather than active output stage, that it may seem a little 'slower' in the bass regions, thus giving a little less impact and slam. It doesn't sound bad at all, don't get me wrong – it just loses a bit of the impact of the music.

For the second piece I chose Tracey Chapman – "Talkin' about a revolution"

Again I was struck by the ambience in the piece – you could really get a sense of the studio that Tracy was using when she recorded it. It gives the music a real sense of realism that gives you the sense of being in the studio with her. The slight flutter in her voice as she sung was also quite remarkable – I had heard it before but at times it is extremely subtle. The D100 had no trouble picking this up.

Another track that was extremely impressive was "Norwegian Wood" by the Ceccarelli Trio on 3 around the 4. This is an excellent CD, mostly instrumental interpretations of some of the fab four's bigger hits. This track starts of with some fantastic drum work by Andre Ceccarelli, and the D100 capably showcased all the nuances of the performance. The slightest details of his stick work, like dragging the tip on the skin of the drum and working it around the rim was clearly audible – you could hear him hitting his drums in different spots – it was really uncanny and something I've not often heard.

Finally, one of my favourite 'new classical' pieces is "3055" by Ólafur Arnalds. The Neko DAC truly shone, as it displayed the utter haunting beauty of this piece. It's a very moving and emotional piece, and the D100 really conveyed the Icelanders' sense of melody, with fully textured strings and piano, and again a remarkable feeling of space and ambience around each of the instruments.

Overall, I really have enjoyed my time with the D100 – it is a really nice piece of gear. In audiophile terms, it provides excellent side-to-side as well as front-to-back sound staging, with excellent highs and a wonderful, fully detail midrange. The bass performance is it's only weak point – it is a little bit slower than I'd prefer and thus robs the music of some of its immediacy and impact. However, it does not do this in a way that sounds bad by any means. While it's not the last word in impact and musical flow, it always gives a very nice performance and one that gives many of us just what we want – music!

This is a DAC that is well worth the $1295 USD asking price, giving excellent performance in an easy-to-use package and, providing you have an SPDIF capable source, one definitely worth auditioning.