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.

another one bites the dust.

Well, had yet another in a series of birthdays yesterday...42. the answer to the question! Oh Douglas - you knew there wasno answer, didn't you? The thing is, I don't think there's a question either, but it'd take a lot of thinking and writing/re-writing to fully flesh out
my philospohy. plus, it's all already been said anyway and I'd just be re-hashing and paraphrasing the giants on whose shoulders I am standing :)
jeez...now that's a bit of blogger shite isn't it?
oh well, it's one day post-b-day so i am allowed...
Anyway, my favorite girl took me out for dinner (after showering me with gifts) and we went to this little local bistro after trying in vain to get into Sarah's (not enough tables in that place) and it was really great. I mean, the food was good if not a little too salty (french trait?) and the waiter, Harry, after spending most of the time reading a book while we ate (we were the sole patrons), became quite talkative, and enlightened us a bit on local history..it was pretty cool.
after that, we walked home and i made the requisite phone calls to various family members (my youngest sister shares a b-day with me, but three years older) and then we settled down to 'kill some rebels' - i am not sure how many rebels i have killed durning my Star Wars Battlefront career, but it's approaching maybe 50 thousand or so! eek...we can't really help it..the game is so much fun and we really like the co-op mode of it!
I suppose I don't really have any pearls for the swine...no words of wisdom to impart, no advice to give and no poetry to recite. Birthdays to me are just another day. celebration is nice, and sharing time with friends and/or family is really great too. just try to do it more often. there. advice. simple. clear. unfettered by my years of pent up rage and bitterness...
hahahaha (42 year old insanity laughter)

Positivism against the rant!

What the heck? I haven’t posted here for a while, and I suppose it’s because most of the things I feel really passionate about would lead me to making some huge rant – the environment, politics, society…I see so many things that drive me up the wall, and also see many things that really do put a smile on my face, but ffor the most part what I feel I can write comes out sounding like so much bitching and complaining that I end up erasing it and not posting at all…already this is turning into some self-loathing rant!
Haha!
Anyway, on to the positive things that I have seen, heard and experienced.
Yesterday we had S’ father over for some dinner. I got home after a nice listening session with my ‘audiophile’ group and pulled out the ribs that had been bathing in a vietnamese marinade for the past 24 hours. Put them on the grill, with some cherry chips, and smoked them for about 4 hours..man they were awesome! Along with some pickled carrots and potato salad (thanks S!), it was a real nice treat.
Recently I have had a sore back. It is not so unusual for me, since I have had lower back problems since my teen years. But for the past several years it’s been rare, and rarer still is it lasting more than a few days. I think it may be due to my lack of exercise. A plethora of injuries and illnesses, along with a sense of general malaise have kept me from the routine that has dominated my physical life for the past several years. So now I am caught in the ‘water draining down the sink’ spiral of trying to get back to some sort of routine. Funny eh? It seems that the less you exercise, the less you feel like exercising. Oh well…enough of that – today I get back into it with a bang. I will start posting my progress here on a separate thread or something (I wonder if I can link documents or something?).
Okie dokie – ‘nuf said.
B

Just another rant, or "Why we suck"

So there is a story today on the CBC news website regarding the “Street racing law” here in Ontario link. It reports that only about 33% of those charged with the offense are ever convicted. The accused are still stuck with the costs of towing and impounding (for 1 week) of their vehicle, regardless of whether they have been convicted or not. The article cites the case of a motorcycle driver who was stuck in traffic, drove between cars to get out of it(!?!) and subsequently was charged with the offense.
It ended up costing him more than $2,000 even though the original charge was not upheld (it was reduced to an illegal lane change – a $600 fine).
Now people are crying foul, because they are being stuck with a bill even though they may have gotten off the charge.
My first thought of this is that it is a little unfair to be charged monetarily for a charge that doesn’t hold up in court. However, I think about it again and it seems perfectly fair actually.
To be charged with this you have to be observed doing something that is patently wrong – driving 50km/h over the speed limit, driving very aggressively, etc. The fact that Judges in Ontario are easily swayed by X-Coppers and other such companies who help offenders reduce or eliminate their charges (many times on something that has nothing to do with the offense in question), or perhaps do not agree with the law or may feel lenient towards an offender does not mean it’s wrong for the offender to pay the bill for towing and impounding his or her car.
In our world today it seems that everyone shirks responsibility for their actions. There is a distressingly increasing non-willingness of our society to stand up and admit that we were in the wrong – that we’ve offended and need to pay the price of our actions. It is everywhere – people arguing tickets in court, parking in restricted parking spots “just for a minute”, blah blah – the list goes on ad nauseum and is prevalent in all facets of modern life.
I recently got a speeding ticket. I noticed that there was incorrect information on it. I was angry (mostly at myself for not having my insurance on me - another $75!!!) and didn’t want to pay it. After cooling off, I decided that I would pay it, after admitting to myself that I made a stupid mistake. The fact is that I probably could have gone to court and at least had it reduced, if not thrown out. But why? Why can’t everyone admit that they’ve made a mistake? Why does everyone have an excuse or a way to remove their responsibility?
I once had a law teacher in high school who said “The criminal mind is not the one that conceives the crime – it is the one that conceives the defense”.
Truer words were never spoken.

So, I wanted to make som Tandoori chicken the other day but had no yogurt. I also have always thought that usually tandoori has very little flavor other than the charred flavor from the oven. I like it, for sure, but always thought it could use some stronger flavouring. In any case, I came up with this recipe at random and was really impressed by it’s flavoring – very bold and balanced with added juicyness that tandoori almost never has (could be because I left the skin on too). So here’s the recipe:
Ingredients 2 tbsp Tandoori powder 2 Tbsp Ketchup 1 tsp red pepper flakes 1 tbsp milk 1lb chicken pieces (I used legs)
Prick the chicken all over with a fork. In a bowl, mix all the ingredients and then cover the chicken parts with it. Try to get the mixture into the chicken really well, under the skin, etc. Leave for about an hour. On the grill (I always use charcoal grilling, not propane!), ready the coals all to one side of the bbq so that it’s easy to adjust the positioning of the chicken. Once the coals are ready, place the chicken so that there is ‘medium’ heat. This is usually the place right around where the pile of coals ends. Cover the grill and let it cook for around 10 minutes (keeping an eye on it from time to time), and then turn them over. The skin should already have started to turn black in spots where the sugar in the ketchup has started to carmelize. Cook for another 5 or 10 minutes and take off the grill. For added smokey flavour you could put the parts over the high heat for a couple minutes. The juice from the chicken will drip onto the coals, increasing the flame and infusing the smoke into the chicken. If you do this be careful not to burn it. Eat and enjoy!

Vroom Vroom (maybe?)

Since the time I was about 10 years old I have wanted a motorcycle. I remember when I was 12 asking my parents about it. They had said that if I could save enough money from my paper route that they would pay half the cost of a dirt-bike. Back in 1978 a Suzuki 75cc dirtbike was around $1200 I think, and I am not sure how much money I was making delivering the Winnipeg Tribune, but that would have probably been a years saving. I also was interested in comic books at the time, as well as hockey cards, so saving that kind of money was next to imipossible for me (too bad I didn’t at least hold onto the comics and cards!) Anyway, fast forward 30 years, and the burning desire is still there. I have ridden quite a few motorcycles including dirt and street, but have never owned one, or even had my licence for it. A few years ago when I started putting pressure on myself to lose a few extra pounds (about 80!), I said to myself that if I could get to my goal that I would treat myself to a motorcycle. Well, the goal was too lofty and I never got the bike. And besides, the cost of the bike I wanted was far too high at around 12 grand.

Now here we are…I recently saw an ad for a honda CBR125R. It totals around 4K with tax, and that has really gotten me interested again. I think as a first step that I will go and get my M1(?) licence from the MTO. Then I will try a test ride on the bike in question and maybe check out the Yamaha 125 as well. I am not sure that either of these bikes will carry my load (around 200lbs), but we’ll see. I don’t need to break any speed records or anything. In any case, I will post results from my written test, as well as progress on this whole endeavor. CFN, Jojo

This is it...

Well, I have been wanting to start another blog for a while but have been putting it off, because I assume that at some point that I will completely lose interest and the blog will become really stale. A quick look over at the microsoft blogging site confirms this J
Anyway, this is another start.
My writing is completely imperfect - my thoughts are random, scattered and incomplete. I write no manifests and I make no implied warranty (that I may just change my outlook) on any statements that I may write here. There will be no poetry. There will be no prose. You may not find it interesting at all. In fact, you may find that I am obnoxious, or boorish, or insulting. On the other hand, you may find it enlightened, interesting or downright funny!
So, keep in tune and in touch. I may respond to comments, I may not. I may post frequently, or not at all – we’ll see…
CFN,
Jojo