Rainshadow
@ranshdow
Scientist, cyclist, coyote person. 50’s, he/him. On sabbatical. Mostly slice of life & hobby posting.
This is what I was doing yesterday. It’s a bit bright & harsh but it does the job
Ok squinting at these through a loup is destroying my brain. Does anyone have a light table I can borrow? @tavfox.bsky.social ?
I started going through my Mom’s photos & stuff today. I made good progress with little breaks & pushing through a small migraine, but this one stopped me in my tracks. It was taken when she was in her early 40’s. I miss you, Mom.
The Pearl 2 is an all discrete phono stage with 55dB of gain in this feedback configuration. I run a moving coil cartridge so this is a little low. The Pearl 3 has a JFET gain stage followed by an op-amp RIAA stage, and has 70dB of gain. That is a little high & a lot of gain gets thrown away.
Yesterday I went to Stoney Point, where I used to boulder in the early 90’s. It was stinkin hot but people were there doin the things. There’s a memorial plaque to Bob Kamps at his traverse wall, whom I knew back then.
I found a record store in Ventura, & bought the one RHCP album I didn’t have a copy of. Home now & rockin it, thinkin I should get the rest of their catalog on vinyl too
The flagship Patagonia store in Ventura has an historic climbing gear exhibit called the Karabin Climbing Museum. So cool ☺️🫶
Everythin is wrong today, my flag is upside down. The crossovers are series, the phono stage is narrow and cold. I will survive.
I was all set to tear apart a working amp, just to get at a power supply board, when the picture of it shut me down. Instead I did something else. The other thing I did didn’t solve the problem I am working on, but it pointed me in the right direction, and the amp remains intact.
My spine was out of joint, 2 places. It took 2 visits to Dr. Hank, 2 nights of beers & wine, 2 beautiful records playin. Maybe all this will set me right.
Last weekend we passed through Paso Robles, where my mom lived & worked. Some 22 years ago I drove up there to help her move her stuff into a storage locker, shortly after my dissertation, which is when she took this picture. Thinkin about you a lot these days, mom.
Thinkin about LA, my love-hate relationship with LA, going back to the 90’s when I was too uncool, too nerdy, too poor and too ugly for comfort, attending UCLA & wanderin everywhere. I’m playing Jane’s Addiction tonight & imagining other timelines
In the garage where my shoes live there’s a black widow that comes out of the cabinet at night. Any time they wanted, the spider gods could end me.
This view from a room in a posh Hollywood hotel overlooked both a deck pool and a vacant lot with a person leaving their mattress shelter. The juxtaposition of haves with have-nots was frequent this trip.
Yeah we ran CCW which some say is the more natural direction. I took my daily! She was built for this!
A lot of firsts for me this weekend. First track day. First time feeling the ABS pulse through the brake pedal, first time banging off the rev limiter, first drift over the top of a berm. Good stuff. I may have a new hobby.
I think my CD player just died. The right channel is softer & distorted, & I’m pessimistic a switch of the four swappable op-amps will solve it. Maybe someone can help me if that doesn’t fix. Like other objects I care about, I want them to work forever.