Hey all

Anyone get any exciting gifts relating to your hobbies?

My family in Calgary knows I'm insane for audio so my brother got me a pair of Sennheiser 598 headphones. My other brother got me a book "The guide to high end audio". It is a good read and is injecting a little understanding of the high end ethos. Interesting.

Anyone else get any gifts they are excited about?

Got a lower receiver for an AR 15 build and a complete upper rifle kit. Waiting on the kit to start the build.

Rick, how many WPC is that receiver?

Got a Taylor Made mini-driver I've been eye-balling. I can't seem to find the new operating system patch for improving my swing though. Thought for sure that would have come with the driver. Oh well, at least I won't be able to hit the ball as far into the rough with this driver as all my others.

My wife got me a Veritas medium shoulder plane.

It's 5.56 Mark

I made an undisclosed donation to Plan Canada (I sponsor an amazing boy from Mali, Africa through them) for my parents, sister and her fiance, and baby (you can come out any time now Liam!) as gifts. The three gifts are matched by a government, foundation or organization partner, so all three gifts were technically $450 donations. That rocks!

Sorry, buddy....but you're going to over drive that the first time you put on Texas Flood. Merry Christmas, Rick!

Ken: Nice!

Nice plane. I started off with the Large but soon picked up the medium the following year. Its one of those planes that you don't think will get used but seems to be the perfect tool in unexpected ways. Like adjusting the door stop trim inside a door frame.

Wow. Cool Cam. The goat thing had me thinking it was a good idea. We havent donated in a while.

Wid, my brother is an avid hunter. We got him snowshoes and he was pumped. Who gets excited to freeze their nuts off in a tree stand?

Snicker... Not me. Not even when I was young and dumber than a post.

I got nothing fancy this year... yet. Of course the best gift of all is one I get every year: Christmas dinner with the wider family. Its always fun to catch up on what everyone has been up to over the last year.

I got some piece and quiet as my wife, daughter and mother in law went up north to visit family and left me at home for Christmas.

Yea, I was supposed to clean and do the fun stuff, but got to listen to music at reference levels without a single complaint about the track list or volume.

My wonderful daughter found some great music to add to my collection:

David Gogo - 'Christmas With The Blues' (CD) - from my buddy down island. For electric blues fans, this one is unique. In fact, it is certainly good enough to play all year round - fabulous guitar work;

David Gogo - 'Vicksburg Call' (CD) - his new release. Again outstanding electric blues; and

Eric Clapton - 'Slowhand at 70' (Blu Ray/CD set) - Top notch sound quality in DTS-HD Surround in stunning HD video inside the fabulous Royal Albert Hall. Lots of impactful bass even at -17 Db (especially kick drum) for those with a big system. Generally great selection of tunes. The PBS broadcast of this concert a month ago didn't do it justice.

All excellently recorded. Electric blues fans should really like any or all of these.

Happy New Year to all...

TAM

Our best Christmas present ... There is a high school local to us that is a private, catholic school. It has incredible academic standards, with the average graduate receiving over $100,000 in college scholarships.

One does not need to be Catholic, nor even Christian, to attend this school, although the religion will be present. Of course, there is tuition to be paid to the school for attending there.

Three years ago, I started participating in the "Season of Giving" with this school. This year, we finished contributing enough to fully fund a "forever" scholarship at the school. This means every year, a student in need will be attending this school, free of charge.

This young man/woman will normally have gone to an inner city school with little chance of ever seeing college.

The young person will never know who "paid" for this, but I do know the first student is a young African American girl who was showing a lot of potential. She now has the opportunity to have a better life.

And for this, I am grateful. This is what made Christmas, 2015, special.

Well that kinda puts my CDs to shame, ha!

TAM

WOW! Wonderful, Craig.

Tam ... The CD's are still very cool.

Jack - I should have mentioned 14 others were involved in this project, which means we managed to contribute enough funding to provide a total of 15 of these "forever scholarships".

This has been done in larger cities, with remarkable results.

One aspect of this that was really compelling: There is a local money managing company who is handling the investments with no fees. There is no one getting paid for this. This means 100 percent of the money is being used for the purpose at hand.

Too many "charities" have heavy expense loads, with some seeing less than half the moneys contributed going to people in need.

This was really one of the most enjoyable "things" I have ever done. The feeling in the room when each of us had reached the goal two weeks ago was nothing short of wonderful.

I also forgot .. The new Xbox One with all 5 Halo games was a pretty good gift. You haven't lived until experiencing Halo on LFR-1100's and an EP-800.

I caved on boxing week and bought myself a new video card after talking about fallout with CV. Christmas extended! Maybe my rig can run it now. Lol.

Very nice! I'm still having fun with Fallout 4. I probably won't have much time to play it the rest of the week, but hopefully I can make up for it next week.

I'm going to have to buy myself a late Christmas gift since I don't have a lot of friends with disposable incomes to speak of. Nothing was really aimed my way except for the chocolate stuff my mom got me. I'm thinking I'll get an Xbox One Elite Controller. I may end up with the whole console, but I could see it just sitting there while I simply use the controller on my PC. It's hard to get back into paying console game prices after all of the Steam sales. But getting an Xbox One would give me a good excuse to pass my 360 on to someone with kids who will hopefully get some real use out of it. The 360 has just been sitting there.

As far as consoles, I'd rather have a Wii U to get caught up on Nintendo first-party games, but I keep coming back to wanting that Xbox One Elite Controller for games I already play.

I really need to start setting aside money for a UHD/Dolby Atmos/DTS:X setup in the next year. The little bit of overtime I've been getting is a drop in the bucket for what I'm going to want. Time to get some marketable skills.

Wow, awesome gift Craig!

Went wine tasting down in the Niagara area with some family and got myself some nice wines: a nice Bacco Noir from Konzulmann for casual sipping, a nice pink bubbly, and incredible 2010 Chardonnay, A white Merlot, a very good Meritage ...

I need a wine fridge.

My wife spied this in London Drugs & decided that I had to have it - she was right.

It is a wooden model of a Medieval Siege Engine, the venerable 'Trebucher' - some assembly required, ha! I filled the counterweight bucket with small stones to provide the energy to launch the projectile as well as an authentic look.

It will fling a plastic golf ball (or whatever) downrange 8 to 10 feet before touchdown. Our cats are very, very wary.

It is quite finicky & I can't imagine how difficult & dangerous a full size machine would be to operate...





TAM

That thing looks cool. Get to building a Jenga tower and take it out!! Save the lego men!!

I got back to PEI and had my 2nd Christmas there after being in Calgary for the holidays. My super father in Law (co-builder) got me Sound Reproduction by Floyd Toole. I am nerdcited!! Another good read ahead of me. YAY!




I finished the other book I got and it is pretty hit and miss. A lot of opinion based stuff in there without much to back it up. I enjoyed chapter 12 very much though. ("How to get the best sound from your system.") It is worth buying for that chapter alone. That chapter is the readers digest version of how to set up an optimized listening room, wrt modal response and speaker setup, and early reflections. It distills all the steps down into a few pages. Worth a buy for those pages alone.

Tam - When my youngest son was in Cub Scouts, a few of the dads built a pumpkin thrower that was like your machine. It was a blast - done right, we would throw pumpkins over 200 yards with that beast. It was HUGE, too - the one dad kept it on his farm where we camped.

I need one!!

I saw a huge catapult on TV where the owner was throwing old upright pianos, ha!

TAM

I got myself a job at Apple. I'm moving back to California next month.

It definitely does rock, but I will miss Virginia, my current coworkers, and a bunch of other people I've befriended here.

It figures.
I'm heading to Virginia this year to visit.

I loathe the idea of having to move anymore. I can't imagine the purging that would need to be done.

Our move is happening too quickly to do a proper purging. Still, we live pretty small now so it's not too bad.

And it figures that you'd only come to VA after I leave.

Well dammit we had a kitchen reno project last year otherwise i would have come.
This year i'm just getting the kids' passports so we can't go until those arrive. Likely June.

At least this gives me another reason yet to visit California and hit those many wine regions.

My next question is, will Ken be following you back to Cali?

I just bought myself an Xbox One Elite. I decided to go ahead and get the whole console instead of just the Elite Controller (which I'm mainly excited about using on my PC) so I could retire my 360 (as in, find a new home for it). Also, the Elite Controller that I got for my nephew came with Halo 5, which they already own, so they gave me the extra copy. I missed the $50 off promotion Microsoft was running on the bundle, though, so that was disappointing. But I did it, anyway, because why not.

And your answer is.... nope.

Bay area again? Happy for you and wishing all the best to the Bukowinskis. Normally, having you move that far away would bother me. But, as long as you have relatives a few blocks from me, I know I'll get the chance to see you guys every now and then.

So are congratulations, or condolences in order? Can't really tell from your comments, so I'm wishing you both.

Well what can Peter mess up at Apple that they haven't already made idiotic proof into more idiotic?

A poor joke, but no doubt a start to the LONG lineup of ones to come!
Now if Peter had taken up a position at Bose instead...

I move that Peter adds that to his bucket list. All in favour?

Well ... as Apple is to the world of computers what Bose is to the world of speakers, it makes perfect sense.

What you're saying is...Excellent marketing, of soso products, purchased largely by, sheeple availability heuristic consumers .

Well ... ummmmmmm ... errrrrrrrrrr ... Is it happy hour yet?

As Kurt Vonnegut would say, you're an *.

Peter! Great! You go! No, seriously, I mean, "You go!" Get the hell outta here and GO to Californy, see if we care.

More seriously, big congrats!!! Hope it's more than you thought!!

As soon as you're really "in" there, let us know what they're up to. We know they'll have to kill you, but, still, it'd be fun to find out before everyone else.

May your move be forgettable. Best of luck, Peter!

Thanks, Bob! I hear they're getting rid of the headphone jack on their next phones.

Yes, in favor of brain implants! I heard that, too! I know Google, Apple, Microsoft, et al make you drink the Kool-Aid! That's OK, just keep the only member of the family to be I.D.-chipped be Bitsy, and you're good.

Off to enter the great techno maw you go. Work hard (you do), make a shitload of money, retire early, then tell everyone to bite you!

It's all vicarious for me now, so keep me posted.

I'll keep checking in, as always.