what are you doing ?

[jack]

Given this dynamic I wouldn’t say people who engage in such activity are scrotes.

A "scrote" is "an obnoxious or contemptible person" , so that term could well apply to any person regardless of their social position or financial standing.

As I see it Steve's use of the word was correct and applicable.

Didn't Viv Stanshall, aka Sir Henry of Rawlinson End, once have a butler called"Scrotum" (his wrinkled old retainer) ...

[Cressy Snr]

Did some rearranging of the boxes yesterday:

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CD player and turntable, phono stage and its power supply have moved to the top and the amp, DAC and TiVo box are belowdecks.

The scrotes doing the drug deal were not real, well not yesterday anyway. They do however feature in a story I’ve been working on for a while now. Here’s a short extract:

….Take the second exit, droned the SatNav as they exited the first of the three roundabouts that lay between them and their destination. Janet did as she was directed.
Take the first exit onto the dual carriageway.
Take the fourth exit. After 100 yards, turn left.
Take the next right.
You have arrived at your destination.
‘Go a bit further on,’ said William. ‘OK, just here. Pull over.’
Janet drew their BMW up against the kerb and switched off the engine. They sat for a while looking at the desolation. A youth on a BMX bike emerged from the junction opposite and disappeared into the distance. All of the joviality and banter that had passed between them on the inward journey had evaporated, to be replaced, by a brooding tension that a person would need to have been made of stone not to sense. Though it was spring, the sunlight seemed to have been stained by the surroundings. William shivered inwardly.
They got out of the car as a group of youths appeared just ahead of them, circling their bikes in the middle of the road. A small hatchback drew up, the bikes surrounded it. Then, executing a complex piece of well rehearsed two-wheeled choreography, each of the youths passed the passenger window and as they did so, small packages were handed out to them, one after the other, before they peeled off in sequence and disappeared into the surrounding neighbourhood.
‘Jesus Christ!’ exclaimed Janet. I don’t know what it is you’re up to Willie, but I think we need to abandon whatever it is and go home, right now.’
A spindly man approached them along the cracked up footpath and as he came closer, both William and the man registered mutual recognition.
‘Foooooookin’ hell! Willie Barker as I live and breathe! You’ve put some fuckin’ timber on ‘aven’t you?’
‘Gerry Shaw! Bloody hell Gerry, still telling it like it is then? I’m surprised there’s anybody left around here that I’d know. Good to see you mate. You still on Stanley Street?’asked William.
Yeh! I’m still in mam and dad’s house. I mean they both died years ago, me mam wi’ cancer and dad wi’ a heart attack.‘
‘Sorry to hear that Gerry.’
‘Your mam and dad still about Willie?’
‘Naw. Dad died of mesothelioma and mam had dementia. This is my wife Janet,’ said William, gesturing towards her.
‘Nah then lass!’
Gerry lit a cigarette, the spent Swan Vesta leaving a curly blue trail towards the ground. He blew twin plumes of smoke, one from each nostril and the cloud drifted towards Janet.
‘Nice to meet you Gerry,’ replied Janet, coughing, smiling awkwardly and not meaning a word of it.
‘What you doin’ ‘ere anyway? asked Gerry.
‘Just indulging in a bit of nostalgia,’
Fuckin’ ‘ell Willie! ‘There’s nowt to be nostalgic about round ‘ere! Look at state o’ place. He gestured around him. 'It’s nowt like it were when we were kids. There’s only me and Bryan Crookshank left as thaa’d know mate. His wife died last month. There’s nob’dy else left. They’ve either died or moved away like thee. Me an’ Bry’ wish we were somewhere else an’ all, but the only way me or ‘im’s gonna gerrout o’ this place is in a fuckin’ box!’….

[Daniel Quinn]

I going to buy Peter Gabriel new blood live special addition 3 blood red vinyl records .

It released today in record shops as part of record store day

[jack]

Second crop extraction. This time it's mainly clover with a tiny bit of OSR.

7 supers with a total of 77kg of honey, making 140kg total so far this year. Left lots on the hives as food for June/July which are notoriously sparse when it comes to bee forage.

Also got 2.2kg of pure wax (after I cleaned it all up) from the cappings and old frames that needed replacing - you change the frames every 2-3 years to help manage disease (fungal spores, bacteria, viruses, wax moth etc).

2.2kg is enough to make about 35 8" x 1" pure wax candles. Old wax is removed from frames by steaming them for about an hour. I also collect odd bits of wax each time I go to a hive - the bees have a habit of filling up odd spaces with wax, so a beekeeper will remove the odd bits... Over a few months, this can add up to another kilo or so after processing.

When I replace the wax in a frame, I date stamp it so a) I know which way the frame goes (always read from behind the hive) and b) how old that wax is.

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[jack]

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[andrew Ivimey]

Wonderful!!!

[Thermionic Idler]

Tomorrow, I will be mostly installing a new motherboard, processor and memory into Meredith's old PC, which will become a fully fledged Roon core running Audiolinux with enough grunt to upsample to DSD, ready for the valve DAC coming along later in the year.

By the way, two weekends ago I also installed those Mundorf ZN caps into the 300B amps but haven't posted the pics yet because my image sharing solution is still broken. Yep - don't think I"ve lost anything sound-wise from moving away from the PIO's, in fact I think transparency is up a notch since I also fitted lower values.

Interestingly, it was the right channel amp that had had the oil leak, but we'd had an ongoing problem with the other amp occasionally making a single 'pop' sound through the speaker - every 2 hours or so. That problem has now gone away completely since the new caps went in, so obviously one of the other PIO's had an issue somewhere.

[Daniel Quinn]

Just harvested some potatoes and onions in 1 of the large (12ft x8ft ) for the 8 yr olds home learning .

Farmer Luther was most impressed with his lot .

Prior to be a farmer , he was Luther van goth and finished his painting of a starry starry night .

As you can tell , we’ve left it till the last minute as usual .

[pre65]

I noticed the ground around the manhole cover was squelchy, so I prised the lid up, and sure enough, there is a blockage in the pipe going to the septic tank.

So, out come the rods and within ten minutes things are flowing again.

One of those tasks that really is a "shit job".

[Ant]

Just bought myself another turntable to restore, a JVC qly3f, one down from the one ive already got.
It looks very very sorry for itself.
Plinth is battered, the platter surround is gouged up worse than the y5 was, and its untested. One arm transport button is stuck down. There are probably other broken bits i havent seen yet
It cost peanuts for a reason.

It does however, have the original platter mat which is the same as the y5 mat which was missing, and is unobtanium, it has the original counterweight, again missing from the y5 and again impossible to source, and the original jvc ph8 headshell which are slightly easier to find from japan and the us, but cost over 100 dollars. Plus import tax.

So even if it it completely buggered, the bits i needed for the y5 to put it back to original spec are there.

We shall see when it comes....

[jack]

I noticed the ground around the manhole cover was squelchy, so I prised the lid up, and sure enough, there is a blockage in the pipe going to the septic tank.

So, out come the rods and within ten minutes things are flowing again.

One of those tasks that really is a "shit job".

Putting it bluntly: Rodding your own shit is not a nice job, but it can be done without wanting to puke.

Rodding someone else's - totally different (and far worse) situation.

[pre65]

Putting it bluntly: Rodding your own shit is not a nice job, but it can be done without wanting to puke.

Rodding someone else's - totally different (and far worse) situation.

Agreed.

[Paul Barker]

My worst example of that job was shovelling all the “flushable” nappies (please noone believe it when manufacturers write “flushable” on a product). They arent flushable, they are a bucket and spade job for the poor plumber. its always a manhole brimmed with nappies and everything everyone else has done in the toilet. And no, “blue loo” doesnt help in any way shape or form. one thing worse than shovelling shit into a bucket is getting stained blue aswell.

But worse than a manhole brimmed with nappies in blue loo, is a saniflow brimmed with nappies and blue loo. I recall one such occasion the elbow out of saniflow self destructed under the pressure; I was called for, and had to wade through a luxury bdroom shag pile carpet with a 2” tide of blue and all the items you can image find their way into the toilet.

Not many people know its illegal to have a saniflow as youre only wc. If I made laws the saniflow would be illegal full stop. people who put the wrong things in them would probably have their hands cut off under sharia law (however thats spelled).

[izzy wizzy]

I installed Saniflos only if the customer absolutely insisted it had to be. I always told them of the problems coming their way at some point.

"Not through you, not down the loo" little ditty to help keep the thing going for as long as possible.

Also told them it was only a matter of time before it went wrong and if it did, don't call me. Most still went ahead.

[Daniel Quinn]

I’m sulking and hurting .

Went to the neurologist to see if Botox would assist my walking. I walk with my hip out and a high step to compensate for lack of knee bend and a dropped foot .

I was examined and told I didn’t need Botox what was needed was walking with a proper gait . I was fitted with a Velcro device that would lift my toes when walking and was told “I must walk with a knee bend”

So now I’m back to 1.5 km hour and in so much pain it unbelievable . Apparently the asymmetrical gait I had didn’t use muscles that a symmetrical one does.

Learning to walk is a lot more fun when your a baby