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My biggest beef was dispatching the night king halfway through. I liked the battle of winterfell, and even how it ended, but I always thought the series was being set up as the fight for the iron throne is sort of an ongoing humans will be humans thing, but this army of ice zombies is the real threat. Like the magical fantasy aspect of the show was lesser to the political side. Made Bran and Jon and the Wall's interesting stories seem more like a side quest. Did Bran really become the three eyed raven, become humanities history book and see through time, just so he could rule a kingdom for a few decades? Seems like that could have been larger than that. But it is what it is! Entertainment.

Besides that, I don't think Danny's character turn was bad, I'm glad Jon wasn't just handed the throne, but the outrage is ludicrous. I can understand not enjoying the direction things took or the pacing of the last couple seasons, because I had my issues with them too, but to start a petition for a rewrite of the last season with new writers? Whiny, entitled crybabies.

Yeah, how dare they demand a story that is......., good instead of mediocre. If you're promised a product, and you get something that is faulty and which does not live up to the advertisement, that now makes you a crybaby?

The point of the petition is not to have the series remade. Nobody is that stupid. The point of the petition is to show HBO that they seriously dropped the idiot ball and that their consumers are not happy with the end product.

If even the 5088 is getting phased out of production, that seems to be pretty much the end of through hole semi-conductors. They're like the most common semi-conductor in use.

I haven't even seen the series, but I did notice that all the fan sites and youtube have exploded with fan rage. A lot of fans feel like Invertiguy. Or even worse. And my friend and his family, who have watched the show, think it was a load of bollocks. I'm glad I have not watched this show though. I kinda wanted too, but I didn't feel like binging. And now I'm glad I did not get emotionally invested in this show. The last time I did and got burned was with the new Battlestar Galactica. Man, did I feel pissed, and still do, with how that show ended.

Lol... the huntsmen are the harmless ones!

That said, I did let out a manly yell one time when I put on my work gloves in the garage, and couldn't work out why one glove didn't fit any more.  Then it started wiggling inside.  A huntsman had gone into the glove for a nap.   I look inside gloves before putting them on now.

Thanks for reminding me what Discovery Channel had taught me before, when in Ozz, always check your shoes, gloves, nooks and crannies before putting them on, or all of a sudden opening them. You never know what nasty poisonous thing crawled up inside them. That continent most definitely does not like humans.

Yeah, definitely one of the better suppliers out there. Certainly not the cheapest, but good service and an excellent range of parts do go a long way. When I had to order something really rare my first instinct was always to go checkout Smallbear first.

Me too. Spiders freak me out.

I've been part of a local guitarbuilding class since 2014. In that time its not so much a structured class as more a workshop where you can use the tools to build your own guitar(s) with the aid or advice of the luthiers being present. Also some of the other people who build there have amassed quite the knowledge themselves. So we can consult each other as well. From what I gather its quite unique because we have one guy who comes in all the way from The Hague, which is on the other side of the country.

I like to build guitars that are a little different then usual, cause if I want yet another Tele or Strat I could just as easily buy one. So my guitars follow a Warhammer 40.000 theme and usually have lots of internal gizmos. Cause why not? Noise making circuits, sustainers and/or MIDI touch screens.

1st build, internal Fuzz Factory and Fernandes Sustainer


2nd build, amptone MIDI touchpad and Fernandes Sustainer


3rd build, 1st Floyd Rose, internal Cry Baby for Pink Floydesque Echoes seagul screams


4th build, internal Fuzz Factory and Cry Baby circuit


5th build, 7 string with Sustainiac Sustainer


6th build, basically a reworked old Squier Tele, no additional circuits other then some kill switches.


7th build, amptone MIDI touchpad and Fernandes Sustainer, this is where I learned to do a factory finish style paintjob.


8th build, reworked version of the first one with new body and superior paint job


9th build, Jazz Bass kit from Thomann.


10th build, amptone MIDI touchpad and Fernandes Sustainer, first matt finish paint job.


11th build, first Jazzmaster build, internal Fuzz Factory

Okay I changed my mind. I saw some of the sneak peek footage of The Mandalorian and it looks bad ass. Much better than the recent movies.

From what I've gathered the people behind making The Mandalorian do seem to give a crap about Star Wars. With Jon Favreau being a huge original trilogy nut, and the other guy having worked with Lucas during the prequels. Methinks when you're personally invested into the story there's a higher chance of success compared to when you're a hack whose only interest in the story is as a cash cow and to push an agenda.

Then again there are also stories abound of fans who became involved with their beloved franchise and who used it push through their view of what the franchise was and should be. The term ascended fanboy being coined for people like that.

Jar Jar Abrams has never EVER made a good movie. Or series. All he's good at is serving up a warm turd. One that looks nice and shiny, but scratch away the veneer and all you're left with is still a turd. The idea that Jar Jar could fix the mess that was TLJ is absurd, when has he EVER managed to bring something to a good and satisfactory conclusion? So now Rey, the biggest Mary Sue in cinema history, a Mary Sue so big not even the worst fanfiction could have written her who has now jumped the Tie Fighter, who has defeated Kilo Ren twice without effort, is going to take on Kilo Ren again for a 3rd time? And this is supposed to be exciting?

Jar Jar Abrams is a snake oil salesman. He's a con artist. Getting excited over this new movie is like ordering fake parts from China for two times in a row, and now ordering a 3rd time in the hope that this time the MN3005's will be legit? Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me, fool me three times in a row? How big of a SW fanboy do you have to be before accepting that all they are doing is beating a dead horse. Three times in a row.

Challenge yourself and play Dune 2.

I once did. Got reasonably far into the campaign, then in a mission I hit the production limit for the number of buildings I could build and haven't touched it ever since. I'm a huge turtle player so I like to build more fortifications and gun turrets then the Maginot line.

I could never bring myself to play C&C or the like. They always felt like huge, massive Dune 2 rip-offs to me.

Oh, I LOVED C&C at the time. I only got Dune 2 a long time after those, so C&C and Warcraft 1 were my introduction to RTS games. I also became a huge fan of the Wing Commander games, well, III and IV at least, as III was my first exposure and compared to III and IV the older ones were basically unplayable.

GOG has recently added Warcraft 1 to its roster so I got it for old times sake. Wow, speaking of a gaming culture shock. No selecting more then 4 units max, no clicking on a place on the map or enemy to get them moving or attacking, not even getting the screen to move to a different position on the map by moving the mouse, only by clicking inside the mini map. How far we have come since those days of old.

I didn't say there is anything wrong with it or with the fans who watch it.  Just saying that I get pulled out of the fantasy too easily to actively enjoy it.  More a problem with how I perceive it than with the substance of the sport itself.

Fair enough. The sheer obviousness of how fake the fights are can cause suspension of disbelief to many, myself included. But it clearly works for the demographic that it is intended as its been around for decades. It's a proven formula and lamenting that it is so obviously fake accomplishes nothing. The vast majority of wrestling fans know it is fake, and to make fun of those who can't, well, there are fans of all sorts of soap operas who think it is real too.

I've always seen those wrestling shows like WWE and the like as being soap operas for men.

Women like it too. Lots of ripped bare chested dudes, I can understand it if women like to see it for that. And as you said, there is the soap opera element. I wouldn't be surprised if the WWE ramped that up because they know that attracts female viewers. Just like a lot of cop shows have added soap opera elements these days for the same reason.

Boxing tournaments and that sort of thing are entirely different.

It's actual fighting vs. athletic entertainment. The rules for winning are also different. With wrestling there is always a 'clear winner' via a ten count. With boxing the winner often gets determined via a technical jury.

I have a couple of friends who are probably watching. Me? I stopped watching it in the 80's. It was fun for a while, I grew out of it. The fact that the only channel broadcasting it in the Netherlands went belly up probably also helped a bit. Most people over here call it fake and also typically American. Well, it is fake, and also deliciously American. Also amazing athletes. I loved the Louis Theroux episode where they put him through the training wringer until he threw up.

I just don't know enough about the acting and athletic skill involved to appreciate it, I suppose.  I understand that there is some careful choreography to avoid actual injury, but the feigned injury aspect kills it for me.  It's the same reason I can't watch basketball. *shrug*

It's sports theater. Why is it weird to fake injury in sports theater and acceptable in regular theater?

Unfortunately, some pedals don't play well with the high input/low output impedance of buffers, so you need to take that into account when building your effects order (early Fuzzes and Wah pedals are notorious for this).

I'm firmly of the opinion that its ridiculous to still build and design pedals that way. It's 2019 for god sakes, we've put men on the moon and sent probes to Pluto and beyond. And we still can't build a Fuzz Face that plays nice with buffers? Either the laziest design since Porsche keeps on releasing the same 911 every year, or yet another sign of guitarists being so arch conservative they would even have frowned upon the invention of fire. And pedal designers knowing this so they won't even bother.

Guitars get broken and get fixed.  A Gibson headstock popping off is nothing too exciting despite the gore

Chances are it might come out even stronger then before, as the right glue can be even stronger then the original wood. And some luthiers have become really good at fixing Gibson necks, to the point that you can't even see where it broke. Practice makes perfect. 

It could even be a good thing, now you know it already happened. No more having to worry when it will happen.

The part that is really ironic to me is that epiphones have 2 piece necks. So Gibson addressed the problem for their cheap guitars but not for the 3-4K ones.

Could be a question of money? A large piece of quality wood to rout a complete neck out costing more then making a 2 piece neck out of less wood?