Just Saying -- the soapbox thread

[alanp]

Something in my amp has gone noisy -- Kenwood KA5090R. I've had it since 2001, so I've had a good run with it.

If I smack the front of the amp, the noise goes away. I'm guessing either a cold or cracked solder joint.

It's well, well, well past warranty, so I should probably crack it open. But I don't want to :/ But I also don't want to spend money on a new amp.

Damn it.

[thesmokingman]

cap starting to fail

[culturejam]

I have a kinda crappy Pioneer that slowly started to get more and more hum going on. Eventually I cracked the hood, thinking it was a longshot to fix it. After poking around a bit, I noticed that three or four electrolytics had somehow come loose from their joints. I replaced them and also touched up a few other suspicious looking joints, and now it works again and sounds just as mediocre as the day I bought it! 

[alanp]

Heh... I bought the amp new when I was a teenager for half price, since the shop couldn't supply an English manual. Once I was home, I emailed Kenwood USA for a manual  very early internet.

I'll crack it open either tonight or tomorrow.

[PaulL]

Sounds like a job for a wooden dowel and some random poking about inside.

[alanp]

I wound up buying a new Pioneer. If you pay cash, shops will usually do a deal.

The digital control side has been a bag of dicks for years -- try to change the input, it flicks through half of them before settling on one you didn't want. And the volume occasionally cut out, needing a joggle of the knob. (My sister was very happy to hear there would be no more random volume spikes to get the Kenwood going again.)

[alanp]

I'm watching another anime where a kendo club member is involved (Katekyo Hitman Reborn.)

If ARMA or something had something similar in Western schooling, where I could learn the longsword (fencing and the like don't count, for one, they're too high-class hoity-toity, and for the other, they're a sport, with no pretensions of actual combat applicability) I would have been all over PE, rather than being the Dead Last.

[somnif]

I'm watching another anime where a kendo club member is involved (Katekyo Hitman Reborn.)

If ARMA or something had something similar in Western schooling, where I could learn the longsword (fencing and the like don't count, for one, they're too high-class hoity-toity, and for the other, they're a sport, with no pretensions of actual combat applicability) I would have been all over PE, rather than being the Dead Last.

I taught intro bio last spring, and one of my fellow TA's who taught the period after mine was an avid long sword fighter. It always made staff meetings fun as we were waiting for our coordinator to wake up and show up, he'd grab a pair of meter sticks and start teaching us the differences between german and english stances, what swords were used for which fighting styles, etc.

Strange, but cool, fellow. No idea where he learned (honestly never got around to asking) but it seems its still alive and well in some capacity.

[alanp]

With regards to gender-bender characters, I'm fully behind the female Doctor Who.

Why, when I'm against female Jamie Bond, or Thorienne?

Because it fits in with the in-universe lore. It's entirely possible for a regeneration of Doctor Who to be female. It isn't a case of the Hand of God descending, and Deus Ex Machina declaring, "Thou Art Now Female!"

And, for something completely different, I saw something hilarious. Utterly hilarious. An old Jimquisition video, where he declared the Wii U winner of the "Next Gen" war.

It wasn't hilarious because he said the Wii U won.

It was because he said the Wii U had new and exciting games.

All the while, showing footage of...

Yet another fucking Zelda.

Yet another fucking Mario.

Yet another fucking Donkey Kong.

I don't care if Mario puts on a furry fetish suit. Come up with a new character, maybe even a real cat, (you could buy the licence for Sylvester!) not just lipstick on a pig, Nintendo!

[Muadzin]

 I hate the female Doctor. It totally changes the dynamics of the show in ways not seen since the 2nd Doctor set the definitive mold of what the show would become. It feels utterly like a kneefall to the PC crowd, who doesn't watch it anyway, and I feared as such the moment they asspulled a female Master. A female James Bond on the other hand, I wouldn't mind, but that's probably more because the franchise does absolutely nothing to me. At least I like Doctor Who. A new James Bond movie is like a whole new reason not to care. It's Bond with gadgets and hot chicks, going from stunt scene to stunt scene. It's like a Michael Bay movie, only less aweful, and but without the transformers that at least make them somewhat cool.

I guess your mileage may vary.

[thesmokingman]

if they kept everything about Bond the same, just made it a female that was bedding the Bond girls and tearing around the world's vacation spots in well made British sports cars that would be fine ... not quite ready for the ridiculous male version of Pussy Galore or Honey Ryder

[flanagan0718]

Super frustrated with the ending on Twin Peaks. Episode 18 is the last episode EVER and by far the WORST ending to a tv series. I get that it's David Lynch but come on...WHAT THE FUCK!!

[Govmnt_Lacky]

Super frustrated with the ending on Twin Peaks. Episode 18 is the last episode EVER and by far the WORST ending to a tv series. I get that it's David Lynch but come on...WHAT THE FUCK!!

Two words.....

Sopranos

Lost

"nuff said my friend! 

[juansolo]

I don't care if Mario puts on a furry fetish suit. Come up with a new character, maybe even a real cat, (you could buy the licence for Sylvester!) not just lipstick on a pig, Nintendo!

Like Splatoon...?

[alanp]

It's a start