Last night we had an interesting evening. Emma heard that the Washington Hebrew Congregation was having a special presentation of the Whirling Dervishes of Rumi – a special Sufi sect from Turkey. Ticket sales were open to the entire community – what a diverse crowd – and what a presentation!
Wonderful quote from Bill and Kent’s weblog:
President Bush stated, “Yesterday in New Jersey, we had another activist court issue a ruling that raises doubts about the institution of marriage. I believe it’s a sacred institution that is critical to the health of our society and the well-being of families, and it must be defended.”President Bush, if you really believe marriage needs defending so damn much, then pass a constitutional amendment making divorce illegal, moron.
It’s really funny that when a court rules in favor of equality for gays, they are called an “activist court”, and when they deny us equality, they are merely “doing what they are supposed to do.”
With the GallifreyOne fan site virtually off the air these days, I didn’t realize that Torchwood had even aired yet! What is Torchwood …?? sigh … Well, once there was a British TV show called Doctor Who. After MANY years and too many stories, it went off the air in the late 80s …
Well, this Amazing British TV writer/director/producer named Russell T Davis
was quite a fan, and had a vision to return the good Doctor to the airwaves. His new telling of the tales (and Christopher Eclestone’s portrayal of the Doctor) were a big hit …
midway through the first season of new episodes, there was a tale with another time traveling character that stole the show … his name was Captain Jack … and after another 2 years, RT Davis and crew created a spin off series about Captain Jack and his Torchwood Institute – seems they salvage alien technology for the good of humanity …
I caught the first two episodes tonight – what a triumph. It IS an adult SciFi series, but quite a fun romp!
We have these wonderful speakers at the left and right front of the TV room, but I only have a simple JBL EC25 speaker doing center channel dialog duty. Its a nice enough 2-way design – a titanium tweeter and a pair of 5 inch woofers in a very nice beech finish cabinet – and it matches the shelf system very well.
Time for a Date night out! A month back I heard the California Guitar Trio were coming to Jammin’ Java in Vienna again –
we’d seen them there 2 years ago and had a great time –
Emma and I were really looking forward to a fun night out with music. The show was at 8PM – we got there around 6:30 and got a table 1 row back from the stage – but its a small club – I don’t think there are any bad seats there. The night was great fun – I highly recommend seeing them any time they come to your town!
In the middle of the night I got up to go to the bathroom and realized we’d left the lights on – as I walked by the office, I saw what our cats do when we are not around …
Background deleted to avoid showing office clutter (!) …
As usual, click the image to see a doublesize version.
Sunday October 1 … that was the first service for the group meeting to consider the possibility of one day having an MCC in the Harrisonburg area of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
As part of my biamp project, I recently bought an old Crown D-75 off eBay. Seller said the Amp was in good shape, and I trust people at their word. I have bought and sold parts via eBay – I sold a pair of Triumph motorcycle forks, and a pair of JBL 4312 speakers – big heavy things, I padded and packed them tightly and they got to the buy on the west coast just fine.
When the Crown amp arrived a few weeks later, I was just amazed. Somehow the seller decided to use a box for a DELL flatscreen monitor and the original white foam for the monitor as packing material for the heavy amp. As you can see in the pictures, this didn’t fill the box and there was no extra foam/ bubblepack or anything to hold the amp in place. It must have bounced all over the place because it broke up the foam and bashed a hole in the package. Thats not UPS’s fault – its the seller’s fault for doing such a poor job of packing.
I hooked the amp up to my speakers and it works fine, but I give all the credit to Crown for making a bulletproof amp, not to this yahoo seller who apparently just used his old computer trash/packing to ship a $130 amp! Amazing!
My old (early 70s) JBLs are big box 3 ways – 15″ woofer, 1″ horn midrange, and a slot tweeter. I’m currently running them with my aging JVC AV receiver – its a nice unit, but it doesn’t provide much headroom for the woofers. JBLs are very efficient speakers – it doesn’t take a lot of power to run tweeters or mid-range horns, but woofers are power eaters in a decent system, and big woofers are worse. You see, speakers make music by moving air, and it takes lots of power to move a big speaker cone.
I’ve been way busy in the other world … I just haven’t been updating this site regularly!
Work has been busy –
Summertime always means lots of yard work.
Our friend Janet is now Reverend Janet Avery!
Last weekend we attended Roanoke Pride
Emma has been getting ready to start a new Church plant in Harrisonburg…
And I’ve been building the website for her …
http://www.mccshenval.com/