Month: November 2025

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Continuing To Dick Around With That Tuner

After installation of the battery pack and tweaking the VCO potentiometer, I thought I was done with the inside of my newly acquired Yamaha tuner. Turns out I was a bit premature in that assessment.

When I was in there last time, I took the opportunity to clean off the corrosion from the leaking battery that had migrated onto the back of the main circuit board and had dribbled down its length. (It must’ve been sitting on it’s side for years in storage.) I buttoned everything back up after the cleaning and didn’t think anything more of it.

Well, the next day when I powered it up, all the lights came on, but there was no sound coming out. Signal strength was good. Tuning was locked in, but there was no stereo light. Perplexed, I turned the power off and turned it back on. It started working normally.

I figured it was some temporary glitch and went on about my day. The next morning, I had the same problem. The same thing (off/on) fixed it again. Okay, this wasn’t just a one-time glitch.

Two days ago the single off/on trick stopped working. It took several tries to get it working properly.

Yesterday, nothing got it up and running normally other than to turn it on and just let it sit for about five minutes. It then spontaneously started working on its own.

This morning, faced with the same situation, I decided to go online and see if I could find any clues to why this was happening. It turns out the main power supply area of the circuit board was one of those areas affected by the battery corrosion (apparently this is a pretty common issue that can affect any number of functions in the tuner). So I disconnected everything and popped the cover and took a good look at all the traces and solder joints in that area (including where the corrosion had dribbled down the length of the board). The traces all looked okay, but some of the solder joints looked suspect. So I reflowed the ones that looked dodgy. I powered it up and as always, I breathed a sigh of relief when I didn’t see smoke rising. And everything worked.

At this point I think—er rather, I’m hoping—that it was simply one (or more) cracked/corroded solder joints that needed to heat up and expand ever so slightly to make proper contact. (Being the power supply area, it does generate a bit of heat.) Everything is all warmed up now so I guess the test will be tomorrow morning when it’s powered up cold.

UPDATE: 11/21: It worked!

UPDATE: 11/23: Nope. It was turned off for more than 24 hours and when I turned it on this morning it was back to its old behavior. That means there’s a bad capacitor somewhere in the circuit path, but considering there are 271 capacitors on that board tracking it down without any electronics knowledge is an impossible task—or at least one best left to an expert (which I am most certainly not.) Now all I have to do is find a local expert…

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Torturing Myself, Cont.

When I’m feeling especially masochistic I watch this guy’s videos:

The good news is that I’ve been able to get small bites of certain foods to go down orally and stay down—at least initially.  I’m learning my limits. Liquids are still a problem, although I did manage to get through half a large iced vanilla latte the other day. (Don’t ask me how. Maybe it was sheer willpower?) But it’s definitely touch-and-go, and can’t even be counted on to repeat day after day.

My therapist still said this was definitely progress and good news. She turned me on to some recipes that can be prepared, pureed and put through the G-tube as an alternative to the formula I’ve been living on since September. Obviously can’t taste the stuff, but it’s nice to get actual food back into my system.

She also had her supplier send me a huge sample pack of “Real Food,” a prepared, pureed product that I’m trying out.

And more good news is that when I went in for my infusion yesterday, it looks like my weight has finally stabilized; I haven’t lost any more since my last weigh-in. I’d like to keep it where it’s at. It’s nice getting into the same size jeans I wore in my 30s…

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Some Say You Shouldn’t Punch Nazis. Fuck That.

Some say you shouldn’t punch Nazis. Fuck that. Punch them in the head until your fucking hand breaks. After World War II we didn’t punch Nazis; we hanged the bastards.

–On This Day in History Shit Went Down: November 20, 1945–

I’m torn about the whole death penalty thing. If someone killed a member of my family, I’d want the fucker to die. Hell, I might do it myself. But at the societal level, it just doesn’t work. Using the United States as an example, there are many problems with it. It’s unfairly applied to poor people and people of color. Because of the lengthy appeals process, it’s more expensive to execute someone than to put them in prison for life. It is proven to not be a deterrent to crime. It breaks the social contract of a society that respects life. Mistakes are made, and you can’t make someone undead. Etc.

But those Nazi fucks had it coming.

They murdered millions and the West put them on trial. The first and best known of the Nuremberg trials began six months after the war ended, on November 20, 1945. But they’d been planned for over three years. Representatives from countries occupied by Germany began meeting in 1942 to plan how they’d one day hopefully hold those Nazi cockwaffles accountable. Nuremberg was chosen for the trials because the Palace of Justice was still intact after the Allied bombing, and because the city was also the birthplace of the Nazi Party, so it was another fuck-you to fascism.

The trials lasted over ten months, exposing the crimes of twenty-four of the most notorious political and military leaders of the Third Reich. Twelve of them were sentenced to the eternal dirt nap. One of the dozen condemned was Hermann Göring. Göring was one of the most powerful leaders in the Nazi Party. Someone smuggled cyanide into his cell for him and he killed himself the night before his scheduled execution. Asshole.

Another seven war criminals got sentences ranging from ten years to life; three were acquitted; and two ended up not being charged. When it came to the executions being carried out, they didn’t go that smoothly. Accusations were made that the drop for the hanging was too short, and a number of them, rather than have their necks broken for a quick death, died slowly and painfully over several minutes from strangulation.

Desiring vengeance is not a healthy emotion, but considering their crimes I’m having a difficult time feeling bad about that.

Those who cannot remember the past need a history teacher who says “fuck” a lot. Get both volumes of “On This Day in History Sh!t Went Down” at JamesFell.com/books. The holidays are coming and they make great gifts.

 

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Thursday Tiedrich

here’s a huge surprise: it turns out that Mad King Donny’s merry band of fascists are a bunch of incompetent shitwits who can’t even do a rigged show-trial right.

insurance-claims-lawyer-slash-beauty-pageant-contestant-turned-corrupt-US-Attorney Lindsey Halligan was back in court yesterday, trying to salvage her politically-motivated persecution of Public Enemy James Comey.

she ended up digging herself so fucking deeper.

Justice Department lawyers acknowledged Wednesday that a full grand jury never reviewed the indictment filed against former FBI director James B. Comey, a remarkable admission that could threaten the viability of a case already facing challenges on multiple fronts.

here’s the long story made short: Halligan had originally presented to the full grand jury a three-count indictment against Comey. the grand jury rejected one of the counts, so Halligan drew up a new, two-count indictment. this is where it turns into a shit-show.

Rather than present that new document to the full grand jury for approval, however, prosecutors had only the foreperson sign it before it was delivered to a judge, interim U.S. attorney Lindsey Halligan conceded Wednesday.

how do you fuck that up? because I’m pretty sure that telling a jury foreperson to ‘here, just put your name on this and let’s not show it to anyone else. it’ll be our fun secret!’ is a huge fucking Bozo no-no.

if Halligan had any clue what she was doing — if she’d ever prosecuted a case before — she would have known that pulling a boneheaded move like that would blow up in her face.

A 1969 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held that a full grand jury must consider an indictment for it to be considered valid.

but that’s what happens when your only qualification to be a US Attorney is‘Dear Leader says I’m the prettiest.’

Rep. Ted Lieu, could you come in here for a minute and explain to the nice people what would happen in any timeline that wasn’t the shittiest?

“In a normal Department of Justice not run by hacks and sycophants and malicious clowns, Lindsey Halligan would resign, and the indictment against James Comey would be dismissed. Halligan should be disbarred. She altered a court document without showing the grand jury.”

no fucking duh.

Halligan is the latest in a long line of loyalists and toadies to hitch their wagon to Dear Leader, only to end up in disgrace. Donny isn’t going to in office forever — and once his presidency is over, all the lackies who threw ethics out the window and bent the law for him are going to be toxic.

Lindsey Halligan just poured gasoline all over her future and set a match to it — because who’s going to hire someone like Halligan, who just proved herself to be malignantly incompetent buffoon?

Rudy Giuliani, am I right? Rudy? hello?

oh shit, Rudy’s passed out under a pile of empty vodka bottles again.

so, Donny finally signed the Dead Pedo Bestie Act of 2025, which directs the Department of What Used To Be Justice to release the Epstein Files.

you’ll never guess what happened next: Pam Bondi immediately started moving the goalposts. it turns out that the DOJ can’t release all of the files even though they really really want to, because — well, just because.

reporter: “the DOJ statement earlier this year saying that the files would not be released mentioned the fact that the review of the documents did not suggest that any additional investigation of third parties was warranted.what changed since then that you launched this investigation?”

Bondi: “information that has come for— information. um. that’s information that— new information, additional information.”

oh my lord, Pam came this close to big-lebowskiing her non-answer. she can’t release the files because new shit has come to light.

oh, great. Pam’s going to be withholding some of the Epstein files because all of a sudden those documents are going to be needed as evidence for some new investigation. how convenient.

for those keeping score at home, first the files were on Pam Bondi’s desk, then they didn’t exist at all, then they were a hoax written by Joe Biden’s autopen, and now, parts of the files can’t be released — because new shit has come to light, man.

let me guess which files can’t be released: the ones with the most-incriminating dirt on Dear Leader. am I right? what do I win?

don’t piss on our heads and tell us it’s raining. release the full, unedited files, you fucking fucks.

Senators Elissa Slotkin and Mark Kelley, along with Reps Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander, Chrissy Houlahan and Jason Crow have produced a 90-second video in which they remind members of the armed forces and the intelligence community that they have a sworn constitutional duty to refuse to follow illegal orders.

let’s just pause to consider how surreal this moment we’re living in is, where elected officials need to remind soldiers that when the president orders them to open fire on civilians in a US city, that shit’s a Bozo no-no.

this nightmare-fuel scenario was unthinkable, prior to Donny — but shitty timelines gonna shitty timeline, that’s just the way it is.

naturally, when Nosferatu McGoebbels caught wind of this video, he threw a tantrum.

“it is insurrection, plainly, directly without question… these lawmakers should honestly resign in disgrace, and never return to public office again, for even daring to think, let alone to say these words and to say them proudly.”

oh joy, Nosferatu got to use his favorite word again — insurrection.

fact check: fuck off. reminding the military of their sworn oath to uphold the Constitution isn’t insurrection — not in any sense of the word.

Stephen Miller throws the word insurrection around as easily as he swallows live bats. everything he doesn’t like is an insurrection.

a crowd peacefully protesting masked ICE thugs? that’s insurrection.

some judge rules against one of Donny’s kingly proclamations? insurrection!

Nosferatu gets up in the middle of the night to pee, and stubs his toe in the dark? worst insurrection ever!

it’s all so patently transparent. Miller is hot to convince Dear Leader that there’s an insurrection going on that must be put down right now, so that Donny will finally invoke the Insurrection Act, and bring on the chaos and violence that Miller is pining for.

we’ve seen this movie before.

but Donny’s not paying attention to Nosferatu right now. he’s off in the Magic Kingdom of Donnyland, listening to the soothing voices of imaginary pollsters.

“my pollsters said, ‘sir, if George Washington and Abraham Lincoln came back from the dead and they aligned and they went for the president, vice president as a combination, you’d be beating them by 25 points.’”

and then these big-strong, teary-eyed pollsters held the spoonful of pudding up to Donny’s mouth and said ‘zoom! zoom! open the hangar door, Mr. President, here comes the airplane.’

now check this out.

“Communist Mayor of New York City, Zohran ‘Kwame’ Mamdani, has asked for a meeting. We have agreed that this meeting will take place at the Oval Office on Friday, November 21st. Further details to follow!”

frankly, I can’t wait.

young, energetic and charismatic Mamdani will be going head to head with the deteriorating demento who can barely stay awake in public — and the cameras will be rolling.

stay tuned. will be wild.

this is going to be my closing message for the foreseeable future:

practice self-care. do what you need to do to keep sane. if that means you need to disengage with my daily posts for a while, I get it. this community of ours will still be here when you return.

to all the people who have signed on in the days since the election, welcome aboard. settle in as we all try to deal with the shitfuckery that’s ahead of us.

we are all in this together, and we are all here for each other.

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A Brief Health Update

How do people without insurance do it?

Short answer, they don’t.

Healthcare in this country sucks.

I went in for my second once-every-three-week Keytruda infusion today. I was handed this “informational sheet” at check-in. I mean, I knew this shit was expensive, but that $30K figure isn’t for the full course of treatment; it’s per infusion. A year’s worth of treatments rounds to more than half a million dollars.

As I was getting unhooked from the IV, the nurse and I had a long conversation about the state of healthcare in these United States and agreed that we needed Medicare for all, no questions asked. We’re the only “first world” country without universal healthcare and frankly, it’s a fucking embarrassment.

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A Belated Happy Birthday

Long before The Shining, et. al., this is how I became acquainted with Wendy’s work back in my high school years:

BTW, the original soundtrack from The Shining is one of those recordings that was never officially released on CD, and good copies of vinyl on the market are ridiculously expensive:


(Click to embiggen.)

I had it in my collection back in the day. I wish now it had been among one of the few I’d held on to; not because of the value, but because of the music itself.

Of course, this led me on a search to see if it was available online for download (because I have an incomplete version in iTunes) and I was able to find it. My next MD ripping project… ????

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Why?

Over the years I’ve gotten quite a few inquiries from readers asking, “Why all the men smoking? Why are you posting all these photos of otherwise good-looking young men, sullied with cigarettes dangling from their lips?”

A valid question.

I don’t smoke. I never have. Neither has Ben, or for that matter any of my friends—with one exception. Both my parents smoked when I was growing up (it was the 60s after all), but I heartily sung their praise when they quit in my teens.

I think the reason I never started was out of spite more than anything else. Even when I was in first or second grade I was giving Mom a hard time about her habit. One day she quipped, “One day you’ll smoke too,” and I responded, “I will NOT!” and stuck to my guns all these years.

When I first came out, I was smoking neutral. I’d hook up—as infrequent as those encounters were—with smokers and non-smokers alike. The only thing I really hated about smoking in general was coming home after a night at the club (it was the late 70s after all) reeking of the smell. In fact, often the first thing I’d do upon arriving home in the wee hours of the morning would be to strip down, throw my clothes in the washer, and shower before going to bed.

But sometime in the 80s—and definitely after I moved to San Francisco—my neutrality changed to a staunch anti-smoking stance. Seeing a cigarette dangling from a guy’s lips was an immediate turn-off and killed any further interest.

Something changed again for me in the 90s. Suddenly that same dangling cigarette became very sexy—if only visually. I still couldn’t stand the smell, and my boss—an older guy who smoked like a chimney in the office until we all demanded he step outside—had breath that could knock a person dead at ten paces.

But there was still something about the look. I know the habit will unnaturally age all these beautiful young men and they’ll look like crap by the time they’re my age (if they even live that long), but in my eyes they’re damn sexy now.

The irony of that video is not lost on me…