I'm at a crossroads--whether to slowly slip into the irrelevance of an underfunded retirement, or to return to medicine. We have some serious issues here in NM with the opiate epidemic, and feel the tug of a call to duty (psychiatry, addiction medicine). But for now mostly chilling and trying to catch up with the digital audio scene. I'm a died in the wool DIY guy--at least when it comes to speakers, the electronics I leave to real engineers (but am totally up to building this streamer + DAC FWIW I vote for 8 channels).
Here in NM at the crossroads between sliding into the irrelevence of a woefully underfunded retirement, or to return to the practice of medicine. Things are bad here with the opiate epidemic--there's a small town up the road a stretch that has the highest fatal OD rate of about anywhere on the planet. So I hear he call of duty, just trying to get my boots on.
Hobbies include audio obviously--hook planted deep during HS. Sometimes it's an obsession, other times I may go weeks w/o turning it on. Right now it's on the obsessional end of the VU meters as I try to wrap my head around all the different ways one can to digital active, that and learning more about directivity. My current rig is pretty good, even if it looks somewhat mild mannered.
The only shot I have as we had just hung the new OLED, and the sawdust just knocked off the subs--we was gonna have a pahhte, and party we did. On the left cab is the brilliantly remastered DVD of Woodstock--It was quite the evening--Hendrix was dishing, but the cuts of Santana and Richie Havens stole the show, it was a wow evening--I was just gobsmacked by the OLED display and the speakers just image like crazy--absolutley no need for a center. Anyway it ll hung together in a most musically satisfying way. Anyhow, I got hooked on audio in HS--my first upgrade was Marantz 1200 int amp + AR-5's. Dual table--what else?
Other hobbies: Did someone say IPA? No longer my cup of tea--as I am into Czech & German Lagers and wheats with a special place for the fabulous Belgian brews. Been homebrewing since the mid 80's and came close to turning pro ten years later. I was putting all that medical school education to good use, and had yeast cultures from everywhere and brewing 35 gallon batches. But doing so meant forsaking all that time pursuing an MD and PhD and after a whole lotta eenie meanie miny moes, went and did a shrink residency. It's the kind of fork in the road of life we all have had, and as we get
woolly and wonder what if? I keep things very simple--7.5 gal batches with 120 bucks worth of gear, and they run from good to truly world class spectacular. But it's really about the process, don't need two thousand dollars of bling to make it right. I have also dabbled in winemaking--which is downright simple by comparison, and growing mushrooms--mostly shiitake and oysters, with an occasional batch of cubes--sometimes one jus' needs to get their ya-ya's out.
Another hobby is amateur rocketry: I loved the little estes rockets as a kid, and while in grad school started volunteering at a Kiwanis Boys and Girls Club teaching a bit of physics and coding--rockets being a perfect learning tool. Well the rockets kept getting bigger and bigger until I created this 17' 2 stage monster which hit Mach 2 on it's way to 38k'. All safely returned thanks to pressure sensitive triggers which fire the charges needed to deploy the chutes, usu about 500' high. I'm the guy in the Giants sweater, and feeling the burn.
Not mine but some old friends from Utah where I did grad school. These aint your dad's rockets.
Anyhow loving my time here--passion + smarts = loving life.