Merry Christmas! I hope you all had a good day eh.  Here are the first 39 issues of the Rivendell Reader as my and Grant's gift to you. Don't worry, I'm sure his welds are better than his scans.

Surly Minneapolis

I went to Surly's new Minneapolis brewery last night and had a few really tasty beers including super-fresh Abrasive that hasn't even hit the stores yet.  The design is Scandinavian modern and the public areas are huge with seating for a couple hundred downstairs and a bunch more space upstairs.  I talked to a number of cool employees and other people.  They are pretty serious about the food apparently and are going to have a reservations-only restaurant upstairs in addition to the current table service in the near future.  I didn't get a chance to purchase a t-shirt or poster before I left though as the over-zealous security douche kicked me out, after popping-up and calling me back from the desolate patio edge bushes, when I asked him if I could finish peeing first.  Fucker. They must have cameras.  It was time to go anyway.

Opeth @ Mill City Nights

The infamous Mill City Nights AKA the Brick.  Opeth, In Flames, Red Fang, Sean, Me and not Steve last night.  Fucking Steve.  It has flaws but it's a pretty good venue as it turns out.  The main floor is one big space front to back, no stairs no barriers just bodies.  It gains corridors between bands but is a forest otherwise.  One bar and few but acceptable beer choices.  We found a comfortable place to stand at the back where the sound was good and the crowd was thinner.

There are a variety of environments available for the antsy including upstairs with quieter back bar and screen views of the stage, limited seating, balcony edge standing and bathrooms.  Or downstairs past the smoking exit and ticket window to the basement with bar, merch, a mellow vibe and more bathrooms.

Red Fang was better than I expected, In Flames was worse.  Opeth sounded great and played unbelievably. The thirteen minute Deliverance the end of which contains one of my favorite grooves ever was the last song.

When you say excuse me he understands you might bump into him but he isn't going to move as you try to step past.  These kids today...

Cobra Fist

I told myself I would buy them as soon as I saw them next year.  Hub had them. There is a drawstring cuff around the wrist and upper and lower zips with internal pulls.  CobraFist!

Proper installation instructions would have been:

1.  Take any existing bar end plugs out.
2,  Unzip the neoprene cuff , slide it onto the bar and RE-ZIP IT.
3.  Get the right sized wrench for the inside of the new bar end plug - cause adjusting this part sucks.

4.  Put the new bar end plug through the grommet, then put your wrench-hand inside the pogie and crank it tighter until the rubber end barely fits into the bar - cause it will be too big for the grommet long before it will be too big for the bar.  Come to think of it,  you may want to do that before you put the pogie on the bar.

I consider this a product defect in fact,  the rubber grommets may be better holding than quickly-expanding volcano cone-shaped tighteners when finally installed but the installation of them sucks. I expect more from you Quality.  When it is close to sticking inside the bar, crank it a few more times stuff it and tighten it as best you can.  Fail.

5.  The Zipped cuff foam stiffener instructions suck too.  You already re-zipped and velcro'd the cuffs after you put them on right? - cause you need to do that FIRST despite what the instructions say.  Now slowly stuff the positioned foam into the zipped cuff to create an air seal.

WTF 45NRTH?

Russian Propaganda Velma

Scooby's ready to go.

I've been looking around for the best download options.  Like insurance and action sports I want less risk now here with the family and the life and everything but I've still got to have the new stuff.  How do I do that?

Don't do newsgroups it's new or rare only there.  Bram Cohn's idea is still the best.  You don't want a VPN for ALL your traffic you want a proxy for your torrents.  You want Private Internet Access.  They primarily sell encrypt-your-entire-internet-connection for crazy people (VPN) but you don't install the software you just obtain the info to configure uTorrent for PROXY to get dropped off in Scandinavia instead with no tracing to home.  It's 40 bucks a year and easy to set up Patrick .  Seems well worth it for gigs.

Evil Dave Double Down Thor Wixom

Remember evil dave from double down? That and Shift are best vids ever.  Thank you Thor Wixom.

Soup Hunter Guitars

Check out this shit happening two miles from my house.  This is seriously cool, Jack White would approve.  A hundred bucks?  I want one.  I want three.  Placeholder for Koerner, Ray and Glover download here. Yes Soup Hunter,  I think it's a synonym for hobo. I had some delicious fish soup tonight thank you baby.

Morning bride

Afternoon horses

Forestville Mystery Cave South of Rochester State Park Weekend.  Here returning from visiting with horses over the fence at a local farm a bit past Forestville.  Kathleen rode solo morning early and snuggled the horses at the fence.  Later afternoon fatbike served us well as on a dare I rode a block of rough between the cornfield and the unmowed space before the barbwire to heave carrots at the three horses far back in the pasture, turn around and ride and call to encourage them to come back to the road fence.  Worked.

Above, first shot of the day from bed.  Mara far side of table, garbage bag near side of table.  Branch touching Kathleen's brain for some reason.

Izzy on Things

Izzy on Things

Old school shut the fuck up school.  fucking fiend folio school  fucking school

At least Stever is living it right.

This is a Pioneer RT 707 (7 inch) reel to reel tape deck that plays and records. I grabbed a box full of tapes and this deck from the curb in G's hood this afternoon, sorry you're rich man.  Powers and runs the tape. Looking forward to hooking it up to the stereo. Excellent audio apparently. Thank you internet-less people. It looks so fucking awesome I might just keep it.  Lou Reed New York is one of the newest tapes.

Monday Night Tuesday Off

Fuck the Replacements, I didn't want to go see their stupid show anyway.  Yes I did.  Monday night, First Avenue,  Clutch!

Seriously Sistronix

Seriously Sistronix.

Powderhorn 24 2014

Powderhorn 24 2014 officially ended at 7 this evening but Kathleen collected our last punches a few hours before.  She could have kept going she said but was getting bored.  I was done though,  hot and humid has always been my nemesis and despite best hydration efforts I was not getting back on the bike at that point.

The stop and go intersection navigation, alleys and potholes course is not Kathleen's cup of tea but I like it just fine.  Night riding ditto.  She rode 5 (counting the required warm up)  hair-under 5-mile laps into the darkness last night where I picked it up and rode 6 before calling it a night - I mean seriously,  there are no intentions to actually ride for 24 hours.  The team-HUB tattoos and SIDIs hammerheads probably pulled it off but for an individual to ride during each of the 24 hours would be an amazing accomplishment.

Kathleen was at it again before the sun this morning and rode for hours before I stepped back in for another 7 laps (counting my voided and deserved dunce lap - doh) - through the heat of the day before tagging-off with the waiting woman and limping home cramping and light headed.  In the end I rode 12+1 laps for ~65 miles and Kathleen rode 18+1 for ~95.  My body is going to stop hurting long before my ego is.

In honor of their 20th anniversary on the web Microsoft recreated their first site.  I know this because I work with serious geeks who will send you links to said shit. Don't worry none of the pictured links work so you get basically the same experience here.  Thank you geeks.

So that means 1994.  I started with 98.  The internet is why I do what I do.  Thank you Microsoft for all you've done.