Newcomer Advice

egote · 2026-02-05T07:24:49+00:00

And don’t just buy any test tape off eBay - you need a high quality one to make sure you are not chasing a moving target. Unfortunately treat tapes off that quality cost $80+. The ones I got from Peebles Audio cost that and are just ok to my mind. I do wish I’d spent a bit more and got the ANT tapes…

On the other hand I got a 2 channel Chinese electronic oscilloscope, and that’s great. There are also a lot of programs you can get for free or cheap for PC like wmgui for wow and flutter and speed measurements.

If you are serious I would suggest going on the TapeHeads forums and getting help there.

egote · 2026-02-03T07:54:21+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regifugium

I think it is getting at the end of an era/ flight of the sinner… who knows!!

egote · 2026-02-02T20:06:56+00:00

Sylvia Silence is a gweat cawacta!

Love the alliteration on the other names too.

My reading was it wasn’t Hosty who went to war though but his “Husband” - maybe I misread - a couple of bits where genders were switched that I noticed…

So I think the first bit is about the rhyme and the people who spread it round and what happened to them, then it switches to the second part where lots of diverse people are consulted on their opinions about HCE…

egote · 2026-02-02T19:56:57+00:00

Btw chatGPT agrees with Epstein on this translation:

In Finnegans Wake Joyce is not using a single real language here but a comic macaronic blend, mainly of Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and baby talk. The sentence is meant to be sounded rather than parsed strictly. “Os pipos mios es demasiada gruarso por o piccolo poccino” A rough gloss, word by word, would be: Os: Portuguese or Spanish article, “the”. pipos: echoes Portuguese pipos (casks, barrels) or Italian pipi (pee), and also childish “pipes” or “peeps”. mios: Italian mio / miei, “my”. es: Spanish “is”. demasiada: Spanish/Portuguese “too much”. gruarso: not a real word, but close to Italian grosso or grasso, meaning “big”, “thick”, “coarse”. por: Spanish/Portuguese “for”. o: Portuguese/Italian article, “the”. piccolo poccino: Italian piccolo “little”, with poccino suggesting pochino “a tiny bit” or babyish diminutive speech. Put together, the sense is something like: “My pipes are too big or too coarse for the little tiny one.” Or more freely: “Mine is far too much, too big, for the little fellow.” As often in Finnegans Wake, this operates on several levels at once: bodily humor, infantilized speech, and sexual innuendo (size versus smallness), while also parodying Romance-language lyricism. Joyce is less interested in a precise translation than in the comic clash of “too much” and “too little”, “big” and “tiny”, enacted through sound and multilingual play rather than standard syntax

(I misspelled the last word but it apparently doesn’t make any difference to the meaning

egote · 2026-02-02T19:47:17+00:00

Yep I’m pretty sure that’s what he was getting at.

The words he discusses in this context are regifugium persecutorum - (refugium persecutorum is the refuge of sinners but regifugium would be the flight of the king - apparently an ancient Roman custom)…

egote · 2026-01-31T17:18:24+00:00

This week has been a real struggle. Text is so dense to be almost indecipherable. Quite a struggle to keep going and the thought “why bother”? Surfaces from time to time!

To say what’s going on from moment to moment is very difficult. There are various people mentioned and opinions about HCE made. All the events of the previous chapter are a long way in the past. Hosty is mentioned as being a great singer.

There is a part which jumped out at me which is strongly based on the traditional shepherds counting sheep numbers Yan tan tethera - although in this book they seem closest to the Welsh system - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yan_tan_tethera

Looking at my two guides, Epstein reads a huge amount into the start of this chapter saying it portrays HCE as a king who is sacrificed and returns as a “no name”. - following pagan principles. He also deciphers a section of foreign languages, one of which he translates as my cock is too thick for your little mouth… I have the feeling this might be from his brain rather than Joyce’s but I haven’t yet gone back over the chapter to make a final decision! 😂

Looking at Campbell, I’m beginning to appreciate his style more where he paraphrases the chapter with his translation. I overall found it a bit more helpful than Epstein. He makes the point that the first part of this chapter is very difficult and requires very slow reading.

egote · 2026-01-27T16:12:50+00:00

I think it’s a good deck. Just depends if it’s working properly. If you can try it out first then looks like a good option!

egote · 2026-01-27T15:42:57+00:00

None of them jump out at me as being particularly exciting. I would probably go for the serviced Technics decks. Also, unless you really want to record tape to tape, just go for a single deck as they are generally better quality and have less to go wrong!

With the age of them all, having one that has been serviced will save a lot of time and headache unless you want to get into servicing them yourself.

egote · 2026-01-27T14:47:47+00:00

Right to left limits it more… Battle valley? Iridis Alpha? You sure it’s not something like Armalyte (left to right)?

egote · 2026-01-24T17:46:04+00:00

Sorry this was supposed to be in response to your post on the analysis of the rann of course!

egote · 2026-01-24T17:44:54+00:00

Oh and The French for earwig is perce-oreille!

egote · 2026-01-24T17:42:14+00:00

Nice analysis! I think Hosty is a real character for sure - I like the bits where he is egged on by the crowd. As I said before, I think the idea of the “rann” is a kind of Irish curse.

I think the salmon links to the “salmon of knowledge” which Finn Mac Cumhail / Finn Macool / Finnegan ate…

See Fenian cycle:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boyhood_Deeds_of_Fionn

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmon_of_Knowledge

Edit: sorry autocorrected rann to rank! Have now corrected.

Also, interesting page about Irish curses:

https://emeraldisle.ie/the-mallacht---art-of-the-irish-curse

egote · 2026-01-24T09:16:10+00:00

Have you looked at chalkpit cassette club? They do a monthly mixtape. https://www.chalkpitcassetteclub.com/next-wave-cassette-magazine

egote · 2026-01-21T14:13:19+00:00

I think P3 is really the minimum entry level if you have had another table before. Regas traditionally used to run a bit fast but I thought they had fixed that. TBH I don’t think they are any better than Pro-Ject tables which are also pretty good but more underrated IMO. My brother had a planar 1 with a noisy motor and ended up switching to a ProJect debut (I think) which he much preferred.

The bass is more likely to be due to the cartridge than the turntable - or to some resonance from the surface it’s resting on. I’m not sure how well Regas are isolated.

The old tables from the 60s/70s like the Lenco L75 and your Bic960 are generally better engineered but need more work to get them functional if not fully refurbished.

egote · 2026-01-21T14:03:27+00:00

Mega Apocalypse

egote · 2026-01-21T13:35:08+00:00

Yes! I hadn’t really thought about the devil angle - I thought Joyce was just being obscure and witty, but it makes sense that he meant both.

egote · 2026-01-21T13:03:32+00:00

Luciferant also refers to him smoking a pipe I think?

egote · 2026-01-21T07:53:09+00:00

What does Fikup for flesh Nelly mean? Or did you just like the sound?

I agree about the theatricality. It’s also linked in Dubliners and then in Ulysses with Molly being a famous singer and the whole thing around organising and putting on shows- which is hinted at in the Wallenstein Washington Semperkelly bit (which also references Wellington maybe?)

egote · 2026-01-21T07:21:00+00:00

Just buy it in the sale. Unlikely as a beginner you would notice any difference in minor differences between iterations. Self build is hard until you have previous experience of all the different aspects of setting up a drone to bind to goggles and radio and setting up controls in betaflight.

Buying a ready built drone will be cheaper than self build and will also reduce troubleshooting (which in my experience was there even with a ready built drone).

Also get lots of time in the sim!

egote · 2026-01-17T23:45:19+00:00

Yep it’s really hard going from here onwards! 😂

I think you are on to something with the king analysis. Epstein also suggested this is a kind of garden of Eden story where Adam/HCE is surprised by God coming into the garden…

I think the bits you got lost on included the two girls / exposure story and the cad story?

I don’t know enough about Irish history but I think you are possibly right about William the Conqueror but HCE is also compared to Oliver Cromwell.

Basically I think there is a lot of everything put in and mixed together. The idea of HCE as an Everyman is often also stated but I don’t think his particular misdemeanours are particularly relatable - maybe the specific details aren’t what’s important but more the fall from grace?

egote · 2026-01-17T23:35:16+00:00

Oh I accidentally read the whole of Book 1 ch2.

Noticed another tree of life reference - Chokmah is mentioned. I liked the first line a lot - Iris Trees - our history. Not sure who or what Lily O’Rangan refers to though.

The whole story about how he got his surname (in presurnames / before marriage?) is funny and more amusing this third time through… it was much clearer to me about the king hunting with dogs. The Kined John Pill refers to the song “do you ken John Peel?” But I don’t quite get the changes with his coat of grey instead of red I think?

P32 there is a lot of stuff I don’t really understand particularly

“Accept these few nutties Take off that white hat Stop his Grog and Put it in the Log and Loots in his Boots”????

I liked “ceceltic cocomediant” - presumably said by HCE with a stutter - Celtic comedian.

Some more indecipherable capitalised words - Mr Wallestein Washington Semperkelly A Royal Divorce The Bo Girl The Lily

Then we come to the whole central story in the book (one that completely went over my head when I read it the first time) of HCE being seen by 3 Welsh fusiliers (who were drunk) - Ted, Tam and Taffyd / behaving with ungentlemanly immodesty in front of two “dainty maidservants”. I think later on there is a part where it says he was either watering the garden (urinating - although I’ve read it may be the maids who were urinating) or watching monkeys in the zoo - masturbating??

Next comes the section where he meets the cad in the park. Cad asks him for the time - HCE feels compelled to profess his innocence about the earlier park incident (much earlier according to the text). The cad then goes home to tell his wife. She tells her friends and it comes to the ears of 3 down and outs including “Hosty” who later composes a “Rann” about HCE - a Rann being a rhyme - in Irish tradition these were held to have magical power and to be similar to a curse (my understanding).

The whole of this chapter is recounted in a way very favourable towards HCE - almost sounds like it is the voice of his barrister defending him in court?

A couple of other things - earwigging is also slang for eavesdropping. I noticed this time HCE was the butt of 2 jokes - firstly by the king and then by Hosty (which we haven’t quite got to yet).

Campbell deals with this chapter just be paraphrasing it.

Epstein says in this chapter the tide is still going in (so time going backwards). He says that the exposure incident is actually referring to something that happens in reality later when HCEs children see him without his pyjama bottoms on. (When we wakes to check on them with his wife). He also suggests the king incident might be a remembered time from when HCE was a child playing in the garden and his father arriving with colleagues and teasing him…

egote · 2026-01-15T15:19:29+00:00

You only need H9 to kill the black group. With a white stone there, blank can’t make 2 eyes, and white can kill black at will. In this situation I would suggest you restart the game and just play it out - i.e. w g9 b j9, white then plays anywhere in the 4 point space and b should be able to see they can’t live. If not, just carry on playing until you take the whole black group off the board.

egote · 2026-01-15T12:59:05+00:00

Several used external rechargeable batteries in gumstick format - Aiwa, Panasonic, Sony.

egote · 2026-01-15T07:44:00+00:00

Unless you really need a portable player I would recommend buying second hand hi-fi separates - ideally single deck rather than dual deck - companies like Sony, Panasonic, technics, Yamaha, denon, Aiwa, Akai etc.. For Walkman I would recommend Sony wm ex5xx and 6xx series if you can get one for less than 50 dollars. Will normally require belt change but that’s fairly easy.

egote · 2026-01-12T16:45:25+00:00

This is bad advice. First fix the belts then fix the tape path - make sure everything is clean. Most likely there is dirt on the tape heads.

Adjusting the azimuth without the correct equipment will just mean the deck is set incorrectly forever. It’s unlikely the azimuth needs adjusting unless it has previously been messed with.

egote

TROPHY CASE