///M5

These are some sexy ass mids, definitely about the nicest gift I've received.

There is zero space in my a pillars. Gay

Had a couple designer/architects out this week. First step is a design. That I CANNOT do. Then I'll bid it out, but I expect similarities to what you saw. Time/money evaluation is then the question. Pretty sure I'll do a hybrid, ie not the $3k solution but as damn close as I can get without creating a ton of extra work for me.

Congrats on the cheerteam success

Part of me wants it done and done right but that may be 2x the cost. Hard to weigh what that means

J I am in the same boat as you timewise now. Weighing hiring a general contractor to gut my house or doing some work and hiring out the rest ala carte. Akin to the 3,6,12 k options

Favorite pastime in my part of the country

The 420's are supposed to wear great. I rape tires though

It is pointless to use ANY calculator that doesn't show response graphs. Exception being if you are just building to a manufacturers specific box...but I haven't been able to do that in 20 years lol

I'll try the steps mentioned above an see where that gets meIn a box

Grooveshark will let you grab songs and play them in order. Not sure for how long.

Thanks for you input Mike. What is a guy to do? I have bought most albums on cassette, then CD, and now I just end up buying downloads. Really tired of paying for the same music over and over. I own all the staples I listen too, but have tried holding off on buying a bunch of new stuff I have found myself listening to. So what is a guy to do to expand his media collection without spending more money? I was going to start a topic on the subject (and still may), but what do people collect their media on? Strictly phone and PC? Maybe a memory card? What will the next storage and listening experience be? I only buy CD's and then rip them. CD's go in a box.

As for the media blasting question, hasn't anyone made reinforcements to remove the flex from the car to prevent the need? Even if those are weld in now is the time to add them...

Then as a perfectionist you have to decide your goals for the car. A perfect car you can't drive.

The other difficulty with this is no matter what beyond the $3k it is money thrown away from a return on investment perspective. Even though my time is valuable I have a really hard time with throwing away money. I throw away time all the time.

No need to answer, but how many hours will it take you to make $12,000 - $3,000 = $9,000 dollars. At $45 cash (no taxes) it will achieve your 200 hour point. Then the question becomes is your free time worth more or less than your work time.

I've never seen a version not work right. NEVER EVER use "optimal" as your design though. You must manually put in the iterations you want and then review the response curves to make sure they meet your expectations.

Really for what he is doing the 1.4 is adequate. DOF on the 1.4 is enough to where if eyes are in focus the ears are not. Going shorter is more artistic but at the cost of focus. Obviously for tat's I would assume an arm/leg is enough DOF which is dead nuts about the 1.4 IIRC, the 1.4 is like $250 and the 1.2 like $750 May be off, but for that you could get a 17-55 at the same time with the 1.4

24-70 is FF 17-55 To me it depends on your body. If it is crop, you need the 17 as 24 will make some indoor stuff impossible. Ha... I have the 16-24 or whatever. I forgot that there is a zoom that versatile in the crop sensor. DOH! As an add on to the body comment, sensor size makes a huge difference. I have a crop and FF. For people, I always grab my FF. It's a better body with better low light performance. When shooting my friend racing his sports bike, the crop helped a shit load. My 70-200 with extender became a 640 or some such flimflam. Yep, low light is a FF friend. That and close ups. Long distance is the crops.

50mm 1.4 for affordability. I'd go test one. Easy to see if it will have enough reach and view as it is definitely a portrait style lens on a crop.

I'd find someone else. do most of the prep work yourself and get a $3k paint job.

"Goto" lenses in everyone's bag should be (crop sizes listed):17-55 2.850 1.4 (1.2 is even better)70-2002x extenderIf you start with those you are golden. Matt would start with the 70-200, I'd start with the 17-55. He shoots headshots and portraits and I shoot things.After that list, a 11-16 2.8 would be a good addition.Beyond there you are looking at more primes.Obviously all of the numbers are "flexible" I used the Canon ones. If you shoot people you should invest in the cannon 2.8 70-200 USM ii. I'm sure Nikon offers something similar. I will say though that the Canon version is the absolute best in the biz. Thanks Sean and Matt. I am fortunate enough to have a friend in the pawn business who is happy to help, so I am hoping to have her browse the inventory to see what she can do. BTW what is a 2x extender??? J Turns a 200m into a 400m -> albeit with a step or few in fstop

I'd be glad to help...but it is hard for me to dumb down things. I don't mean that in a mental way, but solely physical.ie, if a dish that I do the prep work on for 15 minutes and it takes you 2 hours will you still make it?Knife skills are the single most critical thing to learn in the kitchen. My friends regularly ask for a cooking class and I pretty much require they go to a knife skills class first, otherwise we spend all the time in teh world on prep and never get to cooking.Mies en place is the first and always followed rule in cooking. If it takes forever to get there though you will get frustrated. I do think a knife course would certainly be beneficial for me. Where did you go to get your knife skills? Sad that even though I grew up around bars and restaurants my drink making skills are average and my knife skills aren't even close to good. J I went to the school of hard knocks. Completely self taught. The only places I've learned is from copious amounts of Food network, Top Chef etc. I don't watch the shows for entertainment but to learn tidbits of what people who know more than me show. Too bad the producers don't get it as they normally cut everything useful off. Shows even like Diners Drive ins and Dives have amazing capabilities to teach you things if that is what you watch for. My way would be slower to learn, I suggest a real kitchen store. Here in MN that would be at the Kithen Window.

I'm about to order some 305 35 24 Nitto 420's myself You will have to let me know what you think of them in the snow. ROFL. 22's and snow tires will arrive next winter.

So you let stuff get to room temp before you put it in the fridge? 140 to room temp is probably more than an hour for a big cut of meat. I have a chilling drawer in my fridge. I never let an hour occur outside of refridgeration. I also use my fridge freezer as a frost collector. ie, for quick chilling of things for the fridge or for the initial freeze before the freezer. Defrosting or adding heat to your freezer is even worse than the fridge as not only is it unsafe, but it ruins food. I try to keep a drawer in my freezer available for those times. Same with one of the "veggie" drawers in the fridge which all have a Quick chill option.