AX84 Single Ended EL34 Amp

I became interested in building a tube amp in the spring semester of my sophomore year at UConn. I had been dismayed at the sound of many commercially available amps and I wanted to see if it was possible to craft my own amp to my own specifications. Of course I knew that I could not simply build a complicated high gain channel switching amplifier right off the bat so I decided to start small. I did some searching on the internet and came across one of the best sites to being learning about building an amplifier, AX84. Their prices were low for entire amplifier kits and they also have a forum where all your questions can be answered. AX84 mainly offers a couple different types of Single Ended Class A amplifiers which are based off amalgamations of Fender/Marshal circuits and some up to date ingenuity. They provide detailed layouts, schematics and kits to facilitate the first time builder. Based off of the recommendation on the site, I chose to build a P1-X, a slightly more complicated and louder version of their most basic amp, the P1. The P1-X is a straight forward single channel Class A Single Ended amp. The design incorporates two cascaded gain stages with a gain control, a Marshall/Fender style tone stack and a octal Class A output stage with a master volume control.

At the same time I also meet another builder through facebook who helped to provide answers to all of my million questions, Mr. Donato Bicicletta. It was sort of random because I saw his ad for custom built tube amps through the marketplace feature on facebook and contacted him. He was and still is a constant source of information as well as a great builder to ping ideas off of.

When ordering the AX84 kit, the site gives you the ability to have your chassis CNC'd so that do not have to drill any holes at all. Since I lacked the necessary tools to drill, I added that feature onto the amp at a slight extra cost. I also added the variable bias option so I could use several different types of output tubes. One of the first things to do when a entire amp kit arrives is to inventory all the parts to make sure they all where shipped. Luckily, I did this and found that they shipped my kit with an older Bill of Materials (BOM) which had a swapped a couple potentiometers. I emailed the site and they quickly sent me the correct parts free of charge. It is worth noting that another great aspect about AX84 is their customer service.

Although the kit included nearly everything needed to build an amp, it does not include wire, faceplates or a wooden cabinet to enclose your amp. This should be considered before ordering a kit from AX84. I sourced the wire from Ted Weber, another great source for tube amp kits and parts.The amp process can be broken down into several stages which was made easier due to the pre-drilling. Dry-fitting the eyelet board, propagating the eyelet board, fitting the components to the chassis, and finally wiring everything up. Afterwards, electrically testing and tweaking to finish up. (Another very detailed guide on amp assembly can be found here)

Putting together the amp was actually much easier than I had originally assumed. I tried to follow the build guide laid out by AX84 which can be found here. The guide provides a much more detailed step by step procedure for building a tube amp and can be extrapolated for many types of amplifiers. Once the amp is assembled, there is a great guide on the first power up written by Paul Ruby. I cautiously powered up the amp and everything seemed okay. However, when probing the 6.3V AC heater voltage I found that one side of the heater voltage was approximately 6.3V referenced to ground and the other side was 0V referenced to ground. I had thought the heater voltage would be 3.15V on each side of the winding so I powered the amp down. I checked and rechecked the circuit multiple times and I found no wiring errors. Fearing that I may have shorted a winding inside the transformer, I re-ordered it from AX84. In the time I waited for the transformer to arrive Donato suggested that I mod the stock design and insert another tube for more gain. Taking him up, I ordered the components to add another gain stage and a cathode follower onto the circuit. I sourced these parts from Hoffman Amps. The great thing about moding the amp was that the eyelet board from AX84 already included the space to mod the amp. The modifications would make this amp somewhat resemble AX84's Single Ended Lead. I also designed and ordered a front faceplate from BNP Lasers.

Once the new transformer arrived and the mods were done to the amp I decided to travel to Donato's house to do the new power up. We noticed that the new transformer also had Heater voltage similar to the transformer I had thought was shorted. It is because the way in which the circuit achieves a ground reference for the Heater winding. The winding is grounded on one side through the resistor/capacitor on the cathode of the output tube. This creates a DC bias on the heater windings. (More on this later). Thus, I erroneously re-ordered a new transformer. Donato helped me through the whole power up process and the first initial playing was quite shocking to me. I had not expected this much gain out of the amp. With my Gibson SG loaded with EMGs, I had nearly a growly, metal sound out of this simple amp. It was also a lot louder than I had expected. At about 8 or 9Ws of output power, the amp was perceptively very loud at high enough volume levels.

Since the first time playing it till now, the amp has gone through several changes and modifications to suit my ever-changing and fickle opinion on it's sound. I am still not entirely satisfied with it's sound. I have changed the power supply to have less voltage on the pre-amp tubes and change cathode capacitors on the first and third gain stages to shape frequency response. A final schematic will be shown below which can be compared to the one listed on AX84's site. The amp has a fizzy quality to it when the gain is pushed to a certain level and has some bass response issues which may be inherent in a Class A Single Ended cathode biased output stage. It is possible I am driving too much signal into the third gain stage since it lacks a voltage divider to pull the signal down. However, the amp sounds amazing when you dial the gain down, drop the tone stack out of the circuit and slam on the blues riffs.

Below are a few shots of the amp.



After almost a year of playing through the amp I decided to bite the bullet and gut the heater wires and redo them. I also changed how the heater circuit was grounded. Instead of grounding one side of the winding through the cathode of the output tube, I used 100 ohm 3W resistors to create a fake center tap. Go here if you want a more detail explanation and scroll down to section on artificial center taps. However instead of grounding the center tap to ground I grounded it to the cathode of the output tube to elevate the heater a few volts. DC elevation reduces audible heater hum. I also rewound all the heater wires traveling to the tube sockets so they were much neater and tidier instead of all over the place. In a Single Ended Amp, any heater noise will be quite audible in the out as the hum cannot be canceled by the output section unlike in a push pull amp which can cancel heater hum in the output stage. Below are some shots of the new heater wiring. Excuse the bad quality they are cell phone shots. Heater wiring is the twisted blue/yellow pairs. Second photo shows the artificial center tap.

Converting a Squire Practise Bass Amp into An All Tube ECC99 Driven Practise Amp

A friend of mine, Scott, had an old Squire practice bass amp that was no longer working and he did not feel like fixing it. In light of this he decided to give me the remnants of the amp so I could do my bidding on it. Living in campus dorms or small apartments is not conducive to volume of the VHT 50W Head or the 100W Custom Head or even to the ~8W SE AX84 Head. All of these amps are so overpowered for bedroom applications and can overheat the 25W 1x12 cabinet I haul around. The broken practice amp I acquired from Scott was a perfect candidate for what is affectionately called a Flea Amp, or a guitar amp with less than 5w usually with a triode output section using a tube in the 12aXX family (12ax7, 12au7, 12at7....)

A little bit of research through a couple of amp forums suggested that an ECC99 tube is an upgrade over a 12aXX type tube in the output stage. The ECC99 tube has a higher Gm, lower Ra, and much higher voltage handling capabilities. Subjective sound testing also suggested that it has a better bass response. The picture below shows the shell of the amp, gutted with the chassis and back removed.


I wanted this little amp to be simply constructed but with some versatility. I opted for using terminal strips instead of eyelets or turrets so it was a true point to point build ala Matchless. The cabinet which housed the old bass amp was extremely tiny so I had to work with an 11x8x2 inch chassis. Hammond makes a good line of aluminum chassis in this size range which are easy to tap and drill. I decided to use a Baxandall tone stack to minimize the number of knobs. In a Baxandall stack, there is only a Bass and Treble control unlike a FMV type tone stack commonly found in Fender, Marshalls and Voxs all which have 3 controls, Bass, Mids, and Treble. The neat thing about Baxandall stacks is that the Bass and Treble controls have a much larger range of adjustment than FMV stacks and are almost completely independent of each other. The only drawback of a Baxandall is the addition of a few more components and a lack of a mid range control.

The output section of the Flea Amp is a self split push pull Class A stage. The amp does not require a phase inverter circuit in order to function. The plates of the ECC99 are wired to the primaries of the output transformer and the cathodes are tied together and wired to a bias pot. One of the grids is attached to the output of the last gain stage (master volume in this case) and the other grid is grounded. In this configuration there is not much efficiency but that is the goal of this project. In this manner the tube is in Class A but is push pull.

I developed a drill layout for the chassis in Adobe Illustrator which allowed for a 1:1 ratio drawing with precise spacing and sizes. The gist of the layout was done on the Adobe but I did not plan every little wire and detail. I did most of the wire layout once the amp was coming together but the locations of the transformers, pots and switches were all determined before hand and incorporated into the drill layout. The picture below shows the front drill layout.


One design decision which should be changed in subsequent builds based on this amp is the power supply capacitors. For this amp I bought TVA Sprague electrolytic caps which are one of the classic standards for vintage and modern amps. However, they are also monstrous and over sized and the values I choose, (100uF and 47uF) are overkill for the filtering required for such a low current amplifier. Due to this, I had to mount all of the power supply capacitors on the outside of the chassis instead of on the inside. This created a more difficult ground scheme since a well designed amp will have filter stage grounds near their subsequent stages rather than separate and far away from the individual stages. However since the amp is not overly gainy I did not pay much price in terms of ground noise. The picture below shows a preliminary power supply layout before the amp was drilled out.


A flea amp was pretty straightfoward to build despite very compact chassis. The price of all the components was under 300$ so this was quite a budget build. The power transformer and output transformers were made by Hammond, all JJ tubes, TVA Sprague filter caps, Orange Drop 716 series coupling caps, and silver mica tone caps. All resistors were carbon film 1W minimum but the power supply resistors were 3W metal film. All the pots were 1M with push pull switches from Apex Jr. All the wire used was Teflon coated silver plated solid and stranded core wire 18 gauge. I used the 1M push pull pots to add even more flexibility into the amp. Each pot can be pulled activating a switch which can do several different things. The gain knob pulled out gives a touch more gain, the master pulled out increases the bass into the output tube, the bass and treble controls pulled out change the frequency content of the tone stack. There are 2 mini switches which also affect the tone stack. The first switch can lift the tone stack ground, ground it or ground it through the first stage cathode. The second switch can bump the mids up or down. Another addition to the amp is the on-off-on standby switch which has two different modes. In the Green Light Mode, the B+ voltage is ~330 and in the Red Light Mod the B+ is ~270V. Changing the B+ voltage can change the dynamics and feel of the amp. In Green Light Mode there is more headroom and dynamics while in the Red Light Mode the amp sounds warmer and a little more browned out. Below is a picture of the finish amp which was painted with a mix of silver and black spray paint to match the silver/black grill cloth.


Since the 8" speaker built into the cabinet could hamper the tone of the amp I installed a switch so that an external cabinet could be used and the internal speaker could be muted when an external speaker is selected. Sound tests later confirmed that the internal speaker is no where near as good sounding as any 12" or 10" speaker and through a 2x12 or 4x12 the amp really shines. However, the 8" speaker is solid enough for practice were ultimate tone is not the goal. The picture below shows the amp upside down in order to see the power supply and top layout.


The reader may wonder if a 1 or 2W amp is even loud enough for practice. Much to nearly most peoples surprise the amp is quite loud even though the 8" internal speaker. The amp is too loud to play over 1/2 volume if people are home. Through a 4x12 the amp would be easily usable for studio and maybe, just maybe a small club show with a quiet band. A lot of this has to do with the sensitivity rating of the speakers as a very sensitive speaker >93 db 1W/1m than the amp will become perceptively louder. Another thing to consider is that perceived loudness is not linear but logarithmic. 1W is ~20db less power than 100W (To compute this use your calculator and insert 10*log(100/1) and make sure its log base 10). Similarly a 50W amp is only ~3db less power than a 100W amp (10*log(100/50) = ~3 db) The major difference as the wattage goes down is clean headroom and frequency response. The Flea Amp cant have a huge signal slammed into the grids without getting some uglier clipping the ECC99. Putting a distortion pedal or a delay pedal in front of the amp sounds great and combining the pedals and the amp distortion can push the amp into metal territory.

Below is a video I made where you can hear a little bit of the amp. It is mostly clean and when I have the video camera up and running I will make a full demo.

Modded Early 70s Orange Custom Build

My latest amp build was a Ted Weber kit, the 6100, which is modeled after an early 70s Orange OR120. All of Weber's kits are modeled pretty closely to the original amp but with some changes to components values as well as modified layouts to accommodate current production chassis. Like with any of my previous builds, I decided that I was not content the stock circuit so I decided to add another gain stage onto the front of the amp and use a Marshall 2203 style Hi/Lo input jack setup where the low input jack bypasses the extra gain stage for the stock amplifier sound. The goal of adding the extra stage was to get an extremely saturated sludgy/doom tone.

Adding another gain stage to any amplifier is not as simple as it sounds. At minimum half of a triode (usually 12ax7) is needed in order to create a generic gain stage. If an amp has no free triodes available then a tube socket needs to be drilled into the chassis, heater filament wires need to wired to the new socket and new triode is required. A 12ax7 requires 300mA of heater current which usually is not much strain on a power transformer but needs to be taken into account. The amount of gain stages which use a power supply node should normally not exceed 2 so additional power stage decoupling made be needed. Placement, wiring, and layout of the new gain stages components is even more critical. A badly designed layout can be prone to noise and parasitic oscillation, a condition where there is an internal positive feedback loop. All of these problems were complicted by the fact that the chassis used for the 6100 kit is normally used for 50W amps so space is a premium.

The 6100 schematic shows two 12ax7s, the first is used for two cascaded gain stages and the 2nd is for a cathodyne phase inverter. Luckily I did not need to decouple the power supply because the the last supply node is only used by the first gain stage. Due to the space limitations I decided to raise up the main eyelet board so that a pair of terminal strips could be place under the board. There was not enough eyelets on the main board so the terminal strips were required to mount the plate resistor, coupling cap, cathode cap, and cathode resistor for the extra gain stage. The picture below shows the terminal strips and the extra stage wiring.


I designed the extra gain stage so that I would not waste the other half of the 12ax7 which would be unused if I had built a generic gain stage. 12ax7s and most other 9 pin triode tubes contain two identical halves which can both be used for a gain stage. Thus each 12ax7 can be used to create 2 gain stages. For my design I implemented a parallel input stage where the two halves of the 12ax7 are wired in parallel with the plates, grids, and cathodes tied together. The schematic for this type of stage is shown below.


In this design, the plate and cathode resistor values are halved as they are pulling twice the current. The grid resistor can be kept the same as there is negligible grid current. The gain of this design is equal to the sum of the gains of each half triode and the output impedance is halved.

In addition to the extra gain stage, I also heavily modified the suggested layout as per Ted Weber's site. In my opinion, the suggested preamp wiring and component layout would have been extremely prone to parasitic oscillation with the addition of an extra gain stage. There are several capacitors which are closely located and several long wire runes from the Presence control back to the negative feedback circuit. Along with the modified layout, I utilized extensive shielded cable long signal runs to reduce the chances of capacitive coupling and extraneous noise. Lastly I replaced the stock power switch with a two position keylock switch. In the first position, the power light is turned on and in the second position the heaters are turned on. The picture below shows the keylockswitch installed.


The completed amp took a little over 1 month to wire and power up. After powering up I found I had significant blocking distortion and high frequency parasitic oscillation when plugged into the Hi Jack with the gain 3/4 full. When plugged into the Low Jack, there was no blocking distortion or high frequency. The problem was isolated to the extra gain stage. I removed the cathode capacitor from the extra stage which lowered the gain by about 10db but effectively removed the blocking distortion and high frequency parasitic oscillation. The amp still has immense amounts of gain on tap so little was lost from the removal of the cathode capacitor. Below you will see a picture of the nearly complete wiring job. For those interested in purchasing one/having one built, email me or comment and we can chat.



The amp sounds extremely heavy and very thick. Rotating the Drive rotary knob over to the far left is pure bliss. Very bass heavy and chuggy. Here is a video I made with a camera mounted on my desk.

Video Games and Morality Plays

One of the aspects of video games that I find both interesting and irritating, depending upon my mood, is the inclusion of morality into video game framework. There is a trend among many popular titles (Bioshock, Fable, Mass Effect, Knights of the Old Republic, ect) to include situations where the main character is presented with moral predicaments in which the different choices of action should (but not always) have an affect on future gameplay. There has been morality systems in video games for quite a while but recently there has been increasing usage of these systems in order to increase player immersion and replay value. There is an increased incentive to replay a video game if the player knows that the different moral choices made throughout the game can alter the storyline. Variety is the spice of life they say, and yes it is even for video games.

Although there are a variety of different moral systems found in games, they are generally very straightforward, simple, and conservatively thought out. A player is presented with a moral dilemma, and several choices in which to solve this dilemma. In some instances, there are only 2 choices, clearly marked as "good" and "bad". The overall moral value of the protagonist is measured on a sliding scale which moves close to either the good or bad side depending upon the choices selected. An excellent example of this type of system can be found in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR), a round based role playing game (RPG) where simple dialogue choices shift a players moral ranking along a Jedi (G00d) and Sith (Bad) meter. In this game, good and bad choices counteract each other, so the moral ranking of a character is the sum of the good and bad decisions made throughout the game. This type of moral system is the most basic, and IMO least enjoyable type of moral system. To be honest, the game is a bit dated (7 years old) and was Biowares first endeavor at a player driven, active moral system. KOTOR's moral system brings to light several key issues of simple moral systems.

1. Moral choices are explicitly labeled, usually bad/good, wrong/right requiring little critical thought from the player. There are no shades of grey, or moral ambiguity.
   
2. Moral ranking systems are simple sums of the good and bad decisions with no mention of the context of the actions.
3. The moral choices lack the ability to inject meaning into the actions of the player.

Biowares attempted to remedy these problems when the developed a more complex moral scheme in the Mass Effect series. In the Mass Effect system, there are no longer a good/bad ranking system like in KOTOR. Instead, there are Paragon and Renegade actions. Based upon conversational choices and actions, players are awarded either Paragon or Renegade points. Unlike previous rankings, the points are not summed together so that Paragon choices counteract Renegade choices rather points acquired are separately summed. Paragon actions are not always defined as morally good choices and Renegade choices are not always defined as morally bad choices. Generally Paragon choices are polite, more compassionate or empathetic and Renegade choices are more aggressive, curt and sharp. The ends of Renegade options can sometimes result in "good" outcomes other times is "bad" outcomes. Non-playable characters (NPC) perception and responses to the protagonist are significantly impacted based upon previous Paragon/Renegade decisions. Moral decisions from the 1st game in the series are even carried over into the 2nd game of the series, extending the impacts of each decision. Unfortunately, there are still several issues which plague this system. While the system is more complex than previous efforts, it still lacks any sort of true reflection of real-life moral dilemmas where there is often no clear solution which will result in a desired outcome. It is also quite easy to predetermine which speaking options are Paragon and which are Renegade which dilutes the choice process.

Another big issues which is found throughout any Bioware game is the explicit nature of the moral decision system. The moral system hangs over the game at all times as an external force. Each decision is followed by an instant reward/punishment notification and this can cheapen the experience reducing it to gimmick rather than a true immersion tool. In reality we do not have a little gauge where we can quickly measure of the sum of our moral choices. If develops really want to integrate moral decisions into games which truly capture gamers into the point of view of the protagonist they will need to capture what happens in real life. Cookie cutter, clear cut morals are an insufficient means if games are to attain the interactive status gamers cherish.

One game which does not contain an explicit moral system but where gameplay decisions have such a prominent moral effect can be found in the Metal Gear Solid series, specifically Metal Gear Solid 2, 3, and 4. Game players are given the choice between shooting and killing enemies or tranquilizing them. It is possible to go through an entire game without killing a single enemy, including bosses. Metal Gear Solid does an excellent job of providing a subtle moral experience without any overarching ranking system. Once the game is completed, there is some tally of the choices that a player has made but little is said as to the players choices. The decision to tranquilize every enemy provides a completely different type of gameplay where new strategies must be developed in order to avoid killing anyone. Developers which are considering any type of moral system may want to consider taking a few notes from Metal Gear Solid.

So where does the future of moral systems in video games lie? There are some important issues developers mist weigh if they are considering including a moral system. First, a badly executed moral system can ruin gaming experience. Games with good moral systems usually have top notch voice acting, and a strongly written plot much like any classic movie. If the story and characters come off as contrived then the moral system becomes useless and gimmicky. Secondly, the choice systems currently found in video games needs to be revamped to more accurately affect reality and the actions of your character need to have real significance on gameplay otherwise there is little incentive to play along. Finally, not every game requires a moral system in order to be a successful video game. I would rather enjoy a video game which has no moral system than a game which has a crippled moral system.

Invasion of the "Diga Duns"

If you have gotten this far on this blog you most likely are wondering what in the fucking world I am talking about? What the fuck is a "Diga Dun" A little bit of back story should clear up this seemingly moronic made up word. Actually its not really a word at all but really a phonetic representation or onomatopoeia of an overused musical tool which is ubiquitous in the local music scene; the dreaded "breakdown". If you are reading this and don't know what a "breakdown" is in the context of metalcore music then I shall explain. Breakdowns usually involve repeated, heavily palm muted open notes on a drop tuned guitar in which the bass drum in synchronized with the open notes. Often there is a complete tempo change to accommodate the breakdown riff as well as a jarring, abrupt transitions from a verse or bridge riff with cymbal count offs and barky metalcore vocal introduction. The repetitions of open notes can be be triplets or quads or even single open notes depending upon the tempo or what have you. Breakdowns are placed anywhere in a song, but often times at the end of the song after some long, rung out open chord.

See this YouTube video for generic, boring metalcore breakdowns.

But moving on, I can't say I coined the term "Diga Dun" or anything but I do remember when I first conceptualized the term. I believe it was junior year of high school and I had a study hall in the cafeteria with a bunch of friends/acquaintances. One particular individual (I will keep all involved nameless) would often mimic the sound of the guitars in a breakdown. "Diga Dun Diga Dun Diga Dun Diga Dun Diga....". I will pause now so that you the reader can now out loud repeat the previous sentence and that will shed some enlightenment on what I am talking about..................
Finished? You probably did not do it anyways. After hearing said person often mimic the sound I simply spelled out the phonetic representation of the sound, "Diga Dun".

I don't remember when I first started referring to any breakdown in a song as "The Diga Duns" but that terminology stuck in my brain and several other people. Junior year of high school was the time when metalcore, hardcore or whatevercore was riding its peak of popularity in the metal scene. It definitely seized a perfect moment to capture the metal scene after a decade of near stagnant creation of a popular metal genre. The process was similar to the way thrash took over everything in the 80s and eventually became a identifier of the metal scene in America and Europe.

Like any surging trend in music, the archetypal tools and schema found in the bands of the time, (Killswitch, Unearth, Bury Your Dead, blah blah insert whatever core band here) filtered down into the local bands. Breakdowns became a staple of the music like cheesy tapping solos in 80's hair metal bands used for the quick, cheap mosh effect. As time wore on, more and more bands coming up in the local metal scene had more and more breakdowns and less and less songwriting. I don't know where people came up with the idea that slapping a bunch of incoherent riffs in some random order with a couple of already used breakdowns counts as some mighty progressive songwriting because that is just a load of bullshit. Combine this with bad vocalists, and half rate music gear (5150s, Sorry if that is what you roll with) and that is how shitty the metal scene is around here nowadays. Don't get me wrong, there is/was a few local bands who avoided this type of crap but by far and large this is and has been the plague of the local metal scene. I recently went to a show at the Webster in Hartford, and this is a problem with a lot of the bands who played that night. It is entirely possible that my friends who played in metalcore bands back in that day or play in one right now are reading this (and yes I also briefly had a metalcore band back then too). No need to be personally offended by my particular opinion on this matter just that in retrospec this is the opinion I have garnered.

If you have gotten this far without getting into some kind of tizzy then either you are an extremely patient person, haven't the faintest clue what I am talking about, or you share similar musical taste as I do. I don't mean to say that any breakdown is a shitty piece of shit that should not be used at all in a song but that breakdowns have come to be the failure of metal. It is time to move beyond having a breakdown in every song, comprising of the same open notes or dissonant chords with slightly modified tempos and beats with barky, psuedo-threatning vocals. Breakdowns get old and have little staying value in the long run. Yea you can get those shitty fanboys to dance or whatever every time you play at some half rate fuckin' club but as times goes on we all get bored. There is nothing special or memorable about a breakdown because they are all primarily rooted in the same sound, and same beat.

Breakdowns do not need to be abandoned or rejected by definition but need to be reworked, rethought and less used. For example, check this YouTube video of a Superjoint Ritual song, "Personal Insult". (Warning, quite a coarse video, coarse topic which I do not personally endorse. It is just a brutal, heavy song.) Around the 2:30 mark, they transition into a breakdown. If you take the time to listen to the entire record, or catalog from the band you will notice sparing use of breakdowns, maybe a handful across 2 great albums. A good combination of punk, Sabbath, sludge, metal, and of course Phil Anselmo.

There are definitely other types of problems in the local scene besides the abuse of breakdowns and I am not attempting to forget those issues and distract from them by only mentioning one issue in this blog post. As a last note, just remember this is my opinion on the matter which I have attempted to elucidate. You are entitled to simply say, fuck off you dick to what I just wrote but I believe it would be nonconstructive to do so.