Dave Ambrose

My wife supports my hobby. She even helps with working the shows if the magazine is there. Two of my kids build too, so she might have less choice than she'd like. ? I don't have the mega-stashes that some people have, but we're both feeling like it's big enough. She has requested that I build more models than I buy, and this seems like a good idea to me.

We had a problem which I was able to fix. We should be back to normal operation.

Maybe not. Posting seems to be going very slowly. update: now it seems to be working normally.

It was worse than that. I think it's fixed.

Our kit stash is the quintessential example of aspirational clutter. I buy kits intending to build them. Along the way, I realized there were multiple "flavors" of kits for me. "Want to build" kits are the ones where I'll be disappointed with myself if I don't build them. "Like to build" kits are ones I think are cool, but don't trigger that disappointment. This distinction has made kit shopping much easier. I don't actually have a count of the kits in my stash, but I do feel like it's manageable, with relatively few "clinkers". That said, some of my kits have appreciated considerably since I got them. My kids know this, and while I don't plan on cashing in, they'll know how to handle it when I depart.

Oooohhh. This is a hard question. I'll have to give you the short list in no particular order. Weather Report and Joni Mitchell at the Berkeley Jazz Festival John Sebastian, accompanied by bass and piano Martha Graham Dance Company performing Appalachian Spring among other pieces Aaand honorable mention goes to: Tragically Hip at the Belly Up Tavern And yes, I readily admit to have an eclectic taste in music.

I grew up near Santa Cruz, California. That was summertime temps there too. 45 in winter. We used to go in the water without wetsuits during summer. I like to think I'm smarter now, but I may simply be wimpier. I actually feel quite fortunate now.

Winter has moved into my neck of SoCal. Ocean temps are now down to 59F. Time to get out the gloves, booties, and hood. Won't need the hood for another month, but might as well do it now. Just replaced my winter wetsuit. At least I'll be reasonably warm after the initial cold shock.

Shouldn't need to do that. Just get to the login screen, enter your user name or email, and click the forgot password link. You can then reset your password, and be back in business.

I assume we got caught in some kind of holiday crush, but the delivery on this issue was atrocious. We've already sent out a record number of replacement issues. The odd thing was they were doing so well earlier this year. If we send out replacement issues, we send them first class instead of bulk.

Tony, I shipped you a replacement copy right after Christmas. It should be there by now. PM me your address just to make sure it's correct in our system.

Send an email to subscribe@modelcarsmag.com. We'll get you a replacement copy.

We used to have that problem a lot. The mail handling machines don't like naked magazines. The printer puts them in a poly bag, which seems to have remediated the shipping damage. It's extra cost, but seems to be worth it.

Stop by if we're at a show. We frequently have some with us. We'd love to, but the cost would be prohibitive.

Yes, they are nice pens. I use a few myself, and as a former draftsman, I'm very picky about my pens and pencils.

Whatever winter solstice holiday you celebrate, I hope it's a happy one.

Send an email to subscribe@modelcarsmag.com Please include your mailing address, and we'll get another copy to you.

You need 25 approved posts before you come off moderation. I don't like this, but it's keeping the spammers away. I'd deal with that problem directly, but I'm out of cruise missiles.

If your copy doesn't get there by the middle of next week, let me know and we'll send you a replacement copy.

We send out a notice to the digital subscribers when that version gets uploaded. I think that might have gotten messed up, and gone out to everyone. Please accept our apologies and hang tight for the physical copy. We gave it to the post office. Hopefully, they'll fill their end of the bargain. If you don't get your physical issue in another couple of weeks, Please let us know via the contact form on the web site, and we'll send out a replacement issue.

Did you clear your browser cache? It sounds like the browser is trying to use outdated files with the new site.

A few people have asked about the cause of our problems. The following explanation is moderately technical, so if you roll your eyes at such things, go check out some new builds in the WIP section. There are two ways to request information from a web server. The normal way, which is denoted with the http:// in the URL, and the secure (encrypted) way, denoted by https:// Behind the scenes, a forum page contains multiple requests for data. There's the core page, then there's the page information, and then it requests some programming code from the server. This code implements a lot of useful things like paging, the post reactions, and various other bits and pieces of behavior. Ever since the board was created, we've delivered the code via the unencrypted channel. At some point in time, Google got it in it's pointed little head that this was a bad thing. So far as I can tell, they didn't make it widely known that they were going to do this. So, they stopped loading this vital code, and didn't tell anyone. That's what caused all the problems. I suspect that if you asked for it, and it was still in your browser cache, the request was satisfied from the cache and everything worked fine. Then people's caches started expiring and the breakdown became widespread. Curing the problem required telling the forum software to access everything via https://. I won't go into the gritty details of that, but I would not have known about it if someone else hadn't shared that little bit of information. So, thanks again for sticking with me through this. Let's go build some cool model cars.

I haven't gotten my canary copy here either. They're were mailed nearly 2 weeks ago. This looks like one of those times when the post office is taking a longer than normal time to deliver them.

Those were the initial indications. As with many things in life, our views change as we get more information.