I had a wonderful walk at dusk this evening.
September 2024
Chill.
This is the type of music that has been grabbing my ear lately. You can probably sense a little bit of this vibe in the music I choose for my YouTube channel.
After finding my center amongst Mother Nature yesterday while hiking, this song came on Sirius/XM’s Chill station on my way down the mountain. It was a wonderful addendum to my vibe and kept the mood moving forward to me.
I have always preferred music where the vocals are just another instrument.
Here’s “Sights (Tourist Version)” by London Grammar.
Football.
My husband occasionally struggles with the interface on our AppleTV. But when it comes to football season and his NFL Sunday Ticket, he effortlessly watches four games at once, navigating between all of the action with ease.
I enjoy that he is able to do this. There are plenty of situations where technology seems to impede our lives; in this instance, it’s doing wonderfully at providing entertainment.
Centering.
I felt really off center at the end of the work week, especially Thursday night and all of Friday. I had been paying closer attention to politics than usual during this election season, especially around the response to the debate on both sides of the aisle. Unfortunately, I also got sucked back into my Twitter account and I was really being pulled down by much of the rhetoric on there. After re-activating my Twitter account to defend Gus Walz after the convention, I went and re-deleted it yesterday morning. Any views of my YouTube channel that I garner from Twitter would probably be from bots, so I decided I don’t need that exposure.
All of this consumed turmoil was bubbling around in my head and quite frankly made me feel very burned out by Friday night. For many, it’d be just a matter of “just ignoring it”, but my brain doesn’t quite work that way. The chaos had fallen into the over processing department.
So, I decided that my hike on Saturday would focus on seeing and enjoying the beauty of Mother Nature in these parts. I brought along my camera without any real script or plan. I wasn’t going to spin the video into tips for a great hike or talk about what equipment works best for me out there. If I shot some video, it’d be just what I was seeing. I wanted to share what I hoped would be a positive experience with anyone that wanted to see it.
The hike was amazing. I feel much, much better as I write this on Sunday morning. It was a good workout, both mentally and physically. I’m feeling good.
I hope you enjoy seeing what I’m sharing here in this video.
Caturday.
Truman suggested I start getting more creative with my photography and videography. He suggested I use a jaunty angle while I photograph him from a flattering position.
Redux.
I wrote a rant earlier today that I have decided to store away for my own private archive. The rant was non productive and did not make me feel better. Rants are rarely productive, except for the blood pressure medicine manufacturers.
Sibling Love.
Lucky and Jinx enjoy their Uncle J.P. The human with the cat is kind to the dogs as well, as he runs around the house with them, dispenses treats once in a while, and takes them outside so they can do their business.
I love this impromptu photo of the brother and sister, as it captures their vibe quite well. Jinx (on the left) looks like she told a little joke and Lucky has his usual deadpan expression.
History.
I did not write a blog entry on 9/11. I was too consumed by what was happening on that day. I did write a blog entry on 9/12/2001, and here it is.
I’m not going to make this a long entry as I’ll be late for work otherwise, and with news feeds and such, work is plenty busy.
I am still in shock and disbelief as to what occurred yesterday in New York, Washington, D.C. and southwest Pennsylvania. It’s amazing how fragile life can be sometimes, even living in the greatest nation on the planet. To see the second airliner crash into the World Trade Center tower, live on television, was astounding. The number of innocent victims killed or injured will be staggering. To think that human beings could commit such acts against other human beings is terrifying. There is already a renewed sense of unity in our great nation. I believe our lives changed yesterday at 8:48 a.m. forever. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families.
Debate.
I couldn’t watch the debate. I can’t stand the sight, sound, or any other aspect of the Orange Idiot. I can barely tolerate folks that think a convicted felon is smart businessman or some sort of 21st century Jesus.
He’s not.
I’ve seen a couple of clips. Kamala Harris wiped the floor with him. She set out the bait and he took it hook, line, and sinker. He has no plan for healthcare. He has a concept of a plan. Project 2025 still awaits in the wings for his presidency, because he has absolutely no thought of his own.
Kamala was presidential. I am looking forward to her presidency.
Make it happen, America. We need to keep moving forward.
It’s Glow Time.
Here’s are some quick thoughts on today’s Apple Event, “It’s Glow Time”.
The event was geared primarily to this year’s iPhone announcements, the iPhone 16 and the iPhone 16 Pro lines. I watched the event while working, so this isn’t meant to be an exhaustive coverage of the event, but rather some of the quick takeaways I picked up while I was attempting to be productive.
Since the pandemic Apple has been doing pre-recorded announcements at these events, and will probably continue this trend for the foreseeable future. I know these events are all recorded on iPhones and then edited on Macs, which I find nifty. This approach is leading me in the direction of going to an all iPhone approach to my YouTube content. Someone just needs to inform my husband in the budgetary department.
The video itself was gorgeous and I’m always impressed with the production values. For some reason I found Tim Cook’s cadence a little “off” during his portions, like there was an extra beat or two of awkward silence between sentences. Perhaps the teleprompter was difficult to read in the outside sun.
The new Apple Watch Series 10 features a bigger screen that is designed to be easier to view from an angle, which makes sense to me because it is a watch. I like the look of the new version of Apple Watch, but I’m not sure I need an update as of yet. I’m still rocking my Apple Watch Series 7 (the version with cell service) and it seems to be fitting my needs quite well. As I type this blog entry I just turned “Always On” back on to see how it affects the battery life. I had a few applications that were crashing battery life earlier this year and I had turned that feature off. Let’s see if it’s figured itself out.
Apple Watch Ultra 2 got some upgrades but I still think it’s version two. Even though I enjoy hiking, I don’t know that I need an Ultra at this time. We’ll see.
I was dismayed to see that Apple announced beefed up speakers in the new watches, as that’s just going to encourage rude people to start playing music and phone calls over the speakers all the more while they’re in public and that really grates on my nerves.
The entire AirPods line was updated and I was surprised to see Apple leaning on health related features in this line. There was a noted focus on hearing protection and hearing augmentation. The software can now do some nifty things with pass through and noise cancelation, which is interesting. As a Gen Xer I usually translate “they’re wearing headphones or EarPods” to “they don’t care and/or they’re not paying attention to me”. However, now that these devices can be used in place of hearing aids, I should be less judgmental about the use of the devices in every day life. Though, to be fair, I don’t know why anyone would want music piped into their ears during every waking moment; that’s why we Muzak where you can shop at Safeway to a lively beat.
The big announcements were the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro lineups. There’s a new camera button underneath what I still call the power button, and that button is used for photo and video purposes with enhancements to the camera app. I really liked that. The new button is haptic, so there’s a difference between touching the button, pushing the button, and stroking the button. I need some hands on time to see how much it enhances the camera experience.
I find the new “Desert Titanium” iPhone 16 Pro the most appealing. The color is gorgeous and I really like the idea of a titanium phone. The cameras on the pro series have all been beefed up and of course the entire iPhone 16 line is ready for the upcoming Apple Intelligence coming out later this year.
Speaking of “coming out soon…”, there seemed to be a LOT of mentions of features that would be available this year throughout the entire presentation. It seems like the company has become a slave to its own marketing department and stock holders and for some reason it really feels like they’ve been caught off guard a little bit with this “artificial intelligence” fad that has gripped the tech world. Apple Intelligence seems to be the most appealing approach to me, in that Apple is predictably leaning on security and doesn’t seem to be encouraging people to take photos of things that aren’t really there and trying to pass them off as real. I’m not a fan of the “artificial intelligence” fad, but I figure I’ll be beyond this lifetime before it completely destroys society. At least Apple seems to be doing it in the most sane way possible.
As a budding videographer I am very much interested in the new iPhone 16 Pro to replace my iPhone 13 Pro. The camera upgrades, processor upgrades, and the now year-old upgrade to USB-C would be a big benefit to my videography experience. While I did hear some remarks from folks who wonder if we want to be locked into an Apple ecosystem when it comes to photos and videos, I don’t really think of the content creation on iPhones as a lock-in to the Apple walled garden. There are plenty of apps out there that allow a creative to treat the in-phone cameras as a regular camera with plenty of adjustments across the board.
It’s all a matter of budget for me, and if Apple can record their gorgeous productions on an iPhone 16 Pro, I can do the same with my hiking, storm chasing, and aviation videos.
