Getting to the point [394]

Greetings from the shed...

Mar 24, 2023

If you are here for some human curation, you are in the right place.

#TheAction

With all the other stuff that has been going on this week I’m glad that I managed to sit down in the shed. I’ve been helping my Dad out in Wales again and spent far too long in the car and not enough time in the wilds of Wales.

I packed pretty light when it came to video tech. But I was only shooting a couple of casual pieces to camera on my phone. Here is an out-take I shared to Twitter.

Christian Payne @Documentally

While filming with my dad and his wife Lesley (@Baavet) I was joking about some of the fake marketing narratives out there. I knew it would wind him up. ;-) #outtake (I must tell him not to shout into the mic)

And this is what I was shooing with.

Here come the Amazon links: The compact tripod is the MeFoto Backpacker Air which was £80 when I bought it. About the size of a 1lt pop bottle and cheaper in the linked Orange. My phone was on the QuadLock tripod adapter. When handheld I use the Rode Tripod 1 and the two mics and a receiver is the Rode Wireless Go II kit.

It all fits in a small shoulder bag and weighs very little. My podcasting set up can fit in my pocket though.

#ThePictures

I love this interview with photographer Dorothy Bohm who died recently. An amazing woman. It was recorded by Nick Turpin and due to licensing will only be online and viewable for a few days.

Been getting into Series 3 of Picard. I’m halfway through and waiting eagerly for the next episode. I'm enjoying it way more than I thought I would and I can't imagine how much fun actual Star Trek fans are having. I don't class myself as a Trekkie as I've probably only watched 10% of all the main episodes ever made. I'll post the trailer here. But be warned, it is full of spoilers. I watched half of it and then stopped as it was introducing me to things yet to come.

Youtube is delivering me all kinds of weird and wonderfull stuff recently. I’m probably clicking on the ‘all’ column on the right way more than searching anything.

I liked the animation in this video. A hard video to make without it.

When Mark Rober drops a video everyone get’s to know about it.

#TheWords

I love this day-in-the-life article focusing on an oak tree. I have had a similar audio project planned for a while now. Also with a tree, but with a particular tree. I had planned 24 hours. I need to recce the place first. Come the spring or summer I feel these projects might get pushed to the front of my mind.

Thanks for the kind responses after the ‘Left Field’ post earlier in the week. It’s obviously inspired a few of you to head out wild camping. Please report back if you do.

If you are into medieval history, the book Neighbouring Faiths is £1.99 at the moment, reduced from £24. It looks at the intertwined histories of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, examining their coexistence during the Middle Ages while identifying each religion’s influence on the others.

#TheSound

Forget R.O.I. (Return on investment). How about measuring R.O.H. (Return on heartbeats). In this podcast Matthew Syed explores our preoccupation with rewards and their impacts.

I also enjoyed this Digital Human podcast called ‘Curate’ that asks what do algorithms mean for artists, audiences and culture as a whole?

#TheConsumed

This might not look it, but it's one of the tastiest things I've cooked in awhile. And everyone at dinner thoroughly enjoyed it.

It's crispy gnocchi, with mushrooms, squash, and sage. It was AMAZING.

I’ll drop the recipe at the bottom of this post but if you buy this book ←[Amzn link] you will find this and other one tray wonders inside. FYI it’s vegan apart from the bonus mozzarella I added. ;-)

You never know where you might find treasure. Five years ago in issue [102] I talked about my Nonna’s spicy Melanzane (aubergine, a.k.a. eggplant) and how I have never found anything close to what she made. I still haven’t made this recipe which might be it but this jar I picked up from TKMax is another step closer to what I remember. And it’s a big step.

In fact I feel that with a little extra spice this take me right back to her kitchen.

#TheThings

I spent most of Sunday repairing a Sanyo mini cassette recorder. It’s a fiddly job as most of the device has to come apart.

The rubber belt had all but dissolved into a weird goo and the power leads needed reattaching. I had to make a choice between one Sanyo drive belt for £8 or a pack of 30 generic tape belts covering all sizes for £3. As a result of be being too tight to buy the right one, the belt I spent hours fitting was too loose. The tape turns now. Just not with a tape in. I’ll try a smaller belt when I have the time to go through the whole process again.

Remember I said I was going to be buying a Leatherman type clone. This is it. The Bibury camping multitool ← [Amzn link]

I paid £35 as I was given a £10 voucher on checkout. It’s a hell of a lot of multitool for 25 quid. This particular tool is aimed for campers and I don’t really need the window breaking tool, whistle or magnesium fire starter. But they might be a nice to have for some. Quality control missed a loose pair of scissors but they were easily tightened up with a star driver.

#TheThanks

Thank you for hanging around for another email. I appreciate you sticking with this dispatch. And of course thank you to those that pay a few dollars a month to keep things going and get all the content I share into this feed.

I’ve plenty of room for more supporting subscribers. :-)

Or if you prefer you might like to send me some Sats. I’d love to find out if my wallet is working. The address to send is hairyhand55@walletofsatoshi.com (I didn’t choose it.) There is also the full lightning address. If you don’t know much about the lightning network then this video from Don McAllister will enlighten you.

#TheWeb

The not so openness of OpenAI
How to make a public archive of your Tweets
I was looking at the Documentally community map and pondering some of the places I might be heading to in the not to distant future. Like Leeds.
In the quest for the most views, is there no ceiling to how trashy a YouTube video can get?
Apparently this is the best place to live in the UK.
Two speeches on needless consumption. Chad Johnson and one from Jimmy Carter.
I have some photos here on Flickr, or search Documentally@octodon.social to find me on Mastodon. I’m still @Documentally on birdsite but visit less regularly.

#TheEnd

Thanks for reading. There will be some quirky spellings in here as I’m madly trying to get out of the door to go drink wine at a dinner party. Oh and eat stuff.

Next week I might be in Putten. At least that’s the plan. Have a great weekend and don’t forget to dance.