One of the saddest things about the evolution of blogging is that so many folks have abandoned it as a platform for personal expression and what’s left is folks using it for brand building. Everything is about the brand, and hence we have this prompt from WordPress today.
I believe we are at a time where brand value has already peaked, and, like so many other things, corporate America is busy destroying brand value and even the concept of the brand.
Companies are quick to abandon the values that established their brand, if they ever had them in the first place. There are few brands out there that are worth the investment of association.
So what brands do I associate with? None. Sure, there are brands that I trust, that make things I enjoy and use, but there isn’t a single brand I can think of that would say I associate with.
Exercising. Practicing gratitude. Executing on ideas.
That last one is the hardest. There are so many, choosing which to focus on it difficult, and it’s always really hard to tell when it’s just not working.
Coming up with ideas is far easier, but unfortunately ideas aren’t worth much. Execution is where the satisfaction (and potentially money) is.
The album that no doubt has gotten more listens than any other is a double album, Dire Strait’s Alchemy. I’m a softie for concert/live albums, strange because I don’t go to many concerts, but imagining the venue, and the layout of the stage and whatnot from the sound it part of the fun.
Later I rented the video of the concert from Blockbuster and was more than a little disturbed to find out that the scoundrels who mastered the album changed the order of the songs. Sure, I heard the fades on the album, but I figured it was just crowd noise they were trimming. I remember first being shocked – ThEy CaN’t dO tHaT!! – and then being deeply conflicted about whether I should continue to listen to the album in the ordinal order, or in the actual order. Yeah, I got over it eventually.
Delicate Sounds of Thunder, Live: Right Here, Right Now, and AC/DC Live all got a lot of ear time as well.
I’ve lost something, and I’d like to be more informed about its location.
The immediate future value of my investments
Let’s say 48-72 hours or so. Just enough time to trade if necessary.
What’s coming on Monday morning at work?
On second thought, maybe this isn’t a good idea.
Not so easy
So what do I want to be more informed about? It would be a long, long list, changing by the hour, I think. So many things are easy to find and learn about these days, it’s almost less trouble to do a web search than to write it on a list.
It’s not that I feel like I know everything, but I feel like the only barrier to knowing something is the effort to research/study/ask about it.
Ah, there are a few things:
My blind spots
Not the ones I’ve been taught about and try to be aware of, I mean the new ones that are biting me in the ass. We’re constantly changing and evolving, right, so I’ve probably developed a few new blind spots.
What my coworkers and family need from me that they won’t ask for
Yes, very similar to a blind spot, but different. I find that teenagers in particular, and adults in general, EXCEL at telling a person what they don’t need but struggle to explain what they do need. Maybe blind spots and needs are related somehow.
On our recent road trip I wanted to bring a recorder, and the focus was going to be the family and audio journal entries. A handheld recorder would be the obvious choice, but there are some reasons to avoid them:
Handling noise. While I can handhold a recorder quietly with some effort, my kids can’t.
RF interference. The DR40x in particular, but also the Zooms can be susceptible to RF noise from a phone. I don’t have any problems with real microphones and the Sound Devices recorders.
Wind resistance. Handheld recorders are harder to protect from wind.
Sound. The MixPre just sounds better. No, it’s not enough to keep anyone from listening to the results of other recorders and I doubt even I could tell the difference in the finished product except maybe with headphones, but still I like the sound better.
I like using a reporter’s stick mic, but that isn’t stereo and often I like having stereo. The ideal travel mic would be a the size of an Audio Technical AT8004 with similar resistance to handling noise, but in stereo. Mid/Side would be great so I could just grab the mid channel when I want mono. Such a mic doesn’t exist. The closest thing that I’ve found is the Shure VP88.
The Shure VP88 is a monster – almost 12″ long, heavy and fat. Seen from a distance it could easily be mistaken for a billy club. The size is an advantage when using it interview style because it is easier to get close to someone’s mouth.
It has high self-noise on paper – mid-20’s db, and it’s audible too in very quiet environments, but it’s actually comparable to many handheld recorders.
I’ve been eyeing this mic for a long time because a handheld mic is nice for a lot of the stuff I like to do. At $800 new it’s an expensive experiment so I kept looking for a used mic and finally bought one on eBay to try it out and see once and for all if it was a fit for me.
I brought the VP88 and MixPre6ii, a Gutmann wind sock, and a short stereo cable. I recorded daily journal entries along with the kids, a storm that flattened our tent along with the aftermath, and a very little bit of national park ambience. Here are my thoughts:
The VP88 works well as an interview mic. Not much if any noticeable handling noise, although like most handheld mics holding a loop of cable keeps cable noise down. It’s long so it’s easy to get close to someone’s mouth. That
The Gutmann sock was not as effective as hoped. It let more wind through than was acceptable in many cases. Next time I will bring the foam with the Rycote sock over it. I should note here that when I’m recording this kind of stuff I generally don’t monitor. It’s poor practice, but because I usually wear a hat I use in-ear monitors, and they rarely help me catch wind noise anyway.
The self noise was not an issue, but I wasn’t trying to nature sounds or anything very quiet.
It was big and heavy enough that I didn’t record sometimes when I wish I had.
The stereo field is a bit odd at times. This is mainly because it’s easy to set the mic down in a way where the side mic is pointed up/down instead of horizontal.
The purpose of the trip was not audio, and although my family does appreciate the recordings later they’re not always enthusiastic about it when they’re being recorded. In fact, usually it’s a great stimulus for giving Dad a rash of shit about his nerdy audio hobby. That means I don’t get recordings of everything and that’s ok. It’s hard to record well and be present at the same time, although it’s much, much easier than trying to record video and be present.
Ok, on to the samples. None of these were recorded with the intent of demonstrating the mic – they are simply bits from the trip to represent what the mic sounded like. The first two bits are just using it reporter style, then a few where the mic was laying on top of the recorder in our tent during a storm, and lastly one that is just campsite chatter.
Will this be the mic I’d take in the future? Maybe, but to be honest a mono reporter’s mic like the RE50 or M58 or AT8010 is so much easier to carry and use, and I’m not sure the stereo field is worth it most of the time. For ambiances, sure. For most other things I’m on the fence.
No guitars, no other instruments. No lessons. Less audio gear, no marching band fees, no instruments for the kids, no family piano (where would the cat sit to look out the window?), no monthly Spotify/Apple Music bills.
Harder
I’m not a frequent listener of music. I find it distracting a lot of the time, but when I’m really stressed out it helps a lot. My middle kid practices when they’re upset. They also practice when they’re happy, bored, getting ready for an audition or not getting ready. I’m assuming here for the purpose of the prompt, no music in my life means no music in my family’s either. That would really suck for them.
My wife would not have Jimmy Buffet, and many decorations (including on her Jeep) would make a lot less sense. And the concerts she’s been to.
Speaking of those, no going to kid’s concerts, or concerts with the kids. No sitting on bleachers watching kids play music. It’s safe to say my HOA would be happier, at least during marching band season.
Lonelier
Music is the sound of people. Car stereos. That annoying buzzing/thump noise you hear coming from fart-cars, country music blaring out of those three-wheeled motorcycle things, the person with the bluetooth speaker in the basket of their e-bike on the bike trail. We hear people talk when they’re close enough, and we hear their vehicles from far away but the human sound we often hear first from our fellow human’s presence is music. And in a few bars/thumps/buzzes it communicates so much about who and where it’s coming from.
It’s a constant, ever-present reminder that we aren’t alone, there are other folks around, and they are different. And those differences don’t really matter much. This is pretty important these days when it’s easier than ever to hunker in our bunker and avoid confronting anything making us uncomfortable.
This is a prompt from the kind folks at WordPress.com, which I’m using to deal with some writer’s block
Here’s a few:
Birthdays
The birthday person decides what’s for dinner and where. Usually there are some gifts – for the kids for sure, for my wife and I? Usually.
Christmas
We’ve gone back and forth between fake vs real trees. We bought an eye-wateringly expensive real tree at a farm in North Carolina coming back from a trip to Florida one year. It stayed green so long I was tempted to plant it in the yard. Last year we bought one from a local lot and it was fine.
Gifts are opened Christmas morning except for one gift on Christmas Eve, which is always matching pajamas. Yes, I end up wearing (technically) women’s PJs some years so they match because I am that nice of a husband for my wife who wants a cute family photo with all of us matching.
Food tends to be catch as catch can, and some years it’s been fancy, and some it’s been frozen pizza.
Halloween
When the kids were little we went trick or treating of course. Now the kids will hand out candy to trick or treaters.
One year I left the bowl of candy on our doorstep so I could go to the bathroom – I heard a shriek of laughter and when I came back the bowl was empty. I more or less hate Halloween.
Thanksgiving
So far, I think the best Thanksgiving I’ve had is one where we stayed home and the kids cooked. Everyone was happy and joyful.
Others have included the death of my father in law, a lovely trip to Florida, and various family get-togethers that are usually a good time. Aside from the death, the only really bad Thanksgiving I had was when we tried to host it, and it ended up being what people call a “marital growth” moment.
4th of July
Used to be fun, but is now kinda meh, if not outright dangerous. Lots of people like to shoot their guns here, into the air (google that to understand why it’s a problem) and those that aren’t shooting guns are setting off fireworks, all mostly while drunk. Great day to stay indoors. The last few we’ve been traveling or within days of a trip so no real celebrating.
At one time, for a few years, we celebrated the day after 4th of July as Breakfast in Bed for the Kids Day. I can’t recall exactly why that didn’t take off.
Just now I got a message my NAS was unreachable. Not really the kind of message one wants to see from the box that holds all the data! This is the third time in recent memory (3-5 months?) and each time when I went to reset the NAS I’ve noticed that the #3 drive light was out. I should also mention that the only way to shut it down was to unplug it. Ugh.
Is it the drive? The drive bay? The NAS doesn’t have any helpful advice, and the health stats on the drive in question are impeccable. So what to do?
It turns out that the drives can be reinserted in any order, so I shut the unit down and swapped #3 and #1. Next time it locks up I’ll see if the drive light on #3 or #1 is out, and if it’s #1 I’ll buy a drive and if it’s #3 I’ll swear a lot and decide which new NAS to buy.
