Drone view of corn harvest (George Kopp)
My buddy George has been flying drones —and using them to record video— pretty much since drones have been available for the consumer market. He has become quite proficient.
The video below –the work of Jack Dodson, a friend and client– is a fascinating look at the corn harvest (from combine to truck) on the Steck farm in the Missouri River Bottom near Jefferson City. The video was captured with the DJI Mavic 3 Pro Cine.
Audigo Microphone
I’ve been using the Audix USB 12 microphone to record the audio for videos for a long time. Ten years? Sounds good but keeps me tethered to my MacBook which hasn’t been an issue for most of my stuff. But, occasionally, I’ve thought it would be fun to put the video camera (laptop or iPhone) further away. But then the audio suffers.
The first video below is a demo of the Audigo Microphone and app. The short video below that is my attempt to show the difference audio quality. Eager to try this out with a new uke song.
UPDATE: Sample (:50) off video recorded from across the room with audio from the Audigo mic.
Andie and Ripley enjoy the “cement pond”
This clip is from the archives, recently discovered. Pretty sure this is Andie and Ripley.
New tailgate latch for the pickup
After 46 years the tailgate latch on the pickup finally gave it up, assuming it had never been replaced. Wonder how many times it worked in all those years.


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Sigma Male
I had never heard to term “sigma male” before coming across it in a review of David Fincher’s new movie “The Killer” by Max Read. According to Mr. Read, “sigma philosophies include social asceticism, dorm-room Nietzscheanism, weird resentment, boorish self-justification.”
Or, more simply, “If you don’t have any friends, and people don’t really want to talk to you? You might just be a Sigma Male.”
Wikipedia gives the term a more positive spin:
Sigma male is an internet slang term to describe masculine men. The term gained prominence within Internet culture during the late 2010s and early 2020s, and has inspired numerous memes, graffitis and videos. It is used to denote a male who is equally dominant to an alpha male, but exists outside the alpha-beta male hierarchy as a “lone wolf”. In the manosphere, it is regarded as the “rarest” kind of male.
Fincher is best known for the movies Se7en, Gone Girl, Zodiac, The Game, Fight Club, Panic Room, and The Social Network. All pretty dark. The Killer is available on Netflix.
AI Pin
New look for Stonebrook Acres entrance
The entrance to our little neighborhood featured —until recently— a small tree and a metal swing. For reasons unimportant, the swing is going away and will be replaced with a big rock on which the metal STONEBROOK ACRES sign will be mounted.
UPDATE: The sign is now attached to the rock and it looks pretty good. Decided to mount on top instead of front face because you just couldn’t read it. With some grass and flowers, this will look great this spring.
Fixer Upper’s
When I see ancient vehicles like these I am certain they will never be driven again… and there is someone, somewhere, who could make that happen.
