Well, it looks like I got my drone at exactly the right time. The US Government banned all new foreign-made drones in the U.S., essentially shutting DJI out of the domestic market as of yesterday.
I’m coming up on my eight-year cancer checkup in April, where I’m hoping they’ll tell me I have no new passengers aboard. But the idea that it could return later in some other form has always been in the back of my mind; How would I know it’s back until it’s too late to treat properly?
Researchers are discovering dormant tumour cells, also known as disseminated cancer cells, in association with breast, prostate, lung, colon and other cancers, and these cells are increasingly implicated in some metastatic cancers. An estimated 30% of people who have been successfully treated for cancer might harbour these cells, although unpublished work suggests they could be even more common.
There is a field of cancer research dedicated to finding out why it comes back and how it’s triggered, but it’s still early days and there don’t seem to be any clear answers yet.
The New York Times has a frame-by frame breakdown of the murder of a Minneapolis woman by ICE agents on Wednesday. This is shameful behavior from a government agency. The fact that they are allowed to wear masks is inexcusable. None of these ‘agents’ have been taught de-escalation, which should be the first thing they rely on when dealing with the public, not reaching for their gun.
I don’t care who you are or what politics you belong to, but everything I have ever seen or have been told is that when a police officer or federal agent are involved in a shooting, THEY DO NOT GET TO LEAVE THE SCENE. They are held at the scene, their weapons are confiscated, and an investigation begins as soon as the area is secure. This guy, later identified as Jonathan Ross even though he was wearing a mask, jumped in another SUV and sped away from the area.
When I was in college in the late 80’s, Baltimore was ignored in most musicians’ touring schedules. We usually had to drive down to DC to see anyone worthwhile, which made it difficult and expensive to see bands. One bright spot was the 8×10, a small privately-owned venue in Federal Hill with a stage the size of the name and a great sound system. I saw many up-and-coming bands there over the years and have a lot of great memories of the place (and there are some nights I can’t remember, honestly). The partners who have owned it for 20 years are retiring and looking for a new buyer. In this day and age of corporate consolidation of live music, it would be sad to see it shut down forever.
(previously, previously)
I’ve had Falling Hard by the Crystal Method going through my head for the past couple of days. This was released 17 years ago, in a time period where a lot of electronic acts were teaming up with vocalists. I just love the groove of this song. Apparently one half of TCM retired a number of years ago and it’s just one guy now. I haven’t really dug into their stuff lately, but what I have heard is OK, I guess. I miss the Big Beat artists of that time period, and the first two TCM albums are desert island discs for me.
It’s Sunday, the last morning of a four-day break. We filled it with quiet, peaceful pursuits, laying low and recharging in our own ways. We all enjoyed sleeping in, even Hazel, who let us hit the snooze button and stay in bed long after our usual revillie. The basics got taken care of, but I’d wager we spent more time in PJs than street clothes. Jen and I caught up on the final season of Stranger Things, and watched the third Knives Out movie, which were both fantastic. I listened to the Sean Combs documentary while working on the Scout, and had to stop several times to make sure I heard some of the details correctly (I did, and they were horrifying). Our Christmas was lovely, although the stack of return boxes was large this year—mostly due to size and color issues, not displeasure over the gifts. I think we’re taking the tree down today in preparation for a frantic January, which makes me sad (I love the smell of real pine wafting through the house) and then it’s back to the grind tomorrow morning.
Oh, and apparently we invaded Venezuela. That’s just great.
Elon Musk got his name from a 1949 science-fiction novel, Project Mars, by Nazi-turned-American-rocket-scientist Wernher von Braun. In the book, “the Elon” is the Martian leader. (Wikipedia)
From Nancy Friedman’s 52 things I learned in 2025, via Kottke
I was excited to bring my drone on the Scout 800 recovery trip last weekend in order to shoot some B-roll of the operation. I’ve flown enough drones now to know how they operate and what to look out for, so I wasn’t feeling stress about that, but knowing I was asking all of my friends to help me with this project and to give me ten minutes to shoot video made me feel rushed. Right before we winched the truck onto the trailer I unpacked the drone and got some good location shots, flying it back and forth over the entire field of trucks until I had it hovering over the Scout. Then I brought it down lower for some more dramatic shots, and promptly flew it into a tree. When I picked it up the rear left leg flopped over in my hand: a combination of the fall and the bitter cold had snapped the plastic in two at the body.
Doing a little digging around the internet, I found some helpful videos that walked through disassembling the drone, removing the old parts, and replacing them with new units. This involved carefully prying the body apart and soldering three tiny 22ga. wires to connect the motor back up to the control unit. At this point, having disassembled and fixed cameras, laptops, stereos, iPods, iPhones, car radios, power tools, and appliances, I’m used to fiddling with small finicky bits to get things working again. Within a half an hour I had the new leg in place, wires soldered, and covered in heatshrink tubing. I took it for a test flight before buttoning the case back up, and used it this afternoon for some more cinematic shots of the truck.
Clearly I’ve got to be more careful about the drone’s proximity to ther objects. This one only has detection in the front, where the Pro model has all sides covered. Having looked through the footage I did get, I’m really impressed with the quality I got, and I’m still very happy with my purchase.
I posted a new video on the YouTube channel on Sunday along with a vertical short featuring the part where I attemped to column-shift David’s truck into second gear, which I failed at. I thought it was funny, and figured other people might think so too. Soon after posting, these two comments showed up in the feed:
I’ve posted about 80 videos over the last three years. Most of them are truck-related and they average about 500 views each. The outlier is a video I posted of Bennett’s Hudson, which is at almost 20,000 views. To this point the comments I’ve gotten are supportive, and through them I’ve met a bunch of excellent new people. This is the first time I’ve had trolls, and it bothered me for a few minutes. I did a little looking to see what the recommended course of action is: do I delete them? do I hide them? The answers are pretty mixed and they all have an effect on THE ALGORITHM.
I’m not in this to be to become famous or get advertising deals. I do it because it’s fun, I enjoy shooting and editing video, and I’ve met a bunch of people who have been able to use my videos to fix their trucks, but I’m not going to claim trolls don’t bother me. I guess I just don’t understand what would possess somebody to be a dick. It’s never crossed my mind to sit behind a keyboard and slag on people for no reason, but this is the age we live in I guess. If you put something out in the world, you’re gonna be faced with assholes, especially in this day and age when it’s easier to be anonymous. I’m not going to stop doing what I’m doing.