X just added a new feature where users can see where a particular account is based geographically. In a shocking twist, it turns out that a huge number of high-profile pro-MAGA accounts are based in foreign countries: Africa, Russia, and India, for example.
This morning, theoretically, I am on day one of my second sabbatical at WRI. I spent the last three months cranking on a big project at work and with a few small details left, got it over the finish line (more details on that soon). I’ll have to plug in for a couple of small meetings next week, but hopefully I can step away and enjoy the next five weeks doing some personal projects and seeing family—because in the fall, things are going to get very busy again. Brian is looking at a Nissan Leaf parked in his driveway and wants help disassembling it for his electrification project, and I’m hoping I can put in a couple of solid weeks helping him with that. I’d actually like to keep working on that through the winter because I am keenly interested in that project. And as always, there are projects here around the house to tackle, and I’ve got a red truck that I wanna get on the road before the snow flies. I’m also signed up to get my concealed carry license next week, and I intend to put some time in at the range.
I will never own a watch this expensive in my life, but watching this guy disassemble, clean, and reassemble an original Rolex GMT was fascinating. This watch is gorgeous, and would be everything I would want in a vintage timepiece. That bakelite bezel is beautiful—the rich color and typography are absolutely perfect, and the wear on the whole watch is just right.
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I’m currently taking a class/working group for creative directors run by the CD at Ogilvy Canada. I found it through my social media feed and signed up for it on a whim. I was lucky to get WRI to pay for it (after 11 years, this is the first class I’ve asked them to pay for) and so far it’s been pretty good. The class size is much bigger than I was expecting, and there are a lot of people who are in the place I was after about two years at WRI—they had the title, had been doing the work, but are still trying to figure out how their role fits in at whatever agency/company they’re at. This Thursday we went through the creative brief and roughly half the class had never written or used one, which I found kind of shocking. But something I’m finding universal is the lack of any formal training or mentorship for this role; if you’re lucky you work for a CD somewhere as a design or art director and they show you the ropes. My experience involved little mentorship—I had to figure it out along the way, which has been the theme of my entire career. The class will run through most of my sabbatical but that means I’ll be able to focus on the homework better.
Today’s ASMR: watching this guy drop the chassis out of a Karmann Ghia, disassemble the whole thing, cut out and weld new metal in, and re-assemble. No gratuitous talking, minimal music, and a lot of the tedious stuff sped up. I think I learned more about how an air-cooled VW was made in 20 minutes than I thought was possible.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUGGGGHHHHHH
ADHD comes with its pluses and minuses. Having a song stuck in one’s head on repeat can be enjoyable (for a while, at least) or it can be a slow, grinding hellscape. This week is one of those latter times. I do not know how these two cocaine-dusted sex pests got stuck in my head, but here we are. This damned song floated across every AOR radio station in the mid-70’s that covered the yacht-rock playlist, which meant I heard it constantly as a child. And now it is trapped in my skull, imploring some poor woman to take a walk on a beach in a cloud of Hai Karate and Marlboro Red smoke.
Look at those two. Look at them. Would you let them drive away in their Monte Carlo with your daughter?
One of my favorite songs of all time. XTC wasn’t playing much live after releasing The Big Express, two albums before this one, but this is a rare live acoustic version of King for A Day, written and sung by Colin Moulding. Oranges and Lemons is one of the GOAT albums of the 1980’s, right behind Skylarking.
Bookmarked: Here’s an excellent presentation on how to buy, set up and use a burner phone (especially when traveling into or out of the U.S. during this administration). This goes all the way down to less-obvious stuff like: buy the phone in cash and wear a mask; activate it on a public wi-fi network, and don’t do anything to attach your personal profile to the phone.
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Over the last month, I’ve shot and edited more professional video than the previous three years (COVID and all of that) and I’ve really enjoyed learning new tricks. The stuff I’m shooting for myself is pretty basic—setting up a couple of GoPros and recording the entire scene, while the stuff for work is more tightly scripted and produced. I’ve spent a lot of time developing narratives and building out stories from a rough outline, and then teasing out those stories during live interviews, which is challenging and fun.
I’ve also been using a new camera/sound rig: a Sony A7Sii with a wireless RODE mic setup, which has been a challenge to learn but has been yielding some excellent footage. I’ve also done a crash course in shooting S-Log to color-correct in post production, which is a lot like shooting photographs in RAW and making adjustments in the processing workflow. Finally, I’m pushing the boundaries of what I know about Final Cut Pro to take advantage of all of these new methods, and I feel like I’m a lot more proficient with the editing suite.
I think the next thing I really need to push are my setups and framing, to make things look and feel more interesting. Basic interviews are easy, but making them visually interesting is key.
I’ve had the shambling, melancholy verse and chorus of Auto Pilot by Queens of the Stone Age stuck in my head for a couple of days now after using it for an Instagram Reel. I dislike the bridge but the rest of the song is aces.
I’ve got entirely too many browser tabs open so let’s review some of them:
- This little QuadLock CarPlay USB dongle looks pretty slick; it’s small, it supports more than one phone, and it would remove at least one of the cords in the new Honda. I’m also considering installing an OEM wireless charging pad, but Honda is selling those for $230, so I’m holding off on that for now.
- Truck nerds only: Truck Town is a 3-hour documentary on the IH plant in Fort Wayne produced by PBS. I’m only an hour in and I find it pretty fascinating.
- The Autopian reported yesterday that a private equity firm bought the Pick and Pull business from LKQ, who have spent the last ten years consolidating all of the locally owned yards around the country. Private equity never means anything good.
- Driven to Write is another car-based website with independent contributors. They ran a great feature on Briggs Cunningham, a wealthy motorsport enthusiast and car builder. I’m looking forward to the second half.
Here’s a video featuring Darth Haul’s first drive around the neighborhood from start to finish. I swapped the EFI out for the original carburetor just so that I could get the damn thing on the road. It’s running poorly right now, so I pulled the carb apart, cleared it out with brake cleaner, and re-assembled everything. Next up, I have to tune the engine properly and then I’ll swap carbs back out to properly set up the EFI.