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The trail adopter’s manual for the Ozark Trail recommends the use of a hand weeder, which is a tool I’ve always called a sickle, though it really isn’t. It looks like this: It works well enough, once you get into the swing of it (pun intended), though there is definitely an upper limit to what […]
I started watching Top of the Lake, mainly because it’s a British police procedural, and because it has Elisabeth Moss in it. I’m only one episode in, but it’s definitely weird. I hope the dominant, entitled drug lord trope turns out to be less cliché than seems so far. Anyway, there’s a character, GJ, who […]
I think I am ready to add another genre of film to stop watching: World War II films. I am seeing trailers for Tom Hanks’ Greyhound, and while it looks good, my reaction to it is completely ho-hum. That’s because I can’t imagine there being anything about it that I haven’t already seen. I have […]
When I first adopted a trail to maintain, I was given a manual that included a list of recommended tools to bring. Among the recommendations was a bow saw. I was expected to be able to cut branches up to six inches in diameter, and I would need a saw. I had had plenty of […]
Some of my favorite films are based on novels written by John le Carré. The Russia House, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Constant Gardener, and even The Tailor of Panama. So naturally I decided to start reading his novels. I began with The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (I haven’t seen the film), […]
I have been wanting to do so for years, but I finally bought myself a Grizzly G4015Z combination lathe/mill. I don’t have huge plans to make things with it. Primarily, I intend to use this to learn about machining processes and get some experience doing them. Ultimately, I hope to help my brother open a […]
I have acquired a Sound Devices MixPre-10 II, which is a big step up from the Zoom F4 I have been using primarily for nearly three years. This review will largely be written as a comparison between those two devices. [Be warned that many of the features of the MixPre-10 II are not present in […]
As a reader, suspense is important for me. It is the most important factor that determines whether I will enjoy a novel or not, even more important than the characters. More than that, it determines how engaged and interested I will be, and even how quickly I can get through a book. One way to […]
In early 2017, I purchased a Zoom F4 digital recorder. Though I had been recording location sound for film for years, this is the first device I have owned that was designed for filmmaking. Prior to that, I had been using a Roland R-26, which was a step up from my Zoom H4n, which was […]
Last October, somewhat on impulse, I upgraded my phone to the Samsung Galaxy S10. It all began when I met up with a friend of mine and saw that she was taking photos with her phone, not with a DSLR. This was a surprise to me, since the photos she had been posting looked like […]
