For my purposes, an iPhone X (for example) is better in many ways than a dedicated camera like the Sony ZV-1.
I want 4K video at 60 frames / second. The iPhone does that. The Sony doesn’t.
One BIG downside of using your camera for video is running out of storage.
But I solved that with the purchase of a tiny SanDisk 256GB iXpand Flash Drive Go for iPhone CAD $82.
It works well and quickly to back-up all your photos and videos, freeing space to take more.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Firewall is the 9th book in the Wallander series, chronologically.
It’s good.
A series of bizarre incidents sweep across Sweden: a man dies in front of an ATM, two young women slaughter an elderly taxi driver, a murder is committed aboard a Baltic Sea ferry, and a sub-station engineer makes a gruesome discovery while investigating the cause of a nationwide power cut. As Wallander investigates, he uncovers a sinister plan …
The major background theme around which the action takes place is the dilemma of the Western economic system versus poverty. …
Wikipedia
Someone in the American IRS leaked to Propublica:
What’s your true tax rate?
American politicians write complicated tax laws which result in loopholes used by the richest donors.
BUT — can it be fixed?
The best summary of the issue I’ve seen is the second podcast in this list.
Bloomsday Dead is the 3rd book in McKinty‘s Michael Forsythe Trilogy.
Though he’s one of my favourite writers, the Michael Forsythe series is too violent for me. I was surprised I got through this one.
… living in Lima, reasonably well-hidden by the FBI’s Witness Protection Program, but Bridget Callaghan, whose fiancé he murdered twelve years ago, has an enduring wish to see him dead.
So when her two assassins pass him the phone to speak to her before they kill him, Michael thinks she just wants to relish the moment. In fact, out of desperation, she is giving him a chance to redeem himself.
All he has to do is return to Ireland and find her missing daughter.
Before midnight.
For the next couple of weeks I’ll be mostly disconnected from the internet attempting a West Coast Trail YOYO.
Hiking the trail. Resupply. Then hiking back to where I started.
June 10 starting SE from Bamfield.
June 15 starting NW from Port Renfrew. UPDATE – I quit after my first crossing, due to minor injuries and gear problems. Rescheduling part 2 for July.
More intense than season 1, but still well worth watching.
Detective Constable Lisa Armstrong was suspended. But is brought back with a demotion.
A lawyer is murdered at his front door. In front of his 10-year-old son.
Shocking.
Solving the murder is the main plot line. But secondary stories are more interesting. And there are quite a few.
Lisa’s ex-husband Andy shows up, for example. That’s a drama.
Again — the acting is good.
I’ll quit here as Morven Christie is leaving before season 3. She’s been the main reason I watched.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
I tried book #1 in the Mrs. Jeffries series by American author Cheryl Lanham under the pseudonym, Emily Brightwell.
And easy, fun read.
It was written 1993.
There are dozens of sequels.
The central character of this cozy historical mystery series is Mrs. Jeffries, who is a housekeeper by profession and along with her staff, secretly helps Inspector Witherspoon of the Scotland Yard to solve the murder mysteries taking place in and around Victoria, England.
In fact, Witherspoon is a nice guy. Well meaning. But basically slow witted. His housekeeper and staff do a lot of the investigating for him.
A cute premise.
I don’t need to continue, however.
Good TV.
The Guardian: four stars out of five” — Suspects and police officers with shared secrets? Check. Information wilfully withheld by the writer? Check. Will you be hooked? Check.”
Detective Sergeant Lisa Armstrong (Morven Christie) is the mother of two children and working for (the fictional) West Lancashire Police Service as a Family Liaison Officer (FLO).
She is called out on the case of two missing children …
Wikipedia
Many twists and turns.
Some OTHER story threads are more interesting than the actual whodunnit.
The detective is a single mother, for example, with two teenagers both getting in serious trouble.
I like the subtle, pastel colour grading used to set the look and feel. Wallander did something similar.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
No one understands better the importance of symbolic imagery than totalitarian governments. One day this photo will be revered in China.
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 – Wikipedia
The Unknown Rebel – AP photographer Jeff Widener. A lone protester delayed the tanks for over half an hour.
I really haven’t got much more excited about photography since going all in for VIDEO during the pandemic.
Many things irk me about photos online.
The majority of those you see are not very good — diminished so the image can load more quickly.
For my photos, best place to look is my Flickr account. Over 57,000 pics organized into albums.
THE photo site Instagram … I find super restrictive. And dumb.
Instagram wants to first display photos SQUARE. Here I cropped my 9×6 photo for that default.
Another crop.
Newer models of iPhone can be switched to my preferred 16:9.
These look great in landscape mode on a phone.
Rick McCharles 