I'm watching The Americans. It's a cold war spy show that takes place in the early 80s. They went to great lengths to make the show accurate to the era.

Except in one regard.

They seriously toned down the fashion. I mean, all of the clothes are period, but no one during that time made such sensible choices. I still have nightmares about my 80s wardrobe.

The hairstyles are also much less... dramatic. So many people had perms. My mom had a perm that entire decade.

And where are the shoulder pads? Women should look like linebackers.

It's a very sexy show. And I guess they didn't want to disrupt that sexiness with terrible fashion and hair products that probably caused permanent damage to anyone who used them.

If nothing else, I'd love for one of their spy disguises to be denim based.

My court date with the debt collectors was supposed to be today. My lawyer said going wouldn't really help anything either way.

The thing is, they never delivered a summons. Like, they didn't even make an attempt. And I think that means they can't make a judgment on my case. If the lawyers hadn't sent me advertisements, how would I have even known I was being sued and had a court date?

Russia has changed its military conscription from being handed a physical summons to internet trickery.

Apparently if you log in to pay your light bill you could find out you're in the military now.

This is why I use autopay.

Someone added some lighting advice to the post I made on my main blog and they are very well intentioned and they gave an inexpensive DIY lighting solution, but I'm worried it is a bit of a fire hazard and less effective than my recommendations. But I would feel bad correcting them and calling them out. It was just in tags, but I'm not sure if I should say anything. I just think covering a metal reflector directly with fabric could be dangerous over time.

Megapixels have become mega bullshit.

On phones, especially.

Let me introduce you to the Zeiss Otus lens.

This $4000 lens is one of the sharpest and most optically perfect lenses ever created. This chonky boy has about 2 pounds worth of metal and glass.

It is capable of resolving about 30 megapixels worth of detail. Or roughly 6.5K.

Even on high end 60 megapixel mirrorless cameras, you're still going to be bottlenecked by the sharpness of the lens. Having some overhead on the sensor is good, but you are still only going to get 30 megapixels of detail under ideal conditions.

People never think about the lens. They always think about the sensor. There are phones with 100 megapixel sensors and that is mostly marketing. They usually output 12 megapixel images by default. You have to manually change it to 100 megapixel mode and the difference in detail is marginal at best.

Again, the best lens in the world needs 2 pounds of glass to reach 30 megapixels

Compare that to these dinky plastic lenses.

I'd say they are about 1.9999 pounds short.

Smartphones probably output a 6-8 megapixel image and I don't see that changing without breaking the laws of physics. AI and computational photography may be able to upscale them eventually. But right now it just makes them look oversharpened with ugly artifacts.

This also shows how stupid 8K video is. It is going to be such a waste of bandwidth when they start streaming in 8K.

Thankfully, we have reached the limit of what our eyes can perceive. We don't actually need any more pixels or Ks. High megapixel photos are really only fun for zooming way in or making gigantic prints.

I just wish we could move away from megapixel marketing and focus on aspects of image quality that will make a difference.

Color accuracy. Color gamut. Brightness. Contrast. Low light performance. Noise.

I know I'm not going to win the battle against ring lights, but I'm determined to make a dent no matter how tiny.

It's like people are ordering a pizza with the middle cut out of it.

Reina del Cid is one of my favorite musicians. Her YouTube has some amazing covers.

But this Star Trek engineering rap is just delightful.

Reina's Instagram

I like wearing shorts with an elastic waist band. Since I am in bed most of the day, they are a comfy choice that I can also wear if I need to go out into the world.

Unfortunately I suffer from a serious medical condition called "Hank Hill Butt."

I'm afraid it is incurable.

Whenever I put my phone and wallet and keys into my pockets, my shorts slowly drift downward because of my HHB.

I don't want to wear pants with a belt. I like suspenders but they are always a pain if you have to pee.

So now that it is summer and I can't wear a jacket, I needed a solution to my pocket drag dilemma.

A backpack was overkill. I bought an over the shoulder sling bag, but the one I ordered was basically a small backpack. It had way too many zippers and pockets. I did not have quick access to my phone. Plus the strap was not made for a barrel-chested fella like myself. Very tight fit.

I then thought about Indiana Jones and his little satchel for stealing artifacts from indigenous people.

That's what I wanted. Just a small bag with one flap that is quick and easy to open. But maybe not quite so big. Maybe half that size would be perfect.

I searched all over Etsy for pouches and satchels and I found some contenders.

I tried all sorts of search terms on Amazon as well.

It wasn't until I tried "leather phone purse" that I found what I was looking for.

May I present to you my Indiana Jones-style manly-looking women's phone purse.

The strap fits great and isn't too tight. All of my essentials fit and I can access them quick and easy due to the magnetic clasp. And I got a little clip so I can attach my keys to the side. That way they don't scratch up my phone screen or anything. I can also unlock the car or pop the trunk without digging them out of the purse.

It took me two weeks to figure this out. And I was so proud of my solution that I had to share it with the world.

Whenever I see an up-and-coming Youtuber I notice they often make the same mistake. When the time comes to increase production quality, the absolute first thing you should do is invest in improving your sound. Not the camera or the lens or lighting or set design. Audio quality trumps all of that. People being able to understand what you are communicating should always be the highest priority.

And the cool part is you can do this with a cheap lav mic. There are some that can just plug right into your phone. The next priority is learning how to set levels and make sure your voice isn't distorting from being too loud. You can even record a little quiet and bump up the levels later on. But if you record too loud to begin with, you can't fix that.

After that you can "treat" your room. Which just involves controlling echo and reverb. Foam acoustic panels are expensive and not necessary. You can do the same thing by just filling your room with stuff. Furniture, books, blankets, pillows. You want to eliminate large flat surfaces. If the sound has to bounce around on 20 different surfaces before it comes back to your microphone, it will have much less energy.

You can also figure out which wall is the biggest echo offender and hang a couple of heavy blankets in front of it. If you can score those moving blankets on the cheap, those work great. And if you can put a gap in between the blankets that will further reduce echo/reverb. You don't have to cover the entire wall, just the main area in front of where you are speaking. If you can reduce that very first reflection, the sound will have much less energy to bounce off other surfaces.

All that said, sometimes people will go overboard with sound and buy that giant phallic SM7B dynamic microphone. I see those things everywhere. Yes, Michael Jackson used it and it does sound great. But with so many quality USB mics that plug straight into your computer, it is a huge hassle and really overkill unless you just enjoy audio tech and want a cool toy. The SM7B requires extra equipment to make it sound good. It's XLR so you need a special interface. And most people add a "cloudlifter" because it isn't very sensitive and can be really quiet without it. Plus, dynamic mics need to be super close to your mouth and I think covering half your face with a giant mic isn't the best visual. There are lav mics in a wide spectrum of price ranges that can be hidden and sound great. Or you can do a shotgun mic like they use in movies. It can be hidden offscreen and pick up your voice from a distance.

Big dynamic mics are great for people with baritone voices. If you are James Earl Jones and you want to show off your voice, the SM7B or something similar makes more sense. Beyond that, most of your viewers just want clarity. Good room treatment and a $30 lav mic can achieve that pretty well. And if you watch a few tutorials on how to EQ and process audio, you can do a lot to make a cheaper microphone sound great. Reaper is a wonderful audio program with professional features and a reasonable price.

TLDR... fix your sound first!

I'm watching For All Mankind and have been really enjoying it but I just got to Season 2 Episode 8 and I just... I think my entire body inverted from cringe.

I mean, I guess shit like that happens all the time in real life. Jerry Springer proved that. But I don't need that in my cool space show.

That's a super yikes from me to the writers.

If you ever watch a show or movie about 60s era astronauts you might notice they are all driving Corvettes.

Chevrolet leased a Vette to any astronaut for only $1 per year. After the year they would get a new car and Chevy would sell the "Astro-Vette" to rich space nerds who wanted a rare collectible.

Pretty brilliant marketing, I'd say.

I think this tradition was taken over by military veterans who now lease Chevrolet Camaros at full price with a reasonable 20% interest rate.

I guess that M&M graphic is never going to die.

Never trust a Republican y-axis...

I'm watching the Hunger Games movies because I never finished the last one and I have been meaning to for years.

I'm at the scene where a Hemsworth brother was just whipped and they are treating his wounds. They give him morphine (sorry, "morphling") and just inject it straight into a back muscle with a horse needle.

I realize showing the process of finding a vein is probably not very exciting and they always use giant fuck off needles because I guess they look scarier onscreen. But this is just one of those pet peeve things that always bothers me.

Even though she wore a crazy fire dress and the characters say "tracker jackers" with a straight face, the unrealistic needle use drives me nuts.

I also like when in movies they inject things into people's neck cavities. I mean, yeah there is a large artery in there but you can't just poke the needle in the side of the neck and hope for the best.

I've been noticing a recent women's fashion trend is to wear coats made of muppet fur.

And I love it.

I think I finally *get* fashion.

@xx-puppygirl-xx I was not denigrating punk music as an art, just saying it doesn't require years of training to create and perform. You don't need a college degree to play punk. But supporting a popular punk act can still require some folks with degrees or a lot of technical experience.

Punk's simplicity is part of its beauty. It is a very accessible form of music where anyone who wants to create or play punk can do so with a shitty guitar and a few weeks of practice.

I think simple forms of art are important because it gives everyone a way to express themselves.

So yeah, punk is great. It just doesn't require extensive musical knowledge or training. Which is a feature, not a bug.

Jiffy Lube wants 180 bucks to recharge my A/C.

Almost makes me want to ask my brother.

But I doubt he'd do it.

My CFS is extremely sensitive to heat and no A/C makes driving much harder for me.

I might have a family friend who knows how to do it. I'll try calling him tomorrow.

People love consuming the arts, but many hate the training required to create the arts. Not every art degree is created equal, but the connections you make and the experience you gain can be invaluable.

I'm not saying every artist needs a college degree for every aspect of creating art, but art is not always created solely by performers.

Perhaps there is an actor who was self taught and got a lucky break, but the cinematographer capturing that actor needed years of training. They are literally camera scientists AND visual artists.

Maybe that punk band you love only knows four chords and just screams into a microphone, but the sound engineer recording their music probably has a college degree.

Here is a video of the sound engineer for a Hamilton production.

He uses an amazing blend of technical and artistic skills to make sure the show sounds perfect during every performance.

Check out his college degree...

I do not have the energy to explain quite yet, but I had a promising meeting with the estate lawyer yesterday.

As far as being sued, he confirmed debt collectors cannot garnish disability payments. So I don't really have anything to worry about. My only fear is if they try to freeze my bank account it can be a pain to get activated again. I'm going to see if there is anything to prevent that.

I am not doing well.

This is probably the most I have missed my parents in a while.

And I have this looming debt-collecter-suing-me thing that I can't stop thinking about. I don't think filing for bankruptcy is going to work. My mom always helped me with my finances. My low energy and brain fog made it really difficult for me to keep track of things. I don't have any documents. I don't keep records. I honestly don't even know who I owe and how much I owe. And I don't really have the energy to figure all that out.

Plus, I have too much happening in the near future with my inheritance and my social security. I can't throw a bankruptcy into the middle of that.

But I also don't have $3000 to pay the debt collector. All of the mortgage money is with the mortgage company.

I'm talking to 2 lawyers this week, so hopefully they can clarify my options.

I just need a break. I need to get things sorted so I can grieve and start taking better care of myself.