(Actually I think what he’s doing is astonishingly cool. I can’t wait to see what he ultimately builds. Drawing a circle is just a test for being able to cut a circle from a piece of metal.)

About a month ago my husband asked if I needed a watch repair. It was on his list of errands. So I gave him two that had stopped running for battery replacements. Off he goes on the errand running, and I forget all about it because I rarely wear a watch (I just look at my mobile phone).

Today, more errands are happening. Usually he tells me where he’s going in case I need anything from there too (see above). But today not so much, which I thought was very mysterious, but nothing to be concerned about. So I’m minding my own business when hubby bursts in and presents me with:

The Starkist 25th Anniversary 1961 – 1986 Charlie Tuna Watch

I think I got this watch by sending in a bunch of tuna labels or something. In 1987 I wore it every day on a month long tour of England, Scotland and Wales, along with my normal watch. My normal watch was set to local time wherever I was, and Charlie always told me the time at home. So I have odd associations of comfort and home attached to this otherwise silly branded item.

Evidently the watch had to be sent to Hong Kong to get a new movement put in it. I have no idea how much this cost. I hope it wasn’t much, but these days, it probably was much.

Love

Today I can’t think of anything sweeter my husband could have done than have this stupid thing fixed because, even though it’s stupid and silly, I love the thing.

Thanks, honey.

When I was a kid I was fascinated by moving clocks. One of our neighbors had several that were mesmerizing, including one of these. Overall, it’s a great gift and now lives on my office wall, where it can watch over me while I edit video.

Tim Tams in hand, you brew up your favorite tea or coffee. Take a Tim Tam and bite off two diagonally opposite corners. Seal your lips around one corner, dunk the other corner in your hot drink, and suck the liquid up through the Tim Tam. As soon as the liquid hits your tongue, slam the Tim Tam in your mouth and savor the melty chocolaty goodness.

Repeat as often as necessary.

This video was shot and edited entirely in my Xacti HD1A camera, my new favorite method for getting video up quickly. I have not been compensated by Arnott’s, but if they ever want to pay me in Tim Tams I’ll make all the ads they want. Yum!

The biggest thing people were surprised about was that I recorded the audio live (instead of using pre-recorded audio from a CD), and that I did it in only three takes. Actually I should clarify – I did three stationary takes for the audio, then three more to get the shots where the camera is moving around the singers (and those were without audio). The natural next question from a lot of people was “what mic did you use,” or “what was your audio set-up?” So here follows a list of the equipment I used and a description of the recording set-up. (Please note, if the product link is to a seller rather than the manufacturer, it’s not because I necessarily recommend that seller. Some manufacturer sites make you select a language before entering the site, and that messes up direct linking to their product sheets.) I’ll start the list with the mic and work my way back to the camera.

• Microphone: audio-technica AT831b omnidirectional lavalier mic, wind-screen ON
• 60ft XLR cable
• XLR to mini adapter: BeachTek DXA-4 dual XLR adapter (warning, link contains flash with audio)
• Camera: Panasonic PV-GS65 3-chip mini-DV camcorder
• Cheap .5x wide angle lens attached to the camera
• good stationary tripod or poor man’s steadicam or handheld for the shots
• and of course headphones from the camera to my ears to make sure I was getting something

And the arrangement for the 3 audio takes were with the camera stationary on the tripod, and the mic run up the branches of the mesquite tree and taped there with black gaffer’s tape to hide the wire from the camera. The mic was approximately centered between the two musicians and three feet above the singer’s head.

The audio you hear of a bird was just one that happened to be nearby during recording, and it chose that moment to jam with the band. The audio of the guns going off was from the camera mic on a handheld shot. We got permission from those guys to shoot video of them. They were actually out there doing it right – practicing gun safety and cleaning up after themselves. But we weren’t finding any gangstas or marine wannabes that day, and we needed something!

If you have more questions regarding the setup or any of the shoot, ask in a comment and I will answer there. Subscribe-To-Comments is now on by default, so deactivate it if you don’t want to hear back via email.

Did you ever loop a string through a big button and spin it? It’s like that. My grandma taught me how to make this toy. I was delighted to see that the Maori use it, though they don’t use a button. They use wood or bone, and smooth or carve it to shape the sound it will make. My parents played with these, and when Riki demonstrated it there was the noisy joy of remembrance in the room.

But watch how quickly everyone goes silent, unwilling to break the magic of the mesmerizing sound.

Riki says the Maori use these for:

• children’s toys (like Grandma!)
• healing respiratory problems
• musical instruments

Get a 640X480 version over at Blip.tv.

Since it rained today, I could not photograph the tree removal, so I decided to post this critter instead. Maybe it will help someone considering buying a voice recorder if they can see how it works. On the whole, I recommend this gadget! I used it to record long meeting for podcast on my neighborhood website, and it worked like a dream.

If you want one, they can be had for cheap over at Amazon, and if you buy one by clicking my Amazon link I will put any earnings back into Node101 Phoenix. It’s always great to buy direct from the maker, too, which you can do at XtremeMac’s MicroMemo page.

The web site says it accepts input from other devices. That’s something I’m looking forward to. Might be a quick way to convert lousy video into audio-only on the fly without capturing the video to a computer. I have to agree with Philip Hodgetts:

If it’s not necessary to watch the video portion to get the value from a program, then dump the video and just go with audio.

I’m pre-ordering now. When I get it, I’ll test it out and post a review.