Bittersweet Garden Party


Barb is very active in the local garden club and today they held a fund-raising event that seemed like a good place to try out my new DJI Osmo Pocket 3 camera. The camera has more features than I can count and they’re all good ones but I’ve had trouble getting started. Today I just turned the camera on started recording. I’ll talk more about the features as I use and understand them.

DJI Osmo Pocket 3

I purchased this camera back in January but a busted arm and cold weather prevented me from plunging in as I usually do with a new toy. Additionally, I found myself overwhelmed by the number of features and settings. All excellent features, but there are so many of them. I couldn’t find a place to start. So yesterday I turned the camera on and headed into the woods, paying to attention to settings. The video below was shot at 1080/30fps. I’ve reset to 4K/60fps for the next shoot. Watch this space. (PS: A YouTube search will tell you all you might want to know about this little gadget.)

Wes Scott’s Speed Wagon

The following is from the Autumn 2015 issue of Air Cooled News (An Official Publication of The Franklin Club)

In 1933, The Reo Automobile Company shipped 800 leftover 1933 Reo “Flying Clouds” to the Franklin Automobile Company. Franklin engines were installed and they were sold as 1933 Franklin “Olympics.”

In 1934 Reo still had unsold “Flying Clouds” so they decided to cut them off behind the front door and build pickup trucks. It is possible that at least one of these pickup trucks was shipped to Franklin where an air cooled 1934 Franklin engine was installed and it was sold as a 1934 Franklin “Speed Wagon.” If that did happen, the truck cold have looked exactly like this one.

In 2012, Wes Scott traded a Model A truck for the remains of a 1933 Franklin “Olympic.” This would provide the chassis for the Franklin “Speed Wagon.” In 2013 Wes’ son Donald found a 1934 Reo Speed Wagon in Shaniko, Oregon. This would provide the cab.

The bed for the “Speed Wagon” came from a Reo pickup in West Plains, Missouri. Richard Harry of Wisconsin provided an extra set of fenders so pickup rear fenders could be made from two sets of sedan fenders.

Another Franklin Club member, Ed Joy of Idaho provided a nice green hood that matched what was left of the original paint on the cab. The goal was to make all the pieces look like they came on the truck originally and to build a truck that could be used and enjoyed. At the Fall Midwest Region Meet in Clinton, MO the comments ranged from “When are you going to paint it?” to “Don’t touch it we like it.”

Wes is going with “Don’t touch it.”

Wes’ garage/shop/farm is just about 20 minutes from where I live and some car buddies drove me down and introduced me. Wes was kind enough to let me record a little video (5 min) of his amazing collection of Franklins and Model A Fords.

This brief video barely scratched the surface (you should forgive the expression) of Wes’s amazing collection. I hope to have another opportunity share some more.

Additional photos on Flickr »

ChatGPT answers MAGA questions

How, I wondered, would ChatGPT respond if prompted to write an essay on why Donald Trump did not lose the 2020 presidential election and that Joe Biden is not the president of the United States. And if the MAGA-ite insisted the sources ChatGPT cited were “deep fakes?” I was also curious if ChatGPT has the ability to examine a news story and determine if it is accurate. (6 min)

Is a team of data scientists slaving away in a sub-basement of The Federalist Society, training an AI to give Trump-friendly answers to life’s hard questions?

Talking books with ChatGPT

I prompted ChatGPT to make a list of the ten best crime fiction writers of the last fifteen years. She (I opted for the female voice called ‘Sky’) left off a few of my favorites and we discussed them. At the 5:38 mark of this 6 minute chat, she makes reference to my interest in classic vehicles, communications and blogging. Topics which came up in earlier conversations. I still have goose bumps.

Perplexity: “The controversy involving Scarlett Johansson and OpenAI’s ChatGPT voice centers around the introduction of a new AI voice assistant named “Sky,” which many users and industry professionals noted bore a striking resemblance to Johansson’s voice from the 2013 film “Her.” Johansson voiced an AI assistant in the film, and the similarity between her voice and Sky’s led to significant backlash.”

Jump to the :35 second mark in the trailer below to hear Johansson’s voice. I do not  hear the similarity.

Flickr Batch Organizer

Flickr launched in February, 2004. I created an account and started uploading photos in March, 2005. So I guess I’m a long-time user. My primary photo repository is the Photos app on my MacBook (mirrored in my iCloud account): 2,449 photos. I make some effort to only save “keepers.” Flickr is where I post photos I’d like to share with the world. All under Creative Commons license for unrestricted use. I have about 2,500 photos in my photostream organized into albums and collections.

This 12 minute video (I know, too long) is a very cursory explanation of how I use Flickr’s Batch Organizer to manage photos.

1946 Jeep CJ2A

I spent a couple of hours at the Jeep Reunion that took place in Fulton, MO on Friday and Saturday (I’ll share a few photos in a separate post). The highlight for me was the Latimer Family Jeep, a 1946 CJ2A.

The Jeep has been handed down to C. J. Latimer who was at the reunion with his father, step-father and grandmother. It was purchased by C. J.’s great grandfather in 1946 for use on the family farm near Marshall, MO.

A local businessman opened a Willys distributorship just after the war and the Latimer Jeep was the first one sold in Saline County. C. J.’s great grandfather purchased the Jeep for $150 and it arrived in a crate, ready for assembly!

The Latimer Jeep has an extension to the tub that was sold as a dealer accessory for agricultural use. According to family history, Great grandpa Latimer had to sign an affidavit that the Jeep would be used for agriculture. And when it was time to put up hay, the Jeep could be put in low gear and great grandpa Latimer could walk along beside the Jeep loading bales of hay.

C.J’s great-grandfather added a glove compartment but the Jeep is –for the most part– unchanged since it was purchased almost 80 years ago. The only hands that used and worked on the Jeep were C. J’s grandfather and great grandfather.

C. J. plans to get the Jeep drivable but plans no other changes.

Hiking Trail Update: 6.26.23

I attempted a time-lapse video showing a couple of hours of this project but it was just too boring to post. Not boring for me, mind you, but the state of flow this induces for me doesn’t come across in a video.