Hello world!
The wildfire smoke I had been hearing about finally hit us in Pittsburgh on Thursday morning. Early that day, I drove to physical therapy and noticed clouds in the sky. A few short hours later, I stepped outside onto the deck and immediately asked “what’s on fire?”. The smoke was thick enough that simply existing outside is a poor idea. Related: Pirates-Guardians game postponed due to poor air quality caused by wildfire smoke.
🔖 My Favorite Stuff from the Internet This Week
- More from the Unknown: More shell tools that typically go unnoticed
- On the Origin of the Video Essay
- MediaInfo
- Software vs. Storytelling: What Makes a Great Editor
🌱 Gardening
Many sunflowers are having their second (and third) blooms. There are at least seven pumpkins that have been successfully pollinated. I started attracting birds with two backyard feeders. I’ve grown to appreciate house finches very much this week. Unfortunately, raccoons started visiting me on the deck.
🍿 Movies
- The Odyssey, 2026 (Watched: 2026-07-16)
Wow. I can’t start writing about this movie here because time is limited and I plan to write a more full review over on my main site. I will say this: go see The Odyssey. If at all possible, see it in theaters.
📘 Reading
I am continuing to make my way through Shogun which continues to be an excellent read!
🕹️ Gaming
🔰 Ingress
🙌 I earned my Platinum Purifier badge this week! That is an achievement more than a decade in the making so I’m super excited.
📯 Social
📸 Photography
I posted a photo I took of an adult male Great-tailed Grackle on the Gulf coast in Galveston, Texas. I have been getting back into birding a bit this year so I was already keeping an eye out for cool birds while at the 61st pier. The harshness of the bird’s beak, talons and demeanor were offset by the dazzling shimmer of its iridescent blue plumage.
🎥 Video
As you can probably tell from the bookmarks at the top, I’ve been focusing on improving my video editing skills of late. Once flowers start blooming, the amount of time I spend shooting spikes. I want to stop letting so many raw photos and videos linger on disk. For photos, I do often intentionally wait quite a while to review and do light editing. This helps me disconnect the emotions associated with the photo shoot from the editing work. If I don’t do that, it can be too easy to fall in love with the potential of a particular shot rather than the actuality of it. I want to be sharp and very critical when editing and the distance of time works beautifully for that. I am so much better at photography by comparison to videography that introducing an artificial delay prior to reviewing film will likely only hinder me. I need to review and edit the footage quickly so I can improve my technique when shooting.
Long story short, I published a public video on my YouTube channel for the first time in quite a while.
Thanks!
— Brie