2022: My Favourite Stuff
Welcome to the third edition of My Favourite Stuff!
Last year I uttered the word tradition... I guess it's official now.
I'm doing a broader mix this time too because, well, why not? As always, none of the items are in any particular order. Here goes.
The Velbon Tripod
Let's start with an oldie that I've never mentioned, let alone celebrated:
That, folks, is the first "real" tripod I ever bought, eons ago, years before switching to full-time photography. I got it at our local mall, from a Film Express store that's long since joined phone booths and point-and-shoots in the great dustbin of history. And because I knew little about gear in those early days, I purchased the kit they had on display: basic legs, no centre column for angle adjustments, and a video head.
Surprisingly, it served me well: sturdy, steady, just a great, solid tripod. But I eventually switched to a more versatile Vanguard Alta Pro (with ball head)—and the Velbon was relegated to one of the many storage boxes in our basement.
Until one day—not so long ago in the grand scheme of things— when I was hired for a film gig.
I'll readily admit I can be somewhat of a pack rat, but that's because I've often been rewarded by keeping "obsolete" stuff around. You just never know what the future holds, and if a piece of equipment will ever become useful again. It turns out that, for the past three years now, this good old Velbon tripod has been the cornerstone of all my video projects: the head offers tension adjustments that, while completely useless for photography work, are perfect for motion tilts and pans. It's super fluid and works beautifully.
A vision of the future in a suburban mall? Nah. Sometimes you're just plain lucky and keeping stuff pays off :)
By the way, in case you're curious: my current photography tripod is a Vanguard Alta Pro 2+. Good, and a better design/build than the original.
Now for a newer addition (!). For the X-T5 project I finally decided to buy a proper video light. This is a very affordable LED, and while 60W isn't tons of power, it's been perfect for my needs so far.
Colour temperature can be adjusted from 3200-5600K, either from the unit itself of with the included remote control (along with brightness), which is especially useful when the light's hard to reach. And the Bowen mount allows me to use my existing modifiers (nothing too heavy though—the tilt screw isn't very strong).
It comes with an AC adapter, so I purchased this two battery kit and charger as well. The batteries are fine but that charger is terrible: I think it takes 10 hours to get a full charge on ONE battery. I'll get a better one eventually.
Bibi
The name was a no-brainer, like Gigi the Giraffe or Baboo the Baboon, a quick throwaway when I first opened the app to pair our new robot friend. That's right: we bought our first robot vacuum cleaner this year. A Bissel...get it?
I'd researched these awhile back and given up: for every positive review on any given model, you'd get as many horror stories about how useless the thing was. But Cynthia spotted a sale and we decided on something that wasn't too expensive, just to test the waters. Besides, its reviews were just as good AND bad as the higher end robots so... leap of faith.
Folks: I'm smitten.
With a dog and a cat, Watson shedding crazily and constantly, we'd given up the battle against pet hair long, long ago. We'd vacuum the main floor, get a day's worth of relative cleanliness (maybe), and just put up with roving balls of fur the rest of the time. Now, Bibi wakes up three times a week, spends about 90 minutes visiting every nook and cranny on the main floor, and dutifully returns to its base once it's done.
The first run took us by surprise: we didn't expect it to go under sofas and bookcases. All those places you can't easily reach and are reserved for spring cleaning? Where a bunch of electrical cords live for good measure? Yeah, those spots. So Bibi chocked, big time. We felt bad. Poor lil' thing. We had to rescue it, clean it up, rearrange a couple of cables. But apart from one instance when it got lost under an armchair while trying to get home, it's been smooth sailing ever since.
And it's like we've hired a live-in maid. This isn't a fancy robot that maps rooms, it's just some barebones sensors, but it does an incredible job: floors, high and low pile carpets, the bottom of baseboards...it's better than when we do it. I kid you not: Bibi cleans between the legs of Héloïse's telescope tripod. Now that's commitment.
Plus, push comes to shove, we could now serve dinner under our living room sofa.
Alexa
Ok, hear me out: given Jeff Bezos's recent promise to give away his $120 billion fortune while Amazon announces thousands of layoffs (and just before the holidays), this probably comes off as a weird choice. But apparently, a lot of those jobs are being cut from the division in charge of Alexa, as the company is said to have "soured" on the virtual assistant.
I just don't understand what Amazon expected to begin with: people bought Echo devices, of all shapes and sizes, at the price Amazon decided to sell them for. And they're using Alexa for mostly mundane stuff which...of course they are. Did the company seriously expect folks to make voice purchases? Just trust it'll be the best item, at the best price possible, sight unseen? That's a potentially terrible experience, and one that's safer (and quicker) to do from the website or the app. So yeah, surprise surprise: looks like most Alexa users are just asking for boring, everyday stuff. But here's the thing: all those small, insignificant interactions? They're delightful.
In our home, Alexa is the glue that holds all the "smart stuff" together. I can walk in a room and ask to turn on the lights, and it does—in that specific room (the device knows where it is). I can ask for a bunch of timers while cooking and if I forget to name them (after the first one), Alexa will remind me. When I say "Good Morning" a routine kicks off: it turns on additional lights in the kitchen, gives us the weather, and then streams our preferred morning radio station. If I have an idea I can say "write this down": Alexa asks me for a to-do and adds it to a list, triggering an applet on IFTTT, which adds the item to Reminders...which I can then manage through Fantastical. If it's cold I can ask to make the house warmer, and if it's too hot I can bring the heat down.
But my favourite feature of all? Whisper mode: when I watch a movie and go to bed after everyone's asleep, I walk up to an Echo and whisper "Bedtime". All remaining lights in the house are turned off and Alexa acknowledges the command by whispering as well. It's a tiny detail. It's corny. It's also endearing, and it makes all the difference in the world.
I could go on, but the point is that Alexa is an assistant that we actually use, constantly. It's not perfect, and it drives Cynthia crazy sometimes, but it works eight times out of ten—while Siri remains clueless for me, on even the simplest stuff. And generally, it also works better than HomeKit.
So yeah, Alexa as a favourite. Just my small tribute to the folks who created it and are now facing hard times because of bad, shortsighted management.
By far the biggest surprise of the year. Namely because, in 2022, I must’ve installed and uninstalled Obsidian a dozen times. I'd import a few docs, look around, shake my head, and move on. I even wrote the beginnings of a draft about the app:
“All I see in Obsidian is a code editor. And chrome superseding content. Sure it can be customized: but that possibility also represents chrome over content. It’s a tinkerer’s approach, a super powerful engine that requires careful calibration—when all I want is to pull out of the driveway and hit the road.”
Thing is, Obsidian is still a tinkerer's playpen but a lot has changed—on every platform, but especially on iOS and iPadOS where it now behaves like a "normal" app. No more weird side-scrolling and a UI that doesn't quite fit: I can write from my Mac or iPad and the experience is identical. I can tweak a doc from my iPhone as easily as I could with Ulysses—when Ulysses deigned to sync that is, which it rarely did.
Obsidian can literally be anything, but I'm not interested in a kitchen-sink solution. What I love about it is how, after defining my needs, I can basically make the app fit those needs—down to every heading, colour, and keyboard command.
It might be presumptuous to already be listing this as a favourite, but this switch has removed enough daily pain points for the app to deserve the badge.
Note: a new core plugin called Canvas is currently being tested. It essentially adds a Freeform-like infinite canvas feature to Obsidian, and from what I've seen it might even be more powerful than Apple's offering.
Readwise is part of my morning ritual. It has also transformed my book reading into a tangible ressource, one that leaves traces behind instead of just fading into the dark recesses of memory. It's not just about facts either: when reading literary fiction, I'll mark passages that grab me, anything that triggers a reaction on a purely emotional level, knowing I'll see it at some point, and be inspired again.
And now, thanks to Obsidian integration, every book, note and highlight automatically syncs to my vault as well, where I can use the material directly.
As I wrote earlier this year, it's a niche service, for sure. But really well executed.[1]
P.S The link gets you and I an extra month if you’re interested.
Two Books
Last Exit to Brooklyn - Hubert Selby Jr.
A classic novel written by Hubert Selby Jr. and first published in 1964, Last Exit to Brooklyn takes place in the slums of New York City, weaving a set of loosely connected stories that dive into the squalid, at times brutal lives of several recurring characters.
I didn't enjoy this—not in the traditional sense. I didn't miss the characters, or long to return to the streets it painted, night after night. Most of what I felt, really, centred around dread—as if light around me dimmed with each new chapter, swallowed by encroaching shadows. Genuine discomfort. And yet I remained in awe of this book, as object and literary performance, transfixed from the first to the final word. Its language, its structure, the way it bends time, using each protagonist to worm its way into the next, overly vivid microcosm...It left me breathless. Last Exit to Brooklyn is an ugly-beautiful, dark monument to the hidden, and the endlessly drowning.
Now I'm curious to watch the 1990 movie—if I can find it anywhere. [2]
…
Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs - Sally Mann
I fell head over heels for Sally Mann's autobiography. Here's an excerpt from my personal notes after I finished the book:
"Sometimes we’re faced with unexpected encounters, strangers we couldn’t possibly have anything in common with, but recognize like brothers, like sisters, or more. It’s enough to make you question this tissue that binds our existence, a certain sorcery of creation, the possibility of a grand design, even.
Sally Mann’s Hold Still, at times, read like notes I’d taken long ago, and forgotten. Or thoughts not yet written, still bubbling under the surface, waiting to emerge. Whole paragraphs expressing with perfect precision my own views or emotions. And yet, there they were: in clear and beautiful words, telling the exact story I’d been waiting to tell. Is it kinship? A quasi magical relationship across geography and time? Or was she just speaking universal truths that I’ve been too self-absorbed to recognize? We always think we’re so damn special…
It doesn’t matter. And the answer is probably a mix of universality and star crossed atoms. What is inescapable is how important this book will be for me. Almost like a hiking guide, with trails mapped out, and big red dots marking the lookout points."
Sums it up.
The Inspiration Journal
Every December since 2018, I open Day One and export the past 12 months of my inspiration journal as a PDF. I then sit down with a cup of coffee and annotate it in GoodNotes. Nothing extensive, just quick notes and impressions.
It's a way to get re-inspired, but also to reflect on why an image was chosen to begin with. As favourite things go, this is now a highlight of my holiday season.
I've always admired Brian Eno: from the Roxy Music days, to his early solo albums, his production work with David Bowie (the Berlin Trilogy!)...his is a sprawling, eclectic, and incredibly influential career. But while Another Green World remains one of my favourite albums of all time, his pioneering exploration of procedural music—while also an important milestone—hasn't always resonated with me.
This new album clearly emanates from the "Ambient" series of the 70s and 80s, and Eno's subsequent soundtrack work, but it sounds deeper to my ear. The mood is more intense, meditative but ominous. It also features a return to vocals, although they remain mostly textural and declarative. The album isn't melody-driven at all.
The result is icy and troubling.
I find it fascinating.
Honourable Mention: Apple Watch SE (2nd Generation)
Such. A. Gigantic. Difference.
This new watch makes it even more incomprehensible that Apple could've allowed the Series 3 to exist as long as it did. Battery life, so far, has been way beyond the listed specs: I wear it to sleep and usually wake up with a good 45% power left—this, after an entire previous day's worth of use. But the whole experience is infinitely better in every way—from the screen, to the available faces and complications, the performance...even updates which are, finally, nothing more than short-lived episodes. As they should be.
Most of all, my eyes are a lot happier: even without glasses I can see what's on the display. Ok, there's squinting involved...but there IS focus, eventually. Which is impressive because this SE isn't much bigger than my previous Series 3.
My Apple Watch sparks joy again ;)
Note: bonus points to the Sports Loop watch band. This is by far the most comfortable one I've ever worn.
It's a Wrap!
So that's it for 2022 my friends: I'll be back in January. Until then, I want to thank each and every one of you for sticking around, despite the onslaught of attention grabbing diversions that have become part of our daily lives.
Wishing you a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays—and a very Happy New Year!
……………………..
There's still no sign of the promised read-later app however... It just came out in public beta (!)
With music by Mark Knopfler??
