Gye Greene's Thoughts (w/ apologies to The Smithereens and their similarly-titled album!)
Friday, December 27, 2019
Jumanji sequel kinda review
This is a kind-of review of the Jumanji sequel: I expected it to be pretty good, but not quite as good as the original -- and that's exactly right.
By "the original", I mean the one with The Rock, not the Robin Williams original.
The whole family went and saw the movie. I saw the cardboard lobby display, with the gap, and embarrassed my kids by having my wife take my photo with it (I figured the gap was left there intentionally).
I'm pretty sure this is how you're supposed to do it:
But I thought it was more interesting to do it like this:
As I was commuting in to work this morning, two people were standing outside the train station handing out pamphlets on vegan-ism.
Somehow, I got a flash of the scene early in the first Back to the Future movie, where the old lady was handing out "Save the Clock Tower" pamphlets.
That gave me an idea:
Not now, but maybe when I retire, every once in a while I'll stand outside the train station during peak commuting times, and hand out "Save the Clock Tower" pamphlets.
Most people won't "get it" -- because by that time the Back to the Future movie would be fifty years old. But some people will get it.
One of the things I did during my week's vacation is I took three sets of earbuds and two inexpensive headphones and attempted to re-purpose them as microphones. I had collected them over the last few months, for this purpose.
Two of the sets of earbuds didn't work (due to a puppy's gnawing); one set of earbuds was uncomfortable for the kids; and the two headphones simply didn't work.
Most headphones and speakers work on the same principle as dynamic
(moving-coil) microphones -- but in an opposite direction: headphones turn
electricity into vibrating air; whereas microphones turn vibrating air into
electricity. So, in a pinch you can use headphones and speakers as
(somewhat inefficient) microphones.
The top photo shows the headphones that I tested, and two of the three sets of earbuds. I later found a third set of earbuds on my desk, which I had tossed there a few weeks earlier with the same intent of possibly re-purposing them as a microphone.
This next photo is of the two blue earbuds -- including the one that I found after I'd done my test -- that didn't work. Both of the earbuds that did not work as microphones were on the right-hand side. The left-hand side for both of these had been torn off by our puppy.
That is: if the puppy had torn off the right-side earbuds, and retained the left side -- then they probably would've worked as microphones.
I believe that the left-side earbuds (and headphone speakers) work as microphones is because of how the "one-eighths-inch to one-quarter-inch adaptor plug" will "ground" the plug -- i.e. combines the "ring" signal with the other portion of the plug.
And, this photo shows the finalists in
this process: the two "real" headphones, plus the black "they work, but they're uncomfortable to wear" earbuds. All of them actually worked as microphones. So, three out of
five isn't too bad.
I've posted a YouTube video below, that demonstrates the sound quality from these three "microphones". I used two signal sources: my voice, and a harmonica.
If I'd thought further, I would've also compared these to a "real" microphone, like a Shure SM57. Ah well.
The blue headphones seemed to be open-backed -- so on the voice test I also spoke into the back. Also notice that I often tried the mics from two positions: about six inches, and about a foot. Because I recorded these during my kids' piano lessons (occurring in the adjacent room), there's noticeably more "spill" with the more distant micing -- as one would expect.
I edited the audio clips together in Audacity (freeware
multitrack audio software), and added some simple compression and
normalization, just to make the various sound clips comparable and of
similar volume. No equalization or other effects have been added.
It's late "winter" (such as it is!) here in Brisbane, Australia -- so I was wearing a stocking cap indoors, because I was cold. (Cleverly, homes in Brisbane tend to not have "central heating", because -- Hey! -- we're subtropical.) I looked in the bathroom mirror, and thought, "I know who **I** look like...!!!"
Tonight I almost stopped by the local fish and chips place -- but then decided that I should get something that wasn't deep-fried, and went to the Subway sandwich place next door.
Whenever I choose Subway over the fish and chips place I feel a little guilty, because the fish and chips place is a non-chain, whereas the Subway shop is a multinational chain (although I suspect that this branch is a franchise, so locally owned).
While I was standing in line -- wearing a funky vest and tie, and my black cowboy hat -- a guy entered the shop, approached me, and asked if he could take a "selfie" with me. I agreed.
When he left, I followed him outside to see what it was all about. It turns out that he was sitting with some friends outside the fish and chips shop, and one of his friends had bet him forty bucks that he wouldn't approach me and ask for a photo.
I jokingly asked if I could get some sort of commission, for my participation. Just then the waitress from the fish and chips shop walked by, so I changed my request and said, "If there is a commission, just give it to the waitress as an extra tip."
Then I went back to the Subway shop.
A little while later, the guy stuck his head inside the Subway shop and told me that he'd given the waitress ten bucks.
I had forgotten about these, but these came up in a conversation with a co-worker.
Here's three "lifehacks", from back when I was a single guy, living in a two-bedroom apartment with my roommate Old Roomate.
Number 1: Never make your bed. There's no point. As long as the bottom is tucked in, it's more efficient to leave it "open" -- that is, with the top sheets and blankets folded back. Not only does it air out the bed, but it's faster to go to bed that night: just jump in!
Number 2: I used to use one of these --
-- as my primary dish. It was a really big mug for hot chocolate; it was a soup bowl; it was a cereal bowl; and you could cook microwave burritos in it. Basically, you cook in the same container that you eat out of. And you can refrigerate leftovers, and then eat them again, also from the same container. And, since I never had any guests, I didn't need any additional bowls or plates. Actually, I had a few other bowls and plates -- but I rarely used them.
Number 3: Put your dirty dishes in the 'fridge or freezer, instead of washing them. This works better, of course, if you do number two (above), and just have a single dish. Just give it a bit of a rinse, if you anticipate the next flavor "clashing" with the old flavor (e.g. stew versus cold cereal!), then put the container in the 'fridge so the bacteria doesn't build up like it would if you left it on the counter. And the new layer of food "flows" across the old layer, like a running brook -- so the surface layer of residual stuff is always getting renewed.
