I love Thanksgiving. It’s coming soon. This is some Turkey Day attire that you can relax in. Wear it under a nice cozy flannel. It appears to be on sale at both my TeePublic and RedBubble shops currently. You should take advantage of that if you’re so inclined.
You can get this design on an apron, a coffee mug, a tote bag, a hoodie, a blanket, a pillow… or all kinds of stuff really. You can change the clothing color with a bunch of options & styles at each site too. Poke around & see if you can find something you like!
Also, you can print this out & try to solve it for free. Or do it on your phone/tablet/whatever. You can post it on social media & tag me@AiXeLsyD13.
Of course, I have a buch of other Thanksgiving themed mazes too:
Hey, this pumpkin maze works for Halloween and Thanksgiving if you ask me. And, you can get two versions of it on all kinds of stuff too:
You can get the full color orange one on stuff at TeePublic and at RedBubble. You can also get the black & white one on stuff at TeePublic. I thought that might look cool on an orange T-shit.
I have really enjoyed seeing the wildlife in my backyard through my Birdfy Feeder & my Birdfy camera (& the accessories). The folks at Birdfy reached out to ask if I would like to test a new product, so of course I said yes! I have been using it, sharing my camera feeds with the company, & providing feedback for a while now with the company, & uploading photos/videos to a private Google photos album. It was exciting to see them respond & change features/settings as the testing went on. They really improved tracking, AI recognition, & picture/video quality rather quickly.
It has ben hard to keep quiet about it & not share the video or photos!
As a company, they’re constantly reaching out to solicit suggestions on product ideas, design, features, and more. They have recently updated their app to enable editing of AI tags as per customer suggestions.
I’m relieved to be able to share the fact that I have been helping to test the new camera, & to finally share the photos/video.
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I need to make a blog post when I get time, but if you're looking to get a camera birdfeeder, and you like my videos, please consider buying a Birdfy by Netvue, and doing so with this affiliate link:https://t.co/KBCtDHH9D1
Here my son helped me film the unboxing/setup, if you want to see a really poorly edited video. I have set up over 7 Birdfy cameras at this point through the app, and all of them have been really simple.
The one that was sent to me has two cameras, the Birdfy 2, & the Birdfy 2 Pro, and it’s a Duo feeder with the Pro camera mounted in the middle, and the 2 mounted on the side. It also came with a solar panel. I mounted it on a pole that I had purchased from Amazon.
The Birdfy 2 Duo Feeder with the Birdfy 2 Pro & Birdfy 2 cameras.
I like the looks of it, and the color when compared to the original feeder. It just seems a bit more elegant or classic of a design. The bamboo feeder is really nice looking, too. I also like that the lid of this newer model opens up & back, so you can see better into the hopper as you’re filling it… and that the cameras are wholly independent of the housing for ease of access. I have removed the two plates per Birdfy’s request, as the bords seem to have more room to perch without them in the way.
The cameras take a while to charge at first, but the solar panel typically keeps it close to 100%. Occasionally, I do have to bring a camera in for a recharge across all the products. (I don’t have a nest or a hummingbird feeder yet, but maybe someday.)
The app is easy to navigate from the setup of the cameras, to checking out the various videos and photos captured. It has a daily highlights feature, and a monthly recap. The FB community is great for ideas and seeing others’ setups and the birds (& other animals)#CaughtOnBirdfy, and Birdfy support is incredibly responsive.
The video & photos are what shines here, though. The Pro 2 has two cameras, one that moves & tracks the birds. Videos can be downloaded, shared with the community or “collected” in the app, and you can see both cameras at once from the live view. I had to quiet the notifications, because I literally get them all day. The AI bird recognition is pretty good, and getting better, especially now that functionality for correcting the tags has been implemented.
Photos from the Birdfy Duo Feeder with the Birdfy 2 Pro & Birdfy 2 cameras.
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If you have any questions about the feeders, my setups, or anything related to this… don’t hesitate to ask in the comments or reach out on social media. I enjoy vegetable gardening, keeping a nice backyard, and living in harmony with nature even here in the suburbs. These feeders add to the enjoyment. I don’t have to be outside all day to catch a glimpse of nature at work. I try to plant flowers for the pollinators, I’m working on a birdbath and may eventually make a little pond. I have bee/butterfly baths & bug houses.
Bird people seem to be mixed on the squirrels & chipmunks though. I love to watch them, too. Ha ha. I have a squirrel feeder out with a camera trained on it, but may use a Birdfy camera to build into a squirrel feeder eventually. Maybe a barstool style feeder? I’ll have to fortify the wires, as sometimes they can apparently chew them and be quite destructive.
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I am in the suburbs just south of Pittsburgh, PA, and I use a varying mix of fruit & nut mix, dried mealworms, a songbird seed mix, sunflower seeds, & sometimes some hot pepper seed mix or cayenne pepper or chili powder. The latter tends to keep the squirrels at the squirrel feeder, but the dust can smudge the camera lenses sometimes. I also tent to put out peanuts and corn for the squirrels (although that pulls in raccoons & deer, too).
You can poke through my whole playlist, or see some videos from just the Birdfy 2 cameras here:
Not that it’s never been brought up before… but, the debate rages on. I find it interesting that it’s a CNET poll, and that there are people quite passionate on both sides of the issue. Check out this poll:
English: The crossed out copyright symbol with a musical note on the right hand side is the free music symbol, signifying a lack of copyright restrictions on music. It may be used in the abstract, or applied to a sound recording or musical composition. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I’m not exactly sure where I fall. Obviously, as a musician… I see value in the songs & the entertainment. It’s great when I have a product to sell. It’s awesome that people would want to pay to purchase noise that I make. To me it’s more of a lifestyle/hobby though. I don’t mind playing just to make gas money, or selling music barely above cost… or even posting it for free. I dig that people enjoy it. But, and this is a big but… If it was my sole means of income, I sure would not be happy giving much away for free. Although, radio and now online streaming are the way to get heard, and… that’s free. You almost need that to advertise yourself, unless you gig non-stop like Metallica in their early days.
Are people like me who don’t mind giving away music devaluing music for everyone? I certainly like free stuff. I also buy CD’s & merchandise from local & smaller touring acts like a madman. I realize I’m not normal in that practice. I see the value in others’ art. It’s important to me to reward their efforts.
The again, I’m a huge fan of freeware, shareware, and open source stuff when it comes to software. What’s the difference?
What’s the new model? Albums are free, shows and T-shirts make you money? Every band releases a documentary & a bunch of live DVD’s? Government sticks its’ nose into streaming and it becomes an ad-heavy payola nightmare?
I’d like to hear everyone’s thoughts in the comments.
There’s lots of free music out there on the internet. I decided to start pointing to some of it.
Sadly, bands disband. For whatever reason, a lot of ridiculously awesome bands just peter out or implode or flat-out fall apart. One such band is old time local rockers, The Satanic Bat. I guess they’d be classified as stoner metal in the most generic sense of trying to pin them down.
My old band (Gasoline Dion) shared a practice space and a band member with these dudes. (Regular readers will know I mention Dave all the time. If you have a band, check to see… Dave’s probably in it.) They even helped us record our album, but probably wouldn’t want their name attached to it. (Maybe I’ll put that up for free in a later installment.)
These cats could (and individually still can) rock, and they had a sense of humor. They were asked to play a Ramones tribute show… and they recorded an EP. The resulting songs sound like Black Sabbath covering the Ramones. Seriously. Since I’m a big fan of both, this is one of my absolute favorites.
Steve & Josh went on to form Rogue Vessel. Dave is in Dethlehem and Ernie and the Berts. Jon ended up quitting music for a while, but I hear he’s back? Anyone have any info on that band?
At any rate, enjoy the EP… I’d love to hear what you thought of it.
World (and Lunar) Domination 